Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister how many children, if he can possibly be able to provide me with a breakdown of the Aboriginal children in foster care in the Northwest Territories. There might be different levels of care for the children, if he could somehow get that information to me.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time also, people want to know that since activity is not up to where we want it to be, is there opportunity, from the Minister’s point of view, to work with other departments in regard to a planning session to train our young workers to be ready when the activity happens so that they have qualified, skilled labour ready for the oil rigs and other spinoffs due to oil and gas exploration. Thank you.

The people also want to know what the government is doing to mitigate the operational cost of oil and gas activity. One of the people I did speak to said that if you had an all-weather road going into the Sahtu, you would cut down 30 percent of their operational expenses. That’s just one oil company. That is what some of the people in the Sahtu want to know. What are some of the things that this government is doing to lower the cost of business? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s discouraging to hear that from the government. It’s no different than me fighting for the residential school survivors to get some decent treatment in the North or for them.

We are penalized because we don’t have an all-weather road. When we did have heavy equipment going with the oil and gas, there was lots of activity, yet we’re still not having any type of support from this department or this government. I am asking if the department could think outside the box; create a position, even if it’s temporary. Don’t shut the door in our face and say no, not until you...

The Minister is well aware of the Sahtu’s aspirations, and with the Mackenzie Valley Highway we’re hoping that we have some good news out of the federal government’s office. Also, the Sahtu, specifically the Tulita leadership, district leadership put a proposal in front of this Minister to look at a small proposal.

Would this small proposal be sort of an indication to say we need to get ready for the Mackenzie Valley Highway? Can you move towards creating the positions in the Sahtu with Transportation with the support of the proposal that’s in front of the Minister’s desk now?

The last count, as the Minister of Education said, there’s 5,500 so far that he knows of, of people in the Northwest Territories who have attended the residential schools. I say that number is higher, up to at least 10,000. That is devastating in the Northwest Territories. If you look at the history of the residential schools and the terrible effect it had on residential school survivors and their mental health, we have yet to come a long, long way to provide good mental health. So I’d be happy to share this with the Minister.

I want to ask, has this department looked at any type of mobile...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue my questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to the mental health services provided in our small communities.

The Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness, Healing Voices, has 67 recommendations and 12 members that visit 21 communities. In there, in the recommendations, 47 to 51 talks specifically about mental health in our communities and these recommendations are very, I would say, shallow. So I want to ask the Minister, this indication as to the type of mental health support in our small communities, it’s really...

My question for the Minister of Health, I’ve been told that one of the weaknesses of the Nats'ejee K'eh facility was its failure to fully make use of the free counselling offered by Health Canada to residential school survivors. Can the Minister comment on this claim?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we need a made-in-the-North solution to the issue of supporting the residential school survivors that will provide intensive support for all these survivors.

I want to ask the Minister, will the Minister investigate the feasibility of a pan-territorial facility for treating addictions and mental health issues of residential school survivors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At one time the Grollier Hall Healing Society was involved in the court process up in Inuvik, and the Grollier Hall Healing Society developed training modules, residential school treatment program models, care givers survivors, community survivors.

Can the Minister go back in history and see if these models can be used today? These were trailblazers in terms of helping the survivors in the communities. Can the Minister look and say, yes, the wheel has been invented, we can use this? Can he get a hold of those models and look for…