Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was very pleased to have the Minister of Health and Social Services, the Hon. Sandy Lee, accompany me on a tour of my constituency May 4 to May 7. I appreciate her going with me to hear first-hand the concerns the residents of Nahendeh have with the NWT Health and Social Services system.

One of the concerns that was brought up several times in our travels, Mr. Speaker, was the lack of emergency dental care in that community. When the residents I represent get a toothache they are expected to wait for the next time the dentist comes to town. The current guidelines state...

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear it’s open again. The residents of Fort Liard are really, really quite frustrated with the highway system. To refresh the Minister’s memory, the word “goat” is part of the phrases they have been using.

We had spoken in the House last week about Highway No. 7 and had asked the Minister about the commitment level of getting those mud sections rebased and reconstructed this fiscal year. It has been like that for 20 years. Residents and our traveling public do not want to see it set aside as soon as it dries up. They want to see it rebuilt and reconstructed.

I’m very happy to see that the Ministry is working toward assisting the people in need in the communities.

Just once again, what type of guideline or policy is in place currently within the department for dealing with situations like this?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement with regard to dental emergencies in the community and just to highlight the urgency. I just got another incident in terms of dental emergencies, so I’d like to bring that up with the Minister. What is the current and existing guideline that governs dental emergencies in the community?

That is certainly something I will pay attention to when we get to the department and Committee of the Whole, line by line. Once again, I just wanted to reiterate to the Minister the importance of Highway No. 7, which is part of our national highway system, too, and shouldn’t be in this state of disrepair. I just wanted to say once again, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to get a commitment from the Minister’s office that they will look at some serious repairs to these sections.

Without getting too specific, I’ve got this instance in Fort Liard of this elderly couple I spoke of in my Member’s statement. Last fall they were going to get their repairs done. I don’t know what happened there, but somehow they slipped through the reporting mechanism and they were forgotten. On my recent visit just last month their home was still not repaired, and there is no indication whatsoever of when they will get the work done. Once again, just for the recording mechanism, how would someone’s repairs slip through on an issue like that?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my housing statement earlier today with respect to delays in repairs to constituents’ housing, especially in the community of Fort Liard, where I notice the apparent delays. I just wanted to see what stage or what the current status would be, from the Minister’s office, in terms of delivery of repairs and home construction in Fort Liard.

Absolutely. I certainly agree with the Minister that building secondary homes for people is not a goal of this government or should be for anybody else. If they want to do that, they should certainly do that on their own, but primary residences are certainly something that I believe we have to continue with, and I certainly support that.

With respect to elders eligibility programming, I’m finding that some of our elders are actually being denied programming. I don’t think it’s an arrears problem at all there, Mr. Chair, but it’s an income threshold problem. They’re senior citizens, and their...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to revitalize an old friend of mine, Granny from Nahanni. She’s got one of our new modern homes that we had built for her, but we’re finding that the cost of living and the pressures are impacting her income. The cost of heating fuel has really risen astronomically, as well as the cost of power and electricity. Actually, I tell people we’re fortunate that summer has come along here, because I don’t think that people could have afforded their homes much longer. It’s very stressful on households and on everybody throughout the North.

I know that we had...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Like I said in my Member’s statement at the beginning of today’s proceedings, I’ve got six small communities in my riding, and we’ve got many, many housing issues. Every time I travel to the communities, my constituents come to me, and they’re concerned about their program or if they’re being approved or about their housing and home repairs and even the condition of the homes. There are mould issues; there are construction issues.

The way I see it is that what they’re actually doing is that, because they’re not getting satisfactory answers from the Housing...