Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I have questions for the Premier. Mr. Speaker, the last five months, basically, we had nothing going on in regard to short-term planning for any kind of jobs that we could create or what's happening with any projects going on because, once you leave Yellowknife and you head into the Delta, we have nothing going on in the Sahtu, nothing going on in my riding. What are her plans on the go-forward to stimulate the economy and jobs in the short term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have heard a number of times from the Member that nothing is going on in this Assembly since we have been elected. I want to remind the Member that this Cabinet has only been elected since November, so it's only a few, it's not six months that I have heard many times. We might have been campaigning six months ago, but the Cabinet has only been around since November. I take offence at saying nothing is going on. We are working on our mandate commitments based on the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly, but I need to say that the priorities are only what is extra. Day-to-day business within government programs goes on every day. Whether we are here sitting in this House or whether we are back in our constituencies or whether Ministers are upstairs running their departments, day-to-day government business goes on. There are projects in his riding. I believe there is a bridge going on. I hear there is a health centre being built right now. So there are projects that go on besides the extra things that we have identified as our priorities, besides the extra things that we decide as our mandate. If we did not even have priorities or a mandate, this government would still provide services to the residents of the Northwest Territories.
Those jobs are being given to an Inuvik company. There is nothing in regard to that bridge, which they stopped work on, so I want the Premier to identify which companies are working in my riding. That's the first I heard of a hospital being built. There are no hospitals being built. Give me clarification. All I am asking is what's happening in the short term. All the government jobs are taken in our communities. Nothing is going on. That is why we have such a big income support problem that we have going on, because there is nothing going on.
It's a good thing we have Ministers all around us talking to things. I believe the Member had mentioned not only his riding but the Sahtu in his statement. The health centre is going into Tulita at this point. Inuvik is having a long-term care facility built at this time. To have a whole list of every project and every contractor, that, I do not have. It probably is something that he should give notice of so that we can compile that information. However, I will commit to getting a list of every major project -- not every small project; that is too cumbersome -- every major infrastructure project going on in the riding and, the list of those contractors, I will supply.
Madam Premier, you brought up a 48-bed facility going up in Inuvik, which takes our elders out of our community. I need help in regard to keeping our elders home, because we want to take care of our own elders. We don't need them just shipped off to Inuvik, where my people, the people who I represent, can't go see their loved ones. The only time they are going to go see them is if they are on medical or somewhere, because cost of travel is too high, and then when they bring them home for a funeral. That is the problem. I need help in regard to getting a long-term facility in Ulukhaktok, so would the Premier commit to that instead of putting 48 beds, which we already have 25 in Inuvik, taking elders out of our community?
I believe it is almost two sets of questions, but I will reply to you on the question. I am not going to stand here and commit that I will have a long-term facility in every single community. I would love to see that, again, just as I would love to have a house for every person. In honesty, I would probably put the house first: Maslow's hierarchy; food, clothing, and shelter. Our seniors are important. Our elders are important. We recognize that. We have a shortage of health professionals; we know that. We need to look at a recruitment program; we know that.
I can't stand here and say that, within this government, I would guarantee that there would be a long-term care facility in every community. What I can say is that this government is committed to looking at whatever policies we can do, that we can change, so that we can make it better for elders to stay in our homes. Because we do know that the most humane thing that we can do for our elders is to keep them close to their families and their friends as long as possible, but there are situations, times, when elders have to be shipped from homes because the care is not there in the communities.
Again, I wish we could do better, but at this point, in this economy, I think that we have to be realistic and honest and say that we don't have the staffing, and we don't have the funding at this time, so we are willing to look at whatever we can do in the meantime.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All I am asking is for the government, I guess, to relook at the 48 beds in Inuvik. They have 25 beds. We have a need in our smaller communities, such as Paulatuk, Tuktoyaktuk, and Ulukhaktok. Ulukhaktok is a priority. I have elders sitting in a long-term care facility who are not seeing family, and it is hard on them. Too much hardship going on, all the time. Everything is fly in, fly out, on the coastal communities.
The people of Ulukhaktok, Paulatuk, and Sachs Harbour need to have something to grasp on instead of taking them and pulling our elders out. I'm just urging the Premier and the Cabinet to relook at that Inuvik facility. They have 25 beds. They don't need another 48. That's 200 more jobs they have to try to fill, which is good for Inuvik, but not for my riding of Nunakput. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Unfortunately, I can't commit to saying that I would stop the project in Inuvik. I mean, it would be very inappropriate for a Premier to stand here and make a commitment when there has been no research or assessment on the need, so I will not make a commitment to stop a project without the research done.
Like I said, there is not a Cabinet Member here who wants to take seniors or elders out of our communities. Every single Cabinet Member understands the needs of our community, our seniors, and our elders, but we have limited resources. Resources, not only money, but also capacity of staffing and qualifications. We have to look at all of those as a holistic view before we make decisions on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
