David Krutko

My question is: what will the Premier do to ensure that the government meets the obligations as set out in land claim agreements and ongoing negotiations on devolution?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Premier and are in regard to my Member’s statement. It’s a crying shame that in this day and age we can’t sit down with our Aboriginal partners and come to an arrangement on the devolution talks. As I mentioned, this was an issue during the federal election and I believe it will be an issue during the territorial election. The Aboriginal assembly is coming up this summer. I’d like to ask the Premier if it’s possible to look at some mechanisms we can use to try to bring the parties to the table and try to find a mediation or mitigation to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to the previous election that took place, one of the predominant issues at hand was the whole devolution process in the Northwest Territories and where a particular candidate stood on the issue. Mr. Speaker, not only in the campaign but also full-page ads, which were paid by this government, to combat certain opponents of the Devolution Agreement, especially the Gwich’in leadership and the Gwich’in people that I represent, which I took offense to the article I read in the paper.

Mr. Speaker, the question that’s being asked out there is how can the Premier...

Again, I think that people have to realize that a lot of times our services in the communities include one doctor’s visit a month. If you’re lucky you might see a social worker once a month. The same thing with regard to core service positions, whether it’s dental care once a year. That’s the type of stuff that people want to see improvement on.

What are we doing to improve the number of days that doctors and professionals spend in those communities and expand that service so they can see more doctors visiting, more nursing days in our communities, and the same thing with dental care?

Again, I think it’s important that we do as government seem to have a lot of programs and services in the larger centres. A lot of the time we lose sight of those programs and services that do not exist in a lot of our communities. I think I’ve talked about respite care and midwifery, caregiving programs, wellness programs, and even mental health and addictions programs. Those are the building blocks for healthy communities. I’d like to ask the Minister what the department is doing to ensure that it streamlines the funding that is going into the area of Health and Social Services, and ensuring...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Programs and services are fundamental to saving our vibrant communities. To have healthy communities we must have programs and services in place in all 33 communities in the Northwest Territories so that all our children can grow up healthy, elders can retire in their home communities and not have to worry about being sent away, people can find work in their communities and raise their families, and also apply for support to local economies to support them.

Not having programs and services gives us a situation where we have have and have-not communities when it comes to...

Again, in order for programs and services to exist, you need bodies on the ground. It does take investment. We have health centres in the Northwest Territories that don’t have nurses in them. I think it’s a shame in this day and age that we are funding health centres without the core staff to run them. I’d like to ask the Minister what he is doing to ensure we have nursing services, and programs and services in communities where we have the basic infrastructure already on the ground, yet we’re not delivering programs and services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services and are in regard to my Member’s statement. In this day and age we still have critical programs and services not being delivered to a lot of our more isolated communities. I think in order to have healthy and vibrant communities, the building block of any community is to develop a healthy side to those communities. I’d like to ask the Minister what his department is doing to ensure we have essential programs and services delivered in all communities so we have healthy and vibrant communities.

Again, I think we have to realize as government that we do have some challenges in the Northwest Territories on program services. Again, it’s essential that these services in our communities aren’t clawed back, taken away, or deleted altogether. That’s the frustration of the community of Aklavik.

Joe Greenland Centre has been a level three facility for many years and served many people throughout the Northwest Territories. By simply deleting that program and putting in something that is simply a care program, I’d like to ask the Minister -- I know there’s a lot of people out there asking for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to my Member’s statement on the delivery of programs and services. In most cases these are essential services, regardless if it’s a nurse or the Joe Greenland Centre care for elders.

I’d like to ask the Minister, there have been petitions filed in this House, there have been motions passed in this House. You realize that some 500 people signed petitions that were tabled in this House requesting that we save the Joe Greenland Centre. I’d like to ask the Minister what the government is...