Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Colleagues, I’d like to welcome here for her first day of sitting, Mrs. Danielle Mager, the new Clerk of the Table in the House. So, welcome.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions from the statement I gave earlier.
How exactly did this new medevac contract benefit our small and remote communities, given those two circumstances that I spoke about in my Member’s statement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In negotiating the final contract, the communities of Jean Marie River, Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake runways currently require aircraft with a short take-off distance. As a result of this contract, we’ve set it up so that the turnaround time on these particular airports, the shorter runways, is two hours, compared to four hours like it used to be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Given the Trout Lake situation with the old contract to actually go out and find a Twin Otter outfit, I think that was part of the delay.
I wasn’t clear from the Minister’s response. Is there a specific airplane that can respond to the smaller runways in the smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in the contract there has been identification that the providers have to have planes that can get into the shorter runways within the time specified. For those shorter runways, the time specified has been two hours, and that determines the conditions that have been met.
This contract goes live on April 1st, so effective April 1st it will be a two-hour turnaround time, barring, of course, weather conditions that may limit us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think the incident in Fort Liard was the issue of whether at that time they were able to get somebody to state the weather conditions. I think the CARS at that time was also unattended. So I think there was a recommendation by the coroner’s office to install automated observation systems for circumstances like that, because I think the medevac plane actually got there – oh God – in excess of six hours in the wee hours of the morning, but there was a fatality there.
But given that – I know that they’re trying to address that – what provisions for weather and weather reporting are there in this specific contract? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the management of the airports is actually done by the Department of Transportation, and we will continue to work with Transportation to ensure that those requirements are met.
But I would like to say that as a result of these incidents, we have made other changes in our system outside of the contract that we’ve currently negotiated. We have developed what is called a Med-Response unit within the department. It’s a territorial program. One of the key functions of this Med-Response unit is to provide air ambulance triage and make sure that the right people are on the phone at the right time in order to expedite air ambulances and get them to where they need to be as quickly as they can.
We did the soft launch of this Med-Response program in November and we’re going with the hard launch in February. We’ve had an opportunity to learn an awful lot about our program, to make some enhancements and improvements, to make sure that the people in the communities have this tool available to them, to help triage air ambulance and get maximum benefit and maximum time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think the contract combines, of course, the medevac and clinical services. So when you’re talking about improvement to the services, is the prime contractor welcomed by this service that you just spoke about medical triage? Maybe the Minister can explain that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the triage service is actually something that’s provided by the Government of the Northwest Territories, and we will be working incredibly closely with the airline and the med responders as well as our health providers in the individual communities, whether it’s a CHR or community health nurse. They’ll be able to call into a central line where they’ll have medical staff as well as someone to dispatch the airplane to make sure that all the people that need to make decisions with respect to getting an airplane into a community are on the line at the same time in order to get maximum use of time and resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Finance, given the Budget Dialogue 2014 Taking Stock. In the report the Minister gives a good fiscal performance record. Moody’s has given us good rating and we have good fiscal policy.
In his report the Minister talks about the priorities, given the feedback from the people on the priorities, given the sombre realities of slow revenue growth.
Can the Minister tell the House what causes the slow revenue growth? What are the factors, knowing that we have some priorities in our communities? What does the revenue situation look like in the coming years?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not wanting to get ahead of my budget address, I will make the observation that projections are for flat revenue growth between now and 2019, 2020. Anticipated growth of about less than half a percent, which means that the challenge for us is going to be to make sure that our expenditure growth does not exceed our revenue growth so that we can in fact maintain our Aa1 credit rating and all the other good financial indicators that we do have, like our debt to GDP ratio.
The other comments I heard in the discussions in the Sahtu are that we need to do more for our economy. In the Sahtu we have world-class oil and gas there, and they have the technology now in today’s world on the hydraulic fracking and there’s potential there, but we don’t have the infrastructure to get to our oil and gas revenue.
I want to ask the Minister, what are some of the things that he’s doing to see how we can improve our revenue? We need to have the economy to do things like health and social services, hospitals, roads and schools. We need the money.
Can the Minister inform the House as to what he has in the plans in regard to improving the economy?
Specifically in relation to the Sahtu, there are a number of things that are underway and being contemplated. The Member was at the budget dialogues, and the discussion was very clear the focus was on the next section of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Norman Wells to Wrigley section, and the need for roads.
The government has submitted, through the Minister of Transportation, an application for a special pot of money that exists at the federal level for initiatives and projects of national significance. We are making the case that this particular stretch of highway should meet that test. That’s one piece.
The other piece, as the Premier mentioned in his sessional statement, of course, is that we need the ability to make critical economic investments for infrastructure that is going to help promote and create the conditions for economic development. That’s the borrowing limit, and we’re waiting to see what happens in April because a lot of the initiatives and vision we have to implement are predicated on our ability as a mature government to be able to make those kinds of critical investments.
I heard the Premier and the Minister also at some point, and probably some of the Ministers also at some forum and the Assembly, say that we need to keep the dollars in our communities to keep the economy going. Right now, because of the low oil prices, in the Sahtu there is really no racking up of the Husky’s or the Conoco’s, so right now most of the economy is driven by the government infrastructure. However, because of the prices that we are challenged with, is there a policy within the government that says northern contractors will be first priority so the dollars would stay in the Sahtu rather than having contractors come out to the Sahtu, like the South, that are coming into the region because they can appreciate a lower price to do the work? Is there a policy to strengthen the economy in the Sahtu that they will have northern contractors given special consideration?
There are two tools that are available that are in existence and have been for some time. Of course, the first one being the Business Incentive Policy which provides northern preference, in some cases local preference. Then, of course, there’s the opportunity from time to time, if all the right conditions are met, where negotiated contracts will be considered.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the other comments that the Minister talked about with the people and what I understood from the report is that we were going to have to do some tightening of our belts and taking some responsibility of our lifestyle and the way we live.
Is there any type of initiative from this government going forward to inform our people that there are some things we have to do now, such as stopping drinking, stopping smoking, in order to save money for the government so they can do other things because our health costs are going sky high and those things that people are doing are costing our government and that’s where a lot of our money is going, dealing with some of the illnesses that are associated with these behaviours?
Very clearly the Member has identified a very important issue, the issue of personal choice, personal choice as it relates to a number of things. As the Member indicated, there are four basic choices that are driving a lot of our costs that are easily changed. That’s not abusing alcohol, don’t smoke, proper diet and exercise. Those four things, if they were managed properly through proper personal choice, would have an immediate impact on our bottom line.
Simple things like babies being born healthy without being affected by FASD, for example. So, the departments of Health and Social Services, Education and MACA are focused on prevention, active living, all these good things. But as the Member so clearly indicated, at the end of the day it’s a personal choice that’s going to make people do the right things, eat the right food, get off the couch, put that beer down and grab a glass of water before you go jogging. Only individual choice is going to get us there, but we can’t give up. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Colleagues, before we go on today, I’d like to welcome Ms. Cindy Dolynny in the House, Member Dolynny’s wife. Welcome, Cindy. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and I want to follow up on my statement about income support policies and the impact that they have on those of our residents who apply for income support.
I’d like, first of all, to ask the Minister if he could please explain to me and explain to the House and explain to residents the rationale for the policy, which says that a Registered Retirement Savings Plan must be cashed in before a resident can access any income support. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister responsible for income support, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Income assistance provides adequate benefits to clients, while considering household income as a family resource. Clients are expected to avail themselves of all financial resources. We’ve done that for so many years now.
RRSPs are considered to be a rainy day fund. As such, they should be used prior to accessing IA, income assistance, but the Registered Education Savings Plan and Disabilities Savings Plan are not counted as income. So these are just some of the rules that we have.
We must be financially responsible and also adhere to the rules of this House and the Auditor General of Canada when spending public money. These are the policies that we have and all the regulations within our GNWT. Mahsi.
I’m somewhat perplexed by the Minister’s answer, but I accept that he has provided us with some rationale. That the Registered Retirement Savings Plan is considered a rainy day fund, I would like to suggest that it’s going to be raining awfully hard when people reach retirement age, and if they have no pension from their work, which many of our residents do not, then it’s going to be raining very hard. I can’t accept that rationale.
I’d like to ask the Minister, I mentioned a contradiction in my statement, and in terms of contradictions it is the requirement of the department basically that the individual be reliant on government. The Minister says that we provide for residents. I don’t think $9 a day for food is very much of a provision for residents; however, we provide for our residents, but on the other hand we want them to make productive choices and to become independent. So please, Minister, can you explain how those two things are not contradictory? Thank you.
The Income Assistance program is based on need. All participants must demonstrate their financial needs as set out in the program legislation and regulations and also policies that we have to ensure all people are treated fairly across the Northwest Territories in a consistent manner. So when an individual has an RRSP – most of the Income Assistance clientele do not have anything – so we must be fair to that clientele. That is part of the reason we have regulations in place, polices in place.
We do make changes over time. We’ve made some drastic changes to income security in 2007 and 2011. We are going through other changes in 2014-2015, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister, but I have to frown on what I heard the Minister say, that it’s okay to penalize people for good planning. It’s okay to tell people that you’ve managed to save, you’ve got this money, use it up before we give you any money to help you out, especially when somebody has been successful and they’ve encountered a bit of a rough patch. They don’t need a lot of money, they need some money, but let’s make them destitute and then the government will look after them.
I would like to ask the Minister, he mentioned that there are some changes that are coming. I would like to know in line with these changes, when income support policies were last considered and all of the policies, not just one or two, but I’d like to know all of the policies in total.
Has the department looked at all policies, seen contradictions in those policies and done something about it? When was that done? Thank you.
Every opportunity that we have to review and make changes to our policies within income security programming, we’ve made changes along the way in 2007 and 2011. Now we’re onto 2014-2015. This is based on the feedback that we’ve received from clientele themselves and also the general public. We’re always open to those ideas, input and feedback. I will be presenting to standing committee on the changes that are coming in 2014-2015. We will update the standing committee. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, I was going to ask what changes are coming. I guess I will wait with bated breath for them to come to committee.
I would like to know, when the Minister says they are constantly looking at things, are they looking at things in total? I suspect they are looking at an individual policy in isolation.
Have they considered the total impact of a change on the whole of the policies within their department, or do they simply look at one policy at a time? Thank you.
That all depends on the circumstances. If an individual client presents, say, a suggestion to us, then we will seriously look at it. From the general public, if there is more than one policy that they want us to make some amendments to, those are areas we will seriously consider looking at. When the Member is asking if we change the whole overall policy within the GNWT Income Assistance program, I believe at this point we haven’t amended all policies within GNWT, but those are areas we are looking at from the feedback we receive from the public. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To my Member’s statement earlier in terms of the Budget Dialogue, as Members know we do go through our business planning session in September and as soon as that’s done, we have a really strong debate and try to get into the budget in terms of programs and services for the residents of the Northwest Territories. In some cases, it’s been pretty challenging and tough at times. Earlier in my Member’s statement, I did talk about how the Minister of Finance took his Budget Dialogue out on the road starting October 8th after the business planning session.
At what avenue and how do recommendations from the dialogues from the seven regional centres or recommendations coming in from the 11 individuals and organizations, how can these recommendations that we’re getting from people of the Northwest Territories get into the budget when, as Members, we have challenges to get some of our priorities in the operational budget? What avenue is the Minister using to get priorities brought forth by territorial organizations into the budget that we are going to be starting tomorrow? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would point out this is my third go-around in the Northwest Territories and we did three roundtables in Yellowknife last government where we brought people in. What has become clear to me – and it’s credit, I would suggest, both to having small communities and a small government – a lot of the concerns that I’ve heard going from community to community in the regional centres is very consistent with the concerns I’ve heard raised by the Members in this House. A lot of them focus on almost identical issues.
The people are very, for the most part, well informed who show up. They have issues they want to talk about and we take those concerns into consideration, the concerns about economic investment and critical infrastructure, more training prevention, managing our money, don’t go into debt, but not too far. There is the issue to manage the cost of living. There are very, very consistent themes. They want to put more money into the social program areas, as I will lay out in the budget address tomorrow.
We are, as a legislature and government, responsive to nearly all those issues raised. We don’t have the resources maybe to address them all to the level people would like, but we do listen carefully.
I just want to once again comment on the link between what we hear in an MLA’s constituency from the people who are there and what we hear from the MLA, which I think reflects well on this process and the MLAs in this House. Thank you.
When I look at the document, as well as attending the meetings, there are very sound, practical recommendations that are made and they also come from this side of the House when we are looking at making investments into residents of the Northwest Territories and programs. I just want to know how after the business planning session that we had and getting reasons why we can’t get them in and the Minister stating that he’s hearing the same thing from the residents of the Northwest Territories.
I would like to ask him, I know he’s listening to our residents, but at what cost is it to the taxpayer going out across the Northwest Territories and still not being able to put some of these recommendations into the business planning or into our operational budget? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This round of budget consultation will be just a shade over $40,000. I would also submit to this House and to the Member that a lot of the suggestions that we get from the people out in the communities are not “just give us more money.” They have all sorts of good concerns. How we hire people, for example. The need to not create roadblocks in that hiring process, creeping credentials, lack of a really good equivalency, slow turnaround in how we respond to people. We, as well, have started the 2,000 people in five years initiative. A lot of the things we are talking about, people are talking about, as well, in terms of being responsive, recruiting our own students and doing a better job in a whole host of areas where we’re already spending a significant amount of money.
These are not futile, after the fact processes that have no bearing, but as we can show you budget to budget and as I will lay it out tomorrow, we have been listening very carefully over the years about how much money we put into social programs, the types of areas that work on prevention. All those things we have done our best to address and we are really prepared to make significant investments with the borrowing limit sorted out and addressing the cost of living related to energy costs and other areas where we need to apply ourselves and make those critical investments. Thank you.
During the discussions, GNWT asked residents of the Northwest Territories, how can we manage our expenditures? Our operational budget has increased over the years to the tune of about one point six. We’ll be seeing and hearing tomorrow.
Some suggestions, back from the 2012 report, were how can we manage government expenditures better? One was duplication of programs, duplication between departments, or duplication between departments and non-government organizations.
Has any work or action been taken in this area to see how we could be more efficient in spending our dollars and even support non-government organizations who run programs on behalf of government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Health and Social Services, for example, is engaged in a transformative exercise to address that very issue, looking at avoiding duplication, the back office improvements, efficiencies, and move away from multiple disconnected boards to a more efficient one-board model. So that’s one example.
As well, we know there’s an interest and there’s a recognition between departments on the infrastructure side, where departments are now collaborating on building infrastructure that we need in communities: garages, warehouses, those types of things. We’ve had discussions with Deline, for example, where there’s an interest in the community of Deline to build a community infrastructure that’s going to allow ENR, Housing, the municipal works, public works, to pool their money to build one energy-efficient, right-sized, integrated piece of infrastructure that will allow everybody to pool their money, so rather than five underfunded little pieces of infrastructure we have one good, solid, long-term, well-built, energy-efficient piece of infrastructure that’ll serve multiple community needs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the operations budget as big as it is, questions out there are being asked whether or not this government can sustain such a high expenditure for operations. The Minister has been noted that we’re looking at trying to increase our debt ceiling.
If that doesn’t go through, can I ask the Minister, what is the plan of action should our debt ceiling not be increased? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One of the issues, if I may digress just for a second, one of the big issues of great, great interest in Inuvik, of course, was the fibre optic line that is now under construction. That’s going to have a major impact on Inuvik and it’s an $80 million investment by the Government of the Northwest Territories that’s going to look at Inuvik as a major remote sensing site for satellite remote sensing and the fact that we’re going to tie in all the communities on the way down with fibre optic connections or microwave. So that is another big piece that came up and was discussed extensively in Inuvik.
In regards to managing the money, there are two things. We have to continue to practice fiscal discipline and diligence to make sure that our expenditures don’t exceed our revenues. If we are unsuccessful and we are left with an $800 million borrowing limit, then our capacity to do anything new, to be able to build the Northwest Territories, to implement the vision of the people of the Northwest Territories with things like the Mackenzie Valley Highway link from Norman Wells to Wrigley, the winter road here, converting that to an all-weather road, they need to look at generation and driving the costs of energy down in the communities, Yellowknife and all the other thermal communities are going to be severely curtailed and limited, and then we will be reduced to concluding the projects we have on our books to try to free up some capital.
We have $350 million allocated, roughly, for the Stanton renovation, for example, which is going to take up a lot of our room. We have the conclusion of the Tuk-Inuvik highway and the Fibre Optic Link. So, without the borrowing limit increase, we are going to be severely constrained for the life of this government and for the next. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
