Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just following up in regard to my Member’s statement. With the Forging the Future Youth Conference reporting, 42 youth from across the Northwest Territories got together last summer and they came up with a bunch of recommendations and talked about all the issues that we talk about in this House. It was an initiative from the former Premier and the former Minister of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. My question today is for our newly elected Premier and Minister of DAAIR. Is he familiar with the report and is he familiar with the recommendations that are in this report, and is he familiar with those recommendations? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very familiar with the report that the Member is referring to, although it was undertaken in the previous Assembly, in the 16th Assembly. But with your new approach, we are definitely following up on the recommendations that were put forward in the 16th Assembly. Thank you.
There are two specific recommendations. One is for an end goal of getting a treatment centre that’s culturally sensitive with multicultural staff, trained professionals, unique treatment plans for youth, adults and elders, as well as a recovery support program, something that we are lacking in this territory. As well, they made a recommendation to place a qualified school counsellor and mentor in every school to help them achieve their goal of graduating high school. With the Minister of DAAIR familiar with those recommendations, when can we see those recommendations be put into action that will help our youth succeed and also our adults and our seniors as well?
As in any good government, we put our own stamp and our own brand on those two recommendations, and those were identified as priorities by this 17th Assembly, although perhaps under a different name or a different recommendation.
With regard to the treatment centres recommendation, we are actively working on that and our Minister of Health and Social Services will be tabling a Mental Health and Addictions Strategy very soon.
With regard to a counsellor for every school, we have recognized that, as well, as an area that we need to look at, and through our Aboriginal Student Initiative we are looking at what we can do for every school in the Northwest Territories.
As recognized, this was an initiative put on by the former Minister and Premier. I just wanted to ask the Premier if he’s willing to continue working on such a document and such a very strong initiative with our youth leaders in this government to continue on such a great project. That it’s not a one year thing and that we continue to work with our youth and listen to our youth in how we can work to better a future for everyone.
We are always looking to become more effective and efficient, and we do have youth as a priority, and we will continue to find ways to interact with the youth and to make sure that their voices are heard.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Youth is always a priority; however, it did not get on the document for our caucus priorities, which I made a Member’s statement early on in the government about committing to the youth that we’re still going to work in their best interests. It’s nice to hear those comments from the Premier. What I didn’t hear was the commitment that he’ll continue working with the document to bring youth together and possibly working with other departments, interdepartmental governments. Can I get a strong commitment from the Premier on this? Thank you.
Although perhaps it didn’t make it on the priority list, this is part of the ongoing work that this government does that we work with youth. Normally, we would like to have our own brand, so we would continue to work with youth and perhaps not under the auspices of what was done in the 16th Assembly, but I would expect that we would want to work with something, perhaps a better, more improved version, I would like to think, so we would commit to continue to working with the youth.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
