Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that was a third no. He is not prepared to look at the funding formulae which are the basis for the figures that he himself tabled a couple of days ago in this House. That is where I got the numbers from, was from his own reply to my written question that came from his own department. So, look, the funding for junior kindergarten implementation has been like a zombie; it just keeps coming back for more. Whether it is busing, inclusive schooling, capital improvements, Aboriginal language, custodial services, they are all underfunded or not resolved, but we are into providing junior kindergarten now on the backs of the district education authorities. I want to give the Minister a chance to see what lessons he may have learned. What would the Minister do differently if he had to start all over again with junior kindergarten?

We are not even a month into the school year, and we have to look at some of the data that we are collecting from our education authorities. We did provide the education authorities with their funding targets. They gave us their operational plans. The education authorities also have a responsibility to roll out their plans within the partnerships that we have with them and the contribution agreements that we have with them. We will wait until we see that data to address it. I have mentioned that education authorities can come back and look at extraordinary enrolment formulas to address some of those areas that they might be needing, so we will wait for that to happen. We are only a month into this academic year, so we will just wait and see as we move forward. Thank you.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about ambulance services in Tuktoyaktuk. My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Speaker, my first question is: what role can the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs play in helping Tuktoyaktuk build up local ambulance services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does take a very active role in assisting community governments to decide what services they are going to need within their communities through their capital plans that we do with them, that we support them with. In this case, it was a little bit different because the Tuktoyaktuk Highway, of course, had brought a different situation.

We went into Tuktoyaktuk last March and we talked to them about some of the issues that they are facing where, of course, emergency medical responses was brought up as one of the issues. The difficulty with that, though, is that we need to make sure that we have the proper training and that the services that we provide are safe and secure, so there is more work to do with the community, and we are committed to working with the community as best we can to be able to ensure that their residents are provided safe services.

I appreciate the response. My second question for the Minister is: as we enter business planning and begin to prepare for the next fiscal year, how can the community of Tuktoyaktuk access funding the department provides to support community governments with the provision of ground ambulance services?

When we talk about accessing funding within the next fiscal year, it makes it a little difficult, as, like I said, there are some needs, there is training, there is capacity, there is equipment that needs to be built, so it will not be a short-term strategy. It will be a longer-term strategy that we need to look at. We have not forgotten the community of Tuktoyaktuk and the issues that they face now, with having the new highway that will be opening, but, like I say, we need to make sure that any provision of support that we provide is done in a comprehensive, accountable way to ensure that the residents are provided the best services that we can, in a safe manner.

My final question for the Minister is: what role will the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs take in respecting potential highway rescue on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway?

The highway rescue, actually, on the road to Tuktoyaktuk is a concern, as is highway rescue on many of the highways that are in the Northwest Territories, so across departments we have committed to actually taking a look at doing a review of all of the services that we currently have in place and the gaps that we are experiencing. That review is actually currently happening. Tuktoyaktuk is part of that review, as well as every other community, so until we finish that and decide what services are needed, then we will define what action we will move forward with in, like I say, a comprehensive method so that we ensure that, as best as possible, all residents of the Northwest Territories are provided safe services.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Lands. Earlier today I spoke about what appears to be, by all observations, an abandoned barge that is located out on what is known as the point of Rotary Park, located, in fact, in a nature preservation. Both the City of Yellowknife and the Rotary Club have put significant investment into the trail and boardwalk that goes out to this beautiful point. It attracts a lot of tourists and visitors as well as locals. My first question to the Minister is: in circumstances like this, can the Minister clarify for the Assembly what exactly is "ownership?" What defines "ownership" in a circumstance like this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Lands.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. I can advise that the Department of Lands and Justice are well aware of this problem and are attempting to resolve it through the courts. I cannot comment on the case that is currently before the courts and, as the Member opposite alluded to in his question, there are perhaps some unusually complex issues concerning Aboriginal claim. However, I understand that we are also looking at alternative legal steps to have the structure removed, and it is anticipated, and I hope this comes to pass, that the structure and other debris will be removed prior to freeze-up.

I am absolutely pleased to hear that news. I am not sure that I have to continue down any further line of questioning, quite frankly, because I am pleased to hear, as I am sure the residents of Yellowknife and visitors alike will be happy to note, that the Minister is making a commitment, to the best that he can, that this what appears to be abandoned barge will be removed, and removed hopefully before freeze-up.

I just want to thank the Minister for informing this House of that, and I'll be sure to let residents know.

That sounded like another Member's statement. I just want to remind Members that this is oral question period. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll be asking questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the level of medical travel services received in Hay River. As I stated, my office receives more complaints about medical travel than anything else. I was only able to touch on a few areas of concern during my statement. As I mentioned, I understand that when patients are sent to Edmonton they must take what flights are available, but when bookings are constantly being made at the last minute there are just no decent flights left. I want to ask the Minister: how does the department justify sending sick people and elders on flights that arrive in Edmonton late at night or in the wee hours of the morning, especially when those patients have early-morning appointments? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear the Member's concerns, and I've heard the concerns from residents as well. Usually, the medical travel officers throughout the Territories work with patients to develop a medical travel solution that meets the patient's needs.

I understand that there have been some challenges in the Hay River area, and we have worked together to address some of those, and I do apologize for those frustrations. For the most part, we work to actually accommodate individuals' needs throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That sort of leads into my second question. There appears to be a significant lack of information-sharing and communication on the part of the medical travel office, where it doesn't seem that they're working with patients. For example, patients are often unaware that they can rest at Able House when they travel to Yellowknife for the day for an appointment, and constituents often spend the day waiting at the airport or Tim Hortons when they could be resting in a bed, which they might need.

I had a constituent in his eighties who didn't realize he could get a wheelchair at the airport in Edmonton and skip the 45-minute security line the day after his heart surgery. This would all be good information to have, so I want to ask: is there something like a checklist that the medical travel officer is supposed to go through so that patients are aware of all this type of information?

We recently released a handbook that actually has a significant amount of information available to residents who travel on medical travel, and our medical travel officers throughout the Northwest Territories for the most part actually provide the information that is necessary so that the patients know what is available to them. Whether or not, for instance, they could stay at one of the boarding homes; whether they're eligible to stay at one of the boarding homes on a daytime basis.

It doesn't appear to always happen in Hay River. I'm aware of the challenges that the Member from Hay River has raised. I've made a commitment to the Member that we will certainly look at how the services are being provided in Hay River. It's a bit of an anomaly. Normally these services are provided historically through Stanton, now the Territorial Authority. In Hay River there's a bit of a unique situation that we're exploring to see how we can actually bring those services in to be more consistent with the policies of medical travel as it's intended.

Because of this lack of communication, I've informed the Minister's office that the handbook doesn't contain the information that I mentioned. It is not very detail-oriented and it's good to know that officers are supposed to provide this information, but, like I said, we're not doing that, and so it sounds like, just like the Hay River authority is outside the territorial authority and we receive those services in a unique way, it sounds like the same thing has happened with medical travel. The Minister says he's going to work to fix these, but it's time to change it. What is the Minister going to do to fix medical travel in Hay River?