Alfred Moses

I believe the program, or the GNWT renewed program had a contract that was supposed to keep the program on air up until March 2013. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would look into that and get the contracts in there to get the program on the air as soon as possible, because our residents of the Northwest Territories need to know what we’re doing within our government.

Can I ask the Deputy Premier if he’d be willing to renew the contract to translate the government programs in the five Aboriginal languages so that those communities that speak their own language and listen to their own...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to follow up on my Member’s statement today. My questions today are for the Deputy Premier. I would like to go back and talk about the show entitled “On the Air” that the government had produced with CKLB.

First of all, why are we defaulting on an agreement? We had a 20-month agreement with CKLB and we have only worked with them for five months. Why have we defaulted on that agreement? Is the government committed to getting this program back up on the air? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One objective of this 17th Legislative Assembly is to be accountable and informative. That means getting information of our public programs and services out to the communities and the residents. One way of doing that is using media; specifically, the Native Communications Society, which broadcasts to 32 different communities across the Northwest Territories and the three diamond mines. As well, during those programs, they were offering them in five different Aboriginal languages.

In February 2011, the Native Communications Society and the GNWT began producing a 10-minute...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank Member Bisaro and Member Nadli for bringing this motion to the floor. I rise to support the motion as well. All of my colleagues have made really good causes as to why we need this type of service in the Northwest Territories that would provide services to our circumpolar region.

Once again, I thank the Members for bringing this motion to the floor and I support the motion as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister goes on and says it’s a simple question with complicated answers. I can find some simple answers here. We need a detox centre and beds. We need a culturally appropriate treatment centre, mental health workers, and we need to decrease the days needed for people to be sober to gain access to these treatment centres. We also need early childhood programs.

I’d like to ask the Minister, in his discussions in the region, what’s the cost for the Minister and his staff to hold these discussions in the region, because our service providers that are struggling would...

I’d like to ask the Minister how many detox beds does this territory have to help clients that are in need; the number of beds for our 45,000 population here in the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that Cabinet did receive a letter and a proposal from NCS looking at, in the interim, while they’re waiting for someone to take on the host position and host the radio program, that an NCS staff would host the program, working very closely with employees of the GNWT to get these programs and services out to the community.

Would the Deputy Premier look at that option until a suitable candidate from the GNWT is able to take that on? Will he look at that possibility and that proposal and get this show back on the air? The sooner the better, for not this government...

I’m not sure, maybe the Minister can correct me if I’m wrong here, but in terms of 20-month agreements – and there hasn’t been anything on for the last 10 months except for five months in agreement – that must mean we’re five months left into the agreement. So can the Minister confirm with me that we’re still in an agreement and that we don’t have to renew another one in two to three months? Can he confirm if we’re still in the same agreement with CKLB or not? Because if we have a contract with them for $3,400 a month and we’re not doing the programs, they’re losing out on funding for their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize a couple of hardworking Pages that have been here with us from my riding in Inuvik, Faith Rogers and Keenan Jacobson. They have been doing a really great job and I’m really glad that they had this experience here in the Legislative Assembly.

I guess my next final question is: Why hadn’t the authority or department noticed this back when it started, when we first started getting our deficits and addressed it then, rather than addressing it now? Especially this year when we had this big controversy with the contracts. Why did the department not catch this ahead of time and adjust it then, instead of continuing to put this authority and government further and further in debt?