Alfred Moses

Mr. Chair, it has been a long day. We did read it in the 21 page report earlier. Being new to the government, I do feel that there are a lot of areas that needed to be fixed. We wouldn’t have had to read a 21 page report with 21 recommendations into this House if the Department of Education, Culture and Employment were on top of things. I would have rather read it in a five page report or no report at all that said everything was good. We had a lot of unsatisfactory areas that deal with a lot of people that have come to my office and we actually had people in the gallery who had to express...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You’ve heard my colleagues. They’ve all expressed reasons why we need to invest more dollars. Over our last couple of budgets, we’ve asked for those dollars, we fought for those dollars to be put into these areas. You’ve heard me in the House speaking in favour of the Mental Health Act, how we need to get more dollars for detox beds, treatment centres. This motion speaks to that. Plain and simple, we’ve heard it before over the 20 months.

Just for the record, I want to say I’m in support of this motion. I will support my colleagues moving forward and getting 10 percent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year on October 31st, I made a Member’s statement and asked questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services on stem cell donation, dealing with cancer and leukemia and those types of cancers and how it can be prevented, how we can increase our database so we get more people signing up to be donors to save people’s lives. This goes along the same lines of something that I had pushed for last year, so obviously, I will be voting in support of this motion.

It’s a motion that shows action needs to be done to update and modernize the current act that we have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to welcome and recognize Norman Snowshoe, who is the vice-president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council; Jozef Carnogursky, the president of the Nihtat Gwich’in Council; Willard Hagen, who has worn many hats over the years and has been very influential in how our government’s informed, and with the Gwich’in Tribal Council as well; constituent Mavis Jacobson. I’d also like to welcome the devolution team who’s done a lot of excellent work, and especially during consultations up in Inuvik, and any of the other leaders that are joining us today...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to just begin by saying I’d like to thank the Premier and Madam Groenewegen for bringing this motion to the House. It is a very great motion and I’m very honoured to be speaking to it today.

Actually, I did make a Member’s statement earlier, at the beginning of the 17th Legislative Assembly, on the history that this government’s been doing, and in a short time period – I think it was only in quite a few months – we started making some changes within this government and how things were done, and that that change continues to happen even today.

Twenty months...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today is a very important day for the Inuvialuit people of Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta region; in fact, throughout all of Canada. On this day 29 years ago, June 5, 1984, in the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, the Government of Canada and the Inuvialuit gathered on the shores of the Beaufort to sign the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.

The Inuvialuit Final Agreement was built in the hopes and hard work of the many involved, and its continued success is attributed to the ongoing dedication of the Inuvialuit. The IFA was the first comprehensive land claim agreement signed north of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to this motion, any of these reports that we do get before standing committee would be very helpful in terms of how we plan out the business year. Without having these public accounts in place ahead of time, with some of the boards and agencies in their reporting, it is very difficult for committee to work on how we proceed with the business plans moving forward. Each year, whether or not departments spend all their funding or not, really reflects on how these reports are done.

Committee members, Regular Members going through the business planning cycle, it is...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a detailed progress report to this Assembly on work done towards a comprehensive review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, identifying a timeline and any additional resources required to complete the review within the life of the 17th Assembly.

One million six hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money for our NGOs and our small communities. Would the Minister, going back to I think it was my second question, look at creating an application-based program specific? We have a lot of application templates out there. Would he create something new where we can start funding things like kids sport, friendship centres, youth centres, or hamlet organizations? Would he look at creating something new in the amount of, say, maybe $25,000 application so that communities can actually get a little extra dollars to run some great programs and...

Yesterday the Minister made a Minister’s statement, and he does say that he’s waiting for the Early Childhood Development and Anti-Poverty strategies to come forward, but he says, “I will not wait until that response is finalized to take action.” So the sooner the better. We can’t wait to start providing programs.

You have heard a lot of really good options, a lot of good suggestions on this side of the House, what’s happening in Hay River, what’s happening in rural and remote communities. I’d like to ask the Minister, would he look at creating an application-based program with the funding...