Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Cancer is a word we hear all too often. Whether we’re just more aware of why people are getting sick now or whether there actually is more cancer amongst our people, it is ever present in our lives and none of us here in this room or elsewhere in our territory, none of us have remained untouched by cancer. It’s a scary business being diagnosed with cancer, and patients are often left to their own devices after a diagnosis.

Over the years, volunteers with the NWT Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group have worked very hard to provide supports for breast cancer patients...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question here with this CMAS Business Intelligence Project. It doesn’t indicate in the budget what program this is for, and I believe this project has been ongoing for a number of years. I just wondered: when will this project end? It looks like it is ‘16-17, but how much is going to be spent in ‘16-17 in addition to what we are spending this year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My comments are very similar to those of my colleagues and for good reason. I think we are all concerned about the amount of dollars that is in this section of the capital budget for this department. It is almost 25 percent of our operations budget, and yet, as has been stated, it’s less than 2.5 percent of the capital for this particular department. There is only one major project in this $6.4 million that the Minister just mentioned, and that’s renovations to the Lutselk'e Dene School. The other school projects are relatively minimal. There’s no reference in documents...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister I would suggest since he didn’t say that they have replied to the report from the Breast Cancer Action Group I would take that as a no.

My last question is my usual time question. I’d like to ask the Minister when can we expect to have this cancer coordinator position filled. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for the update. I can appreciate that the coordinator will have an advocacy role, but I would stress that I believe that the navigator position is a lot closer to a patient than the cancer care coordinator is going to be. Just the very name “coordinator” removes it from the actual patient who is in a position to need the help.

One of the recommendations from the Breast Health/Breast Action Cancer Group was to expand the navigator position to the regions and to patients, patients with other cancers. So I’d like to ask the Minister if that is anywhere in the thinking of the...

Not only do the breast cancer patients need a cancer system navigator but patients diagnosed with any kind of cancer need the special help a navigator can provide. Staffing the one position we’ve identified should be a top priority. The Minister of Health and Social Services must find a way to ensure that all cancer patients get the support they need immediately after diagnosis.

I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I think it’s really an important topic and I think it’s probably a much bigger issue in Nunavut than it is here in the NWT, but we definitely have our problems here.

Another recommendation that was from this report talked about food programs for breakfast, school breakfast programs. My brain is still dead from yesterday, I guess. Breakfast programs in schools is something which the GNWT has put some emphasis on. I believe it is one of the things that is being considered by the Anti-Poverty Strategy Working Group.

I’d like to know from the Minister if that is indeed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister responsible for the Anti-Poverty Strategy. I mentioned in my statement that I would be asking him for an update. That’s my first question.

Can the Minister advise where we’re at in terms of our Anti-Poverty Strategy and Action Plan, what we are doing, what we have done and what we are doing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have many comments. It’s hard for me to put them into sort of a cohesive commentary, but I’ll do the best I can. There have been a lot of comments in the last couple of days. We heard from the Premier yesterday in his sessional statement, we heard from the Finance Minister earlier today in his statement, we’ve got the opening remarks from the Finance Minister, we’ve got comments that have been made by members of Cabinet over the last month to two months to three months about expenditures that we will have to endure, I guess, for lack of a better word. I am seriously...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister again. It kind of leads into my last question. Another recommendation from the report was that there needs to be an investment within infrastructure within the communities related to food security and provision of foods, specifically construction of community-identified resources as community centres and/or community freezers. So I’d like to say to the Minister, I’m really glad that we have this $500,000 that is being used.

Is it intended that this $500,000 will be an annual amount, and will it be eligible to be spent on things such as community...