Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I used the fictitious CBC TV show Arctic Air to depict an issue about emergency response. It has been a reality. In reality, this is actually happening in the Northwest Territories. With that, my question who won the coin toss is the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Has there been a working group established? Have the fire chiefs been involved? Is there work to be done with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and work with other departments such as Health and Social Services on creating some type of archway, some kind of health profession or a trade for emergency medical service providers providing some type of equality in our systems of emergency services throughout the Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There had been a working group that had been established. MACA is part of the working group. Health and Social Services is part of a working group. We do have some assistant fire chiefs that are part of the working group. We are looking at the overall delivery of emergency services across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it is encouraging to hear that this is indeed a priority of the government and a priority of the department. Could the Minister indicate as to when the consolidated findings of this working group will be shared with committee here and the Members? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the intent is to have something by December of this year that we could possibly share. Obviously, there is a lot of work that needs to go into this to make sure we get a product that best serves all the people of the Northwest Territories. By December of this year, we are hoping to have something that we can have a discussion with committee about. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as indicated in my Member’s statement earlier today, some of the earlier planning back in 2009 projected this could cost the taxpayer or the government up to $6 million to perform. Can the Minister advise if this number has been looked at? Are we close to this number or is it too far down into the future to actually predict? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, $6.1 million was the initial figure that we used. Once we go through all the planning, the number may rise. We would have to look at all the options and then come back to committee with what probably is closer to a final figure and share that with them, and then we will determine what the next steps are going to be once we do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, very encouraging news. I think people listening out there feel that their needs are being met. Until such time as we have policies in place, we have budgets in place, there are communities out there that are in dire need. They need medical transport vehicles to avoid patients being transported in the back of quads, in the back of pickup trucks. Is there any appetite for this department or the government to look at the needs of individual communities, assess them, and do more good now than waiting for some projected budget in the future? Can we assist these communities in the near future? Thank you.
We do have some right now that we allocate to some communities that apply for it. It helps them with equipment mostly. We have to understand that there’s a huge liability issue in trying to provide emergency service in a lot of communities. If they’re not qualified, then that would put more residents at risk and put the communities or the individuals in a liability issue. So we have to explore all those options.
There is $200,000 now that is allocated to a number of communities. As the Member said, we only have three communities that have taken us up on it, but a lot of this is to help with some of the equipment they have in communities. Of course, we want all of our residents to be sure that they’ll be transported to health centres safely and the Member pointed out something that he saw on TV, which is actually not far from the truth. We’ve heard of cases of people being transported in the back of a vehicle, but that’s just the community responding to a situation. Instead of just waiting for something to happen, they make something happen.
So, again, there’s a huge liability issue and we have to recognize that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister for Human Resources today. I’d like to ask the Minister with regard to a report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations from reviewing the 2009-10 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. At that time both the Information and Privacy Commissioner and the office of the Auditor General had recommended transparency in government, and particularly with regard to funding of dollars within government. It was a recommendation of that report in May of 2011, over a year ago, that this government be proactive and disclose employees, senior management salaries. So I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources why it is that we do not publish our senior employees’ salaries. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was actually on Government Ops when that report was done. In the Government of the Northwest Territories there are three levels of pay for executive managers: EM1, EM2, EM3. EM1 runs from $162,000 to $202,000. EM2 goes from $180,000 to $225,000. EM3 is $198,000 to $247,000. This is as of April 1, 2011.
I have directed the department to post those on-line. They will be posted on-line similar to all other salaries for all GNWT employees. Thank you.
Thank you to the Minister for being so proactive. I appreciate that that’s going to be posted and I hope the Minister will advise when that’s going to happen, but will employees be identified by their salary range? The Minister mentioned three salary ranges. So if I’m interested in a particular employee in a department, will I be able to figure out which salary range he or she falls into? Thank you.
Thank you. I have directed the department to post it on-line the same time we post the current and the new UNW, NWTTA and senior management, do them all at the same time, which should be done as soon as we have ratified the final agreement, the UNW Collective Agreement. So that should be really soon.
No, we won’t be posting individuals’ salaries. That would be inappropriate and against the conflict of information. But that would be consistent with what we do for all employees. We don’t tell anybody what Jane or John Doe in any other profession makes, so why would we do that for our senior management? Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I wasn’t referencing a specific individual’s salary, but whether it would be possible to find out what range the individual falls into. So do I fit into EM1, 2 or 3?
The other issue that was recommended by the standing committee report from a year ago had to do with employee bonuses. So I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not employee bonuses will be published the same as senior management salaries. Thank you.
Thank you. With respect to the individual positions that my colleague is talking about, there’s only about 17 positions that fall into these executive management bands and if we started identifying what positions follow what bands, would be really actually identifying what the individuals make and that would be inappropriate. So we won’t be sharing that information. We will only be sharing the ranges.
With respect to what an individual receives as a bonus, we won’t be telling anybody what an individual receives for a bonus, but the policies and protocols for how bonuses are identified is public information and we can release what we paid in a year in bonuses, but not by individual. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that information. I would look forward to seeing the bonus information, whatever it is, hopefully by department or by division.
I’d like to just ask the Minister, the report from a year ago suggested that legislation might be required. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not he feels legislation is required to make sure that this happens every year. If this Minister is not around, will Ministers coming behind him take the same proactive approach? So do we need legislation, do we need a policy, do we need regulations? Thank you.
Thank you. I don’t believe we do. I think now that it’s posted, I think that will become standard practice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got some questions today for the Minister of Health in regard to his Minister’s statement on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission support. In his statement he makes reference to what we fund addictions counselors, on-the-land programs and treatment centres for residents. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what centres he’s referring to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m referring to the one treatment centre we have in the Northwest Territories, Nats’ejee K’eh, and then, when required, people are sent to treatment centres in the South also.
Thank you. Can the Minister provide us with the numbers of out-of-territory patients, clients that are constantly going to treatment centres down south and how many different treatment centres down south is he referring to? Thank you.
Thank you. I don’t have that information with me here, but I can provide that information to the Member. That’s the number of different treatment centres and the number of people attending those treatment centres. No problem. Thank you.
Thank you. Throughout the term of this Assembly, at the beginning I was asking questions in regard to the waiting list of members that need counselling, and in reference to the Minister’s statement, Inuvik specifically, there’s a three-month waiting list for anybody to get counselling, and with the TRC event even more are happening. So I was wondering if the Minister or his department has addressed this issue in Inuvik and if he’s seeing any growing trend in the communities that hosted a TRC event this past year. Thank you.
Thank you. Aside from what is already in the budget for community counselling, we are trying to now work with our department and within our department to develop wellness plans with all of the communities. Also, tomorrow there will be a Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan released. We’re going to use that plan over the next three years to try to address the backlog that was created by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s work, and then also having the federal government really not having enough resources at the communities to address all of the issues that came about from people trying to address their long-term issues due to the residential school. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an issue that I’ve been seeing even before I got into the House as a Member. But continuing on, I see some good work also by the Minister of Justice in terms of the NSCC facility. Is the Minister working with the Minister of Justice to help him develop these counselling programs for the inmates? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the program at the North Slave Correctional Centre is not yet developed, but anything that this department can do to assist Justice in the development of counselling and the work inside the correctional centres, we are prepared to do. Thank you.
The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During my Member’s statement today, I talked about the need for regulation and certainly legislation for the areas of chiropractic and massage therapy. There are a number of groups out there that have this request, such as naturopaths as well. There seems to be some consensus built around chiropractic and massage therapists that legislation could come in and we could develop some regulations to provide some public assurance that the government is watching and making sure that our citizens are protected. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. What is the status of any potential new legislation and regulation to the areas that I have highlighted already? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services is developing an umbrella health and social services professionals act that will regulate a number of professions under one statute. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is good news. From the Minister I would like to find out which professionals or particular areas is he studying and considering for inclusion in this particular bill. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, some of the ones – this may not be all of them – that we are looking at are licenced practical nurses, psychologists, medical service providers, and also we are hearing lots of information, getting a lot of information from naturopaths. So there could be quite a few of them under one umbrella. We have hired some legal people to look at it. We have a contract with them throughout this year and next year to make sure that we are doing this right and that we are not infringing on anybody’s legal rights. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I want to specifically note and highlight the fact that the Minister didn’t mention chiropractic or massage therapists. I am not suggesting it isn’t in his list before him. With that said, would the Minister be willing to provide a detailed list as to whom they have spent time consulting with and when? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m sure that isn’t a problem. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The next big question to this is: Will there be any type of public discussion or development of any type of decision paper to move forward on this particular initiative? If there will be, when can we expect some detail on that particular initiative? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, once the legislative proposal is developed and we share that, we will go through the regular process. We will assume that this one will require a considerable amount of consultation.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for the Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mr. Speaker, earlier I made a statement on one of the communities that I represent: Enterprise. Enterprise, of course, is aspiring, like every community, to try to be independent and to try and create a local economy so that services at least are available to every citizen in Enterprise. My question is to the Minister of MACA. What support is there from MACA to provide communities to include basic infrastructure such as water supply? Thank you.
