Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Someone once said to me, “Hey, Norm, how come you keep bringing up the need for residential school survivors to get treatment and the need for the Sahtu to become an independent region?” Well, Mr. Speaker, I was thinking, what’s the connection?

Well, in both incidents we want freedom, or to be free from the shackles of being dependent on others. For the residential school survivors, it is the freedom of not being hurt, feeling the pain and knowing there is a better life, knowing that God didn’t create a person to live this kind of life and how can I break free and be a...

Mr. Chair, I’m certainly disappointed in the response from the department and the staff here on raising their hopes through discussion with the people of Deline and the palliative care beds. The Minister certainly gave reasons why this request shouldn’t be honoured and is making a left when he should be going down the right lane. I’m very disappointed by the department’s response and justifying why they’re not going to take Deline requests seriously as it was duly noted in my notes and the Minister’s meetings with the leadership and people of Deline in regards to this request. It’s been an...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister on the status of the requests by the Deline leadership community support on a sort of respite care or palliative care bed units in their community. There was some discussion with the previous Minister. I’m not too sure if this Minister is up to… We had some meetings with the Minister on that request from Deline. They’re asking for a bed or so for that community. I haven’t heard. It’s pretty quiet from the department as to what’s being communicated. This is an ongoing issue with the community and the Minister. Can I get a very brief update? Thank...

I’ll look forward to that information. Thank you. That’s all for my questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank Mr. Dolynny and Mr. Nadli for bringing this motion to the floor. I think this motion should be looked at sometime in the future, not today. I have thoughts on it and I don’t think that at this time a motion like this is needed in the Northwest Territories, especially in our small communities. I can see it in the larger centres like Yellowknife. You have a lot of people coming in here and meeting all the time and we don’t have that opportunity. In our small communities, we know who is actually coming to meet with even ourselves as MLAs. We can almost be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we need a made-in-the-North solution to the issue of supporting the residential school survivors that will provide intensive support for all these survivors.

I want to ask the Minister, will the Minister investigate the feasibility of a pan-territorial facility for treating addictions and mental health issues of residential school survivors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At one time the Grollier Hall Healing Society was involved in the court process up in Inuvik, and the Grollier Hall Healing Society developed training modules, residential school treatment program models, care givers survivors, community survivors.

Can the Minister go back in history and see if these models can be used today? These were trailblazers in terms of helping the survivors in the communities. Can the Minister look and say, yes, the wheel has been invented, we can use this? Can he get a hold of those models and look for…

I read a report on the impact of residential schools and other root causes for poor mental health in Aboriginal people and students who attended residential schools and the devastating effects is has on mental health. We have reports on the residential school survivors that cannot access treatment programs right now in the Sahtu region, people who are being denied. We cannot close their files because they cannot fulfill a treatment program under the mental health Minister’s Forum on Addictions. We’re failing terribly at the community level.

How many mental health workers are right now working...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Minister’s Forum on Addictions, in the recommendations…There are over 60 recommendations, 67 to be exact, the recommendations are to help with the interagency of our small communities.

I want to ask the Minister, can he commit to give direction to the health workers under his authority to work with the other agencies, such as the police, the counsellors, to look at how they deal with mental health patients in the community so that they do not fall through the cracks when they need help from a small community perspective?

That’s certainly good news on this side of the House here. I look forward to the Minister’s follow-up.

Lately I’ve been trying to address the problems experienced by the residential school survivors who have been convicted of a violent or sexual crime and who have been turned away from addictions treatment programs. These men are falling between the cracks.

As an alternative, will the Minister commit to funding intensive individual therapy sessions for these men, or looking at a mobile treatment program?