Mr. Chairman, by no means am I trying to frustrate the Premier on this. The fact is I want to get a sense that this is being dealt with. I can appreciate there’s going to be a point where the two sides will want to discuss this. From his answer he’s basically tried to tell me this is a “talk turkey” situation to deal with this. I’m pleased to hear they’re going to be meeting. I just want to make sure this is going to be an opportunity to deal with this problem. We don’t have to look any further than the NIHB example for how long it takes for these things, in proportion, to get out of hand. All things are relative in the sense of comparison to operation.
That’s why I asked that question early on: why do we continue to provide services outside of what would be described as life and limb? I wouldn’t want to think of any person in this country — citizen, non-citizen, residents of the NWT or not — to be denied any health care service, especially if it were life or limb, over something as silly as administrative policy. The issue really is that I just want to make sure we’re capturing the gravity of this issue. I’m just trying to understand why it’s taken so long.
Our Premier — or I should say, our Finance Minister at this second — knows very well about our financial situation. I described it early on as being a bread-and-butter situation. I can’t imagine being owed a lot of money like this without there being any interest charges in any way.
In the sense of the frustration…. I can appreciate the courtesy we would have, through an agreement with another government, and that some of these things have to be worked out. But if we go back as
far as nine years, that creates a sense of frustration.
People want to know why this is as it is. I think people out there — as in constituents or residents or whatever way you want to describe it — want to get a sense of understanding, exactly and thoroughly, why we wouldn’t charge. I’ll tell you, if you owed money to the BDIC, they’d be kicking your door down if you owed money to them for a couple of years. If it was just a small amount or something, they’d be trying to take your business away, or they’d be putting liens against your house, your home, your business or whatever the scenario is. And that sends frustration.
Oddly enough, it always seems to be a situation in which the smaller you are, the harder they lean on you. It always seems to be the reverse, Mr. Chairman: if you’re a large business or it’s a large dollar value, of course, everyone takes as much time as possible to work these things out.
I’m certainly respectful and willing to see the diplomatic approach on this. I don’t have an issue with this. We deal with Nunavut, obviously, through our health system. It’s showed up here in these examples. We use them in our agreements, through our jails and through Justice agreements. We probably partner with them on a number of issues: probably through tourism, and the list will go on and on. I certainly wouldn’t want to see us pee in our cornflakes over something that could be worked out through some agreement.
Mr. Chairman, I get the sense from people that they're frustrated about this scenario. We have millions of dollars outstanding, and then we always have to sort of deal with the dollar value. It’s a sense of frustration, that’s all, and I just wanted to get those details on it. I know the Finance Minister’s working on it, but like I say, I wanted to get a sense of it.