Inuvik Boot Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last few sittings that we have had here since we started the Assembly, there have been a lot of questions regarding some of the human resources practices that this government exercises and we have talked about the career fair and going into the communities. We talk about trying to recruit our northern people into positions within the government. We heard about how many vacancies we have within the GNWT, within the departments.

We are going through the budget process right now where this government, actually the departments determine positions required for them...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 8)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should have been a little bit more clear. I was looking at psychiatric services, out-of-territory services that are provided by other government or other NGOs.

What does the Minister have planned, looking at some of the stats that we have in the Beaufort-Delta? What is his plan, working with the health authority, to address these high, direct counselling services as well as these new referrals that are putting a strain on our current counselling services that we have in the Beaufort-Delta region right now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 8)

I’m glad the Minister brought up the Dalhousie program and gave us a little detail into how that’s working so far.

In terms of doing the assessments and if there are any residents of the NWT or clients that are going through this program that need some treatment for their psychiatric services, how many beds do we have in the Northwest Territories that would be able to house some of these individuals who might need around-the-clock services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 8)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last month I was able to attend the AGM for the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority in Inuvik where a lot of really surprising stats caught my attention in terms of how services are brought forth within that authority, and the hard work that the staff are trying to do moving forward in terms of having to do the best they can with the resources that they receive and the funding that they receive through this government.

Some interesting stats that I’d like to share with committee, the Members here today and Cabinet were in terms of mental health and...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 8)

I know that one of our issues and our challenges that we have in the Northwest Territories is resources and infrastructure to house some of these individuals. We are going through the same thing. We also have the long-term care issues. We have an increase in our seniors population, and with that might come dementia and other areas that might require more services.

Does the government have some type of program with out-of-province jurisdictions that provide services to the GNWT? If so, how many NWT residents are accessing those southern placements? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 8)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to follow up on some of the alarming stats that were presented to us by the health authority in the Beaufort-Delta region on the amount of hours spent on counselling, the amount of no-shows, the referrals, especially the amount of new referrals. There were 699 new referrals to counselling services.

One thing that I have brought up in this House, and I’ll do it again today, is our psychiatric services in terms of assessments. Some of these clients might be going through counselling over and over again without getting the proper assessments they need because we...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 7)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The last question I guess I’ll have for the Minister in terms of this rebate program is: Are there any new funding dollars allocated to the film industry in terms of training and development in terms of the northern film industry people that work in this area in this industry? Is there anything that will be included in future budgets or even this budget that might enhance the products that they do and the training and skills that they do require for work here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 7)

Getting into more details, what type of rebate initiatives are we going to be looking at? Are we going to be looking at film training, development, at location incentives to get some of our people in the film industry labour jobs or professional development with our filmmakers, people who are already in the film industry?

Can I get more information on the incentives, rebates and costs that groups are going to be able to access? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 7)

I would like to ask the Premier, in the first launch of this program, there were 12 discussion papers that were brought forth. I believe four of them were in the Northwest Territories; however, we have jurisdictional issues, northern challenges we face right across northern Canada.

Does the Premier or any of his Cabinet look at these research papers, look at the recommendations and act on the recommendations? As I mentioned earlier, they focus on things like climate change, land stewardship, education, health, a lot of these pressing issues that face northern people. Does the Premier and his...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 7)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We are going to follow up to my Member’s statement. I would like to ask the Premier of the Government of the Northwest Territories, with the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship and supporting our young northern leaders, those up and coming and those out there doing some great work on behalf of government as well as for their communities, for their Aboriginal governments, I want to ask the Premier, what role does our government play in supporting these young northern leaders with the work that they are doing in the communities and across northern Canada? Thank you.