Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Friday I made a Member’s statement with regard to escorts and patients and the lack of communication between the departments. There have been quite a number of problems between the escorts and patients travelling back and forth to my home communities in my region there. The question I have for the Minister of Health and Social Services is who is responsible for communications for medical travel for the departments for the escort of medical patients outside of their home communities? How does the department ensure that the patients are safely returned home, other than...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just wondering, I want to talk a little bit about my next question, which is with regard to the $290 million repayment on the corporate income tax. What plans are in place in order for us to repay that amount of money back? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a couple of questions for the Minister. In his opening remarks, he talks about the significant efforts in 2005-2006 on the Expert Panel on Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing. My question to the Minister is how far are you with this panel? When can we find out exactly how the negotiations are going with regard to the formula financing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now, there is a joint review panel doing an assessment of the documents provided by Imperial Oil. There is a process going on right now, Mr. Speaker. NEB is doing their own review of the socioeconomics of the program. Are we moving too fast to say yes or no? Can we just let the joint review panel do their work, the NEB do their work, at the same time we, as government, can sit down and iron out socioeconomic agreements without resource revenue sharing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today has to do with patients and escorts travelling outside of their home communities for medical treatment; and in particular with regard to communications between the airlines and the travel agencies.

Recently, Mr. Speaker, in the last two months I ran into constituents, both at the Inuvik and Yellowknife airports, who were returning home after receiving medical treatment at the Stanton Territorial Hospital. On the first occasion, Mr. Speaker, an elderly 86-year-old woman with an escort arrived in Inuvik, and must have travelled from her home community...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to thank Mr. Roland for his budget speech yesterday. I didn’t have a chance to shake his hand until this afternoon. Just a few general comments I’d like to make with regard to the budget speech.

I agree in looking at the $300 million debt limit, but I agree that if we can show that we can finance the debt, I think it’s a good move to make.

A couple other things here, too, are with regard to the expenditure measures. One of the things I found interesting was how government has prioritized what’s important in terms of where spending should go. To me it’s going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to talk about the pipeline discussions that went on this morning on CBC Radio. I found it very interesting this morning when people were calling in, and I think the majority of the callers were in favour of the pipeline. On the one hand, in the Finance Minister’s statement yesterday, he indicated that the government is in support of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. I think that’s working in the right direction. On the other hand, the problem we are having, Mr. Speaker, is we are still talking about resource revenue sharing. On one hand, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today will cover a number of congratulatory greetings and condolences. Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome and congratulate Mr. Robert McLeod, MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes, for his recent by-election victory held in Inuvik. I am confident that Mr. McLeod will represent his constituents well and I look forward to working with him during the 15th Legislative Assembly.

The Members may recall in the fall of 2004 there were four individuals considered lost during a hunting trip. An extensive search was conducted, but to no avail. The families recently...