Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have another motion. I move that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation submit its annual report within 90 days of the fiscal year end; and further, if this does not prove to be possible, the Housing Corporation should seek appropriate approval for an extension to their deadline and provide the House with reasons for the delay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion speaks about this government, past governments and the state of our communities. Ten communities in the Northwest Territories do not have a resident RCMP in their community and I happen to represent one of those communities. Other Members also have their communities. But more importantly it talks about nine communities that do not have resident nurses.

In the Northwest Territories, safety and health are very important to our people and we have have and have-not communities in regards to policing and nursing. So, I’m calling on this government to bring forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the communities of Fort Good Hope, Deline and Colville Lake, most of the action right now is happening around Tulita and Norman Wells, so there are plenty of opportunities, but also for the other Sahtu communities. Specifically Fort Good Hope, Deline and Colville Lake there isn’t much activity happening there.

With programs and infrastructure that goes into those communities, is the Minister following the intent and the spirit of chapter 13 in working with the communities on any type of infrastructure projects that would be going into those communities?

Mr. Speaker, in the economic measures chapter, if there is going to be any type of changes to the policies and programs and services, is there an opportunity that this Minister will then sit down with the Sahtu leadership and discuss the type of changes that could possibly be coming forth or whatever that there’s going to be a shift from this Constitution written document?

I look forward to the review of the medical travel in this situation. It has certainly failed her in this case here.

I want to ask the Minister, is it a policy when a patient from any community requests an escort in this type of situation, is an escort then automatically granted or is it within the power of the nurse to deny the medical escort for a patient?

Mr. Speaker, on the medical travel, is that common practice when somebody is seriously injured in the community in the Northwest Territories that it takes a couple days to medevac the person out? Is that in the policy?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement is about an incident that happened in Fort Good Hope and it will talk about a few things.

A young lady was struck by a skidoo, which at the time had four people on it. It was considered a hit and run incident and at the time when she was hit, she was transported to the local health centre where she was assessed.

It wasn’t until a few days later that she was finally medevaced from Fort Good Hope to Yellowknife for treatment. So the question is: Why two days waiting in Good Hope when she was hit by a skidoo?

When she finally arrived in Yellowknife for...

Okay, I’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out there, I guess, with some of the issues that we might have from the Sahtu.

My last one, if you can help me out here, Mr. Chair, I want to ask on the last three sentences of this paragraph it says, “burdens and hoops clients...” What’s hoops clients? What’s that? H-O-O-P-S.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The second paragraph to the opening remarks to Bill 5, I just want some clarification in regards to the driving restrictions related to medical conditions. The proposed amendment allows the registrar the authority to request a medical examination and additional driver testing.

Speaking from a small community such as Colville Lake or Deline or Tulita or Fort Good Hope and the Wells or any other small communities, the registrar has the authority to request a medical examination. We don’t have some of the facilities and resources in our communities for this request to come in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues, for allowing this motion to come forward to have a debate on it.

This motion is a good news story for the small communities. Certainly, there are a wide range of opinions as to the program and how it’s going to be implemented and how it’s going to be rolled out in the coming years.

Our small communities, at least 10 of them, some of our communities do not have some type of programming for our junior kindergarten schools. As in the newspaper, it’s been quoted from Mr. Kochon, that’s welcome news to Colville Lake.

Twenty-nine communities next year...