Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our government believes NWT residents can reach their potential and be healthy, educated people, free from poverty. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment continues to work with industry stakeholders to improve the opportunities for training, education and employment across the Northwest Territories.
In 2011 the department held its first Labour Force Development Symposium, which was used as a platform to introduce the first NWT Labour Force Development Framework – People, Partnerships, Possibilities. It is a tool for working together towards improved labour market outcomes, and sustainable labour force growth and development. Over the years northern partners have come together to find common ground to ensure that our people and our economy are strong now and in the future. We are working with industry stakeholders toward a shared vision: “A healthy, educated, multi-skilled, safe and innovative workforce that guides the labour market and reflects our diverse cultures.”
Mr. Speaker, that is always top of mind as we negotiate with industry partners on socio-economic agreements, assess training and education requirements, discuss where we can deliver more resources, or determine how we can support our residents and clients with better access and streamlined processes. As well, we look forward to recommendations from the Anti-Poverty Strategy to help achieve these goals.
As we go into our second labour force development symposium tomorrow, we are optimistic that our discussions will continue to be productive. We have
80 delegates, including federal and territorial government departments and agencies, Aboriginal organizations, Aurora College, non-government organizations, industry, private institutions and societies. Our theme is The Labour Market: Sharing Best Practices and Development, and this is our focus as a department: to make sure we have the ability to maximize prospects for the North based on strong partnerships.
We recognize that we have work to do to ensure our residents continue to have opportunities, resources and supports to reach their potential. I look forward to continuing to share information and putting into practice the advice we have from our partners to create a strategic path for success for the benefit of all Northerners. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Mr. Speaker, we are accepting participants into a new pilot healing program in Yellowknife for men who use violence in their lives against their intimate partners. This voluntary program is key to helping communities be sustainable, vibrant and safe. It is based on this Assembly’s main goal of believing in people and building on the strengths of Northerners.
Through a naming ceremony with elders, the 24-week program was named Wek’eahkaa (“Wek ea caw”) A New Day, to reflect our healing philosophy. Each day brings with it a fresh chance to take control of our actions.
Wek’eahkaa is for men who have been violent in their intimate relationships. The program helps them to find their own strength, build on it to change their behaviour and take responsibility for their past actions.
Men will be supported as they develop their abilities and resources. Group sessions will focus on how to build respectful relationships, to understand how behaviour affects others and to consider the possibilities for healing and repairing the effects of their abuse.
Wek’eahkaa is based on very successful models running in other jurisdictions. We have worked with our NGO partners and listened to men throughout the North to custom design a program for NWT residents. Ultimately, our goal is to have a program that is accessible and relevant throughout the NWT. It is an investment in prevention, education and awareness, and it is built on partnerships.
Mr. Speaker, an Advisory Committee of NGO partners, the RCMP, cultural advisors and staff from Justice and Health and Social Services supports and guides this pilot program. They have been working with the contractor, the Healing Drum Society, to make sure the program is ready. Program staff has been trained and are ready to start. Referral information is being distributed for potential clients, service providers and the public. As word is spreading, calls have been coming in from men who feel they are ready to learn from this program.
We know that family violence is deliberate. We also know that this violence is based on a pattern of behaviours against the will and against the well-being of family members. This program will be a significant step towards positive change. This is a hopeful program. It invites men to consider what kind of person they want to be, how they want to treat their partners, their children and their communities. The participants want to change.
This new approach holds a great deal of promise, and I know I speak for all of us in expressing our thanks to the many people who have been involved in developing and delivering this program. Most importantly, I want to offer this Assembly’s support to the men who have chosen a better way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As of last week, it was hard not to pick up the paper, scan the local news on the Internet, or stop in a coffee shop without the people talking about this interim report by the Electoral Boundaries Commission.
Frankly, I’m excited to hear from the people about their thoughts on democracy, whether it’s representation by population, representation by culture and language, representation by geographic distribution, or a combination thereof.
Mr. Speaker, it would be easy for Members to weigh in on this topic, but I will refrain from commenting on the subject for now as I feel this is a time for the people to share their voice.
We have been elected to listen and, more importantly, hear the wishes of our constituents, and to pre-empt this process by jumping the gun, and speaking out now before the people have had a chance to share their views is definitely not in the best interests of positive outcome.
We ask that all residents across the Northwest Territories take the time to inform themselves on the mandate of the Electoral Boundaries Commission to review the three options that were presented to report on, and to think what would be the best solutions for the entire Northwest Territories and future generations.
Our future rests in the hands of the people. We will be facing some difficult choices in the months to come, between the promises of this future and the prisons of our past. Mr. Speaker, we can’t afford to get this wrong.
In closing, all we ask is that the people of the Northwest Territories attend the various Electoral Boundaries Commission’s public hearings, or submit their comments directly to the commission itself. I would further ask that my colleagues here in this House allow due process to proceed in the proper sequence. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Speaker, the 17th Legislative Assembly envisioned promotion of strong individuals, families and communities by developing a socially responsible and environmentally sustainable Economic Development Strategy. I look at the Economic Opportunities Strategy approach and wonder how we could possibly have left behind the people, families, social responsibilities and environment.
The strategy discussion paper is a partnership of the industry department, NWT Chamber of Commerce, Northern Aboriginal Business Association and the NWT Housing Corporation. Blatantly missing is the social and environmental expertise to back up an otherwise impressive panel, expertise that’s necessary to fill out our Caucus priority.
Shamefully, we in the NWT have the largest income gap in Canada: $185,000 a year between the richest and poorest 20 percent of households. Most current opportunities for wealth and employment are clustered in a few major centres, including remote mines that increasingly fly non-resident workers to and fro every two weeks. In some communities up to 50 percent of households have annual incomes below $30,000.
Proven research reveals the negative impacts of such unequal incomes on the health of society: as inequity increases, crime, substance abuse and poor economic performance that worsens. Sound familiar? Well, we had a wonderful opportunity to meet people’s concerns and recognize this situation in our consultation document. Sadly, we focused on industry and how to make even more big bucks. Rather, we want to help the economy that serves the needs of all our people, not just one that further enriches the already successful.
As with social responsibility, apparently we don’t need to design our economic strategy to serve environmental sustainability either. We’ll just tweak development permits, and even under the ever more dismantled environmental protection regime, presto, we’ll have an environmentally sustainable economy. I don’t think so.
Committee wanted and was promised input at the earliest stages of this undertaking. Without that, the Minister has forged ahead on an effort that will have little credibility and doesn’t meet our priorities.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
For the disadvantaged of Canada’s most inequitable society, this strategy will mean little. Its terms of reference are a business-as-usual approach by the usual businesses aimed at more of the same, no matter what priorities this Caucus said we should pursue. As some are saying, why don’t we just reprint the last one?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It can be extremely frustrating to be an MLA for a riding with small communities and see the government put aside their needs. I was hoping to see the planning study for a new school in Trout Lake addressed in this budget, but there’s nothing yet.
We are in the 21st century, all of us; the people in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Fort Smith and the people of Trout Lake. You might not think it’s the 21st century if you dropped into the school in Trout Lake. It is a one-room school in the current community centre. A little partition was put up last year, but it’s still more like a one-room schoolhouse some of our parents went to than a modern school. The high school students still have to go to Fort Simpson just like the old days. Very little has changed, although the world has changed so much, and the students in Trout Lake should be no less prepared for it than young people in other communities.
The community is small but the student population is growing. Our Statistics Bureau tells us the growth rate is more than 6 percent a year for the past 10 years, from 2001 to 2011. The school is too small and every year it feels a little smaller than it was. I have spoken before about the pressures this puts on both the students and teachers.
We have spent lots of money building superschools. It is time we start focusing on our small communities. They need stand-alone schools with all the modern teaching aids available. I call on our Education Minister to adjust the capital plan. The last one we saw called for work on a new school in Trout Lake to begin in 2018-2019. That is simply too long a wait. We have to get a planning study done so that we are ready to go. We have to move this project up on our priority list. I look to the support of this Cabinet to address the need for a new school in Trout Lake in this year’s capital planning process.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Far too many people are hurt or killed every year in accidents related to alcohol abuse. About half of the drinkers in the Northwest Territories drink heavily, at least once a month. Heavy drinking often leads to dangerous behaviour. More than half the NWT population experiences harm from someone else’s drinking. In 2009 about one in four of those accidents were assaults. This is going on every year. Thousands of people are harmed due to somebody else’s drinking, even if they don’t drink themselves. Of course, many drinkers are harmed too.
Alcohol was a factor in 22 percent of all injuries and 55 percent of all deaths relating from motor vehicle accidents between 1996 and 2004. About one-third of all motor vehicle accident-related deaths were young people.
There’s a link between alcohol abuse and violence. About 85 percent of homicidal deaths are alcohol related. Alcohol was a factor in about half the suicides in the years from 2000 to 2009. Drunkenness was a factor in almost half the accidental deaths in those years, and chronic alcohol abuse was 37 percent amongst those victims. Injury is the third leading cause of death in the Northwest Territories.
The Sahtu region has the third highest rate of accidental deaths in our territory, after the Beaufort-Delta and the Deh Cho. In recent months, a young girl died of exposure in Fort Good Hope. On Christmas Eve, a 27-year-old man was medevaced from my hometown of Tulita to Alberta, after a serious snowmobile accident. He’s lucky to be alive. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and he was drinking.
The government should do more to educate people about the risk of death and terrible injuries when they drink. Our government says it promotes safety, but at the same time allows unlimited purchase at our liquor stores, now including the one in Norman Wells. A few people there look forward to end the restrictions and everyone in the region has to live with it.
Bootlegging is like a plague in many of our communities, but I don’t see much being done to stop it. Our government makes millions by selling alcohol, and alcohol abuse is killing our citizens and putting pressures on the health system.
I’ll be asking questions to the Minister of Health on this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my short time here in the Ledge in the last 16 months, obviously we’ve had a lot of questions in Hay River about health care and the health care system. You would think that would be odd, Hay River being the beneficiary of a new health centre being built there. We hope that in the springtime this facility begins and that it’s going to be a great facility for 50 years to come.
But there are a great many of questions out there in the community about what’s going to happen with the long-term beds in the Hay River area, and what’s going to happen with all the other services that aren’t going to be in the current new facility that the new facility doesn’t have designed in it, and what will happen to the old hospital facility.
My concerns here today are that the Department of Health should have had a clear picture for the community of Hay River of what exactly health and social services is going to look like for Hay River for the next 50 years. This facility, as I indicated, is going to be a facility for the next 50 years in the community, yet there are too many questions out there on what is going to happen. Where are all the services for the community of Hay River going to be? What is the future of community health and social services going to be in Hay River?
Later on today I will have questions for the Minister of Health on how the Department of Health can create such a facility and not have a blueprint of what that health system in Hay River is going to look like. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been reviewing the budget presented last week by the Finance Minister, and I am very happy about what is in the budget, but I do have some problems about what is not in the budget.
One of the main goals we set at the start of this Assembly was sustainable, vibrant and safe communities. Yet, once again, this budget leaves some small communities with poor basic services.
The situation is even more critical during freeze-up and breakup periods when the road traffic is interrupted. Over the years the community has suffered and it seems we are telling the people just go on suffering. There are many innocent victims of crime that could have been prevented. I know it will cost some money to put an RCMP detachment in Tsiigehtchic and that is the government’s excuse for compromising the safety of the community.
This government does not talk about the positive effects and even cost savings that come from a safer community. It is really sad that our smallest communities need police detachments. That says a lot about the times we’re living in. We are elected to do something about it. We are elected to make our communities safer and healthier and we all promised to do our best.
I will be asking the Justice Minister when we will do our best for the community of Tsiigehtchic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too, like my colleague, have had a chance to consider the budget address from the Minister of Finance, and I also would like to comment on the government’s plans for our next budget.
I have always agreed with the fiscal strategy we adopted at the beginning of the 17th Assembly. We have been prudent and, as the Minister said last week, we need to live within the means that we have. A stay-the-course budget it is and I am okay with that, but I am not totally satisfied with the proposed use of the dollars that we have.
On a happy note, I am pleased that the budget indicates the Midwifery Program will be stabilized and expanded, but no new midwife practice will get up and running in 2013-14. The money will go to planning at headquarters, and that’s not what we need.
Secondly, the budget includes $9.4 million to continue to subsidize electricity rates for residents, yet I have heard no indication from the government of any concrete plan to get us out of the subsidy business. How long will we continue to pour millions into the subsidy pot?
On another note, the Minister’s address talked a lot about economic development. I agree; we need economic development to grow our territory, but where in the budget address was the corresponding acknowledgement of environmental and social impacts? We cannot focus on economic development without also focusing on land use planning, socio-economic impacts and environmental concerns. I didn’t hear much about those from Minister Miltenberger and that’s a concern.
Fourth, I again appreciate the continued focus on early childhood development in the budget. It was a good move in 2012-13, to place $1 million into early childhood development programs. I have to say again, though, that it should not have come from the inclusive schooling funds. That part of the education budget will remain underfunded because of that transfer.
Fifth, I am again pleased to hear the Finance Minister commit to funding the implementation of our Anti-Poverty Strategy through an upcoming supplementary appropriation. I look forward to the action plan once it’s developed. This will be money very well spent, and spent properly, will bring efficiencies to government operations.
Lastly, I am concerned about the seeming lack of focus and lack of money for mental health programs and services. Lots of mentions and talk about addictions, but we will have no success in treating residents’ addictions if we don’t also treat and consider mental health at the same time. These two issues cannot be separated.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
The Minister’s address mentioned slow revenue growth several times, but my thoughts on that will be left for another time.
I look forward to discussing the budget in detail in the coming weeks. There will be lots of questions from this side of the House. I eagerly anticipate the answers from the other side. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity last month to attend the Beaufort-Delta Regional Council meetings in Inuvik, where we bring all of our mayors, our chiefs and councils into Inuvik, where they have an opportunity to sit down with Cabinet, Cabinet Ministers and all of their staff and ask some pretty tough questions and also look at creating some type of resolution and give the Ministers an opportunity to look and see what’s happening in our small communities and our region with our people in that area.
I was very happy that this was my second time sitting down with the Beaufort-Delta Regional Council and listening to their concerns. This year I was very pleased to say that all the leaders from the community were very engaged, they asked a lot of good questions, the dialogue was very good. When the regional council meets, at the end of their meeting – they met for three very long days – they came up with resolutions. Last year the chair of the committee brought forth a bunch of resolutions to the Premier and his office, and they were able to deal with some of them. This year we’re waiting for those resolutions and we will continue to try to get them on the agenda. We’ve got five more weeks here in the House to try to get some of those resolutions that our leadership from back home brought forth.
The leadership was also very interested in the collaborative approach that some of these departments are doing and working together, and they support that. They support departments working together to be more effective and more efficient in the communities, especially when we have a lot of issues.
Our leadership in the Beaufort-Delta, as you are aware, is very strong. They have strong voices, they have strong leadership styles and work very well with one another. As such, for all the years of experience, their wisdom, knowledge, their expertise, I would hate to say that their voices go unheard in this House and within this government. I’ll be making sure that as we move forward over the next fiscal year that their voices and the concerns of their residents are heard in this House.
Over the next five weeks, I’ll be sure to bring some of those resolutions to our committee and look at getting support to go forth into this budget year or as we move forward with this 17th Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to follow up on the topic raised by my colleague for Hay River North. It is a very important and very pressing issue at this time.
The good news is we’re all living longer. The bad news is this government has to find the capital to deal with providing long-term and extended stay care beds for our aging population.
This is a fact, that there are 10 long-term care beds in the existing Hay River hospital. Another fact is that the new health centre does not anticipate having any long-term care beds. So there is a timeline that’s fast coming upon us. The new hospital will be up and operational, and you know, in capital planning, years go by very, very quickly. We were on the waiting list for many years to get the new health centre we’re getting now and we can’t get back in the line. I don’t know if we can get back in the line fast enough to get a facility for these long-term care beds. So I would like to suggest an option, and I’m sure there are numerous options, but this is an option I would like to suggest to the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister of Public Works.
Right now the wing of the Hay River hospital that contains the 10 long-term care beds is operating. There will be the acute care wing, which will become open when the new health centre is built and operational.
I would like to suggest that a lot of our infrastructure we have is functional one day and not necessarily ready for the wrecking ball. I would like to see this government undertake a technical review starting soon, if they agree, to look at the use of the existing Hay River hospital as a full-sized or converting it fully to an extended care facility. I don’t know if it’s viable, I do know that the requirements for air handling and different codes are more strenuous for an actual hospital versus an extended care or long-term care facility. I am not, obviously, as a layperson, familiar with what all of those codes and what all of those things are, but there people who are, and I think that this building is worth taking a look at.
I think that it would require a technical review, a review of the ongoing operations and maintenance that would be involved in keeping this going, because the number of people that are going to be requiring those services in Hay River is going to be growing greatly over the next few years. We can’t wait. We need to know what the game plan is going to be going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use the occasion today to talk about the Inuvik-Tuk highway. As you know very well, over the years you’ve heard me always say that I’ve been a supporter of the highway, and that support for the principle of the highway has not changed at all. I believe in some vision, in a manner of speaking, that it is nation building in its own way.
It is a new highway and may I remind this House, certainly the Transportation Minister and, of course, our Premier – the one that led the great vision I talked about last week in Ottawa – a new highway is supposed to be a federal responsibility. Now the territorial government is wading into this and, of course, gets us into an interesting pickle, whereas our public is picking up the tab for what should rightly be a federal responsibility.
The primary issue I’m hearing today, as we wait for these costs to the highway, is that the public wants to know what this is going to cost. They’re sitting in a manner here they’re anticipating, but all we hear is rumour that it will cost $200 million, $250 million, $300 million, even $350 million. Those seem to be numbers that float around. Of course, the concern that we’ve always heard is, don’t worry, the feds will pick up that 25/75 split. That was great news and new news on the $200 million highway, but of course, if it’s $350 million, are the territorial citizens going to be the taxpayers that back this particular project?
I acknowledge and certainly support the principles that our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has and his focus. He has had a relentless focus, and I would like to give him credit for that, about developing the North and creating opportunities that have not existed before, and he certainly does deserve that credit. I do caution our House in the context of what will our costs be.
In short, I want to bring this down to a couple of things. The first thing is, before a number is debated and voted upon in this House, I would certainly like a public number, a plain-language document of costing and reporting out there for the public so they can see it, and have a chance to consume it, and understand the particular issues that this will build and certainly be for our territory. Whatever number that ends up, it should be given to the public with a full opportunity to have some discussion on this. That way they can provide the feedback to the Members of the Assembly and say, look, I would like you to support this, or in some cases maybe not support it because it’s such a large number.
The other issue which I will be bringing up in question period is the royalties. People are concerned about how much the royalties may be; if so, how much, and why are we paying royalties, considering how much highway in the future needs to be built. I will have questions for the Transportation Minister later today.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past Friday I was honoured to present a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award to a respected elder and advocate for Dene languages and culture, Mr. Daniel Sonfrere. Mr. Sonfrere is highly respected for his lifelong determination to preserve and promote the Dene language and culture.
[English translation not provided.]
Mr. Daniel Sonfrere continues to work tirelessly for the preservation and promotion of the Dene language. As part of a committee of six elders, all of them fluent in the Dene language, he works with a translator and linguist to record and preserve our language in a topical dictionary. Mr. Sonfrere hopes that this dictionary will continue to help the young people learn from their Mother Tongue.
February 6, 2012, marked the 60th anniversary of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Canada. To celebrate this event, the Government of Canada created a commemorative medal to recognize the outstanding contributions of 60,000 Canadians of all ages and walks of life.
Elder Daniel Sonfrere is worthy of this reward for his legacy of language and great dedication to his people. We are reminded daily of the influence he has taken in shaping the community that the Hay River Reserve is today. I was deeply honoured to attend the ceremony, along with Chief Roy Fabien of the K’atlodeeche First Nation, and to make this very special presentation as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement earlier today, I will have questions for the Minister of Justice. I would like to ask the Minister how long is the RCMP’s response time to complaints in Tsiigehtchic compared to Fort McPherson.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have that specific information in front of me. I do know that in the summertime they have regular planned patrols of the community where they drive in from Fort McPherson. In the wintertime, if there is an emergency, they will charter a plane to come in. I will commit to getting the Member some specifics on actual response time.
It’s very interesting they charter a plane to Tsiigehtchic when we have no airstrip. Can the Minister describe the benefits of having a permanent police detachment in those communities lucky enough to have them?
I should have said they will have a flight into the community, not necessarily a plane. I had an opportunity to visit Tsiigehtchic with the Member in April where I had an opportunity to talk to leadership with the commanding officer for “G” Division. At that time, the commanding officer of “G” Division did commit to meeting with the community and working on a policing plan that met the needs of the community. I understand that a number of activities or items were agreed to.
I also understand that, having a meeting with some Gwich’in leadership in December, that plan has come off the rails a little bit.
I have had an opportunity to sit down with the commanding officer of “G” Division, who has indicated that he will go back to the community and sit down with the leadership again to try to bring that community policing plan back together. At the end of the day, policing patrols are at the discretion of the RCMP, but as a government we’re very concerned about having coverage in small communities and we believe that one of the best ways to do this is to work with the community and develop individualized community policing plans. I will commit to the Member today that the commanding officer has promised and indicated that he will go into the community, and work with your leadership to develop a plan that works for Tsiigehtchic.
Will the Minister meet with the community leaders in Tsiigehtchic to discuss putting in a police detachment there?
At the current time, there is actually a dedicated police officer in Fort McPherson to provide services to Tsiigehtchic. I’m happy to sit down and talk about options and possibilities about how we can provide a greater range of services in Tsiigehtchic. A stand-alone detachment is going to be a minimum of $5.5 million investment to develop a detachment. I think we need to work on other options first. I’m certainly willing to meet with the leadership to talk about options that would work for them.
