Mr. Speaker, for some time many have warned that the crisis of too few available beds at the Aven Centre here in Yellowknife is coming fast. I rise yet again to remind us all that this catastrophe is not only looming, it’s here. We must address the shortfall promptly.

The problem has been studied to death by all concerned, who say with one voice,

“We need more

beds.” With a 200 percent growth in Yellowknife seniors over the next 16 years and a 125 percent increase across the NWT, we need several hundred new beds territory-wide. Yet, time is passing with little apparent progress.

We still do not have a single palliative care facility in the NWT. Avens is in need of major renovations and the waiting list grows longer. Our state of preparedness to serve our elders in need of beds is deplorable.

To humanize this situation, let’s look at one real life example of the many, to help imagine the human toll this neglect is exacting.

Annette Lemay, 93, moved to Yellowknife in 1951 to marry Aurel Lemay. Together they lived in their small house, which they moved from the Negus mine site, until Aurel passed away at 95 last July. Aurel retired in 1983 and he and Annette were determined to remain in Yellowknife. They had no children and no blood relations in the NWT, but Yellowknife has always been their home and their family. They were only able to make living independently work because they were together, with their respective abilities in cooking, mobility, corresponding and advocating care complementing each other.

They knew that the day would come when one of them would go, leaving the other needing comprehensive care, so an application was made in 2013 to place Annette on the waiting list for long-term care. Sadly, that day came on July 8, 2015. Annette immediately found herself alone and in urgent need of care.

While she currently has respite until October, she is sixth on the waiting list for placement in long-term care. She remains scared, worried and confused, and is seeking safety and comfort in the community of seniors for the last of her years.

Annette Lemay is the face of the seniors this government is failing. As lifelong founders and pillars of our society today, she and our many elders like her throughout the Northwest Territories deserve better. In Yellowknife, with half of our territorial population served by a facility with a meagre 29 beds needing mid-

life retrofit, our seniors’ plight is well

known and has been obvious for some time.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thanks for the Minister’s

comments and commitments there. I appreciate that. I agree; there are some exciting opportunities coming up with the Stanton building and so on.

I guess maybe just to confirm, I believe I heard the Minister say he was committing to meet with the Detah District Education Authority about the possibility of a new school and the process that will be required to achieve that. So if I can just get confirmation that he will be setting up that meeting, and if it’s possible to do that during the life of this Assembly by October 23rd , that would be great.

Thank you.

I know Minister was out earlier today, I believe, or perhaps that’s coming up that he’s doing a presentation at the school. So I’m hoping he will have an opportunity to look directly at the scho

ol himself. I know he’s familiar with it.

I guess I would ask when we might expect to see some of those things happen that are under discussion and if the Minister will commit to getting a new school on the capital plan for Detah. Partly the situation is that without having a proper facility there, parents are having to bus their children into Yellowknife. As an example, I met, at a constituency meeting a couple of days ago, with a family with teenage daughters who get bussed in, but the bus leaves at such a time and school starts at such a time that these kids are left sort of footloose and fancy-free in Yellowknife for an hour, and that’s plenty of time to get into trouble. I think I certainly would have if I had that opportunity at that age.

This is a sep

arate community; it’s recognized as a

separate community and we need to recognize that in providing appropriate facilities. The same thing goes for housing, which is another topic. But we don’t want people moving away from their families because we don’t have proper facilities there. So, there are a couple of questions there. Maybe I’ll just mention the hope, or seek a commitment to also get Aurora College Yellowknife Campus on the capital plan. I know perhaps the Minister has toured that building, as committees have, and it is one crowded facility. We can’t expect them to be doing

good work in those sorts of quarters for very long. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I welcome the Minister and his staff. I appreciate this opportunity. I think I support many of the comments I heard from my colleague Ms. Bisa

ro. I’m happy to

see some of the work going on in our schools in the smaller communities, Lutselk’e certainly and some of the others that have been mentioned already. I am very glad to see the sewer line finally being fixed at Sir John Franklin. That’s something that’s been there for years and I know has been an issue.

Again, I appreciate the Minister putting forward some planning money for a couple of Yellowknife schools that are long overdue.

I just want to make sure the Minister heard my comments earlier about the need to actually provide a new school in Detah, replace the Kaw Tay Whee structure which is a couple of portable units established there about 30 years ago. Since then they’ve gone from a few classes up to 10 classes and it’s a four-room school. So Kaw Tay Whee is not able to have any longer the language and culture program they used to have because there is

simply not the space to do that. So, again, four rooms, 10 classes.

In association with that, the Detah school, Kaw Tay Whee, does not have a sprinkler system and I would like to ask the Minister, is that not a standard for our schools? Should our schools not have sprinkler systems to ensure the safety of our children? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like

to table a copy of the resolutions adopted at the 148th annual meeting of the Canadian Medical

Association this fall, including Resolution 49, Recognizing the Health Benefits of a Strong Predictable Price on Carbon Emissions; Resolution 82, Committing the Canadian Medical Association to Divesting Itself of Investments in Fossil Fuels; and Resolution 83, Calling on the Canadian Medical Association to Explore Investments in Renewable Energy Solutions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I’ve heard the expression that work is going on. I have been asking, what work? But given that there is work going on and I’ve heard the Minister on the radio about the situation in Nunavut relative to harvesting and even commercial harvesting, given all these things, what does the Minister see, given our current, recent and continuing declines? What are the current priority management actions that are required and when will we be putting these into place to ensure the return of these critical populations? Mahsi.

…(inaudible)…what is this

government doing on its own or with its partners to address or at least understand these factors so we can then address them? What research has been or is being done by this government or our partners on the role that our changing climate is playing in the decline of our caribou herds? Mahsi.

I appreciate the response. I didn’t

hear, really, whether the Minister feels the hunting restriction has had a measurable effect, but one area that has been suggested and the Minister mentioned as a stressor on the caribou population is industrial development.

I am wondering what research is government doing into the effect of the impact of increased industrial development on the caribou and what actions are being undertaken to ensure the recovery with respect to those factors. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for Minister Miltenberger and it’s about caribou. Recent ENR surveys indicate that most caribou populations in the Northwest

Territories continue to plummet. One vivid comparison states that if the population of the Bathurst herd was compared to the population of Yellowknife, the Yellowknife population would now be smaller than Deline or Fort Resolution. This is disastrous with human and ecological impacts. We know what the numbers are, but what are the causes? We’ve had severe restrictions on harvesting caribou for several years now, with the last two years in almost complete moratorium on Bathurst and Bluenose-East herds.

What has the Minister learned about the effect of hunting on the caribou populations and whether he feels that the hunting restrictions have had a measurable and positive effect? Mahsi.