Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the goal of the Interim Resource Management Assistance Program is to enable communities in the unsettled claim areas to develop and maintain capacity in three main areas; one, reviewing licence permit applications for land and water use; forced resource use, tourism, scientific or wildlife research, oil and gas rights and issuances and related matters; two, consultation and participation, environmental assessments, having potential impacts on land and resources; and, three, enhancing the ability to participate in consultations related to resource management...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, the Member is asking for my opinion on a process that is underway right now in negotiation. I am not prepared to give that at this point. I am prepared to work with my department, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, to hopefully come out with a successful conclusion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the report that was done on the ambulance and highway rescue, what you see here is the first phase of it. The $100,000 is the Department of Health and Social Services’ piece. That is working on creating the legislation. Municipal and Community Affairs has $200,000 that is available to communities that are delivering their own ambulance services at this time. There were a number of options in the final report, five of them to be exact. One, for example, was option one which was the status quo, no changes, let everybody do what they are doing. Option 1(a)...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, again I have to just restate that these projects were already approved projects through the business plan, through the capital infrastructure acquisition plan, and the fact for the winter road bridges program that's cost shared and those projects were selected and agreed to with the partners. For further investments, as the Member is requesting for further work, again that would have to be requested and put through the normal business planning process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Bill 15, Liquor Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the department works with the school boards and other agencies. This is a cost-shared program between the Department of ITI as well as the Minister responsible for youth on a 50/50 basis, giving it a total of $250,000 for this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think, again, as we are in the midst of negotiation, that to raise it in this forum puts pressure on both parties, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority. As I stated, we are working cooperatively with them and hopefully we would have a successful conclusion to this. The issue of wage parity has come up all across the government in a number of areas where we have contracts in place supported by NGOs. That issue has to be looked at by the government at some point. I guess, when first called upon to look at this area of wage parity, our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it fluctuates from year to year. For example, southern placements where we have patients going to southern facilities, that being in Alberta or other jurisdictions, as health care is driven by the health of our constituents and people of the North. You could have one case where the procedures required are very expensive and the time out could be long in duration. That could significantly impact our out-of-territory costs. That is one of the areas. As well, if we have more clients stationed out in the South for longer terms, that does add up to the cost...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the whole list of projects here identified is for the carry-over of either reconstruction or work that was being done that could not be done in '06-07 and has been requested to carry the money forward for '07-08. So it's not a new project. It's a project that's already been approved and they weren't able to complete the work. For example, on Highway No. 4, I understand it was due to not being able to get the work done in the season as part of the weather patterns as well as getting some of the work itself done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’ll definitely try to put some oomph behind our…

---Laughter

…our message. I heard a number of things raised in this House that seem like the beginning of good slogans that we talked about, Don’t be a Boozehound, Don’t be Stuck in the Bottleneck, or something of that nature. But seriously there are quite a number of factors and one of the big areas that I touched was a territorial advisory group that met in March, and we’ll look and we’ll follow up with consultation with our authorities as well as NGOs, aboriginal groups and stakeholders. I spoke...