Jackie Jacobson

Mr. Speaker, today I’m happy to be supporting, as seconder, the motion on the Food Mail Program. Not all constituents can use this program. The high cost of food in our communities, our elders having to pay the high cost of food that’s available, which is half-rotten half the time, for produce and stuff like that…. I think it’s a shame that larger families have to pay such a high cost of living due to caribou shortages and restrictions to hunting. We’re having to rely on Alberta beef.

I think this a really good thing we’re doing. I’m in full support of it. The local stores are being held...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’m in full support of this motion. I thank Mr. Bromley for bringing this forward and know how many people it’s going to affect in the smaller communities. I really think, you know, the well-being of our youth.... They are our future, so we should try to help them in any way we possibly can, especially the families. I mean, I have five children at home. We go through a lot of milk in my house. In regard to any motion like this that will help the people, it should be done. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We were so busy yesterday we didn’t do Members’ statements, so today I’d like to bring up birthday greetings for Ms. Persis Gruben in Tuktoyaktuk. It was her 90th birthday yesterday.

I’d like to apologize that I couldn’t deliver my special birthday greeting in person. They had a big feast in the home last night, and I was only given the highlights of it last night. On this special day reaching this age in your life is a great milestone, and we’re so grateful that you’re still active and healthy.

We are very fortunate to have an elder like you in our community of Tuk. I...

Mr. Chairman, I move that the committee strongly recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment take urgent action to examine the feasibility of including an extension to Mangilaluk School in the five-year capital plan; and further, this committee recommends that the department report back to the Social Programs Committee by January 2009.

Mr. Chair, for myself I can’t support the deletion of this project. Numerous other projects are just as or far more important, like the Diamond Jenness school. Seeing the book that my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen has brought forward and showed me, but right now…. I said earlier today when I first spoke: I do support the building; I can’t support the deletion. If it was a deferral I would, but I can’t support that. So I’m just letting my colleagues know. I heard the arguments on both sides. I can’t support the deletion, but if it was a deferral, I would, just because I know the buildings that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Last week in my Member’s statement I was speaking regarding how important it is to get an extension onto Mangilaluk School due to the conditions that the students and staff are under. I really feel that this would be a good thing for the government to do for the small communities, especially in the community of Tuk, where the students have to be taught their Inuvialuktun in the staff room and teachers have to share a bathroom and eat their lunches in the hallway. For myself and for the students of Mangilaluk School, they’ve been fighting for this for years. I can...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I seek unanimous consent to go back to page 7-7.

Unanimous consent granted.

Mr. Chair, in hearing the Minister regarding the quality for staffing issues in the Beaufort-Delta and Inuvik…. On October 6 I made my Member’s statement regarding staffing, having to share a bathroom in Mangilaluk School, eating lunches in the hallways. Where does that come into play? I’m in support of the building, but the market disruption I’m starting to hear about more and more. I really think it should be looked at.

You’ve got private businesses in Inuvik relying on us. The Minister stated that there is going to be no market disruption; I think that should be relooked at. There is no...

This has to be the government to make the changes desperately needed in the communities’ housing conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the years, through my leadership positions in Nunakput, there has been a deficiency, an inequality and a crisis far beyond most community based concerns. This is a housing situation.

Although I recognize I may sound like a broken record, I cannot emphasize enough that whatever housing concerns are experienced in other parts of our great territory, they are compounded manyfold in the Nunakput region. There are houses all over Nunakput communities that are unfit to live in, places such as Yellowknife or Inuvik. Former leadership in Paulatuk has frequently told me that...