Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I raised the issue of the health of our young people and ways that we could improve that. Certainly I’d like to think of it as a way that we could develop a strategy over the next little while and certainly launch an ambitious plan that would be relatively cost effective but deliver great results, and that plan is coming up with a strategy for multivitamins for our youth and it could be implemented in such a way that day homes could access this, daycares and certainly provide it to our school districts so our young kids can have access to...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.
Could the Minister provide the official written definition that the Housing Corporation uses to define and demonstrate barrier-free housing?
Would the Minister provide details as to the location of each of the 300 barrier-free units in the corporation’s public housing inventory by community and by size of each individual unit with regards to the number of bedrooms?
Would the Minister list what modifications, specifically to each unit, which make it fall within the definition being used by the...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. May I remind this House it wasn’t that long ago we were having serious discussions about leaking of information, committee confidence and whatnot. I don’t think the information told today is necessarily a detriment to the project, but it still stands for the principles of frustration that were caused earlier. Information received is still being learned and understood. So perhaps laying it before the House was an ill choice at this time. Is it reasonable? I believe the public should be fully apprised of the information that will come forward, but I certainly hope that...
Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge and appreciate the answer the Minister provided. Mr. Speaker, I know in an ideal world we’d be able to provide hot breakfasts to all our young folks and these types of programs. That’s why I’m trying to take a measured approach and possibly a program that we could provide and afford. Would the Minister ensure that in this nutritional food basket study that they’re planning to do, that this multivitamin concept gets a high priority of consideration? I’m not saying as in subject it to it has to come out as a high priority answer, but I want to make sure it gets...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to rise today to talk about a potential idea of how we can help improve the health of our children and youth in the Northwest Territories. I firmly believe that the empowerment of parents to ensure that a child is fed and taken care of properly is certainly on their shoulders and within their abilities, but I also believe the territorial government has a supporting role to help provide, focus and promote health delivery ideas to help feed children and youth of our Territory.
Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to discuss something I think could help these...
I wouldn’t want to argue with the Minister on that particular point because I agree with him that income support is there to provide for basic needs and certainly food and shelter are a basic need. However, I would like to think that safety and security certainly could be provided in that. Where I’m going with that is if you were on income support, of course, you’re in of those positions, as we discussed earlier, sort of, that poverty cycle, that motion that we had passed earlier. So people have to make choices between food or clothing or support for their kids versus safety. So in other words...
Mr. Chair, does the Minister have an opinion in the context of what’s the difference between owning land outright through a tenureship of title as opposed to living in your home on untitled land? I’m trying to understand the particular differences between the two. I mean, it’s a senior who needs home heating fuel. So we’ve got two areas we’ve checked off. It really comes down to the fact is who owns the particular land and why is that an obstacle with the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to say I will be voting in favour of this particular motion. I support any efforts to move this issue forward. Poverty is certainly a demeaning situation where people are struggling everyday to get out of it and we have to find ways to assist in the breaking of the cycle that is meaningful and productive. Mr. Speaker, I don’t think anybody in an impoverished situation dreams that dream. This is something this government needs to commit to with a focus of saying how can we help people to break the cycle, get up on their own two feet, and celebrate the...
I continue to get further disappointed, if it’s possible, on this particular case. We have a system that has approved people to travel. We have a system now that says, well, I’m sorry, our system doesn’t like this particular case, we’re not going to allow you to travel down for needed medical care. This is doctor prescribed care. This is not sort of somebody saying, hey, you should do this. This is needed care. It’s quite demoralizing when one day you go down for treatment and the next day you’re told, sorry, you don’t qualify. I’m asking for some empathy in this particular question. Could the...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue questions with the Minister of Health and Social Services on the area of medical travel and services provided to our constituents. Part of the issue here is that we go to great pains to provide medical services to people who self-inflict particular issues to themselves, whether it’s through alcoholism or drugs. We have people with weight-loss problems and diabetes problems. who the Minister is saying are exempt from the policy. I think that’s wrong, because people are burdened with an unfair chance and we don’t provide them the support.
I’m trying to...