Bob Bromley

There was a brief program for a school nutrition coordinator to serve three school boards, funded under the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative. Is this program still running or has this gone the way of other programs and, as the dodo bird, is extinct?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services and follow up on my Member’s statement. I looked at the Minister’s statement on Nutrition Month and I see a real focus of programs on obesity. Poor nutrition during the youngest years for people, though, is a likely reason for nutrition-related issues like obesity in older children and adults. Yet the Minister’s statement offers no programs that actually put nutritious food in the mouths of our youngest citizens. Why is that?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to thank my colleague, Mr. Ramsay, for bringing this forward. It’s been a disappointment that we haven’t got to this. Early indications from the Ministers involved were that this would be coming forward. They later backed off on that. Apparently we have some limitations in our ability to draft legislation quickly and we certainly do have a lot of legislative needs. I can understand that, but I was, and I know many of our public were, disappointed that those early indications of commitments were not able to be met.

I think this does capture the comments we heard...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to make some very brief comments here. I also would like to give a big nod to the Member for Sahtu for taking the initiative to bring this motion forward.

There is a really key role for elders to play in our schools. I think the Aboriginal achievement programs will recognize that very early on. You don’t have to look beyond the K’alemi Dene School right in Ndilo to see an example with Mrs. Fwasi, 70 years old this year, been in the school for a decade, and there’s a record of achievement there. K’alemi Dene graduated their first grade 12 students this...

Thanks for those comments from the Minister. I appreciate all the work that is being done there and is underway. I’d like to confirm that the Minister’s portfolios are gathering the necessary data we’ll need, recognizing that the NWT is likely a bit different than the rest of the jurisdictions where this has been applied. So we’ll have to customize such a tool to make sure it benefits us to the greatest extent.

So is the Minister ensuring that all the data that will be needed to make good decisions is being collected? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the well-known Dick Abernethy, a Member of the Weledeh riding and the father of my colleague Mr. Abernethy. I’d also like to recognize Weledeh constituent Ryan McCord, a well-known musician and known also for his fearless sky walking at great heights. Also, I’d like to recognize Della Green, the victims services coordinator. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The myths and facts of carbon taxation need some discussion. A recent roundtable on a carbon tax in the NWT sponsored by the partnership of Ecology North, Sustainable Prosperity and the GNWT and involving diverse representatives from across the Territory has contributed to that discussion.

First, why a tax? Well, first, climate change through carbon emissions is destroying our planet, as we heard from my colleague, especially the North, leading to high costs from cultural loss to loss of building foundations.

Second, we are at the mercy of rising and volatile oil prices...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be supporting this amendment as well. I have to say it was almost unanimous, the input I heard people speaking very clearly to not try and define these sorts of activities, that abuse and cruelty was certainly not acceptable in any situation. I have to stress again that these were people from all walks of life and certainly included the most respected of Aboriginal leaders who represented the essence of tradition and traditional practices. Again, they spoke in a very clear way that helped me tremendously in discerning what is appropriate here and for which I am...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to start by thanking the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure for guiding us through consultations on this proposed act. It’s been a huge one, as my colleague Mr. Yakeleya has mentioned. Much bigger than we had expected. I’ve appreciated his guidance and the assistance of our staff. As I believe our chair said, I was very impressed and thankful to all the people of the NWT who took time to participate in those consultations.

We had tremendous turnouts, tremendous and enthusiastic turnouts, passionate presentations, both at...

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Darrell Beaulieu as well, a resident of Weledeh.