Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister raises the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Facility on the Hay River Reserve. That is an underutilized, to a large extent, facility. They do have co-ed treatment. They have men’s programs; they have women’s programs. Is there any chance of taking that existing infrastructure, the counsellors and the folks that are already working there, and having some time designated for youth treatment? Thank you.

So let me understand; the Minister is not denying that there are many youth in the Northwest Territories that could benefit from treatment, but there are not youth that are coming forward, identifying themselves as candidates for treatment and the ones that we are sending to the South are being forced into treatment because they’ve come in contact with the law or have been referred there kind of as a desperate measure. So we have a drug and alcohol problem amongst our youth and we don’t really have any way to get them into treatment. They don’t really want to go do treatment. So they’re coming...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that there are a lot of skills contained in that office and certainly we don’t want to make rash moves without sufficient analysis before we would make moves in the area of decentralization, but I just want to say that I do appreciate the Premier’s public commitment here today and his willingness to look at this. I thank him very much. Thank you.

I’d like to ask the Premier, is he prepared to, I guess, issue a decree as the leader here in the North to his Cabinet colleagues and to the people in the bureaucracy that this is something we are serious about. Not to do things that are insensible, but to seriously analyze opportunities to do things in the regions, in communities outside of Yellowknife wherever possible. Is he prepared to put that message out in a way that we can recognize it and see it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Pastor Emmanuel Adam. He’s not my constituent, he’s yours, but I appreciate the good work he does in Tuktoyaktuk. Often when my husband has visited up there, he’s stopped in at the church and I do not think we can underestimate the good spiritual leadership provided by our pastors here in the North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to today recognize two Pages from Hay River South, Angela Roy and Kateryna Staszuk, Grade 8 students from the Ecole Boreale school in Hay River, and also the chaperone, Kateryna’s mom, Michelle Staszuk.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It used to be that bullying was seen as a normal part of growing up. Kids who were bullied just needed to learn to stick up for themselves. Fortunately, our thinking has changed and we’ve become aware of how much bullying really does hurt. Even as adults, many people still carry emotional scars from what used to be thought of as just the ordinary rough and tumble of the schoolyard.

At its most basic, bullying is when someone keeps saying or doing things to have power over another person. It can take the form of name calling, threats, leaving a person out of activities...

A very strong support network of your family comes in at these times, and I think it’s very important that our children do feel the security and acceptance of their own family when these kinds of things happen in the world out there at large.

I think it’s a good message to parents that we can’t always control everything that happens to our children. I know that in my foray into politics, people have asked me, how can you stand people saying things about you? How are you thick-skinned enough to go out there and do it? And in a strange kind of a way, maybe it was because I did develop that...

So although we have some scientific data that would indicate that what we put on the roads may be finding its way into our waterways, I think we need to weigh that against the risk to the travelling public when conditions on the road are ice and a different alternative product is used. Perhaps the Minister could also request the stats for the number of serious motor vehicle accidents that have occurred compared to when they used to use a product like salt or calcium chloride before. I’d like to know the comparison of the statistics for motor vehicle accidents in the jurisdictions that have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would ask the Minister, if he has time and if his schedule permits, would he commit to meeting with the NWT Seniors’ Society on this matter to get the information from them firsthand on whether these representatives of the various seniors’ societies believe that specific funding for communities would be appropriate. Would he have time to do that? Thank you.