Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do rise in support of this motion and I would like to thank the mover, Mr. Bromley, and Mr. Nadli for bringing it forward today.
As I'm sitting here listening to my colleagues speak toward this motion, I am saddened for a number of reasons; we failed, plain and simple. I think Mr. Moses said it clearly, we're so bogged down with all the things that are our day-to-day lives, we forget certain things and this is one of the areas that I think that even from a Member of this House, from a Member of the Social Programs committee, we failed, and I apologize to those with disabilities out there. We're not perfect and, unfortunately, this is late in the game that we're bringing this forward. But we have a social contract with everyone in the Northwest Territories and we have a social contract especially with those with disabilities and hopefully this motion today makes some amends towards that action.
As you've heard today, Mr. Speaker, there continue to be gaps and there are too many to mention and a lot have been mentioned here today as well. It's amazing that in this day and age, 2015, we're talking about some of those basic areas that we take for granted. You know what? We came together as a Caucus four years ago and we had a shared vision. I remember doing that vividly and we talked about a vision of strong individuals, families and communities and that includes those with disabilities. I think we forgot about that along the way.
As you heard in the motion, 15 percent of our population suffers disabilities, roughly around 6,000 people. That's almost the size of our public workforce. So that's like us ignoring everyone who works for the government and that's a large number of people.
I'm really concerned that we sometimes take accessibility for granted and that's not right. Those who have troubles in that area have a right to dignity and I think we haven't offered them that right here today and I'm hoping this motion, I guess, speaks a little bit to making some amends to where I think we've failed during the life of this 17th Assembly because they don't need to live with that stigma, and for that we did fail and I will definitely be supporting this motion and I'm looking for all my colleagues to support the mover and seconder. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.