Bob Bromley

Thank you for that update to the Minister. I appreciate that and I think it sounds like we’re getting after it here. So, this is spread over two fiscal years. This will be finishing up the system, if that’s what we’re approving here today. Thank you.

I’m not quite sure what to say here. The Minister seems to be unaware of this, and yet this is fundamental to reducing our energy costs and so on.

Will the promised discussion paper be ready… I can’t even ask the rest of my question so I’ll have to stop here, Mr. Speaker. The Minister doesn’t have any information. I’ll have to say I’m very disappointed. We need our government to be on top of these important issues. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize constituent Roy Erasmus. At least for the next couple of months he’s a constituent of Weledeh. So, welcome to the House.

I’d also like to welcome the visitors from the Yukon. You know, we don’t get nearly enough east-west interaction, so I really appreciate the visitors joining us in the House and visiting Yellowknife. Mahsi.

That sounds good, Madam Chair. I would be happy to provide the Minister with some examples. I’m sure he’s aware of them, but I’ll refresh his memory for people who are not able to get into facilities because of an income barrier. I will leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was following and supporting the Finance Minister’s report on the fiscal situation we are leaving for the 18th Assembly, noting the volatility of the global economy, the mining industry and our economy; low revenues; and the need to diversify. That is, until he suddenly and illogically looped back to saying that, therefore, we have to pursue the highly volatile and uncertain extractive industry even harder.

People are drained of any remnant of enthusiasm for this old way of thinking and they pine for recognition of the real opportunities we do have for vibrant...

I think the Minister can see that there is a huge gap in the capital where we’ve known for years that the rate of increase is much higher than anywhere else in the Northwest Territories. I appreciate the commitments I am hearing him make to the extent that he can for trying to get after those, but even this 18-bed facility on anywhere near a comparative basis leaves Yellowknife in the dust. I would recommend that the department sit down and start bringing some fairness to this equation and start thinking on the scale that the data clearly shows is required. That’s a comment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I welcome the Minister and staff here. I would just like to get some definition or characterization, so I’m using the right terms, of things like extended care versus long-term care, maybe a level of care. Could I get just a crash course on a few of those terms? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister for that. I would like to know how many GNWT personnel are we letting go as a result of this project and do we have any indication of how many of them will be picked up by the new provider. Is it possible to get a breakdown of those according to the various areas? I know there is building maintenance and so on by a very committed bunch of staff there, part of our GNWT staff that we’re losing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate the 18th Assembly will have that role as do we. We are, right now, talking about the 17th Assembly as we set this up and discuss this budget. I would like to know there will be a commitment to get timely information from these monitoring teams to all Members of the Legislative Assembly.

Just moving on, and I know, as a P3 project, the Stanton Territorial Hospital, I’m not sure if it’s a renewal project, but a new project, is a P3 and, therefore, probably involves Finance as well as Public Works and Services. So far we don’t have a good record for finishing our large infrastructure projects on budget. Most recently, of course, is the Inuvik-Tuk Highway, which is half built and already 15 percent above the promised cost. I guess one of the things that we hear about a lot and that we’ve seen with the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Line, for example, is what’s termed in the...