Sandy Lee

Thank you. As I indicated, the contract has been in place less than a month. I believe it came into effect at the end of January. I believe it’s a two-year contract with a renewal clause. At the appropriate time I would be happy to commit to an evaluation. Having said that, I’m not sure if a month is enough to do an evaluation on something. Thank you.

Thank you. The Member has a valid point. If she would like the government to consider that all of these things get done by a request for proposal, that’s something that we could look into, but that would be within the responsibility of departments in charge of contract rules.

Secondly, the Member is saying that she’s heard of problems. I’ve not heard of any problems with people booking medical travel. If the Member has a specific question, I’d be happy to follow that up, but I’ve not heard from the Member on that issue prior to today and I’ve not heard from anybody else who is suggesting that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, there was a lot said and I tried to explain what I meant, but obviously I think I should go right to the source. What I would like to do is if they are interested in meeting me, I would like to meet with the class so that I can talk to them as a Minister about how committed we are to recruiting and retaining northern grads.

I was there when they were a first-year class, and four years later they are graduating and I want to be able to meet with them. I want them to tell me about their concerns. I will have my staff and HR people, if they will come with us...

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I did indicate that I do, in principle, support multi-year agreements, but right now we are reviewing our arrangements and agreements with various groups. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government and the department, in general, support multi-year funding arrangements, but right now our department is under fiscal pressure and we are reviewing all of our arrangements with NGOs. While we are going through, we are not able to commit right now to multi-year funding, but I want to assure the Member that we do support that policy. We are just having to review what we are doing right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, his constituent wrote to me on February 14th at 10:23 a.m. and I responded to her at 11:25 a.m. on February 14th. I stated to her that given the questions and concerns that the graduating class has expressed and some of the confusion that might have created because of the discussions being held here, that I have asked Department of Health staff as well as Human Resources staff to go into the classroom and meet with the new grads so that they get full and comprehensive information about the employment opportunities available to us. We are, as a...

Thank you. I believe the system has been in place less than a month. I believe it went into effect at the end of January and the Member mentioned in her question that she’s hearing that there are problems. I’m not aware of that. I’d be happy to receive that information from her and I’d be willing to commit to taking a look to see how we are delivering that program, because obviously when we get somebody to deliver a program on our behalf, we want to make sure that the work is being done right. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the Member’s concerns in this regard. It should be made clear that the local businesses were given all preferential treatment available under our government policies to support northern businesses. With all that considered for about a $250,000 contract, there was a difference of over $100,000. So there was quite a substantial difference in the prices and, secondly, it should be made clear that while we are having discussions about government policies, it’s really important to make sure that we don’t suggest that any staff has done anything wrong. Stanton...

Yes, absolutely. I would even commit to the Member that his constituent who wrote to me, I will personally write her and ask her if I can come and meet with them. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, absolutely that is not what I’m saying. We do support multi-year agreements. We have not discontinued multi-year agreements indefinitely. We see the merit in that and we will continue to do that, but for right now we are reviewing our agreements with various organizations to see how we are spending our funds. So that’s where we are and we will make decisions about multi-year soon. Thank you.