Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe we are supposed to be on page 182. That’s the part I was going to ask questions on. Is it okay to proceed?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just under home care and support services, as the Minister knows, we’re shortly going to be completed the elders’ home in Fort McPherson.. What’s the process of getting the home support workers set up, and when will you be advertising and preparing for that? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister is well aware, this pot of funding, the Community Access Program, is underfunded. Mr. Speaker, we need to increase this as many of the smaller communities depend on this funding to create employment in our small communities, which have less than 35 per cent employment rate. Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister could work with the Minister of Finance, Aklavik is the Minister’s home community, to find extra funding for Aklavik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, follow-up to my Member’s statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Transportation. Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times in this House, the community of Aklavik is looking forward to possible economic opportunities and tourism once the bridge and road is completed to Willow River. Mr. Speaker, at Willow River, we also have in my riding probably the best quality of material that is next to pretty much the same as Frog Creek. Mr. Speaker, the community is looking forward to completing this project, and as I mentioned, we need the remaining funds...

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.