Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize a couple of hardworking Pages that have been here with us from my riding in Inuvik, Faith Rogers and Keenan Jacobson. They have been doing a really great job and I’m really glad that they had this experience here in the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has reviewed Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2, and Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act, and wish to report that Bills 12 and 13 are now ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole.

That sounds like two detox beds for a situation that we have that’s very disastrous in the Northwest Territories under mental health and addictions, specifically alcohol abuse. In the statement, the Minister goes on and talks about a territorial treatment centre, followed by saying that we support communities and NGOs to provide community-based programs, and then he says, and send people to southern Canada to attend treatment programs. What’s wrong with the one we have here in the North? In fact, Mr. Speaker, I believe that our Territorial Treatment Centre is only about 50 percent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are on the Minister of Health and Social Service’s Minister’s statement that he made today. Obviously, it’s sparked a lot of concerns and questions on this side of the House in question period today.

In the statement that he made earlier, he made reference to the government offers addictions counselling through community wellness workers, mental health workers. Then he mentions detox programs. That caught my attention.

Can the Minister tell me what these detox programs are, where they are, and can he give me a specific example other than the emergency...

I believe the program, or the GNWT renewed program had a contract that was supposed to keep the program on air up until March 2013. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would look into that and get the contracts in there to get the program on the air as soon as possible, because our residents of the Northwest Territories need to know what we’re doing within our government.

Can I ask the Deputy Premier if he’d be willing to renew the contract to translate the government programs in the five Aboriginal languages so that those communities that speak their own language and listen to their own...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to follow up on my Member’s statement today. My questions today are for the Deputy Premier. I would like to go back and talk about the show entitled “On the Air” that the government had produced with CKLB.

First of all, why are we defaulting on an agreement? We had a 20-month agreement with CKLB and we have only worked with them for five months. Why have we defaulted on that agreement? Is the government committed to getting this program back up on the air? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One objective of this 17th Legislative Assembly is to be accountable and informative. That means getting information of our public programs and services out to the communities and the residents. One way of doing that is using media; specifically, the Native Communications Society, which broadcasts to 32 different communities across the Northwest Territories and the three diamond mines. As well, during those programs, they were offering them in five different Aboriginal languages.

In February 2011, the Native Communications Society and the GNWT began producing a 10-minute...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank Member Bisaro and Member Nadli for bringing this motion to the floor. I rise to support the motion as well. All of my colleagues have made really good causes as to why we need this type of service in the Northwest Territories that would provide services to our circumpolar region.

Once again, I thank the Members for bringing this motion to the floor and I support the motion as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister goes on and says it’s a simple question with complicated answers. I can find some simple answers here. We need a detox centre and beds. We need a culturally appropriate treatment centre, mental health workers, and we need to decrease the days needed for people to be sober to gain access to these treatment centres. We also need early childhood programs.

I’d like to ask the Minister, in his discussions in the region, what’s the cost for the Minister and his staff to hold these discussions in the region, because our service providers that are struggling would...

Obviously, there are organizations in the Northwest Territories who are giving this type of awareness campaign. Would the Minister and his department commit to supporting these organizations, finding out who these organizations are and supporting them either financially or through human resources to get this education out to people of the Northwest Territories, so that should one of our residents need this type of donor request, that it’s there for them? Will the Minister commit to offering that support?