Frederick Blake Jr.

The other thing I wanted to speak about was under the home care and home support services. A great program that was undertaken a number of years back but, you know, in Fort McPherson there’s a huge demand there and right now we only have one person that’s working there and we’re hoping to get another position there. With the demand there, it would make things a lot more suitable as to the amount of clients that they work with. Right now it seems that there’s an overload and the community would really like to have another position there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Is the department developing programs to educate our youth on signs of depression and who they can speak to? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are many forms of mental illness. We have anxiety disorders, eating disorders, craving, mental illness in the workplace, obsessive-compulsive disorder, children, youth and depression, and that’s what I want to touch on today.

While we may think of low mood or other challenges as adult problems, they can affect people of any age. Children and teens can experience mental illnesses like depression.

Sometimes it can be difficult for adults to understand how difficult children’s problems can be because we look at their problems through our eyes as adults. The pressures...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a few comments here and maybe a couple of questions. Over the last few years here, since the last government, they shut down the long-term care in Aklavik, and there’s a high demand in our communities of my riding. Right now a lot of the elders have to go to Inuvik for long-term care and the majority of our elders want to stay in our communities when they get to that age. Their families are in the community and can visit them on a daily basis; whereas, when they’re in the regional centre, they’re lucky if their family sees them once a month or every other...

Mr. Speaker, I’m glad the department is working closely with the Aboriginal groups, but these on-the-land programs I believe need to be taken on by the department.

Moving forward, will the Minister ensure that they have some sort of schedule on a yearly basis that our constituents can apply to? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we don’t have a treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories, we have a big demand for more on-the-land treatment programs. Over the last year, I believe we only had one on-the-land program in the Beaufort-Delta region, and the Minister’s statement earlier today confirmed that.

We need more programs offered in our territory, whether it’s every month, every two months, or quarterly. I am very encouraged the Minister is working with the Aboriginal groups to have programs that will best serve our residents, and I look forward to those programs moving forward in the...

I’d like to ask the Minister, are we providing any specific programs here, any specialities that will be needed? I don’t believe a lot of the Aboriginal groups have the expertise, whether it’s mental health or other issues like this. Are we providing any assistance to those Aboriginal groups? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just have a few questions for the Minister of Health. As I mentioned earlier, we need more on-the-land treatment programs, and I am very happy that the department is moving forward.

I would like to ask the Minister, when will the department have a schedule that people can actually fill out for these programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Will the Minister meet with the community leaders in Tsiigehtchic to discuss ways to build up a grassroots, community-based policing presence? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

At times it takes anywhere from two hours to 24 hours for response calls, just so the Minister has that information.

I’d like to ask the Minister to describe the benefits of having a permanent police detachment in those communities lucky enough to have them.