Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Public Works. I want to talk about ?ehtseo Ayha School and I know Public Works does the maintenance of that school and does some work there. My questions are going to be directed to him.

I want to ask the Minister, the leadership this morning spoke to me from Deline and they said the school pilings underneath the school… They weren’t too sure what the status was on it. Is it sinking? Is it being fixed? They were very concerned because of the number of children that are going to school and the parents that are sending their kids to this...

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. I’d like to also ask if, once the review has been sort of put together by your department and packaged up, the review will be shared with the Ministers within the sitting of this House here that we could see the review of the report that’s been completed.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also recognize Jim and Celine Antoine and the family. I’d also like to recognize – I’m not too sure if she’s here – Doris Taniton, who was the Minister’s Cultural Award recipient of the youth. Also, Mr. Whitford, I’m always reminded of what things you have told me that you said that made a big difference in life. I also want to recognize Mr. Michael McLeod and his wife, Joyce. They told me some pretty good, happy stories, not like Mr. Hawkins. I would also like to recognize some good people in town: Lydia and some other people that I don’t see here. Thank...

Mr. Speaker, it is a pretty deadly disease here. It takes the young children, the infants. It can cause some serious infection in internal organs and up to the flesh eating disease. People have died from it.

In regard to the territory having only two oral antibiotics that work against the MRSA and doctors don’t want to over-prescribe them and allow the bacteria to build up resistance, why is that? What are we doing to prevent this over-prescription of antibiotics?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue with my questioning on this superbug infection rate that arises in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what is he doing with his other Ministers to work on this in a comprehensive manner, Housing, MACA, Health, Education. What is the Minister doing to put together comprehensive information, preventative measures to deal with this situation? Mostly infants are affected. What is the Minister doing with his other colleagues to deal with this dangerous, infectious superbug?

The Minister hit it right on the head: We have a huge problem in our communities with overcrowding and the housing that we have, the quality of housing that we have and the little amount of water that we can receive during the week because of the amount of funding that goes into support. What is his department doing to work with the Minister of Housing or this government to look at the conditions of the housing, the overcrowding? People are moving into their family’s dwelling. It’s really just an infestation ground to continue with this superbug, and it’s going to be awhile if we’re going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the increasing concern of a dangerous superbug in the Northwest Territories. It reported in the Globe and Mail, October 13th, on Saturday, that this bug is probably one of the most dangerous superbugs that we can have here in the North. It had quadrupled in the Northwest Territories since 2007. This bug is mostly spread in hospitals, but now they’re starting to find it more in the smaller communities.

I want to ask the Minister of Health what he is doing to help the smaller communities who maybe do not know about this dangerous...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to congratulate all the elected councillors and mayors that just recently had their elections. I take my hat off to the people who put their names forward to serve their people.

The Premier talked about the year now that we’ve been elected, and we are elected by our people to fight for our people when we come to the capital in Yellowknife here to look at the conditions that we live in in our communities. We know the conditions because we come from these small communities.

When we come into a larger centre, we start to see some of the equalities that happen. We...

Given the situation that we are in the Northwest Territories and the limit of resources we have to combat this superbug, would the Minister consider, with all the colleagues, to look at radical change in housing situations? It is like putting a bandage type of solution on, because the root of the issue and the root cause… What is the root cause of this superbug?

One of the contributing factors is overcrowding in homes and children. Is it something that we really need to take a hard look at the housing in our communities and look at the overcrowding? Can the Minister commit that he will have...

The problem of Alberta attracts the community acquired MRSA disease, is this department tracking the community acquired… I know the Minister talked about the monitoring, but is he tracking it?