Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we move into the last session of the 16th Legislative Assembly, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the significant progress this Legislature has made toward achieving its goal of an environment that will sustain present and future generations.

During the past four years we developed a Water Stewardship Strategy and Action Plan for the Northwest Territories. The strategy has been acclaimed by water managers and experts from around the world. Our focus must now shift from planning to implementation. This will include a number of initiatives such...

As we look to the transition document, there will be a revenue option section when it comes to finance providing fiscal update information that’s available and the tools that are going to be available to the 17th Legislative Assembly in terms of generating revenue. There has been this issue of the resource tax that came up during the revenue options roundtable in this particular Assembly. We’ve also had different types of discussions about things that the Member holds dear as well. Things like what do you do with the carbon tax, and it’s been a discussion that’s been approached carefully by...

I indicated that I would follow up with the deputy minister and the chairs of the various boards and authorities to talk about this issue. The Member raises some issues about resources. Health will continue to be the largest department in government, with over a $300 million budget that grows on an annual rate that is higher overall than the standard and ceiling kept in place for other departments as we try to control our costs. There’s a new accord being negotiated with the federal government for health transfers and social transfers, so money will continue to be put into health and social...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is an ongoing search and recruitment for doctors and nurses especially to provide service outside of Yellowknife. The challenge is, of course, filling the positions, finding the staff that is trained. There is work being done in terms of trying to better coordinate and centralize the decision-making so that we can look at the coverage with doctors.

We’ve invested millions of dollars in training northern nurses. The issue is to get them trained up enough to work in the small communities so that they can provide the services and that we don’t have this issue of gaps...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s comments of support. Clearly, it is a starting point. The fund is structured to remain untouched for the first 20 years so it can build some critical mass, and then there will be ongoing debates, I’m sure, among citizens of the Northwest Territories and future legislators as to the best way to touch this money. You just have to look around the world at some of the other funds besides Alaska. You could look at Norway. You can look at other funds, as well, to see what may be in the best interests of the residents of the Northwest Territories...