David Ramsay

It is Cabinet’s responsibility to manage these decisions, and given Cabinet’s track record of decision-making, it’s little wonder people outside in the public are so upset, again, at another decision this government is making. It’s the wrong decision. We need to park it. We need to find a new solution, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think that the Minister is missing my point. I think the ultimate test is for the Minister to delay the implementation of this until the next government is elected -- and that is only 16 months away -- and let her go door to door in this city and campaign on this policy and let’s see if she gets re-elected, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think she will get re-elected. I would like to ask her if she thinks she’d get re-elected if she went door to door in her riding with this policy. Thank you.

I think, as I mentioned during my Member’s statement, it’s a foolish direction that the government is embarking upon. If you have a rally of 200 people in front of the Legislative Assembly, that’s got to send a message to the Minister and to the government that the direction that they’re taking is wrong and they should revisit that direction. If the government, like the Minister said, actually cared about those people that are outside of this protection right now and today, this government’s been in office for over three years, Mr. Speaker. What have they done about it? Why haven’t you found...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got a few people I’d like to recognize. I’ve got constituents Estrelle and Ford Sumcad in the gallery today. As well, I’d like to recognize Chief Eddie Sangris from the Yellowknives Dene. As well, city councillor Lydia Bardak and city councillor David Wind. As well, I see my former boss and former constituent Mr. Larry Adamson I’d like to recognize as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the brief emergency session in March I had the opportunity to make a statement on the proposed changes to the supplementary health benefits. Like many of my colleagues, I am feeling completely frustrated and very uneasy about the direction that this government is taking with supplementary health benefits.

Why is it so easy for this government to state that they want a system that is fair and equitable when this is just not a reality? Why is this government so good at upsetting people? Again today we saw another protest in front of the Legislative Assembly...

Mr. Speaker, that is all fine and good, but the bottom line is this Northwest Territories, the land that we govern, is not the rest of Canada, Mr. Speaker. It is the Northwest Territories. We have unique needs. The cost of living here in the Northwest Territories, people cannot afford to live here. We are losing people because they can’t afford to live here and the government again is embarking on a decision to even increase costs more to our residents. It is the wrong decision, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, again, I want to go back to an earlier question. I will ask the Minister again, will the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets back to my Member’s statement talking about the proposed changes to supplementary health benefits.

Obviously everybody’s been giving this a lot of thought. We have to come up with a new solution. Mr. Speaker, if I could, I would just like to share a solution. We’re about 16 months away from the next territorial election in October of 2011. I’d like to ask the Minister if the government has given any consideration to taking this policy and the proposed direction that they want to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to speak to the principle of the bill. It’s not a bill that I can see myself supporting for a number of reasons. I think first and foremost I’m not convinced that the decisions that the government has made pertaining to the Deh Cho Bridge Project after the issues with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation came to light and we’ve taken over the project. The first thing the government did was take the recommendation of the former project managers there to go to a sole-source contract with Ruskin. My opinion is that was the wrong thing to do. I do believe we should have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have to have some type of competitive advantage here in the Northwest Territories to maintain our population base, especially for senior citizens. I’d like to ask the Minister if she can explain to me how she feels that this proposed change to supplementary health is fair when it is a redistribution. She talks about it herself. She says there are going to be winners. Who are the losers?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to follow up on some of my colleagues’ questions who have been questioning the Minister of Health and Social Services to the proposed changes to supplementary health. The interesting thing for me, I was at the briefing on Tuesday and the information provided was good information, but again, Mr. Speaker, with all the trouble that was caused last year, about a year ago, just over a year ago and the issue is back before us again, I don’t understand why it took that long to get that level of detailed information in front of the Standing...