Ronald Bonnetrouge

Thank you, Minister. Members, do we have any other questions for Members on NWT Housing Corporation Department of Executive? Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. More lip service. That's what I'm getting from this department nothing but lip service. I'm asking on behalf of the communities, the small communities, get your staff out there to communicate with the communities; don't wait for them. We're crying for help out there. And I'd probably be going back to the Minister again; can the Minister commit to getting his staff to reaching out to the small communities? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. And mahsi to the Minister for that reply. I think we're still facing challenges. Like I was saying before, like it's always like a lip service that we receive. They keep saying well, we got, you know, fire Office of the Fire Marshal or somebody that's working with our communities; apparently they're not, because I'm bringing out these issues. And it's for the other communities, the small communities which we're having challenges. And like I'm saying, we could probably utilize the Red Cross services, or the Canadian Red Cross, in our communities. The government just has to...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I stood up in the House and made a statement regarding lack of first responder services in our community. And I spoke about the past incidences where we counted on the nurses and the RCMP, and they did at that time help respond to serious incidents within the community, whether they were accidents or deaths. And I also spoke about lack of RCMP attention to assist our community members even though they were called yet the RCMP is noted in our community to attend to check on people on probation even, or they attend to accidents. So their service is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's more lip service that I'm hearing, because I'm standing here, you know, on behalf of all the small communities saying we need something done to help our communities. Send your staff in. Now I'm hearing the school of government, you know, community government now, and then the fire marshal. Yet they're still sitting there where I'm asking on behalf of all the small communities to get your staff out there and get helping our communities. Can the Minister commit to doing that? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today would be for the MACA Minister but first I'd like to acknowledge that the Premier mentioned the Canadian Red Cross and their presence here in the Northwest Territories. Perhaps we should look at utilizing their services to help the small communities because we got dire emergencies on the first responders in our communities as we're left to our own devices.

I'd like to talk about the volunteer fire departments which are it's a voluntary service within our communities. There was an incident about a week ago in our community, about 4 o'clock in the morning...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services related to my Member's statement.

I'd like to know from the Minister the reasons why the health centre staff in the small communities are not allowed to attend to distress calls within the community and if there's a policy, what are the reasons for them? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. And mahsi to the Minister for the answer. Yes, our community, we don't have no ambulance services, but I know the health centre has a van and a bunch of other vehicles. Apparently, there's no first responders in most small communities, and that's the challenge we have. The only people we have close to that, that don't attend to these kinds of calls, are the volunteer fire department as they only attend to anything related to fire.

I am wondering if the Minister could commit to working with other departments, probably a whole of Cabinet initiative, to look at training first...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was an incident of an elderly person who collapsed which caused shock and distress for the people around the person. First, let me take you back a spell to the days when the nurses and the RCMP members to distress incidents within the community. They did not even bat an eye to attend to distress calls, especially within the community, as people were not knowledgeable or were in shock to handle the situation.

Now, getting back to the recent incident, the people called the nurse and the nurse replied they were not allowed to attend to distress calls out in...