Alfred Moses

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On October 10, 2012, the community of Inuvik celebrated the official opening of the much anticipated East Three School/East Three Illisavik/East Three Gah Tronadeh Zheh. The event had a great turnout as guests, students, staff and community members listened to encouraging speeches about the newly constructed facility and the importance of education.

The facility is a great environment for learning and promoting culture among new education and trades programs that could not be done in the previous school. The school also provides a great teaching environment that will allow...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the staff for coming in and listening to all the concerns that Members have today. I do understand that under the certain fiscal restraints, you do the best job that you can throughout the Northwest Territories. Looking at our list of work that needs to be done in the regions and small communities. Even here in Yellowknife with a lot of issues that are facing.

I guess I just want to begin with, up in Inuvik we have a pretty bad situation that we’re facing in terms of infrastructure, kind of going along the same lines as possibly a disaster like what happened in...

A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from one of the committee members asking about when funding will start flowing to their committee so the initiatives that they’re looking at implementing can actually start running. Can the Minister confirm that his department, his staff, is working with the Department of Education, the councils and with the ASA committees, that all three are working together so that the funding is actually going to initiatives that these committees have been working on for over a year now?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Continuing on with the theme of education, I’ll ask the Minister of Education a question in regard to the Aboriginal Student Achievement committees that he’s been talking about for quite a while. However, before I begin on that, I’d just like to apologize, as I forgot to recognize the Honourable Glen Abernethy, Public Works and Services, who attended the opening of Inuvik’s school as well.

Moving on, one of the questions that I had was in regard to the Aboriginal Student Achievement committees that have been working very hard over the past year to develop some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister provide me with some details on how many of these ASA committees have actually started implementing some of their action plans throughout the regions of the Northwest Territories, and if this side of the House will get a report on these committees and how many of them have actually implemented their action plan?

Out of the $1.8 million to the ASA committees throughout the Northwest Territories and all the good work that’s going on within that money, how much of this money is actually being filtered into the initiatives that these committees have developed on their own, these innovative and unique initiatives that they’ve developed on their own? How much of that money is actually going into those programs so that we know that the work those committees are doing is not going unnoticed or not going unfunded or not being supported?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Without just Yellowknife and Stanton travel, would the Minister commit to providing all expenses on missed appointments and no-shows in the Northwest Territories as well as southern travel for patients that went down south and this government covered the expenses and either the patient missed the appointment, they didn’t make it on time, or the appointment got cancelled? Would the Minister commit to providing us with those details?

Really, that money could be spent more effectively and we might even be contributing to the problem of these no-shows and missed appointments...

Mr. Speaker, it should be a fairly simple process; however, I am continuing to find problems within the process itself. Like I mentioned earlier, I have a constituent who had to wait over a year to get another appointment. The process might be simple, but getting that appointment, if it is a specialty appointment with a specialist, might not be always available, so that simple process is not always there.

Can the Minister provide some information on how many no-shows the department has incurred over the past year for patients who are missing their appointments in the NWT and southern travel as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Jim and Celine Antoine, very good friends and long-time friends, as well as Mr. Tony Whitford.

I’d also like to recognize a constituent who was up here earlier, Lillian Elias, who is also the winner of the Minister’s Cultural Circle Award in the Elders Category. She’s not here right now but she was here earlier.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has reviewed Bill 2, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2012, and Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Securities Act, and wish to report that Bills 2 and 8 are now ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole.

Further, the Standing Committee on Social Programs wishes to report that they are also reviewing Bill 5, Legal Aid Act, and Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Judicature Act, and would like to report that additional time is required to complete the review of Bills 5 and 7.