Nahendeh

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 52)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions from the statement I gave earlier.

How exactly did this new medevac contract benefit our small and remote communities, given those two circumstances that I spoke about in my Member’s statement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 52)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Health and Social Services announced a new medevac contract in January of this year. The new eight-year contract combines the medevac and clinical services as well as provides for newer aircraft and new equipment to serve all of our communities in the Northwest Territories. This is designed to improve the quality of service and response times.

In my constituency in recent years, there have been two instances where people felt that our medevac system failed them. Firstly, in May of 2013, the medevac took six hours to reach the community of Trout Lake, a mere...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

When the Minister talks about evaluating in the next coming months, does he have a time frame that he can let us know? Is it in December and once again at the end of the school year? How frequent will the evaluations be? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask Minister Lafferty, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, a couple questions about Junior Kindergarten.

I just want to note that I feel the general population has understood the delays in the larger communities. It’s still going forward in the other 23 communities for this year that want it. I also want to say that I don’t believe the delays were caused by the middleclass, the low-income people and single parents out there that could not use the daycare or daycare operators anyway.

I’d like to ask the Minister, how well is Junior...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that the Minister concurred to that.

Does the Minister feel that there is need to review the policy, or is it just a case where it was a malfunctioning piece of equipment that created the confusion? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

The particular case I’m talking about is Fort Simpson. Apparently, the depth sounder wasn’t working properly, so the staff said, oh look, we have to close tonight. I think that was on Sunday, but the depth sound meter wasn’t working properly. Then the department advised the public and then they opened up the next day for 12 hours on Monday, then Tuesday they said they’re doing daylight hours. It is really confusing for the residents of Fort Simpson and the businesses, so they were quite confused.

Once again I would like to ask the Minister what specifically happened in the case of Fort Simpson...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that we’re working towards evaluating it, because it’s a much needed program, I believe.

As we move forward, can the Minister know… Will he compile an overall report for this House? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

I know that we heard that there were funding fears out there.

I’d just like to ask the Minister, with the 23 communities that are using it now, how is it being funded and what are the plans for the future? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to continue a familiar theme: health care for my people. I don’t want to give the impression that our health care system is fundamentally flawed. It isn’t, Mr. Speaker. But as the Minister of Health says himself, there’s definitely room for improvement.

One of the goals of our health system is to deliver services as close to home as possible, and I’m all for that. A simple change would really help out the people of Fort Liard and, at the same time, probably lower the costs of health in my region.

People of Fort Liard are already getting some of their health...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to say that I think the Government Operations have done an excellent report. One thing they didn’t note is that it’s another statutory office. So, we’ve got the Languages Commissioner that Mr. Blake spoke about, the Human Rights Commission and we’ve also got an Information Commissioner.

In my term as MLA, I’ve learned that I’ve helped constituents go through these commissioners’ offices and not all the time they had their needs met. People do want to be heard. They want their concerns heard, and as an MLA, we can only go so far and do as much as we...