Kevin A. Menicoche

Once again, we ought to be maximizing community health nursing and develop that capacity.

Just a quick look at Nunavut, every community, with the exception of Grise Fiord, has a nurse, and the nurses form the backbone of those communities and the backbone of the health care delivery system in Nunavut, so that’s exactly where we’re getting. I’ve listed many, many times where the community of Wrigley needed a nurse, where nurses really could have increased assistance to that community. Just for instance, in December 2005, two nine and 10-year-old girls broke their legs and they weren’t treated...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to rise today to commend coaches, sponsors and organizers for hosting the Paul Stipdonk Memorial Soccer Tournament in Fort Simpson last weekend. Paul Stipdonk was a long-time Northerner and teacher in Fort Simpson. Paul loved working with the youth in the sport of soccer. He spent many hours of his personal time coaching, fundraising, refereeing, organizing and developing new tournaments and travelling to events.

With Paul’s passing away this past August, the Mackenzie Recreation Association asked the family if they could rename the...

I know that’s a struggle to get all the communities community health nurses. But in the instance of Wrigley, it’s about the return of nursing services. We had them there in the early ‘90s, and the community consistently asks me, why aren’t we getting our nurse back, what’s the issue there. Well, in fact, I made great strides in getting two dedicated RCMP for the community of Wrigley and establishment of a patrol cabin, as it were, so why aren’t we doing the same or even more to deliver health in our small communities such as Wrigley? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on community health nursing. That was a great issue that Mrs. Groenewegen raised and it’s something I’ve been following for many, many years, the question of nursing in small communities. In her statement she asked basically what is the rationale, and I think the rationale is because there are no RCMP officers there. I don’t know if that’s a real policy.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Health what is the real policy about getting nurses into our communities, and if he has it, can he quote from it, can he show us? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I have concluded all my general comments.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Once again, because there’s a value attached to this and I’m extremely concerned about drawing down on the resources of government because we will have to, through a cutback exercise shortly, and everybody’s well aware that we did not have time to work in our $30 million that’s in this budget.

I won’t be supporting this motion, but this is a very important issue that the mover of the motion brings up, Mr. Dolynny. Giving the government $300,000 is just not going to work. There has to be a better way to address this very, very important issue.

No, it’s not a specific case, it’s just that there’s such a backlog because they have extended it to every six weeks to have the Territorial Court sit in the communities and it’s creating quite a bit of backlog. I guess I can ask the Minister, if he’s not too familiar with it, maybe if he can ask for a briefing note and share that with me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to briefly touch on our RCMP services in my riding. I think, particularly in Fort Simpson, I am pleased how they interact in the community, especially with the new organization for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. They really came out and pitched in, helped out with the kickoff of that event, and I am pleased to see that. I am also pleased to see that they continue to do drinking and driving. There were 11 charges in January, which is good to see. It sends a message to the community that we take this very seriously in the Northwest Territories. When it...

Thank you very much. I’m pleased to provide some general comments to ITI. I just wanted to talk a bit about our parks and, more specifically, the Sambaa Deh Park and some of the issues that they were having there. Well, there was a fire there this year and it interrupted the operations. As well, something new that the department had done with the contractors was about the user fees. This year particularly, the government kept the fees and that impacted the contractor. I just want to ask the Minister what the ongoing plan is for the park user fees as we go forward this fiscal year.

Thank you very much. I know he takes pride in our justice system, but in the communities there are people waiting up to a year to have their trial heard it’s just not working out. In fact, the last territorial circuit in Fort Simpson the judge actually stayed an extra day and a half just to clear the backlog of the court docket there. So it is an issue and I’m just raising it with the Minister and asking him for a briefing note, and I look forward to it.