Alfred Moses

I’m glad to hear that the department is taking a proactive approach in education for prevention and awareness. However, right now, as I mentioned earlier in my two questions, we do have a waiting list, especially in Inuvik. The waiting list for anyone to get counselling is about three months and it is something that needs to be done now to address those issues. We will be coming to a new fiscal year in 2012-13. I was wondering if there was anything on the horizon in the fiscal operations O and M budget within the Department of Health and Social Services to offset those issues of our workers...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is dealing with my Member’s statement that I gave yesterday in dealing with mental health and addictions. We have had a lot of discussion here today on infrastructure and some new capital projects that are coming to the Northwest Territories. Alongside with that, unfortunately, we do get a lot of health and social issues that do come with these big capital projects.

My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services and deals with mental health programs and infrastructure. What is the plan to fix the lack of services that we have in some of...

My next question is: Come April 1st, the end of the fiscal year, any tenants across the Northwest Territories who have not taken that initiative to get on a payment plan, what is the course of action that the Housing Corporation is going to take for those who have not honoured this agreement that the Minister has put forth? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my question is dealing with the moratorium that the Minister of Housing released earlier this week. It is a good program and I think it’s a great opportunity to educate the people in the communities on how to get back and educated into the housing programs, as well as getting them back on track with a payment plan. In the four months that we have from now until the end of the fiscal year, I wanted to ask the Minister of Housing what is the plan to work with these people in the communities to get back on a payment plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to address an issue that is prominent within the Northwest Territories: mental health and addictions.

At the beginning of this Assembly, Members received a transition presentation from the Department of Health and Social Services. It was presented that their number one key strategic health status driver was, indeed, mental health and addictions. During my campaign I was asked what I thought was the number one concern in the Northwest Territories and in Inuvik, and after considerable thinking about what it would be, the conclusion was mental health and...

Mr. Speaker, we cannot continue to band-aid the issue. We need to identify the underlying issues and fix them now in this government. Our greatest resource in the NWT is our people. It is time that we take the appropriate actions and invest in the future of the North by investing in our people in our communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Being new to the government, I look forward to working with the Minister of ECE to further move this project forward and thank him for his time answering the questions. No further questions from this point on.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. With the fibre optic link on the horizon and education and social passing an issue in some of our smaller communities, I was wondering if the department had any initiatives that would bring e-learning into the communities, especially the ones that are sometimes hard to get into that would only have one or two high school students, and make it more cost-effective what they have on the horizon there for e-learning.

I respect the answer that the department is doing as much as it can. Is there an expected timeline that these surgeries can be brought back on schedule so that the people in the communities that have been waiting of the last couple of years have confidence in this government that they are moving forward and have that interest in getting them back on their feet and healthy and becoming society again.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is also for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Coming from Inuvik, over the past couple of years I’ve seen a backlog of surgeries, specifically joint replacement surgeries and the backlog has led to inactivity, sedentary lifestyles, which lead to people becoming overweight and can lead to obesity, which also leads to chronic conditions. With our ever growing senior populations, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health what is the reason for this backlog, specifically joint replacement surgeries.