Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, time and time again I have heard from constituents and residents of their concerns with the proposed location of the polytechnic university. Although the Minister pointed me to the Facilities Master Plan Engagement Report to explain how he chose Tin Can Hill, I feel as if he engaged on the criteria of a site without really thinking of the operational and, more importantly, the emotional implications of this site. Mr. Speaker there are real, practical concerns with the Tin Can Hill site.

Traffic to the campus would be directed along School Draw Avenue or cut...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And to answer my colleague's question, no, I won't be now having a baby in order to take advantage of these. My colleague from Nunakput, not Kam Lake, sorry.

I did want to say echo the sentiments as well that, you know, having been a part of this Assembly, to have this many women in and to see the changes that have occurred because of that, not only in our procedures but just some of the things that have happened where the conversations around earrings that we seem to have. We joke that the number 1 thing said here in this House sometimes is who made your earrings. And...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just don't accept these reasons that are being provided as to why this date needs to be pushed back even further. There's no reason that this could not be done with a professional association somewhere else. We have seen that in numerous other professions where because we don't have the people or the bodies to populate our own, we often will use others. For example, NAPEG uses the board of examiners for engineers in Alberta because we can't maintain that here on our own. So I do think that there was there is a method and a way that this could have been done by using...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Has the Member had any and this is probably quite a high or wishful question. But does she have any idea how much not having this dental hygienist practice or this ability to have preventative care is really costing us as a territory? Was there any work done around characterizing or quantifying how much money are we spending to send people either to Yellowknife, to the south? Why, when we're waiting for things that are preventative to become emergent situations? We obviously are paying more for that. Does the Member have any feel for how much money we would save by...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker or sorry, Mr. Chair. Maybe next go around.

Mr. Speaker, I'm quite frustrated with this entire process and how this has gone. You know, the decisions and reasons that were given to me, or to us as a committee from the department and the Minister regarding why this could not go ahead as of now or even in the two years that we've compromised on, they don't wash with me. Some of these things are things that such as well, no dental hygienist brought this forward. Well, they're busy. They're working. Everybody's trying to get into dental appointments. So just because they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So reading through all that, the answer's no, there was no discussion about them being the landlords of the future facility.

I guess where I kind of struggle with this, we're talking about economic development. We're talking about land claims. We know at some point the land around Frame Lake, because it will be settled and hopefully sooner rather than later, not that I think anything progressed during this Assembly; however, when that land is settled it will be developed. And at that point, there will be buildings, there will be things put on it. I really can't see the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We see this time and again where, you know, stuff is being done behind the scenes or things are advancing before it really is taken out to the public for that engagement. I think a good example of that was the five options presented to us for the airport terminal building at which point committee told the Minister right off the bat two were not viable.

So given that, I'm kind of you know, I have to wonder why we had all this kerfuffle if we haven't even picked that as the site yet. However, I would like to know has the department done a comprehensive assessment on areas...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't see my page in the Chamber at the moment, but I would like to recognize Rhiannon AckermanO'Connor who I have actually known since she was a little baby. And as well welcome my friend Nicole Sok to the gallery, who is here watching the proceeding today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I echo my colleague's concerns with this bill. There were a lot of things I think that could have been done differently. I have my regrets for how it all progressed in the sense of we did get bogged down on something, but it was an important conversation to be had. I think it worked well as far as back and forth with the Minister and the department. It's just unfortunate for me I also believe that the bill is not where it should be and I will be not supporting the bill; however, I want it to become a priority and something that happens really quickly in the 20th with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I speak unanimous consent to return to recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you.