Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I start my Member’s statement I want to say Happy Valentine’s Day to all of the people out there. Have a heart on this side here.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say the issue that I want to bring up today. Mr. Menicoche, in a statement, talked a little bit about the fish in the Northwest Territories. We are starting to see some chemicals and metals in the fish and we are warning people about eating fish in our wonderful land. People around Great Slave Lake, Hay River, Fort Resolution, Providence, all the way up the Mackenzie River right to Tuktoyaktuk depend on the water...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Growing old in the Sahtu is no picnic for our people. When the Minister of Health and I did a tour in the Sahtu region, we heard from many elders and heard from the leaders how hard and difficult it was for our old people to have family members live with them and to support them by cutting wood, hauling water, looking after their house, helping them with their medication.

Last week I heard my colleague Mr. Blake’s account of elders in the Mackenzie Delta who had to leave their families in the communities to live in home care. Over a number of years I have spoken about...

Just to close off, I’m glad the Minister clarified that it’s not a board reform initiative. I’m very happy that he clarified it. We’re looking at governance. The same comment to the Minister and Cabinet colleagues is working with us on governance issues and how do we deal with it. It’s important because the money is not going to be there all the time, so we need to do what we have to do with the money that we have.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Canadian Blood Services that we pay for, has the department looked at how the residents of the Northwest Territories could be part of helping these people that require blood? Is it cheaper or is it more convenient for them to just purchase the blood for these two people in the North than not to bother the rest of us? Because the Canadian Blood Service relies on donors too. Can there be something like that or is it just doesn’t quite fit the plans for having blood for these people in the North here?

Thank you, Madam Chair. The supplementary operations expenses, one of the things that I have is the amount of dollars that we are going to be approving for the Department of Health and Social Services, specifically the Beaufort-Delta and the Stanton Health Authority for the deficits these two hospitals are running.

Year after year we continue to bail out the authorities, and not in thousands of dollars but in the millions of dollars. I know that the department is working hard to address this issue and there have been many plans over the years on how they are going to work on some form of...

Thanks to the Minister for explaining it to me.

I want to move on to the notion that at one time the operation of all the health boards was talked about. I think what the Minister said, if I understand it, is that they’re having some discussions to see if we would look at how do we all work together to cut some costs where it seems logical and beneficial if those cuts mean that we’re going to get more programs in our communities and regions. It is a delicate issue and it means people’s jobs, it means family, it means a lot of things. So if there’s a step or process that Cabinet has already...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to I guess restate that the funding that we get here, certainly it’s known from us that there are pressures, there are costs every time you come to a budget. The unforeseeable ones, a good example is the forest fires. We don’t know. We budget a certain amount and we either go over or under.

I have to support the comments from Ms. Bisaro. If we’re not funding the health and social services, Stanton, the Beaufort-Delta, then we need to fund them properly. This is nuts here. Coming back in for another $3 million, come back next time for another $3 million. This...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister several questions. However, first I would like to make my comments to the bill right now.

This bill here, as the Minister indicated, hasn’t been increased for awhile. The Minister has said that this bill here, looking at an increase of $100 million from $175 to $275 million, it is increased to a short-term borrowing authority and that this money is needed to pay a $65 million bill that we need to honour to the federal government. The repayment is within a couple of months from now, March 31, 2012. I really don’t know what the financial impact...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The comments from the Minister of Finance to the interim appropriation bill here, I wanted to clarify that. I wanted to ask, hoping he was asking some of the specifics to the Minister of Health. For example, the Nurse Practitioner Program. We know it’s running. There are going to be graduates this year. This is only an interim appropriation for the operations to continue. I want to ask what plans you have for the nurse practitioners. There are going to be graduates. Is it still a program? Do we wait until business plans? I know some of these things are going to take...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I refer to questions on some of the items contained in Tabled Document 1-17(2), Interim Appropriation 2012-2013, and seek unanimous consent of committee to return to general comments on Tabled Document 1-17(2).