Jane Groenewegen

The funding that goes to the NWT Seniors’ Society is project specific. It goes to fund things that are clearly outlined in terms of programming, the NWT Seniors Helpline, and various things like that. There is no money that is given to the NWT Seniors’ Society which then is passed on to a local seniors’ society such as the one in Hay River.

I would like to know if it would be possible to identify funds that could be applied for directly by local seniors’ societies. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about the Hay River Seniors’ Society. This is a very vibrant and fun-loving group of seniors in Hay River, an association of which I am proud to say I’m a member.

I have a recent newsletter and I’m just going to use it to highlight the very busy schedule seniors keep in Hay River. They do get together often and have a very good time. They have coffee at their facility five times a week. They’re having a crib tournament in February. They’re having a fun bingo with a Valentines theme. They’ve produced calendars and cookbooks which are almost sold...

That’s good, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague Mr. Hawkins’ questions about salt on the roads and the potential environmental impact and significance of that. One only has to travel south crossing the NWT border into Alberta and see the difference on the highways to realize that what they are using in the Mackenzie County in northern Alberta does not work on the roads. If you go to the wreckers in High Level and look at how many totalled vehicles there are in that junkyard you will see how many vehicles roll on northern Alberta’s Mackenzie County highways in the winter, because...

I don’t think anyone could deny that we, as a government, are mindful of the needs of seniors in the Northwest Territories, and the programming that Mr. Beaulieu articulates is correct. There are very good seniors’ programs in place for many different things. However, the seniors themselves like to get together, plan activities, and these kinds of activities give the seniors something to look forward to and there’s a lot of well-being in them being able to get together and do things together.

We fund youth in the communities. Why not seniors? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are in follow-up to my Member’s statement about seniors’ societies. I talked about the Hay River Seniors’ Society and mentioned that recently the Hay River Seniors’ Society applied to the Department of Health and Social Services for funding and was turned down.

I wish that all Ministers would ask on this side of the House what we’d like. If Minister Beaulieu wants to ask me what I want, I want a pot of money set aside by this government that seniors’ groups can apply for and be granted, for activities such as social activities, sports activities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How long would it take to formalize something like this? It is fine to say we are considering it, but time is of the essence here. He is always reminding us of how many days we have left in this government in days. How long would it take to formalize some mechanism for employees to become more actively involved in helping us do things better? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is in order.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Community justice and corrections, not previously authorized, $908,000. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Next on my list I have Mr. Menicoche.