David Ramsay

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to Bill 8 here at third reading. I listened quite intently to the words of my colleagues, and I appreciate all of their words. I know Mr. Abernethy put a great deal of work into his remarks, and I appreciate those. I echo a lot of his sentiments and those of other Members.

I guess I stand here today…. Four weeks ago —and four weeks goes by pretty quick in this line of work; although it seemed like an eternity at times, it did go by fairly quick — I voted against the budget at second reading, and I did so out of principle...

Mr. Speaker, my written questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

How many unfunded programs currently exist at Stanton Territorial Hospital? How much do these cost per year?

How many unfunded positions currently exist at Stanton Territorial Hospital? How much do these positions cost per year?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier. It gets back to my Member’s statement.

It was over three years ago that I first raised the issue of tax exemption of the GST for the three northern territories with the previous government. I know some Cabinet Ministers were around and remember that discussion I had with then-Premier Handley.

I’d like to begin by saying that early last month the Yukon government passed a motion in the House by unanimous vote that their government would lobby the federal government to remove the GST on home-heating fuel, power generation and on the...

I give notice that on Thursday, June 19, 2008, I will move the following motion.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that this Assembly signify their support for amendments to the federal Divorce Act to protect the rights of both parents to be involved in parenting the children, and further, that the content and result of these proceedings be forwarded to the federal Minister of Justice and the Member of Parliament for Western Arctic for their consideration.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe the Premier is familiar with the situation. He has had a discussion with Premier Fentie. As I mentioned, we’re here for another two days. Would his government be willing to come forward with a motion similar to the one passed by the Yukon government so that we, the Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly, can lend our support to the efforts of the Premier and Premier Fentie and Premier Okalik? I think that adds to their arsenal when they do go to Ottawa and try to fight for tax exemption on those important issues. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today about an issue that I have raised in this House before and one that over the past three years just has not seen any advancement. That issue, Mr. Speaker, is the exemption from paying the GST for the Northwest Territories and our two sister territories of Nunavut and the Yukon.

Mr. Speaker, we need to be lobbying the federal government with a collective voice. The population of all three territories combined is only 85,000, about the same size as a city such as Red Deer. It would certainly not impact the federal government’s bottom line much if they...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank both Ministers for their response. It puts us as legislators in a very untenable situation when you’re faced with these big deficits. Like I said, they haven’t accrued overnight. They’ve been there, as the Minister broke it down for us, since ’05–06. Now we’re just finally going to wipe out $11.5 million of accrued deficit with the stroke of a pen. That’s just at one authority.

To me, Mr. Chairman, the accountability just is not there. Where’s the accountability? Where has the previous Minister of Health been? This Minister of Health is trying to do something...

I won’t keep this going much longer. Getting back to who has the authority to put positions into place that are unfunded and to put programs into place that are unfunded, I think maybe we don’t want to go there. I’m not sure. What other forum is there for me to ask questions about who has the authority to fund programs? We approve the budget every year. I’d like to have some say in who has the authority. I think that’s part of the problem, why we’re at the $17.3 million. There are unfunded positions, there are unfunded programs, and somebody approved them along the way. It wasn’t us, so who...

Mr. Chairman, I find it awfully hard to believe we’d go through a zero-based review at that hospital and not know exactly how many unfunded positions there are or exactly how many unfunded programs there are. To me, that’s unfathomable. I don’t understand it.

It’s a good thing we’re not doctors, because it’s taken us — and still taking us — over three years, and we still haven’t figured out how to stop the bleeding. It’s a good thing we’re in the profession we’re in, I guess, and not doctors. We really need to get a handle on what’s happening out there.

If the Minister doesn’t have the answers...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of other questions. The Minister didn’t answer the one question I had: how many unfunded positions are there at Stanton, and how many unfunded programs are at Stanton, and what game plan have we got going forward to address those? I’d like to get a better understanding of under what authority these unfunded positions and unfunded programs came into being. I’d like to start there.

While I’ve just got a couple of minutes, maybe the Minister can answer this question too. Going forward, she talks about having balanced budgets for the authorities. How is...