This is page numbers 4411 - 4462 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 4th 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 project.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had some discussions with some of the Yellowknives. We’ve also had some contact with the national chief, Bill Erasmus, about a process to possibly help us work to resolve the current circumstance with the Yellowknives and the access to caribou and our offer to work with them to hunt outside the band area as well as a very small controlled hunt within the band area.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I know you have mentioned this in the House, that you hope to have some conclusion and resolution to this critical issue here. I’ve been hearing this for almost a week and a half or two weeks. I want to ask the Minister about concluding this issue with the Yellowknives First Nation if he can give me a date on hoping that both sides are satisfactory and a conclusion or resolution can be imminent and this issue can be put to bed.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

I think everybody would like to have this resolved as soon as possible. One of the issues is the Dene Nation has come forward with this and they want confirmation that they are speaking on behalf of the chiefs on this issue. The suggestion was to each identify a person or staff member to be able to sit down and start negotiating some of the outstanding issues. We’re involved in that process at this point.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

About identifying some of the outstanding issues, is there a time frame of when this issue will be resolved? Is the Minister willing to commit, even 24/7, to have this discussion done, to have a sit down with the Yellowknives First Nation and Dene Nation, and come up with an agreement like in the good old days when we negotiated our land claim agreements?

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

I’d like to point out that we’ve had six meetings with the Tlicho Government and Tlicho people. We’ve had three very successful community hunts outside the band area, working with the Tlicho communities, and got caribou into the communities to be dispersed and distributed. We’re looking to have the same kind of arrangement with the Yellowknives. We have an offer on the table in terms of a small controlled hunting zone working with our own biologists and elders based on traditional knowledge as well as the science. We’re waiting for specific feedback to that issue. As well, we have on another track the discussions that I’ve just touched on with the Dene Nation.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Congratulations on your success in the Tlicho region. I’m talking about the Yellowknives Dene and

their issue here. I’d like to ask the Minister again if he would commit all his time and effort to his officials to sit down with the Yellowknives Dene and the Dene Nation involved here, sit down, go somewhere, hammer out a deal, hope that by this week we can have a deal. Listen to both sides, come out with an issue. This is a critical issue here. I ask the Minister if he can commit the time and effort and resources to hammer out a deal with the Yellowknives Dene.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

One of the issues that the Member talks about meeting with the Yellowknives, which we’re prepared to do. At the same time we have the Dene Nation telling us that they’re acting on behalf of the Yellowknives. There’s some confusion that has to be cleared up in terms of who we are dealing with and has the decision-making authority to resolve this issue. We have our staff who have been, and continue to be, willing to sit down any time of the day or night to try to sort this out.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The time for question period has expired. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the Order Paper.

---Unanimous consent granted.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Return to item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue asking questions about sole-source contracts that the government has recently entered into. I guess the first question that I probably should ask the Premier about is I’m wondering if the contract to BDK Consulting and Communications for work provided for the cultural component of our participation at Vancouver 2010, was that contract sole sourced and how much was it for?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That portion of the work was an RFP.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

How much was that for?

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

The contract I believe was issued under ECE and I’ll have to get that detail to him.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I’d like to ask the Premier who was on the review team reviewing those RFPs.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

I believe it was representatives of the Department of ITI as well as ECE. But we can get that information as well.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the written request that I asked for information on the cost of physicians and registered nurse visits to Tsiigehtchic. I noted in the response, the Minister stated that there were eight physician visits to Tsiigehtchic between 2008 and September 2009. She also made reference to nurses-in-charge have made 20 visits to Tsiigehtchic between October. All together, between the two positions, it’s 28 days they visited Tsiigehtchic, which is less than a month.

I have been asking this Minister for going on two and a half years to find a nurse for Tsiigehtchic. Today we’re no closer than we were two and a half years ago. I ask the Minister, when are you going to find a nurse for Tsiigehtchic in this decade, before you leave office, before we leave this House? Can you get an answer to me so that the people in Tsiigehtchic know that we are going to deal with this issue and not continue to slide it on to the next group? I’d like to ask the Minister when the people in Tsiigehtchic will have a full-time nurse in their community.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect, the information that the Member just read should be read together with other information that we have provided. The information on nurses-in-charge, we know that we’ve had at least 36 weeks of nursing coverage in Tsiigehtchic for a community of 170 people. The Member knows that I am committed to enhancing nursing services in Tsiigehtchic and all the small communities. That is the work we are doing with Foundation for Change. It is wrong when we tell the community members that they don’t have nursing services. We have nursing services in Tsiigehtchic. I understand that there is not a nurse living and sleeping in Tsiigehtchic all year round, but for a community of 170 people we have 36-week coverage by a nurse. It works out to about 10 hours a year for doctor service. So we are doing the best we can to provide services in Tsiigehtchic.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

The community of Tsiigehtchic want a full-time nurse in that community, just like any other community of similar size in the Northwest Territories. That’s all we’re asking for. To continue to stand here and say, well, we’re providing services, but they might come in once a month or twice a month is not service. For me that’s a referral system that this government is turning into. I’d like to ask the Minister what efforts are being made to get a full-time nurse in Tsiigehtchic.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Every effort is being made to make sure that we provide a good health care coverage to everyone in the Territories. The community of Tsiigehtchic is getting better service than any other community that size in the Northwest Territories.