David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to raise an issue today that I believe is something this government cannot continue to ignore. This issue is the impending closure of the City Centre Airport in Edmonton.

The City Centre Airport receives approximately 4,500 medevac flights per year from northern Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. About 1,000 of these flights originate in the Northwest Territories. Of the 1,000 flights, typically 10 percent are of a critical nature. The Cross Cancer Clinic, Stollery Children’s Hospital and other health facilities at the University and Royal Alexandra...

I guess, if I could, I’d like to see us, you know, we’ve got 16 months left to try to get as much of this money out there as we possibly can in the next 16 months and get it working for the people and the economy here in the Northwest Territories. Maybe if the Minister could just comment on whether or not the government believes that the majority of our capital plan, what remains in the capital plan including the carry-overs will be concluded prior to October 2011. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I thought I heard the Minister say, fits into the research agenda, but this new science agenda that the Government of the Northwest Territories has come up with, just so I am clear, this does fit in with that and this is a new way of doing business for the Government of the Northwest Territories so that we don’t just lose the information to universities in southern Canada and it can be kept in the Northwest Territories for our own use. Thank you.

I guess there are a lot of complexities to the… You don’t just bring these employees under the GNWT’s banner overnight, but it’s been something that’s been talked about for a number of years and I think the government probably should be taking a look at it. I’m just wondering, from a budgeting perspective, wouldn’t it be easier if these employees were Government of the Northwest Territories employees? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Getting back to the question Ms. Bisaro had and that Mrs. Groenewegen raised in her Member’s statement, the utilization of existing plates. If folks could go into the Department of Transportation and give them their old plate -- and I know the Minister talked about there being some kind of toxic paint or something on them. People aren’t going to eat them. They’re going to put them in their rec room or have them as a memento of their visit to the Northwest Territories. What’s stopping the Department of Transportation from collecting the plates from residents, giving them...

I agree with the Minister on all those points but the fact is the design of the plate itself. I know the department came back to the committee and told us this “Spectacular” slogan would end up on that. We agreed with that. However, there is some design on the bottom of that plate that was never discussed with committee.

I’d like to ask the Minister why the committee, why the public wasn’t given some opportunity to comment on proposed options for the new design of the plate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use my statement today to highlight Nurses’ Week, which is the week of May 10th to 16th. Nurses have been, and remain, the cornerstone of our health care system. I want to share with you part of an e-mail that I received from a friend of mine who has been in and out of hospital the past few years.

“Hi, Dave. Just got out of Stanton. Second time this month after another bout of pneumonia. My treatment and care were, as always, first class. We are blessed with nurses and doctors who really care about people.”

It is treatment like this that our residents receive...

First reading of bills.

I thank the Minister for that. The bottom line is that there is a new design on the plate. We can agree to disagree on whether there’s a new design on the plate, but anybody looking at the new plate will certainly see that there’s a new design on the bottom portion of that plate. I’ll leave it at that.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation, for example, if somebody had personalized plates with the old plates, they pay a specialized fee for getting personalized plates. If they’ve just done that in the past six or eight months, now they’re going to be expected to not only pay the $10 for...