Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Minister. As it’s been my understanding, they’ve been advocating some time about expanding the college programming here in Yellowknife and they’ve found that, you know, they haven’t found that -- if I may say it gently and, of course, correctly -- this report in my perspective seems to be not quite there from the department. I’m just trying to get a sense of whether the department is behind this initiative.

Furthermore, to emphasize the urgency of this particular issue, the Minister is well aware that the lease is coming to termination within two years. If I understand it...

What work is being planned to go forward for capital expenditures in this budget year that we see before us? What’s the planning from the departmental point of view? As I know that an independent campus is on the wish list of Aurora College, where does the deputy minister see their efforts panning out with some real developments?

Mr. Chairman, I wouldn’t want to impress on the Minister that we should become the sole funding source of every one of those organizations. When you wrap it up that way, you get day homes and everything, which probably isn’t quite reasonable and which is way beyond our means. My focus, really, is ensuring that early childhood development programs are established from a contextual circumstance of not somebody who just turns the light on on their doorstep and all of a sudden they call it a learning centre. But, I mean, we have some real organized, dedicated people and committees and core groups...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a concern of many of my constituents, especially in the sense that Calgary has recently dealt with this particular issue and I think has drawn it back into the public spotlight. Will the Minister ensure that that information is on the Health and Social Services website as soon as possible so that way the average, everyday citizen has this accessible rather than it buried down into some fine line somewhere in the department where it becomes counterproductive? Thank you.

Recognizing the clock, I’ll just wrap up the next subject quite quickly in a sort of a brief overview. Under inclusive schooling, can I request that the Minister give me a breakdown on how dollars are spent per school per community and how the expenditure is based, whether it’s on base funding then per capita, to get an understanding on the type of programming and how the dollars are attributed to that? Perhaps I’ll just leave that as my last particular question at this time.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise the House specifically what does the chief medical health officer advise the public by way of details to levels of fluoridation as well as the context of the pros and cons and, therefore, we have an informed public, I believe, both in Inuvik, Fort Smith and Yellowknife? Thank you.

Would the department be willing or would they commit to giving me a breakdown of the examples of how they’ve spent that in the last budget year and how they anticipate spending that particular money or targeting that money in this budget year?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad the Minister mentioned the WHO, because the WHO in 1994 recommended levels half of what the Minister had prescribed up to the level of what the Minister prescribed.

As we all know, toothpaste comes with fluoride and there are many other products out there that do pick up the shortfall where there is a gap. Again, I’m not talking about the management of an actual municipality from the injection system at the water treatment plant. I’m not talking about the governance of the council about them flipping a coin on whether they should put it in or not. What type of...

With that said, can the department provide some examples and certainly attach some dollar amounts that they provide in meeting those supports that they’ve highlighted?

The Minister is correct that it’s a municipal issue that they actually manage, but from a public health point of view it falls under the chief medical officer quite rightly, as she put the issue. So then follows with the particular matter of how often the levels are monitored and what type of public education is provided by the chief medical health officer out there that people realize that fluoridation is added to their particular water and they understand the full gamut of what it means, whether it fixes teeth or helps defer decay from teeth or, as other people have talked about, it’s...