Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re getting to the midway point of our term in the 17th Legislative Assembly, and as I have been known to do on occasion in the past, sometimes we like to talk about ministerial performance. I don’t have any speaking notes here, so I’m just going to wing this.
When we come here elected as 19 Members, we come here all as equals, all equally elected. Then we go into our territorial leadership and choose seven from amongst us to sit and hold positions of responsibility and leadership in certain areas of government performance. In my opinion, the “us” and “them” begins, which I think is a problem, but we continue to work on it. It’s our form of government. I think it needs to be reviewed and I think it needs to be looked at. We call it consensus government but it has traits of party politics, which is kind of a hybrid. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work that well, which I think we can all talk about.
When we choose the seven from amongst us to take on these special roles and responsibilities, we have expectations, I think, from all of us, because we’re all MLAs. Even if we’re Cabinet Ministers, we’re still MLAs and we all come here hoping to make a difference and use our contribution to better things. I believe we’re all here for noble and very good motives.
From this side of the House, the things that we look for in our leaders on the opposite side of the House is we would like them to be hardworking. We would like them to be knowledgeable so that when we ask
them questions, they can answer them. We would like them to have good communication skills. We would like them to be very responsible to the tasks before them. Obviously, they are all honest and honourable Members. We expect honesty. We expect sensitivity. If they are a Member who represents a large city, we expect them to be sensitive to the issues that we bring to them on behalf of our constituents that might be unique to our region or community. We like sensitivity. We’d like them to keep a global perspective, that they’re there to represent the entire Northwest Territories with fairness and equity.
Having said that, I don’t know if I have time. I had jotted down some comments on each one of these folks, but now I see that the clock is ticking here and I don’t know if I’ll have enough time. Maybe I’ll have to make that my statement for tomorrow. It’s unanimous consent to conclude your statement, not to extend your statement. I will leave it at that for today. Tomorrow is theme day, but I’ll get it in there tomorrow. It’s actually theme day on bullying so it will have to be very, very nice.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tomorrow is Anti-Bullying Day, otherwise known as Pink Shirt Day. Now, I know this is the eve of what should be another great awareness day, but I wanted to make sure that I left everyone here today with a homework assignment in preparation for tomorrow.
In preparing for tomorrow, I came across a unique video by Shane Koyczan on bullying that has been going absolutely viral. Shane Koyczan is a BC poet who is definitely no stranger to being bullied as a kid. In fact, if you recognize the name, it’s probably because you remember him from his inspired performance at the Vancouver Olympics opening ceremony where he read his poem We Are More.
Earlier this year Koyczan, who admits that bullying can leave psychic scars that can last for years, teamed up with artists from all over the world to animate a seven-minute video called To This Day. In this video Koyczan narrates a poem of his experiences of being bullied in school, as well as two other victims: a girl with a birthmark on her face and a boy who struggles with depression. This is a powerful animation that tackles bullying head on and strikes a nerve with everyone who experiences the vulnerability of his storytelling. To This Day is a wonderful animated tool that can help schools and families confront the problem of bullying, or at least allow for the starting point of discussion.
I’ll leave you with this: If you think this is just another southern artist who doesn’t understand what bullying means in the North or has any clue of what it means to be of First Nation heritage, I beg you to think again. Shane Koyczan is a true Northerner, born here in Yellowknife, and had a childhood of being bullied right here. His story is our story.
My pink shirt is ready. My pink tie is ready. Let’s get ready for tomorrow, shall we? Before we do, I ask everyone here at the Assembly and listening in, to take a minute to watch Shane Koyczan’s To This Day with your kids.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Canada is currently negotiating with the European Union for a trade agreement, CETA. It has been some four years in the making and, I gather, they’re finally getting to a possible end point. Much of the negotiations have been withheld from the public, but provinces and territories, at least, are party to the negotiations. We have to hope that our interests around this agreement are being adequately represented by our government, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
So why should I discuss a federal issue here in the NWT Assembly? Well, because this agreement has the potential to impact our government, our residents, and we should be concerned about that. A submission from Alternatives North last year stated it is precisely the people and small businesses in the NWT who stand to lose the most should CETA become a reality.
The question for me is what will Canada give up during negotiations to satisfy the European Union and reach the agreement the federal government seems so desperate to achieve. The most recent negotiations were just last week and the European Union trade commissioner has been quoted as saying, “On a number of issues they have to make additional steps. What was on the table is not enough. Very simple.”
A few weeks ago a radio commentator stated we know what Europe wants. We don’t know what Canada is willing to give up. That’s my concern. What will Canadian citizens lose and is our territorial government fighting to keep that from happening? They are the only ones who can represent our interests to the federal government.
The intent of CETA is to open new markets for Canadian goods, and I’m all for that. But what I cannot conscience is an agreement that ends up costing Canadians more for certain goods and services, and that’s a distinct possibility. The likeliest culprit is the European Union demand for extended patents on prescription drugs. This remains one of Canada’s most difficult decisions in these negotiations as drug costs for provinces and territories could jump significantly.
If the European demand is agreed to, Canadians will not be able to use generic drugs for five years, instead of the current two or three years. With the cost difference between generic and patented drugs, we could see our own government drug costs increase a great deal.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
The GNWT has to make sure that Canada understands the impact such a change will have on us and our hold-the-line fiscal strategy, as we hear very often from Mr. Miltenberger. My fingers are crossed that the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment will adequately negotiate on our behalf before CETA is concluded.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Both the Premier and the former federal Minister have said they expect to have a final Devolution Agreement very soon. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but First Nations in my constituency are not participating at the devolution table. The Dehcho First Nations would like to see movement in their own negotiations to finalize the land use plan for the region before devolution goes ahead. As well, they strongly believe that 25 percent of what the GNWT gets shared with all regional Aboriginal governments is not a fair allocation of resource revenues.
From the First Nations’ perspective, devolution, so far, is nothing but a GNWT money and self-government grab. Most First Nations don’t have self-government agreements. In spite of reassurances, it’s hard to see how devolution won’t prejudice these negotiations. In fact, the possibility of Dehcho First Nation’s involvement in devolution is one reason the K’atlodeeche First Nation recently left the regional lands and resources table. As Chief Roy Fabian said, we’re not willing to give up our jurisdiction to anybody until we are finished negotiating.
I must ask what has the GNWT given up or compromised on to reach this deal. What more will they give up for a final agreement? I’m concerned that this deal is already forcing us to inherit environmental and resource management arrangements weakened by the recent federal omnibus bill. Can the regions and small communities even count on a share of the 170 jobs to be transferred to the GNWT after devolution? Devolution should be good for everybody, but will it be good for First Nations in my constituency?
I will have questions for the Premier later today. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The recent tragedy along our highways has once again reaffirmed and reminded us about how important our first responders are. They are critical to the fabric of the Northwest Territories and certainly to the health of the people. It’s only in times when urgency is required we often think about what pillar of society that they play and that important role that they represent.
Not everyone has the experience and training a first responder typically would go through, and depending on where you are in the sense of where you’re located in the Northwest Territories as a first responder, will sometimes in some ways, unfortunately, dictate the type of level and skills you’ll get. What I’m saying is large centres may have the benefit of having more training than other, maybe, small centres, which is a problem in itself.
I draw this type of dichotomy out only to talk about in a way what we could be doing. A number of months ago, I raised the issue of teaching First Aid to our youth who are in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12, and I’ve heard from a number of teachers where they thought this was a great idea. The schools would like to do this, but they’re unable to do it under the current funding model.
The question that really rises is why wouldn’t we be teaching them First Aid? It’s such a critical skill. How many skills out there do we learn over the course of our lifetime that we can say that skill can actually save someone’s life?
It’s been well written, well documented, well said many times over that even bad First Aid is better than no First Aid. There are critical components of First Aid that are so meaningful. I look around the room and even across the territory, and First Aid has seen results by first responders who have taken even the basics, who have gone out and rescued and changed a person’s life by being able to be there to help them and save them.
These are skills that we could be giving back in a way where we’ll say we’re saving our community, we’re protecting our community, we are giving to our future. In short, the importance of such a skill is such a liberty that we should not be hiding it and keeping it confined to a very few. Let’s unshackle the inability for everyone to have it, and say today, this territory will lead by example, we will show the rest of Canada we are forward-thinking as a government and as a people, and we will teach all our students in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 First Aid, because as I said earlier, the skill is a lifesaving skill and who knows, the life it may save may be one of ours. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I just want to speak about the vacancy rates throughout the Northwest Territories and particularly my riding of Nahendeh. There is some recent documentation, I believe my colleague Mr. Bromley received, that shows that there's a 32 percent vacancy rate in our home ownership units throughout the Northwest Territories. That means that one out of every three homes that we’ve built remains empty. With respect to my constituency of Nahendeh, the vacancy rate is actually 25 percent, so one out of four homes that we built in Nahendeh remains empty to this day.
Especially with the riding that has the highest core need in the most recent Housing Needs Survey that we had, I think some of the solutions that we had in the past was having a community liaison worker in each of the communities as a part-time position. I believe that this will go a long ways; it did in the past. Whereas, if the community liaison worker is in the community addressing and working with the clients there, I know that as I’ve travelled to my communities, often when the regional staff make visits, they’re doing their best at making visits, their clients are out of town travelling and they miss their appointments. So they’re often asking me, when is Housing coming. I say, well, they were just here last week. They say, well, they didn’t know about it. However, a liaison worker will know this, will work with the clients; in fact, maybe even upping the number of applications that the corporation receives.
I would like to urge the Minister to look at the past practice, because we do want to house people. It’s a shame in the communities that I visit, there are empty houses and people are in need, and they’re seeing empty houses. I know the Minister has a strategy and I’d like to ask some questions during the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was to my surprise and great interest that on February 21st when I opened up the Inuvik Drum there was a very educational and historic story that was told by my father, and it was entitled The Mad Trapper Case Recalled. It’s about some oral history that’s never ever been told in the books, and I was really surprised to hear that my father decided to let the public know, and let the historians know, some of the things that had happened during one of the biggest stories in the Northwest Territories, and that was the Mad Trapper of Rat River.
This is something that my father had spoken to me about not too many years ago and was it was really interesting to hear, because everything that I ever knew about that whole story were things that I had read in books. So I was very impressed and very encouraged to hear my father speak up on something that a lot of historians did, and that he shared it not only with family members but with community residents in Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta to share a little part of history here. Then I was even happier to see it in yesterday’s News/North, dated February 25th. This story is not only shared in the Inuvik region, but it’s shared throughout the Northwest Territories.
With that, I’d like to encourage all elders within the Northwest Territories to share these types of stories so that our youth, and our historians, and people that are continuing to work to help with the culture and what the Northwest Territories is, can hear some of the real stories. Our history helps define us and makes us who we are. Much like my father who spoke up on his father and seemed to be very proud to share his story. Today in the House I’m very happy, I’m very proud to speak of my father on his courage to bring this story forward. Better late than never. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The urgent need for a complete restructuring at Stanton Territorial Hospital has been under review since before the last Assembly. We’ve patched cracks and tinkered with failing and mouldy systems for too long. It’s time to get serious.
Emergency physician and current CMA president Anna Reid has been quoted as saying, “there is no place in emerg for doctors to privately use a phone, not even enough surface space for a doctor to sit and fill out paperwork.” That’s the critical care portal at Stanton Territorial.
Patients wheel through the waiting room to X-ray, there’s room for only four crammed beds in the ICU unit. Files overwhelm office space and surgeries get backed up through long waiting lists for a lack of operating room time. The facility is poorly laid out for modern medicine, causing serious issues of safety, efficiency and privacy.
We strive to control travel costs, but then ship patients south for want of facilities here. The cost in employee stress and to patient care can only be imagined.
In August 2011, the Minister of Finance was quoted as saying, “Stanton needs some very, very critical work.” He estimated $200 million in needed renovations would extend the facility’s life by 15 years and cost $300 million less than replacing the hospital. We’re spending $1 million this year and we’ll be lucky to see $5 million next. That’s what, 20 or 30 years?
With elections won, where is the real money? Well, it will be paying for a bridge for 35 more years, 80 to 90 million dollars for the Inuvik-Tuk highway is on the spending list, with tens of millions more for yet more new initiatives. All new dollars while critical capital spending to meet human needs is postponed, delayed and deferred.
Stanton Territorial Hospital is the foundation of our most important and often most urgent medical facilities serving all of the citizens of this territory. Three hundred fifty million on a bridge, Tuk road and other new projects won’t save lives and ease suffering. The conditions at Stanton for patients and staff border on disgrace. Members have been calling for action from the Health Minister for a decade. Two hundred million dollars now to save $500 million later is a fiscal no-brainer.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi.
---Unanimous consent granted
We’ve fiddled and faddled so long the midlife window for Stanton Territorial has almost passed. The Finance Minister urges thrift today for a better tomorrow, but tomorrow is here.
I’ll be working with all Members to put the human needs of our constituents first on the list of our next capital budget and I will have questions for the Minister later today. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a song sung by Johnny Cash. It goes “I walk the Line.” I believe today the people in the Sahtu are also walking the line. The Minister of ITI has clearly said no fracking, no development. That’s a clear indication not to frack, not to develop, but can we have it both ways? That is the question.
Many people are divided over the issue of hydraulic fracking. Some people think the social and environmental risks outweigh the benefits. Others believe that the benefits of development and continued oil and gas resources outweigh the risks. People need to decide.
The Northwest Territories is moving ahead to guide practices and make decisions about how we use this technology. Economic development has responsibilities. Are we prepared to be responsible?
Last fall the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment hosted a Sahtu Exploration Readiness Session in Norman Wells. This session brought together the land owners, the oil companies, and GNWT representatives to talk about the benefits of the Canol shale play and the upcoming winter activity that’s going to happen this season. It became clear that everybody has to work together to find solutions to the challenges and to advance the people of the Sahtu. Social issues and addictions prevented some people from benefitting from the economic activity. We must prepare not only for today’s exploration, but for long-term development and production. At the end of the session, participants agreed on some of the action items and the Government of the Northwest Territories has taken the lead on some of these important initiatives.
ITI was the lead on the Mackenzie Gas Project. We have an opportunity to apply some of the lessons learned from the pipeline readiness to the development of the Sahtu. The Sahtu Aboriginal people have developed a comprehensive regional strategy for addictions prevention and treatment. This is a serious challenge and the people are up for that challenge. We have already seen mining companies that cannot meet their hiring targets from socio-economic agreements because of lack of skilled workers and other reasons, we are told. In order to deal with this challenge and to advance our people in this new development, we must be ready.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
There is great potential for the Sahtu in the Northwest Territories. We need to act wisely and make the best use of our time now. We have a chance to strike a balance and get things done now. In the words of Johnny Cash again, when he’s saying I walk the line, I also keep my eyes open all the time.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. We have an amazing group of people in Hay River who are highly interested in agriculture. I know the Minister has received a briefing from a very enthusiastic young lady, who has a market garden in Hay River, by the name of Jackie Milne who is now the president of the NWT Farmers Association. Ms. Milne has come up with an outline for training so that she can share her knowledge with others and encourage more interest in the idea of growing our own food, which we know is very, very possible here in the North.
The Northern Farm Training Institute is about to get underway. The Minister has heard the presentations. I’d like to ask the Minister what support ITI is offering for this new initiative to share this information with the surrounding communities and Hay River.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to have to be very nice on my answers to the Member here today, considering she’s going to be grading us tomorrow. We have met with Ms. Milne when she was here in Yellowknife and my understanding is she is coming back to Yellowknife, I believe, on March 5th. Our department, and hopefully myself, will be able to meet with her again. We are anxious to see her progress with her initiative and help out in any way that we can.
As I have mentioned a number of times in the House, we are moving forward with negotiating the Growing Forward 2 Agreement with the federal government, which will provide us $6 million over five years, and we’re hoping to access some of that funding to help with this initiative. Those discussions are underway.
I do thank the Minister for his interest in this topic. Everything can’t be about the non-renewable resource sector. We have to put some of our attention to renewable resources and small-scale operations.
I’d like to ask the Minister, within his department, what kind of human resources and resources are dedicated to this issue of agriculture.
Over the past four or five years, we’ve had many more staff working on agricultural initiatives. They’re balancing their workload with other things as well. I would be guessing, but I would say five staff in the area that would deal with this type of work on a day-to-day basis.
I think that it’s safe to say that agriculture is catching on across the Northwest Territories. We’ve always had the greenhouse in Inuvik. We hear wonderful stories coming out of Norman Wells. I think the real impetus and the real push for agriculture in the Northwest Territories, I have to give credit to the folks from Hay River who have kept this little struggling organization of the TFA alive, and have actually put their actions where their words are and have started market gardens and all kinds of different endeavours in that area.
I’d like to ask the Minister, does he not think that it would make sense to put the positions that are dedicated to agriculture in a place like Hay River.
As I mentioned, we have staff. They are multi-tasking on a number of economic initiatives here in the Northwest Territories. Certainly as things progress, and if we do have dedicated staff that are working in the area of agriculture on a day-to-day basis, it would certainly make sense for them to be located in Hay River.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not intimately familiar with people in ITI and what they do, but I believe there is one long-term public servant in Yellowknife with ITI that has been focused on agriculture. Certainly, we also have another long-term staff position in Hay River, which we do appreciate.
When you’re talking about decentralization around the table with respect to agriculture, has there been any consideration to supporting agriculture in Hay River by looking at decentralizing that one full-time position that we know about in Yellowknife?
We haven’t done that analysis on those positions, but it’s certainly, as I mentioned earlier, as we move forward we get the deal done with the federal government on Growing Forward 2 and we put more of an emphasis on agriculture, and we’re getting closer to the devolution deal being done, once that’s complete and we take over responsibility of land management here in the Northwest Territories, positions like that may certainly make a lot of sense for us to have. As to a location, I think I said it earlier that Hay River would certainly make a good case for those positions.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister responsible for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission. Some time ago, in September 2010, actually, the WSCC Safety Advisory Committee started a revision of the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. That’s a big mouthful. These regulations were definitely in need of updating.
There was considerable backlash when the first draft of the regulations was put forward for consultation. There was a great deal of input from many businesses, so the board heard the criticism and the safety committee went back and they revised the regulations.
They produced a report in January 2012 which recommends acceptance of the second revision of the regulations. That report on the regulations would have been forwarded to the two Ministers for WSCC prior to them coming into force. It’s my understanding that these regulations are still not in force. They have not yet been approved by the Ministers. This is a huge amount of work on the part of the WSCC Board and the WSCC Safety Committee and the stakeholders. I want to know from the Minister what the status of the revision and implementation of the regulations are.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission, Mr. Jackson Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First, I would like to commend those individuals who have been involved with providing input into this. It’s a very comprehensive and complex regulation system that is before us. There has been some input and amendments to the regulations themselves. Right now, as it stands, I have forwarded that to WSCC Board of Governors. They are meeting in early March in Iqaluit. They are going to be reviewing that and they will provide recommendations back to me. From there I need to work with the Nunavut Minister responsible for WSCC, my colleague. From there we need to move forward on the regulations.
To the Minister, I couldn’t agree more that we need to move forward on this. This has been two and a half years from start to the point where we are now and we still don’t have these regulations in force. The report went to the two Ministers one year ago, over one year ago, and I don’t understand what the holdup has been. I’d like to know from the Minister if he can explain to me why a report that is dated January 2012 has not yet been acted on.
