Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement had to do with mothers and grandmothers. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, I know the previous government had a council of grandmothers and I thought that was a wonderful idea. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if that’s something she would be interested in initiating or looking at, having a discussion on starting up the council of grandmothers again with this government.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was here when the former Minister of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen, came up with the idea, which I thought was a great idea until it got outside of the building. Then we ran into problems because there are lots of people out there who feel that they’re grandmothers should belong to this group. Of course, we can’t have all the grandmothers meeting in a group all the time of that size.
My approach has been to work with the NWT Seniors’ Society, which is a group made up of elders from across the Territories, big and small. There are about six, seven or eight members who meet at the same time. They have invited me quite regularly to talk to me about seniors’ issues that they are working on that they would like me to work on.
With the council of grandmothers and the NWT Seniors’ Society, that is apples and oranges. I want to talk more about the oranges as the council of grandmothers and their value. Would the Minister consider, besides identifying the problems, what opportunities or positive things you can see that could come from a council of grandmothers to guide us in the Assembly.
I’m not sure if those are apples and oranges or peaches and cream.
---Laughter
The NWT Seniors’ Society is made up of Mr. Tom Wilson as president, from Fort Simpson, and Florence Barnaby, Bea Campbell, and we had a new member from Tuktoyaktuk that was appointed, and Eileen Collins from Hay River, and Leon Peterson from Fort Smith. They are really well-regarded and well-respected grandmothers and grandfathers from all over the Territories. It is a really good group.
I certainly agree with the Minister about the NWT Seniors’ Society representatives. These are grandparents from across the Northwest Territories. I do want to focus on a council of grandmothers. Grandmothers have a special role in the community and lives in childrearing and bringing up the children and laying out the foundation. Does the Minister have a willingness to look at even one from each region in the role of a council of grandmothers during this Legislature or even with the department? Would the Minister be interested in seeing if this is an initiative she would undertake?
On the substance of it I do feel that’s what the NWT Seniors’ Society and other elders that we work with I believe fulfill that function. If the Member has a more specific proposal or idea that he wants to discuss further, I’d be happy to sit down with him and listen to him and perhaps other Members. But there is no question that in our day-to-day work that we do rely on elders, not only grandmothers but grandfathers and leaders of our communities, to help us do our work.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
