Robert Hawkins

As we’ve all seen that the situation has changed significantly and under one of the sections under the Deh Cho Bridge Act, 6-1(2), the toll is collected for the Deh Cho Bridge Fund and it’s a special purpose fund. I’m just curious as to who controls that special purpose fund, the Deh Cho Bridge Fund, in this particular example. Has that been envisioned or has a solution been found for that particular case at this time, because that’s, if I read the act correctly, where all money in the context of tolls are to be directed. So I’m just trying to find out who controls that fund, especially in...

I appreciate that on the record. With the change in the DCBC, so the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, is it envisioned that the concession agreement value will change as this finds its way to the point where we have the bridge built and we find that particular role for the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, assuming it still wants to exist and participate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess some of the fundamental questions I really have, have to do with what’s actually changed. You know, I see this as we head out in two processes. The first one being the idea one that obviously isn’t going to happen, which was everything was funded and paid through the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and obviously that isn’t going to work, but fundamentally the payments I thought the government would be responsible and paying for would be somewhat similar if we ended up being in the circumstance that we are in today. So in other words, now that we’ve taken the debt on...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

With respect to the service levels of therapy provided to clients:

How many hours of patient service are provided in each respective therapy area by the client’s community in the NWT and out of Territory for the 2008-2009 fiscal year?

How many therapy service requests are outstanding as of January 1, 2010, by community in and out of Territory?

Please provide details of the established service limitations and/or caps for therapy services such as injuries, speech therapy, stroke recovery, slip and falls, et...

Respectfully, the Premier talks about a budget as the framework, but ultimately once that budget is presented to us in the private context of consensus government when we do our review and then it comes to the House, there’s extremely very little that ever gets changed and we know that. So the reality of changing or approving, I mean, really we’re just here to sort of echo off the ideas of what Cabinet’s already made the decision on. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about guiding principles and framework, because if a community like Wrigley doesn’t have a nurse, that seems completely unfair and I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I talked about programs and services and the need to make sure that they’re fairly distributed throughout the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, it does bother me when I hear about a community, whether it’s in Wrigley or it’s Tsiigehtchic, that they don’t have fair services, because the first thing they do is look to Yellowknife and assume that we have everything, and I don’t think that’s necessarily the truth. But I also feel for the communities and want to support them when they need their services. That’s why my Member’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members we are often busy lobbying for more programs and services and certainly more facilities for our constituents and ridings. As we all have become well aware that our job, number one, is to make sure that our constituents’ issues are brought forward, and our roles as MLAs make this very important as we try to demonstrate the needs in our ridings.

Every community, I believe, needs to be treated fairly. Therefore, I want to use my Member’s statement today to talk about the importance of community and regional standards. By that I mean standards that provide...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve recently been informed that the radiologist contract has ended in some type of dispute. I’m not precisely sure if it was about money or technical expertise but, if I understood it correctly, people were brought up to provide that service. I’m certainly concerned that this may be putting Northerners at risk. It does cause quite a bit of worry, because anybody who goes to a radiologist, this is not an elective type of treatment, this is obviously for very serious concerns.

I’m wondering what the Minister of Health and Social Services can do to update this House as to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m trying to understand the Premier’s apprehension to coming up with a guiding principle and working with this side of the House to help formulate it into a long-term policy and a strategy. Mr. Speaker, would the Premier be willing to draft a policy that helps to develop this type of framework I’m raising here today and bring it to all Members to have some type of discussion to ensure that there’s a fair, equal distribution of resources and services, as well as programs throughout the Northwest Territories that help serve all our people? Not just here in Yellowknife...