Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I spoke about my concerns about the downtown day shelter and I directed my questions to the Minister of Health. Certainly, the issue to me is I’ve always been a big supporter of the downtown day shelter concept. That hasn’t changed even today. I still am a believer.
The RFP process and fresh start is really what I’m after. Yesterday the Minister is quoted, in short, they have a few issues, and they’re referring to the contractor, which are the contribution agreement, year-end report and proposal. So we need to get these things cleared up.
Is the downtown day shelter contractor meeting all of their obligations? If not, which ones have they not been meeting? Has the Department of Health been holding back money, and for how long? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The provider of the day shelter, I think the initial intent was exactly what they think indicates as a shelter, a place for some people to get out of the weather and go and have a warm place to go to. Within that, as they were operating the shelter, they made themselves, the John Howard Society themselves made recommendations to provide some training to staff. They thought that the operation of the shelter would require some training of their own staff on various things like First Aid and so on. Also, trying to provide some referrals. So individuals that are using the day shelter may be referred to counselling and so on. These were recommendations that the society themselves made. So I think their request is to provide some additional funding to be able to do that.
So far the money has been flowing over the three fiscal years at a consistent amount. So they felt that they were not able to provide those with the current funding, and I’m assuming, since the funding hasn’t increased, that they’re still not able to provide those, but they are providing what was required of them initially. Thank you.
Thank you. I was listening to the Minister’s answer very attentively and what I hear is an organization bid for the proposal. It sounds like they underbid it, didn’t know what they were bidding on, and now they want more money to run it in a new fashion. The question was not answered in any way specific to the Minister’s quote, which was he said there was contribution agreement problems, year-end report problems and proposal problems.
What are those problems? Are we holding money back because they have not fulfilled their obligations? Let’s be clear on the record. What obligations have they not fulfilled and why? Thank you.
Thank you. No money is held back. So, money will continue to flow in that way. Obligations I speak of are exactly what I said, the report so that we have an opportunity to review it. The contribution agreement, which is actually a contribution agreement between ourselves and YKHSS so that we can have the money flow through them and then they will then get a proposal from the society, which they haven’t received. So there could be an idea that the society will be adding more to what they want to do and that may form the proposal. At this time we don’t have that information, but we’re not stopping the money because of it. Thank you.
It’s critical to point out that the concerns I am raising are important, but they’re not only mine; they’re issues raised to me by the public and many people. Let’s be very, very clear. Is the Minister going to go out to an RFP to ensure that the downtown day shelter gets a fresh start or some new leadership that is qualified to run that shelter rather than making it up in a hodgepodge way? Because the people who are really hurting are those who need it, and they need the help. Thank you.
We do want to go to an RFP. The issue was that the request as we were dealing with the Health and Social Services Authority, the request for them to recommend that we go through an RFP process. So they would perhaps look at other providers. It was very late in the fiscal year and we didn’t think we could achieve the proper requests for proposals at that late juncture. So we decided to continue with the cash flow, and then during the process, as we’re continuing to operate, then go for an RFP. So in future years if it’s deemed that the facility should remain open, then it will be done under the guidelines of a proposal. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to be absolutely crystal clear. My problem isn’t with the employees. My problem isn’t with the people who use the thing. I think they need the help and I think they deserve respect and dignity by giving them help. My issue comes down to the management style of the way that that place is running. So how can this Minister guarantee that this place will be running better and not more of the same? Thank you.
Thank you. It would be very difficult to guarantee that something like a shelter will be running better in the future. What we can do is we can guarantee that some of the things that the society indicated would be an important part of running a shelter, such as I indicated earlier, training staff on things like First Aid. There is also crisis intervention; there is also communication skills of the people working in there, how they communicate with the users of the facility. So if we’re able to achieve those, then it should run better. That will largely depend on the people that are using the facility how well the facility runs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I rose to at least honour the people that made it possible for us to transport goods plus drive over the Deh Cho ice bridge for a long time. So my question is to the Minister of Transportation.
I’d like to know the status of the crew that used to make the ice bridge, at the same time just the status of the crew that operated the ferry and what are the plans for them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wouldn’t know the status of the ice crew and what they were doing. I certainly would go back to the department and see if the department knows exactly what those folks are up to.
On the Merv Hardie ferry crew, there were a few employees, or most of the employees were of a casual nature. I believe others were offered employment elsewhere. To the exact status of those employees, I’d certainly be more than happy to get the Member the status of the employees that did serve us, and serve us very well, on both the ice crossing and on the Merv Hardie itself. Thank you.
I wanted to know if the Department of Transportation has any prepared plans in terms of helping the people that perhaps have been laid off, or in terms of trying to help them with making the transition to other employment opportunities. Mahsi.
Thank you. For employees that were affected by the discontinuation of service of the Merv Hardie, I’m certain that department officials were working with those employees. But again, for the specifics on what was offered to employees, that is something and a level of information that I don’t have with me today, but I’d certainly be more than happy to get that for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you. Switching to the big bridge that is in operation now, I just want to understand what are some of the immediate short-term and long-term plans for the maintenance of the bridge. For one thing, or a couple of things, I know there are concerns about eventually bison perhaps stopping the flow of traffic. Another concern is just the traffic lights. At what point do you see perhaps the establishment of those additions to the bridge? Mahsi.
Thank you. The Texas gates that will be installed on the north side of the bridge should be installed in the spring. Those will keep bison off of the bridge.
As to the maintenance, I believe the department continues to work with the community of Fort Providence and opportunities there to look at maintenance opportunities. As well, there are some other works that are going to be needed over the next eight to nine months, and certainly Deh Gah is going to be included in some of the work that is going to be required, remedial work on the bridge. I know they’ve partnered up with Ruskin to get some of this work done. So I’m happy to see that some more work will accrue to the community of Fort Providence, and some more employment opportunities as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps just to build upon that, is there, at some point, plans for a more festive opportunity for the communities to be involved with signalling another ceremony? I know there have been discussions in terms of another celebration this summer. Could the Minister update in terms of how the Department of Transportation might be involved with that opportunity?
Through the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and I know the Department of Transportation will be involved, we are certainly looking forward to some nicer weather, perhaps in June, to celebrate the opening of the Deh Cho Bridge and turn it into a more proactive tourism event to draw people there. I think the bridge in and of itself is a tourist attraction. Anybody that’s ever driven across the ice at Fort Providence or taken the Merv Hardie, who’s lived in the Northwest Territories and has done that, they’re going to want to come back and see the Deh Cho Bridge. Certainly, through the Department of ITI, working with Transportation, and with the community of Fort Providence it’s very important that we continue to work and have that dialogue with the community on preparations for an event sometime this spring or into June. I think we can certainly try to maximize the exposure and the opportunity that the Deh Cho Bridge has presented us.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the issues that are important to the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister of ITI regarding the bottled water issue we have in our communities.
We have bottled water that is flown from outside of Canada and within Canada. We have some wonderful, great lakes here, some big lakes here. Has the Minister, through his tenure as Minister of ITI, looked at how the Northwest Territories could capture this market to have bottled water in the Northwest Territories to sell in each community and each store in the North?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That sounds like a proposition for the Dragon’s Den or something. If the Member has entrepreneurs in the Sahtu – and I know there’s a number of very good entrepreneurs in the Sahtu and the communities the Member represents – that sounds like a very interesting proposition. Certainly, the Northwest Territories has a bounty of fresh water. Maybe there is an opportunity there to market that as bottled water. I appreciate the Member bringing that up.
Sometimes being in the south feels like a dragon’s den. It gets pretty hot in here.
I want to ask the Minister, other than the bottled water concept, I know that the community of Deline really wants to move on this issue; however, there were a number of barriers for them to hook up this new water plant system to look at a bottled water system and they just didn’t get the support they thought they could get from this government. I want to ask the Minister, if other initiatives in the North can have such as the eggs in Hay River, those eggs should be in each of our stores in our communities. That’s the type of initiative I’m looking for. Has the Minister embarked on a strong policy to get northern products in our stores and in our homes right across the valley?
I think issues like the Member raises are going to be front and centre through the development of our Economic Opportunities Strategy and again look forward to seeing the end result of that. Getting products that are local into local businesses and homes, I think, is very important. I have not seen a proposal about bottling water here in the Northwest Territories for local consumption and perhaps for export, but it’s certainly something I think has some promise, and if the Member wants to share that proposal with me, I would be more than happy to have a look at it.
Some time ago the community of Deline asked for this bottled water concept and they were told to come up with $200,000 or $300,000. Small communities like that just don’t have that kind of extra change in their pockets. I’m hoping the Minister would again look at that and see if that’s a possibility.
Another thing I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the potato spud captain of Norman Wells, how he’s helping small entrepreneurial people look at commercial ventures such as having some of those potatoes in some of our communities. I’m looking for the Minister to come forward to our committees and the House and say, we have a strong northern policy that will support the farmers in the North and people who want to do bottled water issues. Will the Minister bring something forward to us?
I thank the Member for raising the issue of agriculture here in the House and how important it is to many of our communities here in the NWT. The government continues to support agriculture in the NWT through the Territorial Farmers Association and other programs that we provide.
I know we have this Growing Forward 2 Fund that we’ve signed off with the federal government. It is going to provide about $6 million here in the Northwest Territories for other programs related to agriculture and the development of our agricultural centre. I believe we are looking for a type of signature project through this new funding arrangement with the federal government and it’s something that is going to be important as we move forward. I’m not quite sure if the development of a bottled water plant in Deline would fit in that, but it’s certainly something I think… It hasn’t come up since I’ve been Minister of ITI. It may have been brought forward previous to that, but I think it’s something like that is going to provide the possibility of jobs in a small community like Deline. Certainly it’s a very interesting thing.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister come forward with the openness to supporting our northern people in the products that we have, such as, you know, Great Slave Lake is one of the best places to get fish. Bring that forward to our discussion that we can support the fishermen around Great Slave Lake to bring their product into our homes and institutions. Have a government policy stating that’s the way we want to do business from here on in.
Can the Minister look at some type of creative policy that would support our people?
We have an abundance of fish in the Northwest Territories, and we’ve mentioned many times about the commercial fishing on Great Slave Lake and how we need to improve upon that.
It’s my goal over the next two and a half years to try to resurrect the commercial fishing industry on Great Slave Lake. I think we can do it. We’re going to be working with the folks in Hay River and the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation to see how we can make things better.
Obviously, with Great Bear Lake, I mean, that’s some of the best trout in this world, in Great Bear Lake. If there is an opportunity to get that fish out of Great Bear Lake in a commercial manner, again for local consumption and perhaps for export, that’s something that, again, we need to be taking a look at. It’s an opportunity for the community and it could provide a number of jobs as well in a small community.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After the budget address yesterday and the line in there about the 18 GNWT positions being decentralized out of Yellowknife to regional centres and to the communities, of course there has been a lot of buzz. There was a lot of buzz leading up to this announcement because there were rumours to rely on, but now we’ve heard an actual number. We’re getting questions, and e-mails, and texts from our members in our communities, saying where are these positions going. I have some idea of how many of them are coming to Hay River and where they’re going, but I would like to ask the Premier if he could bring some clarity to that, where those 18 positions are going, how many are coming to Hay River, most importantly.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we indicated many times in this House, decentralization is a priority for this government. We’re approaching it in three phases. We’re just very close to completing the first phase, which was to review all our programs and services to see what programs could be developed. We also undertook an inventory of available housing and available office space and made the commitment that we would start decentralization right away as part of a 2013-2014 business plan.
Of the 18 positions, 14 are new positions that have been created through reallocations and those will be going to the regions. We also have four that are existing positions that will be moved out. I just have to make sure that we have to take care of the human resources side of it, so I have to make sure those people that will be affected have been notified. It also has to be approved yet in this House and it is in the main estimates, so you will be able to discuss it in the review of the appropriate departments.
I thank the Premier for that. Those are good and valid concerns. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here. Could we get a general approximation? Would it be safe to say that of those 14 new positions and four relocated positions – and I realize that this is not the Premier’s, it is the Finance Minister’s role to answer this question – would it be safe to say that eight or 10 of those are coming to Hay River?
I will be able to confirm that hopefully in the next few days, but it’s less than what the Member has raised.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday my colleague Mr. Menicoche and I talked about the Mackenzie Valley proposed highway up from Wrigley to Norman Wells. We did talk about the exploration that is happening in the Sahtu. There is not only tens of millions but hundreds of millions of dollars being invested into that area. We talked about the infrastructure such as the Mackenzie Valley winter road.
I want to ask the Minister, because of all the recent reports and community concerns in light of all the investment going into the Sahtu region, and going through the Nahendeh region, is the Minister willing to come with me to the Sahtu communities and talk about a better plan on how we look at upgrading the Mackenzie Valley winter road to a stage where we can look at an all-weather road going into that region.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I intend to drive the winter road as soon as session is over, weather permitting. Maybe the Member could accompany me on that journey. Any opportunity that I get to get into the Member’s riding and the Sahtu to talk about opportunities there, I would certainly be more than happy to take him up on his offer.
Just this morning we continued the dialogue with industry. I met with MGM this morning in regard to concerns about the winter road, and the regulatory environment and a number of other issues. We all need to be continuing that dialogue and working to develop those resources. We have to get more wells drilled in the Sahtu so we get a better understanding of what is actually in the ground there.
I certainly am up for the challenge. If the Minister wants to go for a ride, let’s go for a ride.
I want to ask the Minister, I appreciate your response and want to ask, the oil companies in the next five or six years are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the Sahtu. I’m not too sure what else we need to prove that, hey, let’s start building a road here. I mean, we have some other projects, but this is where we’re spending the money in the Northwest Territories, which can come into billions of dollars.
I want to ask the Minister, part of our trip to the Sahtu, that we sit down with the communities, with the chief and say, there are hundreds of trucks coming through on this period of time, this is what we need to do. Cut down the hill, widen it, even look at presenting a paper to the federal government and say let’s start working on the Mackenzie Valley road from Wrigley north. Is the Minister willing to look at that?
We continue to work on the planning activities for the Mackenzie Valley Highway. As I mentioned yesterday in the House, we have got some further funding from CanNor to allow us to continue the work on the environmental assessment process, and other studies and consultations that will be required in advance of a Mackenzie Valley Highway being constructed. Certainly, again, an opportunity to get into the region. I certainly enjoy spending time in the Sahtu and if there are opportunities there to get into to talk to stakeholders in the region, I certainly will take the Member up on his offer.
Would the Minister also look at preventative measures next year for the Department of Transportation as advising these hotshot rookie drivers of semi-trucks that you need to listen to the people in the North, maybe put on chains and then the tires on some of them? I’m not too familiar with the Sahtu hills and driving through this region here. Can the Minister put together a policy that all drivers would know when they come into the Sahtu, driver beware?
In talking to industry and to the department, we certainly understand that communication is key to the operation of the winter road in the Mackenzie Valley. I think there were a number of lessons learned this winter and this season. This season isn’t quite over but as we get into next season, I think a meeting, a readiness session on the use of the Mackenzie Valley winter road is certainly something we can look forward to helping undertake. Also, again, I think we need to continue that work with industry. I think there’s going to be even more activity taking place next winter, so the more preparation and communication we can do up front, the better the end product.
