Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a Translated Copy of the Greenland Economic Council Report 1. Half Year 2024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it seems like there's been an attempt to increase access to service, as I said before, and it seems like it has created a backlog or something's going on here. Mr. Speaker, is there a reason we can't simply return to the process we were already using and appear to be working for people? Is there, maybe, an explanation as to why there's suddenly been this surge in people requiring the service? If the Minister can give any information to the public to help us understand what's going on here, it would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, earlier I shared my constituent's experience getting lab work. Seconds after delivering that statement, the text messages started rolling in. Mr. Speaker, it's clear the new process is not working well for people. Can the Minister commit to reviewing this new process and bringing forward solutions which will improve access to this essential service? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recently, all outpatient laboratory services in Yellowknife have been moved to the Stanton Hospital. Along with this change, came a new protocol for accessing lab work. Mr. Speaker, a constituent of mine visited the hospital to try this new process and didn't have the most positive experience.

They first tried the method of just showing up at the lab as suggested on the website. They were told that this was not actually an option, and they had to call to book an appointment or come back the next day for a same-day appointment. They called and were told the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has been a long five weeks reviewing and deliberating on the 2024-2025 Budget. I put forward my reply to the Budget Address which spoke to my initial reaction to the budget, which was that I felt we needed to do more to focus or attention on the priorities agreed upon by this Assembly. To this end, I put forward some changes I wanted to see and supported those brought forward by my colleagues, many of which I agreed with, and the majority of which spoke directly to these priorities. AOC put in some long hours and managed to find consensus on a list of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say I don't think that it's simply requiring people to wait in line, clammer for availability for a few available spots, it just doesn't seem to be working. Mr. Speaker, I would like to -- I haven't gotten a commitment from the Minister. I would like the Minister to commit to at least have a look at this. Is there anything that we can do differently as opposed to doubling down on something that clearly isn't working right now. Maybe it's growing pains. But can we have a look at this, make sure that we're doing everything we can to ensure that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that there's going to be some communication. I was hoping for a commitment to maybe review this. Mr. Speaker, why was this change made? I haven't been receiving any complaints about this service in the past and now all of a sudden, we're receiving a lot of complaints. We seem to have broken something by trying to fix it, Mr. Speaker. What was it that brought about this change? How have we gotten to the point where we've reduced access to a service when our priority is to improve it?

I was just saying we're going to direct the emergency organization to do these plans on behalf of. It'll simply give communities the option. I think we need to be careful not to take autonomy away from our communities when we're passing motions such as this so that we ensure that our communities still hold their decision-making authority. So in the words -- I'll just quote the Mayor Alty of city of Yellowknife on this one.

As a policy principle, I don't want to regress into the time when the GNWT came in and did everything for communities and we didn't have a say. We are an order of government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly won't need 20 minutes to speak on this one. I am supportive of the -- similar to kind of some previous speakers, I'm supportive of the general intent of this motion though I don't think the details, implications, and a full understanding of how it can be successfully implemented have been thought out at this time. However, I would note that there are several models already being implemented in neighboring jurisdictions so we can learn from and borrow from their experience.

Mr. Speaker, the Yukon has a program like this. There's programs in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to speak to this one shortly. I think, you know, just when bringing motions forward, I think sometimes the desire to get ideas onto the floor gets ahead of the work needed to fully assess the problem, engage with those affected by it, and hear their needs, and work through the necessary and often difficult process of figuring out the most effective way to address those needs. I don't believe that responsibility lies solely on the shoulders of Cabinet. We do have tools at our disposal on the Regular side. We have our committees. We have an...