Kevin A. Menicoche

I think the incident in Fort Liard was the issue of whether at that time they were able to get somebody to state the weather conditions. I think the CARS at that time was also unattended. So I think there was a recommendation by the coroner’s office to install automated observation systems for circumstances like that, because I think the medevac plane actually got there – oh God – in excess of six hours in the wee hours of the morning, but there was a fatality there.

But given that – I know that they’re trying to address that – what provisions for weather and weather reporting are there in this...

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.

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...

Especially this time of year, of course, I pride the ferry captains and all staff that do everything they can to extend the ferry day by day. But in this case it was the failure of a piece of equipment that confused everybody. Everybody thought definitely that the ferry was being shut down.

Perhaps the Minister can issue a public statement to the residents of Fort Simpson apologizing for the confusion this year, and even with that little simple statement. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask the Minister of Transportation about the policy about ferry closures at this time of year. It’s very stressful for all the residents that are on the ferry system. I had a couple of calls from residents of Fort Simpson that indicate there was a bit of confusion this year.

I would like to ask the Minister, what policy does the Department of Transportation have for notifying the general public about ferry closures? Thank you.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.