Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me ask the Minister if the added cost that the GNWT or the Department of Health is incurring because we have to send these clients down south, is that cost over and above what we are providing in terms of what contracts are in place to the treatment centre today? If they are, why doesn’t the government just provide that additional funding to the centre so they can meet the terms and conditions that maybe some of the employees are demanding? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ironically enough, from October 29th to November 4th is Canada Career Week. You find the work you love and build a life you want, and here we have a gallery full of 22 people that obviously found the work they love and are building a life that they want and a lot of northerners want their clients to have. They are here today dealing with this lockout. What assurances can the Minister provide to the current clients that are down south, and their families, that they will again have access to treatment here in the NWT in the near future? When might that be? Thank you...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today is a sad day for me and many Dene people in and around Yellowknife, especially for Deninu Kue constituents and a lot of people from Detah. Mr. Speaker, this morning I just attended the funeral of the late Ms. Helen Toby. Ms. Toby was a very well-respected Dene elder who lived in Detah and she passed away after a long battle with cancer. I just want to send out my sincere condolences from everyone here in the Legislative Assembly to all the family, friends and relatives and the many, many, many friends of Helen Toby. Our prayers go out to them all.

Mr...

This is just short brief comments on the report. I just want to commend the Auditor General on the work that her team did with compiling this report. I think it has been long overdue, especially for a public institution as important as WCB and how people view their claims as very important and very substantial in how their lives change and why they haven’t changed for the better in many instances when they are working with WCB. Hopefully, over time, this report will make those changes more positive for the people that have these long-outstanding claims that they have been dealing with with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as I know, the employees did get locked out prior to their strike deadline that was issued to the employer. Can the Minister’s department do more than just monitor at this point in time? Of course, time is of the essence in this whole issue. We have people who want to come home and want to get treatment here in the NWT by people that they know and have received treatment from in the past, I am sure. What can the department offer besides just monitoring? Can we provide some mentoring, perhaps, Mr. Speaker; anything besides just sitting back and monitoring...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question again is to the Minister responsible for Human Resources, the Honourable Floyd Roland just about with the Nats'ejee K'eh clients. I guess Health pays the bill. Just with the government having notification of the lockout prior to it actually coming through, but efforts were taken to notify the clients and their families of the move to ensure that as little as possible interruption of their treatment would happen. What efforts were made to notify families and clients that they would be moving south? Were they given advance notice? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I'll save the next question for when we get into the detail, because we have in quotes here "insured persons" under the Medical Care Act. So all the insured persons under the Medical Care Act include the non-insured beneficiaries? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Under the health care plan, is that list updated…You said it's updated more frequently than the elections one, which is probably every four years or so. I know under the health care plan it's for insured persons under the NWT health care. What about the non-insured health care beneficiaries? Thank you.

Yes. Can we look at setting up an employment equity advisory committee? Yes or no and why not? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t recall the committee, I don’t know if it was AOC or maybe the Social Programs committee wasn’t in total favour of it, but I know the affirmative action policy as it stands today calls for an affirmative action advisory committee to oversee the affirmative action policy and make sure that the government is committed to developing a public service that is representative of the population of the NWT; namely, women in management and indigenous aboriginals in government, in the public service. So I just don’t see what’s wrong with having a totally independent...