Statements in Debates
Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 75-16(5), Response to the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project on the Federal and Territorial Governments’ Interim Response to “Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future” and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.
Go ahead.
I would like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. Prior to the break we agreed to review Tabled Document 75-16(5), which is the Response to the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project on the Federal and Territorial Governments’ Interim Response to “Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future.” First on my list is Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Is committee agreed?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just two quick things in closing. I mentioned earlier that I had a constituent who mentioned some difficulties they had accessing the building, especially the interior doors. The individual was in a wheelchair and there was no electronic opener on the door, so it was very difficult. I believe that’s been rectified. If I can get the Minister to confirm that that has in fact been rectified.
The second part is that the Minister has mentioned that this facility is not just a Yellowknife facility, that it is a territorial facility. My question to the Minister is if they have...
I’d like to thank the Minister for that. One of the issues that has come to my attention, and I know it’s come to some of the other Members, has been the telephone system at the clinic itself. There appears to be a lot of frustration. Some people phone and they get busy signals or they get put on hold for extended periods of time. Now, I know that we have some staff issues and we’re trying to staff that place up, which might be part of the problem, but has anything been done to start addressing the amount of time that people are waiting on the telephones or have we put in more people to ensure...
So this is basically to return that power that once existed that got missed by way of some sort of oversight.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’d like to go through Bill 12 and, time permitting, Tabled Document 75-16(5).
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is one thing I haven’t touched on but it is related. Right now, that federal legislation, we have federal permits. We have federal forms that people have to fill out. We have territorial, we have city, we have everything. In looking at some of the forms, I often see what appears to be some level of duplication. In the review, if I can get the Minister to commit that they will look at where all the requirements for business are coming from and hopefully by working with our partners, the federal government communities and other organizations, we can identify some of...
Mr. Speaker, it is awfully nice when we are in agreement so easily. The Minister mentioned BizPaL. I think BizPaL is a great program, but I understand that the City of Yellowknife isn’t partnering with us on that. Right now, the City of Yellowknife has a lot of requirements for permits and whatnot. Has there been any work done with the City of Yellowknife to see if we can get them on side with us to help the businesses overall and reduce the amount of red tape? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.