Mr. Speaker, of course everyone is familiar with the ATCO proposal that we received that we have had some very high level permanent discussions to see if, in fact, it was a starting position or not. That is the one that is sitting there right now. There hasn’t been a whole lot of work done on that piece. The last set of discussions Mr. Miltenberger was involved with was around the interest that a potential partner might have in expanding our hydro system here in the Northwest Territories. There have not been active discussions on the actual partnership. There have been discussions about what it would take to get into a serious discussion. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I guess one of the fears I have is the government will get so far into negotiations and discussing partnership opportunities or arrangements with any company. I just want some assurances that before any decision is made on a partnership or venturing too far down that road, Cabinet and the Premier will come back to the Legislative Assembly and we can at least have a good debate and discussion on the merits of any such partnerships.
Mr. Speaker, I would be the first to say, again, no stone should be left unturned. We need to be looking at everything. We need to put everything on the table, Mr. Speaker. We also need to get to work on the unsolicited proposal, that we received from ATCO, fully vetted and out there. I think it is all potentially part of a solution here in the Northwest Territories for the high power rates that we are paying. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, if we go back to that day of a fall session well over a year ago when I believe it was a theme day on the cost of energy in the Northwest Territories, there were statements and questions about the cost, delivery, structure and privatization. Talks came out or reported that that could be an initiative. From those talks, we started to look at a number of initiatives. Those are all before Members. We brought back to the table around that and that is the energy rate regulation review piece. We went to committee. We are working with committee on that response; the Power Corporation review itself around the committee and we will sit down with committee with that report. I brought forward the ATCO proposal that we received and informed Members and the Territories of that. That is sitting there and I would say very early preliminary discussions.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we are prepared, once we start moving along, like the energy rates regulation piece, like the Power Corporation piece, and once we start to engage potentially with the ATCO piece on the partnership of delivery in the Northwest Territories, we would also inform Members of that work. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I just wanted to maybe get some assurances from the Premier that any potential partnership that the Government of the Northwest Territories is looking at entering into will come back to the House and be done through legislation, Mr. Speaker. I just want to get some assurances on that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, any changes that we would make would have to include the legislative initiative and changes that we would have to bring forward. That process is well established. We would have to follow through that and go forward. In fact, Mr. Speaker, when the ATCO proposal came out, I was asked by aboriginal leadership, why not aboriginal corporations get involved in this, that day one they showed interest in becoming a partner or parts of the Power Corporation. At that time I said we are not interested in taking parts of the Power Corporation, but we are interested in having discussions around partnership. In fact, I will be following up a letter to regional leaders. Again, it came up in November. I will follow up with them to see if they are serious about bringing in a proposal. We are ready to accept one. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, I applaud the Minister in terms of the announcement of increasing the minimum wage in the Northwest Territories. However, the next day, Mr. Speaker, I had a question from a single mother of three. She has young daughters. She was reading the press release and had some concerns. They wanted to ask the question in terms of the wage increasing, the cost of living increasing. Are the income thresholds going to increase with the GNWT programs that he administers?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we increased the minimum wage just this past week and it is scheduled for April of this year; another one next year. Those are the areas that we are continuing to focus on right now. With respect to the other thresholds the Member is alluding to, we have increased the threshold in the seniors home fuel subsidy just recently. The policy is always changing, so those are things we need to consider. Mahsi.
I go back to the specific questions on increasing thresholds on GNWT programs, specifically to low cost housing. It’s staying the same and I’m not sure if this Minister can answer for another Minister. However, programs like that, Legal Aid, child support payments, those types of programs certainly help single parents out there. Is there some general type of communication plan that this Minister will put out in terms of thresholds of programs in the GNWT?
Yes, we do have a program available to community members, even on the website as well, even at the community level through regional representatives. With those, Mr. Speaker, they are available even to the Members. When there are changes in the programming or policies, then we do update the Members. So, with that, Mr. Speaker, the changes to the thresholds we talked about in the past, and as we go forward, we realize the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories, so we have to keep those in mind as well. We just increased the minimum wage. I think it was a good step in the right direction and we continue to improve our programs. Mahsi.
With regard to the question I am going to ask the Minister, this person does not qualify for low cost housing because their income is $5,000 too much. They probably won’t get a low cost housing unit. So this person has to go from pay cheque to pay cheque, paying $1,700 a month for rent, fuel is about $300 -- probably a little more in the small, isolated communities -- power is about $200, water is about $100, phone is about $40 and food and all that. How can we help a person like this, a mother of three daughters, with the example of low cost housing units?
Individuals like that with a family, we provide subsidies for income security programming. There are a variety of programs that we can certainly offer to those individuals. So, Mr. Speaker, we do what we can through the income security area. As I stated, there are always amendments to our current policies that we have on hand, but so far it’s been up to date to meet the standards of community needs. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to continue working with the Minister on this issue and probably many other issues or situations like this in the Northwest Territories. In terms of a situation like this, can he work with his counterpart Minister Robert C. McLeod and look at low cost housing units and their thresholds to help a person like this make a living in the North?
I will continue to work with my colleague, the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, because we are transferring the program and we want to have a smooth transition along the way. So the subsidy programs are part of the process as well. We’ll do what we can to make that effective. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document titled 2009 NWT Community Survey – Housing Component. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 2, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2009-2010; Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act; Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Summary Conviction Procedures Act; Tabled Document 62-16(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2010-2011; and Minister’s Statement 47-16(4), Transfer of the Public Housing Rental Subsidy, with Mr. Krutko in the chair.
I’ll call Committee of the Whole to order. Today we have under consideration Bills 2, 4, 7, Tabled Document 62-16(4) and Minister’s Statement 47-16(4). What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to continue with Tabled Document 62-16(4), NWT Main Estimates, and specifically Education, Culture and Employment. If that is concluded, to also get into the NWT Housing Corporation.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
We’ll take a short break.
---SHORT RECESS
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order and ask if the Minister... Is committee agreed to continue with the details of Education, Culture and Employment? I would like to ask the Minister if he would like to bring in witnesses. Mr. Minister.
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could escort the witnesses into the House and we shall proceed with details, starting on page 10-17.
I’d like to ask the Minister to introduce the witnesses, please.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have to my left, Mr. Dan Daniels, deputy minister; and, Paul Devitt, director of strategic business services. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. First on my list is Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask a couple of questions with regard to the numbers that are on page 10-17. There is what I think is a very large increase in education operations and development on that page. It goes from $1.5 million to $3.5 million. Could I get an explanation of what this $2 million is buying us? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Devitt.
Mr. Chair, about $580,000 is for the Alberta Achievement Tests and support. Another $1.3 million is for the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. Thank you.
Another question on the next line talks about schools and I note that schools funding is going down about $2 million. It’s been said that that is due to enrolments. Could I get an indication of how much our enrolments have reduced? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. There is a decrease in enrolment, as we all know, in the Northwest Territories. So there’s a decrease of 2.7 percent in enrolment for September 2008-2009. Mahsi.
Thank you, I’m aware that the enrolments have gone down. Do we know how much, please?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I think it was 2.9 percent, but Minister Lafferty.
Give us a second, Mr. Chair.
Not a problem. Mr. Lafferty. Sorry; Mr. Daniels.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The enrolments from 2008-09 to 2009-10, the enrolments in the school system K to 12 were 8,627.5 students in ‘08-09 and that went down to about 8,406 in ‘09-10. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Daniels. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you. Eight thousand two hundred and seventy-five, was that the first number?
Could you confirm, Mr. Daniels?
Yes, Mr. Chair. The first number was 8,627.5. That is the number.
Thank you very much for that, and my apologies, my brain seems to be slowing right down here or maybe it’s slower than it was before. I wanted to ask one more question with regard to inclusive schooling funding just to see if I can try and understand the situation here.
Yesterday, I believe, I was advised that the amount for inclusive schooling is changing to reflect changes in enrolment, if Hansard is correct. So if I’m to understand the answer from Mr. Devitt we are now tying inclusive schooling funding to enrolments. So maybe I could get a clarification as to whether or not that interpretation is correct first. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.
