Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as we all know, the committee of Regular Members brought forward a letter at the start of this session explaining our concerns about the health care crisis and the housing crisis, stating that we need to see significant steps to improve both before we can support the capital budget.

So on health care, we are still in a crisis, but I also understand that the path forward requires more operational changes than capital-related changes. There are steps being taken such as the establishment of the health care system sustainability unit which we certainly need to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, finally, the review found that one of the groups most eager to help is actually the Yellowknife downtown business community. So does executive and indigenous affairs plan to engage with Yellowknife downtown business owners to see what they might have to offer in terms of ideas and resources? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Premier -- or the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs commit to meeting with the city of Yellowknife on a priority basis to go over the recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also like to recognize Major Tony Brushett, our executive director from the Salvation Army, and also current Yellowknife North resident Dottie Tetso. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I also support this bill. First and foremost, because I support self-determination of Indigenous governments. And I support Indigenous governments taking the lead on taking care of their own lands and resources. I know that this bill has followed an unusual process, unusual path, but I also recognize that we're still in the process of charting a new path of co-governance with governments, and there needs to be some give and take on all sides, and I hope we will get to a place where we have better procedures where we can all work together comfortably in this process...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting this motion. I also want to acknowledge and recognize that this could take a while. This could take about two years, at least, to complete if they do agree, if the auditor -- Office of the Auditor General does agree to conduct an audit. So this will not be a quick fix or an immediate solution. But I think that it is a tool that would be useful in our toolbox in order to improve a system that desperately needs improvement. So I also recognize that an audit -- a performance audit would usually assess performance against the standards and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So one recommendation that came out of the review was to increase the kinds of outreach services that can be offered because 90 percent of the clients, it turns out, are from communities outside Yellowknife, and there's a need to link people with supportive contacts, people, and services from those other communities outside Yellowknife. Is this an area where EIA might be able to help coordinate and assist the Street Outreach program in making those connections to connect people with the people and resources back home? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So does the Minister believe that the current number of practitioners per team, that's physicians and other practitioners like NPs, that it is an appropriate number of practitioners per team to be able to serve this many patients, or is the authority striving for a different number of practitioners per team? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so are there any aspects of the project that are not included in that $315,000 that would have to be completed in a subsequent year and, if so, do we know how much that would cost? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about our deficit mentality in this government. What I mean is the way we think about our deficiencies, our deficits, that ends up dangerously impacting our actual financial deficit and increasing our debt burden.

Now, the Premier and the Minister of Infrastructure often refer to our infrastructure deficit in this territory. The word deficit means a lack, something that we want that we don't have or something that someone else has that we don't have.

I understand that when Cabinet goes to Ottawa, we're competing to access federal dollars, so we use this language...