Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of WSCC. It’s been brought to my attention that the Appeals Tribunal rulings or decisions have not been placed in a public manner like normal court decisions. My question to the Minister of WSCC is: Why aren’t decisions of the Appeals Tribunal publicized?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission, Mr. Jackson Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I need to follow up with the Member’s statement. I’ll definitely follow through with my department where things are at within the WSCC about the tribunal. I’ll definitely follow up.
My next question for the Minister of WSCC is: On that particular case, can you explain why if landlord/tenant issues are publicized when they go before the rental office, why family law matters are publicized, why child protection rulings are modified but still publicized and, finally, why human rights cases and law society discipline rulings publicized, why wouldn’t we publicize decisions of the NWT Appeals Tribunal through the WSCC in the context of fairness?
About the publication, again I need to follow up with WSCC. They are arm’s length from our government and they have their own board of governance. There is also a tribunal board that we deal with as well. I need to find out the status of where things are at with the Member’s statement.
Under the context of public confidence, it can only be determined when people understand that justice has fairly been applied, to understand like decisions are applied in a similar manner with like decisions that demonstrates fairness. It also demonstrates scrutiny from the public that they know that the system is working. Is there any particular decision why the Minister would not support publication of these Appeals Tribunal decisions?
As much as it hurts, I have to take this as notice.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve talked to the Minister of the Housing Corporation on the plans to charge rent to the elders, and the Minister gave me a significant number of 700 seniors that are going to be impacted and some of the seniors that said it’s okay. I have a hard time believing that of elders in my region. I don’t think it’s going to be okay. I don’t know where the Minister is getting the okay from the seniors. I want to ask the Minister responsible for Seniors how he is working with this government here to be responsible for seniors that the government is now planning to charge rent to the elders and how he is protecting the seniors that are low income, don’t have much money, even though the Minister has indicated that there’s an exemption. It’s pretty difficult for some of our elders who are living in poverty to now look at this rent payment beginning July 1st.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Tom Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I have a meeting set up with the NWT Seniors’ Society on the 21st of March. Previously when this discussion had come up at the Seniors’ Society, in different capacities that I served as I met with the Seniors’ Society, they had indicated that they did not have an issue with seniors rent through that society. I have not been involved in any form of consultation with the seniors that are in public housing.
We have one representative on the Seniors’ Society and that representative doesn’t have any funds to go around to the five Sahtu communities and talk to all the seniors in their own language who are living in public housing units. Can the Minister responsible for Seniors look at coming in and having a meeting with the Sahtu elders and say, is this what you want? Is this what you agreed to? Come and hear the people who are struggling and who are poor and say, is this what you want? If not, we need to do it now.
I certainly have no issue with contacting the various seniors organizations at the community levels not only in the Sahtu but right across the territory. I had not thought about this discussion particularly previous to today, but I do have no problem whatsoever discussing the issue with them. I don’t know if I’ll be able to actually have any face-to-face meetings with the seniors.
Maybe I could help on my end. I can certainly visit the people in the Sahtu and go see the elders who are living in the public housing units. The same with any MLA here when they head back to their ridings. Talk to the elders and ask, is this what you want your government to do, start charging you rent come July 1st? Sit down and talk with them. Hopefully then we can get back to the Minister responsible for Seniors, who will work with your colleagues and say is this what we want to do as a government. I ask the Minister if he would be willing to be open to our feedback once we have our constituent tours with our elders in the communities
I welcome feedback from the NWT seniors. I have met with them in the past in this capacity and intend to meet with them next month in this capacity again. At that time my thought is that I think the seniors would meet with the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to discuss this issue. I’m also prepared to discuss that issue as the Minister who represents the seniors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of the elders in the Sahtu region cannot afford this. Yesterday when I talked to one of the constituents, they said, what? What is this government thinking about? There are some seniors maybe in larger centres that could afford to pay a little bit of rent, but not in the Sahtu and maybe no other communities. They have a hard time and pretty soon they’re going to maybe get eviction notices if we continue down this path. I ask the Minister responsible for all seniors and elders, can he help us work with his Cabinet colleagues to look at what can we do to help the government with the fiscal financial restraints that we have within the Housing Corporation and help our elders in our small communities who are poor.
Yes, I’m prepared to represent the seniors and have a discussion with the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation on this issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on a different topic this time around.
A year ago this House recognized that the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnerships Program was going to expire, and it is set to expire on March 31st of this particular year. We had a motion in the House. I know a number of Members, including myself, wrote to the federal Minister, requesting that the program be redefined and re-implemented. I believe the Minister followed up with the federal Minister of the day. I’d like to know whether or not he has received any information from the federal Minister on whether or not this program is going to be continued under another name. Can he advise the House where things are at in regard to this issue? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular area has been successful in the Northwest Territories. The former ASEP has been producing a world-class, skilled workforce in the Northwest Territories and transferrable skills onto other provincial jurisdictions as well. We want to continue with the process, as well, since it’s been very successful.
I did meet with my federal counterpart in Ottawa when I was there in December, and we talked about this specific topic, the Mine Training Society, where it’s going and that March 31st is the deadline, sunsetting. Leona Aglukkaq, at that time, spoke about a pan-territorial initiative: Nunavut, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories combined. Those are the types of discussions that we are having. It’s looking very positive, as we move forward, that this particular piece of work will continue, and we will continue to push from our end, as the GNWT, goals and objectives with the federal government.
Thanks to the Minister for that update. I’m a little concerned in that what he’s saying is not quite the concrete support from the federal government that I was hoping for. I know I received a letter back from the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada which indicated to me that the government would continue to support skills development through what she says is a new skills and partnership fund. I wonder if the Minister could comment on that fund. Does he have any details on that new program and is it, in fact, a definite program that’s going ahead?
There is a program in place with the federal government and it’s to replace ASEP. Now the acronym is ASET. It’s a program that individual Aboriginal organizations can access funding for, for training. It’s a bit different from what the Mine Training Society has done for a number of years. We’ve argued that with the federal Minister Diane Finley, but they’ve already had their mind set on this ASET program. We’ll continue to discuss our initiative pan-territorially. It’s been very successful, Mr. Speaker. The Mine Training Society has been leading the way through industries when it comes to producing a talented, skilled workforce. We’ll continue to push that with the federal government
Again, it looks very positive. I’m currently working with my colleague, ITI, on this particular initiative. Our Premier has been voicing the same issue with federal counterparts and the Prime Minister as well. It’s on the radar with the feds.
I am really pleased to hear that our government, the Minister and other Ministers, are pushing this particular initiative. I agree with the Minister; it has been an extremely successful program.
I am a little bit concerned, though, if the federal government is putting a program in place that’s a little bit different. I know that the Mine Training Society is one group that has used a great deal of this funding for very successful results. There are several other organizations as well. So my concern and my question to the Minister is whether or not there is going to be any impact at the end of March as we cross over from one program to the next. Is it going to have an impact on the Mine Training Society and other organizations using ASEP funding? Thank you.
For the interim, the three mining industries have agreed to contribute to the Mine Training Society. There’s a feasibility study that’s on the way. We, as Education, Culture and Employment, have always supported it and we will continue to support the transition period. We want to see no or a minimal impact on the Mine Training Society as we move beyond March 31, 2012. That is our goal. We will push that, again, with the federal government. With the three mining companies on board, they are adamant that we need to keep pushing for the skilled workforce that they’ll need for upcoming employment opportunities. So we will continue to work with those industries. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate the work the Minister is doing. He recognizes the importance, as do Members, of the ASEP program. So, will the Minister continue to fight, basically, for what we need for our Mine Training Society here in the NWT? Will he continue to do that with the federal Minister? Thank you.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Most definitely. That is our goal and objective. We want this Mine Training Society to survive the March 31st deadline. It’s going to happen. We have industries lined up already. We have the federal government that is agreeing to initiatives and we need to continue with this ship that we built. We need to continue to advocate with the federal government. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you. I’d like to keep the Minister of ECE busy today and I wish we were on solar power right now.
Mr. Speaker, the question to the Minister, I know there has been an Early Childhood Development Program review going on. It’s partly related, of course, to the Aboriginal Student Initiative review, which was completed and is, I think, being implemented now. Could we get an update from the Minister on the Early Childhood Development from the Minister of ECE? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Early Childhood Development framework has been a key in our discussions at the forum with Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. It’s on our radar within the ECE department. We are going through the final stages of the recommendations. The changes are forthcoming and we’re finalizing that within our Education department. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate those remarks. Good to hear. I see early childhood development as the answer; one of the big answers to many of our issues in the health, education and the justice field, a huge opportunity. So we need to get these things in place. Ninety percent of what we know of the brain today has been learned in the last decade. We need to incorporate that. There are amazing relationships being discovered, and opportunities for savings and treating our people better. So will the Minister tell us when we will be getting this information and can we expect to see it in the business plans for the remainder of 2012-13?
The Member is correct about the high importance of this particular subject. Early childhood has been in the forefront in discussions at the regional forums. At all forums I have attended, that has been at the forefront of the discussion. We need to focus on the unborn child. The children are one year old or six months old. We need to start from there. So with this particular piece of work before us, as I stated, it’s been finalized within my department. The plan is to initiate that through our business planning process, the discussions we are going to be having with the standing committee, I’m hoping we will have before the 2012-2013 business planning cycle. If not, it will be at a later time, but that is part of our goals and objectives to do that, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask a question to the Minister of Health and Social Services on the cancer causing bacteria H. pylori and if there are any types of discussions that they are going to do some work in the Sahtu region. I know Aklavik has done this work and now I want to know if some of this work is going to be done in the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know if this particular type of virus is going to be investigated, but the Health department will be working with the Canadian Institute of Health Research, to do some research work in Fort Good Hope to look at some cancer screening and some things like water, diet and other things that may be impacting on the rates of cancer in the Sahtu. So we will be working in a couple of communities, one of them being Fort Good Hope, looking at doing some research looking at what may be causing the high rates of cancer. Thank you.
That’s good news from the department to look at the Sahtu. I raised this because, again, I said last night that I spoke to one of my constituents in Tulita who is being treated for H. pylori. I want to see if the investigation will be looked at in all five of the Sahtu communities of this cancer-causing bacteria. I’m happy to hear that Fort Good Hope will be looked at as a starting point. We need to look at all the communities in the Sahtu. Will the Minister look at that?
I know the department has worked with a group in the past to do this very specific testing in Aklavik. I will go back to the department to see what it takes in order to do these tests in other communities, and if it’s not an issue that... If it’s something we can do right away, we can get to it. But I don’t know the amount of work it would take, so I would like to go back to the department to have that discussion before I can make a commitment on the floor that we’re going to be able to do these tests in all the communities in Sahtu. Thank you.
Some years ago they did a successful screening test in Aklavik. If it takes supplementary funding to get this going, this test will save lives in the Sahtu. Like I said, I heard somebody in Tulita is being treated for this specific cancer-causing bacteria right now. If it takes some money, then let’s get it done and let’s start saving some lives. Will the Minister vigorously investigate in the Sahtu, come back with some numbers and say, yes, we have some in Tulita, Deline or Good Hope or the Wells or Colville and this needs to be looked at? This is a sleeping giant that needs to be looked after. Would the Minister do that?
The health concerns of all citizens in the Northwest Territories, including the citizens of Sahtu, are of importance to the Department of Health and Social Services. So if we are able to do it without going for a supp at this time, I am able to commit to looking at that. If it is more elaborate than that and there has to be a supplementary appropriation requirement before we can do this, then I would have to discuss that with other Cabinet members and the House before we can proceed with that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
