Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my colleagues for allowing us to come back to it. I would like to welcome a longtime friend Steven Cooper to the Assembly. Steven is the lead counsel for the Labrador residential school claim and currently the counsel for the 60's Scoop class, and most recently, the Indian Hospital Case Act. As well, I'd like to recognize Andrew Geisterfer, and I apologize if I got your name wrong that way, but who is in the process of becoming a member of the Law Society of the NWT and Nunavut, and this is his first trip to Yellowknife. Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I will work with the Minister and sit down and talk to him about it to try to get some more information for the constituents. Maybe I will be able to share with other Members who are interested, so I thank the Minister for that commitment.

Has the department, Mr. Speaker, looked at bringing Dene healers up from down south to help residents, especially elders, when it is regarding their concern for their health? I will just leave it with that question, there.

That is really great information to understand and hear. Will the Minister be willing to get that information or show us where we can get this information so that we can share with the residents of the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer. It did help clarify a number of issues from what I've heard, and I think the Minister has heard those same concerns previously. When will the residents of Fort Liard and Nahendeh finally see an agreement in place so that they can be sent to Fort Nelson for their medical treatment in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for giving us that update. I appreciate the hard work he and his department are doing. Again, you can understand the confusion and the willingness or unwillingness. The community is saying it's been 25 years, and I appreciate the work he's doing right now, and the department is doing. Can the Minister please tell us what challenges are stopping this agreement from being completed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have been asked for the past two years about connecting the residents of Fort Liard with Fort Nelson Hospital. The last Minister’s tour, as I was told by a number of the residents, this has been an issue for the past 25 years. You heard me correctly, Mr. Speaker, 25 years. Today, Mr. Speaker, I am going to share with you words from some elders who would like to see this issue resolved once and for all.

Mr. Speaker, most of the people of Fort Liard prefer to go to Fort Nelson for medical appointments and access to hospital services. It is a twoandahalfhour...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to the orders of the day, point number five, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister talked about $8.3 million into the recreation fund, $4.7 from Western Lotteries and $3.6 from the other areas. Can the Minister advise: does the department consider programs such as Youth Corps, Youth Contribution, and Youth Centre as programs for recreation funding?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess $4.7 million is on taxpayers who actually play lottery, so I appreciate that's where the money is coming from. So can the Minister actually give us a breakdown of the $3.6 million, where this money is actually spent and allocated? Is it in salaries? Is it programs? Or what variety of programs is this money accounted for? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Uh, oh. We'll work on it.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank you for the clarification on that. This is going to be a little bit challenging, but I guess we'll go into what's in the budget and -- the budget is before the House, too. Oh, well, here we go: what is the intention in the budget with the bill in adding this multi-sport games funding to the bill? Can you answer that question?