Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s very good news and I know a lot of families will be looking forward to hearing about this next month. Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentioned children and perhaps I missed something in his reply but I would like to confirm, are we also going to be acknowledging or accommodating adults, Mr. Speaker, who can sometimes find themselves in situations where they are perhaps as helpless as children but still warrant and can be provided the support of families? Will we be acknowledging the situations for disabled adults, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I appreciate the acknowledgement of my colleagues in the involvement that I have been very pleased to have with this exchange student. So it is certainly a pleasure to recognize Mr. Emil Madsen, Miss Letizia Foracchia and Miss Hiu Ying Lau. I would also like to recognize a resident of my constituency, at least on a temporary basis, Miss Jessica Monnaie, who is from Belgium, not an official exchange student but very much one of our community. She is staying with her aunt, Ms. Nancy Trotter. Of course, Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not recognize another...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize to the Assembly for missing my cue earlier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Minister examines the issue of involving non-custodial parents in caring for apprehended children and, if necessary, make required necessary and regulatory changes to allow child protection workers the discretionary powers to place apprehended children with the non-custodial parent on a temporary basis, providing it is in the best interest of the child. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I recently read that I think by 2012, something like 14,000 truckloads of material are going to be required compared to the 10,000 that went up this year. How much more in fees are we going to collect? Mr. Speaker, every year that that bridge is not built is that much revenue that is not going to be coming back into this project. Let’s build it now.

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Careful. I must say I have some confidence in what we have heard from Ottawa...

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Based on these circumstances, Northstar has requested in writing to the Minister responsible for Human Resources that the matter be independently reviewed and the RFP be reissued. I agree with the owners of Northstar, and my constituents who have been adversely impacted, that this RFP should be reopened and re-bid. The Minister needs to ensure the process is fair and transparent and that this highly valued and effective service will continue for our employees, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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Mr. Speaker, we know that within our own Employee Assistance Program, the growth in the number of calls for support has increased substantially between 2005 and 2006 and 2006 and 2007, something like a 42 percent increase. This signals that we have got a substantial need here. I wanted to ask the Minister if he has any indication from the people in his department about this, but a concern is that, now that we have lost these resident professionals from the Northstar contract, there is going to be a much greater demand on other parts of our mental health care system because we will not have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland. It relates to mental health services and the demands that we are encountering here in the NWT. I was wondering if the Minister could give us a snapshot of the current level or the current demand for mental health services and our capacity to help people to deal with these, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, to what extent is cost a factor in evaluating this kind of service? Do we have any sense of just how much of the value of this contract is going to be staying here in the North as opposed to being in the hands of a southern firm, Mr. Speaker? We know, for instance, from the Northstar folks, because virtually all of their services are supplied by resident contractors, but 92 per cent of the value of the contract stayed in the North. How much are Shepell-fgi's going to, Mr. Speaker?