Jane Groenewegen

Oh, we’ve got lots of time. Yes, let’s proceed with Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to continue with the consideration of the capital estimates and today we would like to proceed with Public Works and Services and, time permitting, we want to move on to Education, Culture and Employment.

I agree with Minister McLeod that when we do have people come there, we want everything to look good and we want things to be tidy and clean, we don’t want the places to be vandalized or look unkempt. Our territorial park facilities, which include the facilities around the falls and Escarpment Creek, are open from May long weekend to Labour Day weekend. How much would it cost this government to extend that into a shoulder season of, say, Easter weekend to Thanksgiving weekend? How much money are we talking about? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up with my topic of my Member’s statement and that’s the facilities that are operated by the Government of the Northwest Territories that are visitor and resident related; they’re used by many NWT residents and visitors alike.

Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of people like Mr. McBryan, who would like to know why the gate is closed on the access to Alexandra and Louise Falls and the Escarpment Creek by Labour Day weekend when there are still many people visiting and coming into the North and people wanting to use these facilities, could I ask the Minister...

Sorry, and I apologize, Mr. Speaker. I am very encouraged to hear this. This is something that I believe has been missing in the government for a long time. SFA is another area where you could combine different appeals for different departments under one person and they could expeditiously deal with these matters. I don’t envy that person’s job, mind you, because it might necessarily involve saying no to some people. But does the Minister concur that in the scope of these policies that there are extenuating circumstances from time to time which do require a common sense solution which often...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on the questions asked by my colleague Mr. Bromley on how we can take a more common sense approach to things which seem to have an obvious and simple answer, but because policy is strict and there isn’t a lot of latitude for discretion to be applied it makes it difficult to plead these cases.

The cases that Mr. Bromley refers to where we have students in southern Canada who need medical attention and because medical travel must originate in the Northwest Territories to be covered, the fact that these students couldn’t then access any kind of travel...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to continue with Tabled 66-16(5), NWT Capital Estimates 2011-2012, and proceed with the Department of Transportation. Thank you.

That is encouraging and I’ll be very interested in seeing how the Minister plans to address that. I’ll be looking forward to some proposal being brought forward.

The Minister referred to these kinds of situations landing on her desk. I would question whether or not, considering the number of portfolios, the amount of workload that the Minister and her executive assistant carry, the fact that the Department of Health and Social Services is the largest department in our government, if this is the highest and best use of the Minister’s time for her to take on that role herself. Is it not possible...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also talk about the draft agreement-in-principle for devolution and resource revenue sharing that has been achieved between the federal government negotiators and the GNWT negotiators.

As long as I have been a Member of this House, the Regular Members, and maybe even the Cabinet Ministers, have literally ground on whoever the leader was to advance the agenda of the Northwest Territories when it comes to resource revenue sharing and devolution. We told Joe Handley that he should be like Ghandi and walk to Ottawa to make a statement how we should have northern...

For further clarity then, in the case where a patient with MS has had a longstanding relationship with a physician, with a specialist, a neurologist in the south, has been travelling out to see that specialist, is it only the medical travel portion that is affected? So, in fact, if the patient said it is so important to me that I need to see this particular doctor because they know my case, I know them, there’s a trust relationship built, is it possible for that patient to say, okay, I will pay for my own medical travel to get to Edmonton? Will the department then continue to support that...