Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee would like to consider Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Revolving Fund Act; Bill 21, An Act to Amend NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation Act; and Bill 6, Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Implementation Act, in that order. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, in addition to working closely with other Cabinet Members, if they would also look at the document that was produced through the Department of Health and Social Services that looked at long-term care needs in the Northwest Territories, and see how they could use the old hospital to make a change, or look at that those numbers and change those numbers so that what appears to be now something that is looming, as the seniors are going to need long-term care, that this facility could be used to change those numbers.

Even though...

All of those uses fit perfectly with a school. Mr. Speaker, I am sure people have heard of university hospitals. They educate doctors, and doctors will actually work in the hospitals and become doctors, going to school at a university. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister sees or agrees with me that the existing Stanton Hospital has potential to become a nursing school?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want Cabinet to pull out all stops so that we can start seeing our most respected citizens, our elders, remain in their homes, in their communities, whether it be Fort Smith, Colville Lake, Yellowknife, Lutselk'e, Fort Resolution, or Detah. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Marsi cho Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to again recognize the two Pages from my riding who are here working for us today. They are Alexa Mandeville-Pasowisty and Santina Vanloon. I would also like to recognize their chaperone, Meghan Adams. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move the chair rise and report progress. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I will be supporting this motion. I think, in the NWT, I noticed that for the people that I am familiar with where I grew up in a small community and that, many people started smoking marijuana to get away from alcohol because alcohol is devastating. Alcoholism is a devastating disease.

It was interesting today, in a news report, they talked about how the hospitalization of people as a result of alcohol is six times higher in the NWT than it is in the rest of Canada, six times, and we're worrying about spending a few dollars to close off one area of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just speaking in general terms about the bill, I found it interesting that, when we went around and did our tour, in general, we heard some mixed opinions on whether or not cannabis should be introduced, legal cannabis should be introduced, into the small communities. Essentially, all of the larger communities will have liquor stores, and there will be cannabis, legal cannabis, sold in the stores, in the liquor stores. In general, my feeling is that the government is introducing legal pot into some communities and is refusing to introduce legal pot into...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would support the motion. I'm interested to see what would happen as the result of a third party looking at this project. Of course, my background is that I was heavily involved in the construction of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway as Minister of Transportation in a previous government, and it would be interesting for the Auditor General to look at the project and identify what had happened as a result of negotiations that had occurred between Cabinet of the last government and the Regular Members. I would like the Auditor General to look at the...

I spoke many times in this House about the great potential of keeping seniors in their homes and the great deferral of cost should we keep seniors in their homes. I am going to repeat it again: for every senior who we keep out of long-term care, we defer $140,000 in today's money. With that, what I am asking the Minister to do is to work with the Cabinet colleagues, all Cabinet colleagues, including the Minister of Health, so that they could develop a school where the students are flowing through the Stanton Hospital and then ending up back in their communities to run homecare programs in...