Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just as a point of interest for the Minister, this isn’t the first time that it’s happened in my constituency. There have been other cases where there has been a quick turnaround and people are sent right back into the unstable environments that they try to get out of. None of them have received any follow-up, any counselling or any phone call from any doctor or psychiatrist that has done their diagnosis here in the city. So I just want to make a point that in smaller communities, they are getting lost in the bureaucratic system with suicide prevention and...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question today is to the Minister of Health and Social Services in relation to some suicide prevention and follow-up. I know that Stanton hospital is equipped with a psychiatric ward that deals with a lot of suicide cases in the NWT. I had an incident over the holidays, Mr. Speaker, about a person who tried to take their own life during the holidays and was quickly medevaced to the Stanton hospital, only to be returned to the community into the same volatile…that she just tried to get out of the very next morning; less than 24 hours flown back to the community and put...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Let me just say Happy New Year to my constituents, residents of the NWT, and all the Members of this House, firstly. I’d also like to congratulate the Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper and our new MP, Dennis Bevington, on their election victories.

Just a point of interest, Mr. Speaker -- and I hope Stephen Harper is listening -- the community of Lutselk’e and my constituents of Tu Nedhe were the only communities in the NWT to vote a Conservative majority.

---Laughter

So I hope he remembers that.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, addressing and resolving many important issues in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would surely be willing to sit down with the Minister just to go through the details. I know when this event was unravelling, we are talking 10:00 p.m. at night to 8:00 a.m. in the morning. I don’t know how the Department of Health and Social Services engages with the clients on a one-on-one basis or does a diagnosis in that time, especially if it’s in the middle of the night and there is only a limited number of staff on board. I was wondering if there is a 24-hour process that allows these professionals to make a good diagnosis and actually help these people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the president of the Native Women’s Association of the NWT, senior president in Fort Resolution and an organizer of many events, organizations and committees in Fort Resolution and in Tu Nedhe, my mom, Terry Villeneuve.

---Laughter

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I don’t want to downplay the nurses program, but I know there is no guarantee that these nurses who graduate from the program are even going to stick around in the North, because there is a big demand right across Canada for nurses, Mr. Speaker. But in many of the trades programs that these youth in the North enter into, they wind up staying in their communities and developing their trade expertise there. How does the Minister plan on making more programs readily available to out-of-town students who cannot find adequate accommodations in the capital? If it’s a...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to talk about one of the education programs that has been run out of Yellowknife, particularly the Pre-Trades Entrance Program that was developed, not surprisingly, by a contractor from down south, to the tune of $30,000 over the last year. Now this expenditure, Mr. Speaker, may be a total waste of money if the program doesn’t attract any northern interest or we have no students enrolling in the program. Mr. Speaker, I say attract, not in the sense that we don’t have any young northerners interested in the program, because we do, Mr. Speaker. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I am glad to hear that there will be more mobile labs coming down the line. This pre-trades program was developed last year for this year’s enrolment. It’s unfortunate to say that enrolment has gone down from the small, outlying communities because of the fact that there are no accommodations. Could the Minister give some reassurance to the directors and the people who work in the Aurora College who have to turn away these students and say, "You have to find your own place to stay or else you can’t enrol in the program"? What kinds of assurances or other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s good to know that the Minister acknowledges that it is a problem. I just don’t want to downplay some of the other programs, Mr. Speaker, but I know they are just as important as this Pre-Trades Program, such as the Nurse Practitioner Program. I have to let it be known that this program has received approval and funding, Mr. Speaker, to secure twice as many units for these nursing students this year as compared to last year. Another high demand sector of our labour market, that being trades, does not receive one red cent to put towards one unit available for any...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the day care arrangements that the residents and the children of Lutselk’e are faced with every day. This issue has been brought forward by other Members, and also is an important topic in the pre-budget consultation report that was tabled in the House earlier this week.

Mr. Speaker, I will again talk about, and remind the Members opposite about, the unsafe, unhealthy and unstable conditions these kids and staff are dealing with every day. Unsafe conditions exist in the large community hall that these kids are brought into every day...