Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask my questions today to the Minister of Health and Social Services. It’s following up on the issues of space use of the hospital and other health care facilities in the city. Mr. Speaker, we know about the master plan of the Stanton Hospital that’s been in the works for years but it hasn’t really moved that far, but they’re having other activities happening. There have been major renovations at the Frame Lake health care facility there, in Great Slave, and there’s also a major initiative to consolidate Yellowknife clinics, but what is...

Thank you. To clarify further on that, it’s possible for someone who went to school for their entire grade school, 1 to 12, and they get their grant and remissible loan to do a university degree and then they decide they want to do further graduate studies or professional degrees, they can start tapping into this money up to $47,000?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Minister indicated earlier, this did not go through a public hearing process because all the Members, not only the Social Programs committee, but AOC, all 11 Members on this side of the floor felt this had to be done and it had to be done quickly. I know there is at least one constituent of mine who is sitting there waiting to see if this is going to go through. But I know there are lots of other students who would benefit from having more room to borrow. So I just want to thank the Minister and the government for moving quickly on this and the Members for...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could I ask the Minister or his officials whether there has been any consultation with the Construction Association to make sure that this approach is acceptable to them?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to also add my support for the lines of comments that the Member for Sahtu has already mentioned and to put on record to make sure adequate resources and preparations are put in place in the Inuvik office to carry out the provisions of this legislation.

This is important legislation. While it may not be as sexy as other things like…I don’t know. I guess there is lots of sexy legislation. This is sort of the nuts and bolts the government is responsible for and if not done properly, it could cause a lot of headache and hardship for our residents....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be more specific, I believe that the government has already approved money for this, so this sort of plan should already be in place, really. Could I ask the Minister to get back to us as to exactly how the stakeholders such as doctors and other people who are going to be providing services and the users' specific information on how they are going to be consulted as to what is the best way to do this consolidated clinics in its relation to the hospital and other health care facilities that is going to be the key component of service delivery? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if the Minister is aware of this, but the last information I received, probably early in the summer, was that Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board, which I believe is the driver of consolidating Yellowknife clinics, was going to set up a steering committee that would look at this consolidation of Yellowknife clinics. Part of their responsibility was to find a space whether to build a new space or to use existing space, but the important point I got out of that was that there was going to be a steering committee. I would like to ask...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on the Member’s statement from the Member for Kam Lake, I just want to also speak a little bit about the issue surrounding Stanton Hospital. Mr. Speaker, I believe that, in this House, it is important that we get the job done based on what our constituents are telling us. Over the years, we have heard many questions and concerns about operations of the hospital, the morale, the deficit situation and such. I thought that, months ago, it would be a good idea for us to undertake a human resource review and get feedback from the staff there as...

Thank you. Can I just get information on what the criteria requirements are? It’s needs-based, but is it only on income and the need for money? Say if someone, what Mr. Ramsay was talking about, was going to law school, I know when I went to law school in ’94, when I started, my tuition fee was like $1500, which probably nobody could believe now. When I was finishing three years later, it was $5,000. The last I heard it was about $12,000 a year to go to school. Could somebody borrow the entire $12,000 to pay for that even if they couldn’t prove that they were really, really poor but having...

So this is an amount of money that is available for someone to tap into after they have exhausted if they are eligible for grants and remissible loans. This is on top of the money already available?