Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. John Kearney, president of Canadian Zinc and frequent visitor to the community of Fort Simpson. Welcome to the gallery. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize a couple people. First off I’d like to recognize Mr. Mike Vaydik, our executive director of NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines. As well, I’d certainly like to do a special recognition to both Richard Morland and Kim Truter. They’re more than just leaders of their individual mining corporation; they’re also community contributors that make a difference in our Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize Weledeh resident Trevor Teed and former resident Dave Nickerson. I’d also like to recognize Julie Green, a freelance reporter and worker with the YWCA, I believe.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. If we missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. It’s always nice to have an audience in here.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I talked about the hiring practices of the GNWT and how it places a higher emphasis on education and less on equivalencies and experience. I have a question for the Minister of Human Resources.
Mr. Speaker, almost all of the GNWT job ads have the “equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.” If you ask an aboriginal applicant who does not have a degree or a masters but has years of related experience, they would say that equivalencies are not taken into account. I’d like to ask the Minister: how does the department assess the value of equivalencies and/or experience when reviewing job applications? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to assure the Member that the Government of the Northwest Territories uses equivalencies in almost all of its competitions except for those competitions where there’s a statutory requirement to have certification; for example, medical positions or legal positions. Usually it’s a combination of related work experience and years of service. It’s something that we review on a regular basis for all of our jobs that we have in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, many applicants do not possess a bachelors or a masters degree but do possess diplomas or certificates and certainly possess the experience, and they live in the smaller communities where they plan to live for years to come. Can the Minister commit to placing a greater emphasis on equivalencies and experience, even some emphasis on the ability to communicate effectively with aboriginal communities? Thank you.
This is an area that we’ve obtained some funding in for this year, where we’re working much more closely with not only aboriginal governments but also municipal governments. I think that this is something that we want to advance quite a ways in. Under normal practices, we are trying to develop processes, working with our Aboriginal Employment Advisory Committee, to find ways to increase aboriginal employment. But certainly looking at a combination of training and under fills and equivalencies, we are looking to give a much greater focus to hiring aboriginal people at the local level. Because what we’re finding is unless we can find Northerners to put into jobs, there are other issues that become involved such as housing and so on. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit to looking at options for increasing GNWT positions in smaller communities, whether it be by creating, replacing or reallocating positions so that these jobs can be filled by aboriginal people and increase aboriginal content in the GNWT? Thank you.
We’ve looked at this a number of times. Our government has looked at this a number of times over the years through the process of decentralization and I think that working through Refocusing Government this way we can look at the possibility of moving jobs around. The problem with increasing positions or moving positions around is that there are winners and losers in terms of communities, so that is where the problem comes in. I think, when it comes to looking at new positions that are created, this is certainly something we can look at. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister agree to, in order to increase the content and allow these positions to be in the smaller communities, customize jobs in smaller communities with the end result of assisting people in smaller communities to work better with government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, over the years, we have done that on a number of occasions where we have found we had the greatest success in training Northerners to fill northern jobs. We identify the important elements that we can work with Aurora College so that we can train people up to take these positions. We find that we have been very successful in doing that. This is an area that we are prepared to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier in regards to my Member’s statement on the amount of resources that are coming out of the Northwest Territories. In particular, I made mention of the Sahtu oil and gas minerals of $500 million leaving every year from Norman Wells to Zama and the state of the people living in the Sahtu, in terms of the poverty issue. I want to ask the Premier about giving hope to the people in the Sahtu and the people of the Northwest Territories having a sense that our resources here in the Northwest Territories are going to stay here in the Northwest Territories rather than go it to the Government of Canada in terms of getting a grant. After everything is said and done, they give us a grant to say, here, continue on living. But it seems like someone is being better than our own rich Territory. I want to ask the Premier in terms of his discussions with the leaders in terms of going forward in terms of seeing that there is a resource revenue sharing deal at hand here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The area of resource revenues in the Northwest Territories has been ongoing for over a couple of decades now. At one point, I believe before it became resource revenues, it was called a Northern Accord of one nature. So it is something that we continue to work on. In fact, at the regional leaders’ table, we have addressed it a number of ways. For example, we now had meetings with almost every regional group and government around that, where the old discussions were left at, at the 15th Assembly, with the federal government wanting to re-engage. We are going to see how we would re-engage the northern group from the Northwest Territories and hopefully be able to look at trying to bring an AIP before the end of our term. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, has the Premier had any discussions with the federal government in terms of, for example, just even the discussion with the Norman Wells oilfield? The Norman Wells oilfield portion of percentage is owned by the federal government in terms of making this issue a priority with the federal government in terms of keeping our resource revenue in the Northwest Territories rather than every year we hand a cheque over to the federal government. Later on they give us another cheque, an income support cheque to keep us busy here. Has the Premier had any type of creative solutions in terms of keeping our resources here in the North?
Mr. Speaker, as the Government of the Northwest Territories has quite a number of programs through our Minister’s responsibility under ITI, we do a number of things, whether it is through the Business Incentive Policy, so we have contractors in the North taking advantage of the work that we have available as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Our SEED program, for example, that we put in place to help businesses in our smaller communities. So we have done quite a number of things to enhance businesses in the North. We know we need to do a better job.
The other things we have tried to do, for example, is when we have socio-economic agreements in place, to again give preference to hiring in the North, not only hiring of employees but the contractors as well, as we know that we have tried to help when it comes to groups looking at IBAs, as we call them, or impact benefit agreements as well.
The other thing we have in place, Mr. Speaker, is an approach that I took with the Prime Minister, specifically with Norman Wells and the oilfields. That was to look at trying to recoup some of those dollars that go to the federal government under an equity program, and reinvest those dollars in the North in infrastructure. That would see us expand on our critical infrastructure needs in the Northwest Territories. We have had a commitment to have discussions on that, but there has been no further movement in that area. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, with the sunsetting of funding with the Department of Health with millions of dollars that are not going to be renewed with the federal government, the federal government is also increasing our funding for social housing in the Northwest Territories. There are other programs that the federal government is going to be cutting back in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Premier in terms of raising the level of this issue, the urgency of this issue in terms of our revenue leaving the Northwest Territories every second of this day here. How do we get the attention of the federal government with all the people of the Northwest Territories saying that this is a serious issue and it is not acceptable in this day and age? How can the Premier get our leaders to rally behind him to take this strong message to Ottawa?
Mr. Speaker, I believe the approach that we have undertaken with regional leaders is to have them work with us presenting a northern package on resource revenue sharing. Right now, Mr. Speaker, the land claims that have been settled have a portion of the resource revenue going back to those claim organizations, but it is very small compared to what the potential is. We see this as an opportunity to get some of those dollars to stay in the North so we can do the reinvestments in projects we believe are necessary for themselves. I am hoping that through our work with regional leaders, we will be able to pull them together and we will be able to present a common package, a design for Northerners by Northerners and engage the federal government at that level. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The mine industry and the oil and gas industry have a huge potential in the Mackenzie Valley. I ask the Premier in terms of his discussions with the proponents of the Mackenzie Gas Project, proponents who are drilling in the Northwest Territories, mining companies, in terms of them lending him a hand in terms of going to Ottawa and forcing the government to sit down and have a good resource package for the people in the Northwest Territories. Has the Premier approached our partners in those areas?
Mr. Speaker, in the early days of project development of the Mackenzie Gas Project, for example, and others, we have talked about devolution and resource revenue sharing is one way to help streamline the regulatory maze that is out there, as well as streamline the processes we can put in place and capture the benefits of development and keep them in the North. Unfortunately, as the record clearly shows, numerous governments have tried to move this along and we have not been able to get to that last hurdle. One of the issues that I addressed at the last regional leaders’ meeting is we need to have a fundamental discussion. Is the capture in the sense of the dollars that we want to capture and keep in the North or is it the authority? Is that the driver so that we can effect change as the future goes on? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier. I mentioned in my Member’s statement that I had been holding a Christmas present for him for some time and that I had given that to him today at noon. I thought it was pretty nice too. Now that the Premier has his Christmas present, or that the Legislative Assembly has the Christmas present -- because it is addressed to all of us -- I would like to ask the Premier if he could advise us, and I mean Members and also the representative of the presenters of the present, what he will do with his or our present now that he has it. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for her question and the event that she organized and the hand-off of the Christmas present, which is work by the organizations around the Anti-Poverty Strategy. When this issue first came up prior to Christmas, I became aware of what was being done and at that time asked the folks in the Department of Executive to start to begin to look at how we could try to address this issue. Now, with this package, and as I’ve talked with my Cabinet colleagues, we’re going to officially put it in the system with this information.
As we were at the presentation this afternoon, as it was highlighted, the effort is to be a part of the solution through these organizations and looking at the dollars we have put available as a government over a number of departments. We know that through a number of initiatives through our budget exercise, we’ve put in the area of about $145 million as a government. But through a number of departments and programs, coordination and working together is going to be important as we try to stretch our resources to better serve the people that are in need of these services. I will formally put it in the system, as we say, to the Ministers and start pulling that information together and prepare to open a dialogue with Members and the organizations in seeing how we can better pool our resources to have a better impact on the lives of the people who are in the most need.
Thank you to the Premier for his answer. He mentioned that the government will start a dialogue with these parties. It’s imperative that we have the involvement of parties outside the GNWT. We’re not going to get anywhere without their participation. I know it’s really early within this process, but I wonder if he could give us some idea of how he’s going to involve NGOs and the other organizations that are part of the group that want to develop an anti-poverty strategy.
It is early days and I would say that once we start to gather and the initial work has been done and touching base with departments with this package of information we’ll be able to get the departments to pull something together and prepare to come to Members to say how do we engage the collective in the sense of the body of people and organizations with expertise along with our own. We are a ways away. We need to pull the initial pieces together and go to Members and seek their advice and what are sort of the next steps we can look at taking.
Thanks to the Premier. I know that he’s mentioned that he would come to Members. I’m not so sure that this requires the approval, so to speak, of Members. I think to reach out to NGOs is something that could be done without letting us know, but I don’t know we need to give you the approval to do that. I will be tabling a list of the anti-poverty supporters later on this afternoon, so that will give the government a list to work from.
A number of years ago the government established a Coalition Against Family Violence. In my estimation, it’s been a very successful coalition and the actions that came out of that. I wonder if the Premier could see that the same process that was used to develop the coalition and the Action Plan Against Family Violence, could that cooperation, that coordination, that kind of a process be used to develop this anti-poverty strategy.
I thank the Member for the opportunity to make a decision on my own and move forward with a plan of action. But I would prefer, as has been practiced, to go back to the committee to at least inform them of what we have pulled together and ask for suggestions on where we go. Not necessarily approval, but just presenting the work that is starting to be formed and look at those next steps that can be taken. How do we bring in the expertise out there to help formulate an approach or revised approach in best using our resources? You have my commitment. We will get back to Members with our initial piece of work and looking for the next steps of how we engage the expertise out there. The list that the Member is talking about would help us in looking at those first pieces of how we would look at next steps.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be short. I want to thank the Premier for his commitment. Again, my tendency is to go towards a definite time. I look forward to the Premier coming to us and then asking for the advice of Members, but when would that be?
Here would be a great opportunity to use that phrase “in the fullness of time.” But, realistically, the fact is that the work has been started at least initially from Executive touching base with departments. Now, with this package, we’ll be able to put a little bit more to it and ask the departments responsible to start putting some energy into this. I will get back to Members after speaking with my Cabinet colleagues as to some time frames. I’ll be pushing them to have a quicker response than the normal and, hopefully, we can get some response back within a month or two with Members to discuss those next steps.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Housing. Does the report recommending the return to the Public Housing Rental Subsidy to the Housing Corporation identify development of the arrears as a problem?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report, which I’m tabling this afternoon, makes no specific reference to the arrears that may have been accumulated during the period when the responsibility for assessments was with ECE.
Does the Minister acknowledge that some of the problems with the arrears were created by the system and not necessarily the tenants themselves?
I do acknowledge that there is a serious arrears problem, to the tune of about $10 million. A lot of these arrears may have been accumulated before the transfer, so we can’t say that this was a direct response of the transfer. The local housing authorities, when the transfer first went over, realized there were issues with the assessment. This was all new being rolled out. They were very good at recognizing that if you weren’t assessed properly, they would adjust it and your arrears would automatically go down. So they’ve taken steps to deal with that when the transfer first happened. I admit there is a serious problem with arrears.
