Glen Abernethy

Sounds great. I’m happy to hear a resolution is in the works, but I obviously don’t know the details of that resolution that’s in the works. Does that mean that the Yellowknife Association for Community Living will continue to receive the $250,000 that they need in 2011-12 and ongoing to run the respite care program here in Yellowknife? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services in follow up on my Member’s statement.

I know the Minister is supportive of respite. Her message in the House has been clear, both as a Regular Member and as a Minister. The Foundation for Change is clear: we plan to expand respite services in the Northwest Territories. But then in early October we were sort of surprised, out in left field, when all of a sudden we learned that the Yellowknife Association for Community Living respite program is being discontinued.

I’m curious; can the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll be talking about respite services today as well.

Respite services are an incredibly valuable program through the Northwest Territories. Parents who are asking for respite help are not asking because they are incapable of caring for their children, but because while caring so much for their children, they are challenged to care for themselves.

This Assembly and previous Assemblies, the 14th and 15th, have acknowledged the importance of respite. So much so that in March 2005, the current Minister, while she was a Member, made a statement, and I quote directly from the...

Thank you Mr. Bromley. General comments. Mr. Krutko.

Okay. With that, we will take a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. Today in front of us we have Tabled Document 4-16(5), Tabled Document 30-16(5), Tabled Document 38-16(5), Tabled Document 62-16(5), Tabled Document 75-16(5), Tabled Document 106-16(5), Bill 4, Committee Report 3-16(5), and Minister’s Statement 65-16(5). What is the wish of committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.

The Minister actually hit on something incredibly important there and I’m glad she’s going to provide the information back to me and my colleagues; that’s important. But more importantly it’s about getting the information to the public, because they’re the ones who are using this clinic and we need to make sure that whatever we do is clearly communicated and articulated to our residents, the ones who want to use it. So I look forward to that.

Another area of concern, and I’ve touched on it briefly, is just the number of staff that we have in that facility. I had one constituent come to me --...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services. I talked earlier about the consolidated clinic here in Yellowknife and, once again, I think it’s a great facility and there are great programs that are being offered out of there. But as with new programs, there are some growing pains. I know the Minister has probably heard a lot of these concerns that are brought up by the public. I know that I’ve taken a couple to the Minister and they have been addressed.

What I’m interested in now is in order to ensure that this facility continues to be the...

Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 75-16(5), Response to the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project on the Federal and Territorial Governments’ Interim Response to “Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future” and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.

Go ahead.