Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe, within this House and outside, I don’t think there is that clear understanding that people understand that this is a House of free speech and that it is the Members’ jobs to criticize the Premier and the Ministers if and where necessary. That is not happening at all. I would like to ask the Premier, would he put that into paper and maybe he should do an announcement in the paper to let the people know that we hold this very important? Would he be willing to take that commitment, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Premier. It is in follow-up to the Member’s statement and the questions raised by my colleague from Hay River South. I think we have seen in this House that Members take very seriously any indication or any sense of intimidation or any pressure put off on us unduly for doing our job as a Member, which is to speak on behalf of the constituents that we represent but also for the people of the NWT and the bigger picture of upholding the basic principles of democracy, Mr. Speaker. I was encouraged to hear from the Premier that he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak today about the importance of doing what we can in this government to support the small businesses all over the NWT and in Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that I have just heard from my constituents that there are two restaurants in this town that are looking at closing their doors this summer. This is primarily due to rising expenses, labour shortages and generally a very negative business environment in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker. I have spoken of this before and I have to tell you that we need to do more to create a better...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted a public review of Bill 7, Pharmacy Act, on September 5th, 2006, and October 16th, 2006. The committee would like to thank the representatives of the NWT Pharmacists Association, the NWT Medical Association and the Registered Nurses' Association of the NWT and Nunavut for appearing before committee to discuss the ramifications of the passage of the Pharmacy Act for all health practitioners in the NWT.

It became apparent to committee members at the September 5th public hearing that there were serious concerns on the part...

After the hockey game in Deline. There is a lot there to promote.

The other factor is, I understand that we are talking about the Tlicho area with self-government. What this tells me is that it takes more. Now we are dealing with a different governance structure, but it doesn’t mean that the GNWT is out of the picture and that the GNWT doesn’t do that. It just means that we have other players at the table, but we all serve the same population. So whether it’s with the cooperation and involvement and partnership with the Tlicho Government and Wekweeti community government and community people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, he lost a Cabinet Minister last week because Members felt intimidated. I believe, Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if everybody knows. I would really like it if he could just repeat what he just said and if he could just do a public notice telling the people that, in fact, that is the case; that we all have to operate under the atmosphere of freedom and freedom from intimidation. Thank you.

…to show whatsoever. So, Mr. Speaker, it's time to step up to the plate and produce some goods. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We're a creature of statute. We’re not a constitutionally formed provincial government, so now it's very scary but it's probably technically possible for the federal government to…She's coming toward me. I thought she was going to give me some words or something.

---Laughter

It's probably technically possible for the federal government to get through the pipeline, get the thing done, get the pipeline going south without a deal. There's nothing in it for us. It's up to us to make it happen.

Earlier it was mentioned that Prime Minister Harper promised resource revenue sharing and development....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, wish to speak in favour of this motion and, Mr. Speaker, I would like to spend my time talking about not why we need this resource revenue sharing deal but how I think we should get it. Of course, I don’t have the million dollar answers there, but perhaps I could add my argument here, Mr. Speaker. Let me just put it on record that I support resource development and the benefits to be gained from that, Mr. Speaker. I have to say that the last time I was in Inuvik, I hadn’t been there for a little while and I got to see the new Mackenzie Hotel for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That answer was so general it’s really hard to tell whether he is saying that he’ll go with state of the status quo, the way it is now with the existing guidelines, or whether or not government is confirming its commitment made by the previous Health Minister that it will really take a look and be proactive to figure out what is going on at the hospital and what government has to do to fix it. So will the Minister commit that very specifically to the Stanton issue, not just human resource issues in government in general as he’s stating? Thank you.