Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are in following up to my Member's statement with regard to the whistle-blower legislation, Mr. Speaker. I believe my question will be directed to the Minister of Justice. Yesterday, I believe, in the House, the Premier confirmed that there is a discussion paper in the works. Well, I guess it could be either Minister Bell or the Premier, whoever wants to answer. But I was a little taken aback, in a good way, that in fact this legislation is in the works, and I have to reiterate, once again, how many times during the course of my work that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not an economist, but I don't think it takes…I mean this new report just says what I think we already have known. These consortiums of these mega companies who have projects around the world would not be spending the kind of money and the time they are if they weren't going to make money. I mean that should not come to us as a surprise.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to be clear that I don't have a problem with people making a profit. I mean that's what makes the markets go around. Good on them if the companies can come and make profits. I'm interested in what is the GNWT getting in this development project. I think it is the resources of our territory; it has a lot to do with our future economic prosperity. Good on the aboriginal governments for working hard to get what is beneficial to them, but I have to tell you that we have to be very concerned that in the whole mix of things we've got nothing so far…

I think we understand that this is a mega, mega project, and the latest figure I've heard was a $7 billion investment required by the consortium and the cost is going up. But even at $10 billion, a $17 billion profit is quite healthy. It's an 80 to 100 percent return. I think anybody would go for that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would presume that the end result of this process would be that there will be legislation required. But as it is, it's in a very preliminary discussion period so I would think that you don't have to have all the t's crossed and i's dotted before people could participate and really engage in the discussion about something I think that's more important for the North in the small communities. So would the Minister be encouraged to hurry up, and could we possibly see this within the next month or so, so that we can engage our people into full discussion? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of late, one of the debates around the House has been about the important value and the need for the Members to be able to speak without the fear of intimidation on behalf of the people we represent. We showed our resolve in that regard yesterday. But I have been thinking about what we have been doing to make such capacity available to people in our communities who are afraid to speak out against the government because of their fear about losing their jobs, their businesses or their contracts. As I stated two days ago in this House, Mr. Speaker, in a small...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to tell you that this inequity is caused because of overall shortage of health care workers and it is really playing on the morale of the nurses, because nurses are being treated differently and the policy is based on the lack of nurses and this is just a catch-22 thing that's making the whole situation worse. I would urge the Minister, could the Minister just commit to looking further and talking to his managers and really revisiting this, because I'm telling you, this is…

Mr. Speaker, I don't want to know the Minister's opinion; that was the wrong use of words. I would like to know, would the Minister review this and see if that is not affecting the morale of the nurses when even in the same nursing field they have different banking hour requirements? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are in follow-up to the Member's statement I made in regards to the government's policy on overtime, Mr. Speaker, and my questions are to the Minister of Human Resources. Mr. Speaker, I have discussed this with the Minister of Health and Social Services and I do believe that the Minister of Human Resources has been made aware in correspondence. My understanding is that with the centralization of human resources, and I support Human Resources trying to get some consistency and some coordination and reviewing policies to see where consistency...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to add my comments to the point of privilege being raised by Mr. Ramsay. He stated some of the circumstances related to this yesterday when he raised a point of order and at the time we didn’t have the records or more objective evidence as to exactly what happened. But I think listening to the comments being said today and also the statement that the Minister made yesterday, and the fact that we do have witnesses in Mrs. Groenewegen and Mr. Pokiak and some other Members, I think that there’s enough statements on record that suggest that there is no...