Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. Earlier today we had the grade 7 class from William McDonald School in the gallery. I want to thank them and the teacher, Ms. Laura Bromley, for attending. I also have a constituent in the gallery, Ms. Kim McNearney. I want to recognize her and all of the work she has done with regard to responsible use of cannabis. Thank you very much. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks again to the Minister for that. We actually did take one of those locums in, and they did house-sit for us at one point, so just so you know. The Minister has often talked about the benefits of system transformation, including standardized information collection and analysis. Can the Minister tell us whether and when we can expect wait-time public reporting for audiology and indeed a comprehensive selection of medical services offered across the NWT?

I want to thank the Minister for that. I have characterized the audiology wait times as unacceptably high, especially for children. It's my understanding that long audiology wait times can correlate with loss of cognitive function. It's not clear whether there are any professional national or international standards for waiting times for audiology. Can the Minister tell us whether there are any standards for audiology wait times and how we compare to other jurisdictions?

Merci, Monsieur le President. When a constituent talked to me in the summer with concerns about wait times for audiology services, I did a little research and there is definitely cause for concern.

Data supplied to me by the Minister of Health and Social Services shows a trend of mounting demand and longer waiting times. In April 2014, there were 10 adult patients waiting for up to week. A year later, 152 patients were waiting 26 weeks. Wow. As of April this year, 180 patients were waiting 38 weeks.

As bad as the adult backlog is for audiology, it's even worse for children. The wait times for...

I want to thank the Minister for that response. I mentioned the obvious fact that vacant positions bring savings in salary expenditures. I also recommended that these unexpended funds should be devoted to locum positions, wherever possible, to reduce wait times. Can the Minister explain whether unexpended salary dollars for audiology can be used for locum positions, and whether this is common practice for other GNWT medical services?

Merci, Monsieur le President. My statement earlier today dealt with wait times for audiology services, so I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Wait times of 70 weeks for children are simply unacceptable. Can the Minister explain how this acute problem of wait times for audiology, especially children, is being addressed? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the Premier for that. It sounds like we really haven't done much work on this over the last while. I certainly don't have any objection in principle to the negotiation of such an agreement and revenue sharing, but of course, it doesn't seem like there is going to be much development in the foreseeable future.

Can the Premier tell us what the role is going to be for Regular MLAs in developing the negotiation mandate and how he intends to keep us informed?

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier in his role as Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs.

During my statement earlier today, I questioned the likelihood and safety of offshore petroleum development and production. Does the Premier have any confirmation that such offshore development is going to take place in the next few years, and if so, can he table it in the house? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I look forward to that briefing, of course.

I was very pleased to see that the Premier has agreed to a science-based life cycle impact assessment review of the Arctic offshore rights issuance moratorium every five years that will take into account marine and climate change science. This raises the question around why Cabinet has refused to carry out a similar review of onshore hydraulic fracturing. Can the Premier explain this inconsistency and when the public can expect a public review of onshore hydraulic fracturing? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Premier for that. Of course, there hasn't been any drilling since 2006, but a lot of resources will need to go into negotiation of this multi-party offshore petroleum resource co-management and revenue sharing agreement. Can the Premier describe how our government is preparing for such negotiations and what the costs will be?