Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health of Social Services in follow-up from his Minister’s statement earlier today. I’ve been following the Minister of Health and Services’ plans to improve our territorial health system through the amalgamation of our eight current regional health boards into one territorial health leadership council.

On the whole, I’m pleased with what I see, but I do have questions. One of the original reasons for regional boards was to ensure a system responsive to regional needs in health care delivery.

Can the Minister tell me, what plans are...

The living wage movement is fairly recent to Canada, but where living wage policies have been implemented in the United States and the United Kingdom, employers and communities have realized significant benefits including increased productivity, lower employee turnover and, most importantly, less poverty and healthier families.

I urge this government to stay tuned on what is happening with communities adopting this standard, to pay attention to the Alternatives North study and to help the communities and people of the North through establishment of living wage communities in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wonder if the Premier would consider decentralizing my position to Hay River.

Just kidding, Mr. Speaker. This week is… Don’t answer that question.

---Interjection

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that committee recommends that when developing future strategies, that government departments undertake public consultation in a thorough, transparent, meaningful public engagement process, free of perceived biases, with ample opportunity for public response and a reasonable time frame for dialogue between government departments and all Members of the House;

And further, that expertise in public interest policy be an integral part of such strategy development exercises.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s obvious the Minister hasn’t heard a word that we said, the ongoing record of committee bringing concerns to the Minister and getting no joy.

I appreciate that committee’s done a good job laying the issue out here in this report. I hope the Minister will, at some point in his life, read it over and really take it to heart.

The motions that I have are the motions that are in the paragraphs on the last page. There are no changes to those. We thought, let’s formalize them and just see if the Minister might eventually acknowledge that a lousy job was done on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for that commitment, I think. Just my last question here. The tabled document, the letter from the Environment and Natural Resources to the Wek’eezhii board. The Wek’eezhii board is saying they want to put some teeth into the legislation and require that securities for liability assessed be provided within 90 days, and the department is fighting this, and of course, the result is that it might take six months or a year. I don’t know. It’s probably been more than a year. It’s probably been years, in fact, for the Ekati Mine without providing this security. This...

The Minister sounds like he’s changing direction here, and I would ask him to do some research in this area and provide to committee exactly what is going on here, without any input from committee, I might add, other than what we’ve had in the House, and obviously, that doesn’t seem to be holding any water.

I’ve heard officials from the Minister’s department and division that deals with securities indicating that the promise to pay will be accepted, so maybe I could just get a commitment from the Minister to start with, that he will come to committee with this before any final decisions and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my original question, I’ve been following the events leading to the creation of this council. It is, I believe, a very positive development, or will be when implemented, and the sooner the better. But recognizing the need to do this carefully and well, can the Minister give me an idea as to how much progress has been made and when he hopes to implement the health leadership council? Mahsi.

In the past I’ve been concerned about inefficiencies and inconsistencies relating to our delivery of health care services across the territory, as has, of course, the Auditor General of Canada. Lack of common procedures, duplication of resources are problem areas.

How will the proposed new health leadership council address concerns in the areas of inconsistency and inefficiency in the delivery of services? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize Tracy St-Denis, a Weledeh constituent and very active in all kinds of areas, which I very much appreciate. Mahsi.