Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, a number of times this issue has come up. In fact, the very first time was when we took over the delivery of health care from the federal government. That was the first time it came up. It has been reviewed a number of times. This time, not in looking at making our union or setting up another union process, we would still have to follow the same rules as we do when it comes to equal pay, pay equity and those issues as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’re basing it on the fact that the Government of the Northwest Territories needs the appropriate tools to make decisions on spending patterns. It’s not only about spending $100 million. As I stated earlier, we’re spending a billion dollars and should we as the Government of the Northwest Territories, how should we spend that money? Should it be focused on schools? Should it be focused on training programs? Should it be focused on infrastructure, airports, highways? Those are the things we have to use this piece for. In a sense, the policy will be...

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. Mr. Speaker, the Nats'ejee K'eh Society board of directors are the employer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree; we have to listen to the front-line workers. We have to listen to, whether it is on the health side, social services side, the teachers’ side, people that deliver the programs that we discuss in this Assembly, those people that are on the front lines delivering that to meet the needs of our residents. We have to pay attention to what is being said out there. But at the same time, we have a responsibility to ensure that we are doing it at a level that is acceptable throughout the territory. That brings its own challenges. We also have to deal...