Thank you, Mr. Braden, and to keep up with the theme, item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have repeatedly heard from Minister Miltenberger that we are not going to see reductions in health and social services in Hay River, and the action plan is not a cost-cutting exercise. This is not consistent with what I am seeing and hearing in Hay River. The principle of fairness and universality of access is being sadly eroded for people outside of Yellowknife, in Hay River and I am sure in other communities as well.

Let me give you a few examples from my community's perspective. Referral and access to mammography services was being accommodated locally with a mobile program. Since this program can no longer be funded and staffed in Hay River, women are required to wait on long lists for referrals to Yellowknife. When they do get an appointment in Yellowknife, a comparatively high percentage of my constituents are required to pay a $250 co-payment to come to Yellowknife. This co-payment is required to be paid each time, regardless of the number of follow-up visits required and, as an aside, sadly, some women have made the trip, paid the $250, only to get here and find out the technician was out of town or unavailable.

This is unfair and unacceptable in the name of cost cutting and it is putting women's health at risk.

Hay River has been providing a highly utilized dental surgery service for many years to many parts of the North. The Hay River Dental Clinic uses the hospital facilities, bringing in dental anaesthetists on a regular schedule. This makes good use of the hospital in Hay River and provides a more economical alternative for government and non-government sponsored patients than a referral to the south.

However, just last week, the Hay River Dental Clinic was informed that due to budget cutting and staff reductions, no surgeries could be scheduled until the end of October. This means the cancellation of many required procedures for children and adults, some of whom have already been on a waiting list for some time. This can potentially lead to further dental and even medical complications when left unattended. This is a very serious matter.

I spoke at some length during the last session about the requirement for all Hay River maternity patients to leave the community to deliver their babies. The personal expense and inconvenience of this lack of service is also very significant. Again, it is particularly discriminatory for mothers who are not covered by any third party insurance or benefits. These issues of lack of service cannot be left unaddressed. If the funding, compensation packages or recruitment efforts for medical professionals to staff our hospitals are not resulting in solutions, there needs to be enhancements to ensure that we can compete with any other jurisdiction.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents deserve the same fair access to health care as any other Northerner and any other Canadian citizen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, June 16th is an important day for some members of society -- Father's Day. It being Friday, I would like to take the opportunity to raise this issue.

Mr. Speaker, what does it take to be a father? It is not something you are born with and given automatically. It is something you are taught and nurtured in from your own father as time goes by. I know that because as a father myself, I use many examples that my father has given me when I speak to my children.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the time today to recognize the efforts of my father, my dad, as I call him. The efforts he has put into my life have helped to bring me where I am today. He is a patient man who has guided me along. Sometimes his hands were soft and sometimes they were hard. Even though at that point, I might say when I was growing up, I did not like the discipline that would come my way, but I must thank him for that discipline, because with that discipline, he taught me. I would like to thank him for the many times he brought me out and taught me about the land and how to treat and work on the land.

Something I must thank him for is what he instilled in me in how I raise my children, and the valuable lessons I learned under his guidance that I can pass on to my children as they grow. I would like to thank him for that. I continue to count on him for his guidance. As years go on, his wisdom continues to grow and he continues to share that with me, and I take that very seriously.

Something I would like to do as well as part of Father's Day is recognize my children, since I will not be home on the 16th and they cannot do their things for me at that point, I have a little wish list I would like to pass on to them. I could pull out many that I could think of as summer comes upon us. I would like to state to them that one thing I would like them to do while I am gone is:

• • Please obey your mom;
• • Do your homework and do it on time; and
• • Please do your chores, as I just found out from my wife that some of the chores are going unattended as I have not been at home.

I would like to have them honour me in that way, by obeying their mother and doing their homework. With that, Mr. Speaker, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. I am sure they will be watching this program and they will take heed. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise this morning and recognize a wonderful person from Hay River, a constituent of mine, Lori Uhlenberg. Mr. Speaker, Lori is the recipient of the NWT Outstanding Volunteer Award in the category of good neighbour. I have the distinct pleasure of accepting this award on her behalf later this afternoon in the Great Hall of this Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, I personally have known Lori Uhlenberg for almost 30 years. You would have to look hard to find someone so unselfishly caring for her fellow community members. Lori has been a resident of Hay River since 1971 and she has always been an active member of the community. Over the years, Lori has given tirelessly of herself to various organizations. Mr. Speaker, she spends a lot of time assisting the Elks Club over the years, along with her late husband, Herb.

In addition, Lori has been a volunteer at our local thrift shop for over 15 years. She also tutored children in her home for over five years and always on a strictly volunteer basis.

In addition, Lori takes discarded dolls, cleans them up, washes and curls their hair, then hand knits entire wardrobes for them. Mr. Speaker, she then sells these dolls at craft sales and donates any money that she raises to Woodland Manor or to the extended health care unit at the H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital, so that residents there can have birthday and Christmas gifts.

This remarkable lady, Mr. Speaker, has cooked meals and baked goods for weeks on end for deserving families in Hay River. Lori has spent countless hours at the hospital with a number of Hay River residents in their final days.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, Lori has nursed a number of sick children and pets in Hay River back to good health. She has been known to take other people's pets into her home and care for them when the owners were no longer able to do so.

Mr. Speaker, Lori's good deeds are far too numerous to mention here, but I wish I did have the time to mention more. Mr. Speaker, Hay River is truly blessed to have the volunteers that it has. They are the backbone of our community. I feel extremely honoured, Mr. Speaker, to have been able to call Lori Uhlenberg a friend for over the last 30 years. She is truly an extremely worthy recipient of the good neighbour award. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

The time for your Member's statement is up, Mr. Antoine. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Some of us just might take you up on that. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the BIP, a topic that I know has been discussed a lot around this House in the past week. I have not gone on the record yet and I thought it was time that I did that.

I have to say, Mr. Speaker, that I was very dismayed to hear Cabinet had waived BIP for the second phase of the correctional centre. I do not understand how Cabinet can arbitrarily decide to eliminate a policy for just one project. Either we have a policy or we do not.

The process causes me a considerable amount of consternation because there was absolutely no consultation. I found out about this change in the policy through the construction association bulletin and through media reports. There was no discussion or involvement among those outside of Cabinet. An important and longstanding policy was just waived with no consultation.

I have to ask, how does this waiving of a policy stand us in good stead? The public is already cynical about government and this just feeds their cynicism. When we do not follow our own policies, it just leads to the public saying, "How can they be trusted?"

We are negotiating a new relationship with aboriginal governments. How can they trust us if we can just waive a policy with no consultation? How do they know that we are good for our word at the table if we cannot be trusted to stand up for what is already the policy of government?

How can we negotiate with business? We say we will do a certain thing in a policy and then, out of the blue, we get to ignore it. Will we accept from northern businesses, or businesses operating in the North, that they can start to purchase more from the south because northern prices are too high? I do not think so, but that is the excuse I seem to hear for waiving the policy on the BIP with the correctional centre.

Mr. Speaker, government sets the rules for business and for commerce. One of the key factors that business needs to be successful and prosper is to have a clear understanding of what the rules are and to be able to expect that the rules will be applied consistently.

Mr. Speaker, I call on the government to recognize their mistake and change their approach. Ensure that proposed changes in the BIP are discussed and advice from Northerners is taken into account before making any changes. If there is a problem with a policy, let's discuss how to improve it, but let's not just ignore it on a case-by-case basis. Let's return to consistency. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, June is a very busy month in our constituency offices. I have the pleasure of the assistance of a young woman originally from Tulita but going to school in Hay River and graduating from Diamond Jenness this month. Mr. Speaker, please remember the name Sharon Bernard, because I am sure we will be hearing great things about her in the future. Welcome.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a former employee of this House, Candy Hardy, who was a former researcher with the Legislative Assembly, who worked closely with our side of the House and Members and the committees. I would like to welcome Candy back to the House. Welcome, Candy.

-- Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a few people I would like to recognize today in the gallery: Ms. Gayla Meredith, the recipient of the Prime Minister's Teaching Excellence Award; Amanda Mallon, who nominated Ms. Meredith, and who is also the teacher induction and mentorship coordinator at ECE; to the left of Ms. Meredith is Ms. Chris Tricoteux, who is also a teacher at Range Lake School and YK No. 1 vice-president with the NWTTA; and to her far right is Mr. David Murphy, president of the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause