Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just with the Northwest Territories Suicide Prevention Program that is available to community members who are I guess in a position to take up this sort of training, I want to know if this government is going to be supporting more suicide prevention awareness workshops in the schools, in the youth centres and even providing more funding to these youth centres to provide suicide prevention/suicide awareness workshops within their own communities, and not just providing training on suicide prevention to the counsellors or community social workers. We need that kind of awareness and prevention awareness provided right at the grassroots, right at the youth in the schools, in the youth centres, at community functions. Will there be more funding in that area as opposed to just training, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask the Minister, during the October suicide prevention workshop, it's fine and dandy that we get a lot of keynote speakers there to make some presentations on suicide prevention especially amongst aboriginal youth, Mr. Speaker, but I want a commitment from this government that this government will support and provide these smaller communities not only with just community wellness dollars that will help these people find assistance directly in their own communities because a lot of youth don't want to deal with people in their own communities. A lot of these youth want to talk anonymously with a psychiatrist or a counsellor maybe from another community or from another region or just on a phone line. I want to ask the Minister if the department is looking at any kind of broadening of the program scope related to suicide prevention here in the NWT that would allow this non-amenity to be available to any youth that are contemplating suicide in any of our small centres, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions related to my Member's statement on the NWT Suicide Prevention Program. Just in the wake of the last recent announcement by the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment of the big increase in income support programs here in the NWT, which is good, Mr. Speaker, and I really commend the Minister for making that announcement, but I'm also disappointed that the NWT Suicide Prevention Program has not received any increase in any funding over the last few years, Mr. Speaker, and I think that the growing trend that I have heard from many of my constituents in my constituency in Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution in particular, that a lot of youth these days are walking around and talking about suicide and contemplating suicide, and that is really raising a lot of concerns and a lot of eyebrows of a lot of people in these communities, and they are asking me to address the territorial government in asking them why we don't have any more dollars allocated to families that are suffering from, or victims of, suicides. I just want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what this government is planning on doing to address this growing trend, which is not really easily measured in these small communities, therefore does not allow this government to provide more money or substantiate the reasons for providing more money in this area. Can this Minister provide me with any kind of indication that the department is seriously looking at this issue in the NWT and particularly in areas in my constituency I had a couple suicides in the last three months, Mr. Speaker? Is that concern raising red flags in the Department of Health and Social Services, the mental health division? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to raise the very serious issue of suicide awareness and prevention here in the NWT. This issue has been raised many times here in the past four years, Mr. Speaker, but recently has become a very sensitive issue for myself due to the fact that my family has been affected by the suicide of a close relative.

We are all aware that the NWT has more than two times the national average of suicide rates in Canada. We have not seen any real improvement in programs and services related to suicide awareness, suicide prevention or aftercare services provided by this government over the last five years.

There is definitely a real need for ongoing community awareness, community counselling, and training to individuals and affected families who have been devastated by incidents of suicide. Even years after, families are still feeling the effects of such incidents, especially how it's affecting their families and siblings of suicide victims. As they grow up with these dark memories and without any good counselling or support networks to turn to, they may take it upon themselves to resolve their issues themselves by contemplating suicide themselves, Mr. Speaker.

In my constituency, many people have been raising this issue and have been working to develop some on-the-land programs to address suicide amongst our youth, only to be informed that there is not even health and social services dollars to move forward with a plan or there are just too many hurdles in government to get access to dollars. Mr. Speaker, that has to change. If we do not take this issue more seriously for the future, Mr. Speaker, then the talk amongst our youth about suicide will no longer be about just talk, Mr. Speaker; it will be acted upon more often. To me, this is a very serious trend that we, as a government, seem to be taking just too lightly. We have to act now to address this issue and I encourage this government to seriously review their suicide prevention programs in all of our smaller communities across the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I also rise in support of this motion, but I have to agree with some of my colleagues here. I do support in principle that we could use a bridge, but I do support this motion as amended because, as various other Members have pointed out, it does make us more accountable and more transparent; more importantly, it makes us more responsible to the electorate. As far as I can see, this bridge is going to be paid for by all residents of the NWT over the next 35 or 40 years and I think it's to those residents that we owe all the transparent information that we can give them to ensure that we're making a really informed and responsible decision in that spending over the next 35 years that they're going to be out of pocket with.

So, Mr. Speaker, we, here in the northern part of the NWT and Yellowknife, the Tlicho, Providence, the communities, you know, we've lived with the ferry since day one and even beyond that. I don't see anybody in Yellowknife, for instance, complaining that they're out of pocket in the cost of living as compared to Hay River or south of the lake because we don't have a bridge. To me, through this motion, I'd like to see the government show me that there is evidence that the people up here in the northern part of the NWT with the connection of the bridge is going to make life all that much sweeter and cheaper for everybody here. We know houses are skyrocketing north and south of the lake. It's pretty much all relative where we are and I just can't support a simple notion that a $150 million or $160 million bridge is going to make things all that much better here, and people are going to have more money to spend, and it's going to be easier for industry to come here and work in the northern regions with the bridge in place, because all we're looking at really is three weeks to a month that we're out. We're innovative and creative here in the NWT and we always find ways, cheaper ways of working to remain sustainable. So when the government does come back and gives us some impact benefits analysis, a cost of living analysis that shows we could really benefit over the long run, gee whiz, I'll stand behind them 110 percent, 1,000 percent, wherever you want. But right now I do like the idea of a bridge. I'm not just going to fully endorse it just because of the fact that it's a good idea. I'd like to see that the numbers do show that we will have savings over the long term and people will benefit over the long term. I'll just leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to know they only need this one piece of information left, but I have to remind the Minister, when you are trying to get all these community organizations to come together to support something that seems like a good initiative for the community, it's always really difficult when you are talking about dollar allocations within the community. To go out there and start negotiating another round of negotiations and agreements with all these local organizations by the seniors' society, that just really puts a lot of strain on what they have already done. Can his department provide some support to the seniors' society in expediting the whole process and getting in touch with the Metis and saying we are just waiting for you guys, are you onside, is it a go? Can they do that for the seniors? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to get back, I don't know if when the seniors went out, they researched properties that might have been available. They went to the landowner, they got them to get in contact with the Housing Corporation to build a six-plex. To me, it's always been a six-plex right from day one. This is part of the affordable housing initiative. The seniors did assure the Housing Corporation that we have a list of 97 seniors whose average age is 68 years old in the community. Many of them are waiting to get into the seniors' six-plex, so you can rest assured that there is always a long waiting list for that. Is the Minister's department going to start the...I am sure they have a letter from the Metis already confirming their support for the six-plex, so why do we have to again start circulating support letters back to the department when they already have the support letters in place to originally get this thing off the ground? Why do they need another letter from all these organizations, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Just with what I mentioned earlier in my Member's statement, I just want to ask the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation if his point of view is the same as mine, that elders know what is best for elders, especially in our smaller communities. The elders in the seniors' society in Fort Resolution went to great lengths to acquire property, get the Housing Corporation on side to move forward on an initiative of building a seniors' independent living six-plex and now it has been put on the back burner by the Housing Corporation. I just want to ask the Minister of Housing why all of a sudden there are some barriers put up by the regional office for the seniors to go out and seek more support letters from people they already had support letters from. Why is that happening, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Since we are on the topic of elder abuse, it's a good time to read my Member's statement to talk about some of the housing issues that have come to my attention lately.

Mr. Speaker, about six months ago, the Deninu Kue Seniors' Society, which represents the interest of nearly 100 seniors in Deninu Kue, all of an average age of about 68 years old, made a recommendation to the Housing Corporation to build a six-plex to house seniors in independent living somewhere near the seniors complex. Mr. Speaker, the regional office came back outlining what the Housing Corporation requires in order to carry this initiative forward such as looking for a suitable location, researching land ownership, negotiating land owners to acquire property and gathering written support from various local government organizations in order for them to follow up on this initiative.

The Deninu Kue Seniors' Society did follow up with the Housing Corporation's request from the regional office and eventually the property was purchased by the Housing Corporation and all indications pointed towards the next step of moving forward on this project by putting out a tender for the construction of a seniors' six-plex and this was considered great news for the hard work of the Deninu Kue Seniors' Society.

Just recently, Mr. Speaker, the Deninu Kue Seniors' Society has been informed that the Housing Corporation is again questioning the feasibility of a seniors six-plex and is wondering if the units will be occupied by seniors and would like the Deninu Kue Seniors' Society to seek further support from the local government organizations, something they have already completed. They have assured the Housing Corp that they do have seniors who would be willing to move in as soon as construction is completed. Understandably the reluctance of the Deninu Kue Seniors' Society to go out and seek the same support from local government organizations has created a lot of frustration amongst our elders and is viewed as simply a stalling tactic by the Housing Corp to follow up on their previous commitment. The Deninu Kue Seniors' Society would like to know why.

Later today, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister of the Housing Corp, at the appropriate time, why the Housing Corp continues to put up barriers and hoops when things are moving along in what seemingly seems to be a cooperative, positive and collaborative manner. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause