Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Member has issues with the macroeconomic policy. He’s made it clear since we’ve discussed this. In fact, at one point I believe he was suggesting it should go into ITI or Executive. It seems anywhere else but Finance. Now it’s why are we doing it. The fact is this issue was raised as far back as 1997 that the government should have something like this in place. A good example was, for example, when diamond mines were starting to be established should we pursue secondary industry or should we focus on taxation. That’s one of the reasons why we’re...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The act itself, this Pharmacy Act doesn't cover, or I guess the term is "silent" on that. But there are some other categories or effects here that I guess would fall in the territory. Ms. Cooper may be able to address that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess changing gears a little bit from our staffing levels to the actual program side, dialysis is something that has been affected, we have been affected by, and the demand for services can no longer just be delivered out of the Stanton facility. We are looking at expanding that in our other regions where we have high demand and we’re trying to work cooperatively with a number of other departments as well to ensure that we get that in place so people who are affected can get the service closer to home. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to my left is Ms. Janis Cooper, the legislative counsel for Justice; to my immediate right is the deputy minister of the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Chuck Parker; and further over is Ms. Gay Kennedy, director of policy, legislation and communications.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the whole issue of ranking of our nursing staff has come up a number of times over a number of years and involves the union, ourselves, the nursing fraternity, and we’re trying to address this. When the Government of the Northwest Territories went through a job evaluation process and ranked its employees, initially we had come to a conclusion that a nurse is a nurse is a nurse and they were all paid at one level. That was implemented and put in place. The nursing groups challenged that, appealed it. We then went through the process and accepted that we had...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to introduce Bill 7, Pharmacy Act. This bill reflects a significant number of differences from the existing Pharmacy Act to ensure the public receives quality pharmaceutical service and care, and to modernize the definition of the "practice of pharmacy."

Many stakeholders were involved in the development of this act, including the Pharmaceutical Association of the Northwest Territories, the NWT Medical Association, the Registered Nurses' Association of the NWT and Nunavut, the NWT Medical Director's Forum, and the regional health and social services...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to share news about the continued success of the training of community health representatives. Aurora College offers the Health Sciences Program which certifies new community health representatives and re-certifies existing community health representatives. The regional health and social services authorities provide financial support for this training.

During each training phase, the students interview retired community health representatives and capture the historical perspective of those who lead the way in health promotion. The students gain a great deal...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that Bill 20, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Income Tax Act to reflect and address proposed changes to the Income Tax Act (Canada) that would lower the income tax rate on large corporation dividends received by Canadians. The bill would lower the Northwest Territories income tax rate on those dividends. The bill would not come into force unless the proposed amendments to the Income Tax Act (Canada) come into force. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2006-2007, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware that, within the department and our hiring practices, we have tried to come up with some unique ideas or processes of coming up with nurses. Part of the problem is because there is such a large vacancy rate that occurred at one point, we had to come up with this idea. In fact, I believe before we, as we now term it "agency nurses," that was some of the practices that came in place with individuals. Of course, in a work environment, when you find that there is a large demand, there is also the other side of the equation that comes into play where they then...