Alfred Moses

Thank you. My second question on this is pending the applications that the department receives for assistance in this area, is he willing to amend the policy to increase more funding across the Northwest Territories in future years? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This year marks the 50th anniversary of community health representatives, a very integral part in our health and social services system.

CHRs are front-line workers in all of our communities and they do a lot of our groundwork that we ask them to do in terms of prevention and promotion. However, although we do ask them to do a lot of work in our communities, we don’t always provide the necessary resources financially for them to make sure that they do their job as efficiently as we would like them to do or as what they have brought forth to this government asking for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before we got back in session, I had the honour to attend the Aurora College graduation in Inuvik where I was able to give a speech to the graduates. I was very honoured and grateful to participate and to see graduates of all ages right out of high school to even see seniors and older adults. For them to take the initiative and invest into their futures and accomplish what they had set out to accomplish, for that I respected each and every one of them for the hard work that they did to get where they were today.

Although I did speak only at the Inuvik event, I would like...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ll try to keep this short, seeing the time we have left and we want to get into Human Resources here. I just want to mention a few comments based on what was mentioned yesterday and what was before us.

It is mentioned in here that we have to make tough decisions and sometimes those tough decisions are based on the facts, the stats, all the reports and recommendations that come before us as we sit in committee and as we bring things down here on the floor. Sometimes those don’t always seem to be addressed.

Looking at what was said in here, a couple of things really...

Would the Minister be willing to, once the youth go through this program, have this youth be working in a regional centre and taking one of the regular members and putting him into a community where there is no RCMP officer presence right now? Would the Minister be willing to bring that suggestion forward to the “G” Division to see if that’s a possible plan so that these small communities do have a presence, qualified presence in the communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Justice with regard to his Minister’s statement today. He mentioned there are two programs; and just before I begin I want to recognize that it is a great program. We have a lot of outstanding RCMP officers in the Northwest Territories who’ve taken this program and who have succeeded and become strong role models for other members and our youth.

The first question I wanted to ask him is: In selecting for the first program the two candidates that would go through this program, would he look at making it a priority if he can look at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned that there is a second program here for those aged 19 to 29 to see if they would be willing to enter this program. Should he not get any response in that second program, would the Minister be willing to use that funding to offset any costs for further applications to the first program, and would he be willing to use the funding for that second program to make more people go through the first program if there is a waiting list and more applications were on there?

I know it takes the responsibility of our Members and especially the ones in the small communities to bring this up and will be looking at youth who might be interested, especially the ones that are going through the Cadets Program. However, since this is an initiative through the Department of Justice, what type of marketing and recruitment has the Minister done in the small communities on his own, working with the RCMP?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Youth is always a priority; however, it did not get on the document for our caucus priorities, which I made a Member’s statement early on in the government about committing to the youth that we’re still going to work in their best interests. It’s nice to hear those comments from the Premier. What I didn’t hear was the commitment that he’ll continue working with the document to bring youth together and possibly working with other departments, interdepartmental governments. Can I get a strong commitment from the Premier on this? Thank you.

There are two specific recommendations. One is for an end goal of getting a treatment centre that’s culturally sensitive with multicultural staff, trained professionals, unique treatment plans for youth, adults and elders, as well as a recovery support program, something that we are lacking in this territory. As well, they made a recommendation to place a qualified school counsellor and mentor in every school to help them achieve their goal of graduating high school. With the Minister of DAAIR familiar with those recommendations, when can we see those recommendations be put into action that...