Jackie Jacobson

Mr. Speaker, considering that the government once promised all students across the Northwest Territories would receive equal, quality education, this government should finally develop an aggressive strategy to address all inadequacies and implement recommendations to make the real improvements on that report.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my Member’s statement was on Mangilaluk School. Recently, Don Kindt Consulting conducted, completed and released a report identifying serious deficiencies and inadequacies with the Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk. Will this government commit to implementing the improvements to all of the problems identified in this report? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of the government’s pledges is to provide good, equal education for all residents of the Northwest Territories, but when smaller communities are so far below larger centres such as Yellowknife, I wonder if this government will put their money where their mouth is. We have to commit to put improvements needed and identified in the Don Kindt Consulting report on Mangilaluk School. I will have questions for the Minister of ECE at the appropriate time.

Considering the health care centres in the communities are the first and only point of contact for all health-related emergencies, yet most centres lack even the most basic requirements to respond to call-outs, will this government commit to having small and remote community health centres be equipped with our major centres’ health clinics?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my CA from my home community of Tuktoyaktuk, who is down here on training with the Legislative Assembly, Ms. Donna Bernhardt.

As I mentioned in my Member’s statement earlier, the staff at the community health centres work to improvise with what they have, but they definitely need more resources. Will this government develop and implement procedural policies and resources so small, remote community health centres have more assistance when responding to and diagnosing emergency situations? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my Member’s statement was on health centres. Considering that northern health centres can face truly unique challenges and many small, remote communities do not have regular access to large medical facilities, will this government look into providing a community health care staff with infrastructure and resources such as on-line health care programs and services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Health care is one of the most important services this government can provide to our residents and communities across the Northwest Territories. It’s not easy. Many challenges the northern health care providers face are truly unique to the North. For many small, remote communities all across the North, such as Nunakput, the community centres provide a large range of services for the average flu, regular elderly examinations and, in some cases, even emotional wellness programs. These are many reasons why this is so critical for this government to adequately provide not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak about telephone service in the North and the problems with the phone services in Tuktoyaktuk this week. Since early last week telephone service has been down. NorthwesTel has experienced problems with one of its frame relays. Technicians couldn’t get to the site until today due to high winds and extreme cold. They found the problem at the Parsons Microwave Site halfway between Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik. The next day long distance completely failed.

On Friday tower crews were able to fly in with helicopters to repair the structural problem on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to seeing that information that the Minister has. The bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is the safety concerns of the people of Tuk and the people of the Northwest Territories in the remote communities if something like this was to happen. I know we can’t control the weather, but we had three days prior to the blizzard hitting the community of Tuk and the response to the community for the phone line system. Mr. Speaker, I mean, we have to hold NorthwesTel accountable in regard to their action in the service business. We need to get NorthwesTel to...