Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Increasingly, seniors in the NWT are choosing to stay at home for as long as they can, of course, with their children being in the support capacity. However, we’re facing a dilemma in terms of the increased traffic on the public highway system between down south and up here in the North, especially with the establishment of the Deh Cho Bridge. However, there needs to be fundamental services that this government needs to maintain.
My question to the Minister is: I’m aware that MACA has been leading some efforts into trying to provide ground ambulances, so what emergency medical services are currently available for Enterprise and its residents? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Through the Government of the Northwest Territories, we don’t provide any medical services to the community of Enterprise. I think the service they do get provided is from the community of Hay River. But I can assure the Member that through our Interdepartmental Advisory Committee we are looking at the whole issue of ground ambulance highway rescue, as we’ve heard from Members before, so we have that work underway right now, and we’re hoping to have something out to the Members soon.
I’d like to thank the Minister for giving me a brief understanding in terms of the progress that MACA is leading. Surely at this point governments must have a framework of possibilities in terms of how local communities and organizations could at least dovetail the efforts of the GNWT with community initiatives.
How does Enterprise coordinate emergency ambulance services with Hay River to ensure that Hay River is always available to respond to emergencies in the community?
That’s an arrangement that the community of Enterprise would have to work out with the community of Hay River, but I can commit to the Member that our department will work with the community of Enterprise again.
These are initiatives that are normally community driven. We will work with the community, and I think, later on when we debate the budget, we might be debating some funds for ground ambulance and highway rescue services, enhancing the funds that are already there so it gives more communities an opportunity to provide training and other initiatives along those lines. We will work with the community of Enterprise to see what options they might have.
I’d like to thank the Minister. My final question has to do with seniors. Obviously, seniors that have a pension are on a fixed income, and so, increasingly, seniors are choosing, with the support of their families, to stay with them in their homes as long as possible. When an emergency arises, an ambulance has to be dispatched to their community and brought to the closest health centre or hospital. Recently, a resident had to incur their own personal cost of paying for that ambulance service.
Would MACA at least investigate and at some point commit to ensure that residents that have to pay for these costs will be reimbursed for those expenses?
That is an issue that they would have to work out with the provider. I can’t commit to saying that MACA will reimburse these clients that have to be taken by ambulance; however, I can commit to working with my colleague at Health and Social Services and see what options might be available to them through Health and Social Services.
The quick answer is no, we don’t reimburse costs for ambulances.
Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Other than the encouraging words that the Minister has provided, what are some of the immediate reassurances that he can give to the residents of Enterprise along with other northern communities that don’t have access to ambulance services? Mahsi.
The assurance that I can give them is that it is an issue that we’re working on with our interdepartmental group. They have come up with many suggestions. One of the big ones we’re looking at is we want to be able to help the communities be able to train personnel in the communities to respond to emergencies. One of the issues we hear is there is no point in having an ambulance if we don’t have trained personnel. We have heard that, and again, as I said, as we debate the budget that’s before the House, we will be debating some enhancements made to the funds that are available to the communities again. Once the budget is passed, then we will have to work with communities and see how the money can be distributed. But we do recognize the fact that it’s a concern across a lot of the small communities and we’re taking steps to try and address that, Madam Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions about the Stanton Territorial Hospital.
I do visit many constituents as I pass through the hospital and some of them are there for extended stays. One of the common questions they do ask me is that they have their smartphones, they have laptops, et cetera, so they are asking me to raise the issue why they cannot get Wi-Fi or wireless feed into the hospital. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have been in the hospital, too, and have been asked to turn off my phones as well. It’s my understanding that the technology interferes with some of the technical equipment in the hospital, which is why they encourage patient residents to turn off their phones. But for the technical specifics, I will certainly follow up with the authority to find out the exact reason. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Probably no point in going on, but I will just ask the Minister if he can follow up with my office and I can let my constituents know if there is a technical reason. If there is any way at all, perhaps I can ask the Minister, is there a way that patients can get Internet? Thank you.
Absolutely, I will follow up with the Member and his office and explore options. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. We are going to follow up to my Member’s statement. I would like to ask the Premier of the Government of the Northwest Territories, with the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship and supporting our young northern leaders, those up and coming and those out there doing some great work on behalf of government as well as for their communities, for their Aboriginal governments, I want to ask the Premier, what role does our government play in supporting these young northern leaders with the work that they are doing in the communities and across northern Canada? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m not sure if you’re referring to the Jane Glassco participants directly or all youth across the Territories, but as a government we certainly support youth leaders. We have a Minister responsible for Youth and we also have youth programs.
For Jane Glassco participants specifically, we get invited to some of their events. On occasion we are asked to speak and I think most of the participants from the Northwest Territories, I think they are working for the Government of the Northwest Territories either before, after or during. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Yes, I am referring to all the young leaders that are currently enrolled with the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship through the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation.
Aside from speaking and also speaking at the events and showing events through attending events, does this government offer any type of financial support to this foundation to support our young leaders, specifically here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
The Jane Glassco Fellowship Program is an initiative from the Walter Gordon Foundation. They have not asked us for any financial participation. Most of these types of charitable foundations prefer to do it on their own because they recognize that if our government became involved and contributed financially, we would obviously want input into the program. Most of the foundations would prefer to do it on their own. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
I would like to ask the Premier, in the first launch of this program, there were 12 discussion papers that were brought forth. I believe four of them were in the Northwest Territories; however, we have jurisdictional issues, northern challenges we face right across northern Canada.
Does the Premier or any of his Cabinet look at these research papers, look at the recommendations and act on the recommendations? As I mentioned earlier, they focus on things like climate change, land stewardship, education, health, a lot of these pressing issues that face northern people. Does the Premier and his Cabinet look at any of these papers and address some of these recommendations? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
The lead in this area is ENR, and ENR has developed a partnership with the Walter Gordon Foundation in other areas. So they monitor and review the reports that come out. I know I’ve met and had a question and answer session with the Jane Glassco participants. They do send me packages and we have the Department of ENR review them and disseminate recommendations or information that is helpful to our government. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was just going to bask in the green glory here, but I do think I need to follow up with some questions that my colleague MLA Bisaro brought up to the Minister of Finance about the Heritage Fund and budget issues.
My question to the Minister of Finance is: He indicated that if Members on this side want to put 25 percent into the Heritage Fund that we’re going to have to find that money. I’m just wondering why the Minister of Finance feels we need to find that money. This heritage resource revenue sharing money is brand new this year. Why are we finding money that is brand new? This is money that we should be spending as extra and it should not be an issue to find that money. It should already be available to us.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. As I tried to lay out in the budget yesterday, we look at what our revenue is, what our projected revenue is and look at what our expenditures are. Within the budget, we’ve already committed to fund, in capital, over $200 million of capital projects. This O and M budget, because we are required under our Fiscal Responsibility Policy to put aside the required amount to offset that, we are supposed to put half our money in savings. We’ve done that. So all our expenditures and the borrowing we’ve done to fund all the projects, all our expenses, leave us at $142 million between us and the borrowing limit, the current $800 million.
So, clearly, we don’t have a lot of room to move. One of our priorities is to maintain a $100 million cushion which is absolutely critical to give us the flexibility to be responsive to unanticipated events, crises, expenditures.
So in order to keep on our target and on our path, we need to make sure that we hit these numbers. So if we want to increase the Heritage Fund, we’ve done our budgeting on 5 percent of those revenues being in the Heritage Fund, which won’t actually start to flow into our coffers until 2015-16, then we need to find offsets. We’re prepared to do that, but it’s not just a case of just spending more money because, in effect, we would be borrowing money at a higher interest rate to put into the Heritage Fund, which would generate a lower rate of interest than we have to pay to borrow the money. It doesn’t make sense at this point. We can afford 5 percent and do all the other things that we’re asked to do and we need to do as a government. Thank you.
I understand what the Minister is saying. I guess the Minister didn’t get the message that we sent in the fall when we sent a motion forward saying we wanted to indicate 25 percent to the Heritage Fund, 25 percent to reducing debt, but they went ahead and built a budget based on 5 percent. Now we’re asking them to answer to that and why they went ahead and spent that money before we even had a chance to put our wishes forward. I guess the question is: Did they ignore the 25 percent request we did in the fall?
No, we did not ignore that request. We have spent a lot of time consulting, working with committee on the main estimates that are before this House. In my budget address, we laid out what we used in calculating and determining that budget, and one of those factors was as we looked at all the variables that are before us, the challenges, the financial issues, we saw the way forward as a government with 5 percent, recognizing that we had to meet these other objectives as well.
The committee recommended to us 25 percent. We heard that, as well, in other parts of the territory as well as we heard other specific numbers in other parts of the territory. At the end of the day we had to make choices.
We have come forward with this budget and now we’re going to be here for six weeks having the discussion. We are tasked, sent away, build a budget and bring it to this House so we can have that debate and now we are having that debate. Thank you.
I do realize we are going to be having this discussion because I think on this side we are determined that that 25 percent is something we need to see for the future generations of this Northwest Territories. These resources are being taken out of the Northwest Territories and won’t be available for the future generations.
The 25 percent, Madam Speaker, is what we’re debating. They’ve indicated that we won’t get the money until 2015-2016, yet we are going ahead basing capital budgets on that money.
Can the Minister explain to me how we are doing that if we don’t have that money yet? Are we borrowing against money that we are expecting to have?
Yes, we are engaged in short-term borrowing and some long-term borrowing, as I laid out in my budget address yesterday. When you look at all the numbers and when you look at the capital plan, the O and M budget, the things we are trying to do, we end up with $142 million left between ourselves and the $800 million borrowing limit. We’ve added to our borrowing to meet some of the objectives that we’ve laid out as a government and as a Legislative Assembly. So for the next five years, we are going to be in a cash deficit situation to manage our way through what are going to be some very big projects, things like the concluding of the Tuk-Inuvik highway, but of even more and greater cost is the $350 million that we have to put towards Stanton at $40 million a year over four years with a balloon payment at the end.
We’ve had a drop in our income tax, corporate and personal income tax, and we are coming forward with some appropriations to look to offset or pay for some of the significant increases we’ve had in demand-driven services provided mainly to Health and Social Services. So, as we manage all those factors, this is what we are putting before the House as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Minister of Finance has indicated all these issues and all these projects that we have on the go and, granted, we are doing great things with a lot of them, but I think the essence comes down to the $30 million loss of revenue that we’re seeing in corporate income tax. He’s indicated that the department didn’t anticipate this. So why is it that we do not know what we’re receiving in income tax from one year to the next where we have to receive that last minute and make us on this side of the House look like the bad guys for wanting to put money away for the future generations? Why can’t we see the revenue projections farther ahead?
Thank you. I don’t think it’s a case of anybody being bad guys. We are looking at a budget. We agree on the Heritage Fund, we agree on keeping the money out of programs and services, we agree to put some in the Heritage Fund, some in capital and some for debt repayment. Now we’re having a spirited, healthy debate about how much and how do we manage that along with all the other obligations we have and the factors and the variables we have to look at that are financial pressures on us.
In terms of corporate income tax, as we’ve laid out a number of times, it’s a very complicated process. The corporations, businesses can reach back many years to decide when they’re going to file, what they’re going to file, where they’re going to file, and we always are operating on projections. We have indicated to MLAs that rather than wait for the projections from the federal government, we’re going to start using our own five-year projections to give us a better idea of what the potential corporate income tax will be, and in some cases we have businesses and industries, mines that have yet to pay any royalties because they’re writing off all of their expenses. So there are a lot of factors when it comes to corporate income tax and why it’s such a hard-to-predict number. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The construction of the new Highway No. 7, No. 4 bypass on Ingraham Trail started in October 2012. Work continued through the winter of 2012-13 and into the summer of 2013. Now, I’ve been critical of this project from the onset, for good reason. At approximately $2.5 million per kilometre made this one of the most expensive pieces of road construction in the NWT. With delays and the opening almost four months overdue, it does beg me to ask questions to the Minister of Transportation for some clarification.
The construction of Baker Creek Bridge started approximately in mid-July 2013, yet progress was halted. There appeared to be issues that caused delays in the completion of this bridge way late into the fall of 2013.
Can the Minister elaborate why these delays were pending for the bridge and if there was a design issue? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. There was not a design issue; the issue was with the installation of the bridge. The bridge was installed and the panels that sit on top the bridge were not totally lined up with the installation of the sides of the bridge. It took some time to make the correction, so that has been corrected. There’s no issue with the safety of the bridge or anything. The corrections have been made and the bridge is now properly installed. Thank you.
Thank you. Sorry, I may have said Highway No. 7 earlier. Sorry. Freudian slip. Highway No. 4 bypass. Sorry to the Member.
I appreciate the Minister’s response here, but we know that the designs of bridges are very, very intricate. There’s a lot of engineering designs, it has to go through a flurry of testing before this bridge would be put on any type of abutments or any type of structure. From the sounds of it, it almost sounds like what the Minister tried to elaborate – and I may be wrong in assuming – that this thing almost went in backwards.
Now, if indeed I’m in error, I’d ask the Minister to correct me, but if it’s true, there is definitely… It sounds like extra costs to engineering, it sounds like there could have been extra costs for materials and possibly extra costs in general. With these extra costs and these delays, out of curiosity, were there any extra costs to the taxpayer? Can the Minister elaborate on that? Thank you.
Thank you. This was a guaranteed negotiated contract. There have been no requests from the contractor for any change order to increase the costs of the work that was done on the Highway No. 4 bypass. Thank you.
Thank you. It’s good to hear that we’re still on target for costs. It appears that there are still some chipseal requirements to be done. I took a drive the other day and there seems to be some temporary electrical work there. So, obviously, we’re waiting for some electrical work, and it does appear that some of the guardrails may be still missing here.
Can the Minister indicate to the House who is assuming legal responsibility for this road if there’s still work to be done? Thank you.
Thank you. A public highway is a public highway. Any public highway, once it’s officially opened, is the responsibility of DOT. It’s fairly standard practice to put down the base of the road and not put the chipseal immediately, and in this case there would be driving on it and when it is appropriate and the weather allows, then it will be chipsealed, but up until the chipseal is completed, the contract is still there, but legally, at the time it was opened it became a DOT asset. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I just wanted to make sure that liability, if there was ever indeed an issue on this road, if we’re still waiting for pieces of pertinent parts of this road to be completed, that the taxpayers won’t be having any type of surprises in the near future. That leads me to my final question.
When can we expect a full assessment of this project being presented to this House of its total completion? Thank you.
Thank you. The chipsealing will be done this summer during the summer construction season. Once that is completed if there’s a request from committee for us to debrief committee on the contract, then the department is prepared to do that. Thank you.
