Sandy Lee

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, in honour of the Disability Awareness Week which was celebrated at our luncheon in the Great Hall this afternoon, I would like to take this opportunity to once again call upon this government to move quickly in revising the income support policies in ways to understand and address the particular needs of those with physical or mental disabilities.

Madam Speaker, in a nutshell, the problem with the government’s income support policies is that it’s largely an effort to fit a square peg into a circle. Madam Speaker, generally speaking, it makes sense to...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I suppose that is his judgment call, but I can assure this House, Madam Speaker, that I have run into this individual in many places and he is begging all of us to do something. So I can tell you, Madam Speaker, that I am speaking with his total consent, and perhaps the Minister could be sympathetic enough to make a commitment in this House on his behalf that he will look into this situation and confirm to us that he will be back in his house by next week. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I know that the Minister is proposing to bring this to the committee. Could the Minister indicate any time frame as to when the stakeholders outside of this Assembly will be able to partake in this discussion? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Absolutely, there is a process on the way but I think it’s good for us to air out our ideas and the process we are following. I would like to ask the Minister where the department and the Minister stands with respect to the possibility of treating those with disabilities differently than those who are on income support in a regular manner. For some public policy reasons, income support is quite low. One of the reasons, whether it’s accepted or not, is to encourage the people to get off the system and get better income options wherever possible. That is not the case...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a class from Yellowknife in the gallery today. By looking at them I know that they are absolutely fascinated and interested about what is going on in this House. I am going to visit them in their class next Tuesday and expect to be answering some questions about some of the interesting proceedings in this House. Let me introduce Mr. Speakman's Grade 6 class from Range Lake North School. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

---Applause

I just have a very short remark to add to the...Not a remark really, I have some questions for the Premier on both resource revenue sharing devolution and this Mackenzie Valley pipeline issue. I know that the government and the Premier and many leaders from the North are trying to bring this together and trying to get a resolution. I have to tell you, Mr. Chairman, when I heard about Imperial Oil pulling out their work for now, or slowing down the work, at first I, like everyone else, was quite alarmed. But I started seeing opportunities for this. I thought an impetus that could give more...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I have questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to the treatment of an individual with disabilities that is so appalling, and I have been meaning to ask these questions. I think given this week is Disability Awareness Week it has even more significance, Madam Speaker. This individual is somebody that is well known to us, he’s from a community and he used to work in this building. He has been housed in a hospital since February; three months. His apartment had to be renovated, and it has taken this long, and I challenge...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think that is where we should be heading. Madam Speaker, in his work, I wonder if there is any study or research going on as to what numbers we are dealing with. I think there is a very small segment of the population who is severely disabled, whether physically or cognitively, and who are not going to be able to partake in the mainstream working world. They need the help of the government. If the government could help them, with the help of family and friends, they can function relatively well in a situation that doesn’t have to be institutional. I would like...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We are aware of the fact that this session is only going to go until next Thursday. I do want to give the Minister time to respond to this, but could I get him to commit to giving us the information back and responding to these correspondences before the end of session? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Let me say, to be fair, that there is a lot of good work being done with this program. I have attended many graduation ceremonies for this program where we have produced lots of tradespeople. It appears though that we are not doing as well as we should be doing. I understand that the Minister is going to look into this, but just like the basic level of services that I was talking about in my Member’s statement, I wonder if the Minister could set a basic minimum rule that when someone wants to be registered as an apprentice in the North that they shouldn’t have to...