What the Member is referring to is captured in the 70-plus recommendations that will be brought forward and we’ve also initiated a summer institute for language this past summer. It was very successful and was part of the development stages pertaining to certification, possibly diploma or degree. So the Member has already shared his concern and we are looking at that as part of the strategy that’s before us, and there are also talks about the interpretation and translation training program. So that is part of the strategy as well. It is a comprehensive document and we are in the process of implementing it expeditiously. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s good to hear. My last question, which you might be able to guess here, is: Will the Minister commit to -- I’m harking back to my first question on beginning perhaps the long process to consider recognition of an additional language -- sitting down and meeting with the chiefs of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and myself to discuss what a process might look like? Thank you.

Mahsi. I did receive an invitation from the Akaitcho Government and I’d be more than glad to meet with the leadership, along with the Member, to discuss the process of initiating this process. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In July of this year I heard a news report about the difficulties surrounding the cleanup of the old Treminco mine site outside of Yellowknife. I have some questions today for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs under whose watch this falls.

The gist of the news report was that Treminco had gone bankrupt and that our government could end up paying completely for the cost to clean up the site. This was after the government had auctioned off the buildings and equipment that were out at the mine site in order to try and defray the cost of cleanup. Contractors have been allocated to remove the assets, but they only removed some of them -- I think “cherry picked” would be a good word -- and they left many of those assets behind. As of July, the government had been waiting 14 months for the buildings and equipment that remained to be removed.

Mr. Speaker, I have some questions for the Minister with regard to this situation. I’d like to know the

status of the buildings and the equipment at the Treminco mine site at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is absolutely correct; there was some infrastructure that was removed from the site -- cherry picked, as she put it -- but during this past summer we’ve done an inventory of the site and we’re looking at hiring an engineering firm to assess the structural integrity in an attempt to place some value on that. We’re going to look at possibly if it’s feasible to have it go out again, or to see what steps we can take next to do the actual cleanup. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I’m a little distressed, because that was the information that was available in July, was that the government was going to be finding an engineer and placing a value on these assets. So I’m a little dismayed that it’s now October and that it hasn’t been done.

I’d like to know from the Minister, we tried to get rid of these buildings. They’re now deteriorating. They are still our assets because we have reclaimed them because the contractors didn’t do their job. So what recourse does this government have to go after those contractors who didn’t fulfill their contract, didn’t do their job, and what recourse do we have as a government to try and claim back some of the elements of the contract that weren’t fulfilled? Thank you.

This is one of the reasons that making the amendments to the Commissioner’s Land Act requiring security deposits would have helped us in recovering some of those costs. As far as the actual going after the contractors, I haven’t had that discussion and once I have a discussion with my officials, I’ll meet with the Member and relay those on to her. Thank you.

I hate to tell the Minister I told you so, but I’m afraid I have to because that certainly was mentioned by Members on this side of the House before the amendments to the Commissioner’s Land Act came into force, that we really ought to have security for things such as these.

I’d like to know if the Minister could advise if we do find that there’s some value, if we do find that we can get somebody to remove these buildings and equipment for us, how much is that going to cost us. Thank you.

During this winter we’re going to find a feasible solution for the removal of those assets and if we can work with somebody that can get rid of them at minimal cost to the GNWT. As far as an actual dollar figure, I’m not able to provide that right now. Once we have the

discussion with the engineering firm, I think we’d be in a better position to have a bit of a dollar figure, but the bottom line is to try and remove these assets with minimal costs to the GNWT. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for his comments and I appreciate that he’s saying it’s going to be at minimal cost to us as a government. We’ve already incurred some costs; we’re going to incur more, from the sounds of things. I guess I would like to know from the Minister that should we not find a company who can remove these buildings for us, the bottom line is, is the government on the hook to pay for the cleanup of this particular mine site? Thank you.

As far as the actual mine site, we’d have to work with INAC -- because it is kind of a multi-jurisdictional issue -- on the actual cleanup of the mine site. The infrastructure I think is what’s in question here. I suppose if we were unable to find a contractor to remove those, then we’d have to go from there and see what actually it might cost us as a government to remove all of the old infrastructure, because they are starting to age and the longer we delay it, the more dangerous it becomes to have that infrastructure out there. So it is one that we’re hoping to have by the end of this winter, a plan as to how we’re going to deal with it and I’d be willing to share that with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague Mr. Ramsay’s questions about the potential savings to this government by bulk purchasing pharmaceuticals for people in the Northwest Territories.

I have a great idea for the Minister, one that will save the government a lot of money. Mr. Speaker, I think we can all agree that the private sector can do almost anything cheaper than the government can. In Hay River we have a long-established business called Medical Surgical Supply. It is owned and operated by two registered nurses with extensive experience in the Arctic and in small communities. At the present time they purchase pharmaceutical and surgical and medical supplies. They then redistribute these to clients, health centres, hospitals and facilities throughout the Northwest Territories. If the government were going to go to this bulk purchasing idea and this process, this might necessarily require some kind of

infrastructure in order to receive and distribute these bulk purchased supplies.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Health, rather than putting a long-established business like the one in Hay River out of business, wouldn’t it be a good idea for the government to consider contracting them on a cost-plus basis to perform this service on behalf of the GNWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That would be one idea that we would need to look into and I’m willing to do that.

The general idea behind finding savings from bulk purchasing is so that a smaller jurisdiction like the NWT could partner with as many provinces as possible. The one that we’re aiming for is the western provinces. This is happening nationally, but provinces like Ontario are big enough that they can find their own efficiencies by doing their own things. The NWT is signed on with the western provinces to see the big ticket items, probably ones not even a small business in the North could buy, but to be a part of the bigger purchasing power so that we can find some savings. We have a lot of work to do on that yet. We have to get all of the authorities in the NWT to agree.

Obviously we need to see how our private sector could play and what role they could play. I would certainly be interested in looking at that.

I know that in the past there was some thought given to putting this function of purchasing pharmaceuticals and medical supplies under the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority and having it actually done through Stanton. Again, no offence to the government, but I submit to you that the private sector could do this cheaper. If this were a function taken on by the government, trust me, it would grow. It would become a massive operation. The thing that is also necessary is when we’re sending out to small nursing stations, they don’t need a hundred or a thousand of certain things. The idea is to understand their needs, break the packaging down, know the best way to transport and get it there. This is knowledge which is already established with this company.

I’d like to ask the Minister, does she agree that that kind of specialized service could be more efficiently provided by the private sector than a government agency?

I understand what the Member is saying and, in fact, I visited that outlet that exists in Hay River. I do believe they already supply a lot of centres in the Northwest Territories. I will make a commitment to the Member and this House that we

will definitely factor that in and do a cost-benefit analysis. I would have to do a lot of work with the Members in the next coming weeks to have the analysis done and how we can find savings and wherever possible we need to bring our NWT suppliers into play. I would be happy to come forward with a proposal.

I am suggesting a process that would be cost-plus. We would still, as a government, realize the savings of the bulk purchasing because it would be a predetermined additional cost for the administration and provision of the service. Does the government at this time procure any other supplies on a cost-plus basis under such a plan?

First of all I should clarify that I don’t believe there is a system in place or idea in place that Yellowknife Health or Stanton will purchase for everybody. Right now we have a bit of patchwork going on and this is why we have been discussing that at the Joint Leadership Council. We need to work as a group. We need to agree that we need to purchase together. And wherever possible we would use local resources.

There are other things like pharmaceutical drugs that are used in the hospitals, for example. I think the outlet in Hay River deals with supplies. Purchasing drugs, health centres and hospitals would be doing on their own. We have a lot of work to do in coming out with the details of that.

I would once again commit to do an analysis and put a plan together, and I will be reviewing that with the Standing Committee on Social Programs as we move forward.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.