Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity, along with my colleagues here, to attend a luncheon over at the Explorer Hotel with participants who are attending this year’s Weaving Our Wisdom Gathering, a territorial wellness gathering. I just want to say it was a really great opportunity to meet and catch up with old colleagues who I used to work with in the Department of Health as well as the Department of MACA, and also look at some of the leaders who were at the event itself.
It was really unique in the sense that the Department of Health put on this conference. We had volunteers, we had elders, we had community leaders, chiefs, mayors all speaking with one another about how we make our health systems and programs and services that we provide better, and how we work together to create healthier individuals in the Northwest Territories.
One other thing that was really great to see was all the youth who were in attendance. I think there were youth representing all the communities across the Northwest Territories, bringing their voices to the table, like I said, with mayors, with chiefs and with community leaders all striving for the same goal and objective.
One thing that was really great to see in these three days of meetings that they had was they had an online webcast. So if people couldn’t come in for the conference, or it was already at capacity, then people could participate online, something that this government hasn’t really done before. They were able to listen to presentations, download the presentations from the site, ask questions in real time and just be part of the conference from up in the Beaufort-Delta, to the Sahtu and the Deh Cho. I’m not sure what kind of uptake was on that website, but that’s where we need to move in order to get the information out, to have people from the Northwest Territories participating on how we do business, how we create action plans and strategies moving forward.
I think the Department of Health did a great job, an excellent job in providing this gathering, Weaving Our Wisdom, to everybody in the Northwest Territories. I’m sure it was even available to people down south. I heard the presentations were great, the keynote speakers were great, and I applaud the
Minister and his department for doing such a great job on this gathering here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.