Floyd Roland

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...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the idea is the department has been involved in this program since 2001-2002 and found it to be successful. They have tied it together under their program under the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program. They felt that this was a worthwhile initiative to continue on this work. It is available in all areas of the territory, I believe. Maybe the Minister may have further details.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce a major partnership between the Government of the Northwest Territories and Canada Health Infoway.

Canada Health Infoway works with provincial and territorial governments to accelerate the implementation of electronic health information systems. A network of these systems will link clinics, hospitals, community health centres and other points of care in the NWT and Alberta.

Canada Health Infoway has agreed to invest $5.7 million between 2007-08 and 2009-10 to implement an electronic health records system in all communities in the NWT. The GNWT has agreed...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, health authorities right now have delivery of that program. The department does work with them in trying to set up an overall program. I feel that this is needed to help improve on that delivery aspect of it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Department of Transportation has requested these funds for replacement of equipment, I believe. Maybe the Minister himself can provide more detail to that.