Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to congratulate the Town of Hay River on opening a new skate park this past August, one month before the town’s BMX and skateboarding competition. Mr. Speaker, this may not seem like a big thing, but I’ve got to tell you it’s something we talked about in Hay River for many, many years, so it was great to see it come to fruition.

Residents of Hay River have worked long and hard to build a bigger and better skate park for the community. Skate parks are a great way to keep youth healthy and engaged in outdoor, unstructured play. They can hone their skills and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds, from what the Premier is saying, that the focus of the second Energy Charrette is going to be away from the infrastructure more to breaking it down to the consumer.

Is the make-up or the composition of the people who will be participating in the second Energy Charrette going to reflect that shift in focus? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, which department would be looking at putting something on the ground in a community like Hay River for people who need some kind of immediate crisis type of intervention help? Which departments would be working together on that? Thank you.

As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, people are dying. Oftentimes we need a very critical intervention on an emergency basis. Right now there is nothing, nothing in those communities.

When is the mobile treatment program coming to Hay River, because we need it there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today also is on mental health and addictions. In the Premier’s statement, he talked about reducing the people being held back by addictions and mental health issues. Like my colleague Mr. Moses, I do not agree. I don’t think this government is doing enough.

We were preparing for an Ebola epidemic, we were taking measures, but we have an epidemic in the Northwest Territories right now. All you have to do is read the newspaper every week and you will hear about one more person that’s been found dead as a result of falling through the cracks, the gaps.

Mr...

I will call Committee of the Whole to order. There are a number of matters before committee today. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

To the Minister’s point that there’s nothing, let me retract that and say yes. If you want to get into long-term planning for housing or treatment or income support or all kinds of support, yes, there are people in offices that you can go to. But in the situation of an emergency or a crises, the person… Mental health and addictions is very much related to homelessness, and so to the guy that’s standing on the front door of the parish priest’s residence because he has nowhere to go and he’s got serious, serious mental health and addictions issues, where does that person go on any given night in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the Department of Health and Social Services shut down Nats'ejee K'eh and first came up with this idea of referring people to southern placements, I bought into it and I’m still not saying that it’s not good and doesn’t have a place, but for a territory that has a problem with mental illness and addictions to the proportion that this territory has a problem, we need something here. We need a flagship. We need a centre of excellence. We need some place that we as a government can say we are committed to working with our residents to solving these problems.

Not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning my colleague and I had the privilege of joining the Minister of ENR and the Premier in our Caucus room of our Legislature here to witness the signing of the Forest Management Agreement Memorandum of Understanding between the GNWT and the Deh Gah Gotie Dene Band and the Fort Providence Metis Nation.

This was an historic milestone and brings one step closer the dream of a proponent in Hay River, Mr. Brad Mapes, who has wanted to set up an operation to manufacture wood pellets in the Northwest Territories.

We know that we have a very vast resource of inventory...