Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about the continued deficit at Stanton Hospital. Between the budget years of 1999 and 2000 to the budget year of 2009-2010, which is 11 budget cycles, Stanton has all but one fiscal year been in deficit. That is one year that they did not have a single deficit, Mr. Speaker. It is hard to imagine 11 budget cycles. From what I can tell, it was the one budget year that the Stanton board fired itself, oddly enough.

For 11 years, what have they been doing over there? Adding up each unbudgeted deficit year after year, Stanton has accumulated, if you...

She should be doing something, Mr. Speaker. What has she been doing?

Mr. Speaker, I have said many times that I believe Stanton is underfunded. I think a zero-based review would actually clear any air or question on that particular problem. The problem is everyone seems to know that there are problems but no one is doing anything about their problems. We hear about we have done a review. Now, we hear, out of the blue, a zero-based review is done through the years. We have no facts on the table where they have stopped the leakage. By the way, all it is is just an accumulation of protecting the process than it is about doing anything. Mr. Speaker, is Stanton or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the Stanton deficit, which harkens back to my Member’s statement where I am significantly concerned that Stanton has missed 10 out of 11 budget years in the sense that they’ve found ways to create deficits without stopping them. Mr. Speaker, they need to be applauded for that one year that they let the board fire itself. It seemed they knew what was going on, because it showed that they weren’t in deficit that year, but they continue to accumulate with no one willing to stop it.

Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use this opportunity to pose a couple of questions to the Minister of Human Resources. As he knows very well, I believe strongly in a diverse and representative government and certainly our government’s efforts to reach out to all communities, the Aboriginal community, the disabled community ensuring that we’re an equal opportunity employer for everyone. Mr. Speaker, some of the questions that I’d like to ask are specific to hiring policies and how we encourage a culturally diverse workforce. I’d like to ask the Minister what does his department do to...

Mr. Speaker, I would be pleased to provide a copy of my Member’s statement I made today as well as a copy of the House of Commons’ position on a seniors charter. Mr. Speaker, knowing full well that this issue has never specifically been brought up in the government certainly in my time, is the Minister saying clearly she would be willing to take this issue, address this issue and bring it to the Cabinet table to work towards developing an NWT seniors charter? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the priorities of the 16th Assembly has been to develop healthy, educated people. When reading our 16th Assembly priorities, I noticed that seniors and elders are missed in our collective statement.

As leaders, we have made a commitment to our present and future generations. One of the ways I feel strongly that we can work towards achieving a goal of supporting our seniors is to develop and adopt an NWT seniors charter. In 2006, our very own House of Commons adopted a similar concept in recognizing seniors. As such, they adopted the Seniors Charter of Canada.

The...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What would stop the Department of Health from making this a requirement of the service level agreement we do sign with these agencies to set up a phone number where people, not just a phone number, but also requiring the counsellors to do follow-up phone calls with people who have worked through a treatment process? What would stop the department from doing that? If you made it part of your agreement, perhaps it wouldn’t cost significantly anymore for asking them to do some follow-up. Thank you.

My question really wasn’t about the radio smoking cessation Quitline. It was more to draw a parallel that this government has sought out in one manner or another whether the federal government came knocking or we went looking, as a government, looking for money to help sponsor that type of addiction treatment, which I think is good value for people. But by and large, the bridge I was trying to demonstrate in the sense of comparison is the government works to provide a phone line for people to talk, or I guess, talk out their problems about why they want a cigarette and perhaps someone on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I mentioned about a reflective public service, I certainly wouldn’t want to say that I didn’t think Gender Equity Policy and issues need to be representative in that particular vein. So it was remiss to mention it at the time.

Mr. Speaker, my last question is that I’m very well aware that the Department of Human Resources does an exit strategy and I know, from a bit of research, there was approximately 50 of them done in the last year. I’m just curious as to what are some of the fundamentals learned by the exit strategy and what is the government doing to encourage...