David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I have been here for five years. I know we do a lot of work each and every day on prevention. I know that work happens. What I am suggesting is that I don’t think things are getting much better. What I would suggest to the Minister and the government is we need to take more of a policy look at what we are doing. And I agree with something that the Minister said: it starts early. I think we have done a disservice to our youth by allowing curriculum to be taken out where it pertains to physical activity. Children today in the classroom or in a school in the Northwest Territories don...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about some research that has been conducted. It appeared in the Canadian Journal of Public Health in regards to chronic diseases and indicators that would suggest that the trend in northern Canada is not a good one, Mr. Speaker. We need to be doing more in the area of prevention. It is not too late to look at prevention. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if her department is aware of the research that has been...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am just wondering about current plan holders under the NEBS Pension Plan that have pledged security. Are creditors going to be able to go after it once this legislation is passed? Are creditors going to be able to go after pension plan holders that have already pledged their plans as security? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Minister for that. For the procurement of those services, is it just going to be how we procure other services or is it going to go out to tender or is there only one in each community? I’m thinking it may be a business opportunity for people in both those communities to get into business. I’d like to see a competitive type of process take place. I’m just wondering if that will happen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll just wait until we get to the detail and ask the question on that page. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The numbers that I suggested are made in my Member’s statement. They don’t lie. The numbers are there. The thing I like about this research is that it is done over a five-year period. It is not just a snapshot; it is the whole nine yards, Mr. Speaker. Again, in terms of policy, what is the government going to do in terms of policy to get people more physically active in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

I am glad to hear that the Minister has been in contact with one of the researchers. Getting back again to my Member’s statement, the government spends millions and millions of dollars on prevention but the numbers just don’t seem to be corresponding to the investment that we are making there. How do the Minister and the department suggest that we get Northerners more physically active? What is the game plan going forward to try to get people who live in northern Canada more physically active? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak about the correlation between people making healthy choices today and future health care expenditures and the prevalence of chronic illness. Let me begin with a story that appeared on CTV yesterday evening. I would suggest that the Minister of Health and our government take this story and the findings of the research that was conducted very seriously.

The story was based on a research paper that appears in the latest edition of the Canadian Journal of Public Health. It was authored by Kathleen Doering and three other researchers who say...

I appreciate the Minister’s offer for suggestions. I’d be willing to take him up on that. Maybe we should be taking a look at the business planning process in its entirety and holding departments more accountable for what material is provided to Members during the business planning process and saying no. I mean, if FMB or Cabinet doesn’t want to say no, maybe the Regular Members would say no to some of this extraordinary spending that’s coming forward. I mean, that’s the type of discussion that we’re going to have to have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If that’s the case and this is just the Department of HR, if that’s the case and the government’s attitude towards budgeting: figure out what it costs and come back to us later. That change in how we fund the supp reserve and going from $25 million to $10 million, that’s just not going to work. Obviously departments are going come back for more than $10 million. Specifically I’d like to ask the Minister, through you, Mr. Chairman, what exactly did HR spend the additional supp money on if they don’t have any money to be spending on the contract negotiations? Thank you...