Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that this is a very difficult time for us as a Legislature. We have all 11 Members from this side that stood up this morning on another occasion where we had a chance to express our views on this. I stand by the statements I made. I believe that the privilege as a Member here comes with a lot of different aspects to that, one of them being our need and right to feel free from any kind of intimidation and limitation. So this is such a very difficult issue. I do accept the Minister’s apology. I do believe he is very sincere in his apology...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This flexibility that's built in for OR nurses is done because it's convenient for the government. It does not pay attention to equity issues and fairness to all the health care professionals. The government allows this flexibility because the OR shuts down. But for the rest of the health care professionals, they are asked to work overtime excessively because there's a shortage of workers, they can't take any time because there's a shortage of workers, they're asked to get cash paid out. But you know what? People don't want to work three weeks in a row, or 10 days...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad the Minister mentioned that, because I think that speaks precisely to the inequity and the problems that come out of this Minister's policy. Mr. Speaker, it is not right for the government to have one policy, even just within the nursing field. There are nurses at the OR room at the hospital who are allowed to bank 150 hours and the rest are 75 hours. Does he think that's fair, Mr. Speaker? How could that be fair? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last few months, the GNWT introduced a policy where across the board, with very few exceptions, the GNWT employees cannot bank any more than 75 hours of overtime. Not only that, once an employee has reached that in any fiscal year, they cannot refill it again. Mr. Speaker, this means that most of your overtime, above and beyond that, is paid out in cash. This is a problem, Mr. Speaker, because, believe it or not, money is not everything to our people. They want to have the choice of being able to take the time off instead of getting cash, but the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before the Minister got up and spoke on the point of order, I was thinking to myself I did not hear what was said, but if what the Member from Kam Lake is saying is true, that would cause me a great deal of concern, Mr. Speaker. We are well aware that every Member in this House has spouses, families, children. This is a small community. There are 40,000 people in 33 communities. I bet you there are not many degrees of separation between all of us. Two or three connections will connect us to everybody. It is paramount to our privilege as a Member that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you I can pick up the phone anytime and talk to the deputy or CEO or the Minister. That’s not the level of response I am looking for when we are dealing with issues like this in the House. Mr. Speaker, I think he shouldn’t be taking lightly when at least 23 people between Mr. Ramsay and I, and there are other Members…We have had dozens and dozens of employees at Stanton Hospital raising the same issues. I do not jump at one person calling me until I verify the information. I am telling you, the Minister has got to be aware. There is a...

Thank you. I'm going to go by very good…You know, sometimes we succeed here and sometimes not, and I have to tell you that the survey or whatever the HR department did in working out the questions to get at the concerns of the correctional services I thought were excellent. So I'd like to ask the Minister if he could review with us about sort of detailed methodology about how…He should talk with the senior management, whether it's by survey, or by interview, or by meeting; if he could work with us, from the Members on this side, as to what the plan is so that we could have some input into...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to the statement I made and conversations I had with the Minister. Mr. Speaker, I am fully aware of the fact that as much as possible, we do not want to be sitting here talking about management and operations issues. That is not my intention to do micro-managing or anything like that. I am asking questions in the interest of maintaining the level of health care services that we do have and we cannot deliver the programs in health care without an acute care facility...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I could tell you that these issues have been going on for quite a while. I have been listening to it for about a year and a half and, you know, it's just building and building and I don't think it's in the interest, actually, of the operation of the hospital and delivery of the health care services that this be continued any longer. I understand the extra impetus that the Minister and the department put on when session is on. It's nice. We could use this productively to shed light on issues that have been going on for a long time. So I want to set...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to join my colleague Mr. Ramsay in speaking today about issues that need immediate attention by the Minister of Health and Social Services and this government. Mr. Speaker, that has to do with the general human resources and operation issues at Stanton Territorial Hospital that threatens to affect public safety and general health care delivery, not to mention the low morale and frustration of the staff that is resulting in a significant exodus of valuable long-term employees from the hospital.

Mr. Speaker, one that concerns us the most notably...