Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up with a statement I made earlier this session on the continuance of the respite program for the 29 families that currently utilize the service from the Yellowknife Association for Community Living.
Mr. Speaker, first off, the mere suggestion that this government is cutting this critical service is unconscionable. The Minister could not even tell me the other day where the $250,000 was going. Mr. Speaker, the federal funding through THAF would have enabled the program to be funded until 2012. Someone has made the decision to move the money and the Minister just doesn’t know where it went.
Just like the $1.7 million announced by the federal government to fund anti-drug programs. The Minister is quoted in the news story, but the reality, Mr. Speaker, is she has no idea where the money is going and what it will be spent on, just like the respite money.
I’d like to refresh the Minister’s memory when it comes to her support for the respite program. As a Regular Member, February 1, 2006, Hansard, “for many months and number of years I’ve been here, there has been a call for the need or speaking about the need for the respite care program. There is a huge need for this and I think the Members on this side of the floor have been getting lots of calls from those parents or caregivers who are able to get some relief, which is what the program is meant to do.”
Then, Mr. Speaker, Minister Lee was responding to my colleague Mr. Yakeleya on February 16, 2009, as Minister of Health and Social Services, and I quote from that Hansard. “I was simply pointing out that the pilot program in Yellowknife started three or four years ago and I think that just showed the need and the value of giving families who are spending every day, 24/7, taking care of their children in need.” The program, according to Minister Lee, was so successful that the department decided to expand it to smaller communities. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m left completely and utterly confused by a decision to cut the funding for the respite care program here in Yellowknife.
Mr. Speaker, it defies any logic and the Minister can’t even blame the federal government for it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
