David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today marks the first day of a mass vaccination against the spread of H1N1 -- Swine Flu -- in our Territory. Nationwide, this will be the largest mass vaccination and immunization program in Canadian history.

Like many parents, my wife and I find ourselves struggling over whether or not to give our two-year-old son this H1N1 vaccine. We’re even wondering, Mr. Speaker, whether or not we should get the shot ourselves.

I want to be clear that the Department of Health and Social Services is doing a great job at providing information about H1N1, and their website and public...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

How much money has the GNWT spent on the court action as it relates to Ecole Allain St-Cyr and the expansion of that school?

Thank you. Again, right off the product information leaflet, under elderly, it says no clinical data are available for Arepanrix H1N1 in this age group. Also, children aged from six months to 35 months, no clinical data available for influenza vaccines with ASO3 in this age group. So, Mr. Speaker, those are what is confusing to me and confusing to people.

I know I don’t have much time here, so I’d like to ask the Minister another question. In their H1N1 Slow the Spread information pamphlet that they have, they say the adjuvant in Canada’s H1N1 vaccine is made up of natural ingredients such as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask a few more questions about H1N1. I guess, as a parent now, I’ve got two small children and I worry. I mean, I worry for a living. I’m worried about them every day, every minute of every day. I’d like to ask the Minister what clinical experience exists currently with the Arepanrix H1N1 vaccine. What clinical experience is there out there as it pertains to children? Thank you.

Again, of course, people can ask questions. I think the Minister knows full well what I am saying. I would like to see a piece of paper there that clearly identifies what is in this vaccine, because on the Department of Health’s website, you can’t find exactly what the ingredients are in that vaccine. I had to go to Health Canada and I had to dig it out myself. Again, that is a product information leaflet on Arepanrix, if anybody is interested in finding that.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to also ask the Minister, given the possibility, then, that there are side effects with the vaccination, is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about H1N1 and the ingredients that are contained in that vaccine, Arepanrix. I would like to ask the Minister, before our residents are vaccinated with this vaccine, are they going to be fully made aware of all the ingredients of that vaccine? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to speak about the Government of the Northwest Territories’ efforts in securing federal investment in our Territory. For four years we heard former Premier Joe Handley tell us the Deh Cho Bridge project was contingent on the federal government coming forward to help us pay for that bridge. We waited and waited for that investment and, obviously, none came and the government decided we would pay for it ourselves. Mr. Speaker, we will be paying for that bridge upwards of $4 million a year every year indexed for the next 35 years.

Mr. Speaker, why didn’t the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure has reviewed Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Commissioner’s Land Act. The committee wishes to report that Bill 13 is now ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole, as amended and reprinted. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Questions were raised by a number of presenters on the sections of the act relating to habitat conservation provisions and the designation of habitat on private lands (s.79 and s.81). These concerns were primarily focused on whether the Minister could act unilaterally to designate habitat and how the rights of landowners were protected.

Departmental representatives explained that section 79 gives the Minister the authority to put forward regulations to protect habitat that is important to the conservation of any listed or pre-listed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over in the Yukon they’ve accessed $5 million of that Growing Forward Initiative money already and that was announced back in April. I guess what I’m trying to suggest to the government is we had better get on with this and put our proposals in, find the money, and try to leverage what dollars we have with the federal government’s dollars so that we can get some projects started here in the Northwest Territories. The question I have: Are we going to wait until the business plans in the fall before proposals such as Mr. McLeod might have are going to come forward in...