Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In some cases, our clientele and residents can’t really take the type of treatment or the facility or even the clientele that they’re housed with.

In the worst-case scenario, if a person were to leave the residential treatment facility, does this government offer some type of support service to get them back home to their communities in a safe and timely manner?

The Minister hasn’t had that opportunity, so I’m assuming some of our physicians and counsellors probably didn’t have that opportunity as well. When we’re preparing our clients who are getting treatment for addictions counselling or some type of other issue, how does this government prepare our residents and our clients who are going down south for treatment for some of the things they might see? When you get into the cities, there are more hard-core addicts, there are people who have lived other lifestyles that don’t connect or relate to the type of life we live up here in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee is in strong support of the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan; however, Members do feel that the portion allocated to this initiative and recommended the additional allocation of funding for the priorities in the action plan, and as I mentioned earlier, including but not limited to the detox facilities, after-care and enhanced mental health services. Also, to gain the judiciary’s confidence in the wellness courts, enhancements to existing mental health services will likely be required. Furthermore, this has been a big initiative of mine since...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Health and Social Services tabled a document a few days ago entitled, “Health and Social Services Service System Annual Report, 2012-2013.” The title was “Measuring Success and Focusing on Results.” I believe in that. I encourage that and I promote that. I appreciate the information. There are a lot of good stats and results that were in there; however, if I can refer people that might look at the report to priority two, the prevalence of smoking in 15-year-olds and older.

In 2002 our smoking rates in the NWT were 46 percent, which is about half the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The committee recommends this amount of money specifically for child and family resource programs and services to be rolled out in at least six small communities, building on the success of the pilots in Tulita and Ndilo. Members favour these programs and services because it will provide meaningful support to at-risk families. We also strongly believe that the Department of Health should work with the Department of ECE.

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, the Minister did table a good report earlier this week and I just want to refer to some statistics that were brought out...

Still within Section 3.3, it talks about officers must consider the needs of a client and his or her dependents when considering the size and type of the housing need, so is it solely on the officers when they make a recommendation for an individual and type of dwelling that they’ll be receiving and the type of housing need that they’ll have, based on what the officer sees and whether or not there might be some other issues such as some of our seniors, such as disabilities, such as other issues that might affect the client.

Is there another way that these clients can be assessed when they’re...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment with regard to Section 3.3 of the Rent Supplement Program, accommodations, rent or mortgage. In one of the sections, it explains that a client and his or her dependents can receive assistance for accommodation. Accommodation includes rent, mortgage, tax or fire insurance.

I’d like to ask the Minister, in some cases and possibly when a person is in foreclosure or not able to pay up their bills for the month because either something happened that they got less income coming in, would they be able...

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Sorry, I was a little confused there with my first question. With the government response that was tabled in this House in 2011, there were some immediate actions that could have been taken. Has the report itself been updated since 2011? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the budget address the Minister of Finance states that the most effective way we can grow our revenues is to grow our economy and our population. He also states that over the next five years he wants to grow the NWT population by 2,000 people.

I also agree that our economy does need to grow and develop, but I also have a suggestion here that maybe over the next five years we invest that into the people of the Northwest Territories by investing in their education and training in the small communities and the regions where a lot of the economic things are happening...

There’s another section in this Section 3.3, and it deals with clients with dependents are eligible for up to, or they’re just eligible for rent or mortgage or whatever it’s going to be called, but I just want to know if there is a definition for dependents, whether it’s a person’s parent, a person’s grandparent, a child, it could be an uncle or an aunt that needs some assistance because they might be elderly as well. Can I get an understanding of dependents and whether or not when we’re applying the clients, that our couples are classified as just one client?