Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You’ve heard a lot of good comments here in the House today. As elected officials, people put us in this position. A lot of us have talked to our constituents and, actually, two of the groups that I represent back home in the Beaufort-Delta region and in Inuvik have signed off as signatories to the Devolution Agreement. We also have to respect all the hard work of the people that we elected to the Executive Council that have been doing a lot of negotiating with the federal government as well as the Aboriginal organizations and governments to get them on board and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We always talk about the communication between governments and committees and even between committees here. Was the Minister of Health made aware of this press release that the Government of Saskatchewan put out that’s possibly going to affect the Northwest Territories creating this awareness in getting some recruitment for physicians? Did he have any discussions with his counterpart in Saskatchewan, or was he made aware of this press release when it first came out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I do understand in terms of discussions that standing committee has had with the Minister of Health and Social Services and his department on these compensation packages, but what the Government of Saskatchewan is doing is very unique in terms of the cash amount that they are giving to physicians that recently graduated, and they’re actually going even retroactive for ones that qualify and it is a pretty substantial amount.

Is the Minister contacting, perhaps, some of his federal counterparts in terms of how to address this kind of situation? One jurisdiction is often some type of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has indeed been an amazing six weeks here in the House and in the Legislature. I am very proud and glad to say in the House today that what we’ve done and the decisions that we’ve made over the past six weeks, and all the discussions that we’ve had, we are going to be changing lives within the next fiscal year. We are going to be changing lives for the better for residents of the Northwest Territories and in years to come.

In the six weeks that we’ve been here, there have been a lot of emotions, a lot of debates, and what residents of the Northwest Territories don’t...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be supporting this motion. Our NWT highway system, in some cases, is very long distances between communities and if somebody should get into an accident, it could be hours before anybody could get to them. That’s very critical to the safety and life of an individual. I do applaud Mr. Nadli for continuing to address this issue in committee, and bringing it to the forefront and to the House today in terms of a motion. As I said, I will be supporting the motion.

Mr. Speaker, seeing as this press release just came out yesterday from the Government of Saskatchewan, I ask Members, especially the Standing Committee on Social Program members to take a look at it because it is going to possibly have an effect on the positions in our recruiting strategies for the Northwest Territories where we have a shortage of physicians.

Should we start to see that has an impact on the Northwest Territories, what is the Minister of Health willing to do to address this issue, working with possibly the Government of Saskatchewan or the Government of Canada? Can he make a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I was reading in the news, there was a press release put out yesterday by the Government of Saskatchewan – actually, the Health department, Government of Saskatchewan – where they’ve created this incentive program to lure doctors into rural communities. I want to know if the Minister of Health and Social Services was aware of this news release, and if the department has any plan of action in terms of recruitment of physicians, which we know is already a challenge throughout Canada.

What is the...

Thank you. I was just trying to get a specific date because I will be getting questions, I’m sure, from constituents. So this fall we’ll be keeping an eye on it.

When we start getting this flow of LNG to the community of Inuvik, can the Minister outline where this LNG will be stored and is there enough storage space for the LNG when it gets to the community of Inuvik? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was very glad to hear the Minister’s statement, the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, and the work that he’s doing, and the agreements that he’s signed for the liquefied natural gas, looking to address the energy needs in the fuel needs that we have for our community of Inuvik. So I have a couple of questions of clarity and to get some specifics.

I’d like to ask the Minister how long, the agreement that he signed, how long is the agreement for. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Just in regard to following up in terms of storage space, right now we have a synthetic gas storage that can only last and hold for five days, should the Dempster shut down or ice roads, those kind of things.

When we set up this facility, how long will the LNG be there and how many days storage will we have for the community of Inuvik? Thank you.