Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A single organ donor can save up to eight lives and their tissue can help up to 50 people. This is why today I wish to talk about organ donation in the NWT.

With more than 4,800 Canadians on the wait list for organ transplants, supply cannot meet current demand. It is with this in mind that my remaining time as Member of the 17th Assembly will be dedicated to the modernization of our outdated Human Tissue Act.

It goes without saying that this journey does not start with me but will be the continuance of many Members before me, such as MLA Tony Whitford, who in 1994 tried...

I do appreciate the Minister getting back to us maybe with some more current statistics involving transplants. The Minister mentioned in his first response to one of my questions about the Hope Foundation which is located in Edmonton. Would the Minister have any current statistics on how many NWT donors that the Hope Foundation has been referred to or used in the Edmonton hospital area?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In reference to my Member’s statement earlier today on organ donation in the NWT, I will be asking the Minister of Health and Social Services a couple questions.

First, I think it’s important that we get a snapshot of the lay of the land, so to speak, in terms of our physical layout or our capacity in the organ donation department. My first question is: Are NWT hospitals currently able to receive organ or tissue donations?

Again, I do stress the integrity of the health care system is paramount and with these delays. I can assure you there is going to be lots of frustration out there in the Northwest Territories for receiving such services. Further, it has been brought to my attention that we have got some other issues with respect to information. With everything that we’ve heard about keeping of information, people’s information, and the privacy, there appears to be some files, from what we have been told, from patients that have been lost from the Inuvik office. The fact that these files are in the process of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be for the Minister of Health as well. A valid health care card is the difference between getting service and getting no service if it’s invalid, and I have to applaud the Department of Health for recently putting a lot of emphasis on putting advertisements in the paper looking at updating the expired cards or health care cards that are about to expire. However, I must admit that, as of late, some of us are hearing some noise from our constituents that those people whose health care cards expired in January did not receive notifications from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that. It wasn’t quite a new question because it was regarding the health care card information being lost. I tried to tie them together, but I do respect the Speaker’s point on that.

What I’m asking here from the Minister, quite clearly, is there are obviously some issues here involving people’s health care card renewals and now information. Can the Minister actually assure the House and assure the standing committee here in the future that the integrities are in place, and can we get something back in writing from the Minister of that integrity?

I appreciate the Minister’s response to that; however, if everyone was receiving notifications, I guess our phones wouldn’t be ringing off the hook from people upset that they did not get a notification card.

My question again to the Minister is: There has been a glitch in the system with respect to notifications being issued for many health care card users across the Northwest Territories, systematically causing disruptions in services for those people who require those updated cards to receive such services in the Northwest Territories. Has the Minister or the department made provisions for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let’s take a minute to review some key words from a document that is no stranger to this House: sharing, partnerships, effective and efficient government, strengthening our relationships, and working with our partners. These words form the moral fabric of our 17th Assembly Caucus priorities. Admittedly, these words should send a clear meaning to our residents of our promise to them, and these words should equally reflect our moral compass when we deal with one another in this House.

All things being equal, I am disappointed to say that yesterday in this House I was left...

Again, I do appreciate the Minister giving a great policy statement on how good things are, and I appreciate the fact that there are great things on the horizon. But I asked a question, which was did we clean up the mess, and I didn’t quite think that the Members here nor, I think, the people of the Northwest Territories received that response.

But interestingly enough, one only has to Google key words like GNWT, Retailer’s Club and polar ice diamonds and see that we have today companies like Basal Diamond out of Montreal still selling our alleged government certified polar diamonds. Can the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke in this House about my concern with the Department of ITI and its Minister for not sharing a current roadmap of our outdated secondary diamond manufacturing strategy. Recently the Minister took to the world stage to drum up business for the North. Now, as noble as this may sound, the concern of many is what map or compass was he using.

The following questions for the Minister of ITI are to help understand what our course is in the diamond manufacturing area, what is its direction, have we cleaned up the mess from the first go around, and are we...