Debates of January 20, 2004 (day 1)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to wish the House a happy New Year and say that I’m looking forward to working with the Cabinet on new initiatives for this year. Over the past couple of months, from early November to a couple of days ago, there were many deaths in the Sahtu region. This Christmas, there were Christmas cards, New Year’s cards and sympathy cards. In the Sahtu, we had many losses and communities were heavily impacted. I want to acknowledge the families because it was one death after another and families, grandparents and children were all impacted. It was just one after another. The communities are really feeling it now. We need to do some work on dealing with losses in our regions, especially in our communities in the Sahtu. I want to look at that more closely.

However, Mr. Speaker, I want to just acknowledge the people in the Sahtu communities who have already dealt with these losses and hope that this government will also look at an approach to dealing with the losses of the families in the small communities. I want to say, Mr. Speaker, that there are elders who were lost in our communities and a lot of knowledge left with them. People in our region are looking forward to working with their elders to deal with some of the issues that are being faced today. That’s all I have to say, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

---Applause