Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

I’m going to disagree and I’ll allow the Minister to correct it for the record, but I’m not sure how he doesn’t see it a year away, because if it doesn’t come for a draft tabled before the House, it doesn’t come before the House before the fall of this year, that means the next Assembly won’t have a chance to review it, update it, take it out to public consultation, and they’d be lucky to see it back before February.

The reason I ask for a small amendment that would allow to vary it is that they could work with the committee, and certainly driven by the family, we could find a way to deal with...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Depending if you’re a girl, woman, man or boy, girls will attempt suicide at higher rates; men and boys will die of suicide more often. First Nations youth die by suicide five or six times more often than their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

To bring this to a close, Canada only spends about seven cents out of every public health care dollar on mental health care, far below the 10 to 11 percent countries like New Zealand the UK spend.

In closing, mental illness is certainly the elephant in the room that we can all see that no one seems to want to talk about or confront. I’ll finish my statement...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

At this particular time I don’t have anything further in this area. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Excellent. All those years of yoga are paying off. First off I’m going to say it’s nice to see the money continue. I don’t see the money really elevating a little bit. Yes, there is more money than last year, which looks like it was taken up at $329,000. Interestingly enough, I notice the Disabilities Council in the Yukon is losing all their funding from the Yukon government, but their funding was twice as much than we offer here today, a little more than twice as much.

The reason I highlight the disabilities funding is I’m a little unsure that there’s enough there to do the work that they...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was just wondering if we could get a bit of a breakdown of the disabilities funding, how much it is. I see the indicator here at $335,000, but what the breakdown specifically is and what program areas are they targeting in their support. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 60)

In the interim… Well, first I should say thank you to the Minister for recognizing that the program needs to be reviewed and updated, where appropriate, of course. In the interim, many good retailers are providing paper bags which are compostable and certainly biodegradable bags which are still meeting our objective, which is getting plastic bags out of the environment.

Is there anything that the Minister can do today or commit to in the near future that we can stop having these retailers have to charge the same 25 cents as if it’s a regular plastic bag that does not break down in the...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Single Use Retail Bag Program has recently had its fifth birthday. It was originally rolled out into stores in 2010 and had its last update in February 2011.

Many of us have come to know and appreciate the fact that the single use bag is being charged at 25 cents per use. That’s on paper, plastic, biodegradable and, certainly, compostable bags.

I’m on record many times supporting responsible environmental initiatives and I certainly support the principle of this retail bag initiative, but we must always be practical in our design. There are notable exemptions. As we...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 60)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to touch on a few subjects, a little bit of repeat from my other colleagues, but I do think it’s important to further lend strength and emphasize in certain areas. I’ll certainly bounce around here on a few subjects.

One of the issues I’ve raised repeatedly over the years is a seniors charter. I have yet to see any development of it. I had the former Minister express an interest in it, and I certainly hope the department eventually finds time in something like this. We always seem to talk the talk about how important our seniors are, and many of our health...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 60)

I thought that was almost a yes, but just a little ways away from making that final step.

Recently, we’re well aware that the government has been reaching out in Eastern Canada. We’re well familiar with the job fairs that happened throughout, looking for people to be hired. I don’t have the budget as an MLA or else I would do it, but what I’m asking for, is would the Minister look at maybe setting up sort of a working group, discussion group, some public outreach as to what people see as some of the challenges for northern employment? I won’t go through them all. I’ve said pay and benefits...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up a little on the jobs issue I raised yesterday, and we talked about the 1,032 positions out there in one form or another and the 466 that are actively being recruited.

I made a post on my Facebook and I got some really interesting feedback, and one of the particular issues that’s been raised that I thought was interesting, more so in the sense of have we ever done this, is have we ever considered engaging the citizenship to understand and appreciate the practicality of trying to hire people for these jobs? We’re trying to get people in all regions...