David Krutko

All health boards in the Northwest Territories are not running deficits. There are two health systems in the Northwest Territories: the Stanton hospital and the Inuvik health system. There are only two places that have been running deficits for the last number of years. The other three systems have — and in some cases, had — surpluses, and good surpluses.

For me to stand here and hear the Minister say that it’s a problem right across the board…. It’s not a problem right across the board. The problem is in two locations: the Stanton health centre and the Inuvik regional board of health. I’d like...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. When we have a dysfunctional system and it starts to break down, as government we usually try to intervene and basically bring it back up on its footings. I’ll use the Stanton hospital, where they hired a public trustee to intervene with the major deficit that’s being handled by the Stanton hospital.

Presently there are some 45 vacancies in the Inuvik hospital, yet they’ve been running deficits year after year. In this House we’ve been passing supplementary appropriations to bail them out. When you...

One of the other outstanding issues is that poor communities don’t have police or a nurse. In order to respond to situations where we have to have a fast response…. There seem to be a lot of time delays, in some cases up to six hours.

One of the issues that came up was looking at working with the Department of Justice or working with the Department of Health to develop an emergency response program for Tsiigehtchic so that when the bylaw officer has to call somebody, he’s got somebody’s phone number and somebody has the keys to the health centre. Those types of things have to be accommodated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to follow up from my Member’s statement in regard to policing in small communities, but more importantly, the community of Tsiigehtchic, which I represent.

The Minister was at a public meeting, along with Minister Lee, where issues came up about policing in Tsiigehtchic, or the lack of policing in the community, and what this government can do to try to find ways to remedy the situation. We know that it may be a while before we see a permanent police presence there.

I’d like to ask the Minister: has he been talking to the RCMP and come up with some ideas? I know...

Mr. Speaker, as we’ve heard time and time again, everywhere you go, everybody wants to deregulate and make things straightforward and simple. I think this government should also be amenable to that.

I would like to ask the Minister, knowing from his last comment about who’s going to do it…. I think maybe it’s time the Legislative Assembly established rates through legislation, that we establish exactly what the fee structure is going to be and do it through legislation and simply leave it to a board that will do it. I’d like to ask the Minister: have you considered the deregulation of this...

Mr. Speaker, as stated by the Premier and now the Minister responsible for the PUB, has the government considered bringing forward legislation that will direct the PUB to take a look at levelized rates?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, power is an essential service that we all depend on, from heating our homes to turning our lights on, to maintain the community infrastructure and, more importantly, to generate the economic value we have by way of purchasing.

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation has a system of establishing rates by what we call community-based rates, better known as postage stamp rates, which means every community that has a power generating system, regardless if it’s Northland Utilities or Northwest Territories Power Corporation, has to be assessed in regard to...

Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my statement, this government alone can save almost $12 million. Right now we pay a subsidy of over $9 million a year. It costs this government a little over $3 million to do these rate applications. There are savings that could be major by simply changing the direction the PUB has taken by establishing the 33 rate system, where basically 33 applications have to be reviewed every four years. Has the government looked at the cost savings in regard to making this decision, unilaterally knowing that there are cost savings to be had here? Has the Minister looked at the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated earlier, my question is going to be directed to the Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board.

Mr. Speaker, this government, every four years, goes through an application process of some 33 applications that have to be compiled and submitted to the PUB board for review. The PU review board is the one that establishes the rates that are going to be implemented in the communities. It’s not the Power Corp; it’s the PUB.

There was a decision made in the early ’90s to establish postage stamp rates, which means that every community has to apply...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know how else to put this. The person is committed. The money is already budgeted for that health centre to operate in regard to its O&M — the cost to operate, the cost of health care — for that community. There are dollars earmarked from this Legislature to run a health centre in Tsiigehtchic.

The community is more than willing to work with the health department to do this, but because the Department of Health or the board in Inuvik, which has 45 vacancies, which they can’t even administer.... They run a deficit.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not too sure how else to put it, but exactly...