Alfred Moses

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I had the opportunity to travel home to Inuvik this weekend and it was a really great visit. It was a very busy weekend, actually. I had a lot of meetings with a few organizations as well as many constituents regarding a whole bunch of different issues.

The one issue that I wanted to bring forth today that I’ve been fighting for, and a lot of Members have been fighting for here over the last 16 months, deals with mental health and education; two of our biggest components for government and probably some of our biggest cost-drivers for the budget here within the...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Please provide the total number of emergency hospital visits for the fiscal year 2011-2012 and the current fiscal year.

Please provide the total number of visits to health centres for fiscal year 2011-2012 and the current fiscal year.

Of the total number of emergency hospital and health centre visits during fiscal year 2011-2012 and the current fiscal year, how many were alcohol and/or drug related?

Of the total number of alcohol and/or drug related emergency hospital and health centre visits, how many...

Thank you. We always say it takes a community to raise a child, and the Minister’s reference, that is quite a team. I don’t know he took that in reference, but that’s all the communities when I worked with the Interagency Committee, when I worked with the Department of Health and Social Services, when I worked at the regional level, we all talked about creating this team and that was over 10 or 12 years ago. Yet we’re still looking at trying to create that team. That team needs to be developed, either regional-based or territorial-based, and money needs to go into that now. When I go home for...

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, Mr. Speaker. You heard my colleagues today. This is a very timely motion to be bringing into the House, especially when we’ve got so many other strong business topics we are dealing with going through the budget process. It’s a very stressful time and you feel that you are almost backed into a corner with federal government legislation and the bills that are coming through. As well, some Members here are coming and talking about wanting to bring this motion through without having really strong discussions.

Over the last few weeks that we’ve been here, we’ve literally been running...

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...