Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House that the Honourable Joe Handley will be absent from the House today to attend the Council of the Federation Energy Committee meeting in Montreal, Quebec. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have tried to state earlier, the situation we find ourselves in is a difficult one. Our goal is to ensure those that were receiving services continue to receive those services and people who request services around the addiction area can get support. We are looking at that. We will continue to help them out. As for the facility in the Northwest Territories, we are going to work with them to the extent we can, encouraging them to get back to the table. Ultimately, we have a number of things that have to be looked at. The fact is that there is an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the process works for referrals from one doctor to another, one jurisdiction to another, it requires having a doctor in our jurisdiction make that referral. As Minister, the process as established through our professionals is something that I would endorse. As for the department meeting, myself sitting down with the department to look at this specific case, I’ve begun that process to look at this. Ultimately again, as I stated earlier in another round of questions, I would work with the professionals in this field to see what we can do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the regime where we work under and the environment we work under today without this change, if someone was to receive a dividend from a corporation, the existing process would be that they'd be hit up in a sense, as I had stated in my opening comments, a double hit on taxation because of our federal/territorial rules. That's why a lot of corporations would set other things up. For example, income trusts. That scenario is a flow-through which then we would not, as a GNWT, receive any of that possible tax. So that's the reason why we're doing this as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the acceptable wait times and reducing wait times is an issue that all jurisdictions are facing; in fact, working together with the other jurisdictions and the federal government to try to come up with a program that would reduce wait times people face throughout our systems. As for the Northwest Territories, I don’t have the specifics and I’d have to get some detail on that, then I can provide that to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The tax policy area is quite I wouldn't want to say convoluted, but it is a difficult one to understand how it actually works from one bracket to another. So for that level of detail, I'll have Ms. Melhorn provide some detail.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a number of options were looked at for this facility. Ultimately it still comes down to the fact that even if we enter into a leasing arrangement we have to account for those dollars in the leasing agreement and build that into the plan. Because it is a very specified facility for a very specific group of individuals and people and how that would be served, we would look at that as being a facility that we would rather own than lease. So I know it’s been worked about, discussed. I have directed the department to contact the organization to look at the plan...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has worked cooperatively with the Yellowknife Association for Concerned Citizens for Seniors and we will continue to do so. The department has met with them on a number of occasions, has worked and provided money for the planning, have received a plan for a new facility which is far and above the initial discussions that were put in place. The department has been in contact with them since the news was initially given by the previous Minister regarding the facility itself. As our capital plan works, as we put our plans forward, it is reviewed...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I understand the question, residents of the Northwest Territories that receive services and are registered under our health care plan would fall into this category. So the type of program that we draw down or the bill system we have -- and I think that's where the confusion may lie -- is it's the type of billing we have that would fall in this category. But all residents of the Northwest Territories that have applied for health care and even those people receiving non-insured health services, as I stated earlier, it's another program directed specifically to the...