Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just before we came into the House today, my colleague from Hay River North took me to a website on his computer which indicated a gentleman who has set up a special kind of Hansard, and in that Hansard you can put in key words and it tells you how many times those words were mentioned by certain Members.

I was dismayed to realize that my colleague has mentioned Hay River 40 more times than I have during this session.

---Interjection

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be very brief. I did not speak to this bill at first or second reading, and being chair today of Committee of the Whole, I did not speak to it when the bill was before Committee of the Whole. So, as I said, I would like to take a brief opportunity at this moment to add my congratulations to the people of Deline, to all the people who worked on this.

I’m one of the Members who have been here since this all started. Not that I can take any credit whatsoever for the work that’s been done, but I do want to recognize this history in the making. I think only in the Northwest Territories we can still, as legislators, be involved in such significant things that are history in the making. Historic, unique in Canada, not just the Northwest Territories.

I also wanted to say that we’ve talked a lot about looking back from this day to all the work that’s gone into this agreement, that I think the real significance of this agreement will be in the years, the decades and the generations ahead that will look back and see this and will be amazed at what has been accomplished.

We wish you all the best with your new self-government mandate and everything you will do with it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my colleague’s from Hay River North statement on the necessity of this government to invest money in upkeep on our roads and our winter roads, I would just like to say that Hay River is a place where at this time of year we see a lot of visitors from the North that do come in on the winter road. It’s a very narrow window, and it is dictated a lot of times by the weather on a year-to-year basis. But it’s very nice when we see people pull into town from Fort Good Hope and Tulita and Colville Lake and the people taking advantage of that winter road.

The Hay River businesses very much appreciate them not continuing south, or turning north at the junction and coming here to Yellowknife. They come to Hay River to pick up vehicles, have vehicles serviced, pick up parts for their snow machines, to get resupplied for their groceries and their goods that they need for the year, and that is a very, very important piece of infrastructure for people who for the rest of the year do not have any means of driving out of their communities, and it is a narrow window.

As Mr. Bouchard said, if we have a bad fire season, we find the money. But if we have a bad winter road season, we sometimes go, oh well, let’s just close it down. I think that we need to really think about that.

This weekend we’ll see lots of folks coming in on all-weather roads and winter roads to the Kamba Carnival. It’s a great opportunity for families and friends to get together. March is carnival season and so we, again, will welcome many visitors to our community. Again, I just want to say how much we appreciate their support for Hay River, for Hay River businesses and for coming to our community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the residents that are in southern placements, are there particular social workers or people assigned to monitor their cases specifically, and when are we up for the biannual review? What date are we looking at on that? Thank you.

The planes fly both ways. Maybe we should be looking at building some facilities here in the Northwest Territories, and if we didn’t have enough people with specialized need that required that care, we could

actually probably take some of the pressure off some of the provinces and have the people come this way.

I would like to ask the Minister if he ever gets any pushback or any concern raised by families. I mean, we’re raising this here in the House and we’re talking about it from the point of view of economics and economy and work. But from that personal human interest side of the folks that are referred to these southern institutions, does the department ever hear from the families about whether they would like to see their loved ones closer to home? Thank you.

I just want to reiterate my phrase out-of-sight, out-of-mind. I don’t know what support there is for families, either, for seeing these folks’ family members who get referred to southern institutions.

Previously, in another Assembly when I was on the Standing Committee on Social Programs, we actually went and did a tour and visited many of the facilities. That was way back in the day when Michener Centre was still operating and we went to the Alberta Hospital. I believe Minister Miltenberger was the Minister of Health and Social Services, and off we went to see where our people were living.

It still seems like a lot of money to me, $30 million a year every year, year in, year out. I know they’re specialized needs, but I’m a little bit, I don’t want to say suspect, but I’m a little bit curious that if we

don’t have any capacity here in the Northwest Territories that every referral that is made is for these specialized reasons and for this very specialized care.

I’d like to ask the Minister, could we use another group home in the Northwest Territories for adults and children? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk more about the $26.95 million that this government spends every year on southern and, may I say, Alberta institutions for placements for northern residents. The Minister indicated that there were 106 including adults and children. That works out to an average of $255,000 per placement.

I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all, when is the last time these placements where these referrals are being sent to, when was the last time those facilities were visited by somebody from our government, either standing committee or members of his staff? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Specifically with regard to group homes for adults and children, are there any vacancies currently available here in the Northwest Territories in the group homes that already exist? It only makes

sense to me that if there is no vacancy, the tendency would be to have to send them to southern placements. Thank you

I’d like to also ask, in the facilities that we do have here in the Northwest Territories, could he tell us on any given day, like today, are there vacancies available in those facilities, or are we completely maxed out and couldn’t it be that referrals that are made to the South are actually, in fact, because there is no room in the facilities we have here? Thank you.