My department will share what we can share as a needs assessment, part of the capital projects within the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today, in my Member’s statement, I talked about obviously the raft of a lot of tragedies affecting us in our aviation world in the North and obviously the concerns that many of us have in terms of what have we done to recognize or commemorate lost lives in aviation, including the victims of aviation. My question is for the Minister of ITI here. Is there a commitment from this government to work towards the establishment of improving what has been established since 1967 and also the opportunity for the other memorial to be built throughout the North in the next couple of months? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly thank the Member for raising the issue and his question this afternoon. It has been a difficult past five months in the northern aviation industry. The department hasn’t formally received a request for a memorial like the one being proposed, but we would certainly like to discuss this further with Members of this House, stakeholders around the Northwest Territories, the aviation industry, communities and families who would like to come up with a way forward on such a memorial. Thank you.
I would like to thank the Minister for the response. On behalf of the families of both the pilots in the aviation world and the families of the victims of these crashes, I would like to thank the Minister for showing eagerness to work towards resolve. Thank you.
It is more of a comment, Mr. Dolynny. Thank you. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently in the media there has been a lot of discussion on the whole idea of hydraulic fracturing. My question is to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. What is the government or department doing to ensure that the practice of hydraulic fracking is mitigated and also understood? Eventually, more likely the introduction of the practice will be fairly common up here in the Northwest Territories. Is the department taking measures to ensure that it will be done within the regulatory system that’s safe and, of course, respects the environment? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a recently new process that is not completely understood. It is a source of great research at the international, national and even in our level as we seek to understand the use of hydraulic fracking for unconventional oils, in particular shale gas.
There is work being done at the federal level. We are striking a committee between ENR and ITI and other relevant deputies and departments to look at this issue and to address some of the issues that the Member talked about to try to get a good handle on the research. Some provinces’ fracking for unconventional sources are in use in B.C. and Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and some others have put a moratorium on it. Some states, as well, are taking a second look at it.
It is an issue, a process that there are a lot of unknowns, lots of potential impacts, use of a lot of substances in an area deep underground and is not well understood. We are going to take the steps necessary to understand this and make sure any steps taken have that balance of protecting the environment as we look at what is possible from this economic development opportunity. Thank you.
The Minister has indicated that there has been some consideration in terms of what other jurisdictions have undertaken. I wonder if the Minister and the department have considered as an option, seeming that there are some other initiatives – one of them is a moratorium on evictions on housing – a moratorium on hydraulic fracking in the North. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, we are not at that point in any of our deliberations. We have to work with the federal government to look at that type of issue. There’s still work and research to be done. As I indicated, some jurisdictions to the south of us are using that process. There are a lot of questions and there is work being done and there are meetings, as well, being held across the North by the National Energy Board and ANSI, as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories, especially in the Sahtu, to meet with the communities and individuals to talk about this process and understand the concerns and share the information we do have about this process. Thank you.
The Minister has indicated that there is some level of cooperation with the federal government. I wonder if the department is considering, perhaps, some unique ways in terms of how this whole new practice will be introduced to the North. Hopefully at some point the department will consider some unique ways that are northern based, to ensure that the environment is not compromised and understand that there’s some positive development in terms of the Water Stewardship Strategy. I understand water is very vital to the people of the Northwest Territories, so I wanted to know if the Minister is considering some unique northern, perhaps, solutions to this practice that’s eventually going to come to the North. Mahsi.
Thank you. One of the, I suppose, most unique practices that we’re considering or initiatives we’re considering, of course, is to conclude the Devolution Agreement, where we would take over responsibility and authority of our land, water and resource development and be able to speak to these type of practices. I appreciate the Member’s comments on the Water Stewardship Strategy. If he has specific recommendations in terms of what he considers unique northern approaches that we may not have considered, I’d be very happy to look at those and would ask that he share that with us so that we can include that in our deliberations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you. I don’t have any questions, but perhaps maybe at some point I’d like to perhaps get a briefing from the Minister in terms of what it is, perhaps that could be considered in terms of a management regime to mitigate the whole practice of hydraulic fracking. Perhaps the Minister could make that available, if perhaps there are some discussions at that time. Mahsi.
We would be pleased to appear before committee and do a full briefing on the work we’ve done in terms of crossing the North and educating folks on the process, as well as lay out the process, some of the history and some of the questions and concerns that are existing in regard to this process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to follow up on the questions that were asked by my colleague Mr. Bouchard, from Hay River North, regarding the lack of resident physicians in Hay River.
This is not a new problem. This has been ongoing for some time. I know the health authority does the best they can with getting locums, and some of the locums are actually rotating in and out on a six-week in/six-week out basis, which is certainly better than no continuity. So I do commend the efforts of the health authority to try and address this difficult situation.
The Minister referred to the challenge that physicians we would like to potentially recruit may not want to live in smaller, remote communities, which I guess Hay River would still be considered remote. I’d like to ask the Minister what currently exists at the departmental headquarters level to assist the regional authorities with recruitment efforts.
We used to have a full-time person on staff in Hay River who did recruitment, but what overarching, territorial, department-wide emphasis or initiative is there within the department to help us find resident physicians? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health has been working with the Department of Human Resources and has recently hired a health human resource specialist responsible for the development and creation of a specialized recruiting and retention strategy program. This strategy is aimed at increasing the number of physicians in rural communities. Thank you.
That’s very interesting. It sort of sounds like things we might have done before. Can the Minister confirm that this is something new, innovative, creative, outside of the normal things we’ve done in the past to try and recruit physicians? Thank you.
Yes, it’s recent. It’s something that we’re attempting to do in order to help, for example, the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority to recruit physicians that can live in Hay River. Thank you.
In his previous comment, the Minister indicated that the compensation package for resident physicians, locum physicians are very competitive, that money is not the issue, it is just trying to get the people to come and take up practice here in the North.
As we know, the practice of medicine has changed. It isn’t like it was in the old days when doctors were on call 24/7 in a small town. We recognize that and we respect that. Would the Department of Health and Social Services be willing to pay an organization such as a private, independent organization? They call them headhunters. When departments and corporations need specialized employees in their organizations, they will pay a fee to a headhunter to find, identify, locate and get people to move to where the jobs are. Is this something that the department would be willing to pay for? Thank you.
The issue of money was that it was not an issue of money in recruitment as opposed to salaries. When I referred to that, it was not an issue of money, it was an issue of getting people to come. I’m sure if we paid anybody enough money, they would come. But this is something that the department would consider. I would say that we would have to work with the various health authorities. One of the things that we are actually contemplating is trying to create one pool that can be shared by the entire Territories and an option to that could be going out to find recruiting people that do headhunting to find people and positions that are hard to recruit in locations where they’re hard to recruit in. Thank you.
I don’t think anybody can promote Hay River more or better than those of us who live there, call it home and really, really like it there. So I’d like to ask the Minister what role involvement could he conceive of that the community could become more involved, the MLAs could become more involved, that we would have some point of contact with the people who are trying recruit so it isn’t just a recruiting and kind of an abstract way, but to a specific community with a specific set of things going for it like a place like Hay River. Thank you.
I actually thought about that, having lived in Hay River myself many, many years. I actually thought, you know, it’s a really nice place to go. I don’t understand myself why we’re having difficulty recruiting doctors to live there.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Health. In the 16th Assembly the Joe Greenland Centre was shut down, the long-term care facility that was in the Mackenzie Delta riding. I’d just like to know what the plans are that the department has in this next four years for the people of the Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although I have not had a full opportunity to check into the long-term care and what they’re able to provide to people from other communities in the Beaufort-Delta at this time, my understanding is that there is a shortage of beds in Inuvik for people from other communities in the Beaufort-Delta to go there and that’s an issue that we are trying to address.
At this time I do not have an overall plan here with me on what we’re going to do with the people that are going from their homes or from senior citizens homes into long-term care.
At the moment we have an average or approximately 300 elders over the age of 60. I think within the next four years here we need to establish a facility either in Aklavik or Fort McPherson, which are the larger communities, to accommodate those elders who need long-term care.
As everyone in the House is aware, infrastructure money is short with the government at this time. We are doing health infrastructure. We are continuing to forge ahead with health infrastructure. We’re looking in areas where there is a need, an immediate need for long-term care. We’re looking right across the territory in all of the regions. Hopefully we’re building in the region where they’re looking, as an example, in the Sahtu to build a long-term facility. We’ll offload some of the pressure in Inuvik. We’re hoping that if that happens, there will be room for other people in Inuvik, and we’ll also be looking right at the Beaufort-Delta for the needs that are there as well.
I look forward to working with the Minister of Health within the next couple of years here to find a solution to the problem.
Thank you. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. With the fibre optic link on the horizon and education and social passing an issue in some of our smaller communities, I was wondering if the department had any initiatives that would bring e-learning into the communities, especially the ones that are sometimes hard to get into that would only have one or two high school students, and make it more cost-effective what they have on the horizon there for e-learning.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for that question. This particular area is of great interest for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We’ve initiated e-learning within the Beaufort-Delta and the Department of Education between 2000 and 2005. We had just over 329 students enrolled successfully at that time. Due to budget constraints in 2010, we had to discontinue that particular program. The good news is that we are continuing with our discussion again, because we feel that this is a real need. Now we talk about the fibre optic broadband connectivity into the region and we feel that we need to explore this area. We’re very interested and we will be discussing this further with the Beaufort-Delta.
With students coming out of their communities attending regional centres, specifically in the Beaufort-Delta, their culture and tradition are sometimes lost. They don’t get a chance to practise it. I’d like to see or find out what the timeline is that the department will be looking into getting this e-learning set back up into the community. It did seem between 2000 and 2005 that they did reach a lot of the students. I’d just like to see what the timeline is to have that brought back into the Beaufort-Delta.
We did just recently initiate our discussion with Beaufort-Delta Education Council, talking about recreating the partnership that we had. We had a very successful partnership. We need to re-establish that as part of our distance education within that region. I’m sure this will trickle along with other regions as well. There’s been a lapse in financial aspect towards this particular program, but we are re-addressing that issue and it is a huge opportunity for us that we need to continue discussing.
Being new to the government, I look forward to working with the Minister of ECE to further move this project forward and thank him for his time answering the questions. No further questions from this point on.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table to the following document, entitled “Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2012-2013.”
