Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that I have shown in the past to take very seriously any points of privilege that are raised. I do believe that they are very important and it is one of the privileges of being here, to raise those points, and I respect that very much.

I do want to respond for the sake of the debate here, just to respond to the point being raised. Mr. Speaker, I think it is very serious when anyone raises questions about whether we are giving the public the proper input into our legislative process, and those should be raised whenever there are questions asked and they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am also happy to be supporting this motion and to have the opportunity to discuss this very important area today. Mr. Speaker, I’d also like to thank the Member for Great Slave who has worked very hard, and the staff who have helped him put this together. I have had many occasions to speak to him about our mutual concerns about some of the WCB files, as we would like to call them, that we have been working on for many, many years.

Mr. Speaker, I support this motion, knowing that this is a motion that is very comprehensive. It is giving a very wide...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to do that and I think that the Minister understands that the Social Programs committee cooperated with the Minister with regard to many of the budget items. I would be the first one to admit that this was one of them. It was always understood that this program was funded for $550,000 or near there last year and that they only spent $350,000, so we agreed that for any amount that they didn’t spend, we would agree to cut that.

What I am understanding now is that the funding will only be half of the $350,000 needed, which will only...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services, further to my statement. Mr. Speaker, I believe, by all accounts, the Women and Children’s Healing and Recovery Program being delivered by YWCA is very well regarded. I believe that the Minister thinks of this program really well, as well.

We have learned lately that this program may be halved in its funding and I know that any kind of decisions like that have been done by mistake. I know that if the Minister knew that this was going to be the impact of his budget cuts, this is not what he would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, quite clearly we are developing a theme here but, if I may, I just would like to use my Member’s statement to speak about a very important program in Yellowknife. I support my colleagues in what they are saying about the other topic. But, Mr. Speaker, there is a very important program for women and children that is on the chopping block. I am hoping that, through this statement, the Minister of Health and Social Services will do everything in his power to make sure that this program not only survives but thrives.

Mr. Speaker, the program I am talking...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will not be supporting this motion, Mr. Speaker, because as I stated earlier I do not believe the amendments yesterday did change the bill substantially. But more importantly, Mr. Speaker, I just need to make it very clear because the suggestions and assertions being made here are very serious and I think they should be answered to. Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting that even the committee, I have to tell you for the House that the committee agreed that the bill was ready for Committee of the Whole. That’s how it ended up in this committee. It was moved...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to make a few comments to put on the record. I don’t have a problem with a fixed date. I think that seems to be where the consensus is moving toward. I will work with whatever comes out of this House in that regard. The bigger question is when. It seems to be that there are 12 months and 19 Members and as many variations on different configurations. I know that, in leading up to this, we have had some other discussions and Members have different preferences for various reasons. For me, one of the things that I suggested was that I would like to see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister understands better than anyone else how hard it is to manage a health budget. The Minister continuously comes back here for supplementary funding. It is not reasonable to expect a health board to eat up a cost like this. I would just like to get a commitment from the Minister that he would ask the board to find the money from within. If not, would the Minister consider helping them out a little bit?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What the Minister has just stated has always been my understanding, but my information is that the Health and Social Services Authority is not willing to use any of their global budget to enhance this program. I could also tell you, Mr. Speaker, in all of the discussions that we had in Social Programs committee or in any other areas, it was always understood that any reductions that we were agreeing to were monies that were not being used. It was money that -- what is the formal name for that -- was underused. The funding for this program was at $554,000; it was my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a Member of this House and a very proud non-practicing member of the bar, may I take this opportunity also to welcome all of the justices and I have appeared before some of them and I dream about appearing before them in my other times. I’d like to just welcome all the justices. Thank you.

---Applause