Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, February 9, 2015, I will move that Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s still in planning, but it will be at least two positions.

I’ll get that detailed information for the Member. Thank you.

I would just like to clarify for the record for my young colleague for Yellowknife Centre, that a point of fact is when supplementary appropriations are voted on, we do see them, we see them visible all around us. They help us provide services to adults down south for health. They help fund projects. They help move money forward in the budget, so we can do the Tuk-Inuvik highway. Every cent that we put into supplementary appropriations and approve in this House is visible and brings added value to the Northwest Territories.

With regard to the Members, if there’s a wish, we can pull together an...

This round of budget consultation will be just a shade over $40,000. I would also submit to this House and to the Member that a lot of the suggestions that we get from the people out in the communities are not “just give us more money.” They have all sorts of good concerns. How we hire people, for example. The need to not create roadblocks in that hiring process, creeping credentials, lack of a really good equivalency, slow turnaround in how we respond to people. We, as well, have started the 2,000 people in five years initiative. A lot of the things we are talking about, people are talking...

Very clearly the Member has identified a very important issue, the issue of personal choice, personal choice as it relates to a number of things. As the Member indicated, there are four basic choices that are driving a lot of our costs that are easily changed. That’s not abusing alcohol, don’t smoke, proper diet and exercise. Those four things, if they were managed properly through proper personal choice, would have an immediate impact on our bottom line.

Simple things like babies being born healthy without being affected by FASD, for example. So, the departments of Health and Social Services...

Specifically in relation to the Sahtu, there are a number of things that are underway and being contemplated. The Member was at the budget dialogues, and the discussion was very clear the focus was on the next section of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Norman Wells to Wrigley section, and the need for roads.

The government has submitted, through the Minister of Transportation, an application for a special pot of money that exists at the federal level for initiatives and projects of national significance. We are making the case that this particular stretch of highway should meet that test...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will deliver the budget address on Thursday, February 5, 2015. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 20-17(5), I wish to table the following document, entitled “NWT Debt.” Thank you.

The broad issue that has generated this debate and the one that we have been looking at as a government and the Assembly and what the charrette was focused on was the cost of living and the need to bring down the cost of energy, the need to look at things like roads and creating the conditions for economic development. The broad discussion of how we’re structured to deliver energy is an important one. The distribution side, the transmission side, for us, currently, as the Premier indicated, there is a franchise request possibly coming out from the Town of Hay River, and as the Premier...