Wendy Bisaro

Okay, we are on page 1-23, activity summary, Legislative Assembly, office of the Chief Electoral Officer, operations expenditure summary, $838,000.

I want to revisit the issue of governance. I mentioned it in my general comments. I am concerned. I know the Minister responded and he pretty much gave a summary of what exists where, but I want to say, again, that I am concerned that there’s not much opportunity for the residents of Yellowknife to have input into their hospital. I know it’s a territorial hospital, but it’s the hospital that Yellowknife residents use. The Primary Care Clinic is a good measure, absolutely, but the running of the hospital, Yellowknifer’s tend to take a bit of ownership of that hospital. It’s been our hospital...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Electricity, we can’t live without it. We grumble every time the power bill comes in. It drives up the costs of living in our communities. Next to food and rent or housing costs, our power bill is the one element that most contributes to our high cost of living in the North.

Two and a half years ago the government reviewed electricity rates in the NWT. As a result, power rates across most of the NWT were changed, for the better, mind you. Those rates were frozen for two years. Those two years are up right now and we’re about to feel the result of that freeze as our power...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a number of comments in no particular order. Some of them are related to the Minister’s opening comments, some of them are not, so I might jump around a little bit. Bear with me.

In the Minister’s remarks yesterday he mentioned that the department is continuing to take advantage of eHealth, and I think that that’s absolutely the way to go. I’m really glad that we are embarked on that path and that we are continuing to go down that path, but I wonder how many communities we are in at this point, in terms of eHealth. How many are up and fully running and whether or...

Thanks to Mr. Elkin. Another question in regard to numbers. From the information that I have, forced growth in this budget is about $5.9 million. The increase in the budget is about $4 million. That leaves a difference of about $1.9 million, which tells me that we are cutting something somewhere.

Could I get an explanation from the Minister as to where the difference of the $1.9 million… Forced growth is higher than the increase in the budget. Where is that $1.9 million coming from?

I guess that means, then, my opportunity for input as a resident of Yellowknife is limited to talking to the public administrator of Stanton or talking to the chair of the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority. That’s the only input I have into what my hospital is doing or not doing or its future direction. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask some questions here further to the comments I made initially. The first thing I wanted to ask about was the service partnership agreements that the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Health are apparently developing. Could I get an update on where those agreements are at? Have they been fully developed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, June 8, 2012, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that this Legislative Assembly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories bring forward legislation to establish an independent parliamentary ombudsman office with the mandate to investigate complaints about the practices and services of public agencies and to promote fair, reasonable, appropriate and equitable administrative practices and services;

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories...

I have to laugh at our yes, we have this money, and yes, it’s less but we’re going to come back and ask for more. We hear this all the time. It would be nice if we could get a number and stick with that number for longer than five minutes.

The last question I wanted to ask has to do with shared services and I know that the department is working on it and is, I think, starting to institute some. Could I just maybe have that stated again? What shared services are in place now and what other shared services are planned and when would they start?

I guess I want to say to the Minister that I urge that you rethink your plan. If you were to tell Hay River or Inuvik or Fort Smith that their centre was going to be – and think of Inuvik particularly where you’re putting an advisory board in place – if you tell them that theirs is a territorial body and they’re not going to have any input into it, I think they would be kicking and screaming to get to your door.

I feel really strongly that, yes, Stanton is a territorial asset, but where can I go for hospital services? I go to my local hospital which, yes, happens to be a territorial asset...