Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard. Okay. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a Legal Aid Outreach Program to communities that I’ve highlighted in the House in the past. Just this summer, clinics were conducted in Kakisa, Fort Providence, Behchoko, Fort Good Hope, Tulita, Deline, Colville Lake, Norman Wells and Hay River. With the resources that we have, we do attempt to provide the best service as we can to the smaller communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Ramsay hit it on key: they are making an attempt to provide the services with the resources that they have. We have the resources, we just need to direct some of these resources in the areas that they’re mostly needed in the communities. So, I understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day and we know there’s a serious backlog when it comes to family law, criminal law or any type of law that requires legal aid in our communities. We know that lawyers are in demand.

How can we stand here and say that a lawyer truly represents a client from outside of Yellowknife if they’re only to meet their clients on the date of that hearing, the same day the lawyers come in? So, can these lawyers arrive one day ahead of the court party to have sufficient time with their clients? Can that happen?

Of course, access to justice is a very important issue across the Northwest Territories and across this country. If the Member has some ideas about how we can improve the level of service for his constituents and people in smaller communities outside of Yellowknife in the regional centres, that’s

something that we’d like to discuss with the Member and other Members if they have ideas. I mean, that’s what we’re here to do, is how we can make things better and better service for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

I certainly would be willing to sit down with the Minister because I have a lot of ideas, the Sahtu people have a lot of ideas. We heard from Mr. Andy Langford last month, telling the media that kids should be with their families in their home communities.

Can the Minister look at hosting a family law clinic or a forum to discuss the serious issues facing the NWT with the access to family law legal aid lawyers that families need? Can the Minister commit to that?

Thank you. If there is a case before the courts or in the process of being before the courts, of course that would preclude me getting involved as the Minister of Justice. If there is an issue of access to justice and getting legal aid, somebody trying to attempt to get legal aid and having questions surrounding the process and how it is that they’d qualify for legal aid, that is something that my office and the department can certainly provide answers to. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do have one idea. I want to ask the Minister if he would look at if it’s possible to set up a Sahtu mobile legal aid office in the Sahtu region. Could this work? What do you think?

Thank you. The Member is asking my opinion, and again, I take the Member’s comments, I take his concerns very seriously. I know him, and we have worked together for the past 11 years and I know he’s a man of the people. Certainly if he has an idea like the one that he’s talked about here today in the House, we have a process in place here with business plans with going through that type of process, and if we can take a look at something like that, I’d be happy to sit down with the Member and have a look at that idea and see how it would look in reality and what it would cost. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In this country, diabetes patients typically have access to a range of health care providers, including foot specialists, certified diabetes

educators, doctors, nurses, and professionals who specialize in orthotic and prosthetic devices.

Can the Minister tell me if diabetes patients in the Northwest Territories have access to the full range of knowledgeable health care providers? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Diabetes is obviously a huge problem here in the Northwest Territories, and we’re trying to support communities and individuals to live healthy lives so that they don’t become type 2 diabetic or type 2 diabetes. We have put in new type 2 diabetes screening and diagnosis clinical practice guidelines, which have been approved and disseminated to all of the health providers, all the health centres throughout the Northwest Territories so that our nurses have the tools they need.

We do provide the types of programs that the Member is talking about. Sometimes people have to fly into places like Hay River or Yellowknife to get them, but we do provide that and we’re always looking for ways to push additional services out to communities and we do have professionals who travel to the communities from time to time, but some of them aren’t available in every community. Sometimes people do have to come to the centres for those services. Thank you.

Mahsi. About 90 percent of type 2 diabetes cases are preventable by taking several simple steps: keeping weight under control, exercising more, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking.

Can the Minister please describe his department’s efforts to promote healthier living? Specifically, what promotion and prevention efforts are underway in my Deh Cho communities? What’s on the ground for my people?

We provide a wide range of services throughout the Northwest Territories and a number of them focus on healthy eating, reducing the amount of sugar, reducing the amount of fat, addressing obesity throughout the Northwest Territories. I’ve got a comprehensive list of the types of programs that I’d be happy to share with the Member. I can’t say off the top of my head which ones are delivered in which Deh Cho communities on which particular day, but I will get a breakdown of the ones that are being provided throughout his region.

I’d like to thank the Minister for committing at least to providing that information.

Can the Minister describe how elders in remote communities get assistance with daily foot care, and can he guarantee that elders in remote communities are receiving assistance for this crucial component of preventative maintenance?

We do have programs in the Northwest Territories, and as I said, we don’t offer all of those foot care programs in all the communities throughout the Northwest Territories. I’ll get the detail the Member is looking for and I will provide it as soon as I can.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Initially the Minister had stated that there are types of programs that are being delivered in terms of trying to meet standards so that diabetes programs and initiatives are brought to the community level.

Where are those programs being delivered? Is it specifically the Deh Cho or throughout the NWT?

Throughout the Northwest Territories programs like that are …(inaudible)…different communities throughout the Northwest Territories. Each one of the health centres have the tools to do the diagnosis and screening that have been just recently developed. Those are throughout the Northwest Territories.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too have questions for the Minister of Health. I’m noting all the concerns about health delivery here today, but judging by the full colour, quarter-page ads I’m seeing in the newspapers across the North, very expensive advertising, the Department of Health and Social Services is flush with money. These ads, Caring for Our People, ask for input to a survey on health care, and I’ve done a little bit of research and these are over $1,000 a pop.

Can the Minister tell us what this colour newspaper advertising campaign has cost the people of the NWT?