Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in March of this year I raised the issue of the dormant NWT Disabilities Action Plan, completed in 2008 but apparently forgotten until the NWT Disabilities Council resurrected it in 2015 with questions about its implementation and status. Their evaluation contained a number of recommendations, all based on the principle that we have all the information we need on current supports, or the lack thereof, and that we now need to move on to action.

I attempted to move this process forward through a motion, which was adopted by this house and supported by my colleagues, and supported by the Cabinet, as well. It called on the government to work with the NWT Disabilities Council and other stakeholders to develop a new action plan, including measurable outcomes and ongoing evaluation.

In June, the government replied to that motion. Government said it would first of all complete an updated inventory of the disabilities supports in place. The work would identify gaps in those services and assess the barriers to providing services in the right combinations. Key to the effort would be a collaborative process, including both service users' and service providers' input.

I understand that a working group including government and stakeholder representation has been created and they are hard at work. Detailed service and gap information is being assembled, with government members showing good effort to collaborate across departmental lines. Next week, departments and stakeholders will gather again to review that disability program review and set plans for completing a new action plan that relies heavily on accountabilities and evaluation. In the reply to our motion, the government has promised that plan will be in place by the end of this fiscal year. Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent denied

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am grateful for the work of this committee around the issue of plain language reporting on the public accounts. As a new Member with a lot of education, still I found the public accounts very difficult to understand. That is a view that is shared by the C.D. Howe Institute where they grade all of the public account presentations. I am very much looking forward to plain language reporting on the public accounts, which we can share with our constituents so that they can understand how their money is being spent by us. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to express my thanks to the Standing Committee on Government Operations and particularly for their recommendation number 6 which argues for a plain language -- oh no, am I in the wrong report? I'm going to stop now.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to say I'm aware about evidence-based decisions. The evidence at this point shows that our population is aging and the need for home care is just getting greater and greater, so I just can't get my head around the idea that there could be a delay of 18 months in finding new or re-profiling existing funding to meet the needs of people who want to age in place. I guess I'm looking for the Minister to make a commitment that there will in fact be a response to this plan by attaching money to it sooner than 18 months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm glad the Minister referenced the work on the continuing care plan. My understanding from the responses that were given to my colleague, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, yesterday is that the plan will not be available until the end of the current fiscal year, and so I'm wondering, then, when funding would come into place to put that plan into operation because, if it's not in the current business plans, then the wait could be up to 18 months.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. It was more than one person, and the frequency seems to be decreasing. All these particular constituents of course are aging. So I'm wondering if this drying up of services is a permanent situation or is it simply a matter of staffing?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. At a recent constituency meeting homecare services were the main topic of conversation, and devoted users of the service in Yellowknife reported to me that their homecare support worker visits had dropped from the past frequency of weekly to as infrequently as once every two or three weeks. This doesn't speak very well for the preservation of this service or the enhancement either. Can the Minister explain to me why these reductions in service are taking place? I'll start with that, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I have spent much of this year advocating for people who live on the margins of our society: women and children, those who don't have adequate housing and those who live on low-income, those who've experienced violence and those with disabilities. It's a sometimes exhilarating and sometimes frustrating experience to pursue these issues in this House, but I'm committed to these people and this work with even greater passion than when I was elected a year ago. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I'm going to reflect on this year since I was elected to represent the residents of Yellowknife Centre and, indeed, the whole Northwest Territories. I want to talk about yesterday as both the best of times as an MLA and among the worst.

Mr. Speaker, I want to start be referencing the mandate of the 18th Assembly. It is both our statement of principles and our work plan for our time here. It requires us to take action on the crisis of family and community violence. It also directs us to make strategic investments in transportation infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, the 26 priorities were not assigned a weight and it's clear that this government values some more than others. Mr. Speaker, 10 of us on this side of the House spoke passionately about the A New Day Program yesterday, a one-of-a-kind program in the NWT that provides healing for men who use violence and additional safety for women and children. We requested an additional year of funding while an evaluation of it is completed at a cost of $325,000.

Upstairs, just a few minutes later, Regular MLAs heard the government's pitch on building a 97-kilometre road to Whati. The road is in environmental assessment and there's work going on to come up with money for construction. The last public figure on the cost of this road is $150 million. Mr. Speaker, about the same number of people live in Whati as the number who have used the New Day Program, that's roughly 350 people. Yesterday we learned the government has decided to interpret the mandate to make the road to Whati a high-priced priority while remaining non-committal about funding a systemic solution to family violence, specifically the New Day Program. Perhaps what galls me above all is that no matter how many times we, as Regular Members, tell the executive to back off on its $150 million reductions target, our direction is ignored and generating cash for roads relentlessly wins out.

Mr. Speaker, I am never going to be happy when the government decides to invest in roads rather than people. The cost benefit study indicates some economic benefits if a mine ever goes ahead, almost no economic worth if it doesn't. Investment in the New Day Program may change not only the life of a single man but the life of his family scarred by the trauma of colonization and residential schools. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted