Mr. Speaker, there was a program a few years ago. However, I think when it was determined that we were going to have government service officers in each community, part of their role was going to be exactly that, advising people of all the program deadlines and that with all government programs, including the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. However, I can inform the Member that, as a corporation, we are looking at roles and responsibilities of our LHOs so we can better serve a lot of these smaller communities. We are developing proposals that we’re hoping to bring forward to committee for their input and see where we go from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned that the smaller remote communities, too, even though they are much smaller, they do need assistance with the clients filling out the application, meeting the deadlines. I would like to ask the Minister if part of the strategy is to be aware of that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we’re going to review how we deliver our programs in the small communities. We want to ensure that our residents in the small communities feel like they are well served by the NWT Housing Corporation in filling out applications. I think we have said in the past that, if there is a need to supply translators so they know exactly what they’re getting into, then we will provide that too. There is still a little bit of work that needs to be done. I think we’re taking some good steps in ensuring all of our residents across the Northwest Territories have equal access to our programs, and have the opportunity to fill out all the proper applications by the deadline so they won’t miss qualifying for any of the programs that we offer. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just following up to my Member’s statement earlier, the North has a big history of work that the RCMP division has done not only in the Northwest Territories but across Nunavut and the Yukon as well. I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice if there’s any type of museum infrastructure or some room dedicated to all of the history, and the good work and significant events that the RCMP “G” Division has done in the North, and is there somewhere dedicated in the Northwest Territories that our residents and our public can be part of that history and learn that history. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a good question. Unfortunately, I don’t know if a room exists where this information can be displayed and shared. You’re right; the “G” Division has a long and distinguished history here in the Northwest Territories, from the lost patrol of Rat River, the Mad Trapper, travel up and down the Mackenzie River, travel into the Eastern Arctic when it was part of “G” Division. There is a real solid history here.
I have had an opportunity to travel to a number of the detachments and I’ve been in the detachments. Many of the officers in those buildings actually have a real connection to the past and you will see pictures and historical sort of documents available. But as far as where it’s all brought together and whether it has been all brought together, I don’t know, but I will check with the RCMP to see how they present this information so that they can share their impressive history with all Northerners. Thank you.
Thank you, and I do agree with the Minister’s comments. We do have a very strong history of the RCMP here in the North and we’re well aware of that. I’d like to commend the Minister for going and taking a look at that, but would he be willing to dedicate a specific museum here in the Northwest Territories, perhaps through Yellowknife which is one of our hubs of all the communities? Would he be willing to dedicate some type of infrastructure towards the history of the RCMP “G” Division and all of their significant events, their members, lost members in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you. I remember as a kid, going to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre here in Yellowknife, they had a lot of fantastic displays, and one of the displays actually had a significant amount of RCMP history and memorabilia. I believe that display is now gone, but I would be happy to talk to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to see about bringing those materials back together and creating a display that maybe could go to different museums throughout the Northwest Territories.
We do have a number of facilities that may be able to show a display like this, but I’d also be interested in talking to the RCMP to see how they would like some of their history presented.
Budget constraints being what they will, anything that’s going to cost money would have to go through committee for consideration. Thank you.
Thank you. Would the Minister not only look at the detachments here in the Northwest Territories, but also work with other jurisdictions that might have possibly taken some of the artifacts, some of the archives from the Northwest Territories when we didn’t have specific detachments here in the Northwest Territories and look at possibly bringing them back to the North? So our Northerners, our residents, can see those archives, see those artifacts, and be proud of the RCMP and the heritage that they have in the Northwest Territories. Would the Minister be willing to look at other jurisdictions and see what artifacts and archives should belong in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, I’d be, obviously, happy to talk to the RCMP about their history and where some of the historic items may exist. But I would also suggest to the Member that helping people in the Northwest Territories understand our history and the important work that “G” Division has done is only part of it. Getting that information out to other people in the country is important.
“G” Division has a long history that stretches back as the Territories has become a smaller jurisdiction. So there are other individuals outside of what is the Northwest Territories now that have some history with “G” Division as well. I think if we could find a way to share that information, we should take that opportunity. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Finance on the Stanton Hospital. We put tens of millions of dollars into a Fort Smith hospital and a Hay River hospital, and now, when we should finally be going after the long overdue Stanton Territorial facility, what are we doing? We’re building new highways on the most costly terrain known, paying off poorly-thought-out bridge infrastructure and pursuing other new and expensive projects.
I’d like a clear commitment from the Minister that this fall’s capital budget will contain a proposal for a full and comprehensive start and an end to nickel and diming this project forever. Will the Minister give us that assurance? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The territorial government and this Assembly have committed to a broad range of infrastructure development, and I agree with the Member that Stanton is our flagship when it comes to acute care. We’ve started the process, it’s been some time in the making, we’ve dealt with a lot of issues on an ongoing fashion, but we are now fully committed to engage in a process that will see an investment of at least $200 million to do a much needed midlife retrofit and the capital plan is coming forward. The Minister of Health and the Minister of Public Works, sitting to my immediate right here, are listening carefully to the discussion here today. As we come forward with the capital plan, it will reflect the importance of this project. Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks to our fiscal procrastination we are now passing the point of completing a half-life retrofit on this asset.
The Minister of Finance commented publicly that we need to spend $200 to avoid replacing the hospital for $500 million, but I’m sure everyone here will agree that’s very much lowballing the estimate of these costs. Many suspect our procrastinated renovation may be pushing toward 300 and 400 million dollars in the billable amount, the longer we wait and current proposals are again nickel and diming. You’re stretching this out over decades, despite the Minister’s commitments.
So does the Minister agree that in the interests of both better patient care and wise fiscal management, we need to accelerate planning and implementation on this project starting in the next capital budget?
Thank you. We agree that this is our flagship, it’s a critical piece of health infrastructure. We’re laying out a plan that’s going to allow us to do much needed renovations and, at the same time, keep the operation in Stanton, for the most part, functioning and providing service, which is another critical piece that will add a time and complexity to the completion of the project. But, yes, we agree with the Member that we’d like to get this thing fully in the pipeline as fast as we can without compromising patient safety, and get this much needed project on the road to completion. Thank you.
Thank you. A strange kind of priority when we’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on other projects and dragging this out over the decades. Because this is an operating and jam-packed hospital, carrying out the renovation during hospital hours will be difficult.
Does the Minister anticipate any extraordinary costs resulting from having to refer patients to southern institutions when wards, operating theatres, clinics, diagnostic and other facilities are closed for renovation? Mahsi.
Thank you. It clearly makes good management sense as we look at the scope of this project, and trying to maintain services as well as complete a major renovation and upgrade, that we have to look at other places, backups for services on a temporary basis, that we may have additional pressure on our medical travel and such. But that will be part of the planning and one of the reasons it’s taking time to get this project to the state that it is.
Once again, we agree with the Member that once we move down the path past the planning, once we get into this, the intent is to try to get it done as quickly as possible, but as well done as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Minister. We want to do this properly, we want to do it quickly, and we want to do is safely. How can we do that when we’re nickel and diming this project?
As we have been talking about, we’re talking about a fairly substantial number, a number that, at the end of the day, will exceed the cost of the bridge. We’re talking $200 million, possibly greater, to do this. We’ve committed the resources. It’s in the capital plan. The money has started to flow. We’re going to try to make sure the steps proceed in as timely a way as possible without compromising patient safety and efficiency, and making sure we can manage to run the hospital as we renovate around it.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about a song that Johnny Cash sang, called I Walk the Line. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in light of the oil and gas exploration in the Sahtu, and I also talked about the people in the Sahtu walking the line. We are at the brink of having both development and protection of the area in the Sahtu. I understand the Minister is going to meet with the Aboriginal leaders who are involved in the Bakken shale play in April. I want to ask the Minister how he is going to bring this report back to us and report on it on how Aboriginal people are handling development on their land.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The trip that we envision in April to southeast Saskatchewan and to North Dakota would be to meet with Aboriginal leaders. I would certainly hope to have some Aboriginal leaders from the Sahtu accompany me on that trip so that we can meet with them there to see how Aboriginal people in the Bakken have benefited from development on their land. That is something that we certainly look forward to and I certainly hope the Member can make some time in April to come with us.
I’ll have to check my schedule and get back to the Minister on that. I certainly would like to go with the Minister to the Bakken field.
I want to ask the Minister, with the government’s increased budget for programs and services, and that’s one of ITI’s mandates, I want to ask the Minister how his department coordinates activities with other departments since the oil companies said the oil plays in the Sahtu are encouraging and they want to further develop those areas.
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has some very good staff in the Sahtu. We’ve also modified the pipeline office in Hay River, it’s the Mackenzie Valley Petroleum Planning Office now. They do work now for and on behalf of what is happening in the Sahtu.
We’ve had the Sahtu Readiness Session that we were able to attend last fall. I have made a commitment to the Member that we will look at doing an exercise like that again this coming fall to get ready for what is happening so community leaders, business leaders and industry can get together in one room and try to understand exactly what is going to happen there next winter.
In discussions with the Member earlier during this session, the use of the winter road, how it’s been utilized this winter, how we’ve partnered with industry, how we can improve on this for next year, I think that’s also very important that a post-mortem on how the winter road operation happened this winter and improvements that can be made next winter. I think those are very useful dialogues to have and we look forward to helping put that together both with ITI and DOT.
In the Sahtu exploration readiness session, a lot of good things were talked about. One of the things that concerned me is there was no lead identified during the readiness session to work on the addictions and mental health issues. I want to know how ITI is addressing that within the Government of the Northwest Territories. We have a plan in place with Sahtu, we just don’t have the money.
My role as Minister of ITI when we attend a session like the Sahtu Readiness Session, is to take the information back to the Cabinet table and make my colleagues aware of what is happening in the Sahtu. After what happened last winter, Cabinet got together, there was a response to that and you can see that response in this year’s budget.
As things continue to move forward in the Sahtu, government will need to respond, whether it’s through Education, Health and Social Services or ITI. Government will have to react and respond to what is happening there. We certainly look forward to things continuing to move forward there. This is something that we’re very excited about.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this project in this work in the Sahtu, ITI has taken the lead on oil and gas development and is coordinating with all the other departments. ITI is the boss here. I want to ask ITI, is he working with the other departments, with the Sahtu leadership, with the Aboriginal leadership to create the economic Oil and Gas Strategy for the Sahtu? Because this is a great potential that the oil companies are telling us that they have encouraging results that would make it one of the most powerful economic drivers in Canada.
We do continue to work together and, I think, that’s how we are going to see the play that is taking place in the central Mackenzie in the Sahtu. We’re going to see it move forward because, again, that dialogue has taken place and will continue to take place between government, industry, business leaders and Aboriginal leaders in the region. That is the only way that we can move forward.
The Member said he is walking a line and we do have to walk that line. There has to be a balance on protecting the environment and development. We believe that by working together, we are going to achieve some very good results there.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the days get longer, everyone is considering their growing season, agriculture. I’ll follow up with my colleague’s questions for the Minister of ITI on agriculture.
The first question I want to follow up on is the question on the training course for the northern farmer training. Has the Minister committed to doing anything for the upcoming year in this area of training farmers?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in response to Mrs. Groenewegen’s questions earlier, we have met with the TFA. We are aware of the training that they are proposing. We plan to meet with them again next week in Yellowknife. We are hoping to conclude negotiations on the Growing Forward Fund by the end of this fiscal year, another four weeks or so, at which time, I do believe, we’ll be able to provide some assistance and help in order to see this farmer training taking place in Hay River. We are very hopeful that it will happen.
I’m wondering if the Minister and his department have had any discussions outside of the Hay River area as far as bringing people from the Northwest Territories. I know there’s some agriculture happening in Norman Wells and Inuvik. Is there some interest in bringing people in from the communities for this type of training?
I think the really positive thing about having the training there is that we can get people from the communities to attend the training in Hay River, and take the skills and knowledge that they learn there back to their communities so that they can train and teach other people back in their communities. So, yes, there has been some indication that we will get some people from the communities that want to get the training and take that information knowledge back home.
I think some of the other issues that are out there, also in the agriculture area, is in training. Are there ways that we’re implementing these into the schools and institutions and stuff like that? The corrections facilities? Is there any indication from the department, as far as agriculture is concerned, of doing that type of education as well?
We haven’t had discussions. I know ITI has not had discussions as of yet with ECE on looking at putting a component in the schools, but that is a very good idea and certainly something that I will follow up on.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question about agriculture is the agriculture policy and the identification of lands and special taxation. Has the department done any additional work with that lately?
The only demand involving lands outside of municipalities is coming from Hay River. We have met with the Town of Hay River and the Territorial Farmers Association. They are looking at 300 acres of land within the municipality for agriculture, and our officials have spoken to both the town and the TFA and offered support in trying to find a way forward for utilization of that land for agricultural pursuits. We will continue to do that. There is also interest in Fort Smith and Enterprise, as well as Yellowknife for land for agricultural use. We’re continuing that dialogue as well.
