Kevin A. Menicoche

I’m not too sure. I was just quick to listen about the particular report that was on the news this morning and that the dentist had spoken about. It addresses that there are shortcomings in the smaller communities, shortcomings in providing dental services, as well as dental awareness.

I’d like to ask the Minister if the department is doing enough in this regard and what is his strategy going forward in improving these services in the smaller communities.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about dental issues in the North and how I wanted to find out more about how dentists are funded to go into the communities.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he can give me a little bit of information on how dental services are provided to the smaller communities. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government place a high priority on the chipsealing and rehabilitation on Highway No. 1 between kilometre 187 and kilometre 216 beginning in the fiscal year 2014-15. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to speak a bit about the structures and chipsealing. Rehabilitation and replacement are of concern. A few of my colleagues have shared the concern about kilometre 187 on Highway No. 1, which is the Providence junction and all the chipseal that is there to about 216. It’s been identified by my colleagues as a priority. There’s some good chipsealing there and it’s deteriorating. In my opinion, I think we should save that. We’ve got a bit of a budget here for next fiscal year and I’m going to propose we make this a priority for 2014. Perhaps firstly I...

Thank you very much. I certainly look forward to bringing the Minister to Trout Lake, because the community has always seen it as their project and they want to continue to benefit from whatever work is left there. So, we’ll just leave it at that until we get into the community to meet with the leadership on the Trout Lake Airport.

A couple more questions under airports. Trout Lake has also been asking for a snow blower and that’s something I’ve been raising for some time. I think there was a plan to move a blower in there about two years ago. Can the department tell me about what plans there...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I submit one more time that I think one of the better strategies is to increase the visits, increase the number of days of service to the smaller communities. I’d like to ask the Minister if he will take that into consideration and look at that in his overall strategy. I believe that’s one of the musts that we should do.

Like I indicated, the health was transferred in 1988, and it seems like some of the health care is being provided by non-insured health services. Maybe the Minister can just explain about how that is still a federal service and why we’re not taking care of that.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak about this morning’s news. I was disturbed to hear about the state of dental problems in our children and in our communities. The dentist in the news this morning stood up and voiced his opinion on that, and I know a lot of it has to do with how it is still federally operated. I’m a bit confused and I will ask the Minister of Health questions on it later on.

With devolution, I thought we had all the responsibilities for health transferred over to us in 1988. According to the federal contract, we’re only allowed so many days per year per...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it’s important to state early on here that it’s not asking for any money to be included in the budget, but it only asks that the department place priority on this almost 30 kilometres of chipseal that’s been deteriorating over the years. I didn’t hear any competence in the Minister’s answer that they do plan to do it next year, and I feel that if we leave it past the 2014 season that we’re going to lose almost half of it because it’s all patches, gravel and chipseal. It’s got little painted lines; it’s actually quite tricky to navigate as it is today. To see us...

I’d like to thank the deputy minister for that explanation of that line item. Just with that, and without getting into further debate, I do have a committee motion here that I would like to move, Mr. Chair.