Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about a leader, the Great Chief Sitting Bull. One of his quotes was, “Lt’s put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.” Sitting Bull was a very spiritual man, just like our elders in the Sahtu and down the Mackenzie Valley. I wanted to ask the Minister, because the elders are very concerned about the way things are going today, that the land is changing, our children are changing, and our children will die if we do not wake up and start talking to our children. I want to ask the Minister of Health in his role as the Minister responsible for Seniors, if he has looked at any type of initiative to bring the elders together from the Northwest Territories to talk about the changes that are happening in the Northwest Territories and to communicate that to our young people.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT Seniors’ Society does come together on a regular basis. Many of the communities do have seniors’ societies. I think this type of work is something that, interestingly enough, the Stanton Elders’ Council is interested in doing. They talked about this in the context of the health of the community and how they have a strong desire to have an elders' conference, bringing all the elders together headed by the Stanton Elders’ Council to one central location and having a discussion to talk about this. In addition to that, they’ve also asked that they meet with our Ministers Forum on Addictions. Once their work is complete, their community work, they want that forum to touch base with them. I’m going to try to make both of those things happen. For sure they’re going to meet at the elders’ forum and now we’re working on putting a budget together so that they can have an elders' conference.
I would ask if the Minister would look at working with the Minister of MACA and seeing if they can bring some of the youth down the Mackenzie Valley to sit with the Elders’ Council and talk about some of the changes that are happening today.
Life today is very, very hard. The elders are saying if they do not get the message to our young people, our young people are going to be very pitiful in the future. We need to bring this forum together so that the elders can talk to the young people and tell them if you do not smarten up, you will not survive very long in this world. We need to come back with a very strong message to tell our youth that life is very precious and very short. Our elders want to take that role on. Will the Minister look at this?
Interestingly enough, I have actually thought about that, trying to bring the youth and the elders together in a central location. I also thought about the logistics of doing something like that and how difficult that could be. I think it’s not insurmountable, and I will be glad to meet with the Minister of MACA and the Minister responsible for Youth to see if we can put something like this together.
I would ask the Minister if he would have a serious discussion with the Minister of MACA to put together some form of a plan or outline and come back to committee to see that they get the support to go ahead or he could look within the government to make this happen. The survival of our people is at the brink of having our elders tell the youth what needs to happen in terms of continuing on with a good, healthy life in the Northwest Territories. I ask the Minister if he would come back with some form of discussion plan or some kind of plan and say this is what we want to do to pass on the words of our elders to our young people.
Like I said, we would on the elders’ side and the Elders’ Council. I recognize that we need to engage the various seniors’ societies across the North to try and put this together and pay for all of this. I need to be able to find the funding to do such a project. Also, if we are going to engage the youth to find the funding for that as well.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I asked the government if they would put the challenge, the same as us, out to our communities, talk to our youth right through this forum right now, in this time, and ask if they would help us get help in our region to support the Minister and themselves and to put a challenge out there so that the youth can also help with this forum. We don’t have to do things for them. Let them do things for themselves. I put the challenge out there.
Would the Minister put some form of challenge to the people, along with us to our young people, that if they want to live, they should be working on things like this that will help them with our elders who are waiting to pass on the good words.
Certainly, one of the good opportunities for youth and elders alike to speak on health issues and addictions issues is going to be during the Minister’s Forum on Addictions when they travel to the various communities across the North. Having said that, yes, I would work on something with the Minister responsible for Youth. It may not mean that we need to get some money together. It could mean as simple as the Member indicates, just challenging them to come to such a forum or conference to have an opportunity to hear firsthand what the elders have to say about the situations in the communities.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
