Norman Yakeleya

I do want to commend the Minister for the respect for the well-respected elder who passed away, and that is why we need the urgency to have our loved ones come home so their last dying days can be at home.

I want to tell the Minister, there’s a program called Excuses No More. I wonder if the staff could look at that program, because that’s all I’ve been hearing from this department. I’ve been at this for some time, you know, and all I get, and people in Deline get, is excuses, excuses, excuses.

I want to ask the Minister, can he stand by his commitment, when he said in Deline in June, we met...

Mr. Speaker, today we would like to acknowledge a well-respected lady from Radihili Koe, Mrs. Lucy Jackson.

Mrs. Jackson will receive the Order of the Northwest Territories on Wednesday, October 7, 2015, at the Great Hall of the Legislative Assembly along with other recipients.

Mrs. Jackson is a lady with strong traditional knowledge, along with her supporting husband who is a full-time trapper.

Mrs. Jackson is known for her North Slavey translation in the Sahtu region and across the NWT. She is also a layperson at her local Roman Catholic Church.

On behalf of the Sahtu region, we would like to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people want their loved ones to live out their last days at home, not in Yellowknife or Inuvik or anywhere else.

People in Deline want to know why it’s so difficult to get palliative care beds in that community. I’ve been working with the community of Deline and have brought this issue to three Ministers so far. My last hope is with this Minister.

I have questioned the Minister on February 23, 2015, seven months ago, regarding the Deline palliative care study. This summer both the Minister and I met with the Deline leadership and we were advised at that time the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly would endorse the Minister’s commitment to bring this back to the region.

Would the Minister consider a strong cultural elders advisory group in the region to help our employees, help our people understand the reasons why we have these certain protocols and reasons why we do different ceremonies such as the grieving ceremony? It’s a very powerful one. If we don’t understand it, we become ignorant about it.

Would the Minister consider, through the department of culture, formulating an elders council in our region, like the Sahtu, to guide us in our daily work...

Then I would ask the Minister if he would do a survey, conduct a test to see how well our employees respect our culture such as this type of situation, because I beg to differ from the Minister’s experience or opinion as to how our employees are respecting our culture when something like this has happened in our communities.

I want to ask the Minister if he’s willing to look at that in his department with all government employees, because I do not see that picture as the Minister has painted in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Andrew John Kenny from the Deline Got’ine Government. Andrew John has been an elder and a guide for me for the last 12 years in the Legislative Assembly, and I’d like to recognize his commitment and dedication to the Sahtu people.

I appreciate the Minister’s willingness to look at school boards and school jurisdictions, but he’s the Minister of Culture and I’m talking about culture in a general sense. Of all the Ministers here and the departments they hold, all government employees need to know. I’m looking at the focal point of the Minister of Culture to look at all this within our region, within our communities and within our culture. All employees should know about the protocol. When something like this, a respected elder has passed or something has happened in our community, all employees should know. This is not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. In my Member’s statement I talked about a community that has to deal with grief and loss.

I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment how many of our GNWT employees in our regions know about the protocol when there’s an elder, a respective loved one or someone in our communities has passed away.

Do our employees know what is to be expected when something terrible like this has happened in our communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to pay respect to the Sahtu people who have lost their loved ones and offer our sincere condolences. To lose one is a painful experience one goes through. Often our elders tell us that life is precious and we don’t know when the Creator wants us back home in his kingdom. After all, we are his children in the end.

Life and death are two great mysteries that we wonder about in life. Where did we come from and where are we going in between these two spectrums we call life, God’s gift to us?

When someone we love with all our heart passes on, it brings all kinds...

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provides a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days.