Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, the issue I raised today in my Member’s statement has a serious impact on the people who live and work in downtown Yellowknife. It causes many people great concern. The fact of the lack of public washrooms causes people to do natural things in unnatural places, if I may say. You know, that is not supporting dignity and humanity in the nicest of ways.

I know it’s far too easy to make jokes about this, and it is probably not uncommon to want to make jokes about something like this, but this is a serious issue. The people in the downtown riding want to move out of downtown. People don...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In brief, I just want to say I’ll be supporting the bill. This represents protection for those who have community spirit. Again, this creates some type of generosity and certainly provides them the protection to do that. In that regard, I see it as a decent step forward for community minded individuals who want to help out in the ways they can.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister saying she will go back and review this file? What is the Minister saying? I just want to be clear on the record that I want to find out what the Minister is willing to do in regard to this family, which feels very strongly that this drug is useful and considered mainstream and normal in other places and shows promise. What is the Minister willing to commit to do on this potential project or on this file? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Some time ago a family received a letter. My request was to find out some details about medical coverage for a drug called Rituxan. This drug actually helps people with MS. It has been showing significant promise for people who have been suffering with this.

In the letter it basically says that you need to go through your physician to get approval for this. Well, this family went to go get this type of approval, and they’ve been refused approval for a drug that actually will help bring back...

What work has been done to examine the relationship of aboriginal governments and their regions so that when we take self-government models and overlap them with these regional boards’ jurisdictions…? What work is being done to examine that type of relationship and the problems that this will cause if we proceed with a regional based board model?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Minister who’s responsible for the Strategic Initiative Committee on Refocusing Government, and that will be Minister Michael Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, referring back to my Member’s statement, of course, I’d like to know what this Minister has done to examine the costs of rolling up most of these boards into a regional services model. If he has an idea of what that costs, will he make it public?

The die has been cast, Mr. Speaker, and this government seems to have set in motion the decision to implement the regional services board model as a quintessential advantage of board reform. I agree there are too many boards out there, and we should examine their mandates and strive for efficiencies where we can find them, especially during times of fiscal crisis and restraint.

What’s odd about the situation is that it’s no different from the repeated request made by me and many other Members for program review before slicing and dicing. What is interesting here, as usual, is that any decision...

Thank you. Just for clarification, the Minister said she doesn’t have the ability to override the committee. I’m not suggesting by any means that we override the committee on one specific case. That turns into a slippery slope regardless of the issue.

What authority does the Minister have to put this drug on the extended health benefits list? If it shows promise, why aren’t we investigating this to make sure we have access to it? Thank you.

It is really nice that there’s a committee in place, but that doesn’t do much for the family that has a family member who is suffering from MS. This drug is a well known drug that demonstrates progress and promise when you have this disease. As I’m sure most people know, this is quite a debilitating disease. There is only one direction it goes. When we have a drug that shows promise, I think we should be latching on to it.

I guess my real question really comes down to how we get access to this. I have a letter here from the Minister. My original question was: is this covered? The Minister’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, when this Minister’s statement that seems to answer all questions comes forward, will it also talk about when public consultation will happen and how that will involve the public, as opposed to how these taxes have not involved Members as effectively as possible and have only involved certain members of the public, that kind of discussion? Will it have that detail?