David Krutko

Mr. Speaker, I believe that we can study this thing but I don’t think the communities want to wait that long. I think, in the meantime, there are workable solutions here and one of them I mentioned earlier is that we have dedicated staff either from the regional centres, the adjacent communities, and dedicate them to those communities that don’t have a full slate of service providers such as nurses, social workers or even people in regard to mental health and alcohol and drug workers. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, can she direct the health authorities that they have dedicated nursing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. It’s in regard to the words “essential services,” and I think, more importantly, what are we doing to fill the gap between the have and have-not communities when it comes to programs and services such as health care, education and, more importantly, those positions that we depend on such as the nurses, the social workers and also looking at the clientele such as mental health workers to assist the communities with alcohol and drug programs, because those services make a difference to our communities...

If programs and services are essential services, why is it we have some communities with programs and services and a large number of smaller communities that don’t? All residents of the Northwest Territories deserve a fair break. Regardless if you live in Colville Lake, Tsiigehtchic, Sachs Harbour or Nahanni Butte, we have a responsibility to provide programs and services to our residents. At the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister of Health and Social Services what she is doing to ensure essential services are being provided to our communities.

We have one item in Committee of the Whole: Tabled Document 4-16(5). What is the wish of committee? Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you. Also, I believe the Hamlet of Aklavik has used up a lot of their gravel sources in which they were committed to do a bunch of drainage work again this summer, which is out of the Building Canada Fund, but they need those dollars to replenish their gravel source. Without that they won’t be able to do the work this summer. So I think there has to be some urgency to this. So I’d like to ask the Minister, also, can he check to ensure that the hamlet is able to get the resource in time so that they can do a gravel haul this spring to get the gravel into the community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also believe that we have to work with a lot of the housing authorities. From the information I saw, the majority of the housing authorities are in a deficit situation and a lot of it is because of the time that they get paid from ECE for the rent supp. I think, if anything, we can hopefully work with the local housing authorities and the tenants and get them out of the arrears they are in to keep the residents from being evicted from their units because of technicalities due to transfer of paper from one department to another.

This problem seems to be occurring mostly in the Mackenzie Delta region where we have isolated communities, that income support workers are brought in because there is no local income support worker. I’d like to ask the Minister if there is a possibility that we can transfer the authority of the paperwork to the local housing authorities and then have the cheque cut directly from the regional office to those communities.

We already know how many clients we have. We already know who is on income support. We already know who gets the supp. I’d like to know if there’s a way that we could speed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that we do have a situation with the health boards. I think we’ve given them too much authority and yet as a Minister you don’t have much authority. So I think in order to get by that, can you give a ministerial directive to those health authorities that they find the essential and professional staff, dedicate them to those communities that require them or should be in those communities so that we can resolve this situation by ministerial directive?

Mr. Speaker, we have a very vast Territory, but we also have 33 communities. I think, as a government, we have to find unique ways to deal with the rural and remote communities. This has been an issue since as long as I’ve been here for 15 years. I believe that we have to find mechanisms that may not be able to fit all communities, especially with the challenges we face. So I’d like to ask the Minister if she’s more than willing to consider looking at ensuring that we have dedicated nurses or dedicated social workers to ensure that they do spend the time in our communities, and it’s not simply...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a well-known and respected, Mary Kendi, turns 95 years old today. Born at the Pokiak Channel, across from Aklavik, at a time when there was only a trading post in the area, married in 1932 in an arranged marriage, she lived in the bush, hunted, trapped and fished. Mary raised nine children and took care of many of her grandchildren. In 1992, Mary Kendi was the first woman in the Northwest Territories to receive the Wise Woman Award. Mary’s celebration will take place in Aklavik on Saturday. I wish Mary a very happy birthday and wish her well. Mahsi.

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