Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I will be asking questions for those that can’t speak up themselves and those that need representation. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

In a lot of our communities we have a long waiting list to get into housing. As a result, a lot of our residents will go through the Rental Subsidy Program and will go into market rental units. However, with the high cost of living in some communities, such as Inuvik, I would like to ask the Minister, what process and practice does the department do when they are looking for a place for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the Minister and his staff for exchanging some information with us today. It’s been over two years, I guess, since we’ve been working with the Housing Corporation. I just want to commend the Minister and his staff on the improvements and hard work that they’ve done. It’s been very noticeable. I know we get a lot of good feedback within committee after our exchanges or meetings that we do have, so that’s been great.

First off, I just want to talk about some of the investments into our public housing stock as well as the transitional housing and Shelter...

It’s February 18th today. He mentioned that the new contract takes effect February 1st.

Can I ask the Minister, in the contract layover, how many days was the phone operation not in effect? How many days was there nobody answering the phones at this service?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to some of the questions that I had posed yesterday. I go on to the website for the NWT Helpline and there’s a reference right on the top that says, “When you call, we will listen.” In fact, after I made questions in the House yesterday, I did get some correspondence from some of our community providers that work in counselling and they said they wanted to make a call to the NWT Helpline to see how helpful it is for some of the people that they might work with.

I’d like to ask the...

That begs to ask the question, why did I receive an e-mail from my questions based in the House the other day that when somebody tried to call there was nobody answering the phone? Not only that, when the phone continues to ring, there’s not even an answering machine to say, you know, nobody’s here to answer your phone, please call this number. There’s not that service, and I have to ask the Minister, what is he going to do to rectify that problem, putting an answering machine on the phone when it’s not being answered?

All the information is appreciated, especially when you heard around the table today the lack of nursing services that we have in some of our small communities that need to access this helpline. What we heard today just right now from the Minister was definitely news to me in terms of the contract and also that the services were down for a while when the contracts were being put over.

Can I ask the Minister how was this mentioned to people of the Northwest Territories and to the communities? When I look on the website, there’s nothing that says that the services are going to be down at all, so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak to a great event that combines both sport and the strong cultures, traditions and skills of people of the North, an event that brings our youth in connection with our elders and the leaders of the Beaufort-Delta. The opening ceremonies for the 2014 Northern and Dene Games Summit happened yesterday at East 3 Secondary School in Inuvik, which was followed by a community feast.

Over the next couple of days, 245 students from all of the Beaufort-Delta communities ranging from grades 6 to 12 will participate in activities that will test their speed...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, February 19, 2014, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Speaker be authorized to set such sitting days and hours as the Speaker, after consultation, deems fit to assist with the business before the House. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. That training program, ASIST, I have heard nothing but good things about it.

Would the Minister, in terms of that training, look at possibly putting that program in the areas where we don’t have a nurse or we don’t have an RCMP officer as a priority of the first places that we get that training to? Would he do that, and also, if he can also maybe share with the House how many communities actually do have that ASIST training in place right now?

The reason I bring this up is we do have a Mental Health Act that does allow for physicians and practitioners to hold an individual for up to 24 hours, that’s the first step, and in a lot of cases, should there be alcohol involved, sometimes the individuals are let out of the care and treatment of the health centre or the hospital, and that’s why these kind of statistics would be good to help develop a better plan of action in terms of what steps can the authorities or the hospitals do or the health centres do to keep these people in care until they are ready to get a full assessment.

I’d like...