Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a new Member here I’d like to discuss the budget process that this government is involved in. During the process, the government has introduced an act to increase the borrowing limit and we are asking the federal government to increase our debt limit. Not once during this discussion have we discussed the cost reductions in our O and M. I know this is a scary discussion, the fact that we may look at cutbacks or even to make the operations more efficient, but what is scarier is the fact that since 2000 the operations budget has doubled from $600 million to $1.2 billion...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The biggest concern obviously is the Tuk to Inuvik highway. I am in support of the funding. I do wish this was in the South Slave. I think we also need some of the work and some of the economic development, but I think it is better to move ahead with this project, get the upfront work done, do our due diligence. At the same point, I have some concerns to make sure that after that due diligence is done, we have an evaluation of this project. At that time we can assess whether we want to carry forward. Hopefully at that time we will have worked out our deal with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is about the tour operators and how they will be involved in this promotion and can get involved in this Spectacular NWT.

As I indicated, I do believe this is a good program. Does the government have some sort of evaluation process in place of how beneficial this program will be and how they will evaluate the results from the promotions?

Yes, we look forward to that sooner than later, Mr. Speaker. I have no further questions. Thank you.

In light of Hay River’s situation currently, is there a way that the Minister can implement a temporary moratorium of sorts to allow Hay River the flexibility to hire those additional professionals while we don’t have permanent doctors so that we can have consistent professionals in the community of Hay River?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the weekend I was happy to visit with many people from Hay River that were in Yellowknife for several sporting events. Last week several of my colleagues from this side as well as the Ministers’ indicated that we need to support volunteers in the North and make sure that we encourage people to be more active. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell those people that I think that’s strong in the North, after seeing the many activities this weekend.

Minor hockey has three tournaments in Yellowknife, one in Hay River, and I know it took a great number of volunteers...

I would like the Minister to maybe consider, or my question would be: Would the department look at creating some sort of evaluation process now so that you have a benchmark to compare your results for the next two or three years? I understand that it’s difficult to evaluate some of that stuff, but you have to have a benchmark that you’re comparing to for two or three years. Would the Minister commit to that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to commend the government on their Spectacular NWT promotion through ITI. I have a question for the Minister of ITI. Is this program a multi-year program and promotion?

My next question is: What is the timeline that the Minister would expect that we’d be able to implement this type of funding to allow nurse practitioners and, hopefully, a Midwifery Program into the Hay River Health Centre. What kind of timeline?