Glen Abernethy

That is very good news. Building upon this review, some of the NWT-based filmmakers would also like an opportunity to meet with the Minister himself to help him understand the impact this industry could have on the Northwest Territories. Would the Minister also commit to meeting with a small delegation of these NWT-based filmmakers, myself and my colleague Mr. Bromley, to discuss the industry in hopes of helping the Minister better understand the industry as a whole?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the vision of the GNWT is strong individuals, families and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories.

To have a prosperous Northwest Territories we need strong economies and opportunities for Northerners to find meaningful employment. This government spends a significant amount of their time and energy trying to support industry which will help create meaningful employment in the diamond industry, as well as in oil and gas exploration. Although most of these focus on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly is healthy, educated people. One of the activities identified under the goal is to improve support for children and adults with special needs and disabilities. FASD is a reality with the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, there are many adults who remain undiagnosed in the Northwest Territories and are therefore ineligible to receive support and programming available which is available to people who have been diagnosed as children. As a result, these undiagnosed individuals may face greater challenges than those...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to present a petition dealing with the matter of diagnosis and treatment of residents affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 749 signatures of NWT residents.

Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories implement medical diagnosis and specialized programs and treatments for the residents affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m sorry, I forgot to include my colleague Mr. Hawkins. Obviously he should be there as well. Lastly, I’m glad you’re going to be doing the review, but I think it’s very important that we get outside-of-the-government input as well, not just the filmmakers, but other industries and people that would benefit from the industry. I was hoping I could get the Minister to commit to going well beyond just the filmmakers themselves.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As outlined in my Member’s statement, as a government we must place greater focus and attention on small, sustainable and local economies. The NWT film industry would support employment, cultural promotion, highlight the NWT as a potential place to work, visit and live, yet there’s little or no GNWT support for this industry. Clearly ITI doesn’t recognize the value of this industry. Filmmakers in the NWT would like an opportunity to demonstrate the value that this industry does have to the NWT.

As such, they would like the GNWT to facilitate an independent review of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to follow up on my colleague Wendy Bisaro’s Member’s statement from last Friday on the changes to the Supplemental Health Benefits Program. For the record, I completely agree with Ms. Bisaro. I, too, find the document released by the Department of Health and Social Services leading. It’s clear that the Minister has a preferred course of action on the changes to the program and has released information that will ensure that the department gets what the department wants.

I encourage the Minister to remember the motion that was passed in this House. The...

The motion is clear. I was wondering if the Minister could tell us why the Minister ignored what the motion said.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on the questions I was asking earlier today. First off, I’d like to recognize that I agree with the Minister in her response to Mr. Hawkins that, yes, we have a collective responsibility to make this program work better for the residents of the Northwest Territories. I couldn’t agree more. The problem is I think we need information to do that.

The Minister also said, in responding to some of my questions, that we need some good dialogue between us and the stakeholders and the department. Once again, I couldn’t agree more, but we need to make sure...

Just for the record, the individuals I’ve talked to who are in that working group have indicated that they were basically told what the department is going to research and what’s going to happen after that. They weren’t actually encouraged to do what the motion suggested, which was to give alternate areas of research, give alternate opinions, alternate thoughts, so that when this information comes out, as it’s coming out now, it should come out complete; meaning that we should have all sorts of options and things to consider.

The Minister says that the research does point in a certain direction...