Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, no one needs to take the vaccine if they don’t want to. What we are trying to do is give as much information as possible so that people will make informed choices.

Mr. Speaker, I am not saying that the traditional way of healing is not good. That is not what I am saying. What I am saying is I am not medically qualified to say that the traditional way of medication would fight this H1N1 virus.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important for people to know that this is a new virus. Nobody is immune from this virus, because it is new. It has a behaviour that is surprising people. We are at the very beginning of this second wave. We don’t know where this flu will end up in four to five months from now. For all of the Ministers of Health in Canada and chief public health officers, in our opinion, looking at all of the data available, the best way to prevent major illness or death from H1N1 is to get the vaccine. That is not saying that you shouldn’t be taking any other precautions. If you like Echinacea, or if you have…I know the Member for Sahtu relies on traditional medicine. The juice that they give from the local trees, those are all good. Take that, but I am not qualified to say that that would fight the H1N1 virus. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 8, written questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Please provide a precise breakdown of health care provided to the people who reside in Tsiigehtchic.

1. How many times this past year has the doctor

provided care in the community, when the visits were scheduled and how long did the doctor stay in the community?

2. Also, can I get a breakdown of how many visits

per year has a registered nurse been to the community and how long was the visit?

3. And finally, does the health and social services

board provide care in the means of mental health counselling, and does the dentist visit this community?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

I wish to table the following document entitled the Department of Finance: Strategic Action Plan 2009-2012. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 1-16(4), NWT Capital Estimates 2010-2011; Tabled Document 18-16(4), Supplementary Appropriation No. 2 (Operations Expenditures), 2009-2010; Tabled Document 19-16(4), Supplementary Appropriation No. 3 (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2009-2010; Committee Report 1-16(4), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 Annual Reports; and Committee Report 2-16(4), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the Auditor General on Contracting for Goods and Services in the Northwest Territories, with Mr. Krutko in the chair.

I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 1-16(4), Tabled Document 18-16(4), Tabled Document 19-16(4), Committee Report 1-16(4), and Committee Report 2-16(4).

What is the wish of the committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The wish of the committee today is to deal with the infrastructure budget for the departments of Transportation and Public Works. Thank you.

Does the committee agree?

With that, we will take a short break and then deal with the Department of Transportation in Committee of the Whole.

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Sergeant-at-Arms, could you escort the witnesses in?

For the record, Mr. Minister, can you introduce your witnesses?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance; Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Welcome, witnesses. We are on Department of Transportation on page 9-2, department summary, so we will defer that. Are there any general comments in regards to Department of Transportation? Infrastructure investment summary, page 9-2. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just for clarification, are you asking for general comments on Transportation?

General comments, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The comments I have would be on the projects that we have ongoing in terms of the long-term investment this department here is having in the Northwest Territories and the amount of work that is going to be carried out in different parts of the Northwest Territories and the challenges that we have with the projects that are before us. I want to ask the Minister in terms of these projects being done on time. There are certain unforeseeable incidents or circumstances that delay some of the projects. That is part of the nature of doing business in the Northwest Territories. I guess I’m going to ask the Minister somewhat in terms of the confidence of having this department carry out most of the projects through the scheduled time that they said they were going to do them.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister from that profile.

Mr. Chairman, the Member’s question of whether we have

confidence that we will be able to carry out the projects, of course we have confidence in our staff. We will have to qualify that by stating that this past year and this year coming has produced a large number of projects, a very large budget, probably the biggest budget in our department’s history, and it’s really put a strain on our staff to deliver them. But we’re quite pleased to state that 80-plus percent of our projects that are on our books are either at the tender stage or are in the actual construction stage. So we will probably have some carry-over, but I think we’re doing very well in terms of getting all the projects out and in the process system. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t need to go through a list of projects that have been delayed or put over for another year, because of some of the work that wasn’t done or was overlooked, maybe. I do know that there’s very competent and capable people doing these projects and I’m grateful for the amount of infrastructure dollars that are going into the North, especially into our communities in terms of transportation. You can see the priority in terms of the federal government in terms of the dollars that this department is receiving in terms of funding for much needed infrastructure in our communities and the challenges by the people in the North here, by this department, to have these projects completed. I think this department has a fairly good record in terms of being completed on time. I’m not too sure how much is on budget. They state that they have their projects fairly on budget when they do go with the projects here.

So I guess what I’m looking at is in terms of the amount of work that’s being done here and the challenge, I guess, in terms of the money that’s going to be allocated here and the staff here. I know there’s a need for engineers in the department. One of the things I always note is there are engineers needed right across Canada in terms of transportation. So that’s why I asked. Sometimes we don’t have the resources when we want them. We certainly need engineers. Engineers are spread very thinly across the North here. I’m just noting an observation here in terms of this much needed profession here such as engineers in this department here. That’s what I’m asking. Are there other creative ways, rather than to exhaust the existing staff? You know, use contracting out to maybe engineering firms, that we have a good plan to keep these projects on the books, on time and on schedule. Because I know there are some projects that are not quite following what we said we were going to do. That’s my concern.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Michael McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, the Member is correct; I think historically we have had

some challenges filling some of the positions for engineers and project managers. Our senior staff over the last year or so have really worked hard to improve that. We had the opportunity to hire a number of people in the technical area. I think we’re probably better positioned now with the people that we’ve brought on stream and some of the work being contracted out. So we are in a good position to move forward. We don’t expect it’s going to cause a lot of concern now that we’ve staffed up.

I have to admit, though, that there are some things that are causing delays, such as weather. We had some discussions already with the Member for Nahendeh about work that was delayed due to rain and wet weather that just couldn’t be done. So those kinds of things are unforeseen and we’re probably going to see more of that as time goes by.

For the most, and in response to the Member’s question, we are doing a lot better than we have historically. We’ve been able to fill a lot of our positions and we’ve been able to contract a lot of the work out also, so it’s really put us in a good position to move forward on these projects on our books. Thank you