Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was asking questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services about the accident that happened in Nahanni Butte. He told us that it was four and a half hours by the time medevac were there. Can the Minister advise us: how long did it take before the planes left there? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister talks about the medevac and how they're trained and all that. Seven hours from the time the plane took off out of Yellowknife to the time the plane took the patients out of Nahanni Butte and Fort Liard. So he talks about ground transportation and these people are trained, Fort Simpson staff, hired staff, could have gotten moved in from Fort Simpson, brought in to Nahanni Butte, gone quickly across the river, and driven to Fort Liard or to Fort Simpson in a more timely manner. So can the Minister explain why it took seven hours for this process to proceed?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would ask for a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I was talking about a situation that happened in Nahanni Butte, and my questions will be for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why the local airline wasn't able to bring the firefighters who are trained in extraction and so on to go into Nahanni Butte to deal with the crash? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A motion to Amend the Cities, Towns and Villages Act, that clause 2 of Bill 18 be amended by deleting proposal subclause 70.1(5) and substitute the following: (5) tourism accommodations tax must not be imposed under this section if the subject of the tax is a resident of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. The feeling is that policy and procedures outweighed the care of residents. What would happen if a very serious or fatal situation occurred? Would they have to wait at least seven hours to get the necessary transportation out to get help? This would not happen in bigger centres. They feel it is an uneven playing field, and I cannot blame them. I will later have questions for the Minister of Health. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Green talked about consulting and you went out and talked to the groups and came up with this recommendation, but it was the GNWT that made that recommendation; it wasn't the group of people you were talking to. So why did the GNWT make that recommendation? They didn't hear it from any of the people out there. They heard it from the Government of the Northwest Territories. So can you please explain why the Government of the Northwest Territories was able be part of this without telling people they were going to be consulted? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate that information from the Minister. I guess my biggest challenge is that we're exempting the GNWT. We don't exempt them on the airport improvement fee. We don't do that, but now the taxpayers, the people of the Northwest Territories, now they have to pay this, and we're sitting here talking about making cost of living not have an impact on people, have the cost of living be better, and now we're sitting here doing that. So to me, what's the difference between the residents of the Northwest Territories and government of NWT? What is the difference? Why can...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess my first question is: when we talk about a charter challenge, has the department obtained a legal opinion in writing that this going to happen? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I thank the Minister and department for doing that. That was a big concern when I was there actually the day after the accident happened. That was a big concern. I commend the department and the Minister for getting people in there. That made a big difference there.

Mr. Speaker, when I was in there, the health staff, you know, that was a lot of stress put on that person. Then they had an individual who was former staff helping out there. Did the department actually reach out to those individuals to work with them, to debrief with them, and help them move forward? Thank you, Mr...