Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. He did mention working with Education. Our Minister of Education has mentioned trying to bring elders into the schools. Would the Minister of Health and Social Services look at the options of possibly bringing fitness instructors into the schools to create some type of fitness programs that can be done during lunch times, before school or after school? Thank you.

Thank you. That report that gave us the red flag came out about 2004. We do have the Healthy Choices Framework to try to address it, but where are we at right now in the Northwest Territories? We’re at historic rates and I’d like to ask the Minister, what is this Minister doing to work with his federal counterparts to address these historic rates so that we can start taking care of our residents as obesity leads to a lot of chronic disease. As I mentioned yesterday, 70 percent of all deaths are related to chronic disease. What is the Minister of Health and Social Services doing to work with...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, I had my questions focused around chronic disease management and dollars that are being allocated to that. However, the Minister did make a comment there to my colleague’s previous question and one of her concerns was why the Addictions Forum doesn’t contain mental health, and the Minister did mention that he feels that addictions is a personal responsibility. But when you get into the frontline work and you work with individuals that are battling addictions, and you sit down with people that are having a hard time and they can’t get out of the rut of addictions...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Before I continue on with this motion, I do want to put on the record that during the current sitting of this session the Minister of Health and Social Services did commit to implementing two detox beds in the north and two in the south. I would like to make sure that we do hold him to that commitment as the people of the Northwest Territories did hear that and are expecting that in this fiscal year.

Detox beds are something that are truly needed in the communities and hospitals. We do have a policy that anybody who wants treatment does, in fact, need to be sober for, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very honoured to be tabling the following document today. It is an insert from the Inuvik Drum dated Thursday, February 21, 2013. I will be tabling the front page as well as page 3. The front page says, “Father in Posse, Son Recalls How Dad Involved in Mad Trapper’s Death 81 Years Ago.” The other page is, “Mad Trapper Chase Recalled – Inuvik Man is Son of RCMP Officer who Took Down Albert Johnson.”

This document is part of NWT history. It tells a story of Winston John Moses talking about Constable John Moses, who fired the fatal shot of the Mad Trapper of Rat River...

Thank you, and I do agree with the Minister’s comments. We do have a very strong history of the RCMP here in the North and we’re well aware of that. I’d like to commend the Minister for going and taking a look at that, but would he be willing to dedicate a specific museum here in the Northwest Territories, perhaps through Yellowknife which is one of our hubs of all the communities? Would he be willing to dedicate some type of infrastructure towards the history of the RCMP “G” Division and all of their significant events, their members, lost members in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was to my surprise and great interest that on February 21st when I opened up the Inuvik Drum there was a very educational and historic story that was told by my father, and it was entitled The Mad Trapper Case Recalled. It’s about some oral history that’s never ever been told in the books, and I was really surprised to hear that my father decided to let the public know, and let the historians know, some of the things that had happened during one of the biggest stories in the Northwest Territories, and that was the Mad Trapper of Rat River.

This is something that my...

Just one last final question here. Is there any type of clauses that are put into the initial contract for big projects like this when we get an initial contractor doing the assessments? Are there any clauses that would put any change order costs or additional costs on the contractor to ensure that they do a completely thorough assessment of the project that needs to be completed? Is there any type of clause in the contract and, if not, would the Minister be willing to get one completed? Or adding one?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Once again under this heading, I’ll go back to my initial questioning in terms of contract and procurement where I made mention of it in the general comments. Specifically, when this department does any contracting procurement, and awards contracts through the RFP process, and does look at awarding contracts to whomever it may be that get the winning contract, whether they’re a northern contractor or a southern contractor, how often does this department conduct change orders?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know that both comments were pretty long there, and I do understand the Minister does have a very big department and a lot of responsibility to be working with, he and his staff. When I do refer to reports I refer to it from a ground-level worker, which I’ve done for many, many years, and some recommendations when I left a conference or a workshop feeling good knowing that those recommendations were to be addressed or looked at and they never, ever did. Now that I’m in a position to see if we can try to get those addressed, I feel good about it because I’m saying...