Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government or this Cabinet has made it very clear that it’s on a mission of hiring 2,000 people. Here in the NWT, homegrown in our communities are students who are being encouraged to go back to school, study all they can and come back and hopefully we can give them a job.
There is always the challenge, of course, ensuring that we strike a balance between large cities like Yellowknife, regional centres and communities as well.
My question is to the Minister of Human Resources. Why are GNWT summer jobs not readily available for students in communities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Summer Student Employment Program is not restricted to regional centres and Yellowknife. In fact, student summer employment is supposed to be employment for students right across the territory. We are doing some campaign work right now. We’re sending out some e-mail messages and putting some of those employment opportunities on our HR website and a poster advising in Yellowknife, some regional centres and service centres, community band offices and also with the GNWT, government service officers will be going on at this time. Thank you.
Last year there was an effort to recruit at least 280 returning summer students and provide them jobs. Can the Minister indicate to this House how many of those jobs were in communities? Mahsi.
I don’t have the breakdown between the small communities, the regional centres and Yellowknife. What I do have is, of the 271 students who were hired, we were applying the Affirmative Action Policy and 51.7 percent were indigenous Aboriginal students and 43.0 students were indigenous non-Aboriginal students and priority 1. Only 4.4 percent of the students hired by the GNWT last year were from outside of the NWT. Thank you.
I would like to thank the Minister for giving that response in terms of where the jobs are going for students. I hope at some point he will be able to substantiate further some various precise statistics on job concentration for summer students.
Human Resources, of course, is the lead department in terms of dealing with employees of the government. At the same time, it has a lot to do regarding human resource planning, especially with students as they come back home. It’s expected that we do our part in trying to get them career advice and career planning.
Is the department taking the lead to ensure that each department has concrete plans to have summer student employment available for students who return in the summertime in the communities? Mahsi.
The Department of Human Resources has started work with other departments in December of 2013 in preparation for the summer, April to August 2014, preparing to take on summer students. So if there is some work that is being done right now, I can provide the status to committee. I can also provide the number of students last year, the distribution of the summer students in Yellowknife, the regional centres and the ones who have gone into small communities. I will report that back to communities as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government is clearly on a campaign of hiring 2,000 extra people so they can live and work up here in the NWT. The Minister has indicated, as part of the effort to recruit summer students, there’s a campaign that his department is entertaining.
Could the Minister further explain what other substantive and concrete steps he’s willing to take to ensure that we have a target of ensuring that we hire students as much as we can? Would the Minister perhaps even consider meeting the policy directive of ensuring that all government agencies hire some of the students to ensure that returning students are employed? Mahsi.
Thank you. I’m more than prepared and willing to discuss this with the deputy minister of Human Resources to get some sort of a concrete plan on the student hires from all of the deputies. For this student hire, the monies to hire our students is paid out of the vacancy rate of the various departments and it would depend largely on whether or not the departments have some room to be able to hire. In addition to that, the Department of Human Resources is providing a Progressive Experience Program, which is $330 a week to the departments to hire students and we have about 80 places. That’s over and above and within the overall student hires, but it will enhance the student hires in HR. Human Resources also has a program that’s run by the Department of Social Services, the Relevant Experience Program where they have 24 placements and they pay $525 for each student that comes to work within the health and social services system. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, I have questions about dredging in the Hay River area. I’m going to switch gears and maybe ask the Minister of MACA about the disaster mitigation and if there’s any funding available for dredging of the Hay River area.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert C. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Economic Action Plan that was announced in 2014, there is a National Disaster Mitigation Program, and in our discussions with them we brought up the issue of the flooding in Hay River and how dredging could help assist that community. We believe that if we can get an application into this fund, this would be an eligible category. They haven’t worked out the allocations for the money yet and the details and we’re just working on that now, but we will work closely with the Member and the community of Hay River to see how we can access this money. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister giving me that information and I look forward to working with the Minister as well.
Can the Minister give me a little more details on the information? What is this program – it’s a federal program, I’m assuming – and what is that federal program designed for?
Thank you. I’m also the Minister responsible for emergency measures, and a couple of the FPTs that I’ve gone to we were informed that the old JEP funding it was called, Joint Emergency Preparedness, was being replaced by the Disaster Mitigation Program, and this is to assist communities and jurisdictions to try and fix up their infrastructure so they can actually try and avert some of these disasters of flooding in Hay River, for example, is a good one.
So it’s a new program, it’s a federal program and I believe that they’ve announced there’s a $200 million price tag attached to this. However, this is going to be divided amongst all the jurisdictions. We haven’t decided on the formula yet. So as soon as we have more details on how we can get our hands on some of that money, because we do have a lot of flooding in the Northwest Territories, we will share it with the Member, members of committee and the communities that are affected by this. Thank you.
Thank you. I look forward to working with the Minister and the Town of Hay River to alleviate this problem. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Comment. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address my questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services and I’d like to follow up on my statement. AEDs have a fairly low profile in the NWT. Certainly when my office was doing some research, it was pretty obvious. Some organizations have taken actions and others have not. For instance, we do not have an AED here at the Legislative Assembly.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, first off, whether not the Department of Health and Social Services or the GNWT, if he knows that, has any policy regarding the placement of AEDs within the territory, within our buildings and our public places. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe that we actually have a policy requiring private industry or businesses or public places to have AEDs, but I do know that Yellowknife currently has defibrillators in the arena, swimming pool and other sport facilities. I also know that the airport here in Yellowknife has a defibrillator and, just for information, every health centre has a defibrillator and every health cabin in the Northwest Territories has an AED.
There is a federal program in place to help pay for defibrillators in arenas that any community with an arena can access. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that and I can advise the Minister that there are defibrillators in every NorthMart or in every Northern Store within the territory, which is good to know. So some buildings have them and some buildings don’t. We obviously don’t have a policy within the GNWT and I would suggest that’s someplace that we need to go.
I would like to ask the Minister whether or not we have, apart from what he’s listed, a registry that encompasses all the defibrillators that exist within the NWT, all the places where they are. Thank you.
No. We can tell which GNWT facilities have them, but I couldn’t tell you what private facilities have them. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister and I didn’t think we had one, so I’m glad that that’s confirmed.
The Minister mentioned a program that exists, I believe it’s the federal government that provides money to communities so that they can get AEDs and put them into their public places and their public buildings.
I’d like to know from the Minister if he’s aware of any program within the GNWT that would provide money to organizations, to communities, to basically organizations and communities if they wish to buy an AED and install it in their space. Thank you.
I’m not aware of any program that we have that would allow private companies, businesses, to purchase or support their purchase of defibrillators or AEDs to put in their public places, but I will say earlier in her statement the Member mentioned Manitoba passing an act in 2013. Under the Manitoba act, owners of the designated premises under the act were required to install AEDs in all the premises. So, purchase and maintenance was the responsibility of the business or the organization that had the public space, not the responsibility of the Manitoba government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for advising me of that. I’m not suggesting that the government needs to be totally responsible, but legislation, if we put it in place, certainly would provide the need for people to buy and install AEDs. This is a difficult situation. Obviously, GNWT does not have any kind of a policy, we don’t have any department, from the sounds of things, that is responsible for this particular issue.
I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not he would be willing to commit to discussing this issue with Cabinet, whether or not he could then, after discussion, advise which Minister has been assigned this responsibility and who will take on the responsibility of AEDs and providing for them in legislation, if possible, or policy, if possible, and advise Members and the public. Thank you.
Thank you. There is an extensive legislative list in front of the government right now, but if it is the wish of committee that this be undertaken, that we follow Manitoba’s lead with respect to AEDs, I’d be happy to listen to committee and take that forth to Cabinet. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Just to let the Member know that the Clerk’s office is ordering one right now, so we’ll have it in the building.
---Applause
I think we now need two of them: one on the Members’ side, the Ministers’ side and my office. We’d need three.
---Laughter
Anyway, a good question, Ms. Bisaro.
The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I realized after I sat down, all happy after my exchange of questions with the Minister of Justice, that I still really didn’t know the answer to my question, so let me ask it more directly. Is there any impediment to the Northwest Territories creating another level of police force, police officer in the Northwest Territories, to work in cooperation but outside of the rules imposed by the national RCMP but work in cooperation with the RCMP? Is there any impediment to us doing that as a territory?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe there is. However, it would certainly cost a great deal of money to look at providing that level of service across the Northwest Territories.
I’m not suggesting it should be available, that level of policing should be available across the Northwest Territories. I’m suggesting it should be in the communities where there is no police presence at this time and where the RCMP cannot operate with a single member detachment and all those other rules that go along with the RCMP. I’m not suggesting all communities; I’m suggesting only those communities that do not have a police presence now.
Could we create a made-in-the-North for-the-North group of officers to serve in those communities?
Again, I would say yes, there’s a chance that that could happen. Again, we have to be creative. We have to be looking at any way and means to increase the safety of our communities across the Northwest Territories, and the Member brings up a good suggestion. We are doing everything we can by working with the RCMP to ensure that our communities are safe. We’ve got policing plans in place today. We’ve got opportunities, as I mentioned, in communities like Tsiigehtchic, and perhaps Gameti and Wrigley, on getting officers to overnight in those communities. We’re looking at safe houses. We’re looking at other opportunities to continue to work with community leaders on providing safe communities here in the Northwest Territories. I thank the Member for her suggestion.
I do appreciate the fact that RCMP are willing to go into the communities on visits and stay overnight in those communities, but I am talking about resident police officers in the community that are there, that know the community, that may even be from the community, that are Northerners.
Could the Minister tell me if there has ever been a discussion with the RCMP on such an idea, and what kind of efficiencies we could realize by trying to create such a group of police officers, perhaps with the cooperation of the RCMP? There is no sense in reinventing everything. Maybe they would be willing to cooperate with us on their training services and there would obviously have to be some very strong communication between these two levels of policing services. I’d like to ask the Minister, has that ever been canvassed with the RCMP?
At almost every opportunity the issue of community policing, First Nations policing, Aboriginal Constable Program is raised with the RCMP. That is something that our government is very much interested in seeing advanced.
As I mentioned to the Member in my first set of responses to her, there was no uptake in the last Aboriginal Constable Program that was set to go to Depot in the fall of 2013. I believe we had one individual from the Northwest Territories that was set to take the training. We have two spots reserved for us when that program does get off the ground in 2015. The individual that had applied is still interested, I understand, so we will have two there.
We also, again, have to continue to pursue the First Nations policing with the Yukon and Nunavut and see where we can get with the federal government on funding under that initiative. I think that the idea that the Member has certainly has some merit, and if we can get some funding through that program, that is something that we could take a look at.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to follow up on the assertion from the Minister again, that there was very little interest or uptake in the Aboriginal Constable Program, which was an opportunity.
I’d like to ask who led the effort to recruit and generate interest in these positions. Was it our government or was it the RCMP?
I’ve been the Minister of Justice for four months. That’s something that goes before my starting in this position as Minister of Justice. That’s something that I certainly can find out for the Member and I will get that information to her.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a clear expectation, and I certainly will say a right and correct expectation of the public that the Government of the Northwest Territories is monitoring, managing and certainly enforcing the socio-economic agreements. But frankly, the everyday person doesn’t know where to find these things, and thank goodness we have the research to help us track these down.
By way of example, I’ll say De Beers, in a 2012 report – by the way, it was a 40-page report – said that they were almost meeting their targets of 300 NWT residents working for them. They were at 275. That’s pretty close, but the public doesn’t know this.
My question for the Minister is: What does his department do to highlight these types of commitments, how are they being fulfilled, how are they being monitored, and certainly how are they being enforced from the Department of ITI but also the government’s perspective? As I said at the beginning, there is a high expectation they’re monitored, managed, and certainly enforced by this government, because there’s a perception it isn’t.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We take every opportunity to sit down with industry and just recently we had the opportunity. I know, through the budget address, we’re looking at increasing the population by 2,000 residents here in the Northwest Territories over the next five years. We’re not going to do that if we don’t have buy-in from the mining companies here in the Northwest Territories that are big employers here. We need to continue that dialogue, and we will continue that dialogue on trying to find a way and a means to attract people to live in the Northwest Territories and be residents here.
I also must say that on the procurement side of things, the mines here in the Northwest Territories, since Ekati opened in the late 1990s, have almost 70 percent northern procurement totalling close to $10 billion of northern procurement here. On the employment side, it is a challenging environment across Canada for skilled labour, and we do know that just recently with the sale of Ekati Mine to Dominion Diamond Mining, Dominion has moved their head office from Toronto to Yellowknife. We’re very excited for that opportunity. They are moving positions from Toronto to Yellowknife. In talking to the mining companies, they’re very much interested in seeing more people living here in the Northwest Territories.
By the way, that mine promotion statement was brought to you by the Minister of ITI that everything’s fine.
The question for the public here is – now on to the next issue – building capacity. One agreement had highlighted 38 percent of material, equipment and purchasing through the construction phase would be done locally in the Northwest Territories. Furthermore, when they went on to operations, the goods and services at 32 percent would be purchased in the Northwest Territories.
The question to the Minister of ITI is: How does the public know that they’re living up to their agreement in a clear and comprehensive manner? In other words, how is ITI communicating to this public, because there’s opportunities, as I said in my Member’s statement today, to publicize these things annually in a newspaper that the public can see, because quite frankly, they don’t believe this is happening.
There are reports that are done annually. If the Member wants to know where one report is or if he’s looking for a various report from any one of the socio-economic agreements we have with the existing diamond mines, I’d be happy to help him find that.
