David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have a crisis in the Northwest Territories when we have communities that don’t have policing, don’t have nursing, don’t have mental health positions, don’t have social workers, don’t have anything, yet we can talk about million dollar health care facilities and clinics that people can walk into. We don’t have that. So I’d like to ask the Minister, along with her staff, along with her regional staff, if she can make an effort to establish some timeslot on your agenda to go into the community of Tsiigehtchic with myself and meet with the community to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health, Ms. Lee, and it’s in regards to the community I represent and regards to Tsiigehtchic. Right now there’s no permanent nurse in the community and yet, Mr. Speaker, they have had situations where they had emergency responses by way of trying to deal with incidents in the community, but yet there’s very poor dialogue or basically who do you call or where do you go and what to do in emergency situations. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health exactly what is she doing in response to the concerns from the community of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to the Premier’s response, I’d like to ask the Premier, if this is a temporary fix where we know we’re not…It’s been quite a while before these positions have been filled. So I’d like to ask the Premier if he’s willing to sit down with myself, with individuals from the foundation, different communities that are supportive of this effort to move forward on trying to find a way that we include these types of organizations in the existing policy that we have in regards to community empowerment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to the area of capacity, I am talking more than municipal responsibilities; I am talking about program responsibilities, mental health, alcohol and drug positions, no police in a lot of our communities, justice workers, probation officers, you name it. These positions are vacant in a lot of our communities because we can’t…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Beavers foundation can help the Government of the Northwest Territories and our communities to ensure that we are able to deliver programs and services efficiently in all our communities by working with charitable organizations who can help with the challenge of community capacity development throughout the Northwest Territories.

With that, Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking the Premier questions on this matter. Thank you.

---Applause

There’s a motion on the floor to report progress. The motion is not debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

I’ll rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak in regards to a concern relating to capacity development in rural communities across the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, the NWT has community empowerment policies in regards to finding solutions to deal with the critical problem of attracting the resources we need to run programs and services under the New Deal for communities.

Mr. Speaker, today out in the rural communities, they face many challenges when it comes to capacity development required for self-sufficiency in our communities. More and more responsibilities are being...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to get a commitment from the Minister today to consider going into the community of Tsiigehtchic with myself and talk about the policing problem that we have. I know a letter has been sent to the Minister and I would just like to ask the Minister at this time for his commitment and also if he has any dates that we can look at.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has stated there is a plan in place to look at communities that do not have policing. I would just like to ask the Minister who is overseeing that plan and what is the process to allow communities that don’t have policing to be involved in that dialogue or discussion so they can have input in finding a solution.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I’d like to ask the Minister if she can also ensure that the resource people who are responsible for health care delivery in the Inuvik region are present at this meeting so they can respond to the community by way of a community meeting so that the resource people are present along with the Minister. But if I can ask the Minister, could she give me a more general date and time, like the first week in January, so we can sort of nail it down so I can forward it to the community and the chief of Tsiigehtchic? Thank you.