Alfred Moses

That was a good answer. As the Minister responsible for Seniors and ensuring that seniors have an accurate and fulfilling life in their early years and be able to continue on our traditions, culture and language, would the Minister be willing to look at these motions and be willing to address them as the Minister responsible for Seniors and not the Minister responsible for what was discussed? It was the seniors who brought this forward, after all. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Seniors. Over a couple of weeks ago, we had an Elders Parliament here. They went through a lot of work. My experience working with these elders is they are very experienced. One of our values growing up in the North is to respect our elders. I wanted to ask the Minister responsible for Seniors what is his commitment to the motions that were brought forth during the Elders Parliament. How serious is he going to take these motions that put them into action or see something come out of them in this Assembly? Thank...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I also wanted to recognize that today is the kickoff for NWT Disabilities Week. I just wanted to add on to what the Minister of Health and Social Services had said and bring a couple more little items to attention for everybody across the Northwest Territories on how important and significant this week actually is.

According to studies, the approximate number of individuals that self-identify with disabilities in the NWT is one in nine. That is 11 percent of our population that self-identifies. The numbers could be higher and more significant. That’s why we need...

I’m not sure how much SEED money the society goes after, but just due to the increased costs of flying that we’ve been seeing lately, the increase to accommodations, the low number of tourism in the community of Inuvik, I think this would be a good opportunity to help our artists out in the Northwest Territories. Even partner territories, as they come up and showcase their artists, their talents, and the work that they do. It will also bring increased money to the economy of Inuvik. It also would create income for some of our artists. Would the Minister be willing to entertain an increase in...

With the announcement of the Minister’s address, I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls from my constituents back in Inuvik in regard to how to use this $100,000, and as the other $100,000 that’s been allocated to do a strategic plan, as the planning process continues to move forward and all the leaders are at the table discussing how we can best deal with this situation, while discussions are going on there are a lot of worried people in the community of Inuvik with the residents and constituents. I do know that there is a meeting going on tomorrow and I hope we get some really positive...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was going to make a quick general comment about the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline office and with the downturn and, I don’t want to say lack of activity, but how other groups are addressing it and reacting to it and yet we’re still continuing to put money into the office. I just want to make a general comment. I know we did a comment back to Mr. Bromley earlier.

I have a question in terms of the line item of industrial initiatives there. There is a decrease and the mandate of the industrial initiatives outlined in the activity description do a lot of work in terms of the...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. That’s kind of what I wanted to get right off the start. That leads me to my second question. I have a couple here.

As the Minister responsible for Seniors, is he willing to look at the one motion that is relevant to the clientele and people that he represents, and work within his Cabinet to look at the motion in regard to the public housing rental scales in which there were recommendations made from the seniors brought forth by the Seniors’ Society, as well as made from this side of the House? Is he willing to do that and look at addressing that issue?

Madam Speaker, I asked for a commitment to see these recommendations, motions put through in this government, if not sooner. We get a lot of discussions here and I don’t want to have to ask another question and get whether a commitment of yes or no and not discussions. It seems like I’ll have to use a second question to get a yes commitment or a no discussion commitment. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to welcome and recognize Shane Thompson. He’s been a very strong mentor and role model to a lot of youth in the Northwest Territories, including myself. Along with Shane I’d like to recognize his son Steven, who is a recent graduate, and congratulate him on that. I’d also like to recognize Colinda Blondin, who is a graduate of the Recreation Leaders Program and is doing a lot of great work with the youth, from what I hear.

I just appreciate the comments and the willingness to sit down with regard to the contribution. We’ll just take that further and when I go back I’ll have a meeting with the society and get a little bit more information to them. Thanks for the comments and the answers.