David Ramsay

I thank the Deputy Premier for that response. The new federal Cabinet will be sworn in soon. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier if once that happens, are there any plans by this government to invite the Ministers, you know, in dealing with the many issues I mentioned earlier that we have here in the Northwest Territories, are there invitations that are going to go out to your federal counterparts in Ottawa to get them north to discuss these issues before the end of the life of this government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak today about the recent federal election. I’d like to congratulate Mr. Dennis Bevington on his re-election as Member of Parliament for the Western Arctic. I’d also like to thank the other candidates who so greatly put their names forward to run: two former colleagues of many of us here today, the Conservative candidate, Ms. Sandy Lee, and Liberal candidate, Mr. Joe Handley; Mr. Eli Purchase of the Green Party, and Ms. Bonnie Dawson of the Animal Alliance Party.

What an election does, Mr. Speaker, is it gives the candidates an opportunity to debate the...

I thank the Minister again for that. In closing, I think we all share that feeling that we’ve got to do things right. We have done a number of things right in the past three and a half years but there are some things, yes, if we could go back in time would we do them again? Not a chance. However, we do have to move forward and I think the key to all of this is the P3 policy and, like I said, what the rules of engagement are going to be as we move forward.

My apologies if I missed this, but has anybody asked the Minister when exactly that policy, I know it’s in draft form now, when are we going...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d agree with everything the Minister has just stated about reasons why we should look at hydro expansion in the Northwest Territories. That’s not debatable. What’s debatable in all of this is the government’s involvement, again, with another partner who had no equity, who the government, in fact, had to pay to be our partner. I mean, what kind of partner is a partner that you actually have to pay to show up?

The government got lambasted over the Auditor General’s report on the Deh Cho Bridge. We have got to, at the end of the day, learn some lessons about partnerships...

Thank you. Over the life of this government we’ve talked many times about engaging the federal government in a meaningful way and having a building up on that relationship that we do have with the federal government. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier, in looking at relationship building with the federal government, will that be a key part of the transition document that this Cabinet is going to prepare for the next government which will be elected on October the 3rd? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Deputy Premier. In my Member’s statement I spoke about the recent federal election. We here in the Northwest Territories only have four months left in the life of this government and we have some major files currently at play in Ottawa, like the Mackenzie gas project, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Tuk-Inuvik commitment for $150 million for that road, the many other infrastructure needs around our territory. I mentioned earlier, too, Northland Trailer Park here in Yellowknife and the infrastructure to advance our needs there. I’d like...

I know and I appreciate all the work that the department’s done on moving along the capital plan, especially over the last two years when we’ve had funding from the federal government come in which has enabled us to get a number of infrastructure projects, especially in the area of Transportation, off the ground. I know it has been a big number.

Again, reading through the information that was given to committee, there are a lot of reasons why all these projects weren’t concluded. I just wanted to make sure, and I had to ask the question that I asked, that these projects are getting done and it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure has reviewed Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Local Authorities Elections Act, and wishes to report that Bill 8 is now ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Thank you.

Thank you. In the interim, and I talked earlier about the closure of the runway that has instrumentation and flights, medevac flights, having to be diverted out to the International Airport. There have been 44 of them that I know of. Obviously, these recommendations haven’t been put into place. There are gaps in the provision of services for medevac flights that are diverted to the International Airport today. I’d like to ask the Minister is the government concerned about this and how are we acting upon the fact that these flights that are diverted out there, patients are arriving on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services related to my statement that I made previously. The former Minister of Health and Social Services, for whatever reason, didn’t want to get politically involved in the decision to close the airport in the centre of Edmonton, and for whatever reason she lacked an interest in getting politically involved. So I’d like to ask the Minister, she -- in questions I had to her previously -- had mentioned that the interests of residents in the Northwest Territories were going to be protected because we had...