Robert Hawkins

Thank you. So, the advice being given to my constituent, who happens to be a senior, who happens to only be able to pay for this airplane ticket to go on their medically approved trip through the medical travel process, they’re to use their own credit card to front the government on a cost on this, is that the policy as it stands? Let’s get that clear first on the record, and if that’s not the correct advice, maybe the Minister can highlight the right process for those folks listening. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m seeing a small crack at the door here where there seems to be…(inaudible)…to do this. I could go on with great example, but I think the Minister is hearing the issue.

Would the Minister be willing to put this paper together, provide a proposal to committee members on this side of the House before we begin our May session this year? I want to make sure that we start doing this in a timely way. The last thing we want to hear is some day we will get to it, but that means nothing to the public.

Would the Minister be willing to meet the challenge of this particular...

I want to thank the team effort on that answer. I could hear various folks giving the answer. How do we amend this act? Would the Minister of Human Resources be willing to bring forward amendments to the Access to Information and Privacy Act to accommodate this type of step that has, as I have highlighted, been done by six out of 10 provinces and, of course, that also now includes the Mackenzie Valley Review Board, who have all taken the courageous step to publicize their salaries and honoraria. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have three constituents in the gallery and I’d certainly like to recognize and give them their due Grant Gowans, Julie Green and certainly His Worship Mark Heyck. As well, I’d like to acknowledge Chief Minnie Letcher, I haven’t seen you in a number of years and, as well, I’d also like to acknowledge the Anti-Poverty Committee and thank them for their work and their commitment to the people of the Northwest Territories. The work that they do is certainly significant and important. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. He said he would provide the list. Again, I assume it is a breakdown of funded, unfunded, et cetera. I am seeing nods from the staff’s heads, so it sounds like that is everything I need. Thank you.

I guess I don’t have much of a follow-up because, quite frankly, I’m not sure what to say now because I was given the impression that they had studied this and had some paperwork behind it.

I don’t want to tie too much more committee time up on this, but I don’t necessarily think that those are the right things studied, and when you consider the Hay River rack price of gasoline today is 90 cents – 90.1 cents, by the way – it does lend oneself to wonder where the additional 48 cents, almost 50 cents are coming from. So how does a gain of 50 cents between Hay River rack price and Yellowknife...

Thank you, Madam Chair. When you’re near the end of general comments, it hardly leaves anything left to provide a fresh perspective. Rather than going through them all at great length, I will just quickly reaffirm a couple of them very quickly in the sense of I’ll just go over them this way.

I support the concerns highlighted by the Inuvik-Tuk highway raised by Members. I think that’s a project that we have to keep a close eye on. I certainly, and still do, support the concept and the initiative, and it’s just a matter of watching the costs. It’s been raised by Members, not particularly by...

Thank you. Clearly, the Minister understands what I’m talking about, approved medical travel, and I’m just trying to understand how this could be the case.

Is there any circumstance that the Minister can think of where someone in the medical travel office tells the particular person, constituent of mine, or anyone for that matter, that they need to front the costs first and then seek reimbursement? I’ll tell you, they were quite concerned because they don’t have the means to front the costs. They can scratch them together, but it does put them in a troubling position. So, is there any...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was called by a senior here over the weekend and they were telling me that medical travel now tells them if they want to go out, doctor approved obviously, medical travel tells them to book their own flight and pay for it in advance and submit claims.

When has the policy on medical travel now changed as such that we’re now telling the patients who have been approved through medical travel through their doctor, been signed off by the main head doctor and certainly by Inuvik, and now we’re telling them that’s the process, that they have to front the cost of medical...

I look forward to any movement we can make on this particular file. When we often hear that board chairs make between $130,000 and even over $200,000 per year to sit on those boards and we hear that the honoraria for those boards could range anywhere from $150,000 or more, the public wants answers. When we are paying our board folks more than we are paying our teachers, our nurses and even plumbers and policemen, something is wrong.

The next obvious question to the Minister is: What can we do to bring some transparency to some of these board appointment honoraria that need a level of scrutiny...