Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before we got back in session, I had the honour to attend the Aurora College graduation in Inuvik where I was able to give a speech to the graduates. I was very honoured and grateful to participate and to see graduates of all ages right out of high school to even see seniors and older adults. For them to take the initiative and invest into their futures and accomplish what they had set out to accomplish, for that I respected each and every one of them for the hard work that they did to get where they were today.

Although I did speak only at the Inuvik event, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all graduates in the Northwest Territories through the Aurora College. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the instructors, the staff, the

mentors and the families that supported these graduates as they went through the course of their years to get the diplomas.

As we know, the cost of living in the Northwest Territories is very high, that student financial assistance only provides so much money and a lot of these families – sometimes single parents – go through a hard time to get through those trials and tribulations to overcome those obstacles to get where they are today. That takes a lot of courage and a lot of determination. For that we should respect our graduates of the Northwest Territories.

With that said, I would like to take the opportunity to address what I had mentioned in my speech to all of the graduates. I did mention that our greatest resource in the Northwest Territories is not our oil, gas or diamonds; it is our people. In the Northwest Territories it is very unique that we help our people. We share with our people. We take them under our wing and help them become better people. If they are struggling, we try to get them out of those situations.

We need to invest more in our education, our health and our wellness of our people so that they can become educated, they can become healthy, so that they are the ones who can go out and get the jobs in our education systems, our schools, even translators. We need to put that investment there.

Once all our resources are gone in the Northwest Territories, we are going to be left with the people who were here first. We are going to be left with the people that are struggling to get through these jobs, left with people who are starting to get sucked into the hardships of economy development with the alcohol, drugs and addictions.

As the economy slows, we have to look at investing into something else and that is people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

1. Would the Minister please provide a list of the

communities that were consulted in the shelter policy review?

2. Would the Minister please indicate which

community groups were consulted during the review?

3. Would the Minister please confirm the number

of NWT seniors who were consulted during the review?

4. Would the Minister please provide an outline of

the consultation process for the shelter policy review?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Youth is always a priority; however, it did not get on the document for our caucus priorities, which I made a Member’s statement early on in the government about committing to the youth that we’re still going to work in their best interests. It’s nice to hear those comments from the Premier. What I didn’t hear was the commitment that he’ll continue working with the document to bring youth together and possibly

working with other departments, interdepartmental governments. Can I get a strong commitment from the Premier on this? Thank you.

As recognized, this was an initiative put on by the former Minister and Premier. I just wanted to ask the Premier if he’s willing to continue working on such a document and such a very strong initiative with our youth leaders in this government to continue on such a great project. That it’s not a one year thing and that we continue to work with our youth and listen to our youth in how we can work to better a future for everyone.

There are two specific recommendations. One is for an end goal of getting a treatment centre that’s culturally sensitive with multicultural staff, trained professionals, unique treatment plans for youth, adults and elders, as well as a recovery support program, something that we are lacking in this territory. As well, they made a recommendation to place a qualified school counsellor and mentor in every school to help them achieve their goal of graduating high school. With the Minister of DAAIR familiar with those recommendations, when can we see those recommendations be put into action that will help our youth succeed and also our adults and our seniors as well?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just following up in regard to my Member’s statement. With the Forging the Future Youth Conference reporting, 42 youth from across the Northwest Territories got together last summer and they came up with a bunch of recommendations and talked about all the issues that we talk about in this House. It was an initiative from the former Premier and the former Minister of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. My question today is for our newly elected Premier and Minister of DAAIR. Is he familiar with the report and is he familiar with the recommendations that are in this report, and is he familiar with those recommendations? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time I would like to recognize Brian Desjardins, who is a long-time friend and who did great work in tourism up in Inuvik and he’s doing it now across the Northwest Territories and he does a really great job. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to touch on in my Member’s statement today about the experience I’ve had since I’ve been in this Assembly. It’s been quite the eye opener in terms of reading reports, interacting with Ministers and with the government. There are a lot of things that I do shake my head at sometimes, and there are a lot of times where I do get a little bit overwhelmed with some of the responses that I do get, specifically around reporting.

In past governments and this government, that we can make a positive change here. We can put a lot of these recommendations that are in reports that I’ve been reading into reality. We have an opportunity over the next four years to do that, working with Ministers on that side of the table and working with government. In fact, there are recommendations that I’ve seen in reports when I was working for government, when I was working on committees and volunteered, that have not been actioned. There are a lot of people in the Northwest Territories who put a lot of work into these strategic plans, work plans, and hoping that when it does get to this House that it’s just not tabled and it gets action to.

Well, I can make a commitment today that over the next four years, as I learn about these reports, as I see these reports, that I will bring it into the House and question the government to make sure that some of these recommendations that are put forward, if they haven’t already been addressed, do get addressed or looked into for future business plans.

I do know that the GNWT staff do a lot of work, and based on resources and funding, you know, there are some restraints in what we can and cannot do, but if we start putting our efforts to what these specialists recommend and the front-line workers recommend, then I think we can start seeing a positive change in the health and wellness of our people, our economy and everything that was mentioned in the statement earlier today with the financial budget address.

I just wanted to talk about reporting and that when it comes to the House that it just does not get tabled and left at that. That recommendations do get a serious look at and that we do work on them.

Today I will have some questions on a report where I had some input on recommendations when I was working for the government and also as a volunteer of the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the tabling of the document this session, when can we start seeing some action put on that document so that people in the Northwest Territories have an idea of when they can start seeing some services in the communities and in the Northwest Territories? So, can he commit to a time frame of putting that action into place?