Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have been in communication with the communities, the community leadership, working with them to pick delegates and to arrange all the logistics, as Minister Roland has covered off for the most part. We have facilitators in place for the three conferences and we have been working fast and hard to make sure that we get this done right. We have been using basically the same template as was used by Municipal and Community Affairs when they had a workshop in Inuvik a number of months ago to try to achieve the same positive results. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I’ll commit -- and I appreciate the time delay and frustration -- to having the issue resolved by the end of June and I’ll keep the Member informed. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, Senior Citizens’ Week will be celebrated in the NWT from June 5 to 11, 2005. This year, the theme is Stay Active, Be Healthy. Seniors that stay active within the community and remain as healthy as possible set an example for our youth and contribute to their communities by sharing their wisdom and life experience.

In the past few years, as part of the celebration of Senior Citizens’ Week, an annual seniors’ tea was held at the Great Hall in conjunction with the NWT Seniors’ Society annual general meeting. This year, the NWT Seniors’ Society has...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to provide a bit more information for the Member for Sahtu. We recognize that this is a system that covers the whole territory and we have to pay attention to the whole territory as best we can.

In the Sahtu we have invested, over the last few years, several millions of dollars trying to set up a Sahtu authority with the administration and office space and office capacity for the services. We have budgeted two doctors, we are putting in a public health unit, we are going to be for the next few years subsequently following, hopefully, setting...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this issue has been on the books, as the Minister has indicated, for a number of years going back to the 14th Assembly. If records were checked, I have clear recollections of discussing this issue and the concerns about not wanting to renovate the existing building because of its age and state of disrepair, and of looking at other options starting way back with potential options of Somba K'e as an example. We did that year after year. Every time we met with committee we reviewed the mains. This year the circumstances were such that there was a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the first three scheduled workshops are going to be rolled out relatively quickly. As we complete that process and review the results and we look to the future in terms of next steps, we will be considering looking further afield at other possible impacted areas on a secondary or tertiary level that may require some similar attention. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I'm not sure to attend one of the workshops in Norman Wells, Inuvik or Simpson. Is that what the Member is asking?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to put out, as well, that Health and Social Services is acting in this capacity as sort of the current chair of the social envelope Ministers meeting or committee which includes Education, Culture and Employment and Housing and Justice, as well. This is a collaborative effort to get direct feedback and recommendations from the impacted communities on the impending Mackenzie gas pipeline.

There is a workshop that was held earlier this week; yesterday, Monday and Tuesday, I believe, in Fort Simpson. There is one next week in Inuvik and...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I have talked about the issue with the deputy minister, as well as the CEO of the Deh Cho health authority and she’s confirmed that in the past there was an arrangement, and I’ve indicated to her that we should look at trying to revise our current arrangement where things are done through Stanton to make them aware of that particular circumstance and recognize the unique situation the Member has talked about in this House between Fort Liard and Fort Nelson. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, this facility will be renovated with the money that was in the budget initially when TTC was here. An initial plan a number of years ago was to renovate this one, and that figure is in the $3 million range. That money will be used to renovate Dene K’onia, and the estimates that we have from Public Works and Services are that it can be done for that money.