Norman Yakeleya

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.

When you see a statement like this in one of our government’s official documents, that 200 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed each year, I certainly look forward to the Minister’s plan of action how to deal with the diabetes that is diagnosed each year and what’s the case that we have dealt so far, because you don’t see anything in here. I have to look for it. That’s scary in our small communities. If I can get some information, documents, what it costs our system each year to treat a person with diabetes.

What are we doing in the small communities to screen for diabetes? Some people just walk...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do want to thank Mr. Moses for bringing this motion up, and I also wanted to say to government, you have come a long way in the different areas of how we deal with mental health, addictions, drugs and alcohol and moving away from the residential treatment programs and now to listening to people on-the-land treatment programs, mobile treatment and just new initiatives that we’re taking on. It’s been a while since we’ve had this type of new shift in the making of healthy communities as to our priorities and goals. This motion here speaks to support this. We’re looking for...

I appreciate the Minister’s willingness to look at this. The community has actually been asking and there were several challenges to not allowing the social worker to come into the community. There’s no blaming why that couldn’t happen, we’re just asking if that is happening for reasons we sometimes don’t understand. The community is asking – and the previous Minister had that discussion with the community – if they can use that position to have a wellness worker to work with alcohol and drugs specifically to have that position. Today, as we sit, Tulita does not yet have a social worker. It is...

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...