Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again I’d like to say we have to listen to the people that live it front line and deal with it, and those are the people we should be listening to. The Gwich’in and the Nihtat Gwich’in have been putting together a camp to identify and deal with the problem. I’d like to ask the Minister, what would they have to do to secure some program dollars from the government? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I notice under the Health Services Program, Dialysis Program in the Stanton Territorial Hospital for $96,000. Are there any plans to bring the Dialysis Program up to the Beaufort-Delta? We don’t have it right now. My understanding is that we may need it soon. Are there any plans to start investing some money into the Dialysis Program for the Beaufort-Delta?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask my questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I spoke a couple times talking about investing in people. Investing in people could also mean investing into a proper treatment centre with some good aftercare programs. I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s aware of any long-term plans to establish treatment centres in some of the regions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The intention of this program is to support the community operated youth centres. This pot of money would be targeted towards those youth centres on an application basis. With the maximum being $30,000, any one community could apply for it and only one organization within that community. Right now, we are anticipating there are probably around nine youth centres that would be applying. If we have an intake of more than nine, then we would have to decrease the cap of $30,000. That is what we are intending to do. It is really intended to supplement some of the...

It is a camp, Mr. Speaker, that has a tremendous amount of potential for the people wanting to deal with their alcohol addiction and deal with it close to home. There are some people without that support group that may find it easier to go south, but there are also a lot of people that want that support group with them. I commend the Nihtat and the Gwich’in Tribal Council for seeing that there is a problem and not just talking about it. We talk all we want. They see a problem there and they want to do something about it. Mr. Speaker, alcohol is a killer. Today, it is no accident that I...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I spoke to this yesterday and I wanted to say a few more comments, make a few more comments. This is a continuation of positions that were allocated a couple of years ago on term, four positions, that have sunsetted now. The idea was to have some bodies in the communities that were impacted by, first of all, the pipeline project and other resource development that is going on. A lot of work has been done. Yesterday, there were comments a made that MACA should have all the baseline information that the communities have in terms of infrastructure and capacity. That...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I moved that $291,000 be deleted from the activity regional operations under the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs operations expenditures, not previously authorized, on page 11, for the provision of funding for two regional resource development impact advisor positions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, stand in support of this motion and I appreciate everyone in this House giving this motion the attention it deserves and the respect it deserves by paying close attention to the words that are being spoken on this side. Mr. Speaker, I’m living testament to the devastation that alcohol can cause on a family. I’ve lost two aunts, two uncles, my grandfather, cousins, friends to alcohol and the abuse of alcohol. All these people, and many more across the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, would be still with us today had it not been for alcohol....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Metis Nation is the primary government that has come forward lately. The other issue that has, I guess, caused us to take a second look at this is the process that we’re going to use. Is it a protected area strategy that we’re going to be pursuing? So we’re kind of taking a step back, but at the same time there is another government that has come forward and asked us to speak to us. So we’d like to do that prior to moving forward.

During our 2006 Summer Get Active challenge, nearly 18 percent of residents were recruited to log over 10 million minutes of physical activity. In the recently completed 2007 Get Winter Active challenge campaign, 380 NWT youth logged nearly 631,000 minutes of physical activity.

The 2007 Get Active campaign is posed to be even better with additional prizes for participants, special Get Active community events in all regions, and more partners joining in, including the Canadian Cancer Society, First Air, the Northwest Territories Recreation and Parks Association and many others.

As impressive as...