Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, the Stanton Territorial Health Authority has an elders council that has been reviewing issues as the Member mentioned and in particular they have been reviewing that option. I have not received a report back from the council, so I will let the Member know as soon as I get it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I also know that the Minister and I were at one time very involved in this type of discussion here. Now, I want to ask the Minister, fair enough in terms of the review from the elders council, if she could seek as soon as possible this review with the elders council specifically to this issue regarding serving aboriginal food at Stanton Territorial Hospital. We have patients coming in from the Sahtu and other surrounding communities. When they’re there today if they have the option of implementing this aboriginal food meals to our people in the hospital.

As the Member knows, the meal services are provided by a third-party contractor at Stanton and I’m not aware of cultural and country food being made available to patients at Stanton, which is why the elders council wanted to review this option. It is under consideration by the council and I will be looking for their recommendations.

The foods are part of a third-party contract, as the Minister stated. How can we get the third-party contractor involved in this type of recommendation, sure to come from the elders council through their recommendations, to serve aboriginal foods? I think this is long overdue. Can the Minister provide some insight on how to go about putting the aboriginal foods on the menu at Stanton Hospital for my people?

Obviously the what, the how, the why, and how to implement such a policy is one that the committee is reviewing, among other things, to give advice to the management of the hospital. That is part of the work that the council is doing. I am aware they have been working on that. I will get back to the Member as soon as they are able to provide that.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could I maybe ask the Minister to show her leadership by meeting with the elders council as soon as possible to see if we can get a recommendation as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of this fiscal year so we can start the new year by implementing a process where the aboriginal people can be assured that their foods will be served at the hospital and they don’t have to come to us every day and say what kind of food are they serving us? They want their aboriginal food. I’d ask the Minister if she could look to her department to make a concerted effort to get this recommendation on the floor from the council to implement it as soon as possible. I ask the Minister, can she feed my people?

The elders council was set up to provide direction and guidance in this area but, as the Member knows, the council is looking at a number of programs and services or approaches that would be sensitive to our aboriginal peoples and their cultures. They’re looking at not only the food component but also the spiritual healing and health and language use, traditional medicines, traditional foods, cross-cultural awareness. They’re looking at a number of things that they would like to work on. Once again, I will undertake to catch up with them to see where they are on making the recommendations.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Ministers responsible for this area are working to secure time with the committee to go over the process that we’re involved with and the steps that we’ll be required to take. We’ll get that meeting together and we can talk about the process forward.

I appreciate that. I wonder if the Premier would commit to letting us know as soon as he knows the date that we will next be submitting a response, as I mentioned, to any regulatory body.

As I’ve stated, with that briefing to committee, the information that we’ll be able to share on timelines, if that is one of the things we need to nail down is that process and information available to share at that time, I’m sure the Ministers will be prepared to do that.

I believe we did respond on the 11th of February. There was a regulatory need for

that. I assume there are other regulatory dates that are scheduled and that we would have to respond by. Perhaps there isn’t, but I would appreciate a commitment again from the Premier that he will find that out and let the House know. Obviously that’s not confidential.

We’ll be able to put a package together on the timelines and commitments that are required of everybody that stepped into this process and will be able to do that with committee.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to the get-together where we can discuss this and how the Regular Members will have input. I guess I would like to ask the Premier to assure us that the perspectives of the Regular Members are being considered in his deliberations before they come to us with a done deal or briefing.

One of the main reasons to get together with members of committees with ourselves is to clearly establish the process forward with information that can be shared. Those type of commitments, input into how we go forward in

developing our responses and those areas where we’re, as well, not just solely responsible for area but where other governments are involved. We’ll have to establish that. I understand that we’ll have both a law clerk as well as a justice to help us navigate those waters.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The time for question period has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8 on the Order Paper.

I’m sorry, Ms. Bisaro. I missed what item you wanted to go back to. Was that item 8?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Item 8, written questions.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Item 8, written questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.