Statements in Debates
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we’re getting some nice crunchy comments here. Thanks to the Minister for the opening statement here.
We recently took over utilities for all government infrastructure, and I didn’t hear anything on what the real opportunities and efficiencies are that we’re realizing here, locating problems where utilities are clearly over what they should be and so on, reducing costs, so what have we learned on that front.
The $8 million on operations and capital expenditure to deal with our maintenance deficit; somehow that’s magic. We’re only spending $8 million and suddenly...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Finance on the Stanton Hospital. We put tens of millions of dollars into a Fort Smith hospital and a Hay River hospital, and now, when we should finally be going after the long overdue Stanton Territorial facility, what are we doing? We’re building new highways on the most costly terrain known, paying off poorly-thought-out bridge infrastructure and pursuing other new and expensive projects.
I’d like a clear commitment from the Minister that this fall’s capital budget will contain a proposal...
I realize that there are a whole lot of aspects to this subject and so it’s not possible to discuss it all in this format. Maybe just one last question. The Minister will recall the recommendations that we move from a confrontational, almost legalistic approach, to a more dispute resolution, negotiation counselling approach. Has the Minister found opportunities to work in that direction in the area of child and family services?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The urgent need for a complete restructuring at Stanton Territorial Hospital has been under review since before the last Assembly. We’ve patched cracks and tinkered with failing and mouldy systems for too long. It’s time to get serious.
Emergency physician and current CMA president Anna Reid has been quoted as saying, “there is no place in emerg for doctors to privately use a phone, not even enough surface space for a doctor to sit and fill out paperwork.” That’s the critical care portal at Stanton Territorial.
Patients wheel through the waiting room to X-ray, there’s...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister and deputy minister. I think those comments are very useful and help fill in my understanding.
I guess my last question is, you know, I frequently heard that we need… I’m sorry. I don’t know the terminology, but is it a forensic psychiatrist or somebody who’s able to do the assessments and so on for a mental health court to be workable. Where are we on that? On having those talents ready and available within our government.
Thanks for those remarks from the Minister. I know Health is working with the Department of Justice, as well, and there are some other programs in that department working on this initiative.
I guess, just on the mental health side, I was happy to see that there is now some attempt to fund the Mental Health Action Plan that resulted from the extensive review that was done. Can this Minister tell me if that will address the needs for assessment and diagnosis and care that would be required out of mental health court, the services that would be required for a mental health court in the Northwest...
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to ask a little bit about the family violence and counselling. I know we’ve had our third, sort of, Phase 3 recommendations on this area, and this year we weren’t able to advance on all of those but I think there was general agreement to them as priorities. Could I just get, maybe, an update on what we’re proposing to do in this fiscal year under consideration here in the way of addressing family violence and the Family Violence Plan, Phase 3.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think everyone is aware that we have very serious issues of mental health and addictions in the Northwest Territories, some of the highest rates in the country by far. We also have very, very high rates of recidivism, and in our corrections these are obviously the results of our history and some of the major events there. Some examples of that are residential schools and the trauma that that entailed and still does to this day, a lack of early childhood development. As a result of these sorts of things, many people are still struggling and, unfortunately, we currently...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the work being done by my colleagues here. This motion asks for the government to initiate discussions with the Government of Canada on the Mackenzie Valley Highway into the Sahtu. It asks us to begin working a lot more seriously on capacity building so that we can nail down benefits from development activities. That’s a start. Obviously, this is only a start and I hope that as we get into assessing what the impacts are and what the responses need to be, and we need to get on this, we need to think about some of the hard, cold realities that are coming out...
I’ll help the Minister remember that. I guess my last one is with general procurement policies and practices. We have the opportunity to have a green element. In fact, we are bringing that lens to our own work now and enjoying, as the Minister reported today in his opening remarks, some significant savings.
Will this Minister work to get the environmental aspect into our general procurement practices so that when we’re asking for something to be done, an important element in the RFP is the environmental practices. An efficient product, how will greenhouse gases be handled in terms of mitigation...