Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s status report indicates that the goals, objectives, principles and targets of the strategy need to be revised and clearly articulated. That work had not even started, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister promise to devote the limited time remaining in this mandate and sufficient staff resources to assemble the full set of facts, tools, analysis and consultation to at least set up our successors with strong recommendations in our transition plan? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member that every staff member in Environment and Natural Resources is working flat out on a whole host of issues, including this Greenhouse Gas Strategy, and the folks that are working on this strategy are fully applying themselves with their shoulder to the wheel, their nose to the grindstone and unremitting efforts to bring this process to a successful conclusion. I will commit that we will have a Greenhouse Gas Strategy at the end of the day that will hopefully meet the very high standard that the Member has set for himself and all the rest of us mere mortals. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of MACA getting back to my Member’s statement where I talked about the 36,000 acre land deal in Norman Wells. I had questions a few weeks back where the Minister suggested that it was a sale, and in media reports the suggestion was a sale but just yesterday in the House during Committee of the Whole, I believe the deputy minister referred to it as a lease, in response to my colleague Ms. Bisaro’s questions. The Minister, in a statement to Ms. Bisaro, called it a purchase and then called it a lease. I would like to just get it out there. Is the 36,000 acre deal a lease or a sale to the Norman Wells Land Corporation? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They had originally intended to purchase the property but it worked out in the end where it was decided that it was a lease, so it is a lease. Thank you.
That leads to a little bit more confusion, because when I asked the Minister a few weeks back what the selling price was, it was $1.6 million. Would the Minister be able to divulge the financial obligations of the Norman Wells Land Corporation as it relates to that lease? Is it $1.6 million for a 30-year lease, or what are the financial parameters surrounding that lease? Thank you.
The intent is to lease the property for the next three years; to purchase it after three years. Thank you,
Again, there are a lot of questions that I could ask surrounding this. The whole process has left a lot to be desired when it comes to consultation and transparency and if you look to the legislation and the policy, it’s really short on guidance to the department on what it can and can’t do in terms of consultation. I’d like to ask the Minister why MACA has refused to let the Town of Norman Wells have a look at that lease. Thank you.
Thank you. Obviously there are a lot of questions we could ask about any issue debated in this house. This was one issue where all the proper processes were followed in accordance with disposal of Commissioner’s land. I’m not sure what the Member is talking about, the Town wanting to see the lease. I’d have to follow up on that and see if there’s been a request for the Town to view the lease. I know the lease was just signed recently. So I’ll follow up with that and see if there was ever a request to have a look at the lease. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it’s very important as we move toward a post-devolution setup here in the Northwest Territories, that we have rules and policies in place so that all communities know exactly what the rules of engagement are when it comes to disposal of Commissioner’s land in and around communities.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he could entertain looking at special consultation requirements and principles that would apply to transfers of community block transfer lands where the transfer is to be made to a third party and not a community government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. We have followed all the proper policies, all the proper processes in this case and we continue to do so. People may not agree with them, they might not like the decision that was made at the end and they continue to question the decision, but as far as following all the proper processes, that has been done. We followed them, the Norman Wells Land Corporation has followed them. There still is a lot of land that is available in the community, Commissioner’s land that’s available to the Town within their municipal boundaries and the Norman Wells Land Corporation want to acquire this land for a future economic base for their membership. How can we deny them that? We’re continuing to work with them to see that they have due processes that are followed and I’ll stand here, Mr. Speaker, and continue to defend the fact that all processes were followed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement was on support for victims services in my riding in the Inuvik region. Mr. Speaker, what’s happening with the federal funding with the support services in the Nunakput region and what’s being done about it? For the Premier, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m informed that the victims services work that was done was in conjunction with federal funding that is due to lapse, but the Department of Justice and the Minister have been working with the agencies to seek a renewal of that funding. Thank you.
Thank you. What is the status of the review of the victims services in the Nunakput region? Thank you.
Thank you. The review that’s ongoing and the funds that flowed affected a number of communities around the Northwest Territories, and again, the work that’s been going on to seek a renewal from the federal government, we’re expecting a decision on that in the near future and I believe it’s tied to the federal budget process. Thank you.
Thank you. What changes are being considered to deliver the victim services to the victims of Nunakput? Thank you.
Thank you. My understanding is the Victim Services Program is delivered in the Nunakput region tied to the Inuvik office. There are three positions; two out of Inuvik and one part-time out of Paulatuk. The work that’s ongoing to renew the funding at this point, the victims can access a support through the Inuvik office in the interim. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What’s being done to ensure the people in the remote communities continue to get the help they need while they cope with crimes committed against them and support mechanisms? Thank you.
Thank you. Again, the current services available are still there in the interim until we find out the funding and the funding levels that will flow out of the federal budget. Again, in the interim, the victims services are available out of the Inuvik office. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I talked about tourism and, more specifically, tourism in Edmonton about attracting Edmontonians and perhaps even Calgarians to the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, my questions would be the for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and what I’d like to ask today is: is Edmonton, Calgary, or even just the Alberta market a tourism target market for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Edmonton is a significant market for the Northwest Territories. We think there are a lot of advantages to working with Edmonton and Alberta. Our primary contact with regards to marketing is NWT Tourism and seeing as Edmonton is only less than two hours and probably about a $300 to $400 ticket away, and since we’re interested in increasing business and personal travel to the Northwest Territories, it’s a natural fit. Similar to what we’ve done with Vancouver and B.C. where we have our aurora visitors go through there and have direct flights, we’re looking for international connections; we’re hoping that we can work through Edmonton to establish a European connection. The mayor, when he was up here, as the Member knows, was very interested in our Come Make Your Mark program and was asking a lot of questions about that. Certainly, Edmonton for many years has built itself as the Gateway to the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. The Minister highlighted some things about the Edmonton mayor and what he had heard, and I should also take this opportunity to point out that the team from ITI did a bang-up job about informing the mayor about opportunities in the North and that should be said certainly and clearly on the record that they did a great job. I think they did such a good job, the mayor was sparked with many other ideas about what could be done for our territorial market. He came here with an open hand saying how could he help, and again, tourism was a particular area he kept highlighting, saying more could be done.
Mr. Speaker, I guess my question for the Minister of ITI is: has ITI ever looked at discussing a particular issue with NWT Tourism about opening up a tourism bureau or some type of office, a permanent presence in Edmonton to help build on that gateway concept, I guess, here to the North? Thank you.
Thank you. Because we’re so close to Edmonton, we feel that we have our tourism bureau right here in Yellowknife operating out of Edmonton. But to be more specific, we do work very closely with the Edmonton market through NWT Tourism, and NWT Tourism has developed some very specific promotions with Edmonton as well as some generic promotions.
The specific promotions are we’ll be participating in the Edmonton RV Show this year as well as the Edmonton Boat and Sportsman Show. As part of that, we will be operating a fly-fishing pond and a movie screen, so that means we’ll have preferential promotional materials and operators that want to rent the booth will have discount prices. We’ll also feature some of our celebrity TV stars from Ice Pilots NWT, who will be there promoting the show and promoting the North.
Those are all fantastic things and I wouldn’t want to detract from them. I guess I would follow up in the same type of manner as my earlier question, which is: has the Minister or the NWT Tourism ever considered establishing a permanent presence in Edmonton? That said, that presence could work with the City of Edmonton’s economic development, because again the mayor of Edmonton seemed quite keen on wanting to partner in a way that could benefit the whole North.
I’ve sent an e-mail to the mayor and asked his Edmonton Bureau of Tourism to be in contact with NWT Tourism. Anybody that we can get to work with us and promote the North we’re very interested in and we’re very eager to follow up on that with the mayor.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for that answer. Just to build on it slightly a little further, the Minister talked about the presence that the NWT and the other two territories had in Canada Northern House where they worked collaboratively and successfully, if I may add, in sort of a pan-territorial perspective. I’ve mentioned about a pan-territorial tourism commission many times and how to build upon sort of the North as a giant vision from a tourism point of view. My question for the Minister is that we have $3.5 million put into this potential marketing campaign. How does the Minister see us helping develop with our two territorial partners, again working in conjunction with the City of Edmonton, about launching the North not just to the world but on what I would call our direct target market of Alberta and their million population in Edmonton?
We have a pan-northern tourism marketing approach with the other two territories. We’re targeting not only Edmonton but four other major Canadian cities so that we can get southern tourists to come and visit the North. We’ll be launching a promotional campaign both on TV and the print media. You may have seen some of the ads that have already been placed in southern papers. I should add, on top of that we are developing package tours that will emanate from Edmonton so that we will get visitors to come to Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask questions to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation, specifically to a seniors home repair program or lack thereof.
In 2006-2007, the NWT Housing Corporation consolidated its program into four programs and when they did that they took the seniors and elders’ repair element out of all the programmings and didn’t give them specific recognition. I’d like to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation what his department is looking at, how we can address the needs of our seniors and elders in our small and remote communities.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The territorial government puts a lot of money into the care of our seniors and their homes. We have a preventative maintenance program that’s very well subscribed so that allows seniors to have work done on their units. Also through the CARE program, seniors that qualify can receive up to $90,000 in assistance to do the work in their homes and seniors usually are priority with the NWT Housing Corporation.
That’s not the response I get when I work with the Housing Corporation. They say specifically that there is no seniors program available. In the past we’ve had six successful programs. There was a Seniors Home Repair Program, a Seniors/Disabled Preventive Maintenance Initiative, Elders on the Land, Adaptation for Seniors’ Independence, Seniors Independent Living Strategy, and a Senior Housing Initiative. Those programs are non-existent in our Housing Corporation anymore. I believe that we should look at that and reinstate that. I’ve had situations in my riding where seniors are not eligible. They had to get in line with everybody else. I believe that these programs should be looked at, reinstated, or at least something similar.
Those programs, as the Member said, were all discontinued. They were rolled into our basket of programs. As I said, the senior preventative maintenance is still geared towards seniors. Our CARE repair program, seniors would qualify for a lot more than they would under some of the old programs, from $20,000 to $90,000. The Member said they had to wait with everybody else and that’s usually what happens, but seniors are given a priority, as I pointed out to the Member.
Seniors are given the priority but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I’ve got a senior in Trout Lake who applied for programming but exhausted all programming available that the NWT Housing Corporation has, even though he’s an elder and a senior. I asked specifically, he’s a senior, he needs emergency repairs, what can be done. They said, no, he’s exhausted all areas. That’s why I believe we should reinstate at least the seniors and elders repair program to address these specific needs.
We all have seniors in our ridings that would like to access some of the programs. Some of our seniors get turned down because of the income. If the particular person has exhausted all the programs that we have to offer, then there would be no need for repairs in this particular case. I’m pretty sure in this particular case we’re able to assist the senior and that again goes to show that even though they’ve exhausted all the programs that we have to offer and the money that comes with it, we’re still willing to assist a senior that needed our help.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Despite that I still believe that our Housing Corporation should gravitate towards a seniors and elders program designed specifically for maintenance and care and even replacement of small household items. I’ll be making a motion to that later on in the day.
We had 416 elders up taking the seniors program in 2005-2006. Can the Minister even detail how many elders are up taking our programs this fiscal year?
I will get the information together for the Member. I know this particular year we’ve had over 800-and-something applications territory-wide. I’m sure we can break it down and get the numbers that the Member is requesting.
