Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sometimes the Minister and some of the Ministers have gone to the Sahtu to realize what it’s like to live in the small communities. We can talk about it, but once you get into the small communities, then you really understand, because not everything is in books and written down; you have to experience it. So going into Colville Lake or Tsiigehtchic or Wrigley, the Minister then understands what people have to do on a 24/7 basis.
I want to ask the Minister again, we are talking about a $700 million business case to bring the hydro down south. Let’s look at our folks and look at serving our people first. Let’s put a business case together. You can do it. I know it can be done. That’s why we have you guys over there to put something like this to give us safety and security in our communities and to go back and say for another year we still have nine communities without nurses. I want to ask the Minister, with this commitment within the life of this government, put a nurse in our communities. That’s what we’re asking for. Look at the model and change the model.
I want to ask the Minister, will he do this for the communities that do not have nurses today as we stand here?
Mr. Speaker, we will work with communities; we will work with Members; we will work with committees to find ways to enhance and improve services for all residents of the Northwest Territories, including those in the small communities of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement about the extended care beds in Hay River, I forgot to mention those valuable elders in our extended care facility, especially my mom.
My question today is for the Minister of Health. When will the study be completed on the extended bed facility in Hay River?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to have to go back to the department because I’m not 100 percent sure what study the Member is talking about. I can say that Woodland Manor expansion was approved as part of the ’13-14 GNWT capital estimates during the fall 2013 session. We are moving forward with an expansion to Woodland Manor, which will include eight long-term care rooms, one palliative care room and one respite care room. Those rooms are available for long-term care as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, my understanding was that they were going to do a study on the needs of the community. Being a regional centre, there would be a study seeing what the demands are for that type of facility and what the future requirements for that type of facility are. I’m just wondering if the Minister would get back to me on when that type of study would be completed.
Mr. Speaker, Hay River currently provides accommodation for 25 long-term care residents. The Woodland Manor currently operates at 15 and the hospital there currently has 10. We are taking the 10 out of what is the old hospital. We are putting the addition onto Woodland and we’re increasing capacity, or maintaining capacity at 25 in Hay River.
As far as future facilities, we are doing the Aging in Place Strategy, which is going to help inform where we go from here with respect to care facilities in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to work with the Housing Corp, who has done a significant amount of good work with respect to independent living facilities throughout the Northwest Territories. With respect to the plan, I’ll get back to the Member.
Mr. Speaker, obviously I’m concerned about the seniors facility that’s being built and the needs assessment that would be in the community of Hay River. We know the population is aging. We want to know what the demands are for five, 10, 15, 20 years from now. Obviously, the 10 beds in that facility are something that we’re pleased that they actually put that back in the budget because it should have been there all along, but we also want to know what the demands are for the community in the years to come.
Mr. Speaker, a needs forecast for the entire Northwest Territories is going to help inform the Aging in Place Strategy. I will get back to the Member with that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
I have no more further questions, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier on aspects of our Devolution Agreement from my statement earlier today. I would like to note Schedule 7, Part E of the Devolution Agreement includes a list of potentially contaminated sites that will be transferred to the GNWT as of April 1st is my understanding.
Can the Premier confirm that we, the GNWT, will be receiving financial securities to cover all the liabilities accessed by our land and water boards when this transfer takes place on April 1st or what the schedule is? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In his Member’s statement the Member referred to the mine that was in Nunavut. Obviously, we’re not going to take that one over, but currently, through the Mackenzie Valley resource management authority, the boards will continue to set securities. The GNWT will set some securities on lands, GNWT lands.
The process that we’re following is those contaminated sites that were made under the Government of Canada’s watch, they will stay with the Government of Canada, but those sites were cleaned up, we will accept some of those. Those securities that we have identified with the Government of Canada, we have a list of those that will be transferred over to our Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thanks to the Premier. Of course, I did refer to Schedule 7, Part E. Maybe the Premier is not aware that Nunavut is outside of that, but that wasn’t in there.
It is clear that in many cases the securities have not been collected by the federal government. We’re talking about the lists that are going to be transferred along with their liabilities to the GNWT. So it’s hard to imagine how they will be transferred, these liabilities, these securities will be transferred to us in full. The Devolution Agreement allows Schedule 7 of the agreement to be amended before April 1st.
So, if we’re not going to be able to collect securities for these sites that we will be responsible for, including securities, will the Premier commit to removing those sites from the list until the federal government has fully paid up security deposits and they have been transferred to us? Mahsi.
The list that has been identified are those that have securities, proper securities. There are some sites that are very small in nature or have no identifiable contamination that are part of that list that the Member is referring to. Thank you.
Thank you. I hope the Premier becomes more familiar with our agreement soon because in less than six weeks here we will be accepting operating mines that have been developed under modern environmental legislation and it’s those that I’m talking about. In fact, the federal government has only managed to hold less than 50 percent of the financial securities, so these are major liabilities that can erode any of the good work that this Premier is doing.
So, again, the list of potential liabilities include the oil pipeline from Norman Wells to the NWT border. What is the amount of security deposit that would be transferred to the GNWT as we assume responsibility for that pipeline? Mahsi.
In the spirit of devolution, the Government of Canada has been involving us in these discussions on security deposits and the amount for security deposits for the pipelines have not been finalized as we speak and devolution doesn’t occur until April 1, 2014. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say finally an answer, sort of. I appreciate that.
On behalf of our public, there are many sites that we’re taking over and we will be taking on a lot of liability.
Will the Premier commit to providing the public and this House with a final list of the amount of security deposits and the assessed liabilities for each potentially contaminated site? For example, operating mines that we’re taking over that will be transferred to the GNWT as of April 1st and will he commit to doing this by March 1st so that we and the public have a full understanding of the liabilities, potentially substantial, that we will be assuming, indeed, on April 1, 2014? Mahsi.
Thank you. The Member is quoting the list that he’s holding in his hand as part of the Devolution Agreement was correct and it had a qualifier on there that this was not the finalized list that will be finalized before April 1, 2014. We’re being very transparent, and subject to confidentiality requirements, we’ll be as transparent as this government has always been. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Kakisa, of course, is a small community, but I’m very pleased to state that the community has been working together, especially to the benefit of the local fishermen. I think DFO has been involved with working with the First Nations community at the same time, and as a product of working together, a small building was constructed.
So my question to the Minister of ITI is: What resources are available for Kakisa to extend the operating season of its fish plant beyond the summer and fall? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re fully supportive of the initiative that the community of Kakisa has taken on in the development of a fishery there. We have the Northern Food Development Program that fishermen can apply for a marketing subsidy to get fish into the domestic market here in the Northwest Territories and that’s certainly something that’s available to the fishermen in Kakisa and something that, if they are interested in the program, I’d encourage them to talk to our staff in the South Slave about that program.
We’ve also had a great deal of success working with the community on the new building. We’ve provided some funding for that to happen and also the processing plant itself. It’s been a real good fit for the community. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for his reply. In the Economic Opportunities Strategy it’s clearly outlined that this government is going to be supporting the fisheries industry in terms of at least bolstering the efforts of the Great Slave Lake area.
What resources are available in 2014-15 for communities that want to develop the commercial fisheries? Mahsi.
We’re going to take a real good run at revitalizing the fishery on Great Slave Lake in the coming years and we have some money set aside through EOS to let us accomplish that and we are also very much interested in getting other products and fish around the territory into the domestic market. We have a number of programs run through ITI totalling about $225,000 on an annual basis, so the programs that we do have available to community members and people that want to pursue fishing and pursue getting their product into the domestic market here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
The Minister has indicated that his staff at ITI should talk to the people of Kakisa to ensure that there is a possibility that beyond the summer and fall they could be operational.
Will the Minister work to ensure that that does indeed happen and that the carrier support from the GNWT will continue with the community? Mahsi.
If there’s a possibility to extend the fishery in Kakisa into the winter months and if there’s a way that the department can help make that happen, that’s certainly something that we’re interested in seeing happen. I can also make a commitment today to the Member that we will have staff visit the community, talk to the community about the requirements to extend the fishery there. As well, according to my availability, I’d certainly like to accompany the Member to Kakisa for that visit by ITI officials. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to some of the questions that I had posed yesterday. I go on to the website for the NWT Helpline and there’s a reference right on the top that says, “When you call, we will listen.” In fact, after I made questions in the House yesterday, I did get some correspondence from some of our community providers that work in counselling and they said they wanted to make a call to the NWT Helpline to see how helpful it is for some of the people that they might work with.
I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all, are the positions at the NWT Helpline, between the hours of 7 and 11 at night, a staffed position or is that a volunteer position?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will answer that question, but I just want to give a little bit of background first. The Canadian Mental Health Association, the NWT division, made a decision to discontinue the NWT Helpline as well as other services while reviewing their current operations. To avoid any disruptions, the Department of Health and Social Services has been working with the NWT division to transfer ownership of the NWT Helpline, the phone number and the website, to the department.
The Department of Health and Social Services has an interim contract in place with Sykes Assistance Services Corporation, or Sykes, to operate the NWT Helpline until July 31, 2014. Sykes offers a number of speciality telephone line services across Canada and other countries, including roadside assistance to quick lines. The contract is in place for six months from February 1, 2014, to July 31, 2014, so that requests for proposals can be advertised, so we will be going out to seek a contractor.
The current contract comes in two phases. Effective February 1st we will have and we will see an increase in operations from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. seven days a week. This is an increase from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. which we had previously. Services through individual people on the line include emotional support for crisis and non-crisis situations, referral to community-based services, engaging third-party services when required and support to concerned family members and friends.
We do have a second phase that is coming into place, which is going to increase the hours of service and operations to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that will be coming in on March 1st.
All the information is appreciated, especially when you heard around the table today the lack of nursing services that we have in some of our small communities that need to access this helpline. What we heard today just right now from the Minister was definitely news to me in terms of the contract and also that the services were down for a while when the contracts were being put over.
Can I ask the Minister how was this mentioned to people of the Northwest Territories and to the communities? When I look on the website, there’s nothing that says that the services are going to be down at all, so how do people know that it’s down? He did mention February 1st it was starting up again. I want to know if the services are actually in place right now as well.
Actually, interestingly enough, we had actually just approved the communications plan on this today and I was going to share all this information with the Members before I heard the Member make his statement today. We do have a communications plan. We are going to share that. That will likely be to Members today, and that includes communicating this information to the public.
Just for the record, anyone requiring support for themselves or for their loved ones can call the NWT Helpline at 1-800-661-0844, and it has been operational since February 1st, and it operates from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. March 1st it will change.
It’s February 18th today. He mentioned that the new contract takes effect February 1st.
Can I ask the Minister, in the contract layover, how many days was the phone operation not in effect? How many days was there nobody answering the phones at this service?
I did get a briefing this this morning and it’s my understanding that there was no disruption in services.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
That begs to ask the question, why did I receive an e-mail from my questions based in the House the other day that when somebody tried to call there was nobody answering the phone? Not only that, when the phone continues to ring, there’s not even an answering machine to say, you know, nobody’s here to answer your phone, please call this number. There’s not that service, and I have to ask the Minister, what is he going to do to rectify that problem, putting an answering machine on the phone when it’s not being answered?
I’d certainly like the Member to share the details with me so we can make sure that that doesn’t happen again. That isn’t consistent with my understanding. If it was prior to 7:00 a.m. or after 11:00 p.m. they wouldn’t have got a response to their call. As of March 1st we will be going to 24 hours. But with respect to this particular situation, I’d certainly like the Member to come to me and we can sit down and discuss it and see if we can make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to return to the theme of jobs and, certainly, access to opportunities. We heard rightly from my colleagues, like Member Yakeleya, that, quite frankly, the average person wants to know why isn’t there a nurse in Colville or why isn’t there a community maintainer in Paulatuk or why isn’t there these plumbers in Fort Simpson. Like, why? When they hear of 1,150 job vacancies on that last snapshot, it causes great concern.
My questions, obviously, are for the Minister of Human Resources, and I’m going to say this: We passed the budget and we know that many of the positions are funded and those position dollars are moved to other positions. We also know for a fact that some of this job funding that we pass in this House is used for O and M, so the question really lies down to simply this: How many of these positions are we talking about that are specifically targeted at moving their job dollars to O and M funding and how much is that in dollars so the public knows what’s happening?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
