Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are working with a number of groups, and we give all these proposals serious consideration of what fiscal resources may be available to meet such requests. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this project is a good idea, and we acknowledge the fact that we have some communities that we haven’t made arrangements with yet. We still have some time left, but the reality is that we are going to unfold this and it would be almost impossible to just pick and choose individual communities. This cost is put on the distributors and it goes to the communities, so Members can keep their cans and their bottles of beverages and we will compensate them. The program is there, and we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure this works. We have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d just like to point out that this very important initiative was created late in the life of the 14th Assembly and was seen as something that was put into place before that Assembly finished. The 15th Assembly has picked up that challenge, and we’re moving on that. Mr. Speaker, through this program, we estimate that we discard about 25 million containers over the course of a year. That’s over 500 containers for every man, woman and child in the Northwest Territories. We’ve picked a date of November 1st that we want to try and roll out this program in all...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a system, we are doing a number of things. We have added nurse practitioners; we have added midwives; we are going to look at trying to improve and upgrade the licensed practical nurses that we do have to give them a greater scope of practice; and we are going to work with the doctors with whom we have a long-term agreement that goes to 2008. But the Member raises a very good point. We are always looking at ways to improve how we do business, and we are going to be looking seriously with the doctors at ways to maximize performance and deal with the...

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware of a number of proposals, some related to the Salvation Army and their plan to build an addition. The specific project the Member references is not clear enough for me to know if that’s the same one. If there is another one, then I am unaware of it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today about the significant progress that has been made to incorporate midwifery services into the NWT health system.

Midwives work with women and their families, before, during and after birth to keep them and their babies healthy. Midwifery care is women-centred, family-centred, and responds to the unique strengths and needs of each woman and her family, and honours traditional and cultural birth practices. Midwives monitor the physical, psychological and social well-being of the mother throughout the childbearing cycle into infancy.

In...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are going to proceed, and we’re going to work with every community to come up with arrangements, alternative or interim as they may be, to ensure that people have the ability to get their beverage containers to a place where they can be compensated. If there’s no depot in that community, then we’ll make arrangements to make sure that people can have those containers taken to a place where compensation can be made.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we take this issue out of the murky shadows where it’s been lurking all these years unaddressed, those are some of the issues that are clearly on the table to be addressed; the issue of liability, of training, of standards, of access to adequate resources, the relationship between municipalities, Municipal and Community Affairs, Health and Social Services, and we intend, as I indicated, to be able to bring forward a document that we will be able to make sense out of that. Out of chaos will come order, as it were, and that’s the plan in the next few...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to quickly point out as I respond to this question that the issue of wildlife and road accidents is one that is an issue across the country. In Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, they estimate over $1 million in each of their jurisdictions as a result of collisions with wildlife; and the fundamental responsibility still is with the driver of the vehicle.

With regard to the Member’s specific question about when, we have already started work on a number of the areas we’ve already talked about and we are willing to sit down as soon as it can be...