R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about some of the issues surrounding the GNWT's Marine Transportation Services division, and I have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure. I am not going to ask the Minister about the $1.3 million in outstanding property taxes because I have already asked him about that in this House. I have asked the Minister of MACA, I have asked the Minister of Finance, and I have got a resounding "tough luck" from all of them. We will start off with some easy questions, and this is just for the information of residents who have been asking. How...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to welcome the grade 6 class and the chaperones from Princess Alexandra School. We have with us today, Ashlyn Angiers, Addison Ehkohina-Anavilok, Joseph Mouse-Arcand, Byrin Buckley, Destiny Villeneuve-Brown, Hailey Ekotla, Alyssa Flamand, Grayson Groenewegen, Kandace Groenewegen, Kellan Mandeville, Annika Pellisey, Kynidi Robillard, Jayda Robillard, Batiste Sabourin, Michelle Sabourin, Madyson Schwartz, Simara Tambour-Wilson, my cousin Dallas Gray-Casaway, and we also have with us my constituency assistant and birthday girl, Myrtle Graham. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I should have taken you up on the opportunity for a Member's statement because, if the Minister would have read the Member's statement I made last time, it explained that the program isn't based on the report. What NGOs is the department in talks with to bring this program to fruition?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have another question. This is actually a pretty serious topic in Hay River. I have heard from various businesses that there are concerns about MTS' rates for deck cargo. For the last four or five years, I believe, NTCL was raising their rates, and last year alone, they increased it by 10 per cent. People are concerned that, if MTS is aligning their prices with NTCL's, they are not only pricing themselves out of the market but people are going to go through other places in Hay River to get their goods. This is a serious concern, so what is the department doing to...

As I also mentioned, when people are looking for employment, they have to send their resumes to Newfoundland because there is a crew company that we have contracted there, apparently. What are we paying this crew company to do that we cannot do locally?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear tell that, down at the Department of Infrastructure, there is something like a "swear jar." Every time anyone says "NTCL," you have to put a buck in. Although various names have been suggested for the new government entity, like "The Schumann Shipping Company" or "Bob's Navy," the official name is Marine Transportation Services, or MTS for short.

For those who don't know, the core staff at MTS is made up primarily of employees who were laid off last year when NTCL shut down, so they were able to hit the ground running. However, operating a marine...

Just a question, not a statement, Mr. Speaker.

---Laughter

I'm not going to take advantage of the situation. I'll just ask questions. Mr. Speaker, I wasn't going to bring this topic up until next week. I ended the last sitting of this House with two statements and three sets of questions on A New Day, but I was pretty perturbed to hear the Minister today say he had no idea why no organization has bid on A New Day. Perhaps he should look at the May 10th letter that he was sent by the Coalition on Family Violence that explained why. It was signed by the NWT Disabilities Council, Status of Women...

That is good to hear. I will move on to another topic related to the division. There are companies that are chomping at the bit to come up here and clean up Old Town, take the scrap metal, take the barges that have been sitting there for seven years. These are metal recycling companies. When are we going to get Old Town cleaned up? When can this process start because people are ready to go right now?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister is making my case for me. Clearly something needs to be done. I mean the government is just throwing good money after bad here. What’s being done right now to make this happen? What’s in progress?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, last year Health and Social Services authorities amalgamated into the NWT Health and Social Services Authority. The rationale for this move was to improve coordination, communication, and the use of resources, including staff, among the regions. The Hay River health authority was one of the two that were left out of the amalgamation because it was engaging negotiations, but the primary reason appears to me, anyway, to be the costs associated with bringing it on board, due to their underperforming pension plan.

This pension issue has been going on for over...