I started to get worried you forgot about me, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, there was a time not so long ago when you mentioned wellness workers. Most people around us would have said wellness what? Wellness is an act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to obtain better physical and mental outcomes. So instead of just surviving, we are thriving. Mr. Speaker, fastforward to today. Wellness, or even wellbeing, really matters. Times have changed. When we look back, the government has made decisions in the past that may have seen or been perceived as efficient but the quality didn't realize wasn't realized until much later that we've done more harm to the system than good.
Take, for example, when I look back and I think of social workers that were part of an integral element of income support and at the time they were viewed as data entry jobs and they didn't need to talk to their clients, they just took paper. I also question, not as a fault but as a realization, that when have our LHOs, we have clients seeing them day to day wondering about their lives. No, no, Mr. Speaker, they're there just to take their paper and move them along.
But, Mr. Speaker, both examples are more than just people working as clerks taking data. They are really an important part, a first contact in many cases, the only contact in a lot of cases, that people have with these real live clients of ours. It's difficult to imagine that people don't need to talk to people. Imagine that, people talking to people? So when I hear clients tell me in both programs that they feel sometimes they're just a number, well as a matter of fact, that's exactly what they are in the way we've set them up. But they're more than that, Mr. Speaker. These are genuine people with real families and real challenges.
These individuals have all had journeys some of them will never fully appreciate, some of them are real tough, real stories, but their journeys with real stories worth being told. Trauma and supports come in different ways and how we support them and recognize them has changed so much more. This government, this Assembly, our MLAs, respect these things and realize how much more time and investment we need to do.
Mr. Speaker, I want to leave my colleagues with this thought as I finish my statement: The government program may be a backstop as some people fall down onto troubles, but we're also here to help them up. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. I would never forget you. Members' statements.
