Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there is an e-mail in my in basket upstairs that I haven’t had a chance to look at, but apparently we’ve got the first specific word from the federal government on the portion of money as it applies to waiting times. I just noticed it this morning. It’s fairly long and I haven’t had a chance to look at it, but that’s the one piece so far that they have agreed to. This is on the Canada health transfer side. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, in Yellowknife, extra funding has been provided to fund 20 additional beds, 10 at the Centre for Northern Families and 10 at the Salvation Army. This is for individuals and/or families for the winter months. In addition, through the Housing Corporation, they have worked with the YWCA to provide three additional units at the YWCA to address the needs of homeless individuals and families for what is left of the winter months. That’s been in place for the winter. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is the start of a collaborative effort within government, many departments to coordinate a response because there is overlap and this is a complex issue. If you keep in mind the United Nations definition where they distinguish between absolute homelessness and relative homelessness, absolute homelessness is somewhat more concrete and you can deal with the fact that people have no houses to stay in on a short-term basis. The longer term more difficult issue that has a tremendous connection in a host of areas is the issue of relative homelessness...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are resources on the ground in every community that have, as one of the job responsibilities, to assist all the people, including seniors. We have members from across the Northwest Territories on the NWT Seniors' Association that I meet regularly with, as well with the boards. Also, I have very close feedback from many MLAs on issues in their jurisdictions. I believe that we have resources there. If they are not given enough profile on the ground to the services that are available to seniors, then I am definitely prepared to look at that and work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the seniors’ action plan was done, it was done with that kind of concept in mind, where we had a number of departments -- Education, Health and Social Services, Housing and MACA -- work to come up with a strategy for seniors.

We are anticipating being able to have some federal money to better fund those different initiatives. There is an intent to try to make it as convenient as possible. We work with the territorial Seniors' Association here, we assist them with funding, we assist them with their help line where seniors can call and get services...

Mr. Speaker, very clearly we have an intent to modernize and redo the Mental Health Act, it’s just that it’s not on the top five or six pieces of legislation that we have on our agenda that we have left in the life of this Assembly. Very clearly, it’s one of about 26 pieces of legislation that we have that is out of date and needs to be fixed. At this point, a decision was made where I looked at the pressing priorities to focus on two major pieces, which are the Pharmacy Act and the Public Health Act, in addition to the tobacco and the other personal directives one. We’re not arguing that it...

Mr. Speaker, as the Member indicated in his statement, this piece of legislation is about 17 years old. It does have gaps. It’s not on the legislative agenda for this Assembly at this point, but it is a piece of legislation that is on our list, but we have other more pressing ones like the Pharmacy Act and the Public Health Act, which are very, very old. Generations old. They’re seriously out of date and we’re working on them. As well as the Personal Directives Act, the Tobacco Act that is coming forward, and there’s a piece from the child and family services as well that’s coming forward, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is currently a collective bargaining process underway that includes the social workers, and the issue of compensation will be dealt with directly through that process. If there are classification issues, then there are processes to look at that as well. Very clearly, we are interested in having a profession that is attractive, that has a good package of compensation and enumeration and we are going to look at all aspects, the same as we did for the allied health professionals, to make sure that we are competitive and that we have our classes filled...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was following up on this issue because it is an important issue and not just for the sake of a conversation with a bunch of people that I know are good conversationalists. This is a serious issue. I have laid out a fairly extensive list of contacts. The president of the Social Workers’ Association is also the chairman of the department for the social services program has already had meetings with the college administration to try to look at what issues are there that may be prohibiting or impeding the success of this program at the college level.

I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last Assembly that was an issue that was raised as well, and there was work done to look at whether that would be practical. Given the fact that there are a significant number of health programs, for example, that pertain specifically to seniors, and at the same time there are another number of related issues that are often covered off through MACA or Education, what is being done, Mr. Speaker, is that when we look at consolidating the income support and subsidy programs, which includes all the programs outside of health that benefit seniors with...