Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.
I would like to recognize two individuals in the gallery. First, the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council, Mr. Richard Nerysoo, as well as the president of the Northwest Territories Métis, Ms. Betty Villebrun.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.
I would like to recognize my wife and partner of 40-plus years, Melody McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.
I as well would like to take this opportunity to recognize some constituents: Mr. Ken Hudson, the president of the Métis Local in Fort Smith; hunter and carpenter, Louise Fraser, as well part of the Métis and a respected elder; and of course Betty Villebrun, President of the Northwest Territories Métis. Welcome.
I’d like to welcome everyone to the House.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My oral questions today will be following my Member’s statement: the issue with the fact that income support is now transferring back the administration of the housing to the LHO.
I appreciate my colleague from Hay River South who stood up to speak against it. She clearly announced this morning that she would, so I knew she’d let my statement go before hers. But one thing she didn’t talk about is the fact that we’ve got 14 positions out there that were in this original transfer and the fact that it cost $1.5 million to carry this on. So she must be in favour of the fact that these 14 positions are now in flux and we don’t know, and we’re going to get some clarity, hopefully, on this as well as the cost to switch it back.
My question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment would be: in this transfer of administration back to the LHO, how much will it cost and what will happen to those 14 employees that were brought on board to help with this program?
I’d just like to remind Members to keep your oral questions to a particular matter and not to a particular person. With that, the honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Just for the record, it’s not 14 positions that were transferred. When the transfer occurred in 2006 it was $1.3 million, not $1.5 million. That consisted within that of 10.75 PYs, not 14 positions. I just want to make that clear. But this is still in the planning stages. We just announced within the budget announcement that these programs would be transferred back to the Housing Corporation. Those logistics, the details of it need to be worked out still. We’re in the planning stages. We will be consulting with the standing committees on a going forward basis. We need to identify the detailed information and as we speak we’re going through it in a more detailed fashion.
I consider that a very small error that really tries to find holes in the facts. The facts are that it cost a lot of money to create this transfer and it did create a lot of positions to support this transfer. That’s really the moral of the story. What’s going to happen with that?
To enable this transfer, some study or direction or consultant was hired and I’d like to know what that cost to do this review as well as what was the question they were considering. Was it to fix the program in its existing state or to find a way to return the program to the way it was before?
When we first hired the consultants to do a thorough review of the program that we delivered since the transfer of the program in 2006 we just wanted to capture what we’ve done to date and where we can go from here, what worked, what didn’t work, the causes of it. That is the review that has been undertaken. The report is finalized. The actual cost itself I will need to get back to the Member or Members on that. We’re still working out the logistics of it and there is an error in the report itself. So we’ve gone back to the consultant to provide more detailed information in that respect.
I’ll agree with the Minister that there was an error in the report and that was the decision to transfer it back. I heard from LHO people that this was starting to straighten out. I heard from people on income support who were going through their housing application process that it made sense after a while. I heard from people administering the program that it was really at the end of the day an administration and communication problem was to make sure that the little boxes that got checked at income support fed on through to the folks at LHOs. Was the administration problem and communication problem addressed in this review as one of the things that they could have cleaned up and fixed to streamline the process?
There were no problems. There were challenges that were before us. We worked with those challenges. We continued to improve the program where we met some challenges and we continued to improve in those areas. Right now we’re talking about transferring. I think we’re at that stage where we will be providing more information to the standing committee on a going forward basis on the detailed information. But we faced some challenges. We resolved those challenges, and we continue to improve our program. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister agree that one-stop-shopping is more efficient and more cost effective to this government, on its ambition to make people more self-reliant and independent, than two stops? Thank you.
I think the importance is the service delivery, that we do provide subsidies to all Northwest Territories, whether it be one-stop, two-stop, three-stop shop. It’s a core service delivery that we deliver to the communities. So whether the Member is talking about all these shops, we do have a GNWT shop that we have to provide subsidies to the Northwest Territories on core delivery. Mahsi.
The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Housing. Given the constituents of mine are now paying over $1,000 for a bedroom in the respective communities, will the government finally conduct a thorough, comprehensive evaluation of how rent is calculated in our small, remote communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, we’ve already begun the process of reviewing the rent scale and how rents are calculated. We’re hoping to have that work… It’s always an ongoing process. We’re reviewing the policies and the rent scales to see how we can best serve the tenants of the NWT Housing Corp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Will the government recognize the enormous challenges of living in our small, remote communities and provide the policy and evaluate various programs and services, such as the Public Housing Rental Subsidy, accordingly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the challenge that is faced by tenants is one that’s also faced by the LHOs in the cost of delivering some of the programs and the maintenance and that to the communities. As we heard yesterday, some of our responses were we recognize the fact that our money is declining from CMHC, so we’re taking steps to try and address a lot of the challenges we face. So we’re aware of the ongoing challenges faced by the tenants and the LHOs, and we’re doing what we can to try and alleviate some of the challenges so our programs can be delivered a lot smoother and there won’t be such a burden on the LHOs and the tenants. Thank you.
Will the government review all policies when calculating the tenants’ income with the monthly rental assessment for the NWT Housing unit, and ensure fairness and consistency regardless of who is the employer or the situation?
Mr. Speaker, as I said, reviewing of the policies is an ongoing process and it’s something that we’re always very aware of, some of the changes that need to be made and situations change. So we are always looking at ways that we can improve our policies to best suit the tenants and the local housing organizations. Thank you.
Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the government review all northern and settlement allowance implications of tenants living in small, remote communities with the high cost of living? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That would be part of the review of the policy is to review all of what’s calculated into the rent and see if there are ways that we can improve. However, we have to recognize that our LHOs have a job to do and we’re trying to do what we can; a good balance for the LHOs and the tenants. But it is an ongoing process and we are reviewing the rent scale and how rent is calculated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke in my Member’s statement about the program review office, which sits under the Department of the Executive. That office has been up and running for some 18 months to two years, and I know that office is doing good work. We’ve seen the results, some of the results. But as I stated in my Member’s statement, there is a distinct lack of sharing of the activities of this office. So I’d like to ask the Minister what projects has this office undertaken since it was established approximately two years ago. Thank you.
Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the area of the program review office was established in late 2008-09, to, as the Member had stated, look at the way we expend our dollars and the efficiency and the effectiveness of our programs. The work that’s being done is in conjunction with the Refocusing Committee that is led by Minister Miltenberger. My understanding is he has worked on setting up a meeting with the standing committee in early February to go over the information that has been gathered in the area the Member mentioned in her Member’s statement, the area of the general office space review. That’s an area that Minister Miltenberger highlighted in his budget address. There are other areas that the office has begun to do work on and do an inventory of, and that’s looking at some of our fastest growing areas of expenditures across government, and he’ll be prepared to come forward with that in early February as to the work that they have undertaken. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for that response. Unfortunately, I am aware of the results of the office study and, as I mentioned, I felt it was very well done. It’s hard for me to believe that in the last year, if it’s only been a year-- it seems like it’s a lot longer than that -- but in the last year to 18 months the office hasn’t been able to produce some other finite project. So I’d like to ask the Minister, once a project is finished, does the office produce a report on the project that it has undertaken and completed, and who receives that report? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I heard two questions there. Mr. Premier you can answer one question or both of them.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work that the program review office has identified and will feed through our system, and our system being that of our planning and financial work that we do in preparation for budgets, our program review and development as we look at those areas. So that work will be used by us as Members of the Legislative Assembly to look at how we can, and make sure that the dollars we used are being used most efficiently. The areas, the inventory that was being done have been our health care provisions, looking at our education, adult education and training, as well as our K to 12 system has been inventoried; the work that will be presented to committee. So there’s been a lot of work done. The reports, in a sense, will be provided first to the Refocusing committee, Cabinet will then review that information, it will go to standing committee and will be incorporated as we go forward in our business planning processes in the years to come. Thank you.
The Minister has mentioned the Refocusing Government committee. He also mentioned that the results of the inventory that this office is doing is going to Members. Again, I have to state that very little of that information is getting to Members. I appreciate that a review is coming, that a briefing is coming. I only learned about that this morning. So I’m having a little difficulty that in a year or more we’ve only had one firm report on what this office has been doing. I’d like to know from the Minister why the information is not available to Members on a regular basis and whether or not… Oh, I guess I better ask one question since you kind of cut me off the first time. But I will change my question and ask the Minister why the results of these reports cannot be made available to the public. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the process we engaged in was more inclusive for sharing information. We contacted committee at their request to have involvement from the Regular Members on our Strategic Initiative committees, and this Refocusing Government committee did have Members involved in that process. Then subsequent to that, we were informed that they did not want to continue that process. So we have gone back to the more traditional way of doing it. Once we have got enough information to present that will help us in our decision-making process as we go forward. We would share that with standing committee. The available time for that has been set up in early February. We share that information to look at areas that we can then decide on how we go forward, what areas should we review further on and help us as we go forward in the decision making around budget cycles as we go forward. Thank you.
As well, again, our process of keeping it open, those two seats are still open for Members to be a part of. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned a couple of areas. I can’t remember them both but he mentioned education. I would like to know whether or not, particularly in the area of education, whether the work of the program review office had a direct impact on the budget which we heard about yesterday. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the program review office has not had an impact on this budget that the Finance Minister introduced yesterday. The work that the program review office is doing needs to go through the regular system. That is, once Refocusing Government committee has done their work, it will come to Cabinet. It will go to members of the standing committee. We will have some dialogue on that work and pick areas where we think we can get best results and do a finer focus so to say, Mr. Speaker. The one piece of work that has had an effect has been the general office space review and that work has gone far enough along. It has been shared in this committee. The Minister highlighted that in his statement yesterday. Thank you.
The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs in regard to the caribou issue that is happening right now. I want to ask the Minister in his role as the Affairs Minister, has he had any type of discussion with the Minister of Indian Affairs on the situation that is happening in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the specific issue we are dealing with around caribou, we work with the aboriginal leadership across the Northwest Territories, depending on the specific herds and which aboriginal groups directly harvest from those herds and been involved in that. There is much to see in the discussions that have been held on some of the restrictions in place, working with co-management boards. I have not had direct discussions with Minister Strahl in this area. There are times when we will have opportunity to speak on a number of concerns. This, I am sure, will be one of those areas that we will touch base on in the possible meeting that I may have with him on his trip up here. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in terms of the possibility of future discussions with Minister Strahl, with our aboriginal Minister in terms of the contentious issues and the future of our relationships with the aboriginal governments, would the Minister then commit to having these discussions with Minister Strahl in terms of how we deal with this possibly very volatile issue in terms of future relationships with the aboriginal governments of the North here? Would the Minister commit to reporting to the House if he is going to have some type of discussions with the Minister?
