I move the following motion:
WHEREAS our elders hold the wisdom, history and knowledge of our communities and our territory, and should be respected and honoured;
AND WHEREAS elder abuse, including physical, sexual, psychological and financial abuse and neglect is sadly a common and significant threat to seniors in our communities;
AND WHEREAS the International Network on the Prevention of Elder Abuse has proclaimed June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day;
AND WHEREAS the NWT Seniors’ Society has declared June 12th to 18th as NWT Elder Abuse Awareness Week;
AND WHEREAS proclamation of an NWT Elder Abuse Awareness Week would raise public awareness of the various forms of abuse older adults experience throughout the NWT and would encourage seniors to become more informed and educated about the signs of elder abuse and the supports and help available to them, and would support efforts to make the lives of older adults better;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the Legislative Assembly resolves to formally observe June 12 to 18, 2011, as NWT Elder Abuse Awareness Week.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to my colleagues. Some may consider this a somewhat unusual motion and feel that perhaps it isn’t necessary as often the various departments will recognize particular weeks. I think it’s really important that we as legislators and that this Assembly makes this motion and passes this motion, because it indicates the importance that we as legislators give to our seniors.
I’ve often heard Members speak and say that part of our culture is that we respect seniors and honour seniors, and that elders are a very important part of our culture and our society. Unfortunately, we have people within our communities within the NWT who don’t respect our seniors and elders and don’t honour them. Some of them are subjected to abuse, and I’ve mentioned many of the forms of abuse within the motion. Thankfully there’s a growing recognition of that abuse of elder and abuse of older adults is a problem.
The NWT Seniors’ Society is working very hard towards giving greater recognition to this problem, and to addressing the problem, and are finding solutions for it. The report that was tabled earlier today entitled Making Connections has some excellent work that the society has done, and there are some excellent recommendations in there which I hope the government will take advantage of.
I feel that the problem of elder abuse needs to be given a higher profile. We need to increase the public awareness and I think that this motion will get us some ways towards that. I think the motion tells all NWT residents that their legislators, we as MLAs, respect the values that elders bring to our work and to the territory. I think it also indicates the importance of this issue and that we are going to work to eradicate it.
I would encourage all Members to support this motion. I hope that the Executive Council will consider to vote on this. There is no requirement for them to spend any money. I would ask for a recorded vote.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a few comments to my support. Anytime we look at something that would support the elders in whatever fashion, I like to lend my support. I would like to thank the Member from Yellowknife here for bringing this forward to recognize the date of June 15th to 18th, I believe it’s Elder Abuse Week, and also to bring awareness to the elders.
When you read the report that the Member has made reference to, it’s fairly frightening. A lot of the issues that the elders are dealing with, sometimes they think it’s the normal way of how things are done in the community, or they haven’t really recognized the level of degrees of abuse that they may be suffering or taking on. They think that’s okay or normal for friends and family members to take advantage of them.
Financial, not taking care of them, emotional abuse, or just by using your mouth. A lot of these elders are scared in our communities. A lot of them shouldn’t be like that; however, that’s the way society is operating. That’s how we’re living today.
As Members of the Legislative Assembly, if it wasn’t for our elders, we would have it difficult in our communities. It’s the elders that through the preservation of their strength and courage that they give us advice to keep on going. It’s a sad day in the Northwest Territories when we as legislators think that we know it all and we don’t want to really give that much support to our elders. This is giving some promise to the awareness for our elders, for the prevention, and to really understand our grandparents and understand our people.
I want to say thank you to the Member and hope that one day we’ll have an elders secretariat within the government, that this government here can take some real ownership, like they have with the Women’s Secretariat, and the secretariat can be set up within the future government to say you are important to us, you matter, and abuse has to stop at all levels. No more shall elders be taken advantage of. That is not our culture and that is wrong. That is wrong by all our people. Hopefully our elders can have some level of comfort that this week here will be given to them, because they certainly deserve it. My grandmother deserves it. So do each of the grandparents in this room here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Miltenberger.
