Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great pleasure to see so many people in the gallery today. I won’t go through the list that my colleagues have already gone through, but I’m particularly pleased to see so many members from the NWT Literacy Council, from the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition, from Alternatives North and from the Y. Welcome to all of you. I’d like to specifically recognize three people, two constituents: Lorraine Hewlett and Suzette Montreuil. I would like to specifically welcome my constituency assistant, Amanda Mallon, to the House. Welcome everybody and thank you for coming.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to make special recognition of my former colleague Mr. David Krutko, who I served in this Legislature with for 16 years. I have taken up his seat in the Legislature. I have taken up his seat in committee. I will follow his proud tradition of firing the odd surprise shot over the bow.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure to recognize a few visitors in the gallery today. I’d like to first recognize Mr. Tom Hoefer, the executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines. Mr. John Ketchum, who is the GNWT manager at the Northwest Territories Geoscience Office. Both men were instrumental in the Geoscience Forum that was recently held and I thank them for that. Also with them this afternoon is Mr. Christian Bertelsen. He’s the acting director of minerals and petroleum with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. I’d also like to welcome this afternoon our Order of Canada recipient Arlene Hache, my former colleague Mr. David Krutko from the Mackenzie Delta, and everyone else that’s joined us here this afternoon in the Legislative Assembly. It’s great to have you here.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a privilege to have so many great volunteers and hardworking people that deal with a lot of serious issues in our community. More importantly, I’d like to make reference to one of my Range Lake constituents, Valerie Miyok, who is the administrative assistant for the NWT Literacy Council. Welcome to the House. Of course I would be remiss because of my statement today on Betty House and the tireless efforts of our true champion Ms. Dayle Hernblad, who is the homeless coordinator for the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition. Thanks, Dayle.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. David Krutko, former Member for Mackenzie Delta. Thank you for all your hard work.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a constituent and employee of the Status of Women Council, Samantha Dechief.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. I, too, would like to welcome Chase and Cheryl to the House today. Welcome. I’d like to recognize anyone that has not been recognized already. Thank you for coming and joining us today for the day’s proceedings. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about growing up in Tulita – at that time Fort Norman – as a young boy and what we had to do to support each other. I guess my question is probably to the Premier.
We didn’t know what poor was until we started to have some measurement of what other people had that we didn’t have. We supported each other. I want to ask the Premier if this government is working on a definition of poverty for the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we’ve been doing a lot of consultation and going throughout the regions and visiting 13 communities, I believe. We also had a survey across the Northwest Territories and we’ve developed a discussion paper which we are now developing into a strategy which will be based on the community consultations that we undertook and the priorities set by this Assembly to develop an Anti-Poverty Strategy. As part of that, my expectation is that there will be a definition of poverty in there.
There are various interpretations of the definition of poverty. There are forums on how to tackle poverty in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Premier, in his work that is before him with the anti-poverty organizations and communities, does he have an indication as to when a strategy will be completed that will have further discussions with Members from this side?
Since the coalition of 14 groups presented a number of documents to the previous Premier in the 16th Assembly, which was in December 2009, there has been considerable work undertaken in this area. It is our expectation that we will have this by the middle of 2012.
I look forward to the report some time in 2012. As part of the report, has there been any type of discussion on any upcoming legislation that would support the strategy for the anti-poverty for the North?
When we met the Caucus of the 17th Assembly, we developed the priorities for this Assembly. We identified the priorities which are all part and parcel of an Anti-Poverty Strategy. In our discussion we did not envision legislation for an anti-poverty act, but I guess as we go forward, if that’s something that’s brought forward, we would look at it.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very hopeful in hearing the Minister’s words that if there is some interest or some need that we need to look at some legislation to support the Anti-Poverty Strategy initiatives, that we could have a look at it and, of course, that will support the goals of the Caucus priorities to see where we need to move away from some of the issues that are brought forward. I want to ask the Premier if he would put out a call or discussion paper or something that would now begin to bring in the key people to start working on this Anti-Poverty Strategy for some finality within the life of this government.
We’ve already undertaken at least six months of consultations and survey work. We can get a copy of any existing anti-poverty acts and provide it to the Member and we can use it for our benefit as well.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also for the Premier today. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement. Clearly, the statistics describe the vast disparity in household incomes between our richest and poorest citizens. I would appreciate a general reaction on this from the Premier. It’s obvious that these are trustworthy numbers and the trend is not a good one. Does the Premier agree that we can’t really claim to have a just and equitable society when some people have so much and increasing numbers of other people struggle to survive on so little? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The facts as quoted by my colleague, in fact, are true. I mean, we see quoted in national media that Yellowknife has the highest per capita income in Canada, but they never report on the high cost of living.
There was considerable work done in the 15th Assembly where we looked at how much this government was spending on subsidies to assist people living in the Northwest Territories, and the number that we came to was something in the neighbourhood of $158 million. There was also work undertaken by ECE and Health and Social Services to see what salary range we would have to go to before the subsidies or support stops. I think the most expensive place was Sachs Harbour and I think it was $93,000.
There are differences between the small and large communities. We also looked at how could we do it so that we have a system whereby no matter how you set it up, if you work, you’re always better off than not working. We did some work in that area and I’m expecting that as part of our Shelter Policy review that we will have some discussions about those areas. Thank you.
Thank you for that response from the Premier. I think it’s well known that this government is spending a lot on these issues and particularly in the area of housing. That’s certainly got a lot of national attention lately. Yet, clearly, the income disparity increases. The number of people living in poverty, that proportion of their income doesn’t change and gradually worsens, relative to our high income people. There is still some work to be done and I think that’s what we’re all about today.
Many other Canadian jurisdictions have pursued the approach of anti-poverty strategies. Their approaches are based on the principle that people have a right to adequate food, housing, health care and other basic social services.
I’d also like to confirm, before my last couple of questions, that this government subscribes to this principle, and ask the Premier what we need to do to actually work with families to help get them out of poverty rather than just helping them live in poverty. Thank you.
I’d like to point out that we’re not starting something new. This started in the 16th Assembly. In May of 2010 the Premier of the day committed to developing a discussion paper on anti-poverty. There was an intergovernmental working group set up. In October 2010 there was an anti-poverty workshop set up. In December 2010 we had an advisory group of stakeholders on poverty. We undertook community consultations over a period of January to April 2011. We also briefed standing committee. We did a survey, as I indicated. We had a report on what we heard. We’ve been working and developed a broad discussion paper. We’re now at the stage where we are looking at having an Anti-Poverty Strategy.
This is work that we’re building on. We have gone directly to the people of the Northwest Territories, we’ve heard their reaction and their views on what the causes of poverty are and we will build that into our strategy that we are working on. Thank you.
I’m glad we are working on a poverty strategy. I think there are probably a couple of different interpretations on the work that’s been done to date; however, I won’t dwell on that.
Representatives of the Anti-Poverty Alliance met recently with the Priorities and Planning committee to discuss developments on creation of an Anti-Poverty Strategy, and they also plan to meet with Cabinet in the new year, I believe, in January. Given the broad-based called for creation of a strategy, the unfulfilled promises of the last government and a promise to make an Anti-Poverty Strategy a priority from 18 of us, when will this government actually meet the commitments and get to work on a strategy, and can the Premier confirm that that’s actually underway right now? Thank you.
We will be meeting with the Anti-Poverty Coalition, I believe it’s called, on January 19th. We are working on a draft strategy that will build on the priorities of the 17th Assembly. It’s my expectation that we would have something by the middle of 2012. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question for the Premier is: The request for an Anti-Poverty Strategy calls for its creation through a broad process involving businesses, communities, organizations, labour, and people living in poverty. Will the Premier commit to just such a process? Thank you.
I believe I tried to convey in my previous response that we’ve already done that. We’ve already gone out and consulted throughout every region of the Northwest Territories. We met with over 250 people. We’ve held over 30 focus group sessions in 13 communities. We conducted a territorial-wide survey to get people’s views on poverty. We believe we’ve done the heavy lifting already so that we can get to work on developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy based on the priorities of the 17th Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Justice. We look at some of the underlying factors that lead people into poverty and sometimes it’s not necessarily the case of their fault; it’s, rather, an outside source. And in this case I’m talking about the drug dealers and the bootleggers in the communities that continue to feed off of the weaknesses and the addictions that people have in the communities. My question today is for the Minister of Justice. What are their plans to increase the RCMP presence in the communities and whether or not they are looking at increasing their RCMP canine force by including possibly another member in that area for the north region of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for that question. Currently the “G” Division has two fully operational drug services in the Northwest Territories. One is located here in Yellowknife; the other one is in Hay River. These teams support the division, all the detachments throughout the Northwest Territories. The dogs and their handlers also visit communities throughout the Northwest Territories, both for showcasing what they do but also to conduct investigations. This is part of our promotional anti, sort of, prevention mechanism as well.
Recently the teams attended some community visits in Inuvik and then from there they actually went out to all of the communities in the Beaufort-Delta or as many as they could get to. The RCMP needs to examine if they still need the value of these services to see if additional services will be required. Once they have done this analysis, they will be able to tell us and submit a proposal for increased dog teams in the Northwest Territories. We don’t know what the results of that review are, but once we get it, I will share that information with the Member.
With respect to what we are doing in the Northwest Territories, the Department of Justice and the RCMP division are investigating options for improving community services. These are the types of things I talked about yesterday with Minister Yakeleya. We are increasing relief unit capacity. We are increasing the number and length of patrols in the communities, and we are adding RCMP community officers who would act as liaisons between the RCMP and the communities. This research is ongoing. This information is being collected. As we bring it in, we will be able to start answering those questions more fully.
With this government we are doing a lot of discussions and priorities around economic development. There is a growing trend that we see most often is when a lot of business happens in part of the country or in this case the Northwest Territories if the oil and gas coming up. Previous, when we had our little oil and gas boom around early 2002-03, there was an increase in drugs that wrought the community, and the same thing here in Yellowknife. Having that presence is very valuable and by looking into our investments into the Beaufort-Delta, I want to confirm with the Department of Justice if they are going to be bringing increased canine units or increased RCMP services there. The time to start taking action is now for years to come and not deal with it when something happens. I want to make sure that there is a plan in place starting today, so we can offset those in years to come. Thank you.
With respect to the dog team, like I indicated in my last response, the RCMP is going to do an analysis to figure out whether there is value to bring more dog teams into the Northwest Territories. If they do, they will submit their proposal to the GNWT and that will be shared with everybody.
With respect to additional RCMP, we are negotiating a contract now. Once the contract is negotiated, we can start talking to the RCMP about how many more we can bring in. If we can bring in any, we have to do a cost-benefit analysis on that.
But there are things that we are doing here in the Northwest Territories. For instance, the GNWT Department of Justice is working on a Community Safety Strategy. This strategy will assist us in decision-making and actions about the territorial and community level to make communities safer. The objective of the strategy is to identify issues, look at long-term goals, assess capacity, and achieve those goals and identify strategies with the communities to move forward. The strategy may identify a need for new legislation and initiatives, including things like the safer communities legislation. These are the things that we are working on to increase the safety. I need to continue working with my colleagues both on this side and on that side of the House and with communities. I am looking forward to doing that and to working with you on these initiatives.
In my Member’s statement I talked about how the people of the Northwest Territories got to become empowered and speak up against the drug dealers and the bootleggers in the community, but at the same time they also need help from the GNWT and the services that we do provide. I wanted to ask the Minister of Justice if there was a policy in place that would allow RCMP officers and canine units to do more police checks, not only on the roads but in the airports doing bag checks as well as in the cargo and the transportation systems. I am not sure how well those are being looked at right now. Is there is a policy in place that provides those kinds of checks? Thank you.
We can do those things. We have to work with the communities, as the Member indicated. The communities have to take some initiative to help report these things when they are happening so we can get members in.
Last summer the RCMP also conducted enhanced patrols of lakes and the Mackenzie River, and extended highway patrols took place from July 23rd to August 5th involving several communities and partners in the “M” Division with the Yukon. We are working with our territorial partners. The objective of the patrol was to enhance public safety and police presence through high visibility and check stops; exactly what the Member is talking about. Over the duration of the patrols involving a number of communities and campgrounds, over 338 vehicles were checked and they seized a large amount of alcohol and some drugs.
Those are the types of things we are doing. We need to do more of that. We need to work with the communities. We need to work with industry. We are looking to do that. Once again, looking for cooperation from our colleagues from both sides of the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was trying to provide some explanation in some manner to describe what some could perceive or see as quite real of what they are working for is and put a number on it. I used that as an illustration of $30,000. I am well aware of families who are trying to get by on that type of money, but when you own a house and you find it cheaper to get a mortgage than to live in rental accommodations that income support seems to fall silent.
My questions will be targeted towards the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to tackle the Income Support Policy that needs to be amended. My question for the Minister would be as such: Would the Minister be willing to amend the Income Support Policy if it stops people from getting help who own houses who have mortgages? Because a few hundred dollars a month just may make the difference between being able to make a go of it, being independent or falling into the system. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Over time we amended our policy on the income support security system to reflect the costs of being in the Northwest Territories. There is a mortgage payment. It is covered up to three times in the lifetime of the clients. We do assess to some degree on the mortgage as well. Not only that but the client should not be building assets while accessing income support as well. There are subsidies in place. We have amended those subsidies in 2007 to reflect the cost for the Northwest Territories. We will continue to make those changes as necessary.
