Welcome back, colleagues. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise today on a point of order under Section 23(m), where a Member introduces any matter in debate that offends practice and precedents of the Assembly, and further, under Section 23(i), where a Member imputes false or hidden motives to another Member.

Madam Speaker, I waited until today to review Hansard to ensure that I brought this matter forward in a timely way, as I am doing now. On Thursday, February 13, 2014, during debate of the point of order, in Hansard on page 4, I quote Premier McLeod, who made the following remarks which were referring to me: “…the Member has acknowledged the breach and now he’s trying to use process to not withdraw his remarks.”

I will deal with this particular offence, in my view, in two parts. Firstly, I am personally offended by the Premier’s comments were an attempt to put words into my mouth which I did not say. The Premier’s characterization of me in his comments are not accurate and, in essence, are an attempt to persuade the argument under debate at that moment by reaffirming something that I never said, nor did I imply. I acknowledged no breach and, further, did not agree with Mr. Miltenberger’s point of order. Rather, I used my time to remind the House of the necessity of process and certainly the freedom of speech, which Minister Miltenberger did not follow in his own stead by highlighting his concern through the grievance he raised to my comments. Instead of making note of them on the record five times, as originally pointed out in the initial discussion, he then chose to lay out his concerns further down the road, which is the following day.

I again remind the House of Beauchesne’s, Section 319, and further reaffirmed by Speaker Delorey’s

ruling on February 16, 2006, in short, they all must be brought forward in a timely way; secondly, Madam Speaker, for Premier McLeod to suggest, “…and now he’s trying to use process to not withdraw his remarks.”

These are not my rules. They belong to the Assembly, and if we are anything, we are certainly the pinnacle of process. If it is not followed here, why should it be followed anywhere?

I further affirm concern under Section 23(i) and find a characterization of these specific comments personally offensive to the work I’m trying to do here.

In closing, Madam Speaker, I’m requesting, through you, that the Premier immediately apologizes for the vexatious and frivolous comments he made towards me and that his remarks are struck from Hansard of that day, completely struck off the official Hansard, so they do not incorrectly reflect what I said and stand for days to go. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I will allow some further comment to the point of order. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Member based his case on Thursday about the fact on how we did not raise it at the earliest opportunity. He just stated that he stands by his comments and that he waited until he read Hansard before he raised it, so I’m wondering what side of the argument he’s taking.

He’s also said that he stands by his remarks. So, I think I was justified in saying that for the Member to suggest that because in previous rulings the Speaker said he didn’t raise it at the first opportunity, it was not a point of order. I think rather than addressing comments where he was calling other officials of the government criminals, he was trying to use process so that it wouldn’t deal with those comments.

So, Madam Speaker, I think we will wait for the ruling by yourself, or the Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. To the point of order, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Of course, I will not talk about the imminent ruling that is still before the House. I want to speak specifically to what was brought here today and the point of

order. I want to focus on the words quoted by Mr. McLeod, and I had to go back to Hansard to review it myself. I quote, “The Member has acknowledged the breach,” and I want to focus just on those words and those words alone.

Madam Speaker, I’ve looked back and I reviewed Hansard and I don’t believe Member Hawkins talked about acknowledging any breach, so I believe those words are a bit misquoted by the Premier and I just wanted to share those thoughts on record. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Any further comments to the point of order? If not, we will review what was said, the point of order, and provide a ruling at a future date. Thank you, colleagues.

Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Tourism in the Northwest Territories plays a vital role in our economy. Each year the industry contributes over $100 million in visitor revenue and attracts upwards of 70,000 visitors from across the world. Tourism is also one of the few industries capable of creating economic opportunities in every region.

Because of this importance, and the industry’s potential, we must develop comprehensive and effective plans to market our spectacular tourism product to the world. I am very pleased with NWT Tourism’s 2014-2015 Marketing Plan, which outlines what the GNWT’s tourism marketing agency is undertaking to promote the NWT as a tourism destination of choice.

Partnerships are a cornerstone of our tourism marketing efforts and I would like to thank the Tourism Marketing Advisory Committee for their guidance and leadership. This committee has representatives from the tourism industry, who have marketing expertise, as well as GNWT representatives. They provide strategic direction to NWT Tourism each year in the development of this plan.

I would also like to thank the board of directors of the NWT Tourism Association for their direction and advice in shaping this plan.

We have a lot to offer the world when it comes to unique tourism experiences. Just recently, NWT Tourism launched its new “Aurora Capital of the World” mark in support of its Spectacular NWT

brand. This title positions the NWT as the ultimate aurora viewing destination.

Of course, aurora is only a small piece of the tourism pie. We are known for our sport fishing, road touring, hunting and other outdoor activities, and this plan emphasizes these pursuits. We are also becoming a choice destination for hosting small and medium-sized meetings and conventions, like the highly successful Energy and Mines Ministers Conference held in Yellowknife last year.

Aboriginal tourism continues to grow, and the demand for cultural products and authentic experiences continues to increase. This is a demand that we can fully satisfy through the strong culture and natural hospitality of our people. Last year’s marketing plan introduced funding of $50,000 per region to develop regional marketing and promote local and cultural attractions. This program was so successful, it will continue in this year’s marketing plan.

The tourism industry is incredibly competitive, and we need to continue to position ourselves to new and existing markets as a choice travel destination.

North America remains our main marketing focus. A new sport fishing brand and campaign will launch this year, targeting specific demographics in southern Canada and the United States.

The 2014-2015 Marketing Plan contains initiatives to broaden our global reach and targets China as a key new market. This interest was also bolstered by our trade mission to China last month, where we made and strengthened relationships with key contacts in the Chinese travel trade. Promotion of the NWT during this trip was well-received, with 100,000 potential Chinese visitors showing a great interest in the North, with aurora tourism and authentic cultural experiences being identified as the main draw.

In the past two years, NWT Tourism has become more active in the Chinese market. China is Canada’s fastest-growing tourism market, and with the number of Chinese visitors to the country doubling since 2010, we need to capitalize on this. Over 1,000 Chinese visitors have been visiting the NWT annually, and that number continues to grow. Aurora tourism continues to be the strategic focus of our Asia-Pacific region promotional campaigns, with an emphasis on markets in Japan, China and South Korea. The Japanese market, in particular, continues to show incredible promise, with most of the over 15,000 aurora visitors we had last season arriving from Japan.

This year’s plan also looks at expanding marketing efforts in other emerging markets such as Germany and Australia.

Due to support from this government, NWT Tourism has been able to enter new markets due to the doubling of its marketing budget to nearly $2.4

million. With this funding, NWT Tourism will be able to reach out into uncharted territory and penetrate further into existing markets.

This will result in increased visitor numbers, more revenue for small businesses and new opportunities for the private sector to expand tourism products, or develop new products, to reach a wider market and to serve this growing industry.

Madam Speaker, the NWT has much to offer to potential visitors, and a prosperous tourism industry must build on these resources. The 2014-2015 Tourism Marketing Plan will give us continued focus on supporting developing tourism opportunities in the territory.

By marketing and showing off the spectacular range of tourism products and experiences, it will help us ensure a diversified and healthy economy that benefits all of our regions and communities. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister Abernethy.

Madam Speaker, having healthy, vibrant and safe communities is a key priority for the Government of the Northwest Territories. This is why, over the past year, we have worked with communities as they developed wellness plans, to set priorities and guide how wellness funding should be directed.

I am pleased to announce that all of our communities are on track to complete their plans by March 31, 2014. These are living documents. They speak of the importance of supporting families and child development, celebrating culture, eating good food, being active, promoting mental wellness, building local capacity and building on community strengths. They identify priorities and will be the basis of work plans.

Madam Speaker, the department receives $8 million from Health Canada to support health and wellness in Aboriginal communities. This year we will allocate $5 million directly to Aboriginal communities on a multi-year block funding basis to support this important work. Funding can be used to support projects in three areas of vital importance to our communities. These priority areas include healthy children and families, mental health and addictions, and healthy living and prevention. Communities will determine their own priorities, based on their wellness plans.

The remainder of the funding is used to support the ongoing work of the new division of Aboriginal health and community wellness in the programs and services they provide to community and

Aboriginal organizations in their implementation of their plans. This work will also include the organization of territory-wide events.

Madam Speaker, people still struggle with issues like addictions and family violence, and continue to have concerns about cancer and high rates of school dropout. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to address these issues. Communities need to find solutions that are appropriate for them. The benefits of having a healthy population go beyond an individual’s health status. Healthy people strengthen the community and the territory, increasing economic growth and social cohesion, and making our health care system more affordable and equitable.

Working with communities to implement their wellness plans will be a focus for the Department of Health and Social Services division of Aboriginal health and community wellness.

Building a strong and sustainable future for our territory can start by having a healthy population, Madam Speaker. Community wellness plans will provide a strong foundation for implementing government strategies that help support our residents and grow our economy. This includes work like the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, Anti-Poverty Strategy, the Early Childhood Development Framework and the Economic Opportunities Strategy. By working jointly with other GNWT departments like Education, Culture and Employment, and Justice, along with all of our other partners, we will achieve this goal. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Item 3, Members’ statements. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I would like to rise and speak about the recent NWT chief coroner report regarding a female resident having a number of prescription medications in her system when she died from an accidental overdose in December 2012.

For me to start today, I have to go back about two years ago to almost the very day when I brought this issue up in the House, where I talked about the quiet addiction. That addiction is about the addictions to opiates, benzodiazepines and to codeine. I don’t believe it’s quiet anymore and I believe the recent report from the coroner reaffirms what we have spoken up about, this sleeping giant of the drug addiction journey, and that we need to spend a little more attention on this emergent

addiction. From the words of our own NWT coroner, “From 2009 to 2012, we had over 1,700 overdose cases from prescription medication and over-the-counter medications.”

These are the deaths that were investigated, but we have to ask ourselves how many more deaths out there did not see the light of day.

Speaking of light of day, I always say sunshine is the best disinfectant. We’ve heard this again in the House: you can’t fix what you can’t count. So, we need to put some sunshine on why we’re not tracking prescription drug abuse and over-the-counter abuse in our system, and why it isn’t part of our overall general addictions survey. This is quite shameful to continue to hear.

Without a dedicated baseline to the program that we’re spending in areas of addiction, how does the department decide on which dollars go where and how they are spent? Without doing this baseline, which I am calling the quiet addiction, we do not know the end results of what can be done for the people who are suffering in this mode here.

With that, I will be asking the Minister of Health, later on today, about a lot of these unanswered questions in this quiet addiction prescription drug abuse, and hopefully we can get some of these questions answered and put a little sunshine on the situation. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This Assembly, at the beginning of it, set some priorities to increase employment opportunities where they are needed most, by decentralizing more GNWT positions.

Last year’s government budget indicated that they were going to do more for decentralization and set it as a priority. We did do some decentralization and I thought we were on the right track to making this an effective way of getting jobs out into the communities.

This year during the budget, though, very little was indicated on what we’re going to do in the future. We talked about the 18 positions we did last year; we talked about the 52 positions from devolution. Where we know wasn’t a decentralization, there are more jobs going into Yellowknife than anywhere else. It’s actually anti-decentralization, and I know we’re being controlled by the federal government on that.

The government is looking at putting capacity into the communities. They say that’s why we’re not decentralizing right now. We’re doing office surveys; we’re putting houses into the communities,

but that’s being done over three years. In three years that will be the 18th Assembly, not this one,

not this one that set the priority to put those jobs out in those communities.

Today I’m going to have questions for the Premier on what is our big plan. We are talking about putting houses into communities; we’re talking about doing office space surveys, but where? What specific communities are we looking at? What are the examples? Are we putting three houses into Fort Res because we’re going to put three new positions there? Are we going to lease 10,000 square feet in Hay River because we’re going to move Transportation back into Hay River and make it a centralization in Hay River?

I’m going to be asking the Premier about what’s our big plan for decentralization. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

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

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Hay River Reserve is moving ahead with its fibre optic infrastructure. Starting in 2007, funding from CanNor helped the K’atlodeeche First Nation to move forward on an initiative to bring broadband telecommunications to the community. Five local band members built the one-kilometre link that connects several municipal buildings. The community hopes to connect more public places, in particular the band office, arena and the store.

The First Nation hopes to lease the fibre optic link to NorthwesTel and Telus, who can provide improved telecommunications services to residents. In turn, it will help NorthwesTel avoid the cost of building this infrastructure itself.

The advantages of broadband infrastructure are obvious. Many of the benefits do not have a dollar value. We have already seen how existing fibre optic capabilities enhance personal and business communication and program and service delivery in key areas of health and education. As the NWT moves ahead with its ambitious Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link, we will see it transform and diversify the local economy of rural and remote communities and support Arctic sovereignty and security goals.

The K’atlodeeche First Nation wants to expand its fibre optic network by 14 kilometres to reach Highway No. 2 and existing telecommunications infrastructure. When many First Nations communities hear about fibre optics, they think it is out of reach, but the K’atlodeeche First Nation’s information technologies manager says it’s possible for any small community to create their own wireless infrastructure.

CanNor believes that investing in telecommunications is very important for rural and remote communities. Investment in broadband infrastructure is the highlight of the new federal budget. I support the Government of the Northwest Territories’ efforts to advance the construction of the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link and I especially want to recognize the efforts of the K’atlodeeche First Nation in taking the initiative to bring the Hay River Reserve into the digital age.

The First Nation has made a wise investment in the community’s future and I applaud the leadership on a job well done. I wish them the best success to pursue their goals of expanding the network and in working with neighbouring companies to improve telecommunications in the North. Thank you, mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I recently received what I can describe as a brush-off letter – don’t worry, we’ve got it under control – from Aurora College Board of Governors. Of course, if you look at the top of the letterhead, it says from the Office of the President for the board of governors.

This really kind of annoys me because this highlights further what I talked about the other week, which is about their independent thinking about being able to do things without having it go through the office of the president.

The letter highlights many concerns I raised here the other week about trying to get the board of governors to meet with the students and not treat them like they’re some infectious who knows what. The letter tells me about, oh well, we have processes they can follow so we can meet with them, and while they may be misinformed from our discussion they had a few weeks ago, don’t worry, we’ll straighten out that thinking.

The college is vested into the success of the students. I’ll be tabling the letter later today and I think the public will be both disturbed and disgusted by the response of this letter by the chair of the Aurora College board.

Quite frankly, I think the board of governors should be doing anything in their power raised by the students to ensure their success, but while it’s quoted as we have some information that’s misinformed and certainly we have to make sure that they receive the proper information on the topics which impact their lives, what’s more important to the college than the essence of the students and their needs?

This is very frustrating when I see this. I asked the Minister, under Section 7, to use his authority to give the college direction, meet the students, find out what matters to them, but of course the letter tells me in their response, and again, I’ll be tabling it later today. It says the Aurora College Board of Governors’ manual specifically states that board members should be encouraged to continually talk to people like MLAs, Ministers, board members. My goodness, if you have to have a manual to tell people how to communicate, I mean, something there should be a red flag already saying it must be so off the rails that we have to tell them how to talk.

These students are humans. They have real concerns, whether it’s child care, whether it’s getting loans, whether it’s class times, whether its buses or whether it’s a school facility, and the Aurora College Board of Governors needs to hear this. How do they hear this? They hear this through a meeting.

So, I will be having questions later today in question period. But let’s be frank. They need to meet the students to know what matters to them. It’s about time that gets done.

Mr. Hawkins, last week in this House we have had quite a bit of subsequent discussion, and may I characterize it as fallout, over the way that the performance of deputy ministers was characterized.

Here again today we have some motives or some thoughts being imputed to a very small group of people, the board of governors of the college and, I would say, some very disparaging remarks about the chair who has penned this letter you are referring to.

I just want to again remind Members that these are people that are well known in the Northwest Territories. They are not here in this Chamber to respond or to defend themselves, and I think that Members should be very cautious in… I refer specifically to Mr. Hawkins saying that someone considers the students to be an infectious something. I think that that may be putting words in someone’s mouth, and again, this is a group, a fairly small group in the Territories that everyone knows, so please be very cautious about that, Mr. Hawkins.

The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have been hearing much lately about GNWT initiatives for early childhood development and early childhood education. I’m fully supportive of these initiatives. In fact, I think we should be putting more

money into improving programs and services for our children aged zero to three.

Today I want to highlight some of the implications of the government’s early childhood development initiatives. The Department of Education will, in September 2014, start junior kindergarten in 29 of our 33 communities, and that will expand to all 33 communities by September 2016 when it will start in Yellowknife. Yellowknife is one of only a few NWT communities where there are several fairly large licenced daycares, and preschool or junior kindergarten programming is available at all Yellowknife school boards. But the implementation of junior kindergarten in 2016 will impact both the daycares and the schools.

My first concern: Junior kindergarten will provide an opportunity for parents to place their four-year-old into free classes instead of the fee-charging daycares, Montessori, or school-run junior kindergarten. For daycares, which are a for-profit business, who take children from a few months to four years of age, the four-year-olds provide the greatest chance for profit. The required ratio of caregiver to children is less than that for the zero to three-year-olds, and the business can register more four-year-olds than they can babies. Junior kindergarten will draw all those four-year-olds away from the daycares and into free junior kindergarten. In order to replace those four-year-olds with younger children, the daycare will have to hire more staff, thus losing out on their profit opportunity.

It’s quite likely that at least one daycare will lose enough of their profitability that the business will have to close, and in the end all that will accomplish is a reduction in the number of available child care spaces when they’re in short supply already. Yellowknife daycares have already seen a drop in their enrolments after the schools added their junior kindergarten fee-paying programs.

A second concern: Another initiative of ECE is to require certification of early childhood educators. That’s all well and good, but better qualified instructors means higher remuneration for staff and higher costs for the business that employs them. Will the Department of Education amend the ECD funding formula to assist daycares with the extra staffing costs they will incur? Apparently not.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

I inquired of the Minister of Education a short while ago whether or not his department will make any adjustments to the funding formula for daycares as a result of the implementation of junior kindergarten. The response from his office indicated no funding changes are coming. According to reports in the news media, the Minister has said that daycares

will be provided with infrastructure money to change four-year-old spaces to spaces for babies or toddlers, but money for cribs and blankets doesn’t address the problem of bigger wage costs.

Until we have publicly funded early childhood care/early childhood education, the GNWT must increase the funding assistance for licenced daycares or we will lose some of our present services. I urge the Minister of Education to reconsider his $780 infrastructure funding announcement and provide more operational funding for licenced daycares to ensure we keep the daycare spaces we now have.

I will have some questions to the Minister of Education at the appropriate time.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Last week I had a very interesting conversation with a staff member who does work with one of the organizations that does good work on behalf of government, and we started talking about mental health and other issues that are associated with mental health, but the conversation got into suicides and the high rate of suicides in the NWT. According to our 2011 Health Status Report, the Northwest Territories is 65 percent higher than the rest of Canada, which is alarming and should actually be an issue and a focus for this government moving forward.

As we talked, we talked about how many counsellors we have across the Northwest Territories. I think it’s about 65 counsellors, but 65 counsellors in 19 communities. We have 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, which means that there are some people out there who are having some of these issues and concerns that are not getting addressed and rely either on telehealth or maybe through making phone calls, which is not always the best avenue. When you’re dealing with an individual, it’s always good to have that face-to-face so you can see expression, so you can see the stress that might be on these people.

As we talked a little bit more, we talked about suicide attempts, how we don’t keep stats of suicide attempts in the Northwest Territories. We have stats on the numbers of suicides, but this government and the department, possibly the Department of Health, can actually take a role, even the Department of Justice through the RCMP, with anybody who ends up in the emergency ward with self-inflicting injuries, that we start taking these statistics now and start looking at how many real issues we have out there in our communities that we can address now. Actually, it’s not taken at the

moment, and in some cases these people who have self-inflicting injuries who end up in our emergency wards are sometimes let back out into their communities, which is contravening our Mental Health Act, which is something I’ve brought up in this House many times.

Moving forward, there are a lot of ways we can do prevention in this area, save the lives of many of our residents in the Northwest Territories and start providing better services in the communities.

I will have questions later on today for the Minister of Health and Social Services on how do we affect change, how do we make change. How do we start putting these things in order now to protect the lives of our residents of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I‘ve talked about the bafflegab of our Minister of Finance with respect to our Heritage Fund contributions and I’m sorry to say it continues. Because of the confusion and obscure ways that he chooses to hide the facts, the Minister has once again left the public with the wrong impression about our planned contributions to the Heritage Fund.

In today’s News/North a reporter noted the Minister’s commitment to contributing 25 percent of our net fiscal benefit to the Heritage Fund. The reporter then quite logically does the calculations: an estimated $60 million in net fiscal benefits; 25 percent, or $15 million, to go to Aboriginal governments; 25 percent, or $15 million, to go to the Heritage Fund. But alas, no. In the fine print of the Minister’s bafflegab, he means 25 percent of the net fiscal benefit leftovers after the 25 percent to Aboriginal governments is deducted.

In plain speak, the Minister means 18.75 percent, or $11 million of the net fiscal benefit will go into the Heritage Fund. This is a loss to our children’s future of $3.75 million per year from now going forward.

People may indeed ask why the Minister purposely ignores their desire for 25 percent of the net fiscal benefit to be contributed to the Heritage Fund. They may wonder why the Minister insists on using 25 percent when it is actually 18.75 percent of the net fiscal benefit. All I can say is that these are imminently reasonable questions for the public to ask. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I stand before the House today dismayed and frustrated. The reason: yet another failing of our health system. A family in Fort Simpson wanted me to raise this issue so no one has to go through this, and I hope we can learn from our mistakes.

This most recent case happened on Wednesday, February 5th , when a Fort Simpson elder slipped

and fell in her home. She was taken by ambulance to the health centre, where two X-rays were taken. The first was blurry, so a second one was taken. Not seeing any obvious break, the doctor sent her home with a prescription of Tylenol 3.

On Thursday she was transported by her daughter in a single-cab pick-up truck for a follow-up appointment. Given my constituent’s condition, she should have been transported by home care in a van designed for disabled clients. In any case, the health centre medical staff failed a second time to diagnose her fractured hip and sent her home once again.

On Friday home care staff made a visit, but no doctor or nurse requested a follow-up examination. She spent the day in pain and great discomfort. It interfered with her eating, sleeping and even going to the washroom.

On Saturday, still in extreme pain, she was brought to the health centre a third time. Finally the doctor diagnosed a fracture and had her medevaced to Yellowknife. There she was thoroughly examined and promptly sent for surgery.

I apologize to my elder constituent and wish her a speedy recovery. I’m also looking to the Minister for immediate action to get to the bottom of this.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident. Last October I complained in this House about elders being sent home with aspirins instead of being medevaced to Yellowknife for a full examination. My concerns were triggered by a similar case in which an elder’s broken wrist went undiagnosed for months.

Among seniors, falls are the leading cause of injury. About one-quarter of falls result in moderate to severe injuries, and over 95 percent of hip fractures are caused by falls.

But it’s not only elders being incorrectly diagnosed. A third recent case involved a child who suffered for weeks without receiving critical health care for a serious condition.

The Department of Health and Social Services needs to review its protocols. Errors like this are inexcusable. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. There is nothing more heartbreaking than a preventable accident in which a child is harmed or even killed. Wherever children gather, it is the responsibility of parents, teachers and government officials to keep them safe.

Students at Moose Kerr School in Aklavik are mixing with street traffic and it’s a dangerous situation. The hamlet council in Aklavik has received concerns from parents and observers who fear an accident is waiting to happen.

Over the past couple of years, clientele at the local store near the school has increased. Patrons have nowhere to park except on the street that surrounds the school. The solution is to put up a parking lot. The Aklavik Hamlet Council is rightly concerned about incurring this cost and I’m calling on the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to see that a parking lot gets built.

In the meantime, school administrators and government officials have a clear obligation to enforce traffic safety protocols around the schoolyard. Crossing guards should be serving at the heaviest traffic areas during the busiest times of the day. Students should be regularly informed about traffic safety and advised to wear reflective gear so that they are visible to drivers.

As for the communications with drivers, there should be visible signs asking them to slow and exercise caution in the school zone. Drivers should be yielding the right-of-way of pedestrians at all the intersections, and reminded never to pass a school bus when it is stopping and the red lights are flashing, which isn’t a case there because we don’t have school buses. As well, RCMP officers should be proactive in their enforcement of traffic laws.

This dangerous situation in Aklavik raises a broader set of questions. Are we doing enough territory-wide to keep our children safe from traffic?

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Are we doing enough territory-wide to keep our children safe from traffic? Is traffic safety being rigorously incorporated into safe school plans across the NWT?

Going forward, I call on the Minister and other officials to enhance traffic safety measures around Moose Kerr School and to promptly resolve this unsafe situation by building a parking lot. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements.

Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to rise and continue my discussions on prescription drug abuse here in the NWT. We do have serious addictions issues in the NWT and I know we are working toward solutions of dealing with them, and clearly I want to state for the record that we don’t want to undermine the fact that alcohol is probably one of, by far, the most abused substance in the NWT, but we do have a number of untracked addictions issues out there. With the recent NWT chief coroner’s report they echo those very same sentiments.

Prescription drug abuse of narcotics, benzodiazepines and certain over-the-counter medications are no longer the quiet addiction, and this addiction is real and now seeing the light of day.

My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As the issue of prescription drug abuse continues to surface, and again, when the NWT chief coroner reminds us of these 17 overdose cases from 2009 to 2012, what is the Minister or Department of Health and Social Services doing to track this addiction? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We don’t actually have a mechanism to track prescription drug abuse at this point in time, but things are underway to try and address this particular concern, and it is a serious concern and we do need to address it.

Under the Pharmacy Act there is an ability to set up a prescription monitoring program, but due to privacy issues that we’re all aware of, we currently cannot require health care providers to enter information into the program. Because we cannot require health care providers to enter the information, we have not yet set up a program to monitor prescriptions.

We are working on the Health Information Act, and the Health Information Act would require health care providers to enter in the information to a prescription monitoring program, should one be established under the Pharmacy Act. Once we have the Health Information Act, we would be able to set up a functioning prescription monitoring program to help tackle prescription drug abuse issues in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

It sounds like we’re hearing a broken record here today from the Minister. I heard the very same results here going back almost two years ago in this House on February 14, 2012, from the previous Minister of Health, that there was to be work undertaken with the Bureau of Statistics to include prescription drug abuse with a general addictions survey.

Can the Minister of Health today indicate whether or not this actually happened? Thank you.

There are things happening with respect to the survey. I’ll certainly get that information back to the Member.

Within individual health and social services authorities, or at the authority level, steps have been taken and put in place to limit access to prescription medications in situations where there is a concern about potential abuse of medications. Also, the federal government is currently working in partnership with all of the territories and provinces across the country and looking at ways to address prescription drug abuse. As a department, we will continue to work with the federal and provincial governments on preventing and providing appropriate treatment services, including surveillance data on prescription drug abuse. So there are a number of things we are working on already under this particular issue.

It’s hard for me to understand from the Minister, they’re doing work in this area, but they’re not tracking anything, and without statistics, how do you track this issue? The NWT coroner’s service tables an annual report that makes countless recommendations to assist this government in making strategic decisions with related addictions and death management, but sadly, a large majority of these recommendations fall on deaf ears.

Can the Minister of Health reaffirm his department’s commitment to deal with the recent seven recommendations from the office of the chief coroner on addressing prescription drug abuse in the NWT?

I, like everybody else, have just received the report and will carefully consider the seven recommendations outlined by the coroner; however, I am not prepared to speak to those details yet because we haven’t concluded that review.

To the Member’s first part of the question, we would love to track medications and whatnot in order to avoid these types of issues, but as I said, there really is no system to do that or to require professionals to put that information into a prescription monitoring system until we complete the Health Information Act. Once we have the Health Information Act done, we will be able to make amendments and put in a prescription

monitoring program which all people will be required to provide updates into. Once we have that, we will be able to provide detail and have the information in the future, but until we get the Health Information Act, we don’t have the ability to do that. We are getting that done.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Minister is in error; you can track that information. This government has long-standing adjudication agreements with third-party adjudicators. Aside from the fact from cash-paying customers, they can track this information quite readily if they choose to do so.

Can the Minister indicate specifically what his office will do to improve small community clinical support network and the management of opiate prescribing and opiate addiction?

We can require individuals to put information into a prescription monitoring program, or we can, rather, ask them to do, but we cannot force them to do it at this particular point in time. Once we have the Health Information Act, it will be a requirement and they will need to put it in there. The Member is actually, in fact, wrong.

With respect to what we are doing already, the individual health authorities, as I have already said, have put in place processes to limit access to prescription medications in situations where they have concern about a potential abuser. I will go a little further. The NWT Medical Directors’ Forum is working on guidelines for controlled substances. These will be territory-wide and include the educational component. Guidelines and standards for the medical management of opiate dependence is part of the work the Medical Directors’ Forum on guidelines for controlled substances. One of our physicians has taken training for methadone and Suboxone prescriptions and the management of chronic pain. We will be using the expertise of these physicians and outside experts to further develop controlled substance education throughout the Northwest Territories.

In fact, we are doing a number of things. We take this very seriously. Obviously, we can do more. The Health Information Act will be an important tool for us making progress in this area.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. In my Member’s statement I was talking about

decentralization. My questions today will be for the Premier.

With the government spending millions of dollars on housing and public works preparing for decentralization, does this government have a general overall plan of how this decentralization and these positions will go out to the regions?

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Of course we have a plan. We have described it many times. We have a three-phase plan. Phase 1 was where we had departments identify positions to be decentralized. We decentralized 18 positions. Phase 2 was to decentralize through devolution. We are very close to completing that. With our new organizational design, we expect there will be approximately 90 positions that have been decentralized. Now we are entering phase 3. Once all the work on devolution is done, we have requested all of our deputy ministers to identify opportunities for decentralization. Through this budget, when it’s passed, we will have monies to go forward so that we can put in place the infrastructure so that we can decentralize positions.

I have difficulties believing the Premier when he talks about decentralization and phase 2 of devolution, which put more than 200 positions into Yellowknife and only 90 out to the regions, so how is that decentralization? It sounds like centralization to me.

What is the government’s plan going forward to decentralize positions and what is that plan specifically? We’re currently planning to build houses in certain communities. We must have a plan that we’re going to put specific positions into those communities. What is that plan?

Those positions were already in Yellowknife, so that’s why they’re here. The federal government, in negotiating the Devolution Agreement, required that those positions would have to stay where they are for at least two years, so that was the deal.

Now, as part of the business planning process going forward, we expect to have a plan within the next six months. Through the business planning process, we will identify what positions and where they will go. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, I think the Premier has devolution and decentralization mixed up and tied into a knot.

I guess my questions would be: How does the Premier expect this Assembly to complete their goal to decentralize? We haven’t accomplished that. We haven’t gotten to that point where we actually have a plan. Is the Premier committing to

that six-month plan that we’re going to see how decentralization is going to roll out into the communities in this Assembly?

I know what devolution is and I know what decentralization is. Decentralization is where we take jobs and move them out into the regions, into the communities, so that people most affected by decisions are the ones that make the decisions and they’re closer to where they live. So, I know what decentralization is.

We are working on a plan. We have the Department of Finance, the Minister of Finance will be leading through the Refocusing Government Cabinet committee. He will be developing a plan. We will be building 30 houses a year in the communities. Along with increased services, we expect to have about 169 houses built over the next three years. We will have a plan so you’ll know what positions will be moved, you’ll know where they’ll be moved and where the houses will be built and, of course, along with the required office space. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I appreciate that there is a plan. My concern is that we’re already committing to building 30 houses and we haven’t completed the plan yet. Shouldn’t we have that current plan in place before we implement those houses and some of those office studies?

How do those two link? How does the government go ahead and spend millions of dollars on housing and office studies when we don’t even actually have the plan in place? How does the Premier explain that?

That’s all part of doing business. We have to get the money for houses first. In the past, every time we talked about decentralization, we said, well, we don’t have housing in the communities, we don’t have office space, so we can’t have decentralization. What we’re saying now is we’re not going to hide behind those standards of lack of housing, lack of office space. We’re going to have a plan that will tell you where we’re going to build those houses, and we’ll be able to tell you what positions and programs will be decentralized. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Recently I made a statement, obviously, about the broadband accomplishments on the reserve. I wanted to ask the Minister if he

could update this House in terms of the GNWT’s involvement with the broadband initiative of the fibre optic link on the reserve. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to congratulate the Hay River Reserve for the work that they’ve put into broadband and fibre on the reserve. I had the opportunity last year to go down and visit with community leaders there, and it’s very encouraging to see the work and the effort that’s been put into fibre optic in that community. I know they have some big plans, and certainly the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment were interested in helping them try to achieve those plans. Thank you.

This government promoted the idea of the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link. It will be possible at some point, if it’s established, to link all communities across the NWT.

How is the GNWT, especially through ITI or all departments, working to ensure that communities at some point will be able to take advantage of these technologies? Mahsi.

We’re very encouraged by the signals from the federal government on the importance of growing broadband and connectivity in Canada’s North. It looks like they’re going to invest over $300 million on that initiative over the next few years.

We certainly are moving forward with the fibre optic link down the Mackenzie Valley and any opportunity we have, as a government, to continue to look at opportunities to connect communities to that system is something we are certainly interested in. I know it’s early days since the announcement by the federal government on the money for fibre in northern Canada, but certainly we will be putting our efforts into trying to get some of that funding for some of our communities here in the NWT. Thank you.

How would the department work on behalf of communities to ensure that some of those federal dollars that the federal government has committed will be available for communities in terms of establishing technology, whether broadband or fibre optics? Thank you.

On a bigger scale, I think it comes down to planning. Certainly we have to work with communities around the Northwest Territories as a government to get a plan going forward. On a smaller scale such as perhaps what the Hay River Reserve is trying to achieve, we do have some funding that we could certainly look at in the South Slave to help the Hay River Reserve achieve what they’re trying to do there with fibre

optics. That’s certainly something we are interested in doing, Madam Speaker.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Before I begin I want to make note that I am certainly sorry that my passion and frustration got ahead of me earlier. I acknowledge that and I never intended to use “vexatious” as a particular word. I didn’t plan that in any way.

What that does, though, is further stress my frustration about this whole problem. There’s an apparent wall between the board of governors at Aurora College and the students, if I may describe it as a protective barrier. The letter clearly states about process, process, process.

I guess I will say this to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: under Section 7(1), the Minister can give direction to a board such as the Aurora College governors, and further, the Minister shall, under 7(2), determine the policies respecting operations of the college.

I am asking, will the Minister, who represents us through Education, Culture and Employment, tell, instruct, or direct the board of governors at Aurora College to meet with the students to hear their concerns directly and not be afraid of them by instructing them to follow process, process, process? Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I have already made a commitment in the House that I will be meeting with the board of governors’ chair and also the president, both of them together, to highlight the Member’s concern that the board of governors should be meeting with the students.

I don’t want to be in a position to dictate to the board of governors or the district education councils or authorities to tell them what to do. We have to work hand in hand. We have to work closely together between the departments and agencies, so we continue to strengthen the relationship we have with the agencies and DEAs and DECs and the board of governors as well.

I made a commitment and I will follow through with that commitment. Mahsi.

The Minister just said, “I don’t want to be in a position…to tell them what to do.” Let me remind the Minister, once again, that he’s in

charge and if he doesn’t want to be in charge, that’s okay, because there’s probably an opening over here if he doesn’t want to tell them what to do.

Under Section 7, once again, the Minister has the authority to provide them direction. Under Section 7(2), they can provide direction through policy. So if he’s not interested, I’m not sure what the problem is.

The letter he received was cc’d to him, went to me, and said basically they will get to it when they get to it through process. Here is an occasion to get down to the level of the students, meet with them, get involved with them and find out what’s important to the students.

Will the Minister stop talking about this administrative, bureaucratic talk and say yes, I’m going out there today and telling the president and the chair of the board of governors that you will meet with the students and today we’re going to do business differently? Thank you very much.

Yes, I did make a commitment to sit down with the board of governors. Mahsi.

The Minister is in possession of the same letter I am that they wrote to me on February 6th . They basically say they’re not going to

meet with them. The only way they meet with them is when they bump into them at the store or on the street, if they run across them in another meeting. There is no formal commitment. If anything, there is a commitment saying we’re not interested.

So, the Minister is saying he is going to meet with them. What exactly is he going to tell the college that they’re going to do and how are they going to do it?

This is an area that I need to have a discussion with the board of governors of the college, having a direct dialogue with the board of governors and the students. We have to have an open dialogue. That’s a discussion we need to have with the board of governors, the board chairs and the president. You know I have the authority, but I need to sit down with them first to see what kind of discussions they’ve had in the past and how we can move forward. Those are discussions, and I’ve made a commitment in the House to proceed with that and I’m going to do it, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I guess I’m going to say, in short, if this board, be it the chairperson, the board of governors and the president refuse to meet with the students, is the Minister prepared to start with a new slate of governance to find a group of individuals that care

enough about their students to hold meetings with them? Thank you.

Mr. Hawkins, that’s technically a hypothetical question, if all these things happen what would the Minister be prepared to do. Could you think of some other way to reword your question? Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I don’t think it’s worth it.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are also addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to follow up on some of the concerns raised in my Member’s statement.

On October 7th the Minister made a statement in

this House and in that statement he announced a wage or subsidy program for early childhood practitioners. I recognize that our child care staff tend to be poorly paid. They are certainly on the low end of the wage scale, in my estimation.

I would like to ask the Minister, first of all, how this particular approach, how a wage subsidy approach was decided on. Were daycares or preschool operators consulted? If so, when were they consulted and how many operators did he consult with? Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I don’t have the breakdown of how many times we met or how many agencies, but I can provide the breakdown to the Member.

With the proposed funding that’s within the budget, we are allocating upwards of $511,000 towards this wage subsidy. There were suggestions and ideas that came forward and, again, we have to backtrack to the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, Early Childhood Development Framework, the engagement we have had with the general public, the agencies, the child care workers. They’ve told us their wage is so low, minimum $17,000 to $22,000 a year, so we felt that we needed to follow up on that so that we can have those highly skilled individuals at a going rate today.

So we are following through on what we’ve been told by parents, by our communities and we’re moving forward on that. Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister, and I don’t disagree that we need to do something for our early

childhood practitioners. They definitely are not paid what they’re worth, but I’m struggling to understand. The Minister didn’t really answer my question as to where this approach came from. I find it unlikely that the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative would have laid out this kind of an approach to increasing wages for early childhood practitioners.

My next question to the Minister has to do with how this program is going to work. I am struggling to understand just how this is going to roll out, so I’d like to ask the Minister for some details.

Will the funds go to individual teachers? Will they go to the daycare or the preschool operators? What’s the plan? Thank you.

The money that’s identified, once it’s passed through this House in the budget we will then be working with licensed early childhood centre operators to ensure the funding is applied directly to increasing of staff wages. So those are the targeted individuals, individuals with low wages so we can at least subsidize them. In 2014, in April, that’s when the $2 addition will be added on. The following year in April will be another $1 addition and the subsequent years will be based on certification, diplomas or degrees they’ve obtained will be waged at the top of this. Those are just the discussions that we’ve had.

When I mentioned the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, we spoke generally about the education of all of the Northwest Territories that covered early childhood as well. So that’s why we refer back to the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, Early Childhood Development Framework and now we’re going through education renewal. Those are some of the discussions we’ve been engaged in with the general public. Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister for that detail. He’s taking me to my next question, which has to do with certification.

The Minister, in his statement, said we’re also putting in place a credentialing system, scholarships and incentives for early childhood development professionals. So I’d like to know from the Minister, I agree completely that we need to have our early childhood professionals certified and they need to be certified to a national standard, but I’d like to know from the Minister if, in 2016, certification is going to increase the wages of our professionals. So I’d like to know, again, how this system is going to work. I think it’s a grand idea, I think it’s needed, but I don’t understand how it’s going to work. What kind of credentialing system are we going to put in place? Thank you.

Mahsi. That’s the information and the direction that we need to work with the child care centres and especially the daycare operators. They would have a handle on

how many are in the system, how many are getting their certification or diploma and the degree programs. So 2016-2017 onward we want to identify those individuals.

We have, I believe, if I’m not mistaken, approximately 30 individuals that are in the professional fields in post-secondary. Obviously, we want to attract them to the Northwest Territories to work in our centres across the Northwest Territories. So this will be an incentive for them to come back to our region, our communities to work for us. That’s the overall plan to develop some attractiveness and also some incentive for those individuals to come back to our North. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m struggling to understand the system. I guess if I’m given two years in which to get my certification but I’m also working full-time, I’m really struggling to understand how I’m supposed to accomplish that.

I have heard that there will be an on-line system or an on-line program, I guess, but for me to take stuff on-line, I think it’s going to take quite a long time. So, I’d like to know from the Minister if he has looked at the amount of time that’s going to be required for any professional to get the certification that’s required for them to get the greater wage that they deserve. Thank you.

Yes, it will take time in various areas, but we, as a department, will be working closely with the daycare operators because we want those individuals to achieve their goals and dreams of either certification, diploma or a degree program. We will be establishing up to 10 $5,000 scholarships for these individuals to access. So we’re doing what we can to send those individuals out while they’re still working. So, obviously we want to create some incentives. That’s what we’re doing and this is a process where we are currently working with the operators at this point in time. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to my opening Member’s statement about suicides.

The first question is: Do the health authorities keep track of self-inflicted visits to emergency rooms that can potentially lead to suicide? Does the department or authorities keep those kinds of statistics? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. With regard to the statistics related to attempted suicides, data would actually be incredibly difficult to collect because there are multiple diagnoses that an individual coming in who has attempted suicide or believed to have attempted suicide might come in with. Client diagnosis codes would often be related to the method of attempted suicide, how somebody chooses to attempt to take their own life. So, there would be multiple different codes that would be used. So, as a result, it would be very difficult to provide that information. Thank you.

The reason I bring this up is we do have a Mental Health Act that does allow for physicians and practitioners to hold an individual for up to 24 hours, that’s the first step, and in a lot of cases, should there be alcohol involved, sometimes the individuals are let out of the care and treatment of the health centre or the hospital, and that’s why these kind of statistics would be good to help develop a better plan of action in terms of what steps can the authorities or the hospitals do or the health centres do to keep these people in care until they are ready to get a full assessment.

I’d like to ask the Minister, does the department have a suicide prevention plan currently that they can put into action here? Does the department have a suicide prevention plan?

There are a number of different things that happen depending on the location you’re at. The NWT Community Counselling Standards Manual has a standard on crisis intervention, which would respond to crisis situations similar to suicide or attempted suicide. The standard identifies suicide protocols and procedures for action to be taken, documentation and screening, such as the mental status examination and suicide risk assessments. So those happen in the community if somebody presents with an attempted suicide. The manual also includes suicide prevention resources that an individual may access.

When it comes to Stanton and/or the Inuvik Regional Hospital, there are some additional things that may happen. When a client presents to the hospital – Stanton, that is – having attempted suicide, medical stabilization and care is the first priority. We want to make sure the person is safe. Following stabilization, a referral to an appropriate psychiatric service is initiated and the psychiatric unit at Stanton Hospital have a suicide precaution policy, which includes suicide risk assessment.

Within the Inuvik Regional Hospital, a standardized assessment tool is used for conducting suicide risk assessment. Clients who have been medevaced

from an outlying community are often admitted to the hospital for 24 hours of observation and then risk assessments are conducted on the individual and the risk assessments also must include a plan of care. So, depending on where you are, different things will happen, but there are protocols and programs in place to support all those individuals.

Thank you. You’ve heard in this House before there’s been a call from some of the Members that represent small communities for an RCMP officer and nurse. As I stated, we have 65 councillors in 19 communities but we have 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, and in some of these communities we only have a nurse that can provide that type of care or services or even counselling.

Being this is such a big issue, and not looking at it this way when a person really needs that help for some intervention, how is the Minister going to address not having that nurse or that counsellor in a small community for the immediate responses that sometimes we don’t always see because of the lack of resources that we have in some of these small communities?

I recognize from the Member’s earlier statements that obviously face to face is preferable. That is not always the case, but we do have an ability to have individuals call certain professionals and receive services by telephone or by telehealth. But it’s not just a matter of the professional provider. We are eager and interested in helping individuals within communities develop skills so that they can provide support to the individuals. One of the things that we are doing is Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, which we are offering across the Northwest Territories.

As you all know, ASIST is an internationally recognized, well-researched training program that is based on best practices in suicide prevention and intervention. It is a two-day workshop, and we are looking to have it delivered across the Territories for any individual who wishes to take it so that they can be aware of the signs of individuals who may be at risk, so we would continue to get that out there for all people.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. That training program, ASIST, I have heard nothing but good things about it.

Would the Minister, in terms of that training, look at possibly putting that program in the areas where we don’t have a nurse or we don’t have an RCMP officer as a priority of the first places that we get that training to? Would he do that, and also, if he can also maybe share with the House how many communities actually do have that ASIST training in place right now?

The ASIST program, we have put dollars in the budget so that every authority can deliver two ASIST programs or two training workshops. To date, in ’12, ’13, ‘14, 144 individuals across the Northwest Territories have taken that training, and we will continue to encourage the authorities to use the dollars they have received to deliver that program in as many communities as they can over time.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are for the Premier today. I’d like to start by noting that a democracy works best when all citizens are able to speak their minds.

Would the Premier not agree that we should welcome respectful input from everyone if we want to get the best result?

The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Madam Speaker, that depends on the question. Thank you.

We have roughly 10,000 households in the Northwest Territories and at least 4,000 GNWT employees at any one time given our 10 percent vacancy. This means that potentially almost 40 percent of households could include a person directly employed by GNWT.

Would the Premier agree that GNWT employees and their families make up a significant portion of informed citizens of the NWT?

I guess it depends if you figure that 50 percent makes up a significant portion.

In reflection, I have to be quite disappointed that the Premier is not willing to welcome any input from our citizens on the issues that our people face. That’s shocking to me. It depends on what the question is on whether he is interested or not, so that’s a bit shocking, but let’s go with it.

With so many informed and caring citizens in our employment, and I assure the Premier, and although he sounds doubtful that we do have a significant number, there is some concern that GNWT may be tempted to silence public debate by preventing GNWT employees from expressing their opinions, even when the topic is not directly related to their job.

Can the Premier reassure us here in the House that the GNWT does, in fact, encourage its employees to participate in public debate on issues?

Finally, a question that I can answer. All GNWT employees sign a code of ethics when they enter into employment with this government, and as part of that code of ethics they have to adhere to certain principles and criteria, and I’m sure the honourable Member would be the first to cry out loud and clear if an employee of the Government of the Northwest Territories would come out and directly criticize it.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I hope the Premier doesn’t think that he thinks for me, but I would like to ask our reluctant Premier my last question here.

There is currently a petition on the Legislative Assembly website. Could the Premier please reassure our employees that they will not face any recriminations if they wish to sign that petition? It’s not criticizing the government; it’s asking the government for action.

I’m not aware of any petition on any website.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement earlier. Falls are the most common cause of injures among senior citizens and our elders, and the top reason for admission for trauma. Falls account for 85 percent of all fractures among people aged 65 years and older and the top fracture being hips.

I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, do we have any protocols or procedures for treating seniors who fall? I think, in particular, as well, in my Member’s statement I also raised the concern of the family that only one X-ray was taken. Is this part of the procedure?

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. There were two questions there, and I will try to answer both of them. The department works in partnership with the NWT Recreation and Parks Association to support training for community-based workers and activities that enhance independence and quality of life for elders. Research has identified several key areas to promote healthy aging, including physical activity and falls prevention, and falls prevention being of particular interest. In conjunction with Elders in

Motion training gathering, the department and regional staff are developing a territorial falls prevention program as part of promoting independence of our elders through prevention of injuries, so things are happening on that front.

With respect to standard protocols or clinical governance or clinical guidelines, this is an area that we obviously need to do significantly more work in the Northwest Territories. We have a number of authorities who have different protocols within their mandate. We have recently hired a chief clinical advisor who is going to be providing leadership on clinical governance throughout the system and trying to set some standards with respect to the exact type of thing the Member is talking about across all authorities.

My constituency has all small and remote communities. The Minister is talking about a protocol. I would also like to raise the issue of getting medical attention through medevacs should be part of that protocol, because had my constituent been medevaced immediately for a proper and thorough examination, I don’t feel that she would have gone through this pain.

Also, in fact, why aren’t we doing proper medical examinations at our local health centres? Thank you.

I certainly can’t talk to any individual case, but I do know we have highly competent professionals throughout the system who are doing great work in all communities, all regions and all facilities within the Northwest Territories. I can’t, obviously, speak to the individual case, but clinical guidelines would certainly be helpful across the Northwest Territories.

With respect to things like medevacs, we are doing things like Med-Response, which we hope to see roll out shortly, which are going to give communities a voice to a professional who is going to be able to streamline, coordinate and make medevacs more seamless and more timely. After all, what we are interested in is better health, better care and a better future for all of our residents. Thank you.

I think by improving our system, we do that by creating statistics. In fact, does the department keep track of incorrect diagnoses in our individual centres? If not, why isn’t this information being recorded? Thank you.