Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Next on my list I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you. One in favour, 14 opposed and one abstention. The motion is defeated.

---Defeated

Committee, we’ll take a short break and continue on.

---SHORT RECESS

I don’t quite understand the fact that the Minister of Health believes the transportation to health facilities and the need to get those people who need special transportation is not a department issue. I don’t understand the fact that this is being downloaded from private organizations to communities to find the funding.

Is this not the responsibility of the GNWT to deal with its public issues to people’s public access to medical services?

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Minister Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69 (2) and have Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act, moved into Committee of the Whole.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be voting in favour of this motion. It does bode a lot of questions and brings up a lot of issues we have with medical travel. Obviously, there are a lot of financial pressures with medical travel. The budgets are growing on a steady basis and this would include some more pressure to that. One of the things I indicated on why I would support this is if it was done on a hardship basis. People would have to prove that there’s a need. There has to be a hardship. I wouldn’t want to see us doing this with every medical travel situation, but if families or people or...

Mr. Speaker, the Premier has indicated that they have a plan in place and they’ve indicated some of the expenditures that are tied to that plan.

Is it possible for the Premier to share that plan with the general public and the Members on this side, because we haven’t seen that plan yet.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, decentralization has been a priority for this Assembly. My questions today will be for the Premier of the Northwest Territories.

Is the government expecting to announce any further government decentralization anytime soon?

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, the Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, Bill 26 amends the Elections and Plebiscites Act to:

require the Minister of Justice to provide the Chief Electoral Officer with names and addresses of inmates who are eligible to vote;

authorize a returning officer to strike the name of a person no longer resident in a polling division from a preliminary list of electors, require the posting of names that may be struck and provide for review and appeal processes;

provide...