Thank you, Madam Chair. I do want to say to the Minister that we certainly look forward to the long-term care facility in the Sahtu. It’s going to be located in Norman Wells and also the new health care centre. We’ll continue to look forward to the implementation more so that the staff who are going to be filling those positions working with Education, Culture and Employment and Aurora College to get the message out there that there are opportunities for people in the Sahtu region and the North with regard to staffing that facility. There are spinoffs to having a facility such as a long-term care centre that not only looks at the career opportunities for people but also for business opportunities for housing and housing staff members who will come into the centre.

I look forward to the department’s persistent push to make sure that we have proper spaces there for workers in the town of Norman Wells and that we

provide every opportunity for our people to take advantage of the jobs that will be happening there, whether it be maintenance, personal care workers or the profession of nurses, doctors or specialists. The spinoffs are going to be felt by the region.

I do want to say to the Minister that we look forward to this opportunity to be beneficial. Many times we have all good intentions and they don’t quite pan out to what they want them to be, for whatever reason. Someone drops a ball, we call it. We are hoping, and I am thinking, this is a project that needs to be monitored and carefully nudged along its way where we will see workers go into the Inuvik Aurora College Campus and start training for 10 months, so when the facility opens there are opportunities for personal care workers. That’s the target group we are looking for right now to fill those positions in the Sahtu region.

I do want to say, Madam Chair, that the issue, and I’m going to raise it at a different time again, I’m just going to highlight it in my comments to the Minister on having a program, or developing a program, creating a program, whatever, to have former students of residential school survivors get into a program. I’m starting to hear more and more when I get back to the Sahtu, specifically in Norman Wells, where the residential school clients are coming to the town of Norman Wells to seek counselling. What I’m hearing from the service providers is that they are having a difficult time sending these clients out to a treatment centre. I’m working with some of the Members on this side to see what we can do, because even a couple weeks ago before coming back to this Assembly I was told that the counsellor had to turn away clients who were requesting to go into a treatment program. It’s frustrating for me, it’s frustrating for the clients and it’s really frustrating for the counsellor because the funding for counseling comes from Health Canada.

One of the issues, I understand, is that Health Canada closed its file. Ethically, morally, the counsellor can’t do that, out of good judgment, can’t close a file on its client knowing darn well that this client needs to be in a treatment program. You know, they just can’t close the file on that. That’s like putting your head in the sand and saying there are no issues here.

So they’re in a real struggle and I’m hoping that within the life of this government, the Minister directs his department to say what can be done about this issue, given that we have, as Minister Lafferty indicated, an inventory. There are 5,500 residential school survivors. If you somewhat have an understanding of the life of a survivor in one of these institutions, you’ll see the type of behaviours that come out of the experience of residential school survivors.

So I’m hoping that there is some movement with the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre on the Hay

River Dene Reserve as a possible place. We have northern people here that can put together a good, dynamic treatment program. We have the expertise, we have the people and we need to look at something like this. I’m hoping that this department, and this is the only issue I’m talking about, Madam Chair, many in the Health department, but this is the one that’s most pressing, the one that’s right up against our faces as politicians, as leaders in the Sahtu. What do we do, given the complexity of the issue and not blaming the system or the people, whatever, whatever? There are people there that need help and we’re not there. We’re saying go back to the community and get treatment or get help. But look in our communities. How many mental health workers are there in the Sahtu? How many social workers are there in the Sahtu? How many clients do they have? They’re either not there or we’ve worked them out and they’re too tired. We know that. We’re tight everywhere.

So I’m saying that we have the expertise, we have the people, we have the places, surely, surely we can come up with the money. This government has done it before, but that’s the challenge. That’s why you’re the Minister. That’s why we have departments. I don’t have the staff and I don’t have the staff to phone around Canada and say, what kind of treatment centres are out there? Can we look at one?

I’m saying there’s eight months. We have to have something to help them. I know I’m making a plea here, Mr. Minister, and I’m hoping that we can come up with something. We have eight months. Do we continue to let this go and not do anything? How do you work it? We have to think really outside the box on this issue, really, it’s a real challenge. That means challenging your staff, challenging your workers. What is it? Is it the system? Is it the money? What is it? That’s why we hire them, to do work for us, work for the people. That’s the only thing I can think of.

So I’m really making a plea and I know you’ve got some real smart people over there and we need the help. So I’m challenging your department to come to some form or way to help our survivors.

That is only one of many. Thank you.