Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. One more question then I will be done with my general comments here. I will make a comment to the $4 million for additional costs that recur for services at hospitals outside the Northwest Territories. Is this only to one hospital or is this to many hospitals across Canada? This is a huge number to pay for services that possibly could be done in the Northwest Territories.

I might be getting into some areas that maybe we cannot do here in the Territories, but that is a huge increase for costs that we are paying outside the Northwest Territories. Maybe if I can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Over the course of the last few days, we have discussed a proposal -- and I say proposal -- to build a courthouse, a brand spanking new courthouse for Yellowknife in the future. Mr. Speaker, we also spoke of other projects in the Northwest Territories to be constructed in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I am receiving feedback to the logic or the reason why we have put a brand new courthouse as a priority in our spending of public funds, especially with the type of figure of $41 million. Mr. Speaker, with $41 million, we could put some serious dollars into the...

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. It may be hard for the Minister to crystal-ball; however, he does leave some questions for me. He says a few impacts; is it under $500,000 or is it going to be another $1 million? I know it is going to be difficult for him to answer but…I’m not too sure if I can get him to commit to a number in terms of the significance of the impacts for next year for this increase in compensation for these nurses. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, also in the opening comments, the Minister has indicated, in bold-point form, $1.6 million for increases to compensation resulting from the re-evaluation of nursing and allied health care professions. Could the Minister further explain the $1.6 million increase as a result of the re-evaluation of nursing and allied health care professionals? Thank you.

Madam Chair, this land development staging site, I take it that other groups have been involved. Is Enterprise in the area in terms of going through some land claims settlement in the area that’s being developed? That’s a lot of area for a staging site. I want to ask that to the Minister. Thank you.

For the record, Madam Chair, I will be supporting this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I hope we have some short change on this because if we tie that water truck to the community in Wrigley and not let it go anywhere if the contract ever does expire with the community. On the other one is the Enterprise Settlement Corporation which has $50,000 on their line item. Can the Minister explain what that $50,000 is about?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice.

Given the lack of support for the construction of a $42 million courthouse and concern that cost overruns, like those experienced with the construction of the North Slave Correctional Centre, could the Minister provide detail on how the $42 million figure was arrived at?

The Minister has indicated that the Department of Justice has paid for and will have to pay for additional court space in the future. Can the Minister provide detail on the costs for additional court space for the last five years and the projected costs...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Surely the Minister could estimate in terms of the type of situation in the village of Fort Simpson to the other communities in the Northwest Territories that may be expiring on their water licence that could possibly be asked to provide some additional equipment to their water treatment plant, I suppose, so we could at least have some type of indication that we could be coming back for more supplementaries. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to say I’m appreciative and the people of the Sahtu appreciate the amount of dollars that have gone into the winter road. With the announcement that came out on the 18th of January of this year with the Minister and the federal Minister in terms of Corridors for Canada, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask the Minister that last time they took $1 million out of our winter bridging project and I’m looking for some kind of commitment from this Minister that he won’t cut back this program any further. Thank you.