David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I’m well aware that appropriation Bill 4 is going to be before the House. I wanted to ask some questions today about the $11.5 million. I want to find out what the government’s plan is to address that $11.5 million. The Minister has said it herself: they do have a plan. I know what that plan is. I guess we’ll leave it for further on in this session, to discuss that $11.5 million in the government’s plan. I do agree with the Minister: the hospital does provide a valuable service to the residents in the territory. I’m not debating that. I’m debating the management. I want to address...

That begs the question: why do we even have a Department of Human Resources, then? Maybe we should just have a department of labour relations or something. If it’s all being delegated back to the departments, what are we even doing here, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess it’s consensus by convenience some days in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories.

I’d like to ask the Minister: who today is currently paying the payroll at Stanton Territorial Hospital? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I want to get back on to questioning the Minister in regard to the role that Human Resources played in the rollout of the staffing reductions.

From what I gathered from the Minister, departments were left pretty much to their own devices. Maybe he could explain to me a little bit better: how exactly was the Department of Human Resources involved in the decisions that departments made in staffing reductions? Were they involved at all? Or were departments, like I said, just left to their own devices to come up with their own reductions, take them to Cabinet? Is that what happened...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentioned that we haven’t provided an infusion of cash, but just two and a half years ago we spent millions of dollars as an infusion of cash to address the deficit at that hospital. I’m asking the Minister: what is the government’s plan today to address the 11 and a half million dollar deficit at Stanton Territorial Hospital?

Did the Department of Human Resources work with each department in the area of quality assurance to ensure that each department was following through on the human resources procedures and processes that are in place to ensure they weren't contravening any policies, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. Speaker, I want to applaud my colleagues for standing up here today and discussing the principles of this appropriation bill that’s before us. At second reading, I think it’s important that we do that. It’s important that we let the government once again know what our feelings are on the proposed appropriation bill.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say a few things here again today that Members have heard me say: this is not our plan. It’s not our budget.

If I can, we’ll go back to just after the election in October when 19 Members recently elected got together to develop a...

I think it’s important in this that the department gets out into the campgrounds in the North Slave region and talks to both the seasonal campers and the recreational campers that are out there, and develop some type of survey or questionnaire or something to that effect before waiting until the fall when everybody goes and packs it in for the winter.

I’d like to ask the Minister: are there plans in the works to get out there and talk to people while they’re actually camping?

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of ITI. It gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier today, where I talked of the proposed changes to the allotment, the duration and the pricing for seasonal sites here in the North Slave region.

Most of us are well-aware of the firestorm that built up a month ago regarding these proposed changes. Again, I wanted to thank the Minister for maintaining the status quo in the campgrounds. What I’d like to ask the Minister today is: why did the department take eight months to come up with some proposed changes and try to implement them...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In relation to the issues in the North Slave campgrounds, I wanted to ask a final question on the reservation system and how it is that the public has to pay to reserve a campsite. I can understand that they pay and they get that offset against their actual camping fees, but from what I see and from what I hear from my constituents, somebody is taking that money, and it’s not going in to offset the camping fees. So I think that’s a cost the department should be incurring.

I’d like to ask the Minister: is there any appetite to phase that type of reservation system out so...