Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has been two years since the community of Aklavik received funds to purchase a bridge for Willow River and I have thanked the department many times for that. Once that bridge was purchased the community hauled that to Aklavik, stored it there for the winter because by that time we couldn’t haul it to Aklavik. Then last year we received more funding through the Community Access Program to haul this bridge up to the site at Willow River and get preparations started to actually put this bridge in place. But, Mr. Speaker, it has been over a year since we’ve...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know it’s been two years since this program has been sort of going in this direction from having the treatment centre here in the NWT, and you know I can appreciate, you know, us sending people to the south. With what the department is saying they want to sort of move towards more on-the-land healing programs. It’s pretty clear we need to fund this more here. Mr. Chair, a million dollars just… It’s not doing enough for our people that have a lot of needs in the territory, you know. We have to have better programming in place here. As I’ve said before, we have to have...

Thank you. No further questions right now. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry I got ahead of myself on page 181, there. The homecare and support services I was referring to a little earlier is kind of in partnership with Housing Corp. I would just like to know when this position will be put out to the community of Fort McPherson, just so we’re not rushing around when the actual facility is completed. Is that part of Health? I believe, in Aklavik, the Housing Corporation actually put out the notice and everything, but I’d just like a little information on that. Thank you.

No, not right now.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we are so close to completing this project. With a little extra help from the ministry, I could see us completing this project this winter. Will the Minister ensure that the community is approved before the winter months come up because, as I mentioned, we have a lot of preparation to prepare for our January to April? That is the small timeframe we have to complete this work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I realize the Minister is anticipating a large volume of applications. I was told last week we were first in line, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister: when does the Minister expect our proposal for Willow River to be approved? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d to welcome first my two Pages from Aklavik, Taylor McLeod, and Gord Papik. Also their chaperone and my CA, Liz Wright. I’d also like to recognize Jozef and Lesa Carnogursky. Joseph is running for the GTC President right now and I wish him well. Also James Pokiak and his wife. I’ve attended a number of meetings with James in the past and it’s good to see him here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just under the Community Wellness Initiatives Fund, you know during my last visit to Aklavik a constituent thought it’d be a good idea, and I’m not sure if this is proposal driven whether, you know, the department would be open to a proposal that the community could put into –a… You know, work with a lot of the elders that have arthritis. There doesn’t seem to be much programs to help them exercise or you know to… Right now the only solution they have is to give the elders Tylenol it seems. You know, there has to be something more in place to help the elders, whether it’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Similar questions but a little different on the On-the-Land Healing Fund. I know there’s a few programs that went on in Aklavik, but there’s a couple… I think it was a year or two ago they had sort of a regional ontheland program. It was sort of tied to residential school, but I know it was, I believe it was, down at Reindeer Station. A lot of elders really, really enjoyed that. You know, it really helped them a lot, and they’d like to see more programs like this, whether it’s down at Reindeer Station or, you know, at the Gwich’in Healing Camp which isn’t being used. You...