Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform Members and the public that the Deh Cho Bridge will officially open on November 30th .

---Applause

The bridge represents a tremendous improvement in the level of service over the current ferry and ice crossing and will increase economic development in our territory both now and for the foreseeable future.

For the first time since the road to the North Slave region was built, people will not have to concern themselves with ferry schedules, ice conditions, or disruptions to operations when crossing the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence. The bridge will provide 24-hour access every day of the year. Children born today will still be using this bridge well into their retirement years.

We have used the ferry and ice bridge for so long, many of us do not even think about all of the issues that this operation created. Trucks idled, sometimes for hours, wasting gas and releasing greenhouse gases. Businesses in the North Slave region had to pay to stockpile food and other goods. Some of them even paid extra freight charges to airlift merchandise from Alberta or over the crossing. All of these costs were passed on to customers, and all of these costs are now gone. The ferry burned half a million litres of fuel every year. We had to develop emergency plans about what would happen if there was a fuel spill. We were vulnerable to climate change, with warming temperatures and changes in water levels.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to highlight a key decision of this Assembly, to provide the needed resources to accelerate construction and settle claims. This was critical in achieving the opening this year. Without additional funding, I would, most assuredly, be standing here today, announcing yet another year’s delay. This would have resulted in substantial direct and indirect costs and lost toll revenue.

On the subject of tolls, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation is ready for collection of the tolls. Regulations governing the tolls have come into effect, we have completed information sessions with motor carriers, we are able to process toll permits and the electronic tracking system is fully operational. Carriers that choose to enter into remittance agreements with the department for payment of the toll will be able to submit their documentation on-line. This is the first on-line service as we upgrade our motor vehicle information system.

This project had its beginnings in the 14th Assembly, with the passage of the Deh Cho Bridge Act, and received the support of each Assembly that followed. I call on the Members of the 17th Assembly to continue to have a long-term vision for transportation projects that improve access for our communities, create economic development opportunities and provide lasting benefits for future generations. We need to look beyond our own doorsteps. We need to have a territory-wide approach to major public infrastructure that benefits all of us.

In conclusion, I would like to invite all Members of the Legislative Assembly and the public to attend the opening ceremonies on November 30th . It will

be a grand celebration with the ribbon cutting at the north abutment of the bridge, a community feast, traditional spiritual offerings, fireworks and the final transit of the Merv Hardie. I hope to see you all there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Premier McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories is being presented with an exciting opportunity to engage on northern priorities on both the national and international stage.

On May 13, 2013, Canada will be taking over chairmanship of the Arctic Council for a two-year term. The Arctic Council is a consensus-based, high-level intergovernmental forum that works to promote the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainable development in the Arctic region. All eight circumpolar nations sit on the council and receive direct input from the six permanent participant organizations representing the indigenous people of the Circumpolar Arctic.

As Canada begins preparing for the upcoming chairmanship, and recognizing the power of a pan-territorial approach, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut have been closely working together to define our common interests. As articulated in the pan-territorial document A Northern Vision, the territories are committed to speaking as a unified northern voice in advancing Canada’s participation in the Arctic Council.

I have communicated our commitment to support Canada on the Arctic Council to Minister Leona Aglukkaq, Member of Parliament for Nunavut, who was recently appointed as Canada’s chairperson to the Arctic Council and will guide the Arctic Council vision over the two years of the Canadian chairmanship.

I have committed to Minister Aglukkaq that the Northwest Territories will play a larger role in supporting Canada as they prepare for their chairmanship of the Arctic Council and throughout the entire two years. The Arctic Council is Canada’s premier forum to advance its Arctic Foreign Policy, which is the international dimension of Canada’s Northern Strategy. Many of our Government of the Northwest Territories priorities complement the pillars of the Northern Strategy and we will work with Canada throughout its chairmanship to advance these common interests.

Our commitment was further reiterated by Deputy Premier Lafferty on my behalf this past weekend, when he met with Minister Aglukkaq during her visit to Yellowknife as part of her Northern Engagement Tour. This northern tour has been an opportunity for Minister Aglukkaq to engage with the territories on Canada’s chairmanship theme, which is, “Development for the People of the North.”

Deputy Premier Lafferty, accompanied by Minister Ramsay, Minister Abernethy and Minister Beaulieu presented many of our priority issues such as search and rescue, cost of living, sustainable housing, employment opportunities, energy,

infrastructure and climate change as important issues being faced by communities and regions across the Northwest Territories and the Circumpolar North.

During her visit, the Minister also hosted three separate roundtables with Government of the Northwest Territories Ministers, Aboriginal and Municipal Leaders, and Northwest Territories stakeholders. The roundtables gave participants an opportunity to engage with the Minister and provide input on Canada’s theme of “Development for the People of the North,” and three sub-themes of arctic resource development, responsible and safe arctic shipping, and sustainable circumpolar communities. Canada’s theme and sub-themes align well with our territorial and pan-territorial priorities, and we hope to continue to engage with Minister Aglukkaq in a more formalized role during Canada’s chairmanship.

We appreciate Canada’s commitment to the Arctic Council and support them in their theme and positions on many topics including sustainable development, the inclusion of new observers to the council, and support for permanent participants.

The chairmanship is an exciting opportunity for Canada’s North. The Northwest Territories is an ideal location to host many Arctic Council discussions throughout the two-year Canadian chairmanship and presents an opportunity to showcase the immense potential of Canada’s northern communities to the rest of the circumpolar world.

We look forward to supporting Canada in achieving our many common goals, while bringing tangible benefits to the North and Canada as a whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to update the people of the Northwest Territories on the status of the barren ground caribou and the condition of the various herds.

During this past summer we were able to complete full surveys on the Cape Bathurst, Tuk Peninsula and Bathurst herds. A partial survey of the Bluenose-West herd was also done. Surveys of the Bluenose-East and Porcupine caribou herds could not be done due to weather conditions. Surveys are planned for both these herds next summer.

Preliminary results indicate the Cape Bathurst herd has increased to about 2,400, from 1,900 in 2009, while the Tuk Peninsula has declined to about 2,200, from 2,700. We also see that the Bluenose-

West herd has seen a slight increase since 2009, with a count of about 20,000, from 18,000. More analysis is being done on the results of the 2012 surveys and final numbers will be shared with Members as they become available.

A survey of the Bathurst herd was also done this past summer. I understand that the survey was done under ideal conditions, and because of the tight concentration of breeding females, it was one of the most precise surveys ever done on that herd.

I’m happy to advise that this herd, which was in rapid decline only a few short years ago, has now stabilized at about 35,000, a slight increase from 32,000 in 2009.

Mr. Speaker, while the halting of this decline is good news, we are not out of the woods yet, as the overall size of this herd remains very low. In addition, the number of breeding females has not increased and there has been poor calf recruitment for the past two years.

Given this, we remain concerned about the overall conservation of the Bathurst herd. The harvest restrictions, as recommended by the Wek’eezhie Renewable Resources Board, remain in effect for the 2012-2013 harvest season. This includes 150 hunting tags for the Tlicho people and 150 for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.

In addition, ENR will begin working with our partners in the WRRB, the Tlicho Government, the YKDFN and others on the development of a harvest management plan beyond 2013 and leading to the next planned Bathurst survey in 2015.

Mr. Speaker, while we were unable to survey the Bluenose-East herd in 2012, the results of the 2010 calving and post-calving surveys indicated the herd has increased to about 100,000 animals.

These numbers give us an opportunity to open discussions about an unrestricted Aboriginal harvest as well as the possibility of considering a limited resident harvest on this herd. Of course, Mr. Speaker, we will have to work with our co-management partners on any such proposals and look forward to beginning that task in the immediate future. Our plan is to work with our co-management partners to draft a proposal on harvest options by December 2012 so that the board can make recommendations on harvest levels in time for the 2013-2014 hunting season.

ENR is also eagerly awaiting the results of survey work done by the Government of Nunavut on the Beverly/Ahiak herd. This data, expected to arrive in November, will help inform decisions about current and future management actions for both subsistence and resident harvesters. Discussions with the Beverly Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board and the Government of Nunavut are expected to begin as soon as the data arrives and

we hope to see harvest recommendations on this herd in time for the 2013-2014 hunting season.

I want to take this opportunity to recognize the sacrifices made by so many throughout the NWT to help conserve our barren ground caribou herds.

These sacrifices have made a big difference in helping these herds stabilize and, in some cases, increase. Other factors, however, including weather events, climate change, predation and other disturbances mean the future is uncertain.

We continue to look to our co-management partners, Aboriginal leadership, communities and stakeholders for their continued support and advice on determining long-term management actions for our NWT barren ground caribou herd.

Mr. Speaker, I understand the hardship harvest restrictions places on harvesters, especially subsistence harvesters, and I intend to provide an update to this House in February on final survey results as well as proposed management actions for ensuring their conservation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Speaker, in 2001 people from around the NWT gathered on the Hay River Reserve to develop a social agenda for the Northwest Territories. Addressing social issues was a priority for the Government of the Northwest Territories at that time, as it is for the 17th Legislative Assembly today.

Every day we hear concerns about addictions, early childhood development, school success and family violence, among other issues. We all know that meaningful change happens when communities take control. The solutions to these issues come not from government headquarters, but from communities themselves.

One of the recommendations from that gathering was that communities should build plans to enable them to access multi-year block funding for community wellness programs.

Mr. Speaker, it has taken some time and lengthy discussions with our partners at Health Canada, but the time has come for this recommendation to be brought to life.

Our staff are building a schedule with our local and regional partners to support the development of community wellness plans in every community over the next few years. These plans will enable communities to access community wellness funding from Health Canada and our department through a multi-year block agreement. The agreements will simplify reporting requirements and allow for long-

term planning and local staff development. In addition, these community wellness plans will be a tool communities can use to document local priorities and to access funding from other sources. An added bonus is that these plans will help the department ensure it responds to community priorities as it plans its prevention and promotion work.

Mr. Speaker, planning is not new to our communities. In 2010 every community completed an Integrated Community Sustainability Plan, with support from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Many of these comprehensive plans include reference to wellness programs as a community priority. This project builds on this kind of past work. Communities are not being asked to start from scratch. They are being encouraged to use work done in preparation for self-government, the pipeline, mines, or other projects. The key is that they will develop their own processes, where residents will ask themselves the following questions:

•

Where

are

we

now?

•

What do we have to work with?

•

Where do we want to be in the future?

•

How do we get there?

Unlike many other planning projects in recent years, we are not asking for a one-size-fits-all in terms of process or reporting. We are encouraging our partners to build something that works for them.

Mr. Speaker, this will not be a GNWT or consultant-led process. The regional Aboriginal governments, community Aboriginal and municipal governments, or interagency committees are going to bring residents together to develop their community wellness plan.

For example, Mr. Speaker, in my hometown, the local community wellness staff will be involved in facilitator and report writing training in the next few weeks. These skills will be then used to lead the way in Fort Resolution. Taking the time to learn some new facilitation and reporting skills means that the capacity to do this work will stay with the community.

In the Monfwi riding, the Tlicho Government’s Community Action Research Team will add a couple of extra days onto community engagement work they do every fall to lead this work.

The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation wellness staff will be doing the same in their region.

Mr. Speaker, reaction to this project has been very positive. Many of our community leaders have said they are grateful that communities will have the chance to plan their own programs in a manner that works for them.

I look forward to updating Members on the progress of this initiative in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Premier McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, last week in Winnipeg my colleague Mr. Hawkins and I attended the third National Aboriginal Women’s Summit, or NAWS III. The summit was established to further coordinate efforts underway nationally and in several jurisdictions, aimed at addressing violence against Aboriginal women and girls in particular, to end the national tragedy of murdered and missing Aboriginal women and girls. Members of this House will recall that in 2008, the NAWS II was held in the Northwest Territories and built upon the recommendations of the NAWS I in areas such as health, safety, wellness, equality and empowerment.

The two-day summit opened with a community gathering and family-honouring ceremony. I was able to participate directly in the ceremony and I hope the families found some comfort and healing. Our thoughts and prayers will remain with them and all families that are missing loved ones.

The second day of the summit included a roundtable discussion of provincial and territorial representatives and national Aboriginal leaders. I was pleased to be able to have productive discussions with the Northwest Territories Native Women’s Association while I was at the summit, and look forward to our continued partnership with the Native Women’s Association and the Status of Women Council.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 34(6) so that all Ministers’ statements filed with the Clerk can be delivered today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Our statistics indicate that there are 73 missing or unsolved homicide investigations open in the Northwest Territories. Of these, 63 are considered historical missing person investigations. Of these 63, 13 are women, eight of whom are Aboriginal. Ten of the 63 historical cases have been deemed suspicious or foul play has not been ruled out.

Mr. Speaker, since January 1, 2000, 35 deaths occurring in the Northwest Territories were classified as homicides by the coroner’s office. Eleven of the victims were women.

Along with my provincial and territorial colleagues, I am committed to working at the national level to address the issues facing Aboriginal women and

communities. A broad cross-section of society working together can create positive change.

I want to especially recognize the family of Angela Meyer. Members of this House will recall that Angela went missing from her home here in Yellowknife. I was honoured to be able to present her mother, Kathy Meyer, with a special blanket during the family-honouring ceremony as a symbol of the support and comfort we all feel for the families who are suffering this terrible loss. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Speaker, healthy behaviours and healthy choices are fundamental to a good education and superior quality of life. Schools offer a significant opportunity to educate young people about healthy lifestyles and to foster healthy behaviours. In the Northwest Territories, schools play a strong central role in health promotion. While we develop the programs that foster these healthy behaviours, we must first understand what our young people think about their health, their challenges and their choices. The Health and Health-Related Behaviours Among Young People in the Northwest Territories is our students’ voice about their health and their experience in NWT communities.

This report has been done every four years since 1989, but until now, all of the reports have combined NWT numbers with the rest of Canada. The new report is the first time we have had data for our territory. Led by researchers at Queen’s University and the Public Health Agency of Canada, the report covers students aged 11 to 15.

The report presents data on the health of young people in the categories of mental health, environmental influences, health promoting behaviours and health risk behaviours. The data show that our young people share similar patterns with their counterparts in the rest of Canada, and those issues like bullying and substance abuse are as relevant here as down south. The data also show that mental health, relationships with others, and obesity and overweight issues need particular attention in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, the departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services will be using the important baseline information in the report to build strong, targeted programming. This is valuable information and a great insight into how our children perceive themselves. Later today I will be tabling this report.

Many of the programs we have in place work to change risky behaviour patterns in our students, and this report will serve to not only reinforce those programs, but give us the ability to act in areas where our children have told us they need it most. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Colleagues, before we go on today, I would like to welcome back to the House, two former Ministers and one former Speaker, David Krutko, and Ms. Sandy Lee. Good to have them back in the House.

Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today Members of the Legislative Assembly are wearing purple ribbons. These ribbons represent the remembrance of a very young, talented, gifted and special individual who was taken too soon from his family and friends, Paulousie Ittungna.

Purple was Paulou’s favourite colour. Sometimes our families, communities and territory lose special individuals far too soon and well before their time. This is just the case in the passing of Paulou.

Paulou was an exceptional young man, who excelled in sports such as soccer and volleyball, but he was more than that. He was a brother, a son, a role model to youth and adults and a mentor to his family and friends.

Although a young life has been lost, this is also a time to reminisce and celebrate a great life that was full of energy and positivity that was shared with everyone that had the wonderful experience of knowing Paulou. He will be deeply missed and our thoughts and prayers will be with his family and friends today.

Today I ask all Northerners to take a moment of silence in their own time throughout the day to remember a special person in their lives that they have lost, and continue to pray for others to give them strength in their times of need. I thank all Members today for wearing the significant ribbon that remembers the great life of one of our young residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Later today I will be tabling a written petition of 27

signatures, calling for the early introduction of midwifery services throughout our communities.

This paper petition is in addition to the e-petition that will remain open for signatures until January on the Legislative Assembly website. My colleagues for Hay River North and Frame Lake have spoken this session on the need for early introduction of midwifery services throughout our community. I will add my voice to theirs.

The Minister of Health has heard the sound arguments: improved social functioning, enhanced autonomy, bringing birth closer to home, increased continuity of care, decreased stress, improved access to culturally appropriate care that promotes the ancestral traditions of midwifery, and the increased opportunities for health promotion and disease prevention.

Let’s not forget the money. Keeping mothers in communities rather than flying them around, putting them up, and delivering children with very expensive physician care costs us huge sums. We are building a regional health care delivery system on the basis of the community health centre. Midwifery service is an indispensable element of this model. Deferring these benefits in the cause of savings today is penny wise and pound foolish, and fails to continue the progress improvement of community health centre services.

I want to give a respectful nod to the hardworking group NWT Citizens for Midwifery that has recognized the need for an NWT-wide perspective and is so strongly supporting the development of midwifery services in our regions. I also support the adoption of this approach by the Minister of Health and Social Services.

In this session we continue to hear the Minister talking about consulting, planning and preparing. He said last Monday that we’ll be doing community consultations and preliminary health human resources planning for midwife recruitment and training options. While I appreciate this work, it is years since the previous Minister deep-sixed the Yellowknife program. We hear that Minister Beaulieu is aiming for 2015 for the new regional program. We’ve had enough delay. Like my colleague Ms. Bisaro, I’m calling for the inclusion of this programming in the next 2013-2014 round of business planning.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about the need for Education, Culture and Employment to provide student

financial assistance for Aboriginal students to do master’s and PhD degrees.

In 1998 this government reduced the number of years an Aboriginal student can receive SFA to six years. This was done to assist the GNWT when the federal government reduced our budget by 10 percent. MLAs agreed to this, because the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment of the day promised he would put something in place so that Aboriginal students could get the same level of student financial assistance for master’s and PhD degrees.

What is the situation almost 15 years later? First, let’s look at the jobs. The vast majority of GNWT jobs require one degree, or many require a master’s. In fact, there are 17 positions in the division of early childhood and school services at ECE. Sixteen of those positions, or 94 percent of the 17 positions, require a master’s degree.

What about the improvements to SFA? Well, I’m proud to say the then-Minister of Education did substantially improve SFA but not for Aboriginal students who want to get their master’s or PhD degrees. The government changed the regulations so that the non-Aboriginal students now receive a remissible loan with allowance of six years, the same as Aboriginal students, but we have done nothing for Aboriginal students to get their master’s or PhD degrees.

Aboriginal students took a huge hit in 1998. This government reduced their SFA from unlimited years to six years. Aboriginal students helped this GNWT meet our new budget, but we failed our Aboriginal students. We created a problem for them in 1998 and we have failed to fix it as we said we would.

It’s time to fix the problem of no master’s or PhD degrees for Aboriginal students that we created 15 years ago. Otherwise, Aboriginal students might say that GNWT is deliberately trying to keep Aboriginal people from working at ECE, or if ECE is an illustration of the government as a whole, they can say that we’re trying to keep Aboriginal people out of the GNWT. Look at our hiring percentage.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The people in my riding are grateful when they can receive medical services in their small and remote communities. I’m really happy that doctors travel about every six weeks to small and isolated places like Trout Lake. What a precious opportunity to give our elders and children the best of care.

I’m sorry to say that we’re not fully making use of this opportunity. The doctor comes to Trout Lake, but residents are turned away if they don’t have a

prior appointment. These are the elders and children.

I think, last week or a couple weeks ago in this House, Mr. Yakeleya spoke about chasing patients away from the small and remote communities when the doctors are there. It’s not always easy to anticipate when you’ll need to see a doctor and make an appointment. Think of it, Mr. Speaker. The doctor’s there, the patients are there, but the patients can’t see the doctor. How frustrating for the people of Trout Lake and people in all our small and remote communities when they’re waiting for that opportunity. Perhaps we can plan to have the doctor to stay overnight so that everyone can be seen. These days we invested lots of money into electronic medical records. Visiting doctors should be able to access walk-in patients’ files.

I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services on making more effective use of visiting doctors during question period today.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. November is the time of year when we wear a red poppy in memory of those who sacrificed their lives for us during war. The 11th hour of the 11th day of

the 11th month marked the signing of armistice on

the 11th in 1918; the signal of the end of World War

I. At 11:00 a.m. on November 11th , the guns on the

western front fell silent after more than four years of continuous war. This year, on Sunday, November 11th , I will take part in the Remembrance Day

service in Hay River.

It will be with great pride that I will be taking part in this service in Hay River to remember those men and women who have served and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace. Remembrance Day gives us all time, for us a nation, to stop and reflect upon the sacrifices that our soldiers have made so that we continue to live in peace in this great country.

The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem In Flanders Fields. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields in Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red color an appropriate symbol of the blood spilled in war. I urge everyone to wear their poppy with pride, and hopefully everyone will have the opportunity to attend ceremonies in their communities.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the cold weather upon us it is only right that we once again revisit a topic that I brought into this House some months ago. That topic is carbon monoxide detectors.

Sometimes you only need to look over the fence to see the good work that is being done by our colleagues in the Yukon, where they have faced this issue with a certain degree of vigour since a tragic carbon monoxide poisoning in Whitehorse last January.

Although the Yukon is proposing to make carbon monoxide detectors mandatory in all Yukon homes including rental units, I don’t believe the NWT needs to take the same legislative steps in order to raise the bar for our residents. Quite frankly, we should only have to look at the findings of the Yukon Oil-fired Appliances Working Group, their action plan and recommendations, as well as just speaking to our own Arctic Energy Alliance partners to truly get a proper roadmap for the safety of our citizens and carbon monoxide detector use.

First and foremost, it is evident that biomass is now on the rise and being supported by this government as a viable means of heating our homes and businesses. However, do you know, with all the support, the GNWT does not have any regulations for the installation of wood and pellet stoves in their communities. Aside from maybe Yellowknife and Hay River, many wood stoves in various communities are noncompliant, many of the existing stoves do not meet safety codes, and most troubling is that there is no established inspection process for many of our communities.

It is paramount that this government lead by example and take the necessary steps to standardize the implementation of proper training methods for installation of oil-fired and wood use appliances, enhance the upgrading skills of our tradespeople, ensure the training programs used are up to date of curriculum and standards, and finally, spend the necessary funds on the proper public awareness and regulation process.

It is without question that awareness needs to be increased, and a standardized regulation for all oil-fired and wood use appliances needs to be a shared mandate with all community fire marshal offices, with the Municipal and Community Affairs office, and with the cooperation of various community governments.

To ensure the safety for all NWT residents, this much needed regulation needs to be introduced and standardized today. We have the power to avoid needless tragedies. Will this government

ignore or will this government act now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Yellowknife Association for Community Living and the NWT Disabilities Council provide many programs for disabled persons and their families. One of the most widely used and most appreciated programs is the Respite Care Program.

Under the Respite Program here in Yellowknife, a caregiver from the Yellowknife Association for Community Living takes care of disabled children for three to five hours a week. The program not only gives the children’s families a short break each week, but it also introduces the children to a social life outside their families.

The Yellowknife program has been used by the NWT Disabilities Council as a template for three other respite care pilot programs in Deline, in Fort Smith and in Aklavik. Children have been able to develop relationships with their respite worker and, more importantly, perhaps with other children. Several parents have told me that advances in the social development of their child is absolutely because of the Respite Program. The kids have an opportunity to bond with and to relate to people who are not family members. The dynamic of such a relationship for an autistic child, for instance, cannot be underestimated.

In 2010 the Respite Program run by the Yellowknife Association for Community Living lost its funding. As a result of major pushback from the community, the funding was reinstated. At the same time, Regular MLAs passed a motion calling on the territorial government to provide permanent funding for respite care in the NWT.

In response, the GNWT created a Territorial Respite Care Committee to develop a strategic plan to extend the Respite Program across the NWT. This plan has been formulated and received feedback from committee members and service providers.

What is so desperately needed now is the implementation of that plan. In 29 of our communities, families with disabled children currently have no respite care services. The executive director of the NWT Disabilities Council states that they are receiving crisis calls on a weekly basis from NWT families, parents and front-line workers, including social workers, all of whom are at the end of their resources. As you can imagine, it is heartbreaking for all involved to have to turn families away, heartbreaking when families have to consider giving up their children because

they just can’t get respite care in their home community, heartbreaking when suggestions for coping with stress involves sending children away to an institution for short-term care.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

There is an overwhelming need for respite care in our territory. When will the Health and Social Services department roll out the territorial respite implementation plan?

I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I raise today’s Member’s statement as an opportunity to respond to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Minister’s statement, which is an update on the NWT barren ground caribou numbers.

First off, I want to thank the Minister for providing the House a small update. I think it’s a snapshot of our particular situation, but it is disappointing to hear the facts, that we still have a number of herds missing, without the details.

He points out, quite clearly, that the Bluenose-East and the Porcupine numbers, due to weather, we were not able to get clear and accurate numbers. So in other words, we couldn’t operate with that.

There is some good news. I want to thank the Minister for being at least the messenger of good news that the Cape Bathurst herd and the Bluenose-West are increasing and, predictably, we are very hopeful that the Bluenose-East at 100,000 continues to show strong numbers. That now starts to open up the question of what are we going to do with these particular numbers.

Many of the outfitters as well as resident hunters and I, do hear as well from Aboriginal rights holders, who ask themselves from time to time what numbers are we actually working towards. It seems to be shifting and we need clear transparency on these particular numbers. If we are going to open up the harvest one day and expand the harvest to what it was at one time, we need to understand what we are working towards.

I find it disappointing that we don’t have any indication in the Minister’s statement as to how we will continue to work with industry that is being mothballed as we speak. Outfitters have certainly paid a pound of flesh as they’ve waited patiently for the outfitting industry to once again return to its

great excitement. We all know that the outfitters provided great employment; we had an excellent reputation in the Northwest Territories to provide opportunities. Some of the meat, in many cases that was provided, was given to the small communities and those who needed it, and let us not forget about the taxation and the millions of dollars that was brought into the Northwest Territories.

The primary concerns are in where are we going. We’ve got some of these numbers, not all, I respect that that may not have been possible, but where are we going with these particular numbers? Full transparency is the issue on this one, so when the outfitters look forward to the future, they know where they’re going. We cannot continue this attitude of the 12th of never as our motto of one day

we will open the outfitting opportunities, one day resident hunters will hunt.

If the Minister could provide the House with real numbers, we all know what we’re in together fighting for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sunday is Remembrance Day and I’d like to take this opportunity to speak just a little bit about the veterans, starting with the veterans and the knowledge of war that I grew up with as a child.

My grandfather, Sylvanus John Vivian Cann, volunteered to serve in the First World War when he was 28 years of age. He was already married and had three small daughters. He went off to World War I, and in later years, when you have a grandfather that wore a great big, long, wide band of metal, you’re going to hear a few war stories.

I find it interesting that my grandfather’s recollections of his time in the trenches on the front lines in the First World War always included his remembrance of serving with Aboriginal soldiers, First Nations soldiers that he served with. Now, he was no dummy, because when you’re crawling around in trenches, who do you want to have with you? People who have the expertise and the knowledge of the land and can see and hear the signs, and he often told us the stories of the acute skills and how much he appreciated that time of service.

Later, when World War II broke out, his two sons, my two uncles, Charles Stuart Cann and Thomas Bruce Cann, both went off to the Second World War and went to Europe as very, very young men. My Uncle Stuart is buried in France someplace and my Uncle Bruce did come home, but he came home very troubled, very shell shocked and lived a

life where as kids we didn’t really know what was wrong with Uncle Bruce, but he would break into tears or he was shell shocked from the war and we didn’t know that as kids. The happy news for Uncle Bruce was he had met a beautiful, sophisticated Dutch widow when he picked up a little girl off the streets of Holland and took her home to her mother. My Aunt Susan ultimately came to Canada and married my Uncle Bruce, and they had a wonderful family and a wonderful life together.

My own father, who served in the British Army from 1940 to 1947 and immigrated to Canada, met my mother there, and I’m very proud of my father’s war service as well. Then coming to Hay River and meeting the many, many wonderful northern veterans who we got to know, many of whom by now have passed away, but as Remembrance Day comes upon us this Sunday, may we just say we will remember them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Tu Nedhe. Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi Cho, Mr. Speaker… [English translation not provided.]

Today I would like to pay tribute to the late Georgina Biscaye of Fort Resolution. A funeral service was held in her memory yesterday.

Georgina was born June 13, 1961, in Rocher River. Her family moved and settled in Fort Resolution when she was seven years old. Georgina always had fond memories of Rocher River and never forgot where she was born and was proud to remind others.

Georgina passed away surrounded by her family on Thursday, November 1, 2012, at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Georgina was 51 years old.

Georgina discovered she had cancer on April 12th ,

shortly after her partner and husband, the late Alphonse King, was detected with cancer. They both had lung cancer. Although, finding out they both had cancer, they decided not to let their illness get them down, and instead both chose to embrace and make the best of their medical conditions. Georgina and Alphonse were both hospitalized – she in Edmonton, he in Yellowknife – when he passed away on June 8th .

Georgina was a strong-willed Dene woman who always spoke her mind and got her point across. She got along well with others and had a great sense of humour. She had no problem accepting constructive criticism and was always willing to lend a helping hand to those in need. Georgina was definitely a family caregiver. She always took care of her parents until her father died, and right up until she got sick she took care of her mother.

Georgina’s nieces and nephews called her Auntie Mom.

Georgina preferred to speak Chipewyan and only spoke English when she had to. She was committed to her language and culture, and it was a big part of who she was. She worked really hard to maintain this area of her life. Georgina was passionate about being involved in the preservation and revitalization of the Chipewyan language. She was confirmed to the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board and the Official Languages Board as a Chipewyan representative on June 20, 2011. She was nominated as the chair of the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board on February 17, 2011.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Georgina was very active in the promotion of her language through her work. Until recently, Georgina worked as the Akaitcho Chipewyan regional language coordinator with the Akaitcho Territorial Government and prior to that she worked as a Chipewyan language coordinator for the Deninu Ku’e First Nation. Minister Jackson Lafferty acknowledges her work in the languages area.

Georgina is survived by her mother, Therese; her sisters, Anne, Sabet, Julie, Violet and Gloria; her daughter, Lacey; granddaughter, Chase; and numerous nieces and nephews, cousins, and many, many friends. My sincerest condolences go out to Georgina’s mother, five sisters, daughter, grandson, nieces, nephews and many friends.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the former Member for Mackenzie Delta Mr. David Krutko, and also the former Member for Range Lake Mrs. Sandy Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to rise and welcome to the House again our esteemed colleague Mr. Krutko and former MLA, former Minister and Range Lake resident Ms. Sandy Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize three Pages from Yellowknife South: Megan Vu, Benjamin McGregor, Latetia Hammond. I would like to thank them for their good

work, and also thank all the Pages that are here today.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Ben McDonald, a stalwart of Alternatives North and defender of the public good.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to recognize my former colleague Mr. David Krutko, and as I’ve told him before, I keep his chair warm for him down here. Also my former colleague Ms. Sandy Lee. As a little trivia point, there’s only ever been nine women elected in the history of the territorial Legislature and Ms. Lee is one of them. There’s not very many of us.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also wanted to recognize Minister Sandy Lee, and Member and Minister David Krutko. They look so happy sitting together up there.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to echo Mr. Yakeleya’s comments. I’ve never seen the two, Mr. Krutko and Ms. Lee, look happier together in my years. That said, I would like the occasion, as well as Premier McLeod, to recognize all our Pages. Specifically I would like to highlight Ally MacInnis. She’s a Page from Yellowknife Centre, and I want to thank her as well as all the Pages for their fine duties. They support us in our work and it’s a very valuable service that we treasure here.

As well as Mr. Bromley, I too wish to recognize Ben McDonald, who is a constituent of Yellowknife Centre. I do know Ben works very hard at various things and I wish to acknowledge that he is a very learned scholar out there as well.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I would like to welcome all the visitors in the public gallery here today. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings here today. Thank you and welcome.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge Winnie Elanik, a well-respected elder who passed away in Aklavik October 30, 2012.

Winnie, in her lifetime, has done tremendous work for her community and has helped numerous families overcome hardship. She was always reminding her children and their families of the importance of having God in all our lives, and to always be kind and mindful of others.

In her lifetime she did sewing for her family, always making sure her children were dressed warm, and later on taking care of her grandchildren. Sewing traditional parkas, mukluks and mitts, she enjoyed dressing her family with her sewing.

Winnie had many health problems. She had patience with her family. She always had a home-cooked meal for everyone, even strangers. No one left her home without having a cup of tea. In return, her children looked after her and made sure her last few years were comfortable and always surrounded by family.

Winnie Elanik, the matriarch of the Elanik family, will be forever remembered and deeply missed. My condolences to the family.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned earlier today in my Member’s statement, the Yukon government is making carbon monoxide detectors mandatory. However, I pointed out that, in reality, the GNWT needs to invest more in public awareness and standardization of regulations for all oil-fired and wood use appliances throughout the NWT.

My questions today will be for the Minister responsible for such a topic, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. It’s clear biomass is on the rise in almost every community of the NWT. As I mentioned today, there are no regulations to support the installation of wood pellet stoves in 31 of our 33 communities. As well, many wood stoves are not compliant or meet safety codes and there is no established inspection process.

Can the Minister indicate to the House today by what means his department is using to monitor the safety, installation and inspection of wood and pellet stoves in most communities?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as inspecting them, we don’t have an inspection regime, and it is one we have been

exploring the possibilities of. People are able to have them inspected by wet-certified inspectors. The numbers are starting to go up as far as those that are certified to inspect the installation of wood stoves. It is a very tricky subject because there is a lot of liability to it. They are unable to see the full installation unless it’s new construction, so existing wood stoves are very difficult to see. They wouldn’t be able to qualify for home insurance if they’re not inspected by a wet-certified inspector.

Public awareness is by far lacking in the NWT as it pertains to carbon monoxide detector use. I would be safe to bet that a large percentage of residents do not have one, yet at a mere $40, this unit is a cheap investment for one’s safety. Can the Minister indicate how much money is spent annually on public awareness campaigns to educate the public on carbon monoxide detector use, and will he commit to increase this amount?

As far as the actual budget amount to help with the awareness, I’m not sure of the actual budget amount. I could get some numbers for the Member. I do know that through the fire marshal’s office they had a very good awareness program. They were actually giving away carbon monoxide detectors to those that needed them.

On the housing side of it, I know that in all the public housing units they’ve spent a considerable amount of money ensuring that all our public housing units have carbon monoxide detectors that are up to code. Any new construction now, I think since 2005, is required to have carbon monoxide detectors in their units.

The installation of all wood and pellet stoves within most of our communities is not regulated. Will the Minister commit today in this House to immediately mandate the much needed regulations with his department, with the community fire marshals, and with various community government stakeholders in standardizing all our communities for compliance, safety codes and inspection process for all oil-fired and wood use appliances?

I can commit to the Member that I will do some exploratory work and see how we can advance this. I do know that a lot of those folks that are building $300,000 to $400,000 homes, it will be to their benefit to make sure that all installations meet code, otherwise they may not qualify for insurance. But I will commit to the Member that I’ll just start some exploratory work and see how we can best advance this issue.

I can say that we are acting now, and we’re not ignoring the fact that these are very important components in each home, and I think that was my response to a couple of the questions before. I think we’re proving that our commitment to ensuring that

all homes in the Northwest Territories are safe and have a working carbon monoxide detector.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally, as a follow-up to a question I asked earlier this spring on carbon monoxide detector use in our local housing authority branches. We were informed back then by the Minister that all LHOs were compliant with carbon monoxide detector use. Could the Minister agree to table to this House a complete inventory of all NWT LHO housing and building inventory by region, with more specific information to carbon monoxide detectors, and more specifically, installation date, inspection date and expected replacement date.

I have said that all our public housing units are compliant. We’ve spent a considerable amount of money. We’ve installed carbon monoxide detectors in well over 1,300 units, because we have a lot of multiple family-type dwellings. They’re all compliant. But if the Member wants all this in writing we will assign someone to put all this information together and we will share it with the Members. Not only that, if that’s not good enough, then we’ll table it in the House so everybody across the Northwest Territories knows that what I said here today is the absolute truth.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to yesterday’s theme day when we were speaking about treatment programs throughout the Northwest Territories, I wanted to ask the Minister of Justice about some of the programs that they have in the corrections facilities.

Right off the bat, I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice what type of treatment programs specifically designated for addictions does the department provide in our correctional facilities currently.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the Department of Justice, through its corrections, does support a number of on-the-land programming available for inmates within our facilities where security issues are not significant. We also support inmates attending regularly things like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.

In the last sitting, through Regular Members, we increased the budget at the South Mackenzie Correctional Facility where we have some

traditional addictions counsellor positions available to provide support. Those types of services are available in our Yellowknife facility as well. There are a number of things that we are currently doing within the facilities to support inmates with addictions issues.

Speaking with the Minister of Health yesterday, and some of the answers that he gave us in terms of detox programs moving along the same lines, if anyone that gets incarcerated for a serious crime and does have to go to either a north corrections facility, are there any detox programs in place, medical services provided to the inmates that need that detox in our facilities currently?

When somebody is convicted and sentenced to time in one of our facilities, one of the first things that will happen is they’ll go through a documentation and classification where their individual needs are assessed. If an individual does require detox, we do have nursing staff within our facilities who can help develop a plan to help that individual detox. It may involve some time in isolation during the actual detox, but they do have nurses available to support them through that process.

When an inmate is about to get released, in terms of getting educated on possibly some of the issues and concerns that might have gotten them into the institution, what type of education programs do the corrections facilities offer to get inmates back, or what social skills programs does the department offer to get these inmates back into being a member of society and not going back out and becoming another repeat offender? What type of education programs are there in our facilities to get our inmates back as regular members of society?

Each one of these situations would be done on an individual basis, based on the individual needs of inmates when they’re being released. Currently, case managers and other staff within the department or within the corrections facilities will work with the inmate to identify programming in the community that they’re going to be released to that would help support them in their continued healing journey, or help them deal with probation issues that may exist. Each case is done individually. They’re targeted and linked with different programs and services that may exist in individual communities.

One of the things that we are doing right now as a department, is we have been approached by some communities to do some reintegration work and engage communities to help design reintegration plans that work for the communities, that can engage the communities. We’re exploring that right now with Colville Lake and we’re probably going to run a pilot there to see how it works. If it works

really well, we will work with other communities to implement a similar type of process.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just in terms of alcohol related crimes in the Northwest Territories and people who are suffering with addictions and treatments, I was wondering if the Minister knows what the percentage of crimes throughout the Northwest Territories are actually alcohol related. Does he have a percentage that he can let the House know of?

I don’t have that exact statistic but I do have some information on this. The most frequent criminogenic needs identified amongst NWT offenders are those associated with drugs and alcohol. The vast majority of individuals who are going through their documentation and classification have indicated that alcohol is a significant factor in their lives and one of the reasons they may be within the facilities.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague Ms. Bisaro’s questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment the other day regarding late payment of income support.

I’ll start by noting that I raised this issue with the Minister in 2010 and was told at the time that the problem was due to staff changes. This time it’s attributed to the possibility of holidays or staff vacancies. Obviously, these predictable and regular occurrences should never deprive people, destitute people of their only way to pay rent, buy food and clothe their families.

Can the Minister assure me that, no matter what, there will be enough staff at ECE all the time, every time, to ensure these payments are processed on time?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that we need to have the staff up to speed on all the processing and issuing of the cheques on time. That is one of our priorities. This has been brought to my attention when Member Bisaro first asked those questions. I then followed up with my department. There have been some challenges, but at the same time, I have instructed my department that we need to make this a priority. If we have a shortage of staff, whether it

be on leave, we need to have a dedicated individual in the system who can follow up on all requests.

I did commit to this House already that this is a matter that we’re following through with, and also, again, reiterating that there is client service training that is going to be happening at the end of this month and the beginning of next month to establish more of a positive step forward. That’s what we’re looking forward to with all the client service officers.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. We certainly do need redundancy here in order to avoid this sort of situation. I just want to explore further the issue of backup for emergencies. The Minister’s 2010 answers to me promised a change in process and more staff training. Ms. Bisaro was told last week that there will be client service officer training, and the Minister has confirmed that. Because this is a financial payment function, and because the need for prompt payments is absolutely critical, will the Minister ensure that not only client service officers but an emergency backup in the finance area will be able to make these payments no matter what?

We do try to avoid, as much as we can, on the delay of payments to those clients. We understand that the power bill, the utility bills and other food sources, that is our priority, to issue those cheques on time. But there are times when we are challenged with providing documentation and so forth.

Again, as I indicated, we are going to have a dedicated individual that deals with those matters. The requests that come in, I specifically instructed, after the question was raised in the House, that this is an urgent matter. We need to deal with it especially now that winter is here. It is a priority for my Department of ECE. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, thanks again to the Minister for that response. My understanding is that the client service officers put in the order for the cheque and then the financial people issue the cheque. That is what I was referring to. I assume that the Minister has that well in hand and will ensure both steps are taken in a timely fashion.

When these payments are late they cause ripple effects. People incur late fees for things such as phone and electricity. These are people for whom a five or 10 dollar additional charge is equivalent to a day’s groceries for a family. Unfortunately, current income support policy does not provide for the reimbursement of these penalties resulting from ECE’s tardiness.

I am assuming this isn’t going to happen again, but if it does, our records show that clearly when ECE payments have been made late, in cases where clients have been paid late, will ECE reimburse the cost of penalties that have resulted from payments received belatedly? Thank you.

That is correct; we are going to avoid late payments. Those late payments in the past, again, it all depends on the case-by-case basis. It could be missing documents. It is a shared responsibility between clients and our department, the client service officers. The information I gather and also the training that is going to be happening at the end of the month is specifically to deal with the backlog, the satisfaction survey that has been conducted in the past, how client service officers deal with those clientele in a professional and positive manner. The process itself from issuing of the cheque through the Finance department, we need to expedite the process, especially during the winter months. That is the commitment I made within my department, gave the instruction to my department. We will follow through with that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to follow up on my statement and talk a bit about the Territorial Respite Care Plan, which apparently is ready to go.

I would like to ask the Minister, first of all, if he would give me, and give the House and the public, an update on the Territorial Respite Care Plan, where it is at. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The full expansion of the Territorial Respite Program outside of Yellowknife and into the communities that don’t have any respite services is going to be between $2 million and $3 million. Our Department of Health and Social Services is working with the Department of Finance to assess competing financial pressures and so on in order to look at the expansion, but we do have some services operational and running in small communities outside of Yellowknife too. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I know that there are some respite care programs outside of Yellowknife. There are three communities which have respite care for some of their residents there, but as I mentioned in my statement, there is an overwhelming need for respite care in the other 29 communities that aren’t yet served by any kind of respite care. I would like to know from the Minister when is the department going to recognize… I think they recognize that there is a need, but when are they going to recognize it as an overwhelming

need? When are they going to start providing services in our other 29 communities? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the department recognizes that there is a need already. We have respite programs in Yellowknife, Detah, Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake, Fort McPherson, Simpson, Inuvik, Aklavik, Behchoko, Fort Smith and Hay River. Those are the communities, and for other communities which I have not mentioned, respite services can be made available through home care. Each of the communities that have home care, we can arrange for respite services if the need was there and we work with the authorities to provide that need through home care. Thank you.

I thank the Minister. I don’t think I heard of this opportunity for families to access respite care through home care.

Can the Minister provide a bit better explanation to me and to people listening? What would a family get by applying through home care? What kind of service is provided through home care for respite? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it would be a standard respite service for individuals that need respite from caring for individuals that need constant care, where the request would go back through the authorities, whether it would be local or regional through the Health and Social Services Authority and asking the home care to do respite care for individuals in a similar line of what is being offered in respite care programs in Yellowknife and other communities where respite care is being offered. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That sounds like a fairly bureaucratic process and rather long and involved to simply get a family some assistance to deal with the stress that they are under from day to day.

Is this a dedicated person who is providing respite through home care? If not, when are we going to get dedicated personnel in our communities to assist families with the respite care they need? Thank you.

No, it is not a dedicated individual in those communities where we don’t offer the program, but rather, we would work with home care workers that are in the communities to provide that service based on requests and based on demand. When we will expand the program would be once we are able to make a business case back through the business planning process to expand the Respite Program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about the situation in Trout Lake where people can’t see the visiting doctor unless they have an appointment. As we are learning, this is not the only community that this is happening in.

Is the Minister willing to review the practice of turning away small community residents who do not have prior appointments with this visiting physician? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I would be willing to have the authorities review that. The reason that we have the system that we do where the health authorities are at the regional level and work closely with the communities, so that they understand the communities, the culture of the communities and so on. If this is happening, it shouldn’t be happening. Individuals will not be turned away from seeing the doctor if there are appointments available. Of course, when you have more than one individual showing up at the same time slot, it would be difficult, but we will do our best to allocate the time slots for individuals that come in to drop in to see the doctor when the doctors are in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is part of the issue. The doctors are flying in and flying out and sometimes, if there is a weather system moving in, they are leaving early. I believe that they can expand their time in the community. In fact, communities welcome doctors overnighting.

Can the Minister review that and see if there is a possibility of doctors overnighting and doing a good visit through the communities? After all, they are only going there every six weeks. Thank you.

We will have the department work to see those various health authorities and ensure that if doctors are needed overnight, if they have more than just one day worth of appointments when they go into a place like Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake or any of those small communities that have too many appointments for one day. I’m not expecting that the doctor would leave a community – I’m sure the community can accommodate the doctor overnight – and will ensure that doctors that go into the community are prepared to stay overnight. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I think part of the issue, too, is that if the flight returns at 4:30, doctors are packing up and leaving at 4:30. They have to have the flexibility and understand the

needs of the community and to stay that extra couple hours or whatever it takes. Thank you.

I agree with that. As I indicated, we will contact the authorities and if doctors need to stay overnight in the small communities, they should. They’ve signed up to work in the small authorities, like the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority, they should expect to overnight in the small communities as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think the point is to plan to stay overnight and not just say the workload is so much here, we have to overnight and that. Also, it’s about improving access to the patients’ files. I can understand it if they’re going to see a patient and they don’t have the proper files from the regional headquarters, but spending an extra night gives the opportunity to fax, phone, or hopefully our electronic medical records get up on-line so they can actually request that it be e-mailed. Thank you.

Thank you. We would look at a planned overnight. If a doctor is going into the communities, they can look at the historical appointments in certain communities and if this has become an issue where patients are being turned away from the health centre, but the doctor still leaves on schedule even though they haven’t seen all the patients and that’s the history of that community, then in the future, when doctors go into small communities, they would plan to stay overnight.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. On March 12, 2009, I challenged the department and the Minister of ECE to review the SFA in terms of years of eligibility. I said that I believed that the program of our southern neighbour in Alberta was stronger than ours. I challenged the Minister to see if he would do a general overview and come back with what he found out. I also challenged him to see if he could strengthen the SFA in terms of six years of eligibility. The Minister said, “Certainly we can provide more research with our neighbouring Alberta. We need to find out if it is all grants, because I am sure there is a loans portfolio as well.”

I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment when he is going to report on his findings.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the question was first raised in this House, I did respond to the Member’s question, reflecting on our program comparable to other jurisdictions such as Alberta. At that time I did state that we have the best program to subsidize students in the Northwest Territories, comparable to the information that we had at that time. With that, I did commit to this House that we were looking at an overall review of the SFA program and I’m glad to say that we have done that.

The review is before us and I’m going to be tabling that document today, and it does reflect on what we’ve initiated so far. I believe there are two or three key topics of recommendations that we’ve followed up already. What the Member is referring to is also part of the recommendations as a long-term strategy to work towards. So I need to work with standing committee on which are the priority areas and how we can move forward together. So that’s what I’ll be working towards with the standing committee. Mahsi.

I’m not advocating that we take anything away from our students, but this government has been providing non-Aboriginal students with six years of forgivable loans on the backs of the Aboriginal students.

When is the Minister going to fix this problem that the former Minister of Education, Culture and Employment created so that the Aboriginal students can once again obtain a master’s and a PhD degree?