Debates of October 23, 2013 (day 37)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Canadians were shocked yesterday when they heard Mike Duffy reveal that it’s the kids in short pants that are pulling the levers in that government, Mr. Speaker. Time and time again I’ve asked the Health Minister about doing things. I’ve asked for support for addictions; he closes the Nats’ejee K’eh Centre. I ask him to put social workers on the street, he quietly behind the scenes ignores it although he publicly, a year and a day, he says he’d be happy to do it and help people on the street.

The question that remains is: Is the Health file too big for him and who’s making the decisions over in the Department of Health, because it clearly isn’t the Health Minister. Who is pulling the levers in the Department of Health and if this file is too big, there’s lots of room over here. Mr. Speaker, will he clear this up for the people of this House?

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, the Health file is not too big for me.

As I said a moment ago, this Minister committed in this House to provide social workers to help in partnership with the RCMP. The RCMP wanted it, the Minister agreed with it, I went upstairs to his office and talked to him and he thought it was a fantastic idea. Little to anyone’s knowledge, the mandarins behind the scenes all made these decisions that nothing would happen and the Minister was fine with this. What happened to that promise he made publicly here? Look at the streets today in this city. What has he done to improve this city and the health of Northerners? I would like to know.

Certainly putting social workers in RCMP cars is not going to prevent the violence in the city. However, we have looked at the idea of having social workers ride along with RCMP. We’re trying to identify some of the challenges that surround that. One of the main challenges surrounding that issue is we don’t have the staff to do it. Social workers are very busy. They have a social worker on call that the RCMP can call upon in a child and family service issue. If it’s a child protection issue, then a social worker is on call to do that, but to have social workers riding around with the RCMP to prevent violence in the city is not something we can do. It is something we aren’t funded to do and something we don’t have the human resources to do.

This Minister, a year ago, said this was a good idea. I talked to him in his office and he said it was a great idea. He said he’d appoint someone to solve this problem and work on this problem. A few days ago I heard from this very Minister, oh by the way, there’s a briefing note on my desk we never sent to you that explained over and over why we couldn’t do this. To this day I still have not been informed in any way why we can’t do this other than the fact of the Minister stating, I don’t know why we can’t do this. Who is in charge of this department and if he isn’t, come on over here. We’ll welcome you back in great arms because we’ll put someone over there that can do the job because this Minister doesn’t.

On October 15th at 9:23 a.m. I sent an e-mail to Mr. Hawkins explaining the problem. So if he hasn’t heard about it to this day, it’s because he hasn’t read his e-mail. Thank you.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister knows this is nothing. He could have come a year… It took a year to get any response from him. A couple of days ago, he then all of a sudden broaches the idea of, oh my goodness, I’m surprised… Mr. Speaker, I quote the paper, “Lately it seems things are getting a little rougher around here than they’ve been.” Again, I ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, other than doing nothing, put something on the table that he’s truly done to improve the lives of Northerners, or get out of Cabinet because you don’t belong there.