Yes, Madam Speaker, I’m going to continue to ask questions on this topic because it’s a very important topic. We’re letting people slip through the cracks, as we like to say it, and it’s not fair to the parents, it’s not fair to the teachers and it’s not fair to the students. Somebody has to take charge here. I’m talking about intervention and integrated services. I talked all last week about how departments need to work together to provide services to be more effective and to providing these services and programs for the residents of the Northwest Territories.

Would the Minister of Health and...

Madam Speaker, he didn’t really make reference to some of the things that are listed in his Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan. But it’s not all about counselling. We can talk to people until their ears fall off and still nothing’s going to go through. It’s about intervention.

What is this Minister doing or even working with the Department of Education to intervene to address some of these needs that these children are requesting and are asking for, or some of our teachers are asking for this intervention to address some of these needs in the schools with mental health and addictions?

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was going to follow up to my Member’s statement in listening to the people of Inuvik, and listening to some of our educators and parents and our constituents. My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

In his action plan, we talk a lot about mental health and addictions in the communities and in the territory, but one place that we don’t really bring it up or talk about it is in the schools. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what is his department doing to address some of these mental health disorders such as...

Madam Speaker, I guess this kind of goes on. If there’s no commitment right now and they have to reassess, would the Minister commit to possibly providing more teachers, then, or more teacher assistants to the communities that need it? If he’s not looking at an e-learning program and the possibility of continuing this funding, which I didn’t hear a commitment from, would he commit to providing more teachers so that one teacher doesn’t have to be instructing three different levels of grade level programs? We need some commitment so we know what our Beaufort-Delta Education Council can look...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and it’s with regard to the e-learning pilot project that’s happening in the Beaufort-Delta right now. As I mentioned earlier, to make any travel to the communities is very expensive. What the Beaufort-Delta Education Council is doing is very innovative and unique in getting the education courses out to the communities very promptly and very efficiently.

I want to ask the Minister of Education Culture and Employment, what are the department’s plans for the future of this project when it...

Mr. Speaker, there’s a reason why our hospital admissions are at 40 percent and there’s a way we can stop that by investment into prevention and promotion programs now. We talked about investment this whole last two weeks, and the sooner we do it, the sooner we can drop those numbers down. We don’t want it to rise at all.

In our hospitals we also have some elder day programs. I’m looking at all avenues to protect our senior citizens. Would the Minister look at these elders day programs, do an assessment and look at how we can provide more services, whether financially or in a staffing situation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day I made a Member’s statement on our seniors and prevention and promotion. When this side of the House asks for dollars to deal with chronic management, we’re not asking for long-term facilities, we’re not asking for beds, we’re not asking for workers to fill those long-term facilities, we’re asking for prevention and promotion program. Programs that are going to keep our elders living an independent lifestyle, promote our language, our culture, and keep those…(inaudible)…alive.

The other day we had the Minister of Human Resources mention that he moved some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a heads-up, this possibly could be the best Member’s statement that I’ve given to date.

---Laughter

Now that I’ve got your attention on this day of love, I had the great opportunity of getting such great news today on the birth of Ms. Kali Ann Martha Wood, the healthy daughter of Bryan Wood and my beloved little sister, Heather Moses.

---Applause

Kali Ann Martha Wood was born at 11:00 p.m. last night with a healthy weight of 8 pounds 22 ounces. I want to wish both Bryan and Heather all the best in their journey together, and their journey and responsibility to be great...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just one last quick question and it comes back to the views of our Beaufort-Delta Leadership Council, and that’s intergovernmental work and how we can work together to be more efficient in the service delivery of our programs and our dollars.

Is the Minister willing to work with the Department of Justice, or even the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, to see how we can work in getting our elders into those departments to promote culture, to promote tradition, to promote values and teachings of on-the-land programs, language in the schools? Is he willing to...

Over the years, some of these non-government organizations have been operating out of the same budget and they stretch the dollars as far as they can go. I’m asking the Minister, is he willing to commit, should it come from committee, to allocate some of those dollars to these NGOs so they can provide the programs. Like I said, obviously, when we talk chronic disease management, the department thinks of long-term care facilities. We want prevention and promotion programs, and we have a lot of great organizations out there that are running these programs. Is the Minister willing to commit those...