This is page numbers 3003 - 3034 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was work.

Topics

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

I don’t think we’re at a point where we have enough information and we’re convinced that we’re going to get support from our colleagues to include the dollars for an extension in those two communities. The challenges, the new federal regulations that require demonstrated ability to start or take off from a certain length runway and to stop, there are two types of aircraft that are really needing to have certification. That means they have to be able to demonstrate that in a test flight. That’s the twin otter and Beech 99. We’ve gone as far as to contact a couple companies that can provide that information. We’re waiting to hear back. Providing that the response is positive, we may be able to continue with the current operation levels, the current flights that go into these communities with the aircraft that service them. That’s our hope that will resolve the issue.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

The people in the Sahtu certainly want to continue flying around in Twin Otters and Beach 99s and small aircraft all their lives. What we’re asking is working with the Minister here in terms of they have done their homework, they have contacted the various airlines in terms of

the required aircraft that could meet or exceed the safety standards. The best fit right now for the people in the Sahtu is the Beach 1900. I guess I would ask the Minister and the colleagues here, when you look at the need here in the Sahtu, the people...I have to fly in those small aircraft around the region. Same with my people. We can look at it. We have a good fit here. I guess I’m looking at where in the government we can work in terms of saying we can get the extra 500 feet in Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake so we can meet the safety standards of the people in the Sahtu region where there’s the most need. So I ask the Minister here in terms of looking at the extension here, if he could pull out all the stops and see how we can get the 500 feet of runway in terms of making this a go in the Sahtu. My people need the extension.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

The Member’s constituents need the extension to buy a certain type of aircraft. There are other communities that need airports. I have to be able to balance the investment. At this point we’re advising the company that’s requesting it to look at a different type of aircraft that can fly larger planes into the area that have certification that demonstrate they can start and stop on that length of runway. We just extended two runways in the Member’s riding. There is a Fairchild Metroliner. There is a Dornier 228. There is a Dash-8. All of these planes can land. We have to have more discussion. We would have to be convinced that there is a way we can resource it.

Mr. Speaker, we committed several times already to meet with the community representatives as they come to the Native Conference. There are other people that will be involved. For example, the federal government will sit at these discussions. We can explore it and have more discussions in detail. I am expecting we should have some of our findings as to what it would cost to build and operate. It is going to be a very big challenge, I think, to commit to the Member today, without any of the backup information, to say yes or to anything additional in the area of capital. We need a very strong business case. I don’t have that yet. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister is correct. We, at this time, don’t have a strong business case for the government. Mr. Speaker, the runways that we are asking for in Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake are going to provide safety for our people in Fort Good Hope and Deline. We are not on an all-weather road like some of the communities, so we have to look at our priorities. There are some communities that do need it. Some communities in my region certainly have an increase in aircraft, the oil and gas activity and the

mining. Mr. Speaker, yes, we did look at the Dash-8 in the community. It will cost $10 million for the community to build a hangar. It is 37 passengers. I don’t see a Dash-8 going into Gameti, Wekweeti or any other communities around here to look at a scheduled service for small aircraft. I think we have to be somewhat realistic and look at the needs of the Sahtu that have been so long ignored or forgotten in terms of bringing up our standards here.

A thousand feet of runway that we have in Fort Good Hope and in Tulita are appreciated but we are looking at seeing if we can get 500 extra feet on Good Hope and Deline to bring in a Beech 99 that could help the community. If we could do that, Mr. Speaker, I think we can go a long way with the Minister. Again, I would ask the Minister to keep an open mind when we come together on some discussions. There is money out there. Would the Minister again inform his staff that we have for those communities, with the people in Deline, Fort Good Hope and North-Wright Aviation to look at solutions for the runways?

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Mr. Speaker, we are not preventing the Member’s constituents from buying any type of aircraft. That is up to them. They can buy any kind of aircraft they want. They would still need to build a hangar. The hangar is not the issue in this case. Mr. Speaker, it is unfair for the Member to say we are neglecting his constituents. We are just in the process of extending two runways in his riding. We just redid the Norman Wells Airport. We are proposing a $13 million airport relocation in his riding. Mr. Speaker, the issue of runway is something that we need to address. We need more information. I will continue to work with the Member on it. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets to a health hazard alert that was issued on the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency’s website yesterday that included a retail outlet here, the Yellowknife Direct Charge Co-op in Yellowknife, on range fed ground beef.

Mr. Speaker, when I was alerted of this warning this morning -- and there are other Members as well that were alerted to the warning -- the first thing that crossed my mind is not just my family but many other families in Yellowknife have consumed ground beef from the Co-op over the past five

weeks. Mr. Speaker, we sent some questions to the Minister and the Minister subsequently issued a public health advisory. But in the interim, Mr. Speaker, I did phone the Yellowknife Direct Charge Co-op just to get the facts on what range fed lean ground beef was. It is a different product altogether than ground beef. I was surprised when we see this public health advisory on an E. coli warning issued by the office of the chief medical health officer that states to the public, do not consume ground beef products purchased at the Yellowknife Co-op between February 8th and March 10th inclusive as

these products may contain E. coli. Mr. Speaker, this is not entirely true. I would like to ask the Minister of Health if they contacted the Yellowknife Direct Charge Co-op prior to issuing this public health advisory. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for the question. Mr. Speaker, I want to just confirm with the House and advise the public that all necessary steps have been taken since this public advisory or the warning came out from CFIA. All of the products were removed from the store. There is no sign that any of those products have ended up in any other stores. There have not been any cases of E. coli related incidents. The public health officer is talking to the public through the media to answer questions and get as much information as possible out there.

Mr. Speaker, in terms of the Member’s specific question, the CFIA website is fixed to range fed ground beef but the public health officer has included all ground beef products sold between February 8th and March 10th . The reason why the

public health officer has done that is because the grinding process at the Co-op dealt with not only this product but other products as well. There is a small but possible possibility of cross-contamination during the grinding process. In order to be absolutely safe and to make sure that our consumers do not have any chance of consuming this product, we are asking the public to take back or throw out any ground product bought from the Co-op between February 8th to March 10th . Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, I guess better safe than sorry is always the best course of action, considering E. coli is not a bacteria that one wants to be messing with. It killed seven people in Walkerton and made sick another 2,500 people in Walkerton. It is not something you take lightly. Again, airing on the side of caution is a good thing.

In a news story that just recently got published on the CBC News site, that Yellowknife Direct Charge

Co-op says that, on this free range beef, they will take it back and people can get a refund of the product. But if the public health or chief medical officer in the Northwest Territories is suggesting that there could be some cross-contamination of all beef products from the Yellowknife Co-op between those dates, how is the retailer going to be giving refunds as the Minister had discussions with the retailer about giving refunds to consumers that have bought this product over that period of time, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

I think it is important to note that the public should take all caution and to look in their freezer to make sure that there are no products of those dates from that location. There is a very low chance of E. coli contamination, especially if the meat is cooked thoroughly, but we just want the public to be cautious. I think the public health officer is the first and foremost responsibility, as is for me as a Minister and this government. I am advised that the warning right now is to have the public look at the products that they have to see if those were purchased in those dates. The public health officer is advising that they throw those products out or they could go back to the Co-op and see if they could have the money refunded. It is not an unusual practice to go broad in some of these recalls. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to get some clarification on a portion of my first question. That was whether or not the chief medical officer or her office or the Minister and the Department of Health and Social Services had gotten in touch with the retailer and made the retailer aware of the press release that they were going to issue, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

I could confirm that the public health officer as well as the environmental health officer had been in close contact with the Yellowknife Direct Charge Co-op. There has been close cooperation. It is the environmental health officer who has identified the possibility of cross-contamination during the grinding process. It is on that advice that the public health officer decided to include all ground beef products. I could assure the Member that the health officials are working closely with the Co-op to make sure that we serve the interests of the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was speaking to the general manager at the Co-op just prior to coming to the House today. That was at about 1:15 or 1:20. At that moment in time, he hadn’t heard from anybody from the Department of Health and Social Services. When exactly did the office of the chief medical officer get in touch with

the retailer and include the retailer in this process and the subsequent issuing of this public health advisory, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

I could undertake to get the Member that exact information, but the information I have is that the environmental health officers have worked with the Co-op to change their practice so this situation will not occur. On that basis, Mr. Speaker, that is the information I have now. Any further information that the Member or the House may require, I would be happy to get back to the Members. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up to the statement made by the Deputy Premier earlier today when he talked about the government’s response and actions relative to the McCrank report and regulatory reform. The Minister stated that we have developed a comprehensive approach to regulatory improvement. I am really pleased to hear that we have looked into this and that we have developed a comprehensive approach. I have been asking for some time to get an answer on where we stand relative to the McCrank report. I would like to ask the Minister, now that we do have this approach and it is somewhat consolidated and it has been developed, where is this plan going in terms of going forward? What are the details or how we are going to get that out there? What is the Minister expecting that we are going to do as we go forward? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Deputy Premier

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the things, as we indicated, is we are trying to build a table to make sure that we get all of the appropriate Northerners and the federal government are on the table to look at next steps. In terms of the work that we have put out there and I have referenced today in my Minister’s statement, the intent is to put that document on the web in its entirety, as well as we are going to be sending out packages to the aboriginal governments and we are going to be starting the process of discussion and looking for feedback on what we think should be the next steps in the recommendations that we are putting forward. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I note that the Minister mentioned groups in his response and that the document is going to

go on the website. That is great, but they are going to be contacting various and sundry groups. I think that is great as well. How can any interested individuals in the public or any groups that are not contacted by the government provide their comments or their perspectives on this process and on the document that is going to be there? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Deputy Premier

Mr. Speaker, there will be ability through e-mail or written submissions to send in feedback and suggestions. We will look at them all, and all will be sort of added to the mix and considered as we move forward.

I would like to point out that the issue is not so much the report or response to the McCrank report. That is just the latest federal effort to try to look at improvements. For us it is the broader issue of making sure that we have a system that is effective, integrated, properly resourced and running the way it was intended the way it was contemplated and designed 10 years ago. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister. I totally agree with his assessment that, yes, we do want to actually get something up and running, and running efficiently, that was set in place many years ago. We have been waiting for a long time for that. In terms of the compilation of the comments that come back and the consultation that is going to take place, when might we expect to see some sort of a final report which encompasses all the comments which have come in? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Deputy Premier

Mr. Speaker, we would be glad to provide an update to the committee and Members when we next gather at the end of May. I have also indicated that we are prepared and interested to sit down when we have more time to look at further discussion on the specifics and the recommendations themselves and the different areas of focus to have time for detailed review and discussion. Thank you.