Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since the Member was encouraging or saying that I have to be Minister to conclude all the studies I already have underway, I could probably squeeze in one more.

---Laughter

But the reality is, Mr. Speaker, this doesn’t require a study. This requires a plan of action and, yes, I would be happy to report back in June. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the Member raised the issue during the review of the budget of Health and Social Services, I indicated that I would be talking later that night with the president of the Social Workers’ Association, which I did do. We had a fairly lengthy discussion. One of the topics of concern was what is happening in the college; the need to do a better job in marketing the college program and what other things should we be doing as a department to better support the social work profession.

I have since had meetings with the deputy to pass on some of the concerns...

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the week of March 6th to 12th is National Social Work Week in the NWT. This year’s theme is Social Work: Fairness and Wellness. I would like to take a moment to recognize the valuable work of approximately 80 social workers across the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, having worked in the social services field, I know how important these people are to the northern communities. Social workers help individuals, families, groups and communities find ways to make positive choices and changes in their lives.

Social workers are strong capable people who often...

Mr. Speaker, I’d have to check, but I don’t think so.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member has raised a very key issue as we talk about FASD. If you accept, as we do, the Health Canada statistics that nine out of every 1,000 children born is affected with FASD and if you extrapolate that back a number of decades, then it is very clear to see that FASD is not a child’s disease. It’s a lifelong issue and that the population in the society we have, there are, by those statistical estimates, hundreds if not thousands of undiagnosed people in our society. Not only here, but in every jurisdiction.

We are members of the Canada Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are doing a lot of things with the homeless, with services to adults, with the services we buy, our contract for facilities such as the Salvation Army for people that are having difficulty. At this point we know that there’s a significant number of the population that require those services. So there are already some services there. The specific diagnosis of the individuals needing those services has yet to be clearly done in a more specific way so that it is clear what the individuals may be personally dealing with. So we’re going to continue to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at present we have services for adults the same as we have a characterization on it. It is a special need that is not clearly defined, but, once again, if an adult is diagnosed or assessed with FASD, then it’s a case-by-case basis at this point. Thank you.