Norman Yakeleya

Madam Chair, thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister the number of vacant positions in the Sahtu under the health and social services board and if there have been any type of changes to these vacant positions. Which ones haven’t been filled for a long time and are they still active in our system? Thank you.

The reason why I’ve asked for a registered volunteer list is because we are so busy throughout the year with the hand games in Whati or Tulita or Fort Good Hope, or tournaments we have throughout the year in Inuvik, Norman Wells or Deline or Yellowknife or Hay River that at the end of the year we can see the number of volunteers that contributed to making these events successful. That way we can get a percentage of the number of volunteers that we have in our communities, regions and even the Northwest Territories.

I want to know if that is something the Minister would consider through his...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA. I talked about the hard work and the efforts of the many volunteers in the Northwest Territories. Is there a register that lists the volunteers in the North?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use my Member’s statement to give thanks to all the volunteers in our small communities and our communities in the Northwest Territories that, with great passion, dedication and encouragement, take their children to sporting events, hand game events, people who take time out to organize the events to get the people and rally around them to cook for young students, young people who play hockey in the hockey tournaments, or to the hand game tournaments, to the drivers, people who put up their place for people to stay. I’ve seen a lot of these people in the Sahtu...

I just wanted to ask the Minister, on page 8-40 there with the diabetes. I know we did have money in 2013-14, and working in the small communities, I know the funding ends on March 31, 2014, and that in the information health book that I’m looking at, just for the seniors information handbook there, that there is approximately 200 new cases of diabetes diagnosed each year in the Northwest Territories. About one in five people age 60 and over have diabetes. Now we don’t have any money associated. What are we doing to deal with this factual information, if it’s factual information that 200 new...

Certainly when the social worker left Tulita, it has been a couple years or longer and it’s been almost over 700 days since we’ve had a social worker in our community. Even though we get back fills from the other communities to help out, it has been quite a challenge and that’s why we ask if they’ll be flexible enough. We certainly want to fill those positions for those workers coming into our community. Sometimes it doesn’t work according to the plan, so I’m just asking for some flexibility if the community can work with the health and social services board to say it’s going to be a challenge...

Thank you, Minister. It does look promising to fill these positions. I wanted to ask the Minister if any of those positions are difficult to fill. The community of Tulita has been waiting for a social worker for some time and we put the suggestion forward some time ago to the previous Minister if they would be flexible enough to use that position in support of the community as a community wellness worker, some type of worker that would help out with the community issues if we’re unable to fill that social worker. I’ve heard that some of the social workers are doing their jobs designated for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have seen the contributions of $1,000 going into the Sahtu communities to honour their volunteers. I know in the small communities, we know who the volunteers are who naturally show up and do things. Other ones don’t like to be recognized, but they will do their part in any type of event. For example, we had the hand games in Tulita with the young people, they had a lot of volunteers there. We had the Sahtu Cup in Norman Wells, a lot of volunteers in Norman Wells to host that.

I guess I wanted to see if there was a registered list of volunteers. People don’t...

Certainly, it’s a good thing that this government, through this department, does celebrate and recognize the many volunteers in the Northwest Territories.

Is there a registered list of volunteers per region or the Northwest Territories as a whole, so we know how many people are registered as a volunteer for the many events that they volunteer for throughout the Northwest Territories?

I would like to recognize two of our Sahtu Pages from Fort Good Hope, Melina Tobac and Taylor Kaskamin, and all the other Pages doing a wonderful job taking care of us. I would also like to recognize some of the constituents from the Sahtu, Pauline Roche and Betty Grandjambe; and also a resident now of Yellowknife, Laura Tutcho; and also the other language members who are doing our good work, specifically Agnes Kuptana and Samuel Hearne schoolmate Cathy Cockney and also the chief of Ndilo. Thank you.