Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I realize the health care system is stretched and that health care professionals are in short supply, including doctors and registered nurses. Can the Minister update this House in its efforts to attract health care professionals to the North? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the young person I spoke of in my Member's statement is one example of how the health care system is failing our residents despite the vision of best health, best care for a better future.

Can the Minister explain what the health department is doing to provide the best care, the best health care that speaks of compassion, that speaks of respect, that speaks of fairness and, most of all, that speaks of dignity of our residents. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Of course it's another case of passing the buck, getting me to do the work of her department. The Minister herself should be relaying these messages to all the health and social services authorities.

Mr. Speaker, one of the values of the health department is accountability in that system outcomes, and I'm stating it again, are measured, assessed, and publicly reported on, and that sounds like an evaluation type of value.

Can the Minister apprise this House and the residents of the Northwest Territories when we may see fruition of the department's value of accountability? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are related to my Member's statement regarding diagnosis at small community health centres. I note the vision of the health department is for best health, best care for a better future. One of the values is caring, which states we treat everyone compassion, respect, fairness, and dignity. Another value is accountability, which states system outcomes are measured, assessed, and publicly reported on.

Mr. Speaker, I have repeatedly been asking the health department if they would consider conducting professional evaluations on the delivery of health care, especially in all the small centres, to no avail. I ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if she will give direction to the department to begin to develop a system to conduct professional evaluations of all small health centres and that these be conducted on a yearly basis. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe I brought up health centre concerns related to ailments of residents that were not diagnosed at the initial visit but rather looked at and sent home with a Tylenol. Mind you, these were all serious concerns having to do with ailments that weren't diagnosed in time, which most times were serious in nature, serious enough that patients had to be medevaced out to Yellowknife or Edmonton.

Mr. Speaker, recently a young resident went to the health centre for an ailment believed to be gallstone inflammation. I believe the nurse concurred with the ailment and gave medication and sent the patient home. Six days later, and in pain, it was decided to medevac the patient out to Stanton hospital. The doctor at Stanton informed the patient his gallstones were too inflamed to consider surgery and was given more medication for the pain and was told of the possibility of being sent home while waiting for the inflammation to subside. The patient notified me of the situation and was very puzzled by what was transpiring and all the while in pain. This added more stress on the patient.

When I followed up with the patient of his situation in which the hospital was releasing him to be sent home, the patient stated the operation did take place and was now mending. That was a quick turnaround and has me puzzled as well.

I have brought forward many times the need to do evaluations of health centres, which would include evaluations of staff, evaluations of diagnostics and medications administered, availability of programs and services for residents dealing with chronic diseases, and so forth. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the health minister at the appropriate time. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. When the carbon tax came into effect -- I'm not sure what year it was, but I think it was after industry was well established, all the mines were already in place. So anything there may have been grandfathered. The tax was set up to -- well, supposedly to penalize the large emitters, large industries. But what we've seen since, from that time, that's not what was actually happening because we got some numbers back from our research in our committee meetings that the large emitters were getting 72 percent of their dollars back and that kind of, like, defeats the whole purpose of what the carbon tax was all about. It's befuddling. Like, why did they -- why did they bother with it to begin with because the people that are actually getting hurt are the little people up in the Northwest Territories, think they did that brush, you know, with the territories and the provinces without really considering the implications to the Northwest Territories, and to the three northern territories. The large emitters are really winning in this instance, and we're not. Even though they dangle the rebates in front of people -- I think the last numbers I think I got was like $546 per person per year. That's just chump change, you know. Even I would put out a press release to -- you know, to tell my residents not to accept it. That's not enough to cover their bills.

A couple years ago the diesel, it was over a dollar. Now when I go to fill up my tank, I'm over $2, not as much as the residents up in Nunakput but we're still over $2. Now we've got this escalating sliding scale that we're looking at where it's going to increase every year, the carbon tax. And I don't think the diesel fuel will ever go down, neither will our power bills. And also it truly affects the trucking industry which delivers all our groceries and goods. So we don't know where we're really going.

This carbon tax is really hurting us. The emitters are the ones that are gaining. Large emitters are gaining, and our government has never ever said, hey -- never cried foul. And I don't understand why they didn't cry foul in that regard. There was no fairness, the large emitters getting their money back, yet the little guys are getting the full brunt of the tax. There's no fairness in that. Our government should have been yelling, kicking, and screaming in parliament. You needed to go there. You're saying, well we just only got one Member of Parliament. Well, you would have had many more voices if you were down there busting down those doors in parliament, and you got seven Cabinet Ministers and seven voices and that's not what's been happening.

We need to send a message to the federal government that we don't agree with the carbon tax and by us not accepting to move ahead with the carbon tax should be sending that message to them that we don't accept any increases to the carbon tax. That's a big message. You know, when you send that message and we all -- we're all together in this, that's a loud voice to tell them that we do not agree with this carbon tax, especially on our residents up in the northern parts of Canada where the cost of living is higher than any place in the south. Having said that, Madam Chair, I will not be supporting the carbon tax as is. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister for that. I'm encouraged by the fact that they will have engagement, which was very lacking at the outset of the tar sands development in the early years, as we would have heard many statements of concern, something similar to the Berger Inquiry. Everybody remembers that one, when the pipeline was going to be coming up and down the Mackenzie Valley and there were a lot of concerns. Nothing was ever, ever heard from the Indigenous peoples. I notice the people from Fort Chipewyan have been voicing their concerns for quite a number of years. There's lots of cancer agents within the tailings ponds effluent, and that is not going to stop. Because these lakes, as I mentioned before in previous statements, that these tailings ponds can be seen from space. So they're very large. And those are just waiting, you know, to spill over and into our waterways thus ending our way of life with the water. And this is very concerning because right now we got waterfowl that we count on for spring hunts that are landing in the tailings ponds. There's many of them that have been killed through that process, and it's going to continue. You know, this is very, very concerning. I'm just wondering what message the Minister's bringing to the bilateral water agreement table without first having heard from the First Nations of the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister for that. The Minister mentions consultations but it's a bilateral process he's mentioning. I'm wondering if he could elaborate on that. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister. I think he's already answered my second question. I provided all the questions to him ahead of time, so he's just about answered all the questions.

Mr. Speaker, we need certainty and confidence in our partners. Alberta needs to understand how their work in mining and the oil sands impacts our way of life.

Can the Minister apprise as to how we will ensure the future management of discharge regulations can be developed in a meaningful way? In a meaningful way, I mean meeting with all the Indigenous partners in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.