Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday my colleagues had the opportunity to speak about treatment centres and day shelters, homeless shelters here in Yellowknife. I do agree with them; Inuvik does have an issue and it’s something that needs be addressed. In Yellowknife here, you just need to walk down to the corner to see the issues that present themselves to the capital of the Northwest Territories. We all have to work together to find solutions to these problems of homelessness, addictions, mental health, but we can’t forget about the regional centres and we can’t forget about the communities.

I...

It is a room that is used for emergency situations and people that can possibly harm themselves. Right now there isn’t any in Inuvik and there might be multiple cases. For the larger centres, are we looking at doing possibly multiple rooms and not just a single room? Is that in the budget plans for future years as well?

Mr. Chair, as this is the new practice, are we going to be looking at seeing in future capital budgets where we look at one… This cost is only for one room upgrade. Can we look at seeing maybe two a year or one a year per hospital? What is the plan for future capital budgets? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment provide the following information on how the $1.8 million allocated for the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is being distributed?

How the funding is distributed to the regions;

A breakdown of funding being distributed to each of the 33 NWT communities;

Funding actually allocated to the Aboriginal Student Achievement committee initiatives; and

Funding being spent by the department on their own campaign on the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative.

Under our priorities for the 17th Legislative Assembly, one of our priorities is to enhance addiction treatment programs using existing infrastructure. Can the Minister inform us if his department has gone out throughout the Northwest Territories and identified any existing infrastructure that can be used for treatment programs throughout the Northwest Territories outside of Nats’ejee K’eh and any new infrastructure that he’s recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up to my Member’s statement that I made earlier today in terms of treatment centres. I had mentioned all the infrastructure and services that are in the capital of Yellowknife here, and all of those groups do a lot of really good work for the Northwest Territories and people that do come into Yellowknife. My question for the Minister is for the Minister of Health today.

Can the Minister provide me with a list of any infrastructure, if any at all, in the 32 other communities outside of Yellowknife that do provide treatment for addictions? Can he...

Mr. Chair, I have no further questions. I just want to commend the work and the initiative on this particular program in Inuvik and throughout the Northwest Territories, especially the larger regional centres. I just want to commend the department for that work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, in terms of the other hospitals in the other communities such as Fort Simpson, Norman Wells and Fort Smith, once we see those seclusion rooms put into the capital budget to get those identified, because obviously this isn’t just a problem in Yellowknife, Hay River, and Inuvik, it is something that his happening right across the Northwest Territories. When can we see that in the capital budget plans? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to commend the department for all the work they are doing in building all of these new infrastructure projects throughout the Northwest Territories and to our regional centres. I am sure the staff and residents will appreciate the efforts and having new facilities to do their jobs more efficiently.

Specifically in this section here, I want to talk about the seclusion room upgrade in Inuvik. It is a very positive project and something that is much needed in terms of the business of the emergency room and the business that they have there.

Can I ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I heard is there is this group that’s going throughout the Northwest Territories and their mandate is to identify infrastructures. So if they’ve already travelled to some of the communities, I don’t see why we wouldn’t have some infrastructure on the list already.

In terms of the priorities that we do have, enhancing addictions treatment programs using existing infrastructure, when can we start to see this taking place, as we’ve already completed one full year of this Assembly? When can we start to see this taking place and a timeline in getting this addressed, as...