David Ramsay

So maybe the Minister can commit that in fact the contract registry, BIP monitoring and the efforts that ITI are going to be migrated over to the Department of Finance and managed under this new $1 million upgrade. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope that the Minister has listened. Again, she is the Minister of Health and Social Services. If anybody is going to defend the interests of the people in regard to health and social services here in the Northwest Territories, it’s her. It’s not her staff. It’s not the bureaucrats in the department. It’s the Minister, Mr. Speaker. I’d like, again, some assurances from the Minister that she is going to take more of a leadership role in being vocal about what those interests are for the residents in the Northwest Territories. Not her deputy minister, not the senior...

Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister is missing my point. The CEO can write a letter and you can rest assured that if there is a decision by the province of Saskatchewan or the province of British Columbia that impacted the province of Alberta, their Ministers would be up publicly decreeing what that decision was and the impacts it would have on the citizens of Alberta. Our Minister was nowhere to be found when it came to defending the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories and the closure of that airport. That is very obvious, Mr. Speaker.

Now I’m trying to find some comfort in that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak again about the provision of health services and the changing landscape of those services provided to NWT residents in Alberta.

Back in May I asked the Minister of Health and Social Services whether or not she had written a letter to the Government of Alberta or the City of Edmonton outlining our government’s concern over the impending closure of the City Centre Airport in Edmonton. She said, yes, we have written letters. To make a long story short, it took over two months to get a response from the Minister. That was only after she was threatened...

I thank the Minister for that. Again, I think, given the fact that barren-ground caribou outfitting in the Northwest Territories is a multi-million dollar industry and provided a lot of spin-off business in our Territory -- hotels, taxis, restaurants, things like that -- I think the government… And I appreciate the efforts that the government has put into the Tourism Diversification Marketing Program that they’ve got but, Mr. Chairman, it falls short of what is really needed. I think what we need to do as a government is find a way to bridge that gap, whether it’s a year, two years, three...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bill 9, An Act to Amend the Tourism Act, revokes Section 13 and 14 of the Tourism Act that established the Tourism Deposit Assurance Program effective November 15, 2010.

The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure conducted a public hearing on Bill 9 on September 27, 2010, in Yellowknife. The committee heard concerns and opinions from many outfitters as well as from representatives from NWT Tourism. The committee took everything it heard, both written and in person submissions, under advisement in its consideration of this bill. The committee also...

I’d hope that happens sooner rather than later. This is year three of four for the current government and that’s something I think that we need to try to get concluded before the next government comes in.

The other thing, we’re spending close to $1 million on this upgrade and on the O and M costs we’re spending $125,000 a year. Maybe I missed the answer to Mr. Bromley’s question, but is that for a staff person to manage the new module?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak about health care costs and the large deficits that are occurring across the various health authorities in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I know full well that Stanton provides service and backup to other authorities. It only stands to reason that the deficit there would be the largest.

Mr. Speaker, since 2007, we have approved appropriations in this House earmarked for the deficit at Stanton to the tune of $18 million. The deficit at Stanton for ‘09-10 alone is $7 million. Mr. Speaker, at the end of this current fiscal year, in March of...

I guess that’s my point, is that if you are building up the health care infrastructure in communities like Fort Smith and Hay River, we had better have the horsepower or the manpower to back up the programs and services that residents in those communities are going to be deserving. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend $28 million on a facility that you can’t staff and you can’t have programs in. That’s my fear. If the Minister’s confident that spending this money on the facility in Fort Smith is the right thing to do, to me it’s still, I’m not 100 percent sold on this. They’re too close to...

That’s nice and that’s good to hear, but I’m just again trying to understand. Okay, so currently how many registered nurses and resident doctors are there in Fort Smith and in Hay River? Does the Minister have that information?