Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise today on a point of order under Section 23(m), where a Member introduces any matter in debate that offends practice and precedents of the Assembly, and further, under Section 23(i), where a Member imputes false or hidden motives to another Member.
Madam Speaker, I waited until today to review Hansard to ensure that I brought this matter forward in a timely way, as I am doing now. On Thursday, February 13, 2014, during debate of the point of order, in Hansard on page 4, I quote Premier McLeod, who made the following remarks which were referring to me: “…the Member has acknowledged the breach and now he’s trying to use process to not withdraw his remarks.”
I will deal with this particular offence, in my view, in two parts. Firstly, I am personally offended by the Premier’s comments were an attempt to put words into my mouth which I did not say. The Premier’s characterization of me in his comments are not accurate and, in essence, are an attempt to persuade the argument under debate at that moment by reaffirming something that I never said, nor did I imply. I acknowledged no breach and, further, did not agree with Mr. Miltenberger’s point of order. Rather, I used my time to remind the House of the necessity of process and certainly the freedom of speech, which Minister Miltenberger did not follow in his own stead by highlighting his concern through the grievance he raised to my comments. Instead of making note of them on the record five times, as originally pointed out in the initial discussion, he then chose to lay out his concerns further down the road, which is the following day.
I again remind the House of Beauchesne’s, Section 319, and further reaffirmed by Speaker Delorey’s
ruling on February 16, 2006, in short, they all must be brought forward in a timely way; secondly, Madam Speaker, for Premier McLeod to suggest, “…and now he’s trying to use process to not withdraw his remarks.”
These are not my rules. They belong to the Assembly, and if we are anything, we are certainly the pinnacle of process. If it is not followed here, why should it be followed anywhere?
I further affirm concern under Section 23(i) and find a characterization of these specific comments personally offensive to the work I’m trying to do here.
In closing, Madam Speaker, I’m requesting, through you, that the Premier immediately apologizes for the vexatious and frivolous comments he made towards me and that his remarks are struck from Hansard of that day, completely struck off the official Hansard, so they do not incorrectly reflect what I said and stand for days to go. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I will allow some further comment to the point of order. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Member based his case on Thursday about the fact on how we did not raise it at the earliest opportunity. He just stated that he stands by his comments and that he waited until he read Hansard before he raised it, so I’m wondering what side of the argument he’s taking.
He’s also said that he stands by his remarks. So, I think I was justified in saying that for the Member to suggest that because in previous rulings the Speaker said he didn’t raise it at the first opportunity, it was not a point of order. I think rather than addressing comments where he was calling other officials of the government criminals, he was trying to use process so that it wouldn’t deal with those comments.
So, Madam Speaker, I think we will wait for the ruling by yourself, or the Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. To the point of order, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Of course, I will not talk about the imminent ruling that is still before the House. I want to speak specifically to what was brought here today and the point of order. I want to focus on the words quoted by Mr. McLeod, and I had to go back to Hansard to review it myself. I quote, “The Member has acknowledged the breach,” and I want to focus just on those words and those words alone.
Madam Speaker, I’ve looked back and I reviewed Hansard and I don’t believe Member Hawkins talked about acknowledging any breach, so I believe those words are a bit misquoted by the Premier and I just wanted to share those thoughts on record. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Any further comments to the point of order? If not, we will review what was said, the point of order, and provide a ruling at a future date. Thank you, colleagues.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Tourism in the Northwest Territories plays a vital role in our economy. Each year the industry contributes over $100 million in visitor revenue and attracts upwards of 70,000 visitors from across the world. Tourism is also one of the few industries capable of creating economic opportunities in every region.
Because of this importance, and the industry’s potential, we must develop comprehensive and effective plans to market our spectacular tourism product to the world. I am very pleased with NWT Tourism’s 2014-2015 Marketing Plan, which outlines what the GNWT’s tourism marketing agency is undertaking to promote the NWT as a tourism destination of choice.
Partnerships are a cornerstone of our tourism marketing efforts and I would like to thank the Tourism Marketing Advisory Committee for their guidance and leadership. This committee has representatives from the tourism industry, who have marketing expertise, as well as GNWT representatives. They provide strategic direction to NWT Tourism each year in the development of this plan.
I would also like to thank the board of directors of the NWT Tourism Association for their direction and advice in shaping this plan.
We have a lot to offer the world when it comes to unique tourism experiences. Just recently, NWT Tourism launched its new “Aurora Capital of the World” mark in support of its Spectacular NWT brand. This title positions the NWT as the ultimate aurora viewing destination.
Of course, aurora is only a small piece of the tourism pie. We are known for our sport fishing, road touring, hunting and other outdoor activities, and this plan emphasizes these pursuits. We are also becoming a choice destination for hosting small and medium-sized meetings and conventions, like the highly successful Energy and Mines Ministers Conference held in Yellowknife last year.
Aboriginal tourism continues to grow, and the demand for cultural products and authentic experiences continues to increase. This is a demand that we can fully satisfy through the strong culture and natural hospitality of our people. Last year’s marketing plan introduced funding of $50,000 per region to develop regional marketing and promote local and cultural attractions. This program was so successful, it will continue in this year’s marketing plan.
The tourism industry is incredibly competitive, and we need to continue to position ourselves to new and existing markets as a choice travel destination.
North America remains our main marketing focus. A new sport fishing brand and campaign will launch this year, targeting specific demographics in southern Canada and the United States.
The 2014-2015 Marketing Plan contains initiatives to broaden our global reach and targets China as a key new market. This interest was also bolstered by our trade mission to China last month, where we made and strengthened relationships with key contacts in the Chinese travel trade. Promotion of the NWT during this trip was well-received, with 100,000 potential Chinese visitors showing a great interest in the North, with aurora tourism and authentic cultural experiences being identified as the main draw.
In the past two years, NWT Tourism has become more active in the Chinese market. China is Canada’s fastest-growing tourism market, and with the number of Chinese visitors to the country doubling since 2010, we need to capitalize on this. Over 1,000 Chinese visitors have been visiting the NWT annually, and that number continues to grow. Aurora tourism continues to be the strategic focus of our Asia-Pacific region promotional campaigns, with an emphasis on markets in Japan, China and South Korea. The Japanese market, in particular, continues to show incredible promise, with most of the over 15,000 aurora visitors we had last season arriving from Japan.
This year’s plan also looks at expanding marketing efforts in other emerging markets such as Germany and Australia.
Due to support from this government, NWT Tourism has been able to enter new markets due to the doubling of its marketing budget to nearly $2.4 million. With this funding, NWT Tourism will be able to reach out into uncharted territory and penetrate further into existing markets.
This will result in increased visitor numbers, more revenue for small businesses and new opportunities for the private sector to expand tourism products, or develop new products, to reach a wider market and to serve this growing industry.
Madam Speaker, the NWT has much to offer to potential visitors, and a prosperous tourism industry must build on these resources. The 2014-2015 Tourism Marketing Plan will give us continued focus on supporting developing tourism opportunities in the territory.
By marketing and showing off the spectacular range of tourism products and experiences, it will help us ensure a diversified and healthy economy that benefits all of our regions and communities. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister Abernethy.
Madam Speaker, having healthy, vibrant and safe communities is a key priority for the Government of the Northwest Territories. This is why, over the past year, we have worked with communities as they developed wellness plans, to set priorities and guide how wellness funding should be directed.
I am pleased to announce that all of our communities are on track to complete their plans by March 31, 2014. These are living documents. They speak of the importance of supporting families and child development, celebrating culture, eating good food, being active, promoting mental wellness, building local capacity and building on community strengths. They identify priorities and will be the basis of work plans.
Madam Speaker, the department receives $8 million from Health Canada to support health and wellness in Aboriginal communities. This year we will allocate $5 million directly to Aboriginal communities on a multi-year block funding basis to support this important work. Funding can be used to support projects in three areas of vital importance to our communities. These priority areas include healthy children and families, mental health and addictions, and healthy living and prevention. Communities will determine their own priorities, based on their wellness plans.
The remainder of the funding is used to support the ongoing work of the new division of Aboriginal health and community wellness in the programs and services they provide to community and Aboriginal organizations in their implementation of their plans. This work will also include the organization of territory-wide events.
Madam Speaker, people still struggle with issues like addictions and family violence, and continue to have concerns about cancer and high rates of school dropout. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to address these issues. Communities need to find solutions that are appropriate for them. The benefits of having a healthy population go beyond an individual’s health status. Healthy people strengthen the community and the territory, increasing economic growth and social cohesion, and making our health care system more affordable and equitable.
Working with communities to implement their wellness plans will be a focus for the Department of Health and Social Services division of Aboriginal health and community wellness.
Building a strong and sustainable future for our territory can start by having a healthy population, Madam Speaker. Community wellness plans will provide a strong foundation for implementing government strategies that help support our residents and grow our economy. This includes work like the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, Anti-Poverty Strategy, the Early Childhood Development Framework and the Economic Opportunities Strategy. By working jointly with other GNWT departments like Education, Culture and Employment, and Justice, along with all of our other partners, we will achieve this goal. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I would like to rise and speak about the recent NWT chief coroner report regarding a female resident having a number of prescription medications in her system when she died from an accidental overdose in December 2012.
For me to start today, I have to go back about two years ago to almost the very day when I brought this issue up in the House, where I talked about the quiet addiction. That addiction is about the addictions to opiates, benzodiazepines and to codeine. I don’t believe it’s quiet anymore and I believe the recent report from the coroner reaffirms what we have spoken up about, this sleeping giant of the drug addiction journey, and that we need to spend a little more attention on this emergent addiction. From the words of our own NWT coroner, “From 2009 to 2012, we had over 1,700 overdose cases from prescription medication and over-the-counter medications.”
These are the deaths that were investigated, but we have to ask ourselves how many more deaths out there did not see the light of day.
Speaking of light of day, I always say sunshine is the best disinfectant. We’ve heard this again in the House: you can’t fix what you can’t count. So, we need to put some sunshine on why we’re not tracking prescription drug abuse and over-the-counter abuse in our system, and why it isn’t part of our overall general addictions survey. This is quite shameful to continue to hear.
Without a dedicated baseline to the program that we’re spending in areas of addiction, how does the department decide on which dollars go where and how they are spent? Without doing this baseline, which I am calling the quiet addiction, we do not know the end results of what can be done for the people who are suffering in this mode here.
With that, I will be asking the Minister of Health, later on today, about a lot of these unanswered questions in this quiet addiction prescription drug abuse, and hopefully we can get some of these questions answered and put a little sunshine on the situation. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. This Assembly, at the beginning of it, set some priorities to increase employment opportunities where they are needed most, by decentralizing more GNWT positions.
Last year’s government budget indicated that they were going to do more for decentralization and set it as a priority. We did do some decentralization and I thought we were on the right track to making this an effective way of getting jobs out into the communities.
This year during the budget, though, very little was indicated on what we’re going to do in the future. We talked about the 18 positions we did last year; we talked about the 52 positions from devolution. Where we know wasn’t a decentralization, there are more jobs going into Yellowknife than anywhere else. It’s actually anti-decentralization, and I know we’re being controlled by the federal government on that.
The government is looking at putting capacity into the communities. They say that’s why we’re not decentralizing right now. We’re doing office surveys; we’re putting houses into the communities, but that’s being done over three years. In three years that will be the 18th Assembly, not this one, not this one that set the priority to put those jobs out in those communities.
Today I’m going to have questions for the Premier on what is our big plan. We are talking about putting houses into communities; we’re talking about doing office space surveys, but where? What specific communities are we looking at? What are the examples? Are we putting three houses into Fort Res because we’re going to put three new positions there? Are we going to lease 10,000 square feet in Hay River because we’re going to move Transportation back into Hay River and make it a centralization in Hay River?
I’m going to be asking the Premier about what’s our big plan for decentralization. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Hay River Reserve is moving ahead with its fibre optic infrastructure. Starting in 2007, funding from CanNor helped the K’atlodeeche First Nation to move forward on an initiative to bring broadband telecommunications to the community. Five local band members built the one-kilometre link that connects several municipal buildings. The community hopes to connect more public places, in particular the band office, arena and the store.
The First Nation hopes to lease the fibre optic link to NorthwesTel and Telus, who can provide improved telecommunications services to residents. In turn, it will help NorthwesTel avoid the cost of building this infrastructure itself.
The advantages of broadband infrastructure are obvious. Many of the benefits do not have a dollar value. We have already seen how existing fibre optic capabilities enhance personal and business communication and program and service delivery in key areas of health and education. As the NWT moves ahead with its ambitious Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link, we will see it transform and diversify the local economy of rural and remote communities and support Arctic sovereignty and security goals.
The K’atlodeeche First Nation wants to expand its fibre optic network by 14 kilometres to reach Highway No. 2 and existing telecommunications infrastructure. When many First Nations communities hear about fibre optics, they think it is out of reach, but the K’atlodeeche First Nation’s information technologies manager says it’s possible for any small community to create their own wireless infrastructure.
CanNor believes that investing in telecommunications is very important for rural and remote communities. Investment in broadband infrastructure is the highlight of the new federal budget. I support the Government of the Northwest Territories’ efforts to advance the construction of the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link and I especially want to recognize the efforts of the K’atlodeeche First Nation in taking the initiative to bring the Hay River Reserve into the digital age.
The First Nation has made a wise investment in the community’s future and I applaud the leadership on a job well done. I wish them the best success to pursue their goals of expanding the network and in working with neighbouring companies to improve telecommunications in the North. Thank you, mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I recently received what I can describe as a brush-off letter – don’t worry, we’ve got it under control – from Aurora College Board of Governors. Of course, if you look at the top of the letterhead, it says from the Office of the President for the board of governors.
This really kind of annoys me because this highlights further what I talked about the other week, which is about their independent thinking about being able to do things without having it go through the office of the president.
The letter highlights many concerns I raised here the other week about trying to get the board of governors to meet with the students and not treat them like they’re some infectious who knows what. The letter tells me about, oh well, we have processes they can follow so we can meet with them, and while they may be misinformed from our discussion they had a few weeks ago, don’t worry, we’ll straighten out that thinking.
The college is vested into the success of the students. I’ll be tabling the letter later today and I think the public will be both disturbed and disgusted by the response of this letter by the chair of the Aurora College board.
Quite frankly, I think the board of governors should be doing anything in their power raised by the students to ensure their success, but while it’s quoted as we have some information that’s misinformed and certainly we have to make sure that they receive the proper information on the topics which impact their lives, what’s more important to the college than the essence of the students and their needs?
This is very frustrating when I see this. I asked the Minister, under Section 7, to use his authority to give the college direction, meet the students, find out what matters to them, but of course the letter tells me in their response, and again, I’ll be tabling it later today. It says the Aurora College Board of Governors’ manual specifically states that board members should be encouraged to continually talk to people like MLAs, Ministers, board members. My goodness, if you have to have a manual to tell people how to communicate, I mean, something there should be a red flag already saying it must be so off the rails that we have to tell them how to talk.
These students are humans. They have real concerns, whether it’s child care, whether it’s getting loans, whether it’s class times, whether its buses or whether it’s a school facility, and the Aurora College Board of Governors needs to hear this. How do they hear this? They hear this through a meeting.
So, I will be having questions later today in question period. But let’s be frank. They need to meet the students to know what matters to them. It’s about time that gets done.
Mr. Hawkins, last week in this House we have had quite a bit of subsequent discussion, and may I characterize it as fallout, over the way that the performance of deputy ministers was characterized.
Here again today we have some motives or some thoughts being imputed to a very small group of people, the board of governors of the college and, I would say, some very disparaging remarks about the chair who has penned this letter you are referring to.
I just want to again remind Members that these are people that are well known in the Northwest Territories. They are not here in this Chamber to respond or to defend themselves, and I think that Members should be very cautious in… I refer specifically to Mr. Hawkins saying that someone considers the students to be an infectious something. I think that that may be putting words in someone’s mouth, and again, this is a group, a fairly small group in the Territories that everyone knows, so please be very cautious about that, Mr. Hawkins.
The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have been hearing much lately about GNWT initiatives for early childhood development and early childhood education. I’m fully supportive of these initiatives. In fact, I think we should be putting more money into improving programs and services for our children aged zero to three.
Today I want to highlight some of the implications of the government’s early childhood development initiatives. The Department of Education will, in September 2014, start junior kindergarten in 29 of our 33 communities, and that will expand to all 33 communities by September 2016 when it will start in Yellowknife. Yellowknife is one of only a few NWT communities where there are several fairly large licenced daycares, and preschool or junior kindergarten programming is available at all Yellowknife school boards. But the implementation of junior kindergarten in 2016 will impact both the daycares and the schools.
My first concern: Junior kindergarten will provide an opportunity for parents to place their four-year-old into free classes instead of the fee-charging daycares, Montessori, or school-run junior kindergarten. For daycares, which are a for-profit business, who take children from a few months to four years of age, the four-year-olds provide the greatest chance for profit. The required ratio of caregiver to children is less than that for the zero to three-year-olds, and the business can register more four-year-olds than they can babies. Junior kindergarten will draw all those four-year-olds away from the daycares and into free junior kindergarten. In order to replace those four-year-olds with younger children, the daycare will have to hire more staff, thus losing out on their profit opportunity.
It’s quite likely that at least one daycare will lose enough of their profitability that the business will have to close, and in the end all that will accomplish is a reduction in the number of available child care spaces when they’re in short supply already. Yellowknife daycares have already seen a drop in their enrolments after the schools added their junior kindergarten fee-paying programs.
A second concern: Another initiative of ECE is to require certification of early childhood educators. That’s all well and good, but better qualified instructors means higher remuneration for staff and higher costs for the business that employs them. Will the Department of Education amend the ECD funding formula to assist daycares with the extra staffing costs they will incur? Apparently not.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
I inquired of the Minister of Education a short while ago whether or not his department will make any adjustments to the funding formula for daycares as a result of the implementation of junior kindergarten. The response from his office indicated no funding changes are coming. According to reports in the news media, the Minister has said that daycares will be provided with infrastructure money to change four-year-old spaces to spaces for babies or toddlers, but money for cribs and blankets doesn’t address the problem of bigger wage costs.
Until we have publicly funded early childhood care/early childhood education, the GNWT must increase the funding assistance for licenced daycares or we will lose some of our present services. I urge the Minister of Education to reconsider his $780 infrastructure funding announcement and provide more operational funding for licenced daycares to ensure we keep the daycare spaces we now have.
I will have some questions to the Minister of Education at the appropriate time.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Last week I had a very interesting conversation with a staff member who does work with one of the organizations that does good work on behalf of government, and we started talking about mental health and other issues that are associated with mental health, but the conversation got into suicides and the high rate of suicides in the NWT. According to our 2011 Health Status Report, the Northwest Territories is 65 percent higher than the rest of Canada, which is alarming and should actually be an issue and a focus for this government moving forward.
As we talked, we talked about how many counsellors we have across the Northwest Territories. I think it’s about 65 counsellors, but 65 counsellors in 19 communities. We have 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, which means that there are some people out there who are having some of these issues and concerns that are not getting addressed and rely either on telehealth or maybe through making phone calls, which is not always the best avenue. When you’re dealing with an individual, it’s always good to have that face-to-face so you can see expression, so you can see the stress that might be on these people.
As we talked a little bit more, we talked about suicide attempts, how we don’t keep stats of suicide attempts in the Northwest Territories. We have stats on the numbers of suicides, but this government and the department, possibly the Department of Health, can actually take a role, even the Department of Justice through the RCMP, with anybody who ends up in the emergency ward with self-inflicting injuries, that we start taking these statistics now and start looking at how many real issues we have out there in our communities that we can address now. Actually, it’s not taken at the moment, and in some cases these people who have self-inflicting injuries who end up in our emergency wards are sometimes let back out into their communities, which is contravening our Mental Health Act, which is something I’ve brought up in this House many times.
Moving forward, there are a lot of ways we can do prevention in this area, save the lives of many of our residents in the Northwest Territories and start providing better services in the communities.
I will have questions later on today for the Minister of Health and Social Services on how do we affect change, how do we make change. How do we start putting these things in order now to protect the lives of our residents of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I‘ve talked about the bafflegab of our Minister of Finance with respect to our Heritage Fund contributions and I’m sorry to say it continues. Because of the confusion and obscure ways that he chooses to hide the facts, the Minister has once again left the public with the wrong impression about our planned contributions to the Heritage Fund.
In today’s News/North a reporter noted the Minister’s commitment to contributing 25 percent of our net fiscal benefit to the Heritage Fund. The reporter then quite logically does the calculations: an estimated $60 million in net fiscal benefits; 25 percent, or $15 million, to go to Aboriginal governments; 25 percent, or $15 million, to go to the Heritage Fund. But alas, no. In the fine print of the Minister’s bafflegab, he means 25 percent of the net fiscal benefit leftovers after the 25 percent to Aboriginal governments is deducted.
In plain speak, the Minister means 18.75 percent, or $11 million of the net fiscal benefit will go into the Heritage Fund. This is a loss to our children’s future of $3.75 million per year from now going forward.
People may indeed ask why the Minister purposely ignores their desire for 25 percent of the net fiscal benefit to be contributed to the Heritage Fund. They may wonder why the Minister insists on using 25 percent when it is actually 18.75 percent of the net fiscal benefit. All I can say is that these are imminently reasonable questions for the public to ask. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I stand before the House today dismayed and frustrated. The reason: yet another failing of our health system. A family in Fort Simpson wanted me to raise this issue so no one has to go through this, and I hope we can learn from our mistakes.
This most recent case happened on Wednesday, February 5th, when a Fort Simpson elder slipped and fell in her home. She was taken by ambulance to the health centre, where two X-rays were taken. The first was blurry, so a second one was taken. Not seeing any obvious break, the doctor sent her home with a prescription of Tylenol 3.
On Thursday she was transported by her daughter in a single-cab pick-up truck for a follow-up appointment. Given my constituent’s condition, she should have been transported by home care in a van designed for disabled clients. In any case, the health centre medical staff failed a second time to diagnose her fractured hip and sent her home once again.
On Friday home care staff made a visit, but no doctor or nurse requested a follow-up examination. She spent the day in pain and great discomfort. It interfered with her eating, sleeping and even going to the washroom.
On Saturday, still in extreme pain, she was brought to the health centre a third time. Finally the doctor diagnosed a fracture and had her medevaced to Yellowknife. There she was thoroughly examined and promptly sent for surgery.
I apologize to my elder constituent and wish her a speedy recovery. I’m also looking to the Minister for immediate action to get to the bottom of this.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident. Last October I complained in this House about elders being sent home with aspirins instead of being medevaced to Yellowknife for a full examination. My concerns were triggered by a similar case in which an elder’s broken wrist went undiagnosed for months.
Among seniors, falls are the leading cause of injury. About one-quarter of falls result in moderate to severe injuries, and over 95 percent of hip fractures are caused by falls.
But it’s not only elders being incorrectly diagnosed. A third recent case involved a child who suffered for weeks without receiving critical health care for a serious condition.
The Department of Health and Social Services needs to review its protocols. Errors like this are inexcusable. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. There is nothing more heartbreaking than a preventable accident in which a child is harmed or even killed. Wherever children gather, it is the responsibility of parents, teachers and government officials to keep them safe.
Students at Moose Kerr School in Aklavik are mixing with street traffic and it’s a dangerous situation. The hamlet council in Aklavik has received concerns from parents and observers who fear an accident is waiting to happen.
Over the past couple of years, clientele at the local store near the school has increased. Patrons have nowhere to park except on the street that surrounds the school. The solution is to put up a parking lot. The Aklavik Hamlet Council is rightly concerned about incurring this cost and I’m calling on the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to see that a parking lot gets built.
In the meantime, school administrators and government officials have a clear obligation to enforce traffic safety protocols around the schoolyard. Crossing guards should be serving at the heaviest traffic areas during the busiest times of the day. Students should be regularly informed about traffic safety and advised to wear reflective gear so that they are visible to drivers.
As for the communications with drivers, there should be visible signs asking them to slow and exercise caution in the school zone. Drivers should be yielding the right-of-way of pedestrians at all the intersections, and reminded never to pass a school bus when it is stopping and the red lights are flashing, which isn’t a case there because we don’t have school buses. As well, RCMP officers should be proactive in their enforcement of traffic laws.
This dangerous situation in Aklavik raises a broader set of questions. Are we doing enough territory-wide to keep our children safe from traffic?
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Are we doing enough territory-wide to keep our children safe from traffic? Is traffic safety being rigorously incorporated into safe school plans across the NWT?
Going forward, I call on the Minister and other officials to enhance traffic safety measures around Moose Kerr School and to promptly resolve this unsafe situation by building a parking lot. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to rise and continue my discussions on prescription drug abuse here in the NWT. We do have serious addictions issues in the NWT and I know we are working toward solutions of dealing with them, and clearly I want to state for the record that we don’t want to undermine the fact that alcohol is probably one of, by far, the most abused substance in the NWT, but we do have a number of untracked addictions issues out there. With the recent NWT chief coroner’s report they echo those very same sentiments.
Prescription drug abuse of narcotics, benzodiazepines and certain over-the-counter medications are no longer the quiet addiction, and this addiction is real and now seeing the light of day.
My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As the issue of prescription drug abuse continues to surface, and again, when the NWT chief coroner reminds us of these 17 overdose cases from 2009 to 2012, what is the Minister or Department of Health and Social Services doing to track this addiction? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. We don’t actually have a mechanism to track prescription drug abuse at this point in time, but things are underway to try and address this particular concern, and it is a serious concern and we do need to address it.
Under the Pharmacy Act there is an ability to set up a prescription monitoring program, but due to privacy issues that we’re all aware of, we currently cannot require health care providers to enter information into the program. Because we cannot require health care providers to enter the information, we have not yet set up a program to monitor prescriptions.
We are working on the Health Information Act, and the Health Information Act would require health care providers to enter in the information to a prescription monitoring program, should one be established under the Pharmacy Act. Once we have the Health Information Act, we would be able to set up a functioning prescription monitoring program to help tackle prescription drug abuse issues in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
It sounds like we’re hearing a broken record here today from the Minister. I heard the very same results here going back almost two years ago in this House on February 14, 2012, from the previous Minister of Health, that there was to be work undertaken with the Bureau of Statistics to include prescription drug abuse with a general addictions survey.
Can the Minister of Health today indicate whether or not this actually happened? Thank you.
There are things happening with respect to the survey. I’ll certainly get that information back to the Member.
Within individual health and social services authorities, or at the authority level, steps have been taken and put in place to limit access to prescription medications in situations where there is a concern about potential abuse of medications. Also, the federal government is currently working in partnership with all of the territories and provinces across the country and looking at ways to address prescription drug abuse. As a department, we will continue to work with the federal and provincial governments on preventing and providing appropriate treatment services, including surveillance data on prescription drug abuse. So there are a number of things we are working on already under this particular issue.
