Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today as well as yesterday and in my oral questions yesterday and certainly today will be principally based on the fact that I don’t feel fair consultation was given on this particular project. Discussion and debate are the pillars of democracy in this Assembly and I would ask the Premier to this House if this is going to be the tone of this particular government when we get great projects like this. Are they just going to pass them through without committee consultation, or are they going to ensure that they engage the Membership on this particular side of the House?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll redirect the question to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Money for Betty House was first identified in 2009-2010 and was gone through revised estimates. We had some opportunity to have some discussions and that. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Members feel like they weren’t properly consulted on this particular issue, and if that’s the case then I take full responsibility for that and ensure that any projects coming through NWT Housing Corporation in the future will be consulted with the Members like we normally do. This is just one that through different circumstances – change of Assemblies, Ministers, presidents and scopes of work – it was actually fairly complicated and we just recently were able to work out the final details.
May I state for the record that’s one of the best answers I’ve heard in this House in years.
My next question to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation is: Would he provide at least a written briefing note to Members to show us where this particular money came from, how it was flowed through and how it will affect the bottom line books of the NWT? If it’s flow-through money I’m sure the briefing note will explain this. That’s the type of information I feel was lost in this discussion and debate.
The Homelessness Coalition put some good work into this. They came forward with a business plan through the Canada Economic Action Plan. We were able to free up some money to make a small contribution to the overall cost of the project.
I will be pleased to provide a briefing note on the whole situation of Betty House to the Member and Members opposite.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.
No, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement. I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to our health system reform. The Minister spoke yesterday about moving doctors around. From Hansard I have a sentence where he stated, “We are actually starting on the process now.” I feel that reworking how we use our doctors and changing our system of hiring doctors, and how we assign doctors to their jobs is something that we really need to do relative to getting reform done and I think the Minister agrees with me. I’d like to know where we’re at in this process.
As I mentioned in my statement, it’s been several years. We’ve literally put millions of dollars, I think $3.5 million last year, into the Foundation for Change. What have we got to show for that money? Where are we at in the process of changing the way that we use our doctors so that we can get them in the communities where we need them?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although we see that it’s difficult to fill doctors’ positions in the regional centres where the positions are located – Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, Norman Wells and Fort Simpson – that’s still our first priority. Our first priority is still to try to fill those positions in those communities. Failing that, we’re having discussions and have had discussions with the Joint Leadership Council, which are the boards or public administrators, to talk about the possibility of having one system pooling doctors in Yellowknife and having the locums come out of Yellowknife as opposed to having locums that come out from other parts of the country.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that. One of the things that I have heard talk of and that the Australian system highlighted is a central command, so to speak, for medical assistance where doctors are available 24/7 and they can assist communities or small health centres elsewhere with difficult problems. The Minister said that they’re discussing things with the health authorities and I recognize that needs to be done, but this has been ongoing for quite some time. I guess I need to know from the Minister – if we’re going to do reform, that usually indicates that change is taking place – when can we expect to see some change in how we use our doctors.
Right now we have three public administrators in place of boards. That is at Stanton, Beaufort-Delta and Hay River. In our initial discussions in the communities, the communities had indicated that they would like to see the boards put back in with representatives from the communities. We would like to consult with the new boards or with the current boards. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to wait until all the boards are in place before we start to make a move on this. We’re going right to the communities and indicating that that’s what we wish to do. So we have actually had the very initial discussions already at the community level in the Beaufort-Delta with the Joint Leadership Council about this.
As I indicated earlier, there is opposition, but at the same time what is the alternative. The alternative is continuing a system now that is costly and using locums from the South. So we’re again, first priority, fill in the community at the regional level, second priority, fill in Yellowknife.
Thanks to the Minister. I have to disagree that we need to get rid of the PAs and establish boards. I am happy to hear the Minister say that we’re not going to wait until the boards are in place. I think the Yellowknife Stanton Territorial Health Authority has been without a board for 10 or 12 years. Goodness knows that we can’t wait for those boards to be in place. I think there’s a responsibility on the part of the government to put their foot down and say this is how we’re going to do things. Yes, there needs to be consultation, but when push comes to shove, it’s our responsibility to make a decision.
NPs, nurse practitioners are also part of changing the system. The Minister spoke a little bit yesterday about some of the ways that we use our NPs. I think he stated that we have nine nurse practitioners and most of them are in Yellowknife. I’d like to quote from a 2010 statement from practicenorth.ca which says a commitment has been made to expand the use of nurse practitioners in every health centre, clinic and emergency room in the NWT by 2010.
I’d like to ask the Minister, if we have nine nurse practitioners we obviously haven’t met the goal of 2010, but when can we expect to see a significant expansion of the number of nurse practitioners in the NWT. Thank you.
I can’t give that information. I don’t know when we’re going to be expanding nurse practitioners. What I do know is that when we do produce nurse practitioners, educate registered nurses to become nurse practitioners, their desire to work in Yellowknife is greater than the desire to go over to the regional centres. That’s why we had the nurse practitioners here. We’d love to have nurse practitioners in the regional centres. We’d love to have the nurse practitioners in the larger communities because they do have an expanded role more than registered nurses. But at this time, they are here.
At this time we have several systems that are competing for those resources. Yellowknife is an attractive place. Yellowknife is not a real issue as far as attracting doctors and so on. I think we have 21… I don’t know the numbers right off the top of my head, but we have quite a few doctors here in Yellowknife between the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, which has a board, and the Stanton Health Authority, which has a public administrator. But those are not real issues, because we’re able to retain doctors here. We’re able to attract doctors here, and obviously we’re also able to retain nurse practitioners here. But because the system is that these health authorities compete against other health authorities because they’re separate systems, then the nurse practitioner has an option, because they could have several offers once they become practitioners. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Your final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s difficult to be short. I don’t know where to start. I guess I need to now ask the Minister, he stated that we need to make changes, he stated that the health authorities compete with each other. What is the department doing to ensure that the authorities do not compete with each other for specialized staff such as NPs and doctors? What kind of a plan is there? What is the department doing on the ground to get the people that we need in the Territories and in our communities? Thank you.
We’re trying to reform governance, first of all. We are trying to work with the human resources to get professional at attracting practitioners. But the key is consultation. We have to consult with the communities in order to reform governance. We can’t go in there and say you’re losing five positions, Hay River, they’re going to be moved here; Fort Smith is losing all their doctors, they’re going to be moved here without proper consultation. At the first Joint Leadership Council some of the board members were not happy with this. They want us to continue to push and sell the communities where those doctors are located, and some of the MLAs in here said use us to sell our communities to attract doctors. That’s what we wish to do. We want to do that. Our priority would be to have, like I said, in the communities. Unfortunately, we’re having difficulty. We can fill five doctors all at once and that seems to be the way to go, or seven all at once, or nine all at once. It’s very difficult to fill the first doctor position or the second doctor position. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address my questions to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources today. Following up on my Member’s statement earlier, I would like to begin by asking: What is this government’s position on the federal proposal to collapse the regional land and water boards established under the MVRMA into one board? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of Canada is responsible for making those decisions and we would want to make sure that those decisions do not affect our devolution negotiations. Thank you.
Thanks, to the Premier. I note from Mr. Pollard’s statement that the one board proposal will “maintain the co-management foundation of the land, permitting and water licensing processes set out in the Gwich’in, Sahtu and Tlicho agreements and the act.” But he goes on to say, “The proposed changes to the act will not provide for regional panels.”
I can’t reconcile taking away regional panels with maintaining a local and regional co-management promised in the First Nations settlements. Could the Premier explain this government’s position on whether this proposal is consistent with this government’s priorities for regional and local control of the pace and scale of development? Mahsi.
I guess, in our view, this demonstrates the fact that we need to move fairly quickly with devolution so that we can have decisions made by the people that are affected by those decisions. Thank you.
I appreciate the Premier’s comments there. I’d say obviously, then, the government does not agree with this and they have a moral responsibility to fight this proposal and retain the local and regional control.
The model of consultation being used here is the typical federal approach of preordaining the outcome. Mr. Pollard says again he will “lead the consultation process on reconfiguring the current four board structure into one board,” then carry the one board model forward into remaining claims negotiations.
We have two environmental audits and the McCrank Report telling us the solutions lie elsewhere, with no mention of collapsing boards by any of those federal reviews. So the outcome is presupposed and the consultation is apparently meaningless. Will the Premier inform Mr. Pollard that it wants to see the outstanding recommendations for improvement fulfilled before any changes to board structure are considered? Mahsi.
As the Member may recall, we have been identified as a stakeholder and we were lumped in with all of the stakeholders when the federal government sought input. When we first came in as a government, the Premier and Cabinet, we were advised that we had to wait until letters went to Aboriginal governments before our government could find out the nature of these proposed recommendations. We have since met with Mr. Pollard and we have been asked to provide a written response to the recommendations, and that we would be part of the debriefing when the federal government debriefs the Aboriginal governments as to what their plan is with regard to the regulatory improvement initiative, as they call it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Premier. I assume, given that this is inconsistent with our positions on regional and local control and what that comment would mean, we would certainly not support this.
My last question does indeed relate to the devolution situation that the Premier refers to. This federal government is making all kinds of very significant changes here as we are negotiating the devolution goals and whittling away at the sorts of things and resources we are in line to inherit. For example, whittling down from our regional boards to one board and so on. What does this say to the good faith of our partners in this negotiation process when they’re doing this while we’re negotiating the drawing down of this responsibility? I’d appreciate the Premier’s views. Mahsi.
I guess the federal government is trying to provide some certainty to industry and to level the playing field with other northern territories. Once again, I reiterate that this gives more credence to getting on with devolution so that we can make these changes that will benefit all of the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, before we go on, I would like to recognize in the gallery two today, the assistant auditor generator, Jerome Berthelette and Ronnie Campbell, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. Welcome to the House.
The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask questions to the Minister of ENR on the water quality monitoring that could be and should be happening in the Northwest Territories, more specifically working towards another lab in the Northwest Territories. There is one in Yellowknife. I would like to see another one, preferably in the Sahtu where there is going to be a lot of oil and gas development. We need to look at ensuring that people do have safe quality water and that they know what is coming down the Mackenzie River from the tar sands or the pulp mills. Can the Minister answer that question?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a lot of work underway in regards to water, as the Member is well aware, over the last few years and continuing to this very day. As a government, we pull together all of our resources within government to make sure we are working with communities. We are looking at source and water protection, making sure from the source to the tap we deal with that water. We have arrangements – especially in the southern part of the territory where the water comes in from Alberta – we have some initiatives with two different groups, the Slave and the Delta as well as the Peace-Athabasca Delta. We are working with the Alberta government, federal government, Aboriginal governments, with a number of NGOs to do all of this monitoring and the collecting of data. We have been looking at the fish. We have been working with the universities, as well; University of Saskatchewan for one. We have arrangements with members of the Council of Environment Ministers. The Premier is a member of Council of Federation which is taking an active interest in the water.
We are currently negotiating our transboundary agreements that are going to be binding to Alberta, Saskatchewan, Vancouver and the Northwest Territories. We know that the Alberta-federal government has just released their monitoring plan for water which includes, to a certain extent, the Northwest Territories. However, we recognize as does the Member, we need to do more. We have discussions currently underway once again with other potential partners to look at water monitoring, capacity, especially farther north. Specifically if we can do it and find the resources, we think it is very critical if we can get some water monitoring to pass around the Member’s community of Fort Good Hope. We think it is an area that needs to have some attention paid to it. We are working on that and should be able to show some progress in the next couple of months. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for outlining all such work that this government is doing to deal with the water issue. I want to ask any thoughts on what they can do for the people of Fort Good Hope. That would be appreciated by the people there. What baseline water quality information is currently being collected now in the Sahtu?
Mr. Speaker, we are looking at the Canadian Water Quality Guidelines as guidelines that have been developed probably across Canada. It gives guidance and sets standards to be followed by various jurisdictions. We also, when it comes to water in the communities, it has to, of course, meet all of the standards for the health of people, so it is considered potable and meets all of those various tests as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, several years ago Imperial Oil was found guilty by Environment Canada for water quality for dumping chemicals in the Mackenzie River. They paid a fine. I think it was a slap on the wrist for them for about $195,000 because of their conviction of dumping chemicals in the Mackenzie River. I want to ask the Minister on the water quality lab, is that something that this government is looking at in the future, putting another lab in the Northwest Territories along the Mackenzie River, more specifically somewhere in the Norman Wells or Fort Good Hope area?
Mr. Speaker, we see a clear need for community-based water monitoring. It is an issue that has come up through all of our consultations up and down the valley as we develop our Northern Voices, Northern Waters water strategy. As we look at the transboundary issues and the negotiations there, it is clear as well that that type of monitoring, both on the Alberta side and as it enters into the territory and as it goes farther north, are going to be critical.
We see community-based water monitoring as very critical. We have been spending a lot of time and energy at the border where the water is crossing, but we also recognize there are needs farther north. As we look at our planning for the expansion of community-based water monitoring, we are definitely looking at places like the Member’s community of Fort Good Hope where there have been a lot of concerns raised. It would be a good point to try to do that as we move forward in our planning. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have said in my Member’s statement that several elders in 1979, Chief Paul Wright and Chief George Kodakin said in the public meeting that one day we are going to put our nets in the water and when we lift the nets, there are either going to be no fish in there or there are going to be fish in there that will be sick and dying and no one will want to eat them. That is the prophecy they said to us in 1979. This is why I bring this issue up of water quality monitoring in the Sahtu along the Mackenzie River. We need to know.
How soon would the Minister be able to tell us that we could specifically have one in Providence, Wrigley, along Norman Wells and so forth, Tsiigehtchic and all the way up to the Beaufort-Delta? Specifically, we need to have water monitoring quality stations in the future. Will we have a lab and ask for another lab? When can the Minister tell us that this is something that he will take to the federal government to start putting these sites into the plan to have along in the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out at this juncture as we talk about the need to have better information on the water, better decision-making as it pertains to water at a time when the federal government is cutting billions of dollars out of their various departmental programs to save anywhere between $4 million and $8 billion this year. They are looking at a lot of cases, scientists and Environment and Natural Resources and a lot of resources that they currently have are going to disappear.
We are pursuing this as a GNWT initiative with some partners that we are working with, but clearly, if we want to do this the right way, if we want to actually have the decision-making, then it gets us back to the need to get devolution so that we have a legal authority over land, water and resource development. We don’t have to rely on the federal government. We can use our own sources. We can make our own decisions in the North. That is the critical piece in the next year and a half.
The monitoring stations, we will be working on and hopefully in the course of the next business plan we will be able to show some progress, but in the meantime the fundamental issue that we do need are the levers of control finally in the Northwest Territories, land, water and resource development. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the declining population of the Northwest Territories. There are ways of addressing that. We can attract new people. We can keep the people we have. We can multiply the people we have or there is another huge target audience out there, the people who work in the Northwest Territories but live somewhere else. That is what I want to ask the Minister of ITI about today. Have there been changes in the socio-economic agreements that were originally signed with the diamond mines? We hear that the Yukon is doing so well because of the mining sector. We also have a good mining sector with the diamond mines, but if people don’t have to live in the Northwest Territories and it’s easier if they can be flown out of the South, then I guess they have that option of doing that. So I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI, have we regressed from the original commitment we had with the diamond companies with respect to incentives and inducements to keep people in the North. Thank you.
