Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister responsible for Seniors. In terms of the question to the former Minister responsible for Seniors in July 2007, what I was asking for is a one stop shop for seniors where they would have a place to go to be helped by the government in terms of all the services and programs they are eligible for.

I want to ask the Minister again: in terms of her role, in terms of her working with the NWT Seniors Society and seniors at large and the vision for seniors, could she see her way in terms of helping find a coordinated approach? The need is for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I take this as a very good opportunity for this government to participate in this conference put on by the Denendeh Development Corporation and have major businesspeople coming to Yellowknife to talk about their businesses and share their success stories.

I’d like to know: will the report from this conference come back from the Minister of this government and say, “This is what we learned, this is what we wanted from it, and this is why we want to introduce it into our policies after some discussion”? I think this is key, and you certainly have my support. Would we get a...

I’ll be happy to receive that package from the Minister in terms of all this. This is a very worthwhile, golden opportunity in that we have strong aboriginal people coming together.

We talk about the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We talk about the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. We talk about the hydro potential. We talk about partnerships with groups with unsettled land claims that have negotiated contract policies and memorandums of understanding with the Government of the Northwest Territories. You have unsettled claims.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister: is this a golden opportunity for this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for that commitment. Could the Minister commit herself to also looking at initiatives such as the Strategic Initiative Committee on Refocusing Government and various options to again work with boards and agencies on how to deliver services like this to our community members, especially seniors?

Mr. Speaker, I would really like to work with the Minister responsible for Seniors on this. There’s a very valuable opportunity in working with seniors and putting them at a level where we are taking care of them and showing the community that we are taking care of them.

Can I ask the Minister in terms of the involvement of Regular Members or myself, would we have some options to look at some of these areas that we could work on together?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue on with the Member’s statement I presented yesterday to the House in terms of working with the elders in the Sahtu region.

I have reviewed some of my correspondence to previous governments, previous responses by Ministers and previous Member’s statements I made in regard to having this government own up and step up the plate in terms of helping their elders. I do want to say thank you to the Minister I heard today in terms of the increase to the fuel subsidy. That certainly goes a long way with our elders. However, I believe there is more to do for our...

Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for the overall report. I’m asking again if the Minister would look at a secretariat that would have a little more weight than what we have right now. I know you have to work with other departments, other Ministers, and the different programs in other departments. For the seniors back in our small and most isolated communities, they have to go to different departments, different agencies and organizations to explain what their issue is. I’m looking for a secretariat where they could come to one place. We owe that to them and not let them run around the...

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister responsible for Seniors. In my Member’s statement I spoke of some of the elders I had the opportunity to host this past weekend in Yellowknife. I spoke with elders from Colville Lake, Délînê, Fort Good Hope, and I also spoke to some of the seniors and elders in Norman Wells.

I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Seniors: in terms of seniors’ care in the Sahtu as well as the other communities is there a discussion paper being examined or looked at in terms of coordinating all the seniors’ programs under one secretariat or department?

Mr. Speaker, the key words that the Minister used are “working together.” If it was working together, I wouldn’t be raising this issue.

I just came out of the Sahtu. These are the issues at Norman Wells. There’s a seniors’ house in Fort Good Hope where the floors totally need replacing. The seniors are going to be living with it through the winter if it doesn’t get replaced.

So I’m asking the Minister, in terms of having some discussion with her Cabinet through the avenues that are available, to work with them and come up with a plan that would have the seniors’ sector reorganized. Mr. Premier...

The NWT Seniors’ Society certainly does a lot of good work in the Northwest Territories. They involve the regional seniors in their meetings.

I’d like to ask the Minister if there are any discussions in the upcoming business plan, any type of discussion on the new initiatives that are initiated by this government in terms of looking at the possibility of putting together a discussion paper on the seniors’ secretariat, because that will benefit the people in the region in terms of how to work with the seniors at a more respectful level.