Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is a proud sponsor of the 2013 Indspire awards. Formerly known as the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Indspire promotes the development, education and professional advancement of Aboriginal people in Canadian society.
I will be attending the awards this week in Saskatoon. It gives me great pleasure to announce that two Northwest Territories residents will receive awards this year.
Gail Cyr of Yellowknife will receive the award for public service. Ms. Cyr is a long-time employee of the Government of the Northwest Territories and is currently the special advisor to the Minister on the Status of Women. She has had a lengthy career serving indigenous people and all our residents. She established the Native Court Worker Association for the Northwest Territories and is very involved in family violence prevention and awareness. She is passionate about making our communities sustainable, vibrant and safe. She is committed to forming partnerships that help Northerners become strong and independent. We are proud of the work that Ms. Cyr and all our employees do on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories.
Duane Smith, who is the chair for the Inuvik Community Corporation and the vice-chair of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, will receive the award for politics. Mr. Smith is also the president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) and was once a wildlife officer with the Government of the Northwest Territories. Throughout his political life,
he has been a strong supporter of Arctic land claims and has effectively driven initiatives in support of strengthening and diversifying our northern economy.
Both Ms. Cyr and Mr. Smith are well-known throughout the territory and are excellent role models who are proud of their Aboriginal heritage. They are helping to build a sustainable future for our territory, building on the strengths of Northerners.
Mr. Speaker, I ask Members to join with me in congratulating them on this prestigious honour. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 15 youth ambassadors, representing seven NWT communities, travelled with us to Ottawa recently to promote the Northwest Territories at Winterlude as part of NWT Days.
They acted as guides and greeters at various events and as traditional games demonstrators. To say that the youth ambassadors did an outstanding job does not give them enough credit. They impressed both political participants and thousands of others who attended and watched their performances. They were also featured on local and national media for their efforts. Many people approached me to tell me how much they appreciated their work and to praise them for being true ambassadors for the North.
Mr. Speaker, each of these future leaders returned with a new sense of confidence after an experience that has helped them develop life and job skills to deal with future challenges. One parent said that the program is helping turn her daughter’s life around. She was an at-risk youth when she applied for the program. Now she has new confidence and respect.
Mr. Speaker, this mother’s reflections are not unique. The NWT Youth Ambassador Program is guided by the principle that a structured volunteer experience and participation in major events can develop significant skills and build the confidence necessary for youth to deal with the complex challenges of modern society. We see and hear about its positive impact all the time.
Youth ambassadors receive consistent, high quality training and preparation for projects. They work with program managers to develop expectations and standards. This program is directly contributing to the GNWT’s goals of having healthy, educated people free from poverty, and the leaders that come out of this program will help build sustainable, vibrant, safe communities across our territory. This program is a long-term investment in our territory’s future that benefits all of our communities.
I am especially proud of the new alumni component to the program that has former youth ambassadors returning to act as mentors to their younger peers. This youth to youth interaction and guidance is often one of the most powerful motivators for participants to make healthy lifestyle choices.
Mr. Speaker, the Youth Ambassador Program was launched in 2007 as part of our pan-territorial commitment to support the Canada Games in Whitehorse that year. Since that time, our government has supported nearly 20 projects of various sizes. Hundreds of NWT youth have now had an experience that will have positive effects on the rest of their lives.
Many more youth will get to experience this program as it progresses. This summer the youth ambassadors will be taking part in the 2013 Canada Summer Games by volunteering for the Sherbrooke, Quebec, host society. This will be another great opportunity to highlight our northern youth and culture and I am very much looking forward to it.
Mr. Speaker, the department is constantly monitoring and evaluating this program. In future years MACA will be able to present reports on the longer term effects of this program as we continue to follow up with participants as they enter adulthood and become productive contributing members of our communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I will continue my discussion on some of the issues in the area of health for Hay River. One of the major issues in Hay River is the fact that, back several years ago, the government removed the management board and replaced it with a public administrator. Although the administrator is doing a good job, there is still a lot of outcry from the community to have some sort of advisory board so that the community from different walks of life can give information and feedback to the health authority so that we can have representation and see what the issues are. We have one public administrator, one person that the public can contact, and sometimes that’s difficult. If you don’t know that individual or you’re not part of the inner circle of that group, it’s very difficult. We in the community here would like to see an advisory authority set up, along with some information or some representatives from outside the community and surrounding area, where some of the people actually come and use the health centres. This is one of the major issues that we have in the health area.
Another area that I’ve brought up in the House before is the flexibility of funding. Currently, we have no full-time positions there but we have been using a nurse practitioner, and we would like to be able to use potentially more if we have the ability to hire more nurse practitioners. Right now the funding is in columns so it only allows certain dollars to be spent on physicians versus nurse practitioners.
I’m going to be having questions for the Minister of Health on those two issues today about whether we can have the public advisory committee and reduce the column funding in the Hay River Health Authority.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased that the government is investing additional funds into the NWT Tourism Marketing Strategy. Showing Canada and the world that NWT is a world-travelled destination is key in developing and diversifying our tourism economy in all regions.
I’m working with the mayor of Fort Simpson, Mr. Sean Whelly. He has an idea of a man that can swim the entire Mackenzie River and bring along international exposure. His name is Mr. Martin Strel, but you can call him Big River Man. He has swum most of the world’s longest rivers. In February 2007, Martin Strel began an insane attempt to be the first person to swim the entire length of the world’s most dangerous river, the mighty Amazon.
Martin is an endurance swimmer from Slovenia, who swims rivers – the Mississippi, the Danube and the Yangtze to date – and he has highlighted their pollution to the world. It also means that the Big River Man swam with alligators, piranhas, snakes, et cetera. Fortunately we don’t have these dangers in our North. Maybe the ferocious Jackfish.
It’s no surprise that we call the Mackenzie River the Deh Cho; it is a very big river. The Mackenzie River watershed is considered one of the largest and most intact ecosystems in North America, especially in the North. Our Mackenzie River is one of the longest pristine rivers and we should do what we can to use that as a selling point. There are many great communities and sights all along the Mackenzie River.
The documentaries on these courageous exploits have been seen internationally as he was shown by the National Geographic Channel and throughout many world film festivals. His films have been universally praised in all of these forums. This is the type of national and international exposure that we as the GNWT and our Tourism Marketing Strategy should support.
This would be a great idea to build on the momentum of NWT Day in Canada where we showcased our tourism potential. I envision that he will stop at each of our communities and we can have feasts and showcase local scenery and tourism stops. Hopefully, in Fort Simpson we can see him also go to the Nahanni National Park Reserve so that the world can once again see its beauty. Later today I will ask the Minister of ITI questions on how we can make this a reality.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories is gifted with artists whose talents reflect our culture and history. As pointed out in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment Arts Strategy, art and artistic endeavours are important from a social, cultural, and economic perspective. The process of expression, and creation and production of art, celebrates, preserves and transmits culture. This appreciation and the benefits of the art is also shared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, TRC, of Canada.
The TRC believes that artists have a keen, profound contribution to make in expressing both truth and reconciliation. I’d like to bring to the attention of the people and artists in the Northwest Territories that the TRC is inviting artists to submit works that express the truth, the impact and the legacy of the residential school experience.
The TRC is also inviting artists to submit works relating to apology, truth, cultural oppression, cultural genocide, resistance, resilience, spirituality, remembrance, reconciliation, rejuvenation and restoration of Aboriginal culture and pride. Whether artistic expressions are created in addition to or are a substitute for individual statements given to the TRC, it is an important and meaningful way to express people’s experience and assist with reconciliation.
I would like to inform the artists of the Northwest Territories that have been affected by residential schools about this call for submission, and invite them to consider submitting their artistic expression by the December 31, 2013, deadline. More information can be obtained from the TRC website, www.trc.ca. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today is a continuation of my budget comments from yesterday and it’s about a subject that I’ve spoken of many times before.
As I listened to the budget address last week, I was hoping to hear the Minister of Finance announce a new revenue source in our budget, but I was disappointed yet again. There is no reference to a new revenue stream in the 2013-14 operations budget. In fact, out of a 10-page budget address, only one small paragraph is devoted to revenue.
Our next year’s budget is pretty much a carbon copy of the current budget. Yet, Mr. Speaker, our needs are great. There are so many things we want and need to do as a government and as a territory to enhance the life for our residents. Things like a bigger Midwifery Program, comprehensive early childhood programs, more energy initiatives, maintaining the Dene Ko Day Shelter, increased education programs and services, upgraded highways, and replacing old infrastructure, our schools, our government buildings and the like.
The list is too long to mention everything. The bottom line is we need to increase our revenues in order to put in place all the things that we believe our territory needs.
The Finance Minister has explained this is a stay the course budget with few initiatives. So why not increase our revenue to give us financial breathing room?
There are opportunities for new revenue sources. Many have been explored by the Finance Minister and then rejected, and that is wrong, in my view. I know we’re limited to certain revenue sources because of the Territorial Financing Formula and the potential clawbacks of our own-source revenues. But to refuse to implement any significant new revenue source is short sighted.
Since the start of the 17th Assembly, any time the need for revenue is raised, the Minister of Finance or the Premier refer to devolution and the presumed financial windfall that we will inherit. Minister Miltenberger did so yesterday during Committee of the Whole. Resource royalties negotiated through devolution cannot be seen as our financial salvation. We have to be more forward thinking than that.
We, the Assembly and our residents, want autonomy. We want control over our territory. I do too. Part of that autonomy demands prudent planning and long-term thinking, and both of those require a recognition that we need to put in place a significant new revenue source to move this territory forward. I urge the government to reconsider their position for our next budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It goes without saying that our current NWT education system is in dire need of an overhaul. The recent Auditor General of Canada clearly pointed out numerous opportunities of reform, and we know that the department has been busy evaluating the delivery of northern education.
I’m sure the department is sparing no dime in gathering the best experts, discussion papers, research and feasibility studies on what changes it will need to institute. Then we are more than certain we will have a series of forums, follow-up discussions and reports at some juncture. The point is that this is the wheel of government. This is what the general public sees as we tackle obstacles or improve services. But I have a question. If you field test the kids as to what they want and have these kids had the ability to grade their teachers.
Business and government survey their employees all the time and make policy changes based on a skill data. So why would our students be any different?
The premise of grading teachers is nothing new and is being done all over the United States. Kids stare at their teachers for hundreds of hours a year, which gives them an unbiased reliability and measuring teacher performance. Some of the results from this exercise produced more reliable means testing than student test score growth and was deemed an important measure of testing effective teaching.
Most research documents and education reformers worldwide are obsessed with teaching quality and are referring to this instrument as a perfect gauge to complement education effectiveness.
With this in mind, I will be asking the Minister of Education later today about if education reform is on the horizon and if he and his department are looking at such models as a means of achieving the full potential of our students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last few months, at the beginning of this government, we have heard a lot about devolution and some statements over the last week on decentralization of jobs. Government positions going out in the communities and the regions are going to be a big thing and something we have to prepare for. In fact, our communities are talking about it, our regional centres are talking about it, and they’re very excited to hear that we are going to be decentralizing some of the jobs into the communities.
With that said, as Mr. Dolynny had pointed out, our education system, we do know there are challenges in our education system and that our students aren’t ready for post-secondary schooling when they graduate from the school system. There are going to be a lot of challenges when they go through with decentralization, and we have to start planning and preparing for it now.
This government has to find innovative and unique ways that are going to help assist building capacity in these regions and in these communities, so when these jobs become available, our communities, our families, our residents will be ready to take on these jobs.
Something that has been talked about and discussed is the housing needs in the communities as well as the office space. So when these jobs become available, we know that these jobs are capable of being done in communities such as Hay River, Inuvik, Fort McPherson, wherever it might be, that we do have the office space and we do have the housing infrastructure to house these people.
But it goes further than that. A lot of these people who are going to be coming up, either taking jobs or going out to the communities, have families. We are going to have them placed. We are going to need early childhood development programs. We are going to need nursing. We are going to need policing. We are going to need recreation services, because outside of work, people have lives. We are going to have to build the infrastructure in these communities that is well needed, so when people come up to the North or are decentralized out of Yellowknife and some of the regions, they are prepared to live in the community, that they are going to be proud to live in, to do their work in, and be welcome in the community and be able to develop their family structure and their work structure as well.
When it comes to preparing for decentralization, one motto that I always used when I used to do all my running is: fail to plan, plan to fail. This government needs to start planning so that when these jobs become available in the communities, we are going to be successful and we are going to have these jobs taken up by people outside of our small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Most of us know February is Valentine’s Day month, but it is also Heart Month. The Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation and similar organizations around the world recognize Heart Month every February. It is an opportunity to raise funds for life-giving research and to alert people to the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Most, or all of us probably, have known elders who spent their whole lives working hard and eating traditional food, and in their 80s or even 90s they’re still out there cutting their own firewood and looking after themselves. Some of them could probably outrun people 60 or 70 years younger than them. It really concerns me when I see our youth smoking, eating junk food and spending hours a day on TV and video games. The traditional Dene lifestyle is a very healthy one and we can learn a lot from our people who live that way.
I encourage everyone to make a commitment this month to cut down at least one risk factor for heart disease and stroke. People can make their homes junk food free zones, maybe go for a long walk every day with your valentine. Just start somewhere.
There are some health issues that we cannot control, but when it comes to heart disease and stroke, our own choices do make a big difference. I wish all my constituents and people across the NWT success with whatever changes they make to reduce their risk of heart disease and a strong and happy, healthy Heart Month. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am going to speak about something that cannot be done any justice to in two and a half minutes. I confess I was late for work this morning because I got caught up in watching a movie on television that was about social injustice. It was called “A Million Colours” and it was about the social injustice in South Africa with the apartheid. It got me thinking this morning, as I was getting in the shower, late as I was, about social injustice in general and I have so little tolerance for social injustice. When the movie “Schindler’s List” came out about the holocaust, I could not stand to watch it because of the injustice of the acts that were being perpetrated on people.
I got thinking about our country and about our territory, and I got thinking about the social injustice of the policies of previous governments when they came, not so long ago, into our communities in the North and across this country and they took people’s children away from them. That is the past and I know we cannot turn back the clock and we cannot go back and change that, but now in this day and age and today we still live with the fallout from that social injustice. We still live with Aboriginal First Nations people being disproportionately represented in almost every social negative indicator that you can come up with, whether it’s suicide, whether it’s incarceration, whether it’s addiction to drugs and alcohol.
So this atrocity, as it happened, is still with us. It’s alive and well today because people turn to things like drugs and alcohol to mask the pain of this injustice, but our country has never really dealt with that, I don’t believe. Yes, there were apologies made by the Prime Minister and we have recently seen the efforts of the Idle No More movement in trying to communicate some of these things, but I don’t think that our country will ever be healed from this until there is a general societal acceptance of the fact that there was a grave social injustice perpetrated and we are living with the masked symptoms of that yet today.
Today is Bell satellite or TV or communications Let’s Talk Day to deal with mental illness. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has gone a long ways towards let’s talk about what happened in the past. They have done an amazing job of let’s talk about it, but we cannot afford to stop talking about it until we start to see a change. Those of us sitting around this table know all too well what we deal with every day as legislators as a fallout of a grave social injustice that occurred in this territory and in this country, and we need to keep talking about it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government’s latest rampage against environmental protection and this government’s silence in areas of critical public interest demand comment.
Thursday, the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board was informed of budget cuts. It will reduce its staffing by half, crippling its ability to carry out full consultative reviews. Because of the independent status of the board, the federal government can’t tamper with board decision-making, so repressive control is exerted through funding cuts, reducing and restricting the board’s ability to operate. Funding cuts will hit, most severely, its ability to do full information gathering, such as community scoping meetings and meaningful assessments. Assessments, in fact, will be a desktop exercise.
Seven new mines are in the office and these plus other large projects being proposed require meaningful review to be done responsibly. With this latest blow in the federal assault on the environment and with the new, sometimes unrealistic deadlines, ongoing ministerial decisions and banning much of the public opportunity for participation, we are going to see incomplete reviews, increased environmental impacts, and the depleted ability of our land to meet people’s needs, and, I suspect, a vulnerability to Section 35 court actions that will freeze development.
The MVRMA – Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act – boards, including the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, are the mechanisms created to fulfill the promises of consultation and joint decision-making made in the land claims. Undermining the capacity of boards reneges on these promises to our Aboriginal government partners. The federal government will fail to meet its fiduciary duty and, to satisfy Section 35 requirements, the duty to consult and accommodate.
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada’s own environmental audits of 2005 and 2010 pointed out repeatedly that previous underfunding hurt boards’ abilities to assess projects fully and promptly. These further cuts fly in the face of their own reviews and set the stage for the promised destruction of our own regional boards.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
These measures threaten our ability to protect our northern environment. They gut the board that this government will rely upon for our management advice following full devolution. All this without a public word of protest or concern from territorial leaders.
How long will devolution negotiations muzzle this government, and what on earth is it going to take before the government finally speaks up on behalf of the citizens and their land? I will have questions for the Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use the opportunity today to talk about a January 7th letter I wrote to Mr. Miltenberger regarding a Financial Administration Manual breach of 3307. It refers to aircraft chartering.
In my January 7th letter I wrote to Mr. Miltenberger and said that it looks like Mr. Ramsay led a charter to Fort Providence and several Members attended that. According to Mr. Ramsay’s November 19th letter, he encouraged Members to bring family members along. Although it was an occasion to celebrate – and that should not be forgotten on this occasion – the letter did not sort of proscribe as to who should pay for these particular rides.
The Financial Administration Manual –
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’m very happy to recognize the leaders from the Sahtu: Chief Leonard Kenny from Deline, Chief Beaufort McNeely Jr. from Radili Ko Fort Good Hope, and Danny Gaudet, businessman and chief negotiator and good cousin of mine from Deline.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow my colleague from the Sahtu in recognizing two chiefs from the Sahtu, Mr. McNeely and Mr. Kenny. Welcome to the House. Also, a former colleague, Mr. David Krutko from the Mackenzie Delta, and a good friend, Mr. Danny Gaudet. Welcome.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the former Member for Mackenzie Delta Mr. Krutko, also Danny Gaudet and the two chiefs from the Sahtu. Welcome.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. I, too, would like to welcome back Mr. Krutko. It’s always good to see you almost every day since we’ve been here. Good to have you back, David. I, too, would like to welcome Danny and Leonard. Welcome to the House here today.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask some questions to the Minister of Human Resources on the Aboriginal hire and Aboriginal senior management area of our government. I want to ask the Minister what plans he is working on to close the gap. There is a gap between the number or percentage of Aboriginal people in senior management within the Department of Human Resources already with the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Glen Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of things that we’re doing. One of the things that we are doing is the Associate Director/Superintendent Program, which is actually an Affirmative Action Program to bring individuals in and train them for senior management roles. We have about three positions a year, six ongoing at any time, and we are getting good results with that program.
