Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my question is dealing with the moratorium that the Minister of Housing released earlier this week. It is a good program and I think it’s a great opportunity to educate the people in the communities on how to get back and educated into the housing programs, as well as getting them back on track with a payment plan. In the four months that we have from now until the end of the fiscal year, I wanted to ask the Minister of Housing what is the plan to work with these people in the communities to get back on a payment plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had one quick question. When it comes to building capital projects such as infrastructure like the jails that we’re going to house people in, do you ever do any consulting with other departments, such as the Department of Health, to work on treatment centres, as well, or transition phase components to that building, rather than work on putting two infrastructures in a community? It would be better money and cost effective to have the same water and sewage system put into one building where on one side would be a transition back into society or partly working with a...

That’s all great for the communities that do have vacancies, but like I said, for communities that don’t have vacancies and they are already fully staffed, they are getting overload from some of the communities, especially Inuvik. They get referrals into the region and they’re getting overworked. Long days and, as a result, like I said, we are getting people that are on the backlog for three months to receive the services.

What’s the plan for the communities that do have full staff but are overworked? That needs to be addressed because we’re neglecting the people that are needing those services...

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, I don’t think we need a Mental Health Act or see a report to know what is happening in the communities and the neglect that we are having on people who really need the services for these mental health issues. Once again, I would like to ask: Is the Department of Health and Social Services, not only them but there are other departments that are involved in this, how we can work together to address the issue right now?

It is Christmastime. It is a tough time for anybody that is not getting the services they need. I think it is something that needs to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to address an issue that is prominent within the Northwest Territories: mental health and addictions.

At the beginning of this Assembly, Members received a transition presentation from the Department of Health and Social Services. It was presented that their number one key strategic health status driver was, indeed, mental health and addictions. During my campaign I was asked what I thought was the number one concern in the Northwest Territories and in Inuvik, and after considerable thinking about what it would be, the conclusion was mental health and...

Mr. Speaker, we cannot continue to band-aid the issue. We need to identify the underlying issues and fix them now in this government. Our greatest resource in the NWT is our people. It is time that we take the appropriate actions and invest in the future of the North by investing in our people in our communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One avenue that the Children First Society has taken is through the Aviva Community Fund. Should they be successful, they would receive a grant in the amount of $150,000. They’ve been doing a great job, working long hours and doing a lot of campaigning in this area.

As the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake riding, I’m in strong support of this challenge and in strong support of this facility. I encourage the people of the Northwest Territories to also jump on board and go to the Aviva Community Fund website and put a vote in on a daily basis to go for this Children First Centre.

I would also like...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of comments here. Being back home in Inuvik on my last time out, I had a few constituents approach me about the lack of jobs in the community and how some of them had to take their pride into consideration and go on income support. Creating these jobs and putting people back to work will affect some of our social concerns that we have in the Northwest Territories and also help with a good discussion we had earlier today on the Anti-Poverty Strategy.

I’m really happy to see that there has been $1 million earmarked to complete the planning for the Inuvik-Tuk...

With students coming out of their communities attending regional centres, specifically in the Beaufort-Delta, their culture and tradition are sometimes lost. They don’t get a chance to practise it. I’d like to see or find out what the timeline is that the department will be looking into getting this e-learning set back up into the community. It did seem between 2000 and 2005 that they did reach a lot of the students. I’d just like to see what the timeline is to have that brought back into the Beaufort-Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. April of 2012 we can expect people of the communities of the Northwest Territories, the ones that have been waiting for the last few years, to start moving through the process and getting their surgeries taken care of by this 17th Legislative Assembly and the government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.