Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to second this motion by my honourable colleague from the Sahtu, Mr. Norman Yakeleya, only because when we talk about development in the Northwest Territories, I think initially we were talking about a Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, the huge development that we were going to have. The federal government was going to actually kick in a $500 million impact fund to help us address our issues, and this is like a new and emerging issue that often jurisdictions are faced with, especially ours. I know that we had very successful NWT Days in Ottawa and we...

Mr. Speaker, some of the issues that face my communities are they actually missed the deadlines. I had raised the issue of liaison workers in the communities. We had this program about six to eight years ago. I’d like to ask the Minister if he will review that and maybe even consider that once again. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I raised the issue about NWT Corporation home ownership units that are vacant. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation what strategy is the department currently using to address these vacant units in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a committee motion. I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to increase overall funding for addictions and mental health program delivery initiatives, including funding needed to implement the mental health and addictions plan and community wellness plan.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am also well aware that our budget is very limited and stressed, as the Minister of Finance is quick to point out to Members on this side. Also, I think this strategy of introducing nursing in Wrigley involves working with our federal counterparts.

Will the Minister also work with our federal counterparts to see if impact funding is needed for this development? That way, I think we can work towards getting nursing in Wrigley. Thank you.

I guess it involves working with the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority. Just moving forward to the next step towards that commitment, I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services to examine it and can he commit to research it to see what kind of resources we need to establish nursing services in Wrigley.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is one of our government’s priorities to bring health services as close as possible to the people who need them, but we still have communities without nurses. Wrigley is one of these communities. Three years ago I thought we were making progress towards restoring this critical service for the people there, then the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority decided not to go ahead. It seems to have forgotten about it ever since. Why our government has not insisted that nursing service in Wrigley is a priority I do not know. It is time to revisit that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried