Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services on medical travel. I spoke earlier about the incident with the person from Tulita on her experience with the Medical Travel Policy. This is only one incident of probably many across the Northwest Territories and from the smaller communities.
Can the Minister tell me how soon the Medical Travel Policy revision will be before the House so we can have some good discussion and have this type of incident be looked at with the revisions of the new Medical Travel Policy? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. We have more than 13,000 patient cases that are managed by the medical travel system a year, so it’s a significant load. For the individuals that are going through medical travel, I mean, for the most part, they’re focused on their diagnosis and treatment. For many of them, most of them, the medical travel system seems to work, but as I’ve heard from Members, as I’ve heard from the public, as I heard from the MLA again today with the particular case that he’s brought forward, there are people that are frustrated with the medical travel system. We know we can do better, and we need to do better for our residents.
The Medical Travel Policy is currently under review. We want to have a Medical Travel Policy that is hassle free for all of our patients. In part of the modernization we’re looking at improving our patient experiences, we’re looking for developing a clear policy that allows for change and some flexibility. We need to create a program, efficiencies to help us with cost control and cost containment as we move forward.
On January 16th I had an opportunity to meet with MLAs and talk about the review, and I committed and showed at that time a bit of a work plan. We are committed to having that review done and a policy for discussion with the MLAs early in the fiscal year. It’s going to be a multiple approach. I mean, we’re going to work on a territorial policy, but there are also sub-categories that we need to look at, things like escorts, things like co-payments, things like patient boarding as well. We’re looking at having an appeal process that doesn’t currently exist. All of that’s going to happen starting in the fiscal year coming. We will have some policies to have the discussions with MLAs on.
As part of this Medical Travel Policy revision, I want to ask the Minister, would he commit to talking to this person or have the department talk to this person on her experience after surgery and what type of frustration she had to undergo and the agonizing speaking to medical travel to get her back? That’s not even getting her back to Tulita. She had to get her own way back from Norman Wells to Tulita, and this is only one of many incidents.
Is there a place where people that go through this type of experience can say this is what’s happening now with the Medical Travel Policy today? This is in real time. I’m hoping that this incident will not repeat itself in the history.
The Medical Travel Policy requires that travel must originate in the Northwest Territories. However, for the case like the one the Member is talking about, there is a process to consider exceptional circumstances, which I know the department is doing. They are aware of this situation. They will be in touch with the individual and they will work with the individual to see what can be done to address this particular concern.
This is the type of information that is helping us have an informed discussion around medical travel as we move forward, and a significant amount of work has already been done. Much of the information is manual, so significant manual evaluations and reports and audits that have been done previously have been done by the department. We’ve had to pull out data to help us make informed decisions. As I indicated, there has been a work plan developed which we have shared with Members, and significant personal resources within the department are being invested in trying to improve this policy for the residents of the Northwest Territories.
When patients are sent to Edmonton, and in regard to this patient from Tulita, are our patients given a phone number, a contact person in Edmonton where sometimes it might be out of the Medical Travel Policy but they’re down there for, like, this instance, which is unique? Are they given some type of support down there? Because this person went through her surgery, and after surgery there was no assistance and no support for her. She basically was on her own, and she had to fight medical travel to get her ticket paid back to Norman Wells. That’s not even getting her back to Tulita. Her husband had to come from Tulita and bring her back from Norman Wells to Tulita after surgery. Is there any type of special circumstances like that where patients know that they’re going to get support? Basically, she was left abandoned in Edmonton. I want to ask the Minister, is there any type of process in place right now?
With respect to this particular case, I’m certainly willing to have some conversations with the Member. I also know that the department is working and will work with the individual to explore these exception opportunities.
When an individual goes on medical travel, they work with the medical travel unit. They usually get a pamphlet with contact numbers, who they can contact within medical travel should there be any problems with their plans. In this case, it was my understanding that this person went down and something happened to them when they were down there, so they weren’t taken down on medical travel, so they may not have had those contact numbers. We will certainly be working with that client.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you. I appreciate that from the Minister, to look into this specific case here, and again, looking forward to the type of new policies that are going to be put in place and have in our discussions. For example, patients come to the Wells to Yellowknife and then they find that there is a cheaper way to get back to their community. They make a suggestion and medical travel say no, you have to go back on this type of route there, so there is some uniqueness to our situations in our small communities.
I want to ask the Minister, does he foresee that this medical travel will be put in place within the life of this government so that it will be implemented within the life of this government here?
We’re always looking for opportunities and ways to help contain costs around medical travel. We know that medical travel is a significant expense on the taxpayers of the Northwest Territories, and we are committed to completing the review and having the policy forward for discussion within the life of this Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I really had questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, but of course, after hearing the Minister of Education’s statement on Early Childhood Development Action Plan, I think he deserves the honour of my questions today.
My question, first off, is we shouldn’t be calling this an action plan. We should be more or less calling this the early childhood development vision.
I’d like to ask the Minister, how does he intend to pay for this vision? He’s pointed out that there is no costing, no assessment, whether it’s new money, whether it’s re-profiled money, or will the pressures be coming down on our school boards, forced to find the money for this additional year of education? Who is paying for it and where is the money coming from and how much money?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Madam Speaker. This is an area that we are embarking on, a new initiative. We’ve been talking about this junior kindergarten since the Aboriginal Student Achievement a few years back now, and it’s based on the engagement process that we’ve heard from the parents, the Aboriginal leadership, the community leadership, and the past and present MLAs that were part of the process. These are the discussions that we’ve been having for quite some time now.
It’s before us through the Early Childhood Development Framework. The action plan will be a tabled document today. It does capture an area that junior kindergarten is part of that action plan.
Through the budget process there’s been an earmark of funding allocated to that, new money, and there’s also re-profiling, as the Member alluded to. The re-profiling, we’ve been discussing that with the school boards, the school board superintendents, and we’ve had their feedback, and so those are discussions that we’ve been having.
We are rolling out the program this fall, 2014, and capturing the small communities, 29 communities at the get-go and then phasing it in over three years. That is the overall plan to cover all communities throughout the Northwest Territories. That is the overall plan. These are some of the priorities of this Legislative Assembly’s goals and objectives, so we are moving forward. Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, the next question of course is: How much money is the Minister talking about? He said there is new money in the budget; he said there would be re-profiling, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and let’s find out what this is going to cost.
What is the program going to cost? How much new money is being put into this potential budget that may or may not be passed – and I’m not sure it has the support of all Members thus far – and how much money is being re-profiled and what are the impacts of re-profiling of those dollars? Thank you.
Madam Speaker, when the Member first came out with the question, there were a couple of areas that he touched on, a wage top-up subsidy was one, new money that is coming in, approximately $511,000, pending approval of this budget through the Legislative Assembly. With junior kindergarten we talked about re-profiling of funding, and again, working very closely with the school boards. This is an area that I am pleased to announce the implementation is starting this fall. It is phased in over a three-year period. The funding that we’ve been talking about is over a three-year period and is a small impact into our overall PTR that we have been talking about with the school boards.
We have to keep in mind that through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and through our engagement with our Aboriginal leadership, the community leadership, they want us to do something different within our overall departments, what we can do better with what we have, the funding. We have to be creative and innovative. That’s why we came forward with the standing committee presentation this fall about the various initiatives that we want to undertake. One of them was this whole establishment of junior kindergarten. Over the three-year period, we’re going to be looking at approximately $7 million. What we’re looking at is the impact on some of the school boards will be upwards of 1.2 percent of the overall budget, so there are areas that we need to seriously look at as well. There’s surplus that we need to seriously consider. I can show the surplus of all the school boards for the Northwest Territories, and here we have fiscal constraint within our budget, so we have to gather all the information, take all those into consideration as we move forward. But we are moving forward on this junior kindergarten, 29 schools to begin with this fall and other regional centres next year. The following year will be all Yellowknife schools. We are going to be capturing all Northwest Territories schools with the junior kindergarten. Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, just using my good old NWT simple math here, I divided $511,000 into 29 communities that they plan to roll this out to, and I guess $17,000 really goes a long way, the way this looks, and I’m not really sure what this is doing. In other words, this is more discovery money, really, at the end of the day, with little result.
I have yet to find any Member who believes in the idea that re-profiling money from the school boards is right. I have yet to find a Member who thinks that the PTR ratio needs to be adjusted.
What type of support does this Minister have from actual Members of this Assembly on this side of the House? I have yet to find out. It seems like they tend to forget about what it’s like to be over here. I think they have told committees that they’re going to do this, not hey, what do you think? Can I get an answer on that, Madam Speaker?
Madam Speaker, as Legislative Assembly Members we’re obligated and also responsible for the people of the Northwest Territories. We’ve reached out to the people of the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities, the leadership, the parents, the grandparents, through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. This is building on that. The Early Childhood Development Framework, the action plan that has been brought forward will certainly highlight the importance. We have all these stats, through the renowned researchers across Canada and internationally. Those are some of the areas that we continue to focus. With our department working with the Assembly Members, this is an area that Members refer to $511,000 and 33 communities, that’s an area that I wish top-up for those staff or early childhood workers. That’s separate from junior kindergarten that we’re introducing into the school system.
This is a new initiative that we’re embarking on based on the input from the parents, based on the input from the general public. Members ask if there is any support. We sought support, we sought guidance from the general public and there is support. Based on the feedback we are going to be receiving from the MLAs, at the end of the day we’re going to see how much support there is when going through this budget.
There is support from the general public in the Northwest Territories to move forward, especially in the small, isolated communities. Ten of the communities do not have a licensed child care program, so it will certainly benefit them. With Yellowknife, they currently deliver they call it pre-kindergarten but it is a Junior Kindergarten Program within their existing establishment at cost for the parents. This will be at no cost for the parents, what we are pursuing. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Sorry, Madam Speaker. I thought it was my third question, but the Speaker is always right. Even when the Speaker is wrong, the Speaker is still right.
Ohhh.
I said even when, not when. I said she is still right. So, Madam Speaker, who is always correct, I still don’t think the Minister gets this. He calls it an action plan, but really it’s a vision with no action. He says he has support for the program. Of course, he can have support from everybody. I want to give you more. Yes, everybody is going to say, “sounds great, give us more,” but it’s our job to ask the question, how are you going to pay for this? Where do these crazy ideas fall out of the sky and how do you plan to implement it? It’s not about giving better education. The question is really about how you are going to afford this. You just keep saying we are going to give you the best things in the world. Well, who wouldn’t want it?
Madam Speaker, the Minister has no idea how he’s going to pay for this. He has reached out to the public, of course the public likes this idea because we’re going to give them more.
What support does he have from the school boards about cutting their PTR and the effects that might have, and what support does he have from Members on this, because I’m not hearing an action plan, I’m hearing dreams of sugarplums and fairies and everything will work out fine, and don’t worry, we’ll get it done. Thank you.
Thank you for that short, final supplementary. Mr. Minister.
Mahsi, Madam Speaker. As I stated before, the overall $7 million that we’re talking about over the three-year period, dealing with all the schools across the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities that we are going to be servicing is re-profiling from the PTR. We’re still above the legislative target that we have for PTR, so what we’re proposing is delivering this this fall and then continuing on to other regions, other communities in the following year and all Yellowknife communities in year three from now.
Again, I have to reiterate that Dr. Stuart Shanker gave us the stats that junior kindergarten is the way to go. Not only him, a renowned international researcher, but other researchers have indicated to us. We made a presentation to Regular Members, as well, that this is the way to go. It’s not just us as a department saying that, it’s not just the Minister standing here saying that, it’s the parents that are saying that as well as the grandparents and now we’re moving forward.
I believe this is a very beneficial initiative that we want to move forward on. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. In the budget address yesterday, there was mention of a pilot rebate program for the film industry. That’s new to me. It wasn’t brought up when we were going through our main estimates, but it has been a concern for myself, working with people in the film industry. Seeing that there is a pilot rebate program, it kind of shocked me seeing it in the budget address yesterday.
I want to ask the Minister of ITI if he can just elaborate and give us a little bit of detail on this program that’s going to be coming out in this next fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The $100,000 rebate program is something that was developed through the development of the Economic Opportunities Strategy that we put together. It was identified as an area where we could move forward. It’s a pilot project. It is going to be expenditure-based and in year one it will be at a value of $100,000.
It’s important that we continue to ensure that the momentum that we’ve built up in the film industry here in the Northwest Territories is continued forward.
We also have been recently successful in attaining $60,000 from CanNor, which is going to allow us to move forward in the development of an NWT film strategy, which will ensure that we do get that momentum carrying us forward. Thank you.
Getting into more details, what type of rebate initiatives are we going to be looking at? Are we going to be looking at film training, development, at location incentives to get some of our people in the film industry labour jobs or professional development with our filmmakers, people who are already in the film industry?
Can I get more information on the incentives, rebates and costs that groups are going to be able to access? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
The program will reimburse eligible television and film production clients here in the Northwest Territories with wages and also goods and services purchased here in the Northwest Territories. Again, this is a pilot project. We understand that we need to come up with a long-term strategy and vision for the film industry in the Northwest Territories, but again, we have the momentum behind us.
This is a pilot project and is something that we felt confident that we could move forward with. It was identified as an area through the Economic Opportunities Strategy that we needed to act on and that’s why it’s here. It’s something we think will certainly pay dividends as we try to attach more film production companies to do work here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member for Boot Lake to continue with his set of questions, supplementary number three. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Pan-territorially, Ministers work with other Ministers and other government through Yukon and Nunavut. Yukon has a really great program where they have even more dollars into a very structured film industry.
I am just wondering if the Minister, even though we are embarking on a pilot project, if this is something he can make more stable following some of the best practices we see in the Yukon.
This year alone, we’ve lost some of the episodes and some of the work that Arctic Air came up with that was due here in the Northwest Territories. If anybody has seen Arctic Air around Yellowknife, they were at the restaurants, they were in our hotels and were doing tourist stuff. They were adding to the economy, but we’re losing it because we don’t have the right rebate program in place to track and keep other film industries from other jurisdictions here in the North.
Can he establish this and not really focus on the pilot program but also focus on creating greater incentives, adding more dollars, something the Yukon has done successfully? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Just a clarification, that was Mr. Moses’ second supplementary, but third question. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It is very important that we ensure that production companies remain in the Northwest Territories to do the film works here. We have had some discussions with the Yukon. In fact, when looking at developing an NWT film strategy, we’ve looked at the Yukon and we’ve got a recommendation on a service provider, a contractor who has done a tremendous job for the Yukon government. That is who we have hired to do that work for us here in the Northwest Territories. Again, that is money that we’ve received from CanNor, $60,000 that we’re going to continue to work on that. It’s expected that that strategy will be released some time prior to March 31st of this year.
We are very encouraged about what we’ve talked to the Yukon about, their experience with this contractor. We are very excited about the future.
There are a couple of new reality programs that are in the works here in the Northwest Territories and we hope that there are more out there. Certainly with the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk highway, that might be another opportunity for a reality-type show here in the Northwest Territories, Madam Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The last question I guess I’ll have for the Minister in terms of this rebate program is: Are there any new funding dollars allocated to the film industry in terms of training and development in terms of the northern film industry people that work in this area in this industry? Is there anything that will be included in future budgets or even this budget that might enhance the products that they do and the training and skills that they do require for work here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
We have re-profiled some of our SEED funding to the film industry. Last year we had 12 recipients, I believe, that received $114,000 in funding. It is our expectation that that type of funding will continue this year, that there will be applicants looking at doing film projects here in the Northwest Territories. It’s important that we have that type of funding available for them.
As we move forward, again it’s very important for this government that we continue to pursue the NWT film strategy and we will hopefully have that ready by the end of March. That will certainly build a foundation for us to work off of, to maybe have some additional programs and supports for the film industry here in the Northwest Territories. We certainly have that momentum behind us and we want to see that carried forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The 2014-2015 budget address states that there will be “a reallocation of $1.8 million in 2014-2015” to implement junior kindergarten in the “smallest NWT communities.” Please provide the following information:
a breakdown, by department, showing from where the reallocated $1.8 million will come;
if reallocated funds will come from ECE, from which line of the department budget the reallocated funds will come and the amount for that budget line; and
if reallocated funds will come from education authorities, the amount of reallocated money which comes from each authority.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question is for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. On December 29, 2013, at approximately 3:40 p.m., a complete blackout occurred in Yellowknife, Behchoko and Detah.
Please provide a complete chronology of events in the aftermath of this outage, including all equipment system failures, internal and external communications, steps taken in the aftermath, feedback and any improvements of conditions as a direct result of this outage.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Yesterday, we were witness to the 2014-2015 budget address. Like many, we heard the trumpets of fiscal balance, consecutive surpluses and, of course, the heralded no new taxes icing on the cake.
As Northerners, we have come to tolerate and unwillingly accept long discoursed narratives of cheap demagoguery and over-the-top rhetoric when it comes to our finances. Of course, it sounds impressive or if it’s in a colourful binder full of impressive graphs and pie charts, it must be accurate, right? Sadly, the people have limited options to believe otherwise as they are convinced the public budget process within our unique consensus government must be the result of hours of collaboration, crafted together in a collective effort with input from all independent elected representatives.
Sadly, Madam Speaker, I must reaffirm to you and the people, this is and was not the case for this budget. If collaboration was to be the guiding principle on such a project, then this budget was indeed far from such pillar of excellence.
In fact, the process for this budget scrutiny shied away from the normal practice, solely to accommodate the devolution process. In its place, Members, handicapped with little information, received an extremely watered down version of what is normally shared by departments, and somehow we were expected to provide comments after the fact. To hear the Finance Minister say that this was a collective budget with collective effort begs some degree of skepticism from this side of the House as we discuss the budget over the next couple weeks.
Changing gears, I want to speak to this Moody’s Investors Service grade the department keeps reminding us about. Most people don’t even know what this means, and I can assure you the Department of Finance is banking on this. In fact, little known is that Moody’s played an integral part in an event you may have heard called a subprime mortgage meltdown in the United States. To be clear, Moody’s committed no crime or infraction, but one cannot overlook the stance Moody’s rating system of AAA ratings and the confidence they gave to investors on mortgage-backed securities when the roof caved in. Whether you are an investor or a taxpayer in the NWT, we still must ask ourselves, should we solely trust what is supposed to be analytically sound, unbiased, and supposedly a conflict-free determination from an organization that is paid for by the issuer? Fair question.
We can only hope utmost integrity and not influenced determination in our credit rating assessment is indeed the case. But truth be known, ask any economist and they will tell you this same story. When we hear from our finance team that we have a sound fiscal management Aa1 credit rating for Moody’s Investor Service, I would hope everyone stops for a second and asks the appropriate questions when this is used to justify our upcoming $1 billion MasterCard application.
Moving on, it would appear from yesterday’s budget address that we have money hiding in jars all over the House. In fact, we were told numerous times of an operating surplus of $200 million after infrastructure contributions and deferred maintenance are considered. This sounds impressive, and indeed it is; however, what is less emphasized is that this money is already spent to fund the $223 million capital investments we approved here last fall in the House. To be clear, we do not have jars of money lying around, and we are adding more debt to our $800 million Visa card to cover these shortfalls while leaving a little less than $100 million in our Hawaii travel fund.
Now, speaking of travel, wasn’t it nice of the Finance Minister to take time out of his busy schedule to speak to so many residents throughout the NWT on his recent budget dialogue we like to call the dog and pony show. That was quite the production, wasn’t it? Was it not interesting that through his telekinetic powers he was able to somehow justify his government’s position by reaffirming 5 percent of the resource revenues from devolution into the Heritage Trust Fund. If you stop and think this through, this was remarkable given that with only visiting six out of 33 communities in the Northwest Territories with 80 people attending or, as I like to say, 0.002 percent of the population, that the financial future of our children was established. This is almost biblical in design. But in all seriousness, and please mark my words, and I hope the words of many here on this side of the House, the 5 percent of resource revenues that this budget was built around to support Cabinet’s fiscal plan will not pass this side of the House, and I will take that to the bank.
Finally, by the revenue side of our balance sheet, it is clear that we are hopelessly dependent on our territorial funding formula for our government to function, and with our consecutive years of flat or declining population base, we are finally embarking on a people fundraiser.
We have heard a great many ideas out there, and for the most part, many sound promising. The bottom line: If we don’t fix our cost of living, I don’t believe we will see the 2,000 person lift that Cabinet hopes to achieve, but I do wish them luck. However, as insanely dependent our revenues are on population growth, we cannot ignore or undermine the little line quoted yesterday, “…despite declining tax revenue growth.” At first listen it just gets whitewashed within the 12 pages of the budget address; however, as residents will come to realize in the weeks to follow and through the review of public accounts, we will see how close this government is to what I call the “wall of worry” when it comes to our finances and when it comes to our revenue management forecasting of our personal and commercial income tax. So, stay tuned as we are not as financially sound as we are all led to believe.
I could continue at arm’s length, so I will close with this: We the people are potentially left at the mercy of Cabinet and at the convenience of a select few financial decision-makers when it comes to this flawed budget process, and because of this, the politics of our financial health and well-being will be subject to great debate. Therefore, I entrust that Cabinet and the Minister of Finance will heed to reason and support Members on this side of the House when it comes to doing what is right and not what is easy in the days to follow.
