Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister of Health and Social Services has indicated, the Mental Wellness Week is February 7th to 13th. Mr. Speaker, I was listening to the news this past week. I was very saddened to hear the report of the young mother in Millet, Alberta, that was going through a relationship breakup. In fact, they found her two children, her two little boys -- they showed a picture of them on the news -- and the two year old and the 10 month old were dead in her home. After that, she attempted to take her own life. Mr. Speaker, when I heard that story on the news, I thought to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I assume that the portables that were added on to Ecole Boreale to make room for more classroom space were intended as a temporary measure. So I would like to ask the Minister of Education if, in considering the expansion of the school to incorporate that additional classroom space, the gymnasium could be part of that ask and part of that negotiation and I’m also just wondering if the footprint for an expanded Ecole Boreale could be accommodated on its present site. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, I have spoken to the issue of caribou and the conservation and this issue we have before us with our fellow elected leaders here. I have spoken to it numerous times through question period and through Members’ statements in this House, so I’m not going to add to the length of this debate of this motion today.

I will be supporting the motion and I also don’t want to get into great detail about how this consultation will roll out or pre-empt what the outcome of it may be, just that all parties should enter with an open mind and hopefully resolution will be...

Mr. Speaker, so it sounds like some people managed to be referred and receive that support from the Northwest Territories, but now this error, I suppose, in policy has been caught. I am going to ask the Minister if it is possible that, since it would be difficult for these constituents, then, to carry on and complete the service that they were receiving through this Edmonton facility and I have to assume from what the Minister is saying that this may be a private clinic at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and not a hospital itself, is there a way that these few cases could be grandfathered and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In Edmonton at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, there is a weight loss clinic. From time to time medical professionals have referred Northerners to those services at that clinic. There is a very accurate unit, I believe. It is for people who have weight issues that affect their health and their well-being. Mr. Speaker, I have heard from two constituents and also had spoken to Mr. Hawkins, I believe, who has heard from a couple of constituents as well, that the GNWT Department of Health and Social Services is no longer funding the provision of services to these constituents...

However much it is, it’s too much. Because I don’t think you can buy a full-page ad in the News/North for much less than about $2,000 a hit. So I would, if I could suggest, think it would have been better if you were trying to instil in young people the idea of having a healthy breakfast to help them do better in school, maybe a poster contest or something where the kids could get involved in expressing their ideas as opposed to something like this.

Under what initiative does this eating breakfast so that you can think better in school, under what initiative of the GNWT and the Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t like to be critical, of course, and I certainly don’t like to be unkind to our Minister of ECE, but when I saw this ad today, I’m sorry, but this is the kind of thing that gets me upset. We have a school board in the South Slave that’s running a deficit, and I know you can say it’s all different pockets of money, but really it’s all one department. I have always said I have no problem spending money, I have no problem investing money, I have a problem wasting money. I consider this ad campaign to be a major waste of money on top of the fact that it is a little...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the wish of the committee is to at least get the Minister’s opening remarks and some general comments for Education, Culture and Employment. I think so far all we’ve done is the Department of Health, so we need to pick up the pace a bit, so I think we need to use this last 45 minutes of the day. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: what would get obesity to the point, as she says -- I suppose they call it morbid obesity -- where it affects the well-being of the person? What would set that apart in the department’s policy guidelines from any other illness that someone could have? I don’t understand why this thing would be treated any differently than any other disease people have. Maybe some people are overweight because they are addicted to food, but if we were going to start telling people they couldn’t receive services because they had an addiction, that we wouldn’t be...

Mr. Speaker, so the Minister indicates that there has not been a change in the policy, that in fact in adherence to the policy that did exist. When my constituents began to receive services through a referral to the weight loss clinic at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and are now being told this is no longer, was it an error that they were referred there for surgery and medical attention in the first place? Was that referral made by someone who didn’t know what our policy was? Why now, in mid-treatment, is there a change in the support they received? Thank you.