Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, keeping up with the past convention, I hosted a pre-session constituency meeting at Range Lake North School this past Monday and I was pleased to spend the evening listening to and sharing information with the valued members of my constituency whom, although few in number, had a lot of advice and assignments for me to work on during this session and beyond, Mr. Speaker, and as we begin our short session today I'd like to tell you about some of them.
They would like, Mr. Speaker, me to keep working hard to resolve the intolerable situation surrounding the WCB policy regarding conflicting medical opinions of injured workers' cases. They would like to see a full independent management or advisory board at the Stanton Territorial Hospital. There were a number of questions about the recent joint territorial/federal Health Ministers announcement on wait times and how those decisions were made for the North. They wanted to know why there are still so many vacancies at the Stanton Hospital, in particular the hospital pharmacist position which has been vacant, Mr. Speaker, for 11 years. Mr. Speaker, they would like to see the government putting in more resources for traffic enforcement on Highway No. 3 to the mine sites, especially during the busy winter road season. As well, they would like to see a Kam Lake bypass road in order to ease the traffic congestion and safety issues. Mr. Speaker, they would like us to introduce a GNWT VTA, vacation travel assistance, in order to make it easier to recruit and retain needed human resources for the North and to reduce the cost of living. As well, one constituent expressed, once again, the concern about so many fly-in and fly-out jobs with the mines, and asked that we consider a 15 percent payroll tax with the provision for immediate credit to NWT residents monthly as a way of encouraging people to move and live in the North.
Mr. Speaker, I don't imagine the Minister of Finance would like to jump on that option, but I think these suggestions and concerns, the underlying concerns are something that are not new. These are only a few of many issues that
myself and my colleagues have brought up in this House for the attention to the Cabinet, and one that I look forward to and I'm committed to working on this session and beyond. Thank you.
---Applause