Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak today about Stanton Territorial Hospital, the flagship of our health care system here in the Northwest Territories.

Stanton requires immediate attention. Since becoming a Member of this House in 2003, the hospital has been riddled with issues around finances, human resources, space utilization and technical systems.

The Minister of Health and Social Services has, on numerous occasions, stood up in this House and told Members how important the Stanton Master Development Plan was to the future of this hospital. This plan has been discussed since at least 2004.

The building constructed in 1988 is now over 20 years old and requires upgrades in many areas. In 2004 a local architect and engineering firm prepared a technical assessment indicating that several building systems at the hospital are not expected to last more than five years. Five years have now come and gone and where is the department on the Stanton Master Development Plan? What systems specifically were mentioned in this technical assessment done in 2004?

It has come to my attention that no fewer than three areas of that hospital where patients were being taken care of have been shut down to deal with issues of mould and mould removal. This is very alarming. Mould can be very dangerous to patients, staff and visitors to that hospital, especially those already in frail health or those with respiratory illness. Some forms of mould can even be toxic, and I’d like to know just how prevalent is the mould

problem at Stanton Hospital. What exactly is being done about it?

Can the Minister produce the 2004 technical assessment of Stanton so that we can see what has been addressed and what is being left out? This all points to the fact that the Stanton Master Development Plan needs to be concluded as soon as possible. All I’ve seen from the previous three Health Ministers is them telling us how important it is. Minor upgrades, space utilization issues being addressed in the absence of any master development plan is bad management. This piecemeal approach to managing the flagship of our health care system has got to stop. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to highlight an issue that has been forwarded to me this morning. I won’t be quoting from the Globe and Mail, but it was a story in the Globe and Mail on October 14th . The story headline reads,

“Skilled Immigrants Staff Sudbury Gem Plant.” It’s a story about Crossworks Manufacturing that is now cutting diamonds in Sudbury. They have 27 workers in Ontario, and that would be Ontario’s only diamond cutting facility, and they’re certainly cutting DeBeers diamonds at Canada’s Victor Diamond Mine near James Bay.

This story highlights about the fact that the Victor Mine is expected to produce $25 million in diamonds this year. This diamond mine agreement has given Crossworks 10 percent of their annual production to cut diamonds.

Ontario has said they want to be the new international diamond pipeline. That is their position now for Canada, that diamonds run through there.

Crossworks expects to also train local students at the Sudbury local college to learn how to cut diamonds. Something’s clearly going wrong.

Ontario appears to have rolled out the red carpet for both cutting works and industry, and I’m worried what’s going to happen here. Clearly, the NWT diamonds are no longer the only game in town.

I question, what is the NWT’s diamond strategy? Has it ever considered a plan B when the diamond market opens up somewhere else in Canada? I’ve said for years that Israel has no diamonds, Antwerp has no diamonds, yet they’ve always found a way to make sure that they are truly the world market player for diamonds. Why hasn’t the Northwest Territories taken on the position of becoming the leader for North American diamonds? It’s slowly falling out of our hands.

I will have questions for the Premier today, but this story in the Globe and Mail puts into question the viability of the NWT being able to cut diamonds and produce skilled workers to do this job. Are we losing our edge? Will the polar bear diamond be an endangered species? I don’t know. But I’ll have questions for the Premier today to make sure that our government is looking into this problem and asking ourselves clearly what is happening on this issue and what are we doing about it.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to recognize Jamie Kimiksana; my Pages from Ulukhaktok, Bryan and Samantha; and also my escort, Kim Lucas from Sachs Harbour, and Issiaac Elanik and Kyle Wolki; and one of my good friends, Lucy Fabien.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

It gives me great pleasure to recognize some of the college students here from the second year social work class and also their instructor. First of all the instructor, Bruce Stewart, is with us here today. The students, Julia Naedzo from Behchoko, Jalessa Paulette of Fort Smith, Loreen Beaverho from Whati, Avis Vallis and Concilia Kahonde and Kadiatu Dumbuya from Yellowknife.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Today I’d like to recognize Myranda Calumet. She’s with the Junior Rangers paging here today. Also from Fort Resolution is Lucy Fabien, who is with the Canadian Rangers travelling and working with the Junior Rangers.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

I’d like to as well recognize Ms. Jalessa Paulette, one of the constituents from Thebacha. I welcome her to Yellowknife and to the gallery here today.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

I’d like to recognize also a Junior Ranger from Tulita, Ms. Allison Bernarde, and I’d like to thank the Tulita Rangers for having her come here.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. It’s always nice to have an audience in here.

Item 6, acknowledgements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Tulita Fire Department has been awarded the 2009 NWT Fire Services Merit Community Award. I rise today to offer my congratulations to the Tulita Fire Department on this year’s recent announcement on the NWT Fire Service Merit Award. This award recognizes the dedicated members and all firefighters in the North and the commitment to be of service to their community. This year the Tulita Fire Department was chosen to be the recipient of this award. On behalf of the Sahtu I say thank you to all the firefighters and to the Tulita Fire Department for being there when we need you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Premier. It’s in light of my statement that we as government have to take the responsibility to ensure that we improve telecommunication services in the Northwest Territories, regardless of cell phone service throughout the Northwest Territories or uplink systems from high speed Internet and whatnot. I think it’s just as important to have that infrastructure in place, like our highway systems, regardless if it’s a pipeline. Any system that can improve the services in the Northwest Territories has to be considered.

I’d like to ask the Premier, in light of what happened in the Yukon where they made a political decision to ensure that they had cell phone services throughout the Yukon in every community so that they have improvement in regard to telecommunications in the Yukon, will this government seriously look at the proposal that was put forth, the success of the Yukon model, and implement it in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have, in fact, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, looked at how we deliver programs and services across the North in trying to, in fact, look at ways we can improve those services and the level of services. That’s why we’ve structured, along with Members, the Small and

Rural and Remote Communities committee. As the area of cell phone service and uplink and connections, connectivity across the Northwest Territories, there have been, quite some time ago, some very early discussions with NorthwesTel, but we have not had a formal proposal put before us as government. Thank you.

I believe this government did put out a request for proposal. I believe it was in the last government. I’d like to ask the Premier if he’d consider putting out a similar proposal to ensure that we are able to improve our telecommunications through the 33 communities in the Northwest Territories and the importance of having that linkage to all our communities in the Northwest Territories to improve services, not only for cell phone services such as Internet and high speed Internet throughout the Territories. I’d like to ask the Premier, would he seriously consider putting out that proposal?

Mr. Speaker, if I understood the Member’s question, the previous government did, in fact, go out through a request of expressions of interest in cell phone services across the Northwest Territories. It was not proceeded with or the information that was received, there were no further steps beyond that. As the department reviewed the information, they felt at that time that they had nothing they could go forward with that would be viable and affordable across the Territory.

I’m prepared to sit down with Members of this Assembly if we’re to renew interest in some project or program out there that might be able to expand our services beyond what we’ve done through our what we call the previous government’s Digital Communications Network that we have out there right now. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it’s fundamental that this government improves its communications with all communities in the Northwest Territories. One way that we can do that is through technology. I think it’s important to realize the importance of telecommunications in the Northwest Territories and having that communication link to all our communities. I think it’s important as the government that we do find ways to upgrade our systems. You know, there’s capital layout. Yes, it’s going to cost us a couple million dollars, but I realize that the return on that investment over the long term will save the government by improving that communication system.

I’d like to ask the Premier again, how soon can he possibly come back to this House with some ideas on exactly how we can move forward to improve the telecommunications throughout the Northwest Territories and consider cell phone service for all 33 communities?

Mr. Speaker, this process, number one, we should recognize that we do have communications availability and in every community, the 33 communities. That’s the hard-line phone systems in place. We have Internet availability in our communities. The issue of cell phone service and probably a higher band width is an issue that we wrestle with across the Government of the Northwest Territories. We could come back with a discussion paper. It will be led by Minister Miltenberger, as that branch of communication falls under his portfolio assignments. We will come forward, if Members want, with a discussion paper to talk about what’s been done, some of the information that we have received, and options that have been considered in the past and we can go from there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.