Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to have the department before us today. They have quite a huge infrastructure budget. I want to make my comments specifically to the small communities I represent in the Sahtu.

I’m looking forward to the day when the infrastructure in the small community of Colville Lake will be improved, the renovations of the health centre. I know it took me awhile, with the help of the previous Health Minister, to have running washrooms in the facility in that community in the health centre. I had several Ministers in there before. They came, they saw and they left. They didn’t quite get the essence of a good health care facility such as having running water, toilets and sinks. There was only a honey bucket in the corner. It has taken eight years to have this facility come to that stage.

I was looking at the Colville Lake Health Centre as an example as to the type of infrastructure assets we have in the small communities. I know that I spoke to the people who work in Colville Lake as I made my visit there, and they are quite concerned because the materials and supplies are stuffed everywhere. There is no real proper storage for that facility. I am looking under the infrastructure as to something that could happen in the future that this Minister would bring something forward to the House or have some plans to start looking in that area. It would mean a lot. This community does not have a full-time nurse in residence in that community. So I am hoping to see some improvements in the area of the health care in Colville Lake.

I do want to thank the Minister for some of the improvements that we have seen in Fort Good Hope in the improvement of the health centre

residence. We still do thank the department and staff for making those provisions. I was quite concerned as to the low water and the barge not getting there; however, I have been advised that that wasn’t an issue and the work was already done and the supplies were already in Fort Good Hope, so I do want to thank you for that.

I am looking forward to the Health department here cutting the ribbon in Norman Wells for the new health centre and the long-term care facility. It’s a good fight, a worthwhile fight to get that one on the books and get to the beginning of the construction. I understand the material will be hauled over the winter road to start the construction next summer with the contractors. At the same time, I am very happy to get a briefing from your colleague, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, on the training of the personnel, workers and essential staff people for that facility. Things seem to be moving slowly. Sometimes they want them at lightning speed, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. I am quite happy that these things are moving in that community.

I do want to relate some concerns. I have talked to the Minister already and am slowly getting my research material together and I do want to talk about the Tulita health centre. It is really busting at the seams. We are getting additional staff, well-deserved staff that is in the community because of the programs that are needed and programs that the department has responded to by adding extra staff to fulfill the needs of the people. The additional staff has now moved into some of the rooms that were used for medical purposes because we do not have enough space in there and it’s getting quite crowded. Especially if the eye doctor or the dentist makes their visits to the community, it gets really busy and it gets overcrowded, along with the regular health care clinic programs that are going on. I just want the Minister to know that I am looking forward to and am going to strongly support any type of movement beyond a peer review of the Tulita health care centre and actually see some construction or something on the books that would say they are actually going to start building a new health centre. That would sure help the community and help the nurses there. God bless their souls for working under these types of conditions in our small communities.

The storage facility in Tulita, it is unbelievable that we have gone this far, this long without having proper storage. There isn’t a floor on the storage building; it’s just gravel. They just put up the building and they didn’t even build a floor for it, it’s just mud, and there is some equipment and materials that are right there. There is not even a light; it’s not even heated.

I took it upon myself, when I was in Tulita, to visit the health facilities and see the conditions the

nurses are working in, and they were quite surprised. I was really surprised when I got the tour and asked questions. I talked to the Minister already about this; the Minister is well aware. I am thankful the Minister is listening to me and I hope he can do something with that. The priority of my visit became shocking to me when I saw the residences we have our nurses in right now in Tulita. The Minister knows what I’m talking about. It’s not the ideal condition to have our nurses in in our northern communities. They work hard and they are on call like we expect, but they are also under these conditions that we want them to provide the best quality care. They are doing their best, and I’d like to see that there is some priority being given to looking at their living conditions, and that’s why I state about the new health care centre that is being planned right now. It is under peer review to be built in Tulita so that we can eliminate some of these issues for the nurse. Take the best care of them because they are under extreme working conditions and they are there for six weeks alone, depending on their contract and how things work out. I know the Minister was attentively listening to me when I spoke to him about these conditions, and hopefully he can do something very soon. Number one is on their living conditions; that’s a priority. The Minister knows what I’m talking about.

The last point I want to make on the infrastructure is in Deline. I have asked the Minister and the previous other Ministers, and finally this Minister has come back, and we want to look at palliative care beds in Deline. We have been asking for a while, and the Minister has indicated that there has been an assessment going on. The Deline people, when I saw them last week, some people were happy that we are getting somewhere. I know the federal government, the federal Minister, is high on this. She made a statement that palliative care is something that she wants to look at. The people in Deline are also very happy that we are getting a bit of movement. It’s slow but it’s moving. We want to have the palliative care and bring our people back to our communities. In the Sahtu we have big families; it’s not like in some of the other centres. The Sahtu, like any other…(inaudible)…has large families and they like to see their loved ones and be with them when they pass on to the other world.

Those are my comments, Mr. Chair. Thank you.