Yes, Madam Speaker, I’m going to continue to ask questions on this topic because it’s a very important topic. We’re letting people slip through the cracks, as we like to say it, and it’s not fair to the parents, it’s not fair to the teachers and it’s not fair to the students. Somebody has to take charge here. I’m talking about intervention and integrated services. I talked all last week about how departments need to work together to provide services to be more effective and to providing these services and programs for the residents of the Northwest Territories.
Would the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to working with the Department of Justice or the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and somebody take the lead to create a team to go into the schools and intervene at an early age, or in the junior high setting so that we can get these kids early on so they can be successful and get an education and, like I said, become part of society?
I’m going to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services specifically, but I’d like to see one of these Ministers step up to the plate, create the team, find the resources and go out to the communities and start addressing this issue that’s an issue to the parents, to the community and to the teachers, our staff, the ones that we are supposed to be supporting? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will commit to having the discussion. I think we’re a ways down the road with this, but again, there are certainly pieces of the puzzle that have to be put together in this whole area. I will commit to discussing this with the Minister of Education, Minister of Justice and also to, I guess, present this possibly as a supplementary or a budget item that will be presented to the committees in the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister making that comment of possibly coming back to the House with a supplementary appropriation. Just to offer a little bit more information in terms of whom we’d like to see at this table, seeing as I have some time here and there’s no other questions, we need nurses, we need social workers, we need teachers, probation officers, the RCMP officers, community counsellors.
Would the Minister take the lead, create this team, create a budget and possibly do an outreach program? Would he commit to doing an outreach program or look at a pilot project where there’s an outreach program to the communities in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
That would be quite a team alright. We would be able to work with that, I believe. What I will do is, again, take it back to Cabinet colleagues. We do have a Cabinet committee in the social envelope. So we can take it back to the chair of that committee with the Department of Justice and, hopefully, as we move along, we will also keep the Standing Committee on Social Programs informed as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you. We always say it takes a community to raise a child, and the Minister’s reference, that is quite a team. I don’t know he took that in reference, but that’s all the communities when I worked with the Interagency Committee, when I worked with the Department of Health and Social Services, when I worked at the regional level, we all talked about creating this team and that was over 10 or 12 years ago. Yet we’re still looking at trying to create that team. That team needs to be developed, either regional-based or territorial-based, and money needs to go into that now. When I go home for the weekend and the majority of my concerns are around education, around health and social services, mental health and addictions, then I have to bring it to the floor and get it addressed. Would the Minister not only look at a territorial aspect but also maybe a regional aspect? Thank you.
Thank you. We can begin the work on this. It would probably be outside of this current budget process that we’re engaged in, but we can begin the work. Like I indicated, we can begin the work through the Minister that’s responsible for the social envelope, the Minister of Justice, and then at the end, I guess, also present it to the Regular Members to ensure that it’s in line with what they see as a good solution to addressing these issues. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Hawkins.
