Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, I first of all would like to assure the Member that Health and Social Services and the government are pointing millions of dollars into the Sahtu region. I do appreciate that there are no substantial capital projects on the books for the Sahtu region. I’d be happy to see a needs study or an assessment of the region to see what their capital needs are and work through the new capital planning process with the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the government and as the Minister of Health and Social Services I would like to speak briefly in favour of this private Member’s public bill, Bill 19, Donation of Food Act. The proposed bill would exempt the donor, including individuals and businesses, from liability when donating food provided that the donor does not intend to injure and is not reckless. The bill does not apply to a person who distributes donated food for profit.

Mr. Chairman, the current Public Health Act regulates the safety and sanitary handling and preparation of food, but it is not...

As the Member is aware, the dementia centre was debated and fought on in this House for about eight years. I am willing to make the commitment to the Member that I will look at what’s in the books or not for the Sahtu region and that we will work to make sure that our O&M and capital budget is spent equitably. I have also made a commitment in this House that I will review programs and services for small communities with the objective to enhance what we can do and to work on empowering and building capacity in small communities and how we deliver our health and social services programs in our...

Mr. Speaker, I have not had a chance to actually go and see the facility and meet the Sahtu authority staff and leaders. I want to do that. I have not had a chance to do that as the Minister. Also, right now I don’t have the information on what their needs are. In order for us to work toward capital planning and capital projects for Sahtu, we need to initiate that process. I’m making a commitment to the Member that I will look into that and work with the Member on that.

Mr. Speaker, today we begin Foster Family Appreciation Week. This is the week each year that we take time to celebrate the important contribution that foster families make in the lives of children.

Foster families open their homes to children and youth, providing them with stability, guidance and nurturing. They are people who find the time and energy to give a child a home, to give a child a chance and to give a child a place where they can be a child. They are there to help, to offer words of encouragement, to provide the care and attention needed by all children.

These families are important...

Obviously, public health is an important issue. I remain convinced that with the resources we have in downtown Yellowknife as well as the capability of the leadership of the city, we could resolve this issue. This is totally resolvable, and we just need to put our heads together and sort this out. I just cannot believe that we provide funding and bed spaces and program money to all of this public infrastructure programming in downtown Yellowknife and they cannot provide a public bathroom facility for people in need. That’s a shame, and it’s a shame for all of us. The city has to take some...

The staffing and programming services are the jurisdiction of the Yellowknife Association of Concerned Citizens for Seniors, which is YACCS. I have every confidence that YACCS will use the money they get from the government and provide the best services for the seniors. There is no suggestion or conclusion that any of those services will be privatized.

I have already indicated that this has got to be something that I have to resolve by working with the city council.

I just noticed that we are building a beautiful park in downtown Yellowknife, by the city. Surely, if we put our good minds together, eight councillors in the City of Yellowknife and Yellowknife MLAs…. We have regular meetings, Mr. Speaker; the Member knows that. We’re working on the agenda. I have asked to put this item on the agenda. Obviously, I’m missing something here, because we’re pouring hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars into address homelessness issues and...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories and Department of Health and Social Services is providing 100 per cent of the funding and 100 per cent of the O&M. We’re creating 28 beds at the territorial dementia centre at almost half a million dollars each for 28 units. We’re funding 100 per cent of O&M. It is an NGO organization; it is not a government organization. But we’re providing them with the capital funding and O&M to fund that. It’s up to YACCS as to how they use their money to provide the services that they do. At the same time, the YACCS board has instructed the staff to...

Those are the levels of detail that we have to work through. As the Members know, we have not had a chance to review our first full functioning business plan, where we could introduce new programs and revisit the old programs. That’s something we’ll be able to do in the month of November. I look forward to working on a new proposal and working with the Members.