Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, could the Minister advise on the adequacy of staffing at the North Slave Correctional Centre and the training of our staff? This is in relation to complaints and concerns that I received, Mr. Speaker, that there is often communication difficulties, inconsistency with communications, and inadequacy and shortcomings in the delivery of programs for inmates, programs relating to addictions, literacy, school and these kinds of things, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This afternoon, I would like to ask the Honourable Brendan Bell some questions regarding the performance of, and at, the North Slave Correctional Centre, and specifically regarding some of the conditions in which some inmates are managed there, Mr. Speaker. One of the things I encountered in talking to a couple of inmates was their frustration at not being able to find out just what their situation was and when they felt that there was something that they just could not get resolved, some difficulties, some discrepancy, some conflict between them and their supervisors...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize some visitors to the gallery who are with the Yellowknife Inuit Association; Katujjiqatigiit, Mr. Speaker. How did I do?

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Mr. Speaker, with us today are Iga Atagootak who is the president, Deborah Tagornak who is the executive director…

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…Flossie Oakoak and Ada McGillivary, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very briefly, I speak in support of the bill. One of the important functions that every Legislature has is to enable professional organizations such as here, geologists and engineers, to set up organizations by which they can govern themselves and hold themselves accountable. We do this in many areas, Mr. Chair, nurses, lawyers, many professions. So this is just the kind of good housekeeping that a Legislature should do and I compliment the people engaged in this profession here in the North. I commend this bill to our colleagues in the Nunavut Legislature and hope...

Merci, Mr. Speaker. During yesterday’s debate, Mr. Speaker, on the electoral boundaries issue, I quoted from a letter circulated to all Members of the Legislative Assembly by Craig Yeo, a Yellowknife resident. It is a letter dated October 18th. I would like to table this for the record.

Mr. Speaker, is our government directly, or perhaps through the health authority, involved in any way with the negotiations or the framework for negotiations with the workers?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for Mr. Roland, the Minister of Health and Social Services, and it concerns the stoppage of addictions treatment at Nats'ejee K'eh which ended Monday afternoon, I understand, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to confirm or find out, Mr. Speaker, who exactly is the employer of the 22 people involved in the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re close and perhaps getting closer to some answers. To paraphrase what’s been said here a bit earlier today, does the Premier have the concurrence, the agreement, the cooperation, along with the aboriginal leaders in the NWT, Mr. Speaker, to achieve this AIP within that time frame? Are we all at least agreed on that time frame to get this deal done?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to direct some questions to the Premier as our point man, our lead on devolution and resource revenue negotiations. Mr. Speaker, a little bit earlier today the Premier said we have to find a way to work together with aboriginal leaders. I think that was the context and the whole theme. One of the big themes today is northern unity.

You know, Mr. Speaker, as a number of my colleagues have already said, we’ve been trying to do that. This has been our goal for 20 years, yet we still keep saying the same thing. We have to find a way to work together. So we’re...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if you follow some rough math in the two and a half minutes that I have and each of us has to stand here and make a statement today, $1,250 will have flown out of the Northwest Territories in resource royalties and taxes. That’s $1,250 in two and a half minutes. That’s three- quarters of a million dollars a day, Mr. Speaker, because we have not yet been able to get ourselves together and present that unified voice, that unified bargaining strength with Ottawa among all the northern leaders to ensure that our part of Canada has the share of wealth of this...