Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said at the outset, my main concern is there be no slippage in the timing and the schedule for the construction of the new hospital. I think that the site or the location is probably of a secondary nature to the timing, as far as I’m concerned. But, Mr. Speaker, at the same time, the proposed site that is the choice of the government, I guess, or the town -- I’m not sure who was mostly pushing that -- is an industrial area.

I’d like to ask: have the people of Hay River been consulted in any fashion in this, in terms of the public? A hospital is usually...

Mr. Speaker, from the information that the Minister of Public Works has been able to get from his officials and people who are looking into these proposed sites, can the Minister tell us today in the House that he is very confident that the Sundog Industrial Subdivision, as it’s called, will have proper drainage concluded by then and that the choice of this site will not result in any delay in the start of construction of this? Because when you look at that site today, Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t look very ready for construction. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use my Member’s statement today to welcome the Grade 6 students, teachers and chaperones from the Princess Alexandra School in Hay River. Recognition of visitors in the gallery is supposed to take less than 15 seconds, but Members’ statements are two and a half minutes, so I’m going to take my Member’s statement to recognize them. I would very much like to welcome them here and I do apologize if I do not pronounce your name right.

Teachers today: Rita Moizis and Jennifer Tweedie. Students: Kaed Blake, Novi Bordeny, Tia Buckley-Cayen, Nick Buth, Tristan Cross...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Mr. Chairman, so that whole issue of specific number of hours, that would be worked in a year in order to advance to the next level within the apprenticeship training is not something that would be outlined in legislation. It is something that more might be in policy or regulation. Would that be correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee today would like to deal with Bill 5 first and that’s it for today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, the MLAs for Hay River were involved in a process with the then-CEO of the hospital, Mr. Al Woods, and the public administrator of the hospital, of also receiving a lot of information about prospective sites for the new hospital. At that time I believe it was determined that the ENR/ITI site was the most suitable site. However, I appreciate that Public Works has done their homework and that there may be a better alternative.

Mr. Speaker, how does the proposed site of the Sundog industrial area, how does that take into account the issue of it being on the west side of the railway...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions about the proposed location for the new hospital in Hay River. I’m not sure if I should ask my questions to the Minister of Public Works or the Minister of Health and Social Services, but let’s go with the Minister of Public Works.

Mr. Speaker, we have, for many years, had a desire and a need for a new hospital in Hay River. This is something that, Mr. Speaker, yourself and myself over the years have worked on. We have had a little slippage. We haven’t stayed right on the front of the line for this capital project. It’s a very big project...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the commercial fishery as it relates to Great Slave Lake. I have questions for the Minister of ITI.

In my Member’s statement I failed to mention, actually, the collaborative work done by the Economic Development and Infrastructure committee as well with the Minister of ITI on this. I want to recognize them for their understanding of this situation as well.

We are now embarking on something that will be a new process for the marketing of the fish from Great Slave Lake. During this transition phase I would like to ask the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been a long time that I stood in this House and talked about the commercial fishing industry on Great Slave Lake. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that our government, our Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment has seen fit to hold that consultation with the Fisherman’s Federation that resulted in the vote to begin the actions required to remove the Great Slave Fishery in the Northwest Territories from the purview of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, it took a long time to get consensus amongst the fishers themselves. Unfortunately, we...