Thank you, Minister Roland, and welcome to the proceedings this afternoon. We'll now move on to general comments on Bill 12. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Just briefly, I just want to say something that was not included in the chair's remarks, and I'm speaking as a Member, of course, but I think the briefness and conciseness of the chair's report and the Minister's report, I mean statement, does not, they do not speak to the weight and depth and breadth of this legislation. It's quite a substantial piece of legislation that has had many years of work by many, many people, not only in the department but in the medical profession and health care professions and I think that should be recognized. I think because of the fact that this was not a topic of discussion in many of the hearings that we've been to, that's why we don't have a lot of words here in statements, but I think it is a good piece of work and I think we should also give credit to the Member from Thebacha who was the Minister who, when this bill has been worked on from the beginning of this Assembly but also on this side of the floor, worked hard to make sure that this piece of legislation stayed on the legislative agenda for this Assembly. So I'd like to recognize that and I'd like to thank the new Minister of Health who made sure that that happened, too, and I think that's just important to mention that.

But I do have a question in light of my statement from the standing committee, Mr. Chairman. I'm wondering if we

should give the Minister a chance, or the chief public health officer a chance, to explain what actions they have taken with regards to the beavers being found in the reservoir because it is a serious issue from the health aspect.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the new act would change the way we've looked at things and clarify the roles and responsibilities of the department and the chief public health officer. At this point, I'll go to Dr. Corriveau to give some detail to that response. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Mr. Corriveau.

Merci, Dr. Corriveau. Next on the list I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, the bill itself, I applaud the people who were involved in terms of making this a more up-to-date bill and the health system. Mr. Chairman, the question I have is in terms of the concerns that we heard, the powers for the new positions that are going to be in this act here has to speak to a concern from one community we visited in the Sahtu, Tulita, in terms of water intake treatment plant and the quality of the water is not there and it's a funding issue in terms of the Health department somewhat has to bring the standards of quality of water into our communities. How much power does that position the department has to order the department, not so much the headquarters, sorry, the headquarters of that water treatment plant to get the parts? Because these parts in Tulita are from two different countries: one in England and one in the United States, the costs of those to run the budget for that hamlet. So are you going to starve the hamlet or are you going to put them in a bad position? Someone's going to be held liable. So how, in this new act, are these positions going to support the communities in terms of we want to bring the quality of the standards of water up to a certain standard? Do we have the means to back up our request? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, our role from the Department of Health and Social Services side and with this act stated in a number of circumstances we would be directly involved in the quality of the water after it comes out of the plant and delivered to homes. So the testing and that end would be done and we would make recommendations if we were to find substances that were not acceptable. In our case, within the government, we've formalized a working relationship with a number of other departments, Municipal and Community Affairs being one of them as well as the Department of Public Works and Services. From our aspect, when it comes to the water treatment plant of testing the quality of water once it goes through the facility, we also certify the training of staff that work in those facilities by setting regulations and training requirements. But for equipment, for design of a structure, the infrastructure of the water treatment plant itself, that would be dealt with in cooperation through MACA and Public Works. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister laying out the procedure. Again, it's a question of this new act coming into force if this existing infrastructure is in the communities that requires additional dollars to, once it comes out of the system and in order to improve...the testing fails and they want to improve the quality of water. The parts in some of these facilities are out of this world in terms of the funding in terms of the United Stated and England. So who's going to be left holding the bag at the end of the day? Is it going to be the community itself or the department? You look at those filters, Mr. Chairman, the cost at this plant, it just eats up their budget for one whole year, the maintenance of this. So I just wanted to ask the Minister, I know this is something that needs to be considered and how strong will this act ensure that support will be there for the hamlet and the communities to have good water coming out of the treatment plants? Someone's going to pay. Who is it? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the area of involvement, again with the new act, clarifies our roles and deals directly with the issue of water and water quality now instead of the way it was done before. We can, with the passage of this act, make orders in response to the water quality if it, in fact, fails. That would be made to the community and working with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs as to what needed to be remedied. As for the budget for equipment, that type of area, that would be a direct relationship with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

Thank you. It's an ongoing issue, so, Mr. Chairman, I'm not going to continue on with that

question. It's an ongoing issue and those other issues will come up. I want to say to the Minister in terms of the other issue of the beavers in the reservoir, I heard this also in Fort Good Hope, so I hope that the Minister, somehow with the powers that we're going to look at with this new act here, helps remediate some of these concerns with some of the smaller communities that have reservoirs and, you know, dust on them and a whole bunch of other issues that finally is getting some attention through this new act here. I want to let the Minister know that those beavers can...Tsiigehtchic and Fort Good Hope on this issue here. So I wanted to ask if he would also work diligently with the appropriate departments to look at this issue?

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we've heard, quality of water is one that does come up from time to time in communities and the safety of that supply is something that we can get involved with once this act, it clarifies the process and the rules we all operate by. Ultimately, as we've heard from other sources as well, that the piped water, once it goes through the plant, is filtered and takes out contaminants and supplies a quality of water that is acceptable by national standards. If we find problems with that, we will issue orders around that area. I guess in one degree it's a bit ironic that though we hear from time to time that the best tea that you can have is one that's what we call bush tea from local people. You go out on the land and you make yourself some tea and you get the water from the lake, directly from the lake. Well, that lake has all kinds of creatures living in it but we still say that's the best quality, fresh run-off, river, streams and so on. It's when we have reservoirs and we see that becomes an issue because that water's seen as stagnant, collects dust and is not moving is one of the words that we've heard, but we do go through the filtering system, we do monitor the quality of that water that goes through and when we find problems, we'll issue orders to deal with that and we would deal with the appropriate departments to ensure that that quality of water is a quality that meets the standards that is consumable by people. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Next on the list for general comments I've got Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to thank the Minister for bringing this piece of legislation forward, but mostly I'd just like to recognize Mr. Parker and Dr. Corriveau and the Health and Social Services staff that are hopefully listening, recognize the accomplishments and the significant accomplishments that Health and Social Services have achieved in the last number of years in terms of legislation. I think they mapped out probably the most ambitious agenda of any department in government. By the dint of their hard work and perseverance, we've had, I think, groundbreaking legislation in tobacco and midwifery, we've updated the nursing legislation, nurse practitioners, Pharmacy Act, and the Public Health Act is the latest very complex piece that is long overdue to be done, and there are a couple more small ones coming. It's a credit to the people and staff of Health and Social Services and I just want to acknowledge that and recognize it. I don't think people think about it. So to those staff, I'd just like to recognize that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I have nobody else on the list for general comments. Clause by clause. Is committee agreed to go clause by clause?

Thank you, committee. We'll start on page 6 of Bill 12, Public Health Act. Page 6, interpretation, clause 1.