Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, yes, indeed. We have invited the mayor to come up this summer. The mayor had committed to come up, but given that they were going through the election this September wasn’t going to be a good time. I was hoping that that could happen when the committee members were here.

Regardless, Edmonton as a municipality has made a decision to close that airport. It has been going on for many years. It started in a phased approach. The plebiscite was held 15 years ago. The recent election confirmed again the public position on that. My job as the Minister of Health and Social Services and this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I may, I would also like to recognize His Worship Denny Rodgers, the mayor of Inuvik, who is also a little brother of my first best friend when I moved to Yellowknife, Canada, 32 years ago. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my right is Ms. Lisa Cardinal, director of policy and planning and evaluation for the Department of Health and Social Services. To my left is Mr. Mark Aitken, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m pleased to introduce Bill 8, Social Work Profession Act. This bill will regulate the profession of social work in the NWT and ensure that only qualified individuals will be able to call themselves social workers. It was developed collaboratively with the NWT Regulation Subcommittee of the Association of Social Workers in Northern Canada.

Social workers play a crucial role in the health and social services system and provide services to children, adults, families, groups, organizations and communities. This legislation is intended to protect the public by ensuring...

I’m doing exactly that, so I’m sure the Member agrees with what I am doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am on record to say that the municipality had voted on a plebiscite years ago to close this airport in a phased fashion. Two years ago we were aware that they were closing this and the letter that the Stanton CEO sent is not a letter to some consultant in Missouri. That was, in fact, very appropriate and direct input that our government put in. We wrote to them to tell them how important this service is. We were involved exactly where we should have been.

Mr. Speaker, since then, the decision to close the airport has had overwhelming support within the municipality...

The plan is in the works. The plan is being worked on. We are being consulted on the plan. The Premier of Alberta set up the quality council. Our Premier was engaged, as well, at his level. I am engaged with the Minister of Health in Alberta. We have two years before the last runway closes. Mayor Mandel has said that the runway will be open until we have a plan. The Premier of Alberta said that. We are engaged. I have talked to the federal Minister of Health. I have talked to Minister Ambrose, who is the Minister responsible for Northern Alberta. I want to assure the public that we are totally...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think I can comment or respond to what the mayor said in his conversation with the honourable Member.

What I need to say is that while the decision to close the municipal airport is within the jurisdiction of the mayor and the city, the responsibility of looking after the medical travel issues is within Alberta Health Services and the Minister of Health of Alberta.

I am engaged in discussing with the Minister of Health in Alberta. My officials are engaged in directly communicating with her counterparts in Alberta. There is a quality council set up to work out a...

Thank you Mr. Chairman. The policy or however you want to call it, the work that we are doing in the Department of Health and Social Services is pretty much in line with what has been there for as long as I have been here, I believe.

I know the Member is right, there are some facilities in the communities that were built by the Housing Corporation in at least three or four communities, but those were not meant to be long-term care as Department of Health and Social Services know it. When we are talking about long-term care, we are talking about acute care or more intense care. I believe there...

We are working on that right now. That’s what a capital budget review is. The long-term care facilities review has done work on that. It talks about how many bed spaces we need for long-term care territory-wide. That’s a 20-year plan reviewable every five years.

Mr. Speaker, we have to recognize that not everybody in the Territories gets to stay exactly where they want to be. We would like to have people stay in their communities as much as possible, but the assisted living facility in Hay River was built for everybody in the Territories. We do have services in Yellowknife, but whenever there...