Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up on some remarks made by my fellow colleague Mrs. Groenewegen. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay. It’s in regard to his Minister’s statement that he gave earlier where he mentioned that mining has brought significant economic opportunities to our territory such as jobs in the mines. Then he goes on further and says that he wants to benefit all Northwest Territories residents.

Back in January we had a leadership meeting in Inuvik and he had mentioned and had some questions in regard to the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just in regard to what’s been talked about so passionately is the Inuvik-Tuk highway here. Being a newly elected MLA, one of the main things that I’ve been seeing in my office lately is the increase of income support and people who are looking for jobs. I get a lot of phones calls in that regard and one way that I find that we can fix this is building a big project such as the Inuvik-Tuk highway. It gets my support in the sense that we have a lot of strong leaders in the region who are backing this, and when you have so much passion from some strong leaders, you know...

I appreciate the answer that the Minister has given me. I’d just like to ask when can I receive that information, at a prompt time, as I do have a lot of constituents who are still waiting on that hip replacement surgery. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question following up from a question that I had in previous sessions to the Minister of Health and Social Services, and that’s regarding the backlog and the delay, or the on-hold situation that we have for our joint replacement surgeries. I just want to get an update from the Minister of Health on the progress of those surgeries. Just an update to see where the department is on those. Thank you.

I want to follow up as well to a Minister’s statement made by Mr. Lafferty, ECE, directed to Mr. Ramsay. I just wanted to ask Mr. Ramsay, based on some of the results with the apprenticeship and occupational certification that’s done through ECE, the department has issued 23 certificates of qualification and eight certificates of competence to journeypersons in the Northwest Territories. Today there are 424 apprentices in the Northwest Territories. Has the Minister of ITI done any work with the Minister of ECE to ensure that once these guys get their papers that they’re not just kicked out the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Seeing as it is Valentine’s Day and February is Heart Health Month, I would like to do my Member’s statement on cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in the Northwest Territories along with cancer. One of the leading high-risk behaviours that contribute to cardiovascular disease is tobacco use. In fact, tobacco doesn’t only contribute to cardiovascular disease but it does contribute to a high health care system, increases our health care costs in the Northwest Territories. One thing that should be duly noted is that tobacco use is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, will not be in support of the motion. Obviously seeing it is a big project that is going to affect my region that I represent and it’s going to be great news for the people back home and the jobs there it is going to create is going to be a lot of happy people up there. Just seeing what it’s going to start off with in the creation of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, where I stated earlier is going to be a lot of work to come for years down the valley.

I also just wanted to also commend the government on our Caucus priorities, something that we did earlier in this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My written question is for the Minister of Public Works and Services.

Can the Minister provide an inventory of Government of the Northwest Territories infrastructure currently available in the communities of Inuvik, Fort Simpson and Norman Wells that could house alcohol and drug treatment centres?

Can the Minister provide current operations and maintenance costs for these buildings?

Does that include the joint replacement surgeries as well? Because it’s been a long time since August. We’ve been about six months. That means we should be getting some of our people in the Northwest Territories through those surgery rooms and getting those replacements, especially the hip replacement surgeries. Thank you.

I just wanted one short supplementary question here to finish off. That’s in regard to the recruitment process that has gone up into Inuvik and the new deal with the MOU that’s being discussed. I don’t want this to fall onto a case in point where the diamond mines say they’ve come to Inuvik, they’ve done their consultation, and leave it at that. It’s in the agreements that they’ve done their consultations. I want to see follow-up. I want to see that in this new MOU that in fact the mines do hire northern people from these communities, regardless if it’s Inuvik, Fort Simpson or Hay River; that...