Alfred Moses

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.

Thank you. The Beaufort-Delta Inuvik region is very unique in a sense that we have a high cost of living and travelling to any of the communities, the budget that the district education authority has gets spent really fast, because if they go to Sachs Harbour or Paulatuk, they’re using up a lot of their budget. So when we’ve got great programs like e-learning, but the cost of travel going to the communities is very high, we want to ask the Minister if he’d be willing to increase a budget or look at the way they divvy up the dollars for education authorities and look at giving an increase to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did take a look at those discussion papers going forward on this Mental Health Act. I know Members on this side of the House have asked for a wellness court to be brought forth in this government.

Would the Minister be looking at possibly incorporating some type of wellness court provision within this legislation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We’ve got about six weeks, I’d say, less than six weeks to get feedback on these discussion papers on a very important act that’s going to affect all residents of the Northwest Territories.

If the Minister and his department don’t receive sufficient feedback in that amount of time, December 10th, would the Minister be willing to extend the deadline to access feedback on the discussion papers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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.