Bill Braden

I recently read that I think by 2012, something like 14,000 truckloads of material are going to be required compared to the 10,000 that went up this year. How much more in fees are we going to collect? Mr. Speaker, every year that that bridge is not built is that much revenue that is not going to be coming back into this project. Let’s build it now.

---Interjection

Careful. I must say I have some confidence in what we have heard from Ottawa...

---Interjection

Tough acts to follow, Mr. Speaker, but I’ll get in here and do my bit at bat here. There’s almost a theatrical, dramatic element to this and a question that we can put to ourselves, Mr. Speaker, to bridge or not to bridge?

---Laughter

There’s the rub. I’ve been 43 years living in Yellowknife and in the North, Mr. Speaker. I’ve seen several versions of this movie. They’ve all had the same sad, sorry, no-go ending and it’s about time now that we can change the ending of this story.

---Applause

I can’t imagine a better time for us to endeavour to do this. Four years ago, in fact almost to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the significance of these, does it not make sense, is there no kind of process underway or at least under contemplation, Mr. Speaker, that would involve Nunavut, Canada, us and industry to assess these and make some long-term decisions that will work for us? Is there a process underway that we can participate in, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will these reforms enable families who are able to tap into our support system and provide that kind of long-term support in their homes as opposed to having to look perhaps only at institutions as their only real options? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, my questions this afternoon are for Mr. Dent, the Minister responsible for Persons with Disabilities. Mr. Speaker, it’s long been recognized that our disabilities and income support policies can prevent some significant barriers to families wishing to care for long-term disabled family members in their homes. We have had two initiatives underway for quite some time; several years, Mr. Speaker. These include the disabilities framework and the government-wide income security reform review. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise whether either of these initiatives will address the...

Mr. Speaker, we know that within our own Employee Assistance Program, the growth in the number of calls for support has increased substantially between 2005 and 2006 and 2006 and 2007, something like a 42 percent increase. This signals that we have got a substantial need here. I wanted to ask the Minister if he has any indication from the people in his department about this, but a concern is that, now that we have lost these resident professionals from the Northstar contract, there is going to be a much greater demand on other parts of our mental health care system because we will not have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland. It relates to mental health services and the demands that we are encountering here in the NWT. I was wondering if the Minister could give us a snapshot of the current level or the current demand for mental health services and our capacity to help people to deal with these, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, to what extent is cost a factor in evaluating this kind of service? Do we have any sense of just how much of the value of this contract is going to be staying here in the North as opposed to being in the hands of a southern firm, Mr. Speaker? We know, for instance, from the Northstar folks, because virtually all of their services are supplied by resident contractors, but 92 per cent of the value of the contract stayed in the North. How much are Shepell-fgi's going to, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for Mr. Dent, the Minister responsible for Human Resources. It concerns the awarding of the employee and family assistance contract earlier this year. Mr. Speaker, given the high quality of service demonstrated by Northstar over the seven years that it had this contract, and given the tremendous increase in the size of the civil service and the growth in the number of requests over these years, and given the intrinsic value of nurturing, protecting and enabling northern grown businesses to stay in business here to keep resident...