Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up with my colleagues. Mr. Menicoche and Mr. Hawkins had questions to the Minister of Health earlier and I want to follow up on that.
I find it very interesting that the Minister can stand up here in the House time and time again and say how very, very important this issue is and how deeply involved her and the government are when the decision to close the Edmonton City Centre Airport was made without any vocal outcry from our government or from our Minister.
Mr. Speaker, this happened when people in our communities were coming to us and saying, what is our government doing? What is our government saying about the closure of this airport in Edmonton? And all the Minister can do is stand up in the House and say we’ve written letters. Like I said earlier, it took us two months to get a copy of those letters. None were penned by the Minister to anybody in Alberta. So how can she defend that she has taken this issue so seriously when she hasn’t even written a letter herself to anybody, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am on record to say that the municipality had voted on a plebiscite years ago to close this airport in a phased fashion. Two years ago we were aware that they were closing this and the letter that the Stanton CEO sent is not a letter to some consultant in Missouri. That was, in fact, very appropriate and direct input that our government put in. We wrote to them to tell them how important this service is. We were involved exactly where we should have been.
Mr. Speaker, since then, the decision to close the airport has had overwhelming support within the municipality, and my job, as the Minister of Health and Social Services, is to work with my counterpart in Alberta to plan. We have a commitment from the municipality that the last runway will not close until we have a plan. The Minister of Health in Alberta talked to me about Premier Stelmach setting up a quality council and we have a commitment from them that we will be involved. Mr. Speaker, we are taking all appropriate actions and necessary actions to make sure that our view and our needs are part of their consideration. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister is missing my point. The CEO can write a letter and you can rest assured that if there is a decision by the province of Saskatchewan or the province of British Columbia that impacted the province of Alberta, their Ministers would be up publicly decreeing what that decision was and the impacts it would have on the citizens of Alberta. Our Minister was nowhere to be found when it came to defending the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories and the closure of that airport. That is very obvious, Mr. Speaker.
Now I’m trying to find some comfort in that going forward that we are going to have some assurances and certainty that the Minister will be more vocal on the needs and the desires of our citizens to have those appropriate services in place in Edmonton for medevac services, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
The Member is missing my point, with all due respect. Politicians can do their thing. At the end of the day, we have to be part of the plan. That’s what the Members here expect. That’s what our public expects. What is our plan to make sure that when our patients need health care in Alberta, that they will get their service as quickly as possible? We support Premier Stelmach’s establishment of a quality council, and their mandate is very clear and includes identifying effective practices and making recommendations for the improvement of patient safety and health service quality. Our deputy minister is in, and I’ve said this about three times today, my officials are in touch with Alberta health officials. We have a commitment from them that we will be part of this plan. We have two years to plan this. This is very complicated work and we are involved.
Mr. Speaker, the decision to close the municipal airport happened years ago, years ago. They had a referendum 15 years ago. They had our support then. They have support now. The Member says I should have stopped that. I would rather spend my energy working out a plan that addresses the patient safety issues of my residents and our residents in the Territory, and I’m doing that, exactly what I should be doing. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister is missing my point. My point is that the Minister was nowhere to be found during this discussion on the closure of that airport. There was no public statement issued by this government whatsoever, and I think that was the wrong thing to do, Mr. Speaker. Like I said, our responsibilities are to the people of the Northwest Territories and we have to make sure that our interests are known, respected and accounted for at every table. I don’t think we should be going down there and telling them how they should develop their plans, but every interest of the people of the Northwest Territories has to be respected and known at those tables, and I want some assurance that the Minister is going to make sure that that happens. Thank you.
I’m doing exactly that, so I’m sure the Member agrees with what I am doing. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope that the Minister has listened. Again, she is the Minister of Health and Social Services. If anybody is going to defend the interests of the people in regard to health and social services here in the Northwest Territories, it’s her. It’s not her staff. It’s not the bureaucrats in the department. It’s the Minister, Mr. Speaker. I’d like, again, some assurances from the Minister that she is going to take more of a leadership role in being vocal about what those interests are for the residents in the Northwest Territories. Not her deputy minister, not the senior staff, but her herself. Thank you.
I agree with him that I, as the Minister of Health and Social Services, should take leadership on this and give appropriate direction. I have done that. I have talked to the Minister of Health in Alberta on that. The Premier of Alberta has set up a health quality council of Alberta. Their mandate is to promote patient safety and health service quality on a province-wide basis, that means Alberta. They will set out guidelines on how patient safety will be taken care of. My officials are not doing my job. They are working under my direction. They are in touch with my counterpart in Alberta and we have a commitment from them that we will be consulted in this quality council. We’re doing exactly what the Member wants to do and I will make a commitment that we will give you, in writing, as this project… I will give you in writing and we will inform the public about the work as it progresses, but understanding that we still have months to go in terms of working out the plan. I’m doing exactly what he thinks I should do and I don’t know why I’m not being heard. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
