Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Seeing as it’s Education Week, I’d like to welcome back to the Northwest Territories a long-term Yellowknifer and teacher here in the Northwest Territories, Ms. Myrna Strain. With Myrna are Ms. Tai Blake and Ms. Sam Pearce. Welcome to the House.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my wife of 34 years and the most patient woman in the world. Judy, welcome to the gallery.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two Pages from the Deninoo School in Fort Resolution: Rayleen McKay and Tianna Simon.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to commend your Page Program for the small communities, because this week we had two young students from the Echo Dene School out of Fort Liard: Ms. Kali Norn and Michael Bertrand-Sassie. I would also like to recognize the hard work of their chaperone, Ms. Sylvia Bertrand. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly, and I hope you had a great week. Hopefully we’ll see you back here one day, maybe in this chair.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a constituent of Inuvik Boot Lake. Welcome, Ms. Judy McLeod, to the Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use this occasion to recognize Kain Bezha, who is a St. Pat student and a Yellowknife Centre constituent. I would like to let him know, as well as everyone else who is a Page here, that I am greatly appreciative of their services, as Mr. Menicoche was saying. He is quite right. Several of us MLAs got our start as Pages in this Assembly. You never know where you can go next.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’d like to welcome all visitors here in the public gallery. Thank you for taking the time to attend our proceedings here today.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services and in follow-up to my Member’s statement today. Question number one: How far behind are we on issuing new health care cards to residents who have applied for them? How many applications are in limbo at this time?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. There are some issues with mailing, but I think that the majority of the people that went for renewal have had their health cards renewed without any issues.
There are some issues. To answer her question of how far behind we are in this is difficult for me. I can say that we did change the system just a bit by mailing out postcards as opposed to forms, and that has caused a little bit of an issue. Aside from wrong addresses, I think we’re fairly up to speed on our renewals.
Because this is a new system and the expiry coincides with people’s birthdates, I would like to ask the Minister if there is a grace period that’s being extended to someone. If they show up at any kind of a medical service provider and their health care card is expired, will they still be provided services without having to apply for them and then be reimbursed or anything like that? Is there a grace period?
Unfortunately, if you show up with expired health care, you will not get insured coverage. However, you do have four months after that grace period to renew your health care card.
If somebody’s birthday was on January 15th and the applications for renewal of health care cards had not gone out, and with the backlog and number of cards that were not processed right away, is the Minister saying that if you’re an NWT resident, and you have an NWT health care card, and you show up for service, that you are not going to be provided that service during this transition phase into a new system?
On this new system where we moved to birthdates, we have about 2,000 per month. The majority of them are processed, yes. A lot of the mailings went out after people’s birthdays, on the 21st of January actually, so we do have a bit of a glitch in the system. But, in reality, we didn’t see it as a huge issue, that most people will have their cards renewed. But if they don’t have their cards renewed then, yes, they will not get the service provided at that time. They can get a service and they can pay for it or else they can quickly get the card renewed.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s very discouraging to hear, because I don’t think the department was on their game on the implementation of this new health care card system. I’m particularly worried about students that maybe hold NWT health care cards but they’re down in Alberta or someplace else, that this Minister is now telling us in this House that they would not receive services. I could see in the Northwest Territories people probably know people and it would be a lot easier, but I’m particularly worried about people outside of the territory who have birthdates early on in the year. Probably by the time we get to November or December it will all be worked out, but there were glitches, there were problems, and I would like there to be some kind of a grace period where people could be provided the services and they will get their cards eventually. I’d like the Minister to explain to us why that would not be possible.
We began a media campaign in December to advise people that we’re moving to the system where their health care card expires on their birthday. These are health care cards that would have been in place for three years, and then expiring on their birthdays starting this year and then more in the coming years. What has happened is, because there have been issues where there are indications that individuals that are holding health care cards that are not eligible that are outside the province, we wanted to have a clean process when we transfer into the new system that we’re requiring that people have health care cards, eligible health care cards in order to get coverage. Then we can deal with the individual cases. If MLAs know of individual cases where this has become an issue, then the department is prepared to deal with those on a one-off basis.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up from my statement, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation, will the Minister transfer the Merv Hardie from Fort Providence to Tsiigehtchic.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. We are putting that under consideration and we should be able to have a decision made probably within the next three or four months on where that asset will be located.
I believe that this government needs to try to avoid the crisis that almost happened in Norman Wells, and the best way to do that in the Mackenzie Delta is to transfer the Merv Hardie ferry to the Tsiigehtchic ferry crossing this summer to commence operation as soon as possible. Will the Minister commit to that?
The Merv Hardie served this government and the people of the Northwest Territories very well at Fort Providence. It will require some work, a bit of a refit, but certainly, once that refit is complete, we’d look at locating that ferry at Tsiigehtchic. That has been under consideration and we will continue to take a look at where that ferry will be best utilized here in the NWT.
I thank the Minister. I have no further questions at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have any questions today.
Okay. I saw your hand go up, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. Last fall I asked the Minister about vacant home ownership units in Detah and Ndilo in the riding of Weledeh. The waiting list for public and market rent units is long, and the people can’t see the sense of leaving unsold units standing vacant. The Minister replied, saying that approval notice for home ownership applications would be issued January 31st, and that home ownership units not allocated will be used as replacement of public housing units or market rental units.
How many of these units were sold under Housing Choices in Ndilo and Detah and how many have been released for public or market housing?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister responsible for NWT Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as the ones in Detah and Ndilo go, I’m not quite sure how many have actually been sold yet and then the ones that are vacant out there, so I will undertake to get that information for the Member. I know I did commit to getting the information for the Member. There’s still a little work to do, but I will get that information not only for Detah and Ndilo but for the units across the Northwest Territories.
I did, indeed, give the Minister considerable notice here, so I appreciate that I will be getting that information very soon.
Last session I asked the Minister why home ownership units stand unsold, pointing out that income rating and debt restrictions often prevent people from meeting program eligibilities. A more individual approach is needed. Both the Housing Corporation and I would like to see increased home ownership.
What is the Minister doing to evaluate the Housing Choices program to include some applicant file audits and to pursue other measures to tune up the program and get people into home ownership units?
We have made some changes to our Home Ownership Program. We’re actually just in the process of putting a Minister’s statement together in which we will make the announcement within the next week or so. But the Member is correct, though; there has been a great concern across the Northwest Territories about the number of vacant units. I believe that at one particular time we had 130 vacant units, and that was because we were taking advantage of the federal infrastructure money and getting these units on the ground, and we were left with a situation where we have allotted many more units than actually approved clients.
But we are making some changes to our Home Ownership Program. A couple years ago we tried a program where if you were slightly over the core need income threshold you would still be considered, because right now if you were a dollar over, you would automatically be declined, so we tried to make some changes to that. We had limited success, so we’re still trying to come up with ways that we could get people into home ownership. But we have managed to fill a lot of the vacant units. I think we’ve got, maybe, 65 right now across the Northwest Territories. We’re just completing our evaluation on the intake. I understand there might be about 12 people across the territory that have been approved so far for the HELP program and possibly about seven for the PATH program. And then again, the ones that we can’t sell or get homeowners into, we will either use them for market housing in the community or turn them into public housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister has outlined many of the concerns that we have with this situation. He has also expressed a commitment to get me the information for Ndilo and Detah and for the Northwest Territories. I appreciate that.
When can I expect to receive that, recognizing that I have given advance notice? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I’ll have the information to the Member by the end of day Monday. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to ask some questions on the… I don’t know if the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment had any update on the contaminated soil that was recently exposed by Enbridge Pipelines during their remediation digs. I’d just like to ask the Minister if he has had an update on the contaminated soil that was dug up. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re certainly aware of the situation in Nahendeh and the contaminated soil. Perhaps we have some folks from Environment and Natural Resources that would be better able to respond to that question. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister had directed me to the Minister of ENR. If I can do that and ask him, has he had an update from Enbridge Pipelines on the contaminated soil that was dug up on the remediation digs? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Only the Premier can do that, in regard to changing, but I’ll put you back on the list. Thank you. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
