David Krutko

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Next I have Mr. Bromley.

Mr. Speaker, again, this leaves the Joe Greenland Centre out of the picture, where we already have trained staff running the facility and in the community of Aklavik.

Mr. Speaker, the loss of 14 full-time jobs in Aklavik is a big problem here. That is 10 percent of the jobs in Aklavik. I’d like to remind Cabinet of its priorities we set at the start of the 16th Assembly. I did not think that included the unemployment dropping, or rising in our communities because of the layoffs of 14 people in Aklavik. Mr. Speaker, I was totally appalled at finding out that they were going to basically shut...

Okay. Next on the list I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s hard to stand up in this House time and time again and raise the issues on behalf of my constituents. But here I am again, Mr. Speaker, today, expressing my very many concerns about the Joe Greenland Centre in Aklavik.

Mr. Speaker, it has been open since 1978. Mr. Speaker, 32 years the Joe Greenland Centre has served people in the northern region...(inaudible)...communities throughout the Sahtu, Mackenzie Delta, Beaufort Sea. This is a great example of how local people can take care of the elders in the North and also in our northern communities and keeping them in...

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Just direction from the House. Would you like to just do general comments or have the Minister respond to each general comment? So maybe just asking for some direction from the House. General comments. Mr. Abernethy.

Committee agree?

---Agreed

Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a document that was presented at the public meeting in Aklavik. It is: What can we do to as a collective - ideas for the Joe Greenland Centre. More importantly, Joe Greenland elders daycare improvement and quality of life for seniors.

Again in the budget we talk about sustainable communities. Every job we lose in our community makes that community unsustainable. It depends on capacity in the community, vibrant people working new jobs, dollars staying in our communities, and also ensuring that we have the capacity in those communities. So if we’re going to be laying off people in Joe Greenland who have LNs that basically have the education and training and those people who have been there for some time, I mean, this facility has been functioning for 32 years. There are a lot of people who are working there. I’d like to know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to say a few things on the budget. One of the issues that we talk about is to try to encourage employment and job opportunities in the Northwest Territories. What really frustrates me is I have 14 people in my riding of Aklavik and there are some 20 people being laid off from the Arctic Tern facility in Inuvik which gives us something like 38 people being laid off in the Inuvik region. I, for one, feel that we’re spending $1.4 million to promote awareness in southern Canada for jobs and life opportunities in the North. If those individuals in Aklavik...

Mr. Speaker, again, the individual that I speak of is 90 years old. He’s visually impaired. He’s already in a controlled setting in regard to the Joe Greenland Centre. He has 24-hour support. I’d like to ask the Minister exactly what are we doing to work with the families so that when the individuals transition out of the Joe Greenland, that their needs will be met in regard to their disability or the respite responsibility or palliative care, whatever will be required to ensure that those individuals have the care that they need to be able to live either independently or basically have the...