WHEREAS there are 10 communities in the Northwest Territories without resident RCMP officers;
AND WHEREAS there are nine communities in the Northwest Territories without resident nurses;
AND WHEREAS both policing and nursing services are critical to the health and safety of all communities and their residents;
AND WHEREAS the lack of these services has continued for many years despite ongoing pressure from communities and Regular Members to expand them;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the government identify at least two priority communities for new nursing and/or policing services and provide those services within the 2014-2015 fiscal year;
AND FURTHER, that by December 31, 2014, the government complete long-term plans, working with community governments and including timelines for implementation, to expand police and nursing services into communities now lacking those services;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the government provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion speaks about this government, past governments and the state of our communities. Ten communities in the Northwest Territories do not have a resident RCMP in their community and I happen to represent one of those communities. Other Members also have their communities. But more importantly it talks about nine communities that do not have resident nurses.
In the Northwest Territories, safety and health are very important to our people and we have have and have-not communities in regards to policing and nursing. So, I’m calling on this government to bring forward some type of business plans to look at how we start putting RCMP and/or nurses, because they kind of go together with the new policy, into our smaller communities where communities can enjoy some level of safety and comfort and security like other communities that do have full-time nurses, full-time RCMP and they can be in the same situation.
We have a two-tiered type of operation, services of communities in the Northwest Territories. I have been asking this government for the last 10 years, and Members who have been here longer, we’ve got to make a change. We’ve got to start investing in some of these critical, essential services in the communities with RCMP and nursing.
I’m looking forward to seeing something come forward from this government. So far we have 577 days to the next election. We’ll find out if that’s going to change in the next couple of days, but I wanted to say that there were many suggestions from this side on who we can work with on this issue and I’m bringing this motion forward, looking for Members to support and work with this government and have this government come forward to say yes, we have a plan, we have a plan in place and we want to. Let’s put the smiles of safety and security on those communities without RCMP and without nursing. Let’s modernize our communities and say you’re important to us, we will do this for you so they don’t have to continue to hear all the reasons why they can’t do it. Let’s do something about that. That’s what this motion is speaking to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. I’ll allow the seconder to the motion, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank Mr. Yakeleya for bringing this motion forward. First of all, I want to deal with the elephant in this room and that is why is a big city MLA concerned about a small community issue. This is important to me and it’s simple. This motion is an issue of equality, it’s an issue of accountability and it’s also an issue of class management. I will try to address these three ideologies in support of Mr. Yakeleya’s motion.
First of all, equality. Why are we allowing certain communities to be considered a tier 2 or second class to what is considered norm in larger centres in the Northwest Territories? Why should certain residents not feel secure or have access to basic health care needs? It’s clear you’re tethering on a human rights issue and ignoring the obvious will cost us more in the long run than just doing nothing, and this will cause a great divide of northern unity.
Second is the issue of accountability. Earlier this session the Minister of Justice alluded to the cost of setting up an RCMP service and new committee could run the government approximately $11 million a community and it would cost us to operate about $40 million if we were to implement all these communities. Yes, I think everyone would agree this is a costly ask within the shadow of this motion. However, this motion only speaks to the identification of two communities and, furthermore, that the government complete a long-term plan, work with community governments and include timelines for an implementation program, nothing more.
Finally, I’d like to deal with the subject of cost management. It’s clear the cost of set-up of implementation and ongoing operations for RCMP and nursing stations is modest. However, I’d like to equally challenge this government to question the long-term ongoing costs of unneeded medevacs, or on police, bootlegging and other elements of crime or health related issues which are eating away at precious dollars in our budget.
The question of maybe having an RCMP and nurse program could save us money in the long run; we really don’t know. So we need, as this motion indicates, a proper cost analysis and incorporate all of our stakeholders so that we can find out whether or not this is truly, indeed, a cost savings.
In the end, this motion speaks to the softer ask of this government to do what is fair and reasonable for all of our communities, especially for their health and their safety. This is why it makes sense for this big city MLA to support this small community motion. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much. There is outstanding support from the Yellowknife Members and I want the support from Cabinet as well.
As the MLA for Nahendeh I’m the MLA with the most small communities. Actually, four of my communities don’t have the nursing and policing services that this motion speaks about. Most particular, I’ve been up here time and time again trying to get those same services for the community of Wrigley.
In order to get full Cabinet support I’m going to move an amendment here, Mr. Speaker, that we remove the reference to add to the budget in the 2014-15 year because Cabinet perception is of us adding to the budget we just passed. I think they’re almost compelled to vote against something that adds to the budget. So I want Cabinet support and I hope they vote in favour. I know that they’re going to be silent on the issue, but I think that by removing this reference to the budget that they won’t vote against it.
Also, I encourage Cabinet, as well, because there’s room in this year’s planning process, which begins around July, August. So for planning for the business plans, I believe by softening the motion, as it were, we can encourage our Cabinet friends to include the policing and nursing for small communities in the business planning.
So with that, Mr. Speaker, I’ve got a motion to amend.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the amendment to the motion. Mr. Menicoche.
