Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think Members of this House will agree that Hay River is nothing if it is not home to some very interesting people, some very innovative, entrepreneurial and very successful people.

Just briefly, I want to recognize a few of those people today. We have here in the gallery today Brad Mapes, who most of you know is doing a very cutting edge, leading edge entrepreneurial endeavour in Hay River, which we wish him well with and are honoured to witness a signing today, an historic signing today.

You don’t have to talk to very many people outside of Hay River, Northwest...

We will resume after a short break. I might remind Members that we are going to a reception in the Great Hall. Thank you.

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I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. There are a number of items before us today in Committee of the Whole. What is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.

I think we need to be unapologetic and absolutely unabashed about getting northern people, priority 1 and priority 2 candidates to work in our public service, and just to confirm, for the record, I’d like to ask the Premier to confirm for the public that this is a process which is vetted by more than one person. If people are worried about people picking, as Mr. Hawkins said, you know, family members or… Hey, you know what? What’s wrong with family members, you know? I mean, as a parent, as a grandparent, do you think I don’t speak for a whole lot of people in the Northwest Territories who...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a topic that’s of great interest to me and I’ll try and make this short. Of course, I still have my eye on that H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital in Hay River that will soon not be required anymore. Well, I can’t ask a hypothetical question, but I would like to confirm that should an NGO be interested in acquiring that particular facility for extended care, the aging population in the North is a ballooning demographic. I don’t think that the government could possibly have enough money to accommodate all of the needs that are coming forward with seniors.

That...

This idea of an NGO running a health-related institution is not a foreign concept. As everyone knows, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada had a management contract with the Government of the Northwest Territories for many, many years to run the hospital in Hay River. When you do go into southern jurisdictions, you do see many church organizations that have seniors complexes associated with them. You see hospitals still being run by, say, the Grey Nuns in Edmonton as an example, but when you turn on the news, you do hear of some tragic events around some of the care of seniors in other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve been in the North for almost 40 years and, unlike many of you, I don’t have very many blood relatives here, so it’s a real pleasure. I have a couple; I gave birth to them. But I have my brother visiting today from Calgary – John Ostler – and it’s a real pleasure to have him here. I had to twist his arm a bit to get him here. He’s wearing a cast. I did not break his arm, but it was a great time to get him up here to visit his sister. My brother, John Ostler. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m not really a big general comment kind of person in Committee of the Whole, but I just wanted to make a few comments on Health and Social Services. It’s a big department, it’s a tough department and I have to say that I am pleased with the general direction that the leadership and the department are taking things. I see some innovative things. I wish there was more that we could do to inspire people to be more caring about and taking personal responsibility for some of the challenges that we face. As a government, we try to fix things and sometimes I think we have...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are at an exciting time in the evolution of the Northwest Territories on the eve of devolution and taking on more power, and for those of us that are out there somewhere, we need to bring our people home to help us build and continue to evolve as a territory and build this territory.

I don’t really have anything else to say, but thanks for the opportunity for this rant and I thank the Premier for his answers. Thank you.