Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the honourable Member from Hay River South has raised this issue on a number of occasions before and given the response of government we have undertaken a review of this whole situation and looked and talked to the different municipalities about how the concerns were in those communities and a review was undertaken. It was incorporated into a larger assessment that is being done and headed up by ECE. That process is in its final stages. We’re expecting to see some of the recommendations and options coming forward along with some of the costing associated...

The units are getting older and older and the maintenance crews are asked to do more and more, like I said, with a lot less. Is Novel the answer? I don’t know. I wonder about that. We are talking about a huge investment here. Maybe it’s time we went and asked the communities and listened to what the communities have to say.

Let’s start making some of the decisions based on what the community wants, not what the Housing Corporation and government thinks is best for the community because what is good for one community in this region may not be good for another community in that region. So I would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, surveys of barren ground caribou herds conducted this summer by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources confirms these herds are declining.

This is a very serious matter that affects many residents in the Northwest Territories. Last winter, few communities were able to access caribou and the harvest was greatly reduced.

A number of actions based on survey results from the Cape Bathurst, Bluenose-East and Bluenose-West barren ground caribou herds were taken this past year to address the decline. This included closing caribou management areas in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I apprenticed with DPW quite a few years ago and one of the things I noticed when I was apprenticing there was the amount of employees we had there from the South that would just come up, work, and then leave. It was easy for them because there was so much incentive for them to come north and work here. As more and more northerners became trained and the incentives became less and less, because working and living at home should have been your incentive, a lot of them left.

A good case, Mr. Speaker, would be we’re going through the same thing right now, but...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is now six months away from implementation for the New Deal for the Northwest Territories community

governments. A key priority including this government’s strategic plan, this comprehensive initiative which builds on past efforts to empower communities will provide community governments with the authority and resources to plan, design and build community public infrastructure.

With ongoing input from community governments, the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and the Local Government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would his department consider entering into separate contracts with each nurse that comes up here on a nurse-to-nurse basis? Is that possible? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke to the value of health care professionals. I fully appreciate the fact that a lot of nurses come north to work and they have some financial incentive to do so. I think if we put some of these incentives in place permanently, then they may want to just live here and work up here. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland, if his department has any authority to give retention bonuses or a few more incentives for health care professionals. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to report to Members on the results of an extraordinary fundraising initiative that will make a significant difference to sport development in the Northwest Territories.

On September 9th of this year, the Sport North Federation and several key corporate sponsors including Medic North, the Royal Bank, Canadian North, Top of the World Travel, and Nunasi Corporation sponsored the Champions for Children fundraising dinner.

Ron McLean of Hockey Night in Canada fame and retired Chicago Blackhawks player Dennis Hull were two of the key speakers at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we well know that a lot of southern agency nurses come north to work. What I am afraid of here, and maybe it is an option, we may see a northern pool of agency nurses. Would that be an option for the department to negotiate with them as an agency pool of northern nurses? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the fact that you would have to go through the UNW, but I feel nurses are different. They could be on the same pay level as a carpenter, for example, and the work that they do, in my opinion, is a lot more important. Has the department ever been approached by health care professionals to negotiate their own contract? Thank you.