Bob Bromley

Thank you very much, Mr. Robert McLeod. Any other speakers? Seeing none…. Premier Roland, would you have any response to the comments we’ve had in response to yours?

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, I will be ready and demanding, when next we gather, to finally reverse some of these trends and truly do good work for the benefits of our residents, our land and our families.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Bill 6, An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act; Committee Report 2-16(2); Committee Report 3-16(2); and Minister’s Statement 62-16(2) and would like to report progress, with 11 motions being adopted. Committee Reports 2 and 3 and Minister’s Statement 62-16(2) are concluded, and Bill 6 is ready for third reading.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you very much, Premier Roland. Any other speakers?

Does the committee agree that Minister’s Statement 62-16(2) is concluded?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, support this motion and encourage my colleagues to support it.

I think a review of the policy would not hurt, to tune it up to truly benefit Northerners. It won’t surprise people to hear that I would really see a progressive policy that favours those businesses that use local materials, local energy, local employees and so on.

Our economy goes through dips and dives and rises and heights and so on, and the BIP plays an important role, especially during the lower periods. To do it in right now, just because we happen to have a roaring economy, is not good...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the specific case I have in the back of my mind, the person had considerable experience: over a decade and a half in mental health and addictions. It seems to me it should be appropriate and should be easily slotted in. I’m wondering why we continue to hire even short-term locums from afar when we could be building the experience of our graduates here.

The Minister did acknowledge that more needs to be done. I’d like to hear exactly what is being done, then, to address that need.

I probably don’t need to state that the role of nurses is particularly enhanced when they are from the community and bring the local and cultural understanding and sometimes even linguistic services to their work. Is this fully appreciated by our health managers, and what is being done to ensure that this appreciation shows itself in the hiring practices?

Mr. Speaker, our northern graduate nurses are choosing to leave the North. I would like to profile the experience of one of my constituents.

As a recent graduate of the nursing program at Aurora College in Yellowknife, she enjoyed considerable support throughout her training. Yet upon graduation she found that the reality is that there are not enough positions to satisfy the employment needs of our graduates. Furthermore, positions appear to be being filled not on the basis of qualifications or affirmative action policies but rather on perhaps who one knows in the system.

This person, who...