David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, October 23, 2006, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput, that this Assembly formally revoke the pleasure of the Assembly from the appointment of the Honourable J. Michael Miltenberger as Member of the Executive Council; and further, that this Assembly recommend that a new Member be chosen to be a Member of the Executive Council.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will seek unanimous consent to deal with this motion today. Mahsi.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know if Cabinet has a policy in dealing with employees in the various departments and corporations that the government represents or has control over. Is there a policy in place where an employee in whatever -- pick a department -- has direct access to the Minister? Is there a policy that says an employee in, let's say, Justice cannot contact the Minister directly? Thank you.

Yes, thank you. It’s under section 23(i). I believe the Minister was imputing false or hidden motives for my comments here in the House and I take great exception to that. My wife is a nurse at Stanton Territorial Hospital. I am very proud of the job she does there and, in fact, proud of the job that all the health care professionals that we have here in the Northwest Territories do. For the Minister to make comments like that, I take great exception to them. Mr. Speaker, this isn’t the last you will hear from me on that issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t know why we continue to put our dollars at risk while we wait for a decision from the federal government. That’s for certain.

The other thing I want to ask the Premier is what exactly are the other costs that are associated? If you are saying that it’s $100,000 in interest, I can see a loan guarantee of $3.55 million costing much, much more than $100,000. What is going to be the final tab on the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and what is it going to cost the residents of the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to stand on a point of order. I think I clearly heard the Minister of Health and Social Services threaten my wife. She’s an employee at Stanton Territorial Hospital. She wasn’t one of the 17 health care professionals that showed up at my constituency meeting with these concerns nor was she one of the seven that showed up at my colleague Ms. Lee’s constituency meeting, Mr. Speaker. I take great exception to the Minister threatening me and I think I heard him say my brother, who used to work at North Slave Correctional Centre. Mr. Speaker, I will go back...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister, when exactly can we expect a report or a status report on where this work is at? I thought I heard him say two weeks, but what are we going to get in two weeks? This is something that needs urgent, urgent action; tomorrow. There is going to be a major incident at this hospital, whether it's with an employee or whether it's with a client and it's going to happen if we don't do something about it. So I'd like to ask the Minister when. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services:

From the operational review conducted in 2002, can the Minister provide the House with updates on what has been done to address all recommendations contained in the review?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister had the opportunity to attend my constituency meeting two weeks ago, he'd understand that the scenarios and the level of concern at Stanton Hospital is, in fact, probably worse than it was in 2001, 2002, and something, Mr. Speaker, needs to be done. I'd like to ask the Minister, there's been some talk of a staffing review. We did an operational review in 2002. Recently, in April of this year, we've gone and done another staffing review of the same facility. I'm just wondering where exactly is this phantom staffing review. I've heard...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think we would be jumping the gun by cutting off the risk of the territorial government in that loan guarantee. Why wouldn’t we just pay it out? We are going to get the information anyway. The decision from the federal government might be years away. Again, I don’t understand why we continue to bleed. What other costs is the government going to incur on this loan guarantee? There has to be other costs out there. What are they and will the Premier let us know what they are? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again I will get back to this. I think that the Premier and this Cabinet are eroding the responsibility that they have to the residents of the Northwest Territories by not having one Minister responsible for Health and Social Services. I am not saying that the Minister can’t do the job or his work ethic or anything like that. What I am saying is that we need one Minister responsible for Health and Social Services. He shouldn’t be saddled when other Ministers don’t have as much of a workload. That is what I am getting at. I want to ask the Premier, if...