I thank the Minister for providing us an overview of how it is indeed possible for communities to try to at least establish their infrastructure. My question is: Is there a willingness or departmental commitment to ensure that yes, indeed, these infrastructure projects could be realized? Is the department willing at this time to commit to at least meet the communities’ needs?
We see our role at MACA now as more of a support to the community. MACA has a lot of experience in helping communities try and realize some of their projects, working on capital plans. Communities will submit capital plans for the next five, 10, 15 years, and if they identify any particular project as part of their capital plan, we would be more than willing to sit with the community, meet with them, review their capital plan and see what the best way is to make it happen.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to return to my questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment because I think he provided some really good overviews to the questions I asked. I’m hoping this round he would provide the answers to them. What I want to do is come back to my very last question in which I asked him if the government monitors the decisions made by our employment standards office that are actually taken and appealed to the Supreme Court. The reason I ask that is there may be some reasons why people are consistently appealing them or have problems with them. There may be a lot of things we could be learning from them. My question, of course, goes back to that issue. Does the government monitor the appeals taken to the Supreme Court, to try to understand better, why these particular decisions are appealed and, if so, what is he able to provide my office, in the sense of showing that they do this, and consider the problems that arise from decisions being appealed?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Member is asking for more detailed information and I can provide that to the Member on the process itself, how many appeals have been processed and so forth. I don’t have the specific details of the information on the monitoring mechanism, and I need to highlight to the Member in writing, and I will definitely get back to the Member. Mahsi.
I want to thank the Minister for that very good answer on the particular last question. As I pointed out earlier about wanting some more information as to what type of training we’ve provided, and as I’ve highlighted, do we provide basic administrative law training, guidance on decision-making? Would the Minister be able to provide some type of reference package, sort of a broader overview, not everything, of course, but a broad overview as to what type of reference material, strengthening and ongoing training do we provide to these folks who have to make these statutory decisions that are quite extensive, quite strong in the sense of power, and can be quite expensive if they need to be appealed? Thank you.
I already committed to provide that information and just providing those tools to those individuals who are in the officer positions, whether it be an employment standards officer or other statutory officer, the training that’s been required and various training that is being offered to them. We can have a breakdown of that selective training that’s been offered and what they’re entitled to. We’ll definitely provide that detailed information. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Dolynny.
Back on February 16th of this calendar year, this side of the House passed a motion on the floor of the Legislative Assembly on anti-bullying. The sands of time are nearing the end in the hourglass and our question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is: When will we get a response to that motion? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular motion, I will be tabling a document responding to the motion that was brought forward to this House. We are currently working on various logistical parts on the legislation itself, and working with other counterparts in the provinces and territories. This is a very big package that we are working towards, because it does deal with our Education Act as well. We will keep Members up to speed, as we move forward, but I will be tabling the document today. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last 15 years the community of Tsiigehtchic has been pleading to get a nurse in the community. I’d like to ask the Minister: Will the Minister be willing to put in place a licenced practical nurse in Tsiigehtchic?
---Applause
Order! I know everybody’s excited today. It’s our second-last sitting day. We still have to maintain order. Mr. Beaulieu has the floor. Continue, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. We are doing a full review of the integrated service model. It’s essentially a delivery model that tries to provide primary care services to each community, from the smallest community to the largest community. We’re actually having a discussion with the Joint Leadership Council, which are the chairs and the public administrators of all of the health authorities, and we are talking about trying to provide something more permanent in Tsiigehtchic. Thank you.
Would the Minister be willing to do, as a pilot project, have in place in Tsiigehtchic a licenced practical nurse? Thank you.
We are currently with the MLAs from Beaufort-Delta to try to put a Beaufort-Delta health advisory council together that will work with the public administrator or with the chair, one of the systems. We haven’t made our final decision yet, until we review the terms of reference the JLC this week. We’re hoping to then provide the terms of reference to the Beaufort-Delta MLAs within that forum. Without pre-empting the decisions that those individuals on that council would make, I’d like to say that this is one of the things that we will look at very closely, where we’ve heard Members that there is a need for permanent nursing services in the small communities, and we’re trying to do that. We are trying to provide permanent full-time nursing services in communities that don’t have it. Thank you.
Will the Minister assure the community of Tsiigehtchic that this position will be in place within the next year? Thank you.
I would like to say that, but at the same time, I would also like the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority to be involved in the decision. This is what we’re working on, and we’re saying we want to provide you with an opportunity to make that decision, and working with that integrated service model, that we want to be able to say that, yes, we can do that. We know that there is more that we can do in the community. Maybe providing service out of the two neighbouring communities is not sufficient, as the people have said. We’re taking a very close look at that right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds promising. I heard a yes in there somewhere. I’d just like to let the Minister know that I’m more than willing to work with the Minister, and I look forward to the next couple of months here. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask the Minister of Finance, since the lifting of the liquor sales in the Norman Wells liquor store, I’ve been receiving phone calls from the communities since February. Recently, I received phone calls in regard to the amount of alcohol that’s coming into the community, and the agencies, the RCMP and the nurses are very, very concerned now. I want to ask the Minister on this issue here, the people are waiting to see if there is some possibility of working to change the restriction of the Norman Wells liquor store, so that we can look at a regional concept to it, and to deal with the amount of booze that’s coming into our community. Is the Minister looking at some possible changes and working with me on some of the things that we could do to help the people in the Sahtu?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have met with the Member a number of times and had a considerable amount of correspondence. We’ve discussed the steps forward. The next most immediate step is going to be we’ve agreed we’re going to collectively write to the leadership in the Sahtu and we’ll pose a number of questions to them. Some very basic ones, like taking authorities that now lie at the community level and making decisions about alcohol, taking some responsibilities like the decisions over liquor store restrictions, and those types of things from the community level to a regional level, and a number of questions related to how that would possibly work, who would trigger it, what would be required to do that. We’re going to write that letter to the leadership and ask for a response. We’re going to look at the information that is provided, and then we’ll have the discussion about next steps, myself and the Member for the Sahtu. Thank you.
The Minister outlined a pretty clear path as to what transpired between now and what’s happening right now today. I thank the Minister for that. Norman Wells last year made $2.5 million in liquor sales. Inuvik made $7.4 million. I expect to see Norman Wells reach up to $5 million this year. Hopefully, by the fall time we will have some type of decision as to how we go about looking at this issue here and help people in the surrounding communities.
I have a motion from the communities in the Sahtu to say we need to make changes to the Norman Wells liquor store. I want to ask the Minister if that’s something we could look forward to sometime maybe in the fall, to make some changes if it could be.
Mr. Speaker, we have to keep in mind, as well, we don’t want to give people the impression that the people of the Sahtu are now turning into consumers of alcohol way above what is normal there. The Sahtu, as well, has the benefit, and will continue to have the benefit, of an economic boom with the tight oil play that is going on there and the amount of people coming there. It all contributes to more activity, money and people in the region that don’t currently necessarily reside there.
We’ll look at the information that comes back from the letters. The Member and I will have a discussion and we’ll look at those questions and the information provided, and we will have to, as well, have a broader discussion. We’re going to consult with the NWTAC, as well, about designing what we would do based on the information we’re going to get back from the leaders. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, when the agencies in our communities are telling me and us that enough is enough, we are getting tired of seeing the incidents, I want to ask the Minister, with the amount of development that possibly could happen in the Sahtu, part of our region is out-of-control drinking. That’s what’s happening right now, so we want to work on this issue here. Would the Minister work with his colleagues, departments of Justice, Health, Education, Housing, Economic, even the Premier, to see what are the impacts now you are seeing in the Sahtu? Go to our court dates here in the Sahtu and you will see 99.9 percent of people up there because of alcohol. Will the Minister be able to compile some of those incidents, some of those reports that say, yes, we have an issue here in the Sahtu and we need to look at it in a responsible manner?
Mr. Speaker, we are tracking those statistics. The easiest course of action, of course, would be if the community of Norman Wells agreed to put this issue back to the vote. Because of the concern they have heard from all of their companions and all the neighbours in the Sahtu in the neighbouring communities, the existing legislation is clear right now. We will do the work we need to do to chart a path forward. If it requires legislative change or regulatory change, we will have to make that determination.
Clearly, the community of Norman Wells has the legal authority now to put that issue back on the table if they would say they do that, based on the strong feedback they received from the region leadership. In the meantime, we will continue down the path the Member and I have charted out. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister. Through this whole issue here, I think we worked out a pretty good path as to how we want to resolve this issue. Between now and when we have some of the discussions, can the Minister ask his colleagues to look at some of their own numbers in regard to if the health centre is getting more calls than ever because of out-of-control drinking in our communities, or the justice is seeing more people in courts or jail because of out-of-control drinking? I want to know if the Minister can provide some of that information when we have our next meeting.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard the Member’s concern. Finance and the liquor folks are tracking their sales or consumption, the off-sales to individuals. We’ll check with the RCMP. We’ll make sure that we track their detailing and their statistics of all the potential charges or charges that they do lay. We will also be looking at the court dockets, things we are currently doing, as well, to make sure that we are as thorough as possible trying to track this issue.
I will remind the Member, once again, he and I have had this discussion. The issue of liquor store hours is only one part of the alcohol abuse issue. The circumstances are there where people have to be able to make the choice not to drink. While this issue has some importance to people, they shouldn’t be seen as a panacea that is somehow going to cure all the issues that we all struggle with with alcohol abuse. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a petition from Fort Good Hope opposing the GNWT charging rent to seniors in public senior housing; 106 signatures.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “GNWT Response to Motion 5-17(2), Anti-Bullying Measures.” Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Taking a Kid Trapping and Harvesting Report 2010-2011” and “Growing Forward Canada/Northwest Territories, Growing Forward Agreement – Small Scale Foods Program Community Garden Initiative, 2011 Annual Report.” Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “List of Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1, 2011, to March 31, 2012.”
As well, I wish to table the following document, entitled “Northern Land Use Guidelines – Northwest Territories Seismic Operations.” Thank you.
