The college review, we are talking about the clear roles and responsibilities of the staffing and so forth. With the programming, there are all of these opportunities for the students’ input. I would like to hear their perspectives. I have met with the students here, the post-secondary students, and also those students that were in the diploma-granting and Social Work Program. Those are the key people that we need to listen to. In order to have this program delivered here, we need to gather all the facts and what the students’ input is and so forth. Definitely, I will be passing on to the college, through the president and the board chair. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to ask the Minister a few questions in and around the Child and Family Services Act review that was done by the Standing Committee on Social Programs in the 16th Assembly. It was a great deal of work. The Minister is well aware because he was chair of the committee at the time that we did that work.
This is the report that was tabled in the House. It has many recommendations, 73 to be exact. It was tabled on October of 2010. I have to say that I feel, at this point, that we haven’t made much progress on these recommendations. We haven’t made much progress on getting ahead on many of the recommendations that are in the report.
One of the things that the report asks for at the very end, it is almost the last recommendation I think, is for Health and Social Services to develop a strategic plan to deal with the recommendations from this report.
I would like to ask the Minister to provide for me and for the House an update on what the department has been doing, what recommendations he can tell us in regard to the strategic plan, what recommendations have been acted on and where we’re at with that plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of the recommendations of the 73 recommendations involve revision to the act itself, the Child and Family Services Act. Our department is acting on some of the recommendations such as the incorporation of the child and family services committees in the communities which are not having much uptake. Also, expanding Healthy Families the quicker the better, it’s directly involved with early childhood development. But the majority of the work that needs to be done would be done after there are amendments to the Child and Family Services Act, and we’re on target to present a legislative proposal on the Child and Family Services Act in 2013. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that. I guess I’d have to disagree with the Minister, I don’t think it’s the majority that are legislative changes. Certainly, there are a lot of changes suggested to legislation and I’m really glad to hear that there will be an LP coming in 2013. That’s this calendar year. So that’s a good thing.
The Minister mentioned one of the actions the department has tried to put into place, and that’s child and family service committees within our communities. I appreciate that there has been some difficulty in getting these committees organized, but I have heard from my colleagues, from Members on this side of the House, that there are communities who do want to establish a child and family service committee and they are not getting any uptake from the department. So I’d like to ask the Minister if he can explain why we can’t get these child and family service committees established. Thank you.
Thank you. I don’t know the exact reason. Reasons vary, I do believe, from community to community on why the committees were unable to strike these committees. They vary from not wanting to be involved in the child welfare of other people, and sometimes communities are so small that all child protection and child welfare issues seem to be of a relative child and so on. For some, actually, the fact that the authority staff are not consistently meeting with the community and putting a consistent push into trying to get these child and family services committees struck and operational is largely due to the fact that we have lots of social worker vacancies. So some of it is that, but a lot of it is just the communities not being interested in doing this. Although we think it’s an essential part of child protection, the communities see it as difficult work. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for the explanation, and I guess I would encourage Members who feel they have a community that wants a child and family service committee to get in touch with their community leadership and have them, with the Member perhaps, get in touch with the Minister, because I know there are at least one or two communities where I have heard that Members want to get a child and family service committee started.
A lot of the recommendations that are in the report require money, and that was accepted in the 16th Assembly by the committee, that there was a need to put money into budgets in order to get many of these recommendations done. However, I’d like to ask the Minister what money exists in the 2013-14 budget that is specifically addressed to Child and Family Services Act review recommendations. Thank you.
Thank you. A lot of our work, our regular health and social services work does address a lot of these recommendations. Like I indicated earlier, there will be some that we can’t do because we will be waiting for revisions.
We will continue to run about a half a million, $500,000 in trying to create child and family services committees. Also, we’re expanding the Healthy Families. Again, another key program that was requested through the recommendations of the review and we’re expanding that. We are trying to, I think this coming year we’re expanding into all communities in the Sahtu. That would be an expansion into all of the regions. In Deh Cho we’ve gone Simpson, Liard, Fort Providence, as an example, Inuvik, McPherson, and the Healthy Families there want to expand into Tuk and Aklavik. So as we expand the program and provide supports to the authority, it seems like that program is going to grow, and we’re going to try to accommodate that, and we’ve put money in the budget now to expand into the Sahtu and then we’ll continue to put money in the budget to expand that very important program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I agree that the Healthy Families program is a good program, but I would suggest to the Minister that the lack of focused money in the ‘13-14 budget, apart from that one program, is not going to the recommendations from this report.
Thank you. Unfortunately, I do not have the latest detail on what we’re doing to close that gap with 16 to 18 year olds in the NWT within the act. I’m almost positive that it’s going to require revision to the act as per the legislative proposal, but I can’t say 100 percent that we can do more without a revision. So I will commit to the Member and to the Assembly to update the Members on that specific item within those recommendations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be for the Minister of Finance. Our fiscal relationship between Ottawa and the NWT will reach an imminent crossroad in less than one year when our current Territorial Formula Financing, or I’ll refer to it later today as TFF, comes up for renewal.
I cannot stress enough, the very fabric of our territory’s survival depends clearly on this funding. Yet, with less than one year from now we have not discussed the austerity effects should a major shift occur.
Could the Minister of Finance clearly indicate to this House what is the current landscape and ongoing discussion with the upcoming renewal date of the Territorial Formula Financing arrangement? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Formula Financing Agreement as we know it is going to be continued until 2018. Thank you.
Thank you. Ottawa expects a North of self-reliance, vital communities, the management of our own affairs, strong and responsible and accountable governments, but it appears that the subject of how to finance these healthy initiatives are being offered, as we heard, a status quo position. It is clear that we have inadequacy of federal financing for the North, so what is this Minister going to do to mitigate the situation? Thank you.
Thank you. This agreement we have with the federal government has stood us in good stead and will continue to do that. It recognizes the commitment from the federal government to provide certainty until 2018, especially with the health transfer and the social transfer. In fact, we’re one of two jurisdictions that saw an actual benefit and increase on the health side because of this new arrangement.
We’re doing the things that we’ve talked about as a government to control our expenditures, to put money aside for infrastructure to do all these types of good things. We have devolution coming which is going to give us royalties, resource royalty sharing agreements, which is a very critical piece. This is real money coming from development that currently happens where the benefit to resources now goes to Ottawa. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Before we continue with oral questions, I’d like to welcome former Member Mr. Krutko back into the House today. Welcome, David. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you. I disagree with the Minister. I don’t believe our territorial financing formula has served us well. In fact, our constitutional principle is that every northern Canadian should enjoy, “reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation.” This is coming from the Government of Canada Northern Strategy: Our Vision and Our Heritage, 2009. This clearly shows that the TFF falls short of this principle. So what is this Minister of Finance doing for all NWT residents to address our right to equality for a better deal with Ottawa? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are getting about $1.1 billion. Over 70 percent of our income as a government comes from the Territorial Financing Formula for 43,000 people. If the Member does the math on a per capita basis, we have one of the best deals in the country.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I categorically disagree with the Minister on that comment. We have been told too many times in this House that devolution dollars will solve all our financial problems and I say, with caution, this is not so. I equally say that the TFF is also not the panacea for the territorial expenditures that we have. We have had long-standing deficiencies in infrastructure and socio-economic development in the territory. What is this Minister and what is this government going to do to balance the equation with Ottawa? Thank you.
We have one of the best deals on a per capita basis when you compare us to any other jurisdiction, with the possible exception of Nunavut, for how much we get from our relationship either through equalization or Territorial Formal Financing with any other jurisdiction in the country. We have a budget of $1.6 billion for 43,000 people. So we have a budget of $1.6 billion for 43,000 people.
I know we have a huge list of demands that outstrips the resources available. But we get well over $20,000 per person in this territory. So what we’re going to do is manage our finances.
We have one of the best run jurisdictions in the country. We are going to sign the Devolution Agreement. We are going to have resources flowing into the territory, both to us, the territorial government, and to the Aboriginal governments. We are going to take over the levers of control of resource development, land and water management and we’re going to do a better job than the federal government has ever done for us once we do that. If we look at the business plans and the priorities of this Assembly, I think the answers to Mr. Dolynny’s questions are clearly self-evident in the work and the direction this Assembly has set. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Colleagues, I’m going to call a 10-minute break.
---SHORT RECESS
Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ENR. I want to ask the Minister with regard to the recent news about Enbridge contaminated soil along the Mackenzie pipeline. Is the Minister aware about the incident and whether there’s further actions to check the integrity of the pipeline right from Norman Wells to the border of the Northwest Territories, if there are starting to be spots along the pipeline with contaminated soil. What is the Minister doing to ensure the whole line is being checked thoroughly?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As with other similar instances, we are having our staff work with federal folks that are responsible and we’re encouraging, of course, Enbridge to do a thorough review and all the repairs necessary and not just wait for things to happen. Thank you.
Is the Minister also checking on the land that is affected around the pipeline route to ensure the integrity of the environment is in place and Enbridge Pipelines is going to assure the people of the Northwest Territories that there are no more cracks and leaks along this 30-year-old pipeline?
We are working with all the appropriate authorities to ensure that those issues, as outlined by the Member, are being addressed. Thank you.
This recent discovery of contaminated soil on the Enbridge pipeline, I am not sure if it was done accidentally or because of the work that Enbridge is doing. Can the Minister inform me and the people along the route of this pipeline that the integrity of this pipeline is safe and that Enbridge will do all it can to assure the people that there isn’t going to be any more sudden surprises of contaminated soil or possible leaks in the line?
Mr. Speaker, Enbridge is a good corporate citizen. They’ve had their challenges with the aging pipeline. They are taking the steps necessary to protect the interest of Northerners and protect the pipeline route. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Enbridge Pipelines Corporation is up for debate on the views of different people who deal with Enbridge. With regard to the contaminated soil that was found on the pipeline route, will the Enbridge Corporation come to this government to assure our people, through some type of meeting, that the line is safe and the integrity is there with the pipeline?
I would like to thank the Member for the questions. This type of situation triggers a very comprehensive response. The Member is well aware of some of the other challenges we’ve had with leaks, not only in the Northwest Territories but just south of the border.
I believe that the regulatory process that is in place right now is adequate enough. We know, through history, that Enbridge wants to make sure that things run well, as well. It’s bad for the corporate image, it’s bad for the environment, it’s bad in every sense of the word when we have circumstances that have happened, as the Member has been outlining. We have to be careful. We have to follow due process. We have to bring in the involved regulatory bodies. We have people on the ground as well. We’re going to work with community people and we want to make sure we identify where the contaminated soil came from, how it came to be there, was it an accident and what kind of circumstances led to that. We’re going to do all the steps in a careful, measured way to work with Enbridge, to work with Norman Wells and the folks along the pipeline route to ensure that the integrity of the pipeline is secure, and that in the days going forward that we’re able to speak with considerable comfort and assurance. I don’t need to reassure the Members of this House, but to make sure that we can have this and say the same things to the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 9, written questions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek your consent to return to recognition of visitors in the gallery, item 6 on the Order Paper. Thank you.
---Unanimous consent granted
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize my lovely wife, Marianne Bromley, who is in the gallery today sitting beside my very faithful constituency assistant, Craig Yeo. Both are residents of Weledeh. Also, sitting behind them is Amanda Mallon, a resident of Weledeh. I believe there are some folks from the Dene Nation here: Camilla Zoe-Chocolate and her niece Lisa were here earlier. I think they’re still in the audience there. I can’t see anybody else behind me, but thanks for that opportunity. I appreciate their presence.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table two documents today. The first one is from the students at Aurora College in the Business Administration Program, with a cover letter from Kari Williams, vice-president, Aurora College Business Administration Student Association, directed to Aurora College with an attached petition for extending the program to three years.
The second one is the Dene Nation support on federal changes to the environment motion that was issued on February 13th. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission 2011 Annual Report. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
