Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’m going to speak about an act that was assented to in the Legislative Assembly in June of 1985 and that’s the Mental Health Act. In the last 28 years, nothing of significance has been done to this Mental Health Act. There haven’t been any major amendments to this act to provide our workers and our stakeholders and those that provide the mental health services in the Northwest Territories to do a better job or else get the services to people that need it. Those 28 years is a long time.

The reason I’m bringing this up today is because on the Department of Health...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Programs has completed its review of Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Education Act. Public hearings were held in Yellowknife on September 23 and 25, 2013, and Norman Wells on September 25 and 26, 2013.

For the first time in committee history, public hearings were held in various high schools. The committee thanks the many students and teachers who helped to facilitate the meetings and provide valuable input.

The committee thanks the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill. The bill is a reasonable first step in NWT’s efforts to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a letter that was distributed to all Members of the Legislative Assembly on October 30, 2013. It’s a letter from the Inuvialuit regarding their concerns with respect to Bill 3 amendments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. This program itself is very unique and the Inuvik Education Authority has taken this on themselves, have run with it and they’ve shown success. They’ve given us presentations on high success rates within the school system, an increase in their school averages, academic averages. If the Inuvik Education Authority is spending their money on this successful program when they could be using it other ways that other educational authorities are using their dollars, would the department be looking to fund this as a different project rather than having the Inuvik Education Authority use...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today we heard the Minister of Education talk about an Education Renewal Framework. He mentions that we need to improve the relationship between communities and schools, as well as that students in small communities need to have access to quality education as much as those in our larger centres.

My question today is regarding how we can do that through innovation. So I’d like to ask the Minister with the great e-learning program that’s happening in Inuvik right now with the communities of Tuktoyaktuk and Fort McPherson, is there any other communities slated on...

Outside of the Northwest Territories, I know other jurisdictions across Canada have some very stringent, very strong mental health legislation.

Is the Minister willing to look at other jurisdictions across Canada to mirror some of that legislation and things that could work in those jurisdictions that can also work here in the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are going to be on the Mental Health Act. I welcome the Minister and the department in the work moving forward. On the Department of Health’s website, there are four discussion papers and the government is asking for feedback by December 10th.

After the feedback has been given to the department, what is the timeline to get an LP, legislative proposal, to this government for review? Does he have a timeline getting the LP to this government, so we can move forward on this act? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First off, I just want to say that I was very honoured to be on this tour with committee, and the hard work that the Social Programs committee put forth and the staff that travelled with us, as well, to these communities. They did a really great job, as well as the department staff who came on this tour with us. So it was a lot of hard work and I listened to a lot of community members, educators, as well as youth, which was very unique and I was very glad to hear the students speaking up on such legislation.

I’d like to thank Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Yakeleya and Ms. Bisaro for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government’s been doing some really proactive work in this field with early childhood development and looking at the investment that we have been putting forth over the last couple of years. We’re working on this Early Childhood Development Framework, which will be kind of a framework that will outline where we’re going with investing in the development of our infants, prenatal to three or four years old and getting ready for school. But this motion that’s before us here will not only allow for affordable daycare, but it will also increase the amount of people that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a very unique project. The staff have said to me, speaking with some of the staff and people who have known the program, they do need more dollars to run this program successfully, even in the two communities they’re working with now.

Would the Minister also, doing this model, look at southern institutions that might be able to offer programs from the South through Inuvik to the communities? It’s very unique. It’s a great opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.