Madam Speaker, I had asked for information, even to be blacked out, to prove that they had actually complied with the contract bidding process. As I said and I continue to say, part of the Appendix B had to be filled out that demonstrated they had a northern component. This is just an awarding of a sub to a southern company to yet again come do northern work.
Will the Minister comply with my request, which is by e-mail, asking for them to prove that they filled out Appendix B? The way it stands now, they did not and nothing says they complied fairly. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, they were not credited with any northern content, yet again, they were $800,000 below the next… And this is after the BIP adjustment. They were $800,000 below the next bidder, saving taxpayers’ money.
As to whether or not Appendix B was filled out, I can get the Member a yes or no answer to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish I had the former AG’s official comments here last week from which she talked about some of the senators’ expenses, such as accept but verify. How do we verify a yes or no? Quite frankly, a yes or no does not prove to the public that they actually complied with the requirements that everybody else was following. Yes, I’m happy that the lowest bid may be getting it, but the fact is I am happy maybe for the wrong reasons.
Will the Minister prove publicly that they complied with all the requirements as set out to the bid? All we are asking for is a fair playing field. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, we want to ensure that there is a fair process. Certainly I’m not saying that the Member is correct or incorrect. I am saying that the process was followed. The contract was awarded. If the Member wants other information, I’ll do my best to get him whatever information that he needs to satisfy his requirement that Appendix B was filled out and that all the proper steps were taken in the award of this contract. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was going to follow up to my Member’s statement in listening to the people of Inuvik, and listening to some of our educators and parents and our constituents. My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
In his action plan, we talk a lot about mental health and addictions in the communities and in the territory, but one place that we don’t really bring it up or talk about it is in the schools. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what is his department doing to address some of these mental health disorders such as behavioural issues, violence issues, some of these issues that are possibly happening in the schools. What is he doing? How is he working with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to address some of these mental health concerns that are happening in our schools today? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I guess the first thing under the total umbrella of a chronic disease strategy is mental health. As we develop that strategy, we are looking at all aspects of mental health. As we have travelled to the communities, it was apparent that there needs to be some counselling at the schools and so on, targeted to mental health. Also, when the addictions forum is travelling they have indicated that they would like to look at some wellness in the communities, and they are going into the schools to talk to the students there and target also mental health. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister… I know he has a forum out there asking questions, but he’s also got an action plan developed. I saw it in this House maybe two weeks ago. Why are we sending people out there when we have an action plan here already to be put into place?
What specifically is in his Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, what kind of services and programs does he have identified for youth in the schools? It’s not youth outside of the schools. I want to know what is happening for them in the schools so they are not disrupting other students. How do you get these students that are in the schools the proper care and treatment that they need so they can succeed? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, I think the department recognizes that, along with the authorities, this is sort of like an issue that is a looming issue right across the territory with youth. Whether or not we are going into the schools to do the counselling, it’s not as simple as the Department of Health and Social Services indicating we’re going to go into the schools to start counselling. We have to work sort of interdepartmental with ourselves and the Department of Education. They have to, in turn, work with the school boards in order to appoint counsellors for the schools. We are preparing for that.
We have the Stanton authority working with the Dalhousie University on mental health and psychiatry. These are the things we’re doing, but it will still take some work and some legal process to get the counsellors into the school. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, he didn’t really make reference to some of the things that are listed in his Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan. But it’s not all about counselling. We can talk to people until their ears fall off and still nothing’s going to go through. It’s about intervention.
What is this Minister doing or even working with the Department of Education to intervene to address some of these needs that these children are requesting and are asking for, or some of our teachers are asking for this intervention to address some of these needs in the schools with mental health and addictions?
Within the action plan, as the Member referred to, we are promoting understanding, awareness and acceptance of mental health. Those types of things are in the very initial steps in order for us to potentially intervene, if necessary, in the schools. But again, prior to intervention there’s a lot of other work that has to occur. Like the Member indicated, there are things in the action plan, yes, I agree, they’re there, we put them there for a reason and these are the very initial steps to understand it. This is an issue that is becoming quite a huge issue right across most communities, and we recognize that and we are trying to address that as soon as we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. When the department finally addresses some of these concerns, what is the department doing to ensure that students who need these extra resources and that need this help and these services are not provided in the Northwest Territories for the students that need it? In fact, these services aren’t even provided for for adults that need it, and students are very critical. They’re learning and they’re developing, and yet we’re still waiting to find out what they need. But when he does find out, how is he going to assure that they get the services when we don’t even have them in the Northwest Territories? What’s his action plan to get these services and resources for the students that need it in our communities so that they can grow, develop, learn, become educated and become part of society? What is he doing and where is he looking to send these students that need the help that they do need? Thank you.
Thank you. Some of the actions would be some of the mental health first aid, some of the actions where we’re trying to improve efficiency of services is as simple as having discussions. Just to be able to allow the students to talk about mental health, that is within our action plan. This is a fairly complex issue coupled with fairly complex processes that involve a couple of departments for us, as a department, working through our authorities to enter into the schools with mental health counsellors, we have to first do some evaluations of students. Students, in order to be evaluated, it has to be agreed by the parent that this student has a mental health issue and needs to be evaluated. So there are things that we need to do. We need to put things in place and we’re forging ahead to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Yes, Madam Speaker, I’m going to continue to ask questions on this topic because it’s a very important topic. We’re letting people slip through the cracks, as we like to say it, and it’s not fair to the parents, it’s not fair to the teachers and it’s not fair to the students. Somebody has to take charge here. I’m talking about intervention and integrated services. I talked all last week about how departments need to work together to provide services to be more effective and to providing these services and programs for the residents of the Northwest Territories.
Would the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to working with the Department of Justice or the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and somebody take the lead to create a team to go into the schools and intervene at an early age, or in the junior high setting so that we can get these kids early on so they can be successful and get an education and, like I said, become part of society?
I’m going to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services specifically, but I’d like to see one of these Ministers step up to the plate, create the team, find the resources and go out to the communities and start addressing this issue that’s an issue to the parents, to the community and to the teachers, our staff, the ones that we are supposed to be supporting? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will commit to having the discussion. I think we’re a ways down the road with this, but again, there are certainly pieces of the puzzle that have to be put together in this whole area. I will commit to discussing this with the Minister of Education, Minister of Justice and also to, I guess, present this possibly as a supplementary or a budget item that will be presented to the committees in the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister making that comment of possibly coming back to the House with a supplementary appropriation. Just to offer a little bit more information in terms of whom we’d like to see at this table, seeing as I have some time here and there’s no other questions, we need nurses, we need social workers, we need teachers, probation officers, the RCMP officers, community counsellors.
Would the Minister take the lead, create this team, create a budget and possibly do an outreach program? Would he commit to doing an outreach program or look at a pilot project where there’s an outreach program to the communities in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
That would be quite a team alright. We would be able to work with that, I believe. What I will do is, again, take it back to Cabinet colleagues. We do have a Cabinet committee in the social envelope. So we can take it back to the chair of that committee with the Department of Justice and, hopefully, as we move along, we will also keep the Standing Committee on Social Programs informed as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you. We always say it takes a community to raise a child, and the Minister’s reference, that is quite a team. I don’t know he took that in reference, but that’s all the communities when I worked with the Interagency Committee, when I worked with the Department of Health and Social Services, when I worked at the regional level, we all talked about creating this team and that was over 10 or 12 years ago. Yet we’re still looking at trying to create that team. That team needs to be developed, either regional-based or territorial-based, and money needs to go into that now. When I go home for the weekend and the majority of my concerns are around education, around health and social services, mental health and addictions, then I have to bring it to the floor and get it addressed. Would the Minister not only look at a territorial aspect but also maybe a regional aspect? Thank you.
Thank you. We can begin the work on this. It would probably be outside of this current budget process that we’re engaged in, but we can begin the work. Like I indicated, we can begin the work through the Minister that’s responsible for the social envelope, the Minister of Justice, and then at the end, I guess, also present it to the Regular Members to ensure that it’s in line with what they see as a good solution to addressing these issues. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s almost been two weeks since I raised the issue of gas prices here in Yellowknife and the requirement possibly of legislation, or I should say regulation on this particular issue, the only way to get to the bottom of it. The day after I raised the issue, I had a couple of Ministers – they must have been lost – on our end of the hallway for some reason or another, but a couple of Ministers had asked, did my comments in the House change the price of gas and I’ll have to tell you no, it did not, because I filled up my vehicle the other day and I noticed it’s still stuck solid at $1.38.9, or I should say frozen at that price.
My question of the Minister of MACA is he said two weeks to even consider this particular issue. Has he done anything other than just wait for industry to respond? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the Department of Public Works has done some work on this. I had thought that the price was going to go down with some public pressure and being raised here. Apparently that didn’t happen. I will talk to my colleague over at the Department of Public Works and see what the plan is going forward. Thank you.
In the interim, at the suggestion of my colleagues Ms. Bisaro and Mr. Dolynny, they suggested setting up a petition. As such, I have done that on the Legislative Assembly website. Of course, don’t worry, a press release will be on its way very soon.
I think through the petition that the Member has started, we’ll probably get a lot of concerns about the price of gas not only from Yellowknife. I’m sure there are residents across the Northwest Territories, Inuvik for example. I think we’re very low today. I think it might be $1.87. That’s not too bad. I’m sure they will have some concerns with that too. So it’s an issue that affects residents all across the Northwest Territories. I know some would love to pay the price they pay in some of the larger centres but, unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. I’m sure through the petition, that will be the public voice and we’d have to listen to that. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.
People in Yellowknife would like to pay the price the expert down in…(inaudible)…had suggested, which was about $1.14 or so, in that range in Yellowknife. A couple of weeks ago when I raised this particular issue – and this is not a point of criticism, but I’m going to ask what the Minister has done since then. This is the area of consumer protection. This issue was a new area for him and he wasn’t familiar with it. He has been Minister for some time in this particular department. In the last two weeks, what has he done to educate himself in these particular areas as to his authority about taking action on this issue that is critical for people of the Northwest Territories?
I educated myself by checking on the gas prices here in Yellowknife. I educated myself by checking on the gas prices in Inuvik and all the other communities across the Northwest Territories to see what they’re paying. I had a brief conversation with our consumer affairs person to see if they’d been getting a lot of complaints and a lot of concerns. He said there wasn’t very much at the moment, but he was sure it was going to pick up. I had assumed, that’s why I spoke to the Member afterwards and I asked him to give me an update, because he was going to check on the prices of gas in the city to see if they had gone down. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. So we’ll have to decide if there are any next steps we take from here. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Minister help me and help the House by allowing himself to go get educated in his area of authority on this particular issue? Thank you.
The Minister is very well aware of his authority on this issue and he continues to try to monitor, tries to protect the consumers out there. I think it’s something we as MLAs, not only Ministers, have to do. We have to make them aware, we have to make industry aware, we have to do our due diligence, do our homework to see if they are being charged fair market value. So the Minister is well aware of the authority he has not only in this portfolio but his other portfolios and we will exercise it when we have to. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I had an exchange earlier with the Minister of Transportation that the only one element that I think was left out of this particular issue was timeliness of his response to complying with my request. The issue is that this bridge contract has been tendered. If you read the details, it looks like it’s been awarded, but has the contract been signed? So timeliness of his response to my office is significantly critical on this issue to ensure a contract isn’t dotted. If we find out that the contract did not fully fulfil its original intent and it’s already been signed, it may be too late.
Madam Speaker, would the Minister commit to have that information I requested before the end of the week to ensure we haven’t missed the timing window? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. When DOT awards a contract, obviously they are going to go back to the company that won the contract and do a technical review of the information that was provided in the tender documents to ensure the due diligence is done to ensure the work can be performed as stated in the tender, and in the case of the electrical contract for the bridge, that was done. We haven’t had Can-Traffic do work for us before, so we were extra diligent on trying to find out and get the references, and do that technical review before that contract was awarded. Madam Speaker, any information the Member requires, we will do our best to get that information to him.
Also, I am aware that Can-Traffic did indeed provide Appendix B as part of their bid package to the Department of Transportation. Thank you.
What I’m asking is, will this information all be sent to my office. It can be blacked out hiding proprietary information. I understand that. But there needs to be proof that they complied with the requirement as stated out in the tender, which is to demonstrate that they have northern content. That is the critical issue, to make sure that information is conveyed before the final contract has been signed. Thank you.
If the Member wants to get us a list of exactly what it is he requires, the contract has been signed. We’re more than happy to provide him with whatever information we can provide him with. On Appendix B, it speaks to the company’s ability to do the work. It talks about who they would bring in as their subcontractors. It talks about their ability to get the job done in dollar values. That’s proprietary information and that’s not something we would normally share with anybody. That’s how they won the contract, that’s how they are going to do the work. Certainly, we can provide it, but we’d have to black out names of companies and dollar amounts. Appendix B wouldn’t be much to look at with all that information blacked out.
They could have complied with the award by leaving those pages blank, as well, by submitting them. That could have been an essence of how they complied with the greater contract.
The issue is simply I cannot take good faith on this. I am looking for information that proves they complied with the requirements and my e-mail dated February 13th asks for that information. I am not sure I need to resend it. Thank you. That’s my question. Will the Minister reconsider my e-mail sent February 13th? Thank you
Again, we will run this past our lawyers and we will find out if we can provide that level of detail to the Member. Whatever we can provide to the Member, we will give to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Just a caution to Members, for the benefit of the public listening in on this, referring to documents/letters/e-mails that are not before the House, it doesn’t lend itself to people understanding what you’re talking about, so I’d ask Members not to do that. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
I’ll take it as notice, the answer.
