Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi, colleagues. Representatives of the NGO sector are reporting positively and hopefully on the efforts with the disability action plan, but the test here will be whether this new plan suffers the same fate as the last. Clear deliverables, regular evaluation and reporting, and, above all, adequate resourcing will be essentially for making progress on helping persons with disabilities make the most of their potential. We'd like to see an end to the resolution of disability access cases through human rights complaints and settlements, as reported twice in recent media. It...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in March of this year I raised the issue of the dormant NWT Disabilities Action Plan, completed in 2008 but apparently forgotten until the NWT Disabilities Council resurrected it in 2015 with questions about its implementation and status. Their evaluation contained a number of recommendations, all based on the principle that we have all the information we need on current supports, or the lack thereof, and that we now need to move on to action.

I attempted to move this process forward through a motion, which was adopted by this House and supported by my...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. At a recent constituency meeting, homecare services were the main topic of conversation, and devoted users of the service in Yellowknife reported to me that their homecare support worker visits had dropped from the past frequency of weekly to as infrequently as once every two or three weeks. This doesn't speak very well for the preservation of this service or the enhancement either. Can the Minister explain to me why these reductions in service are taking place? I'll start with that, thank you, Mr...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I'm going to reflect on this year since I was elected to represent the residents of Yellowknife Centre and, indeed, the whole Northwest Territories. I want to talk about yesterday as both the best of times as an MLA and among the worst.

Mr. Speaker, I want to start be referencing the mandate of the 18th Assembly. It is both our statement of principles and our work plan for our time here. It requires us to take action on the crisis of family and community violence. It also directs us to make strategic investments in transportation infrastructure.

Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am grateful for the work of this committee around the issue of plain language reporting on the public accounts. As a new Member with a lot of education, still I found the public accounts very difficult to understand. That is a view that is shared by the C.D. Howe Institute where they grade all of the public account presentations. I am very much looking forward to plain language reporting on the public accounts, which we can share with our constituents so that they can understand how their money is being spent by us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to say I'm aware about evidencebased decisions. The evidence at this point shows that our population is aging and the need for home care is just getting greater and greater, so I just can't get my head around the idea that there could be a delay of 18 months in finding new or reprofiling existing funding to meet the needs of people who want to age in place. I guess I'm looking for the Minister to make a commitment that there will in fact be a response to this plan by attaching money to it sooner than 18 months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. It was more than one person, and the frequency seems to be decreasing. All these particular constituents of course are aging. So I'm wondering if this drying up of services is a permanent situation or is it simply a matter of staffing?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I have spent much of this year advocating for people who live on the margins of our society: women and children, those who don't have adequate housing and those who live on low-income, those who've experienced violence and those with disabilities. It's a sometimes exhilarating and sometimes frustrating experience to pursue these issues in this House, but I'm committed to these people and this work with even greater passion than when I was elected a year ago. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to express my thanks to the Standing Committee on Government Operations and particularly for their recommendation number 6 which argues for a plain language -- oh no, am I in the wrong report? I'm going to stop now.

I'm glad the Minister referenced the work on the continuing care plan. My understanding from the responses that were given to my colleague, the Member for Tu NedheWiilideh, yesterday is that the plan will not be available until the end of the current fiscal year, and so I'm wondering, then, when funding would come into place to put that plan into operation because, if it's not in the current business plans, then the wait could be up to 18 months.