Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much. Certainly, I’m glad the Minister is aware that his officials know about the plans for Nogha Enterprises to build a 20,000 square foot office building.

Will the Minister continue to direct his officials to meet with Nogha Enterprises now that they’ve been in contact to see if they can be a part of that plan for future office needs? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I read with great interest the editorial in today’s News/North about decentralization. I’m glad that the editor agrees with regional MLAs and supports, “a policy that improves services in remote and isolated communities.”

Certainly we as a government have to continue planning to increase the amount of jobs for our regions. Every job transferred out of Yellowknife brings benefits for a small community and new families that will help the community grow.

In these communities, people with jobs stimulate the service sector as demand rises. For example, the move of the Business...

Thank you very much. No, I didn’t want to precede the Minister’s Child and Family Services Act that’s going to also be taken on the road by our Social Programs committee. But at the same time, will the reassessment of this act also consider grandparents and extended families as we had discussed during question period here? Thank you.

Certainly, I can appreciate some of the complications around being a foster home, but I think what the grandparents are telling me is that they are not a foster home, they are the actual grandparents and extended family. Having police record checks is kind of demeaning to them. That’s difficult to grapple with. I know that the Social Programs committee has done some good work the last term, but apparently it seems like the culture about apprehensions has not changed in Social Services to recognize the Aboriginal culture. I think the committee uses the least intrusive measures whenever possible...

Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to raise an issue where grandparents have been denied caregiver status when their grandchildren have been apprehended by Social Services.

When this happens in our small communities, our children are sent to another community like Fort Simpson and fostered to homes there. They are usually never fostered in the home community with which they are familiar, where they have close extended family and childhood friends.

Throughout Canada it is increasingly common that grandparents are raising their grandchildren. Here in the Northwest Territories when our...

Thank you very much. When apprehensions occur, usually it’s not the first time. They’re usually repeated events. I call upon the Minister to assess the procedures that ensure that grandparents and extended family members are involved in the process because usually there’s a plan of care indicated after the first apprehension.

Now, as well, perhaps the Minister can expand on the concepts of voluntary support services agreement as well as the extended family foster placement concepts as well as why it seems that this is not in place right now. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement when I spoke about grandparents having difficulty taking care of their grandchildren after a social services apprehension. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Our legislation recognizes our Aboriginal culture and customs with custom adoptions. Why can’t we do the same and recognize the rights of our grandparents and extended families who want to become involved when there is an apprehension?

Thank you very much. I’ll certainly bear with the Minister myself there. While Tuktu the Caribou is a noble name, I believe that we can also do better. There could be Blaze the Beaver, Fire-free Fox, Wise Owl, Wet Wolverine, but what I’m getting at is I believe that we need a territory-wide campaign, something that we can identify with as residents, as children to be fire-wise and to protect our environment and putting out fires as we cook, et cetera. But I believe that we need a centralized way to do it much like the Smokey the Bear campaign in the United States. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This year’s potential fire season is of great interest to all residents of the NWT. Minister Miltenberger was quoted on February 9th in the Northern Journal that the 2015 forest fire season is likely to pick up where the last, considered worst in the NWT’s history, left off. This is a dire warning, and residents would like our Department of ENR to be prepared, and residents and community should be prepared as well.

In Nahendeh, while we were somewhat spared in 2014, we did have a fire cross a river at Jean Marie River that was very scary. Fortunately, the winds...

Thank you very much. It is about getting back to the “bear” necessities. I’m certainly glad that he’s willing to listen to it and if the Minister can speak with his officials, it’s at the formative stage. It’s an idea that its time has come. We have always spoken in this House lately about how much we are growing. I think a little thing like this will bring the Northwest Territories together and generate having a focus point and something we can identify with as we want to be fire smart and protect our resources.

Once again, if they could take that idea and run with it. He also committed to it...