Wendy Bisaro

WHEREAS Canada’s three northern territories encompass a vast, sparsely inhabited expanse of land and waters that is subject to a very harsh climate;

AND WHEREAS our climate is changing two to four times faster than in the South, and impacts, including increasing numbers and severity of so-called natural disasters, put residents and visitors alike at risk;

AND WHEREAS Arctic sovereignty is a stated priority of the Prime Minister of Canada;

AND WHEREAS there has been a substantial increase in commercial air traffic over polar routes since the 1990s, with the number of annual flights now exceeding...

I wish this group luck, because I think they’ve got a very tough road ahead of them.

The Minister’s indicated there is an opportunity for input. I’d like to ask the Minister about opportunity for input from the general public. I’m sure there will be people out there in the general public who would like to provide their opinion, whether or not they meet with the forum or not.

What is the Minister doing to provide that opportunity to the general public? Is there an on-line component to this Minister’s forum? Will there be an opportunity for people to e-mail? Any of those things.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask some questions further to my previous questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Minister responded to my questions in regard to the Minister’s Forum on Addictions that they will go out to the community and ask questions. But I understand from the Minister’s comments that this forum is going to communities with a blank page and basically saying, tell us what to do, fill up this page for us. I would like to ask the Minister if in his experience – it certainly is mine – is it better to go with a plan and ask for critical analysis of a...

I appreciate that maybe we haven’t asked the right questions, but I guess I have to go back to the information that we already have. Has the Minister done an analysis of all the reports which have been done over, say, the last 10 years, which would be full of answers to probably very similar questions? It makes me wonder what is so different about this particular forum, about the questions that we’re answering right now. Do we know that we have not asked these specific questions before?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I found it very timely that he chose to make his Minister’s statement today on the Minister’s Forum on Addictions. I have some questions in that regard.

I’ve been listening to the Minister over the last few weeks. He’s made some comments and he’s referenced a number of times consultations around mental health and addictions programs and the strategic plan. He’s spoken of a group that is out for consultations and it’s clear to me now, although it wasn’t before, that he meant the Minister’s...

In 2000 the Lion’s Club president said, “According to the RCMP, while we’ve been having this dance, acts of vandalism by youth 13 to 18 years old has been zero percent.” The same holds true today. To quote Mr. Finnamore one more time, “Since the Lion’s Club has been doing the event, vandalism at Halloween is almost nonexistent.”

I want to say thank you to the YK Lion’s Club for their service to our city. Congratulations on another successful Spook-a-Rama. May you have many more.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I bring this motion forward because I believe strongly that there needs to be a search and rescue base north of 60. I’ve lived in the North over 40 years, and as long as I’ve been here, Northerners have been talking about the need for a search and rescue base in the North.

All Northerners from the High Arctic to the 60th parallel are a long way from any dedicated rescue facility. Unlike southern Canada, a Northerner in distress or lost on the land is literally many hours away from the beginning of a search and rescue operation, and the further north the emergency, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m really glad the Minister has recognized that at least one good idea comes from this side of the House.

The Minister has indicated that once these recommendations are in that there will be a rearrangement or a reorganization of department resources to implement whatever it is we’ve got coming forward. With the current resources, we haven’t had success to date. I’d like to know from the Minister why he expects that we will get success after this Minister’s forum without any new resources.

I’m still a little confused. The Minister says that they’re going provoke discussion in the right direction. Well, what is the right direction? The Minister is saying that he’s going to go and ask people to tell him what to do.

My second question to him would be if we’re going to visit communities – and I have to assume there’s an opportunity for all 33 communities to have input – what if he gets 33 different solutions? How is the forum or how is the Minister going to take these 33 different solutions and turn them into something that we can actually implement and work with?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I struggle with the fact that we’re going to go and ask people. The Minister says that we don’t really know the state of alcohol. I think we know all too well the state of alcohol in our communities. I think that we need to actually start doing something. I’d like to know from the Minister, come March 2013, when he’s got all these answers, what is he going to do in March 2013 to actually implement and start acting on our addictions problem.