David Krutko

Mr. Speaker, this issue has been around for some time. I know that the Inuvik Health Board had looked at some alternatives. One of them was looking at the possibility of recruiting professionals from Asia, the Philippines, and bringing them to the Inuvik region. They would work in those communities if those positions were available to them, but because of the collective bargaining agreement and under the Health Act, there were some challenges there. I think that was one of the solutions that was looked at to resolve that issue.

Has the department considered revisiting that situation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to read out a fax that’s distributed to all the communities in the Mackenzie Delta. It comes from Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services.

“Re: Reduction of Core Services — Susie Husky Health Centre, Aklavik, NT.

“The Northwest Territories is experiencing a nursing shortage, along with the rest of Canada. This means that at times the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority has to restrict the services we normally provide to our clients. Your community will be affected as follows.

“Essential services only:

“From Friday, August 29, 2008, at 0830 a...

On another topic: the $2.9 million for Environment and Natural Resources in regard to our fire season. We go through this every year at the end of the fire season. But we are under-estimating the real cost. It seems like there are always these unforeseen costs of forest fire fighting, especially when we have fires that get out of control, especially this year with the fires around Behchoko and also around the Snare hydro site.

I know we would like to see the forest burn in regard to revegetation of those forests, but also we have to be proactive when there is a fire that could be controlled...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to the $3.3 million to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and the upgrades to the water treatment facilities these items have been there for some time. I think the communities are very glad they are there, but they also would like to get some assurance that they will be constructed in a short period of time and put into place. It is a very essential piece of our infrastructure, especially in regard to the water situation in Aklavik.

I would just like to ask the Minister: what are the timelines for these projects, and how soon can the communities...

Mr. Speaker, on a recent tour to Tsiigehtchic along with the Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice it came up that there was an individual who is presently working in Holman who does fill in, in Tsiigehtchic during breakup and freeze-up, but the nurse says she’s willing to stay longer. I think that if the nurse is willing to do that, why is that not happening? We have a committed individual who’s willing to stay longer in a community. We should do everything that we can to accommodate that person to stay as long as they can in a community if they’re willing to do so.

Has the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. About my Member’s statement in regard to the notices that have been issued to communities on the cancellation of services, especially in the areas of health care and the clinics, which will not take appointments or be able see a doctor…. I would like to ask the Minister: exactly what is her department doing to deal with the nurse shortages in our small communities in light of the desperate situation we are having in Inuvik? Again, the health and well-being of those residents are critical. Ensuring that they have health care being provided will ensure that we have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is in regard to process. Are we going to spend a ton of money looking at forms and consultation and legislative drafters? That all costs money. I think that as a government right now, as we all hear, we don’t have much of it.

As a government we’ve already instituted legislation by way of resource pacts. That was done back in the 13th Assembly. It was drafted and ready to go. It had a hotel tax that went through a whole, thorough review. It was drafted and drafted, ready for the House.

Mr. Speaker, around the House since the 13th Assembly…. We had initiatives by the Ministers of Finance back then. We had Mr. Handley do the initiative in regard to a hotel tax. That took a whole process of consultation, public hearings, the whole works. At the end of it all it didn’t even proceed to the House.

Because of the experience we’ve had in the past on these legislative initiatives looking at tax reform, we should learn from our mistakes and not waste public funds on doing stuff that we know is not going to fly. Already, from the public outcry that we hear….

I’d like to ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, have heard from my constituents over the summer months, especially in the area of power rate increases, the high cost of energy and the high fuel prices in our communities. More important is the cost of living in regard to sustaining individuals in these high cost communities. A lot of our communities lack programs and services. In some cases there is no service. We don’t have nurses; we don’t have police.

Mr. Speaker, also realize that we have to ensure that we take care of the infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. A lot has been said over the summer...

I’d like to call the Committee of the Whole back to order.

Prior to the break we agreed to begin with Bill 6, An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act.