Debates of August 22, 2007 (day 15)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I understand it, a lot of this work is sort of already done. So, Mr. Speaker, I would like to find out what we are actually doing with this information. Mr. Speaker, we are moving forward on the Taltson project. I would like to find out how we are lowering our power rates for northerners. Are we going to eventually hook up the Taltson power through Yellowknife and possibly go through east to west and hook up some of our South Slave communities? Are we working towards this? Cheaper power is before us. The opportunity is before us. So with the information before us, what are we doing with that great information? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 182-15(6): Development Of New Hydro Strategy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the challenge that we face is because we have such a small customer base by 40,000 people and trying to have the infrastructure and the cost to operate that infrastructure burdened by that 40,000, you have to find new customers. Again, you look at other provinces across the country and Quebec, Manitoba, B.C., who have developed their hydro industry around the export of power. As the North moves forward, we will have to consider that as a means of generating new revenues. We are looking at other revenue sources, such as I mentioned, the diamond mines, the pipeline, in regards to getting those customers to pay the majority of the cost to generate that power but, more important, for us to bring in more revenues so we are able to bring down the cost of power to residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 182-15(6): Development Of New Hydro Strategy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, as many of us know here, the PUB keeps shooting down the one-rate zone because you can’t operate in isolation. In other words, as the Minister has pointed out, you can’t have one style of power generation here and another there and another there and they come at three different costs. In fact, you can’t harmonize the costs because of the different delivery systems that we have. So, Mr. Speaker, how to deal with this is right before us. We can start harmonizing our power generation by working together. As the Minister said, we can start putting power to our diamond mines. In the sort of bigger picture moving forward view and strategy, will the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation work to ensure that, when we develop the Taltson project further, he will ensure that the Yellowknife system will be hooked into this as it goes by to the diamond mines and that will help with the territorial power rates by bringing everyone’s power rate down, including Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 182-15(6): Development Of New Hydro Strategy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to the comment the Member made regarding the PUB saying we are not interested in one rate, I don’t think that is the case. The PUB has made it clear that it has to be a policy decision by this Legislature and the government of this Legislature to establish that policy is clear and concise on exactly what we want to subsidize and what we don’t want to subsidize. Again, it is a policy decision that has to be made by this Legislature to look at the rate systems that we have and direct the PUB to consider that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to continue my questions with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on this issue of the housing rental assessments. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister wanting to sit down with me within this short time frame of our term as a Member. I would like to ask the Minister, this is one example in my questioning the housing assessments. There is a high core need in my community and other communities in the North. There are a lot of people that are crammed into these little houses. The assessments are done on household income, not on the person who is signing the lease for that house. Mr. Speaker, I just want to state that there are a lot of people who are crammed into these units here. A lot of them want to work, but they are getting dinged by the Housing Corporation. Is the Minister willing to look at some flexibility and a phase-in approach to these people to start taking ownership of their own homes through a phase-in approach to paying for their rent? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 183-15(6): Social Housing Rent Assessment

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, it is the Housing Corporation that sets the rents for units in the North. Education, Culture and Employment calculates what subsidy a family might qualify for. That rent is then taken into account. We can certainly sit down with our partners at the Housing Corporation, as I said earlier, to make sure that we are available to work with members of the community to ensure that they are aware of all the programs. The Housing Corporation has a number of programs that are geared to income to help people get into better housing situations. We are now tasked with both ECE, Housing Corporation and Health and Social Services staff trying to work more together. I can make that commitment to the Member that we will look to see what we can do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 183-15(6): Social Housing Rent Assessment

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s willingness to go to bat for the Sahtu people and other people around this issue here to talk to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, it is a good program that the department has put out; however, it needs some tweaking. It needs to continue to be improved. This is one issue here. Would the Minister, through his discussions with the Housing Minister, look at this situation where the phase-in approach could be done immediately in terms of supporting people who are now in this situation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 183-15(6): Social Housing Rent Assessment

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, I will ensure there are staff that get together to follow up with the concern in the community immediately. We will work to ensure that the supports that are available right now are being provided to family members. The other thing that is important, Mr. Speaker, as I said in my statement today, the next program that we are hoping to see some work on redesign is the public housing rental subsidy. So we are expecting that that program will also now, over the course of the next year, be modified to reflect the new policy that we have in this government. That policy clearly is set up to ensure that it is flexible and it brings people the supports they need to become more independent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions again are for the Minister responsible for Human Resources. We look back over the past 10 years of this government and the government before it and the government before that have spent over $8 million in the area of PeopleSoft and the software there for human resources. Just last year, we spent another $450,000 on a Hackett report to go over business processes at HR. Just recently in the supp, there is another $523,000 to deal with PeopleSoft. It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that it is a black hole of public funds that is going into a product that basically does not deliver the value for the money that the government is putting into it. I would like to ask the Minister what the plan is going forward to deal with the inadequacies of that software, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 184-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of the cost of the PeopleSoft program shouldn’t be a surprise to the Member. If you look at the Grant Thornton report which was done in the year 2000, it predicted that the annual cost for PeopleSoft would be about $1.8 million including licensing, software support, hardware acquisition and so on. So there is an ongoing cost to having any program that the government runs, because it has to continually update that and pay for its support and licensing.

Mr. Speaker, it is also important for me to state that the programs, all of the modules that are used right now, are working as expected. So there is one module which would have been a new module over and above what the government had in place before that is not working, but everything else is working as expected. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 184-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I’d like to get at is we are spending all this money in the area of PeopleSoft and it’s because the program itself was cut up over the years or bastardized, if I could. I want to find out who is responsible for making these decisions where that program that we’ve spent millions of dollars gets cut up to suit our needs of the day and it doesn’t look long term on what the future needs of the Government of the Northwest Territories are and we end up having to pay more money. I’d like to ask the Minister who is responsible for making decisions in regard to PeopleSoft when it comes to cutting that program up and causing us to spend more money in the future, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 184-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was a decision that was made by previous governments, so it’s not one I can specifically say that was a previous Premier or Minister responsible for HR because that department is new. However, it was done prior to this government coming into place in 2003. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 184-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to know if anybody that was responsible for making decisions that are affecting us today is still working for the government and, if they are, I really do believe, Mr. Speaker, that somebody somewhere has to be held accountable and has to be responsible for the decisions that were made with PeopleSoft. If it’s not the Minister, it’s not the Premier, it’s not this government -- they want to wash their hands of it -- who is it? Who can we say is responsible for the situation we find ourselves in today, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 184-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, because that relates to a previous government, I can’t answer that question. As the Member is quite aware, in our system of government it is the Minister that is responsible for decisions that are made by their departments. Therefore, the Minister, if the question had come up in this House at the time, then that Minister could have been held responsible. But we have a situation where…It’s like in Ottawa when we have the Liberals in power, they blame the party that was there first; when the Conservatives come in, they blame the Liberals. Well, it’s the same situation in here in that we’re not able to go back and say that such and such should have happened. At the time that some of these decisions were made, I certainly wasn’t on Cabinet. It’s a situation where it’s a ministerial responsibility and the person who is responsible may not ever be found. Sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 184-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the incidents that I’ve pointed to today such as the security breach that happened last winter, the recent module failing, all of the concerns of the employees, the client concerns, those hundreds of people who didn’t receive a paycheque after July 3rd when the system crashed, I’d like to ask the Minister is there going to be any disciplinary action taken on staff at Human Resources for causing us these problems, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 184-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, everybody did get a paycheque so there isn’t a situation where people haven’t been paid. In fact, everybody got a paycheque by the next banking day. That happened because of the work that people put in at the Department of Human Resources. I’m quite proud of the fact that people worked 23, 24 hours straight in order to ensure that the paycheques went out. Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, in our opinion, the reason that there was a problem stems back to the contractor. This government does not have the expertise to buy a program off the shelf and install it; that’s why that was done through a contractor. We had a contract for a program to be delivered. In our opinion, it wasn’t delivered in a working fashion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I recall, Tuktoyaktuk was supposed to receive telehealth equipment for the Tuk Health Centre this past year. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he can give an update in terms of when the installation of that equipment will be located in the Tuk Health Centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 185-15(6): Tuktoyaktuk Telehealth Equipment

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the equipment, along with a lot of other health centres as we’ve engaged in implementing our Telehealth Program throughout the Territories, is in the community, but it’s a matter of getting some work done on the facility to have the proper hook-ups in place. That should be happening fairly soon, but I don’t have the specific date. I can get that to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Pokiak.

Supplementary To Question 185-15(6): Tuktoyaktuk Telehealth Equipment

Thank you for that information, Mr. Minister. I’m just wondering…I would appreciate it if you can provide that information and maybe within the next month or so that it can be in place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 185-15(6): Tuktoyaktuk Telehealth Equipment

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do believe we are aiming for near the end of September, but I’ll have to verify that information. Yes, I will get that to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mr. Pokiak.

Supplementary To Question 185-15(6): Tuktoyaktuk Telehealth Equipment

Thank you. Does the Minister guarantee that by maybe October 1st it will be up and running? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 185-15(6): Tuktoyaktuk Telehealth Equipment

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my role as the Finance Minister I’ve had to sign different guarantees, but on this one specifically, because we will have to go out for a contract and get some renovations done, I can’t guarantee it. However, our goal is to have it in place for the fall time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Income support clients are covered for some benefits such as ambulance, dental and vision services, but some people with disabilities who cannot work and who collect CPP/disability pensions are not covered. Why does this discrepancy exist? Has or will this issue be addressed in the income support review?

Our government provides supported living for persons with mental health and intellectual challenges, but not for those with physical disabilities. Enhanced home care services and other suggested living programs are needed. Has or will this discrepancy be resolved in the income support review?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Before we go to the next order on the Order Paper, colleagues, the Chair is going to call a short break.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity today to announce to my constituents that I won’t be seeking re-election in the upcoming territorial election. I want to thank them for their support over the last eight years. It’s been an absolutely wonderful experience for me; the most rewarding eight years of my life. Of course, a number of things, and Members know, Mr. Speaker, have happened to me in my personal life over the last eight years, very important things: I have been married, I have two wonderful children now and so it’s an amazing time of change for me. Professionally, it’s been absolutely stimulating, very rewarding and it’s given me the opportunity to meet and work with some very exciting people. So it’s been a great experience.

I have a number of people I would like to thank. Everybody in this building, who works in the building, I want to tell them how much I appreciate the staff, the efforts that they’ve made, the Members I have had a chance to work with and the friends I have made in this building both in the last four years and previous. I very much appreciate the chance to work with them. So it was a difficult decision for me to make, one I made with my family with a bit of a heavy heart because I like the job as much today as the day I was first elected. I am as excited about the job today as I was then, but there are a number of other things I would like to pursue, so I will be doing that.

Let me thank my family; my wife, Jill, my daughters, Emily and Madison. My little daughter Emily is now just getting to the age where she is starting to understand that I go off to work. I am sure my wife put her up to it, but she’s been asking me daily for the entire week if I have retired yet.

---Laughter

So tonight when I go home, I can tell her that yes, in fact, I have retired and it seems a very strange thing to say; retired from territorial politics at this time. A lot of credit to my wife. As Members of this House know, much of your personal life, this job ends up being the focus of it. You end up being the centre of attention in the family, obviously not deliberately, but it just goes with the territory, and my wife has made a lot of sacrifices for me in this job. I very much love her for that and appreciate that. I am excited about the chance to spend more time with her, with my little girls, more pancakes on the weekends. They have been through a lot with us. There are many ups and downs, as Members know, in this job. More ups than downs, I must say, but they have been very strong through it all. It’s difficult for spouses, Mr. Speaker. They never appreciate when they see things in the media or newspaper that they feel is unnecessarily critical of you. It’s one thing for us to develop the thick skins that we all must and we all have, but it’s entirely another to see our families go through that. It’s been a great experience, as I say. I can’t think of another job where I would have the ability to travel to all 33 communities in the Northwest Territories. That’s been great. As a youngster, of course, I did sports and got a chance to travel a fair bit, but nothing like this and not meeting the kinds of people that I have met. I know my wife understands how important that was to me and has been very supportive of me the whole way through.

There are some staff people I would also like to mention. MaryAnne Woytuik has been with me eight years, first as constituency assistant and now upstairs in my office. I love her like family. She’s wonderful and she’s been very supportive and I will very much miss working with MaryAnne on a day-to-day basis.

Pietro DeBastiani, he’s been great as well. Early on, he and I sat down and talked about what I thought the job that he was about to embark on entailed and what was most important to me. I said to him the most important thing to me was he work very closely with Members, ordinary Members, to deal with and solve problems on behalf of their constituents. I found it somewhat frustrating as an ordinary Member in my first term trying to deal with Ministers who were very busy, their office was very busy and I wanted to commit, between the two of us, that we would put Members’ concerns as top priority and so that has been his first priority. I hope that Members have found that that has been a good experience for them. I know Pietro takes the concerns very seriously and works very hard for you.

The other thing I would like to say about Pietro is he’s been very good to remind me that this job will go on, this government and the people will go on after each and every one of us is gone, but our families are critical. Striking that balance is critical. That’s the most valuable piece of advice Pietro has given me and I thank him very much for that.

I would also like to mention Betty Anne Winsor who was my constituency assistant. She’s been gone for about a year now and she was so good that I figured that I could never replace her adequately, so I just never bothered.

---Laughter

I miss her. She was wonderful for the constituency and did a great job. I appreciate all of her efforts.

To the departmental staff, I have had a few departments. I have gone through the change to ITI from ENR. Some of that was difficult, but I want to point to two people; my deputy minister who says, as I think all Members know and certainly Ministers know, you are only as strong as the team that you have, and that deputy minister is certainly a critical part of the team; Don Cooper with the Department of Justice. I think people across the Northwest Territories like Don, liked to work for him and that’s why I think he’s been able to assemble one of the strongest legal teams in the North and kept all of those people together for a long, long time. There is very little turnover in that department and people find it very rewarding to work for him and I have been the beneficiary of that and I think all of us in the Assembly have been the beneficiary of that. A lot of credit goes to Don for that.

Peter Vician, let me say that in this job meeting with industry, I have met a lot of CEOs of energy companies, a lot of CEOs of mining companies who are all very, very well paid, much better paid than we pay our deputy ministers. So I can tell you that I have not many of them who I think are more competent than Peter or who do a better job at doing their job than he does. He is an absolute professional and this government is lucky to have him.

Assembly staff, there have been a number of people through this building and let me say I appreciate all of your efforts over the years. I hope that, again, although Members are the focus of so much of what we do, I hope that I have been able to deal with you fairly. Member Miltenberger has commented often before on Members and how we tend to become “clicky fingered” I think is how he refers to it. That potentially may be inevitable. I hope that we haven’t been with the staff and I want to tell them how much I value the work that they’ve done. Board of Management staff, first David Hamilton in my first term was instrumental in providing advice to the Board of Management. I was on that and had quite a role in dealing with a number of events on Board of Management. Katherine Petersen as well provided very good advice to that board. Now filling those shoes, and filling them ably, is Tim Mercer and Glen Boyd. I appreciate all the work they have done for that board that has taken a lot of my time over the last eight years. Myles Moreside, let me say, if I could point to one guy, the wheels could really fall off this place if Myles eventually retires and I suppose it’s inevitable that he will, but I appreciate all of his work on behalf of Members.

My future, Mr. Speaker, there are still a lot of unknowns for me. There are a number of things I am interested in politically as I have alluded to. I won’t deny that I will have an interest in that in the future, but more immediately I am looking forward to getting back into business. This is something that I have missed immensely. That has never been off my mind. I look forward to being able to pursue some of those interests in the near future. Who knows what the future will bring, but I want to just tell my constituents that I appreciate your support. It’s been a great experience for me, an eight years I will never forget. I want to thank you for that. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to make this brief, but I didn’t want to let the opportunity pass to share some of my reflections on work in this Assembly.

First of all, I want to say what an honour it is to serve the people of the North and particularly constituents of Hay River South. For as long as I can remember, I have had an irrepressible need to know what’s going on and being involved in what’s going on and contributing to the things I believe are worthwhile and valuable.

There are some things about this job that are challenging at times, but at the end of the day we can look back with some satisfaction at the results of what we’ve accomplished and how each and every Member has made a difference. I think sometimes we underestimate the influence that our varied background and life experiences bring when we come together to advance the aspirations and well-being of our constituents.

I am a 12-year Member now of this astute institution and this will be the pride of my résumé's achievements, but, more importantly, I hope a season of leadership on behalf of a community and a group of people who, with me, call Hay River home. It’s that interaction with those constituents that brings the most fulfillment for me. It makes all of those long drives, including the drive on Highway No. 3…

---Laughter

…and early morning departures to catch that flight to Yellowknife, leaving home and family, worth the effort. I never cease to consider it an honour when approached by a constituent to help them in some way. You need the patience to listen, the wisdom to provide counsel when asked for it, the knowledge to identify some potential solutions, and the skill to articulate the need or the idea to a Minister or your colleagues from whom you need support for results.

I believe that in spite of many challenges we continue to face in our territory, that the future of the North is very bright and I look forward to facing that future in this Assembly again should the people of Hay River choose to elect me again on October 1st. It’s a unique opportunity to take a chapter in time and bring your efforts and experience to bear on the issues during such an exciting time here in the North.

I’ll save all the winds for Hay River during this last term for the candidates’ forum. I won’t share that.

---Laughter

It’s a long list though. I’d like to wish my fellow colleagues all the best in their future endeavours, whether that be in this arena or wherever their lives may take them and we have a close working relationship and that camaraderie in this setting creates a bond that will last long after we’ve walked out of these doors.

To the Members who have decided to move on, Premier Handley, Mr. Dent, Mr. Braden, Mr. Bell, it has been a pleasure. Mr. Dent told me after his reply to the opening address this week that he was going to mention that no matter which department he was asked to head, that I always picked on him.

---Laughter

---Applause

Let me assure him today, Mr. Speaker, that it was never personal and that I have the greatest respect for him and his lovely family. It was indeed a pleasure to have Tyler here in the Assembly as a Page last week and he should be very, very proud of his son.

Mr. Braden, I call him the walking thesaurus because, unlike my crisp and direct communications most of the time, Mr. Braden searches for the most appropriate word and sometimes in doing so uses three words in place of one.

---Laughter

To Mr. Bell, of course somebody who I have been close to during my 12 years, his eight years here in this Assembly, and certainly a bright and articulate young man with many good prospects for the future and I’m sure will go far. So keep an eye on Mr. Bell because in a term they use in the legal profession, let me say, he is absolutely top drawer.

To Premier Handley, who will have now more time to pursue things that he loves, and when you talk to him you have to believe that he loves his grandchildren and I’m sure he’ll have more time to spend with them now than ever. I understand his wife’s picked out a new motor home. So she will get some of that time that she will want to spend with him and won’t have to share him with everybody else. At least for a little while, until he takes up something new.

To my seat mate, Mr. Ramsay, it’s very lonely here on the far right.

---Laughter