David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a few opening comments and I just wanted to echo some of the things my colleague Mr. Abernethy was saying about investment. I want to start off by saying I know the Minister is a real champion of the Northwest Territories and I know that he works very hard at promoting the Northwest Territories and getting out and hustling to get investment and dollars into our Territory and I’d like to thank him for the work that he does. I think as a Territory, and I know the Minister does what he does, but I think we should be doing much, much more self-promotion in getting out...

Thank you. I don’t think the hospital was ever designed to be an office building and that’s probably the first problem. I’d like to ask the Minister, and I know and I appreciate that all this lead-up work has to be done, that has to be done, Mr. Speaker. My point is the capital plan -- and the Minister knows this, she’s been around here for almost 12 years -- that takes time. Getting money in that plan takes time. You’ve already had the Foundation for Change in place for two years. You’ve had two years. You say you’re working through all these things. When is the process to get all those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did have, at the beginning of this government, a small amount of capital money, not that $28 million is a small amount of money, but that was earmarked for Stanton Territorial Hospital for a master development plan. That money, under the Minister’s watch, vanished into thin air. Mr. Speaker, again, we don’t just pull $250 million together. We have to come up with a plan to address the capital needs at that hospital. That planning has to start now, Mr. Speaker. What planning is going into today to try to find money for tomorrow that we are going to need to get that...

Mr. Speaker, the Foundation for Change was unveiled in 2009, as the Minister stated. I know the Standing Committee on Social Programs has been updated a couple of times on the Foundation for Change. When will the next update be coming on the Foundation for Change? When might the committee and Members of this government... Is this government actually going to act on any of the findings of the recommendations from the Foundation for Change? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today about the future of health care in our Territory. Mr. Speaker, I spoke many times about the lack of planning and foresight by this government when it comes to future needs of a resident’s health care. First off, Mr. Speaker, is the system itself. We have some of the best health care professionals and providers in this country working for us today. I have had personal experience in the past year with my own health and I have to say that the doctors and nurses and front-line health care staff that we have here in the Northwest Territories are...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

That was my question, I was just trying to understand how many actual positions we were increasing regional operations by. Was it the seven or was it five or four? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s good, thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll be brief in my comments. Again, I mentioned this last year and I’ll mention it again this year. In the time I’ve been here, there have been a number of issues with Human Resources going back five or six years. I believe in the last three years under the guidance of the Minister and the management team in the department, as an MLA we don’t get as many calls or complaints from the public or the public service. I appreciate that. Obviously the public and the public service that you serve appreciate it as well. I think people are getting a much more fair shake when it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It wouldn’t be my belief that the Minister should be informing us on every transaction, but I think we’re moving into a new area, a new realm of how we do business and again it’s going to be a bigger issue post-devolution.

The majority of issues the Minister would sign off on are quarries, residential lots, things of that nature. When we’re talking about attractive land, three parcels of land totalling 36,000 acres, I think it’s a different ballgame. I think going forward we need to ensure that we have the legislation and policies in place that are going to let...