Mr. Speaker, the 17th Legislative Assembly identified the need for an Economic Development Strategy to strengthen and diversify the Northwest Territories economy.
Our strategy will respond to changing circumstances in the North and address business opportunities in all regions of our territory.
Mr. Speaker, the Economic Opportunities Strategy is part of a much bigger picture. It complements other initiatives the GNWT is undertaking such as a comprehensive Mineral Development Strategy, and other linked initiatives such as the Land Use and Sustainability Framework and a Northwest Territories Anti-Poverty Strategy.
While the NWT is filled with economic opportunity and potential, we are sometimes challenged to find ways to convert it into jobs and development that prevents poverty and encourages people in all of our communities to participate in the economy.
This strategy is of pan-territorial importance and cannot be developed by government alone. While Industry, Tourism and Investment is coordinating the government’s participation, the project itself is being overseen by a governance committee that includes representatives of the NWT Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Aboriginal Business Association, the NWT Association of Communities and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.
Last December, in consultation with this governance committee, I appointed an advisory panel to engage NWT residents, the private sector,
governments and other key stakeholders in a series of discussions on the economy. This panel is travelling to communities to identify the economic opportunities that exist in our territory’s regions and communities along with the strengths, weaknesses and threats that exist in each area. All of this work will be very helpful as our governance committee drafts the Economic Opportunities Strategy.
This strategy will have benefits for every region of our territory. It will contain tangible, attainable recommendations for investments and decisions that will advance and sustain the NWT economy for the future.
Over 100 invitations and opportunities are being provided to NWT residents and organizations to engage with the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy Advisory Panel. The panel has already met with stakeholders and residents in Hay River, Fort Smith, Fort Resolution and Inuvik. They will also travel this month to Fort Simpson, Norman Wells and Behchoko.
A public forum will be held tonight at six o’clock in the Explorer Hotel here in Yellowknife. These public meetings are opportunities for individuals and organizations to contribute experience and insights on the very important subject of our territory’s economic future.
Of course, Mr. Speaker, this period of listening and public engagement is only a part of the overall process. We have done a review of major NWT economic studies together with best practices in other regions. Our strategy will include the recommendations and applied experience and insights of our highly qualified advisory panel. We also value the advice of industry and economic expertise from our territory and elsewhere.
Collectively, through this extensive and multi-partnered process, we are putting in place the elements of an economic strategy that will enable the NWT to keep pace with the incredible opportunities and growth potential that it possesses. We will ensure that our North is positioned to manage this investment and growth to advance jobs for people, opportunities for businesses, self-reliance for communities and economic sustainability for our territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Glen Abernethy will be absent from the House for a portion of today’s proceedings to attend to a personal matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Construction of the road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk is an important first step in completing the Mackenzie Valley Highway. If we do it right, this project will provide many jobs and business opportunities.
Living in the Delta, I see all kinds of business going to the Yukon because the Dempster Highway is our supplier. I see millions of dollars going down the road every year, Mr. Speaker. We need that business and economic opportunity in our territory. The Beaufort-Delta region badly needs a boost to its economy and people need jobs so they can support their families. The unemployment level in most of our communities is terrible, at 35 percent.
As you know, creating jobs is one way we can build safe and sustainable communities, one of this government’s main priorities. By building the road to Tuk, we will create lots of jobs. The question is who’s going to do them. Will our people in the Beaufort-Delta be ready for those jobs?
I’m worried that we are behind on providing education and training to prepare the Delta workforce to get well-paying highway jobs that should be available for many years to come. For example, there should be Class 1 driving courses in every community every few months.
Appropriate courses should be delivered through the community learning centres, but some are not very active and in some communities they don’t even exist. Current high school students should be ready and able to handle the future jobs. The community schools are under-resourced and graduation rates could be a lot better.
Support for students who have completed high school in Inuvik is another big problem. If this territory is going to prosper, and if our people are going to prosper, we have to improve our education and training.
I’ll be asking the Education, Culture and Employment Minister about that later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to say, for the record, that we do have a great health care system. It is very difficult to deliver quality health care from Fort Liard all the way to Sachs Harbour, but on the whole, people working in the health system are to be commended.
Saying that, there is always room for improvement, and I would like to suggest some changes that would both help out the people of Fort Liard and probably lower the cost of health care and medical travel in my region.
It is one of the goals of our health system to deliver as much care as close to home as possible and I very much agree with this. For people in Fort Liard, that means getting some of their health services in Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Right now residents of Fort Liard often use their own resources and just drive south for certain services. It is only 210 from Liard to Fort Nelson, and I might add that the road is better, too, compared to the 284 kilometres on Highway No. 7 to Fort Simpson. It is not uncommon for Liard patients to be flown to Yellowknife, which is 780 kilometres away. If it is not absolutely necessary, this is both inconvenient to patients and expensive to our health system.
For example, a constituent can say his knee hurts, he is sent to Yellowknife and sees a doctor who confirms that his knee hurts, and then sent home to await a more rigorous appointment. This, as I say, can be done closer to home in Fort Nelson.
I would like to see an agreement between the Health and Social Services and the BC Health ministry that allows seamless care that is invoiced to our health system. As it is now, it is not fair to those people in Fort Liard who are covering the costs of their own trips to Fort Nelson.
I see the current budget includes expanding the use of electronic medical records. This should make it easier to manage the arrangement I propose. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again I must preface my statement with all due respect to the folks of the Beaufort-Delta. We, as keepers of the public purse, have a job here to keep the public interest, and the accountability and transparency for the expenditure of government funds. We have an obligation to question that.
The cost-benefit analysis of a piece of infrastructure of this expense at this time in this area needs to be very critically looked at, and I do hear the plight of the Inuvik area, the Inuvik region, in terms of the economic downtown, the conditions there. I do not think that a $300 million road project to create economy is the answer to that situation, not in and of itself.
I hear the federal government say that they want to be able to say that they have highway infrastructure coast to coast to coast. That’s a very lofty goal, an admirable goal, but our government is necessarily being called upon to participate in this project at least with 25 percent of the capital cost and who knows how much on the ongoing operations and maintenance of that highway.
We have Highway No. 7. We hear our colleague from Nahendeh stand up session after session and talk about the lack of maintenance and upkeep on a highway in his region. We heard many times from folks that represent the Mackenzie Delta about the conditions of the Dempster Highway and how this government does not have enough resources to maintain and upkeep that highway, and now we want to build another piece of highway infrastructure. We need to do so by first very seriously counting the costs of what the use will be and what the ongoing costs of that are.
I look at the latest major highway project this government overtook, which was from the Rae turnoff to Yellowknife, and no offense to the Department of Transportation, but they were building a highway in the Canadian Shield where they had unlimited access to rock they could crush to put a proper bed in that road, and that road is beyond disgusting. I think they started rebuilding the road the day after they built it. That was a $200 million project in this part of the country where they didn’t have to deal with permafrost and all the challenges that they will have to deal with up in the Beaufort-Delta area.
So we have to ask ourselves some very hard questions, regardless of the fact that it is on sale at 75 percent off. It will still be a piece of infrastructure that we will be responsible for and we have to look at this very critically. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning I sat down with some very committed and encouraging people in the Northwest Territories. They were working on initiatives to help our elders in our small communities. The program is called Elders in Motion. These people talked about how they are working with the elders in our communities, and some of the barriers, some of the advice and some of the things that they are doing in our communities. I just happened to be there when they were doing their presentation – and they’re at the Baker Centre this afternoon finishing off today’s work there – and they were talking about the elders who are needing help in our small communities and communities right across the Northwest Territories.
The people in my region were talking about having some support, some of the small stuff we can do in our communities to help our elders get out, get active and do some of the things they used to do a long time ago.
For example, one of the things that the participants talked about is having ramps at the elders’ homes so they can easily come out of the houses and get out and exercise, pick berries and do the things they have loved to do all their life. They also talked about putting small steps into the school because some of the steps are pretty steep in the schools in the settlements. There’s maybe about 20 steps for them to get up into some of the classrooms or walk in some of the other areas that they want to go. They also talked about the roaming of dogs in the small communities. They are really afraid that there are too many loose dogs in the communities and it stops them from getting out and being active.
These community people are working hard. The elders are guiding and advising them. I think that there is a time and place that these small things, that sometimes we overlook as legislators, we need to look at some of these things that can support our elders get out, get them in motion and give them a good life before they pass on to the next world. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to mark the sudden passing of Dr. Clyde Hertzman. Clyde Hertzman became well known to NWT health professionals and educators through his role as an advisor to this government in the development of the first Early Childhood Framework. He has since been a continuing resource and inspiration to our territorial early childhood community. Dr. Hertzman was with us only last month at the Early Childhood Development Round Table in Yellowknife. I know many Members were there and Ministers, where, with his usual high energy and discerning understanding of his audience, he effectively conveyed his learned research, an essential point to consider in the design and evaluation of early childhood programs.
Dr. Hertzman was director of the Human Early Learning Partnership, Canada Research chair in Population Health and Human Development and professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. He was a Senior Fellow of the Experienced-based Brain and Biological Development Programme and the Successful Societies Programs of the prestigious Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He was named Canada’s Health Researcher of the Year in 2010. He held an honourary appointment at the Institute for Child Health University College of London, England, and last month earned the Order of Canada.
As one of the great champions of early childhood development and population health in Canada, Dr. Hertzman was considered a guru in the international field. He produced an extraordinary body of research spanning and linking the health and social sciences. This trailblazing work deepened our understanding of childhood development and provided compelling evidence-based arguments for progressive policies. Struggling for publicly funded universal childcare, striving for program assessment and young child evaluation tools and pushing for the elimination of child poverty, Dr. Hertzman was an impassioned champion of the need to bring equal opportunity to all people.
We were fortunate to enjoy his support, wisdom and inspiration in the continuing effort to improve the well-being of our children, families, society, community and economy. The early childhood community and the people of this territory feel his loss, and continue to be inspired by his example and contributions. Our most sincere condolences to his wife and children.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague’s comments, Mr. Yakeleya. Last night I had the opportunity and the pleasure of attending the NWT Rec and Park Association awards for our elders in the Northwest Territories, the active ones. At this time I’d really like to take the opportunity to recognize two elders who won the awards: Ms. Violet Beaulieu from Fort Resolution and Mr. Gabriel Kochon.
Violet is 80 years old and Gabriel is 84. Last night, when I got to meet them, they were full of energy and in great health.
The NWT Rec and Parks Association takes a different approach in promoting its healthy living programs. It promotes the physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects of well-being, taking a holistic approach in taking care of our elders. They know what to do with our elders and our people in the Northwest Territories. They make a focus on traditional and cultural lifestyles while introducing new and innovative exercise programs that continue to allow our elders to live a happy, fulfilled and, more importantly, an independent lifestyle.
In the budget address the other day, there was mention of chronic disease management and investing in more long-term care facilities and staff. When we ask for programs in chronic disease management to take care of our ever-growing senior population, we don’t want more facilities, we don’t want staff to take care of our elders, we want funding to go into these successful programs, effective programs that continue to keep our elders alive and well in our communities passing down our traditions, passing down our language, and for that I respect what the NWT Rec and Parks Association is doing. We’ve got to take a different approach in prevention, promotion, and we’ve got to recognize elders that are being active in the communities, and are being role models and continue the traditional culture and language of our peoples which is declining.
We’ve got to support these organizations who’ve never had an increase in funding, no forced growth, and support them so that they can get out to the communities and do stronger support for our people in the Northwest Territories and our residents.
At this time I’d like Members to join me in congratulating our two award winners, our elders, as well as congratulate the hard work that the NWT Rec and Parks Association does for the 33 communities across the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to return to the subject of government customer service that I discussed last week. I have brought up the issue of poor customer service at least once a year during my time as a Member. It’s an area where no one government person or department is really in charge of the issue, so each department and office operates on its own which, in turn, leads to inconsistencies in service for NWT residents.
The GNWT as a whole has no culture of customer service, no standards, no policies, no monitoring. So here’s an idea, as my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen likes to say: Why doesn’t the government centralize the responsibility for customer service in a department like, say, the Executive? We wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can look to our provincial counterparts for models that work. Ontario has spent a lot of time on this.
I gave an example of poor service last week, that of motor vehicle clients being unable to call and being able to talk to a real person and what I consider to be poor voicemail messages on their phones. There needs to be guidelines for all GNWT employees around returning phone calls and e-mails, how to answer, timelines and so on. There needs to be guidelines for employees dealing with clients face to face and through social media, how to greet people, how to listen, how quickly your response should be given to an inquiry. This applies whether they are internal clients, other GNWT employees or external clients, anyone outside the government.
All of these things are integral to good customer service. Private businesses who provide good customer service invest the time and money to properly train their staff. We need to do the same for our public service, Mr. Speaker. To do that well, we have to centralize the responsibility for developing a culture of customer service in our employees. We need to train GNWT public servants to understand excellent customer service and have the skills to feel comfortable and competent when dealing with clients.
We need policies, guidelines and standards that apply to all employees, and a small staff within the Department of Executive could provide the necessary leadership and develop the necessary standards and policies.
I need to make it clear, I do not advocate for more employees. We have more than enough. As I said the other day, a serious analysis of our current staffing will find us several employees who could transfer into a new position for customer service. If the will is there, Mr. Speaker, it can be done without spending any more money. The question is how important is customer service to this government. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, we are seeing a budget go wistfully by and, yet again, our potential territorial hospital has been bypassed. Let me say those words again, Mr. Speaker, territorial hospital.
We continually hear by this government that we have competing priorities, that roads are more important than territorial health and that an office building is more important than territorial health. Yet this government continues down a path of priorities where economics and practical sense collide.
A recent visit by the majority of Regular Members to our territorial hospital showed, clearly, a dire need for new facilities. This facility was designed for only 10,000 patient visits a year. We are now doing over 20,000.
The Minister of Finance, during our general comments on main estimates, admitted that this hospital is in need for a midlife retrofit. He is on record as saying it’s going to require $200 million to $300 million, yet we see no signs or signals in this budget to begin the planning for this.
The Finance Minister’s comments of “we’re on the road of taking care of that” leaves the average NWT residents wondering if they, too, can go down to their local bank and ask to withdraw some of this “taking care of that” money.
Sorry, Mr. Speaker, we’re taking care of that. What does that really mean? Unless this Assembly and the people of the Northwest Territories see it on the books as a priority within the budget line, there is no taking care of that and that is for sure.
If the Minister of Finance does not think we need to spend any more of our budget on health care, fine. He has every right to believe in a legacy of a fiscal restraint policy of don’t get sick. Let me remind everyone listening today, with our imminent landscape about to go into full throttle, our new $800 million shiny platinum Visa card is ready to be inserted into the chip reader and Premier McLeod has the PIN number.
So, back to the territorial hospital. While our health care providers are clearly working out of closets or having to trip over pallets of medical supplies in the hallway or having to eat their lunch outside because they just lost their coffee room for a new service, our government will be keying in the PIN number to withdraw funds that have nothing to do to ensuring the future of our health care. But not all is lost, Mr. Speaker, as I’m sure the voters will be taking care of that in the next election. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use today’s opportunity to talk about the Financial Administration Manual. I’m going to frame it around the administration and the conduct built around that.
The public is concerned, certainly as I am, about the accountability of this manual and the transparency that’s brought with it. So I’m not going to speak to any specific example whether we’ve had problems in the past or even in the recent situation.
I’d like to focus my concerns around the administration and our guiding book, our bible, as such when it comes to finances and economics of the NWT. What happens if there is an error or breach, Mr. Speaker? The public is unclear and wonders how the balance is worked out. Is it swept under the carpet or how is it weighed and measured in a transparent way?
Clearly, independence, or I should say unclear independence, seems to be one of the questions that is railing out there. People wonder, do the staff guide their reviews under the scrutiny of their bosses when they are, in some cases, reviewing these situations. What is the transparency of these guidelines that provide a reasonable atonement? It’s not necessary about getting a pound of flesh, but we all have to know what measurements and guidelines we are being held accountable to.
The choice, as the public sees it, if there is a problem in some way, really comes down to a few options. Do nothing and that becomes a real option, or correct the error of the breach, and do nothing and pretend the error never happened.
So the government is left with the choice of two lesser evils. Do we do nothing or do we pretend nothing happened? I will ask questions to the Finance Minister later today and get some clarity on how we weigh and measure the Financial Administration Manual in an open and transparent way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Hay River North. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak about a national icon that’s been removed from the Northwest Territories.
On October 24, 2011, the Greyhound service was removed from Hay River. Greyhound provides a service throughout the nation. On that date we lost that service in the Northwest Territories. That service continues to serve the Yukon and I’ve been informed that potentially the Yukon is supporting that process to continue because it is important. The community of Hay River and the South Slave, since it’s been removed, have suffered some difficulties without it.
This is a service that’s used by a lot of people with low income and businesses that use it for tourism. There’s a national pass system out there where tourists travelling into the country or around the country can buy a pass that will get them anywhere in Canada, except the Northwest Territories.
This service was also used by businesses that were using it to transport some of their employees in and out of the Territories on holidays and send their employees down to Edmonton on holidays or trips. That service is no longer available in the Northwest Territories.
I will have questions for the Minister of ITI and what steps we should have been working on to see if we can resume this service in the Northwest Territories; this vital, national part of the Northwest Territories. We are promoting tourism in the Northwest Territories, but this key element has been removed from Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I asked questions to the Minister in terms of the ambulance service. I would like to talk about highway emergency services today.
Many residents of the Northwest Territories and visitors to our territory probably assume if they were to have an accident on one of our highways, there are ambulances and trained emergency service providers who would come to their rescue. They would be surprised to learn how thinly our emergency services are stretched. The issue is one of gaps and policies, legislation and coordination. We do not have a clear framework for emergency services outside of communities that tells who’s responsible for what and who is authorized to do what.
It is also one of funding for equipment and training. Most communities do not even have a local ambulance, let alone the capacity to respond to an accident 50 or 100 kilometres away.
One resource we do have, thankfully, is a lot of very committed volunteers and professionals, who are more than willing to be there to provide these essential services. It must be very frustrating for them to not have the policy and funding support they need to do that effectively.
I’m concerned that we are all living in a bubble, just hoping that we don’t have a major accident or a fire on some remote stretch of highway. The odds are that one day that bubble is going to burst.
Clearly, it is the interest of public safety that well-trained first responders are available for highway emergency. Northwest Territories residents and visitors should feel confident that services are going to be there in the unfortunate event that they need them. Increased resource development activity and promotion of NWT tourism means more traffic and the greater likelihood of accidents and fires along the highway. We need to make ground ambulance and services in communities based on the highway our priority. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Willard Hagen, a constituent of Inuvik Twin Lakes; and Mr. Richard Edjericon. I’d also like to recognize Mayor Andrew Cassidy and deputy mayor Brad Mapes of Hay River who I had an opportunity to meet with this morning. Welcome to the House, gentlemen.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mrs. Groenewegen
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the mayor, Andrew Cassidy, and deputy mayor, Brad Mapes, in the visitors gallery today. I thank the Ministers who took the time out of their schedule today to meet with the MLAs and our town representatives. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Rick Edjericon, a resident of Weledeh and chair of the besieged Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. I don’t know if he’s still there – I can’t see behind me, Mr. Speaker – but Willard Hagen, the chair of the about-to-be redesigned Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the mayor of Hay River, Andrew Cassidy, and deputy mayor of Hay River, Brad Mapes. I appreciate the Ministers also meeting with us today. I think it’s vital that we get a visit in the capital here and see what we can do to help out Hay River. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I’d like to welcome Willard Hagen here, as well, and Rick into the House. Thank you for coming today to take in today’s proceedings.
