Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I have done, as Members are aware, as the honourable Member is aware, as is the Member for Kam Lake, I took notes on the issues that were raised to me. Some of them are labour relations, some of them are health and safety issues, about a page. I went from their office down to my office and I got on the speaker phone with the deputy minister. I went through the issues with him and talked about those issues and get together the information that we have to, to be able to speak to those issues. We are starting to look at the response. Some of the issues...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we want the same thing and I believe we have a number of initiatives that are addressing that. The Member has asked for another basket of incentives over and above that. I have committed to try to identify that. If we have ways of reprofiling any of our dollars and if there are any other federal dollars that may come available, we will look at trying to access those. I do believe that community energy plans, minor hydro projects like they are looking at in Whati and Lutselk’e, are very important and will affect the man on the street, the person who lives...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member raises a good point and I know that we can give the same incentive that B.C. does. For sure, the incentive will be we have no sales tax and that won’t be a burden on the purchase of the vehicle, the very same incentive that B.C. is giving. It would be one step that we could make. I would also like to point out that when it comes to energy savings, conservation and protecting the environment, in my opinion, part of the incentive should be that virtue should be its own reward in this case where you know you are doing the right thing for very...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member raises a good point and I know that we can give the same incentive that B.C. does. For sure, the incentive will be we have no sales tax and that won’t be a burden on the purchase of the vehicle, the very same incentive that B.C. is giving. It would be one step that we could make. I would also like to point out that when it comes to energy savings, conservation and protecting the environment, in my opinion, part of the incentive should be that virtue should be its own reward in this case where you know you are doing the right thing for very...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will commit to providing the Member with the level of detail in regards to the staffing schedules for the emergency clinic. I would also like to point out that one of the intents of the consolidated clinic is to have a clinic that is open past five o’clock so that people that would normally have to go to emergency to get a very simple concern taken care of will now be able to go to a clinic and get that procedure done and not tie up the time in the emergency ward, which would be another way to shorten and alleviate the pressure of the emergency ward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will commit to providing the Member with the level of detail in regards to the staffing schedules for the emergency clinic. I would also like to point out that one of the intents of the consolidated clinic is to have a clinic that is open past five o’clock so that people that would normally have to go to emergency to get a very simple concern taken care of will now be able to go to a clinic and get that procedure done and not tie up the time in the emergency ward, which would be another way to shorten and alleviate the pressure of the emergency ward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is currently some funds identified in the 2007-2008 budget to start that process. We have been working with the master plan development of Stanton and recognize that, before we should actually finalize the Stanton master plan, we should look at the consolidated clinic issue. So we are looking at putting resources into that for this coming business plan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is currently some funds identified in the 2007-2008 budget to start that process. We have been working with the master plan development of Stanton and recognize that, before we should actually finalize the Stanton master plan, we should look at the consolidated clinic issue. So we are looking at putting resources into that for this coming business plan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reality is the social services professions are facing the same kinds of challenges in many cases as we are with allied health professionals. In fact, I just met with the Social Workers Association to talk to them about the extra efforts we are going to have to make to try to make sure that we ensure that we continue to have northern-grown social workers. We have graduated a class of about a dozen or so community wellness workers. But it is still not up to the demand of what is there in the field. We are facing very similar pressures on the social...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the mayor, Peter Martselos, who last night was elected to his fourth term as mayor of the community of Fort Smith. I believe this makes him currently the longest serving mayor in the Northwest Territories. Also re-elected on council were Pat Burke, Marion Berls, Beckie Linaker, and Tim MacDonald. Elected for the first time were Brenda Johnson and Fred Daniels. On behalf of the Metis president Ken Hudson, Chief Jimmy Schaeffer of the Salt River First Nations and myself, I extend our congratulations. We look forward to...