Thebacha

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 17)

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2011-2012, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes operations appropriations for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 17)

This is a longitudinal look at trends across the land in different areas. If you take this five-year increment and put the other three reports before them, you’d see, as the Member has indicated and as the report demonstrates clearly, a lot of our statistics continue to go in the wrong direction. We have some more current statistics on different areas that we could look at if the Member has a specific request, but in terms of gathering this kind of broad data that’s going to give us those trends and available for planning purposes, it’s those five-year increments that give us that kind of...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 17)

Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2011-2012, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 17)

The over $300 million that we do spend provides a very high level of service to the people. The Member’s point is a good one. We’ll never have enough hospitals, enough facilities to put people back together, to get them healthy once they’re sick, and the challenge is an unmet challenge, is the one that the Member lays out.

Will this be used? We’re going into an election here in a couple weeks. There will be in the next few months an Assembly elected and a Cabinet picked. Through the business planning process and the priorities of the next Assembly, they will be targeting where they think the...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 17)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents entitled Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011, and Northwest Territories Liquor Commission and Liquor Licensing Board 2010-2011 Annual Report.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 16)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When it initially was looked at and the discussion was held, 10 years, a decade, was thought to be a good starting point. Then we got the recommendation from committee to go to 20 years and we’ve concurred with that because we think it’s a substantial time frame and will give the fund a chance to build up some principle and some interest. So we concurred with that and I was under the impression that 20 to 21 years was pretty close to what was deemed to be a generation, I may be 10 years off, the Member said 30 years for a generation. But the point being that we’ve...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 16)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a constant effort to try to improve services in the community. In fact, myself and Premier Roland and Minister Michael McLeod were around in the days when the Sahtu was still part of the Inuvik region and we made the decision to move it into their own separate region. We set up the infrastructure, we had doctors come in there, we’ve added nurses, we put in all the support services that we have money to do, we’re looking at a long-term care facility, we’re looking at an improvement and replacement to the health centre. So, Mr. Speaker, there are very ambitious...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 16)

Firstly, as we talk about the non-renewable resources sector, we have to as well not only put savings aside because of the depletion rate and the fact that there is not going to be any more once it’s gone, but we also have to focus on opportunities like the fibre optic line up to Inuvik that would create a whole industry that’s not based on the non-renewable resources sector that would allow us to have other forms of income, which I believe is what Norway has done as well. They’ve kept the money out of circulation so that it doesn’t skew the economy so you don’t have that sort of false economy...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 16)

We are making, as I indicated, constant and significant efforts on the recruitment side. We are recruiting from a number of different sources, from the various Internet sources that are available, by word of mouth, looking with ads, we go to fairs, and we continue to train up nurses, as I indicated. But we continue to struggle, as does every jurisdiction in the country, with adequacy, especially when it comes to services in small communities. Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 16)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We lay out some of the basic principles and approaches that we’re going to take in terms of how the money is to be invested. There’s no decision made in here or direction in terms of limiting future Assemblies as to how much money and where they want to take the money from to put into this fund. We’ll be running it through the processes and policies that currently exist. Under clause 11 on regulations we lay out some of the basic points and processes to be followed. Thank you.