Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge and appreciate the answer the Minister provided. Mr. Speaker, I know in an ideal world we’d be able to provide hot breakfasts to all our young folks and these types of programs. That’s why I’m trying to take a measured approach and possibly a program that we could provide and afford. Would the Minister ensure that in this nutritional food basket study that they’re planning to do, that this multivitamin concept gets a high priority of consideration? I’m not saying as in subject it to it has to come out as a high priority answer, but I want to make sure it gets...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to rise today to talk about a potential idea of how we can help improve the health of our children and youth in the Northwest Territories. I firmly believe that the empowerment of parents to ensure that a child is fed and taken care of properly is certainly on their shoulders and within their abilities, but I also believe the territorial government has a supporting role to help provide, focus and promote health delivery ideas to help feed children and youth of our Territory.

Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to discuss something I think could help these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8, written questions, on the order papers of today.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the faith that the Minister has that these people will be listening to Hansard, but just to ensure that they do get the message that this is an important issue that can deliver good things for our youth, would the Minister be willing to pen a letter to let this group know, that’s doing this review, that it is a priority of some people in this House and it could provide significant if not, certainly, substantial benefits for the health of our young people, noting the lack of nutritional items I noted in my Member’s statement? Would the Minister be willing to pen a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I raised the issue of the health of our young people and ways that we could improve that. Certainly I’d like to think of it as a way that we could develop a strategy over the next little while and certainly launch an ambitious plan that would be relatively cost effective but deliver great results, and that plan is coming up with a strategy for multivitamins for our youth and it could be implemented in such a way that day homes could access this, daycares and certainly provide it to our school districts so our young kids can have access to...

I appreciate that answer and I look forward to the next step of where that will go.

Mr. Chairman, one of the issues that comes up from time to time is under income support assistance. The government does not allow a telephone as part of an allowable expense, and I’m trying to get some rationalization as to why that wouldn’t be included as a real expense. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chair, I’ve got a couple of areas I’d like to ask some questions about, or tackle. One of the issues that I’ve been in contact with the Minister is regarding home heating fuel for seniors, elders that live on the land just outside of Yellowknife core but still live within the city limits. They don’t live on your traditional legal land, as such, that’s gone through the normal process of land tenure. Does the seniors home heating subsidy take that into account, that we have people who are living, to some degree, a more traditional lifestyle than living in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Would the Minister provide the following details specific to inclusive schooling funding particular detailing each community and school districts over the past three years including the projected trends for the next two school years:

How many students are categorized as inclusive students that require one-to-one support that would not otherwise be able to attend school safely?

How many students are categorized as special needs students that require special assistance with modified school plans?

How much...

I appreciate the Minister’s answer but it’s lacking a particular element that even recently, this last fall, that this constituent went for medical advice, they got a recommendation from the doctor, the doctor processed the papers through the normal channels, the normal channels approved them, and they went to Edmonton to start their treatment. Then, of course, when they tried to do their follow-up, all of a sudden the policy doesn’t apply. So one day it applies and the next day it applies. That same type of treatment was successful on another family member and they used the same travel policy...

Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister is now confusing the problem. She said they were approved and now we’re not approving them. So, Mr. Speaker, maybe if we could go back, and if the Minister is willing to commit to go back and see if we could re-evaluate these files through her office, perhaps we could solve this problem and show a little humanity on this particular issue and see if we can send these people out for these particular cases. And may I remind the Minister: pain is not a very comfortable thing to live with every day of your life. Thank you.