Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now that the Minister knows that the primary barrier to people being involved in social inclusion is transportation, what are her next steps to bridge this gap? Thank you.

That is good information from the Minister. Can the Minister give us a sense of what kind of response rate they got to the survey and particularly from those who are over 80 and those who may have cognitive limitations?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The largest population of seniors in the NWT lives in Yellowknife, and their numbers continue to grow. In fact, elders are the fastest-growing segment of our population. Services for them have not kept pace with growing needs. As an example, we are now in our fourth year without a social inclusion program for older adults.

I am going to provide some background on this issue. Loneliness is a major issue for older adults. For all kinds of reasons, including health, mobility, income, and transportation, seniors may spend a lot of time at home alone. Some may choose to feel more...

Thank you to the Minister for that response. My next question for the Minister is: when will the campaign schools resume, and who will be offering them?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We have in this room today the largest number of women ever elected to the NWT Legislative Assembly.

---Applause

The election of nine women in October was the result of hard work by current and former Members of this House and many others. The question now, and it is not too early to ask this, is: how do we maintain the equality of political representation we have now achieved?

Mr. Speaker, by way of background, I am going to recap some milestones in the 18th Assembly that got us here. First, Members made correcting the underrepresentation of women a mandate priority, and the...

Lots of good news in that answer. My understanding is that there will be wide-spread campaign schools and they will be offered by local people. One of the things that I was told, and the Premier was told when we were offering campaign schools, is that it was useful to have people who were in elected office be part of the teaching group so that there was the "see it, be it" dynamic there, that people could meet actual politicians doing the job. Is there any provision for this kind of "see it, be it" dynamic to continue in the campaign schools?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. As I mentioned in my statement, women found the campaign schools helpful in preparing them to run and win in the last territorial election. My question for the Minister is whether she is a supporter of the campaign schools for women? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize that the special advisor for the Status of Women does some great work in the Northwest Territories, but I was thinking about ways in which to involve women who are currently in leadership and political life in the workshops. Is it possible to find a way to involve these women in the campaign schools? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It's my pleasure to introduce my neighbour and constituent, Paul Falvo, who is joining us here today, and his daughter Juniper, who is one of three Pages from Yellowknife Centre in the Assembly this time. I would also like to thank the other two Pages for their work with us this week. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for that. I know that was a point of unhappiness as last summer holidays came around. There were not enough nurses to allow people to take time off. There was a commitment by the previous health Minister to expedite the recruiting system and to get job offers into the hands of nurses more quickly. Are you able to say whether, in fact, that system has been expedited?