Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ll have to get that information. I was made aware that the surgery ward was back open. I’m not sure what they’ve done to deal with the space situation, as the Member raised earlier the fact that we’ve taken some of that and turned it into office space. I’ll have to get back to the Member with that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, in fact, with this bill going ahead and dealing with it through the health services administration office up in Inuvik, it is one office. The workload is broken up between individuals in that office for different areas. So this would fall into that pattern and would make it much simpler as we proceed forward.

Yes, as I stated earlier, on the issue of when names were changed by no fault of their own or an action by the government through regulations, we would look at establishing a process where, if it is by no fault of their own, we could put a nominal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I say "we," ultimately, working with the Health and Social Services authorities and when we talk about infrastructure dollars and how we proceed in the delivery of service in any community, the department gets involved in that process. Of course, different authorities take the lead on a number of initiatives. In this case, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services is the lead on this initiative, but, as a department, we are definitely plugged in on that and we will work with them. We will pass on the information. As we proceed, we would, being the department...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it does not coincide with Quebec, but it does coincide with other jurisdictions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct that there is work done on this and part of the problem is we’ve worked with a lot of organizations, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, Stanton and other groups, but a lot of the work has been done quite some time ago. The idea of the consolidated clinics has been on the books for some time within the department looking how we can proceed with this and if there’s an opportunity to move it forward. It goes back into an annual basis where when we do our budget planning, if we don’t have a contract let on a facility...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as we proceed and this bill gets passed and put into force, we will also have to do work around regulations of that. As Dr. Corriveau stated, we would be working with municipalities if they decided to use a product like fluoride. We would continue to be involved in that sense. But as we go the next step and look at regulations, those items can be looked at and incorporated. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, to the extent we’re able to. We have to recognize the fact that this contract and the union negotiations are going outside our processes. So I’ll have to be careful that we’re not deemed to be influencing process on either side, but we’ve been monitoring it on a regular basis and we’ve had our contact to see what was happening in the current settlement. We will continue to do what we can within our realm of authority to try and ensure that this comes out to a successful conclusion; the sooner, the better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is fairly common now throughout the Northwest Territories. We see that in almost every community where individuals now go to their co-op store, their North Mart and other places, to get bottled water. It goes a lot to the pace, as I have heard individuals say. The fact of the matter is all of our water sources are tested and they meet the qualifications nationally to be used for human consumption. We meet the requirements. The bottled water sources out there are tap water in the majority of situations if you look at it, if you do the actual looking at...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we’ve heard, quality of water is one that does come up from time to time in communities and the safety of that supply is something that we can get involved with once this act, it clarifies the process and the rules we all operate by. Ultimately, as we’ve heard from other sources as well, that the piped water, once it goes through the plant, is filtered and takes out contaminants and supplies a quality of water that is acceptable by national standards. If we find problems with that, we will issue orders around that area. I guess in one degree it’s a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, our role from the Department of Health and Social Services side and with this act stated in a number of circumstances we would be directly involved in the quality of the water after it comes out of the plant and delivered to homes. So the testing and that end would be done and we would make recommendations if we were to find substances that were not acceptable. In our case, within the government, we’ve formalized a working relationship with a number of other departments, Municipal and Community Affairs being one of them as well as the Department of...