Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Krutko, Mr. Roland, and Mr. Robert C. McLeod are not in the House and would have recognized the Languages Commissioner, Sarah Jerome. I’d like to recognize the Languages Commissioner.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

It’s very unfortunate that money can’t go directly to the communities. I think that the communities would have a better idea. I know that in speaking to the elders in the community -- I know I’m out of time, Mr. Chairman, I’ll be short -- the elders in the community indicate to me that their idea of trying to work with the emotional and social aspects around suicide prevention would be to be bringing people. I had asked the Minister on this on another matter, to bring people in that will work with the communities, like healers and so on that will work with the communities. I think that’s...

That’s good, actually. That sounds good, the money from the federal government. What is the plan to roll out the budget? Is it just filling budgets that are already at the community level or is this a little bit of new money? If so, what’s the communication strategy of the department to the small communities for this particular line item?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We talked a little bit about community health programs yesterday. I didn’t have an opportunity to get into one of the subject matters that I consider to be very important in Tu Nedhe. That is the whole area of the issue with suicide in the small communities. I’d like to ask the Minister if there is anything significantly different in the sense of an increase of attention or programs or anything on suicide prevention in this budget compared to what was in the previous budget.

Mr. Speaker, my last question is the area of time frames. There is a possibility inside the devolution agreement that these sites could be just left as is for extended periods of time. Also, in the economic measures in the AIP, they indicate that economic measures could be accrued to Aboriginal governments. This is an opportunity for Aboriginal governments to clean up with the GNWT at the federal government cost to clean up those sites. Why isn’t the government insisting that the federal government take responsibility in a kindly fashion for cleaning up industrial sites established under their...

Another area that seems to have many long-term benefits and it’s kind of the area that today in my Member’s statement I talked a little bit about which is in the review of the Child and Family Services Act. It’s not just that. It’s the overall prevention in the area of health. Again, the addictions, apprehensions, the whole thing seems to have real long-term benefits. This is an area where I’d like to see the department step up more in the prevention. I’m talking about starting at a very low-grade level in the schools, promoting some good, healthy habits in the schools and so on. I think that...

I actually think that changing the policy would actually make us go too far over to that side, that I think putting some flexibility into the policy makes it easier to administer, actually, because of the case-by-case basis and the rough parameters of income and the nature of the issue. I think it’s something that can be developed. If we look at a policy change, it’s going to be something that’s going to take a long period of time to do, number one. Number two, it tends to put us in a box. That’s what most of the policies seem to do in the government. The government makes a policy and does not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me if she has had complete discussions on the possibilities of re-profiling the Health and Social Services budget to address the recommendations in the report of the Standing Committee on Social Programs as it pertains to the Child and Family Services Act? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister work with the First Nation governments to look seriously at community solutions to combating addictions? Thank you.