Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use this occasion today to recognize Sandra Taylor, who is the president of the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society and she is a constituent of Yellowknife Centre. I’d like to thank her for coming today. I’d also like to recognize all the seniors in the gallery, although there are too many to name, but I would like to make special mention of Barb Hood. She does a fantastic job with the NWT seniors. It’s a yeoman’s job and she needs a special pat on the back for the hard work she does. Finally, of course, I would like to recognize two good and long-time friends: Jim Antoine, who I have known since I was a young man and certainly he has been a mentor to me as well, and always my special, favourite friend, Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to recognize Weledeh residents. First of all, Barb Hood. Thanks for all the great work she does. Also, Anthony W.J. Whitford. I’d also like to recognize former Premier Jim Antoine. Also, I would like to mention Loretta and Dick Abernethy, who are long-time but not quite current residents of Weledeh, and I believe they are both awesome as well.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a Page from Yellowknife South, Bethany Giovanetto, and also all the other Pages who are working here this week.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’ll set a record by recognizing Mr. Jim Antoine in the House as well. Welcome to the Legislature, Jim, it’s a pleasure to see you, and once again, congratulations on your Diamond Jubilee medallion that you received earlier in the year.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will break that record by recognizing Mr. Jim Antoine, a good friend of mine, also to Mr. Whitford and all his accomplishments. I’d also like to recognize the NWT Seniors’ Society group that my mother dearly loved to work with and she certainly spoke highly of them. I also, in closing, would like to recognize one of our staff members who is with one of the children up there.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I, too, would like to welcome the mayor of Tuktoyaktuk, Mr. Mervin Gruben, and from my home community of Tuk, my cousin Wanda Norwegian. Welcome to the House. It’s always good to see you. Probably the happiest day for me was welcoming my son Mitchell back home last night. He’s coming home with me tomorrow. Welcome back to the Territories. I’d like to welcome the Abernethy family too. They’re all great. To all our visitors in the public gallery here today, thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings here today in the House. Have a good day and enjoy the proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My daughter told me that a friend of hers overheard a peripheral conversation with me talking about how wonderful the Ministers were and they said, what’s happening? Is your mother resigning? Anyways, let me assure you I am still alive and well, and I have had too much coffee today so I need to talk about Hay River dredging. I’d like to direct my questions to the Premier today because I do believe that this is an area of federal responsibility, the dredging of the Hay River Harbour, which was, for some reason, vacated by the federal government without due consultation and without due plan in mind when they stopped doing this.
I’d like to ask the Premier, although we’ve had some money from Transportation in our government to look at studies, it’s time to stop the studies. We know what needs to be done. The harbour in Hay River needs to be dredged. Is this something that the Premier could elevate as an issue to be raised with the federal government at his level?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Government of the Northwest Territories, we go to Ottawa and generally try to keep our asks to a manageable level. We focus on the areas of highest priority. I recognize that it’s been almost 20 years since the Hay River Harbour was last dredged, I think it was 1993-1994, and we’re quite prepared to do that in addition to spending money to do some work this summer. We have a small dredging program planned. We will also lobby the federal government.
As I said in my Member’s statement, the threat to the Hay River Harbour is really undermining the spirit and soul of our community and it is posing a serious threat to our residents as well. We cannot afford just to bury our heads in the sand and hope for the best. The Canadian Coast Guard, which amalgamated a few years back with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, has a tremendous amount of infrastructure, vessels, buildings and employees in Hay River. I’d like to ask the Premier if we could broach the federal government with the idea to perhaps, if they can’t set up another Department of Public Works in Hay River to do this, if this is an activity that could possibly be added on to an existing federal, very large department in Hay River, the Canadian Coast Guard.
I think we can do better than that. There are a number of federal funding programs that we can access. We are working with the federal government on a Disaster Mitigation Program which we expect will be rolling out soon. We have our friends at CanNor and, also, there’s another federal funding program that we’re in discussions with the Government of Canada on. We can approach it on all of those venues as well as talking to the federal government about exactly what the Member is suggesting.
When the federal government was located in Hay River with their dredging program under the Department of Public Works, it was an annual event. This was not a one-time thing. I would like to ask the Premier if some of the funding that he’s talking about that may be available through federal programs, if this would be something that would re-establish an ongoing activity in Hay River to see that harbour kept in good condition.
We’ve done some work with our partners, specifically the Coast Guard, I think NTCL, and I think even Midnight Petroleum, and we’ve scoped out the potential costs for a very small dredging program. The cost estimate is about $2 million to $3 million. For a large dredging program it will be about $12 million. The problem, I think, that was identified by Mr. Bouchard, is that there is no existing dredge in Hay River. We would have to go and find one. I think the closest one is in the Columbia River area or we would have to go as far as the Mississippi. I think that if we do ramp up to that level, I expect if we’re going to dredge there, that would be the start so that we could look at it on a more regular basis.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In previous governments the answer that I continued to get from this government is that the dredging of the Hay River Harbour was not their responsibility, it was federal jurisdiction. What I’m hearing from the Premier today is, in fact, that the territorial government may be looking at taking this on on an ongoing basis and taking responsibility. Just to clarify, is that what I’m hearing today?
We are prepared to participate and even contribute some funding as we’re doing for the program this year, but it’s still a federal responsibility and I suspect the federal government would not want to devolve this, which is typically a federal jurisdiction.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a couple of questions for the Minister of Housing. Has the department set a date to visit the community of Aklavik for the community’s input into the new Joe Greenland Centre?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our plan is to try to get into the community as soon as possible. We recently announced the plans to replace the Joe Greenland Centre. We want to try and get in there as soon as possible. We still have about a month of winter road. I’m assuming staff from the department in Inuvik will be heading over to Aklavik to start the planning of the new Joe Greenland Centre.
I’d like to ask the Minister, will the department build a facility like the Joe Greenland Centre in Fort McPherson.
Because the Member asked, I’ll say yes, we will. As part of our announcement last week, we did announce that we were building four new seniors facilities. One of them was in Fort McPherson, the other one was in Fort Good Hope, we have one in Fort Liard, and the other one in Whati. The planning for that is in the early stages right now. We do plan to construct these in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.
Mahsi cho to the Minister. I have no further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the need for people to go on the land who have done some pretty serious damages. The people and elders in our communities talk about that. I want to ask the Minister what the status is of the two communities who have made this request; Colville Lake for integrating people back into the communities and, of course, the community of Fort Good Hope, who wanted on-the-land treatment programs for people who are sent to our correctional institutes here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently in the Northwest Territories we only have one wilderness camp and that’s Kozo Lake camp in the South Slave. We have had a request from Fort Good Hope to actually re-engage and reconfirm the camp that used to be in the Fort Good Hope or Sahtu area. We are having those discussions. We believe that these camps are important and provide a valuable service, and we would like to see it up and running. We still have to work out some details on the specifics for the Fort Good Hope wilderness camp but we are doing that, and hope to have some progress there. With respect to Colville Lake, it wasn’t a wilderness camp we were talking about. It was a reintegration program. We are very excited about this. This would be the first time that we’ve worked with the community and, to their credit, they were the ones who approached us and offered to work with us on a reintegration program.
We haven’t finalized any programs but I am happy to say that community members from Colville Lake recently met with some inmates from Colville Lake in the North Slave correctional facility and they were very supportive in finding ways to help that individual reintegrate back into the community, including providing logs so that the person could build themselves a home. They agreed to work with the inmate to help him find employment in the community. They’ve worked with the inmate to have him engage with youth committees and work with youth in the community. They’ve also got a plan to have them engage in some traditional activities within the community and the area. We think this is a great foundation for building the reintegration plan with the community that they have talked about, and we are still eager to do that and will continue to move forward on that.
In the latest numbers that I have received from the department, it costs the Government of the Northwest Territories about $107,000 a year per inmate to keep them at one of our correctional centres here. I want to ask the Minister what it costs to have an on-the-land program. Do they have one yet in the Territories? What does it cost for having people on the land at that type of program?
I don’t have the exact numbers for housing inmates in our facilities, but the number the Member quoted sounds right. I will confirm that actual number for the cost over a year.
As far as the exact numbers for inmates who are taking advantage of this -- and we must remember that inmates aren’t required to go to wilderness camps, they have to express desire and an interest to go to the wilderness camps -- but I will confirm to the Member what the costs are per day, but also the whole program costs as well.
I believe the Minister’s willingness. When I sat with him in Colville Lake, people and good old people, he wanted to do something different and do something that would make sense to the Aboriginals who have hurt our communities and their people. I want to ask the Minister if there’s a possibility of possibly having some time to invite the Social Justice Committee members to go to Kozo Lake and look at that project, talk to the contractor and possibly talk to some of the people who are doing time there right now and see the benefits of on-the-land treatment programs for people in the North.
Anecdotally, we know, from speaking to some of the inmates who have attended wilderness camps, that their experience in these camps makes them better able to take advantage of other programs that may be offered in our facilities, both in treatment within the facility and outside. One thing we need to remember, and I’ve already mentioned it, is that it’s very important that inmates are actively involved in their case management discussions, which may include opportunities to go out to these camps.
Camp experience can also be very advantageous, if you will, because it helps individuals prepare to return to their communities. It helps them connect with family, connect to community supports, which is obviously essential when people are returning.
With respect to the Kozo Lake camp, which is the one camp that we do have a contract with today, I personally haven’t been there but I take the Member’s point that it may be beneficial for me, and maybe a member or two from committee, to visit this camp to get a sense of the valuable services that they can provide as far as helping us prepare inmates for reintegration back into their communities and avoid being repeat offenders.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been estimated that 85 percent of crimes in the Northwest Territories are alcohol and/or drug related, and 90 percent of offenders in the Northwest Territories correctional facilities have addiction issues. A high percentage of these offenders and people in the correctional institutes are Aboriginal people.
What Aboriginal context, what type of Aboriginal programs do you have that are operating now in the correctional institutes that we can also possibly offer on-the-land programs?
We do know that a significant portion of the inmates within our facilities are suffering from either addictions or mental health issues. As we’ve talked about already, the camps are an opportunity to help people deal with some of their personal issues and, obviously, in the long-term, reintegrate back into society.
Within our facilities here in the Northwest Territories, we do have specific programming, traditional programming, as well as some alcohol and drug programs in the facilities to help those individuals when they’re ready to start dealing with some of those challenges so that we can help them return to their communities and stay out of the justice system in the future. There are a number of programs. I can provide the Member and committee with a list of the specific programs that are available within each of our facilities so that they have a better understanding.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I’ll start with a simple one. I’d like to ask the Minister, what schools are on any plan at Education, Culture and Employment for renovations or replacement in the fiscal year 2014-15?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. During the capital planning process we’ve identified some of the schools, whether it be minor renovations or major renovations, and I can provide that information. I don’t have it in front of me today. With respect to one of the schools that we are currently evaluating, it is J.H. Sissons School. There has been an education plan underway since last fall, providing the school district for their review as well. Those are just the processes we have to go through with each capital project that’s before us throughout the Northwest Territories.
I thank the Minister for that information. I’ll just have one last question. I would like to know from the Minister if he can provide me with a list of schools for the next five years that have renovations or upgrades or replacements planned.
I can provide the detailed breakdown of the number of capital projects that would be before us throughout the Northwest Territories. So I will provide it to the Members.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
