Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We recently enjoyed the budget dialogues with the Minister of Finance throughout the Territories. We were told in the House and we were told in many of these meetings that people are gravely concerned about addictions and money put towards it. In fact, sometimes, when people were doing the Lego exercise with the Minister of Finance, there were Legos left over. They said, we want to put it into addictions. Again, I am holding Legos in my hand for health and social services.

How much money are we going to be putting towards next year’s budget towards addictions? Thank you...

That’s a pretty large number for updating a plan. I think we’ve already got a mental addictions treatment plan, so now we’re going to have a plan with a plan. Again, talk is cheap; addictions cost money.

Can the Minister indicate to us what kind of plan we are going to have? I was very bold; I had a five-point plan today and brought it to the House here. We’ve only heard, really, to this date on this side of the House the Minister’s one-point plan, which I mentioned earlier.

Can the Minister allude to the House here, do we have more than just a one-point plan? Can the Minister allude to his...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize some residents from Weledeh, but a former colleague of mine here in the medical profession world, Dr. Ewan Affleck, who is an ultra-marathon runner, the pioneer of electronic medical records and one heck of a gifted practitioner. Sitting next to him is the lovely Susan Chatwood, who is our scientific director for the Institute of Circumpolar Health Research. And as we found out, we have an esteemed colleague here with us, Mr. Andrew Chatwood, who is a former Member of the Parliament for Grand Falls-White Bay-Labrador riding and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the land addictions and mental health treatment, this is the only direction we have heard from the Minister of Health and Social Services when asked several times about the future direction of addictions treatment in the North. I’m sorry, but this is not enough. For this, I am going to be bringing today my version of a five-step program and hoping that the Minister and the department are paying attention.

For starters, we all have had enough. Enough talk, enough debates, enough studies and enough strategies. Enough already. You are just wasting valuable resources...

No further questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of the motion. I want to congratulate and thank Member Yakeleya for bringing it forward, Member Hawkins for seconding it, and for all our colleagues here today who have brought forward into this House very strong and compelling arguments for the need of not just addictions awareness, but now we’re putting some money behind that need.

We’ve heard today, and we’ve also heard over the last couple of weeks during this sitting, many different ways where money has been used frivolously or monies where we could have been reapplying it to proper programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have spent the better part of three to four months, with the help of research, trying to do a post-mortem analysis of the second largest capital project on the books of the GNWT. That is the Inuvik E3 School. This proved to be a daunting task and one that spawned much resistance, resentment and personal attack on my character.

The role of the MLA is not easy and at times we uncover or unearth some truths that happen behind the four walls of government. We have a duty to expose such findings, even at the risk of persecution by special interest groups, businesses and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally, the report card part of PowerSchool is being implemented at the same time that teachers are working on report cards. This is not an ideal situation. ECE is not communicating with parents, and school districts are left taking the initiative to inform and work with parents during a very stressful transition into this new system.

Could the Minister commit to immediately work with his department to initiate a proper communication announcement and inform parents more about PowerSchool and what to expect with this new system?

The training for educators did occur according to the required access to the different levels of the system, while a reasonable amount of support was provided from ECE but it happened too late in the school year, thus not allowing users the time to learn and prepare for the report card turnaround. Many teachers were found holding the bag and scrambling to use the system while trying to maintain their teaching agenda.

Could the Minister explain why this system training did not occur at the beginning of the school year and why it occurred only seven to 10 days out before report cards?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure and honour to introduce to the House the newest and hardest working person to join me in the office of Range Lake, the lovely Ms. Norma Giovanetto.