Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak today about the ongoing contract negotiations between the YACCS board and the employees at Aven Manor. Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that we were not advised about the visits by the employees of YACCS and that they were here when the Members of this side had agreed to do a theme day on alcohol abuse, because I believe it deprived the chance for the employees to hear from all Yellowknife MLAs on this very important issue.

Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to let the employees know, and the clients of the Aven Manor know, that we...

Thank you. Thank you for that answer. My second question is to do with the input we received from witnesses about the pressure our judicial system is under. Just yesterday, under our supp, we approved additional funding for sheriff services and other court officer services. I think it's very likely that with the shortening of the process that we're amending here, that there might be additional pressure being put on judicial systems. I'd like to ask the Minister if he could make a commitment to work with the Minister of Justice to see whether we could somehow forecast the workload and look...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee held public hearings on Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, in Yellowknife on April 20th and on May 14th; in Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik on April 23rd; in Ulukhaktok on April 24th; in Colville Lake on April 25th; and in Behchoko on April 26th, 2007. The committee would like to thank the Minister and all of the presenters for appearing before committee. The proposed amendments will provide for a prompt court hearing after the apprehension of a child, that is consistent with the rights of parents under the Canadian Charter of Rights and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. But the point is, businesses like this can never play on an even playing field. It doesn’t take into consideration the cost of doing business for the northern businesses here.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I feel like we had this discussion before when we were talking about constructing the jail where there are lots of benefits to having business being done in the North than just going for cost-efficiency. There is a lot of economies of scale that are going to be lost because there are so many more benefits having these businesses operate out of here that multinational corporations cannot provide. I am losing my question here. Mr. Speaker, Northstar’s position is the cost of operating is so high here that even with the business incentive…Okay, let me just ask a question...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask another set of questions to the Minister of Human Resources with regard to Northstar losing the EAP contract they have had for seven years. Mr. Speaker, there are such differences in facts about this case between the government and Northstar. Northstar says they were never advised about this inverse ratio calculation. The government says they were, that it was included in the RFP. The government says there was only one name that was added inadvertently, but Northstar states that there are at least three people they know of who were...

Mr. Speaker, there are lots of problems with this contract, but let me just focus on this name that was added. Mr. Speaker, just to put it simply, because it is quite complicated, this could be akin to McDonald’s bidding for a contract to supply Winter Games 2010 and they use a competitor as a subcontractor that they will replace wrongly in a real intentional fraudulent manner, I may add. Mr. Speaker, if the subcontractor is not important, then why did the contract ask for names of subcontractors? What was the reason for asking for that subcontractor’s name? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the outcome that we all expect is very clear. We would settle for nothing less than wage parity and fair and equitable benefits for these valuable employees. The only way to do this is for the government to put more funding to settle the package. Unless the government does this as soon as possible, we can expect a very long and hot summer. These employees can be expected to see all of us YK MLAs right by the workers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker and colleagues. I’m not sure how that would compete with Don’t Be a Boozehound, but we need to do a concerted and focussed and well-resourced campaign and to engage everybody in our communities and everybody in the Territories to say that we have zero tolerance for alcohol abuse and negative effects of alcohol. Mr. Speaker, I would like to invite the leaders and everyone in our territory to join us in this campaign. Thank you.

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Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question on page 16 about the increased funding for court services. It states there that it is for the increased cost due to higher utilization. I am wondering if the Minister could tell us as to why there is higher utilization of court services.