Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as reported in the Yellowknifer last Friday and CBC Northbeat last night for the second time, a young, healthy mother in my constituency is about to follow up with a very difficult decision to induce her otherwise healthy, unborn baby in her 37th week of pregnancy. This is because she and her family doctor do not have faith in the contingent of locums the Minister of Health has in place for July 1st in the event it becomes necessary to rely on them. Mr. Speaker, this is a totally unnecessary medical intervention and a real glaring example of how what we do and not do in this House translates directly into the real life of real people in our communities.

I have been hearing a lot of other compelling medical stories, as well, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is my strong belief that all of us as leaders inside and outside of this House have a role to play in bringing a resolution to this crisis. I also understand and accept the age-old principle that politicians should not get involved in labour negotiations. The important fact to keep in mind here is that there is no negotiating going on for us to be interfering with. It is the government that has been negotiating, and this legislature is not the government.

Mr. Speaker, in fact, the Minister's press statement last Monday, June 2nd, was entitled Specialist Negotiations End Without Contract. The Minister has also stated that the doctors have rejected a final offer, and an offer of arbitration from the government was rejected and that there was no other offer being worked on by the government. The Minister has also presented his contingency plan on this premise.

Mr. Speaker, this stalemate cannot be allowed to continue. There is just too much at stake and I call upon both parties, the specialist doctors and the government, to go back to the negotiating table and restart the negotiations, not at the end of the month, not when they hear from the other side, but now.

I urge both parties to pick up the phone and set the dates for negotiation at the earliest possible opportunity and not at the end of the month. I urge them to keep talking until they hammer out their differences. Mr. Speaker, I have been hearing a lot from the constituents on my press release and other public statements in this regard. I can tell you that I am hearing a full spectrum of opinions. Believe it or not, I heard from someone who said...

Your time is up, Ms. Lee. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Believe it or not, I heard from someone who said there is only one intelligent way to deal with the current specialist designation crisis: give them what they want. Another said let them all go, it's time to start a clean slate of specialists.

Mr. Speaker, I can also tell you that the majority of our constituents fall in the middle of this spectrum. The overwhelming majority wants to give the negotiation process one more chance. I am certain that both parties understand that people are not going to put up with anything less than professional, reasonable and justifiable positions. As long as the parties are not talking, we have no realistic chance of coming to a resolution in time, Mr. Speaker. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I, once again, urge the people and the leaders in and out of this House to urge both parties to start talking to each other and get reasonable and professional. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about a constituency meeting I held last week. I had a very good turnout, one of the best ones since the last election. Mr. Speaker, a number of topics came up. People came to tell me of their concerns and they provided some advice. One of the first topics to come up was about our fiscal situation. There was concern expressed about the approaching debt wall and funding from Canada, the royalty revenues from non-renewable resources and devolution.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents recognize that it will take some time to make a deal on devolving the ownership of resources and, therefore, royalties won't flow to the North for some time. They are concerned about what will happen in the interim. They expressed considerable frustration that the federal government has so far not recognized that while our economy is booming, it is contributing to our fiscal problem as we get stuck with infrastructure costs like road repairs and the increased costs to our social programs. They all said we should keep up the pressure on Ottawa, and a couple said that they were going to take occasion to press the issue with our Member of Parliament to ensure that she continues to work on our behalf.

Related to the fiscal issue, Mr. Speaker, is the issue of government restructuring. Government employees are obviously concerned that the recommendations that we are going to be seeing this fall might lead to layoffs. I was able to advise those in attendance that the report would likely be a set of recommendations to the 15th Assembly, so there will be a fair opportunity for discussion. I also told them that in my experience we could not save much money by cutting jobs, so I thought the restructuring recommendations were not likely to result in wide-scale layoffs.

Mr. Speaker, a number of other issues came up, such as the Deh Cho Bridge, the cost of living in the North and the shortage of housing. These are all important issues with my constituents. But, Mr. Speaker, probably the biggest issue since the announcement was made that negotiations with the specialist doctors have broken off, is that of the specialists. All present wanted to see the issue resolved. They felt that specialists played an important role in the quality of healthcare that we enjoy in the North. Most expressed displeasure over the doctors' tactics of submitting the resignation letter, and noted that without any discussion going on the issue is not getting any closer to resolution.

Mr. Speaker, all of them wanted to see the parties back at the table, and soon. They were not impressed by the suggestion that negotiations could resume at the end of June. They do not want to wait or do not want to take a chance of waiting until the last minute. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to complete my statement.

Thank you. The honourable Member seeks unanimous consent to conclude his Member's statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Dent, you may conclude your statement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, honourable Members. Mr. Speaker, there was very strong support from the constituents of my riding for using binding arbitration if the parties could not come back to the table on their own. So, Mr. Speaker, I hope both the Minister and the doctors will hear what the public I represent have to say, and that is, get back to the table now. If you cannot resolve the issue yourselves at the table, then use binding arbitration. Let us settle this dispute. Resolve it so that our healthcare concerns can also be resolved. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like Mr. Dent, I had occasion to have a constituency meeting last night and it ended up going quite late. Quite a number of constituents attended. I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, the only issue that anybody wanted to talk about was the deal with the specialists or the lack of deal to date. There were many concerns about, specifically, the contingency plan and whether or not arrangements would be made for them to receive service safely. What would happen for pregnant moms? Would they be able to deliver babies here at Stanton Territorial Hospital or would they be forced to go to Edmonton for the service? If they were forced to go to Edmonton, would there be assurances that Edmonton was able to handle the extra workload? I was not able to give them enough detail on the contingency plan and I think that is because as Regular Members we do not have enough of the detail that we probably need, and I think this is one of the problems that the public is really faced with and that is not enough information and the fear and rumour and concerns are really starting to swirl.

Before we talk about a contingency plan, Mr. Speaker -- and I think it is responsible to talk about that -- most of my constituents wanted to talk about the breakdown of negotiations. They wanted to see a reasonable offer made, a reasonable offer accepted and many acknowledged that they do not know exactly what that is. Mr. Speaker, that is certainly my position. I cannot and am not in a position to tell you who has made the fairer offer in this situation, but I am in a position to tell you that my constituents want to see the issues settled, they want to see the issues settled quickly, and they want to see an avenue for dialogue so that both parties can seek out common ground and agree to agree on these issues and move this forward. I do not think we are best served by agreeing to come back to discuss these things the 28th and 29th of this month if we know that July 1st has been the imposed drop-dead date. I think that it is certainly dangerous and irresponsible to leave things so close, Mr. Speaker.

I think also my constituents... Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Yes, thank you. The honourable Member seeks unanimous consent to conclude his Member's statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mr. Bell.

Thank you. My constituents, both at the meeting, Mr. Speaker, and also the constituents who have taken the time to call me and phone me, were certainly in agreement on the model that we have for healthcare in the Northwest Territories, the fact that we have spent a number of years staffing up to gain a number of specialties here in Yellowknife. Not all jurisdictions are as fortunate. For instance, Nunavut I do not believe has any specialists. Whitehorse has far fewer specialists. These jurisdictions rely primarily on locums who come up to provide the service and also on shipping residents out. We are fortunate for the most part not to have to do that for most specialties and I would like to keep it that way, my constituents would like to keep it that way.

So I guess the real question is where are we now, Mr. Speaker? My constituents, I think, all want to see the model. They want to see this model be sustainable. They want to see both parties seek out, as I said, the common ground and look for an avenue for dialogue and I do not think they are prepared to accept that, with 20 some days left to go before we know that there has been a certain failure, that we are not going to engage in an ongoing dialogue to try to solve this problem. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Minister Antoine.

Mahsi, Minister Antoine. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to recognize from Kakisa Jillian Landry, who is the chair of the Deh Cho health board and also the education board and owner of Kakisa Contracting. My constituency assistant, Sherry Landry-Braun. Welcome.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasant surprise and I would like to recognize Grade 6, Mr. David Speakman's class from Range Lake North School. This class is very special to me because they invited me to talk to them about my experience in Nigeria observing elections. I did that and they sent me the most wonderful thank you cards that brought me a smile and sometimes tears. I would like to thank them for that as well, and thank them for coming. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Welcome. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize today my constituency assistant, Ms. Denise Yuhas and as well my summer student out of my office in Fort Smith, Thomas Hobart, who will be going off to study political science at the University of Calgary. Ms. Yuhas has been with me for the full term and I owe her a great debt of gratitude. Thomas is learning the ropes and has a very fine set of sideburns.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Mr. Julian Landry and Roy Desjarlais who are here with the Aboriginal Sports Circle, who are hearing a lot about sports and where the Minister is going with this offer. Also, I would like to recognize my assistant Sherry Landry-Braun.

---Applause