Mr. Speaker, currently, for the past seven or eight years we’ve sponsored these students to return to the Northwest Territories.... Out of the 19 we’ve sponsored, five returned to article here in the North. Two are in practice: one is in the legal division and one is in Behchoko. One is currently articling.
Mr. Speaker, we hoped that we had more applicants in this area. At the same time, when we talk about the summer employment, the students would have to notify our department by February 28 for summer employment, as with any other students, to be employed here in the North. Also, if they have successfully completed their degree program, the law degree program, they may be considered for an articling position within the Justice Department.
So it’s just a matter of applying to our department. Certainly my department will do whatever we can to have those individuals within our system. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, my constituent is in second year of law school. They would like to complete their degree. Why can’t the students who are currently enrolled, at the very least, be grandfathered and receive support for the remainder of their degree?
It may be that when these young people do graduate from law school there may be some attraction to stay down south for awhile. Ultimately, a lot of people will return to their roots and will return to their homes when they get ready to settle down, perhaps raise a family. They will come back to the North.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe we can cut off support to somebody who’s already gone to law school. I mean, I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s amazing. These people who are undertaking such a thing as a law degree, especially our young northern and aboriginal students, should be congratulated and supported in any way possible.
Will the Minister commit to continuing to support my constituent for the continuation, to the completion of his law degree?
Mr. Speaker, right now we still do offer, for this year, up to $5,000 per student to continue for another year. At that point in time the student will have the opportunity to explore other bursaries. There’s a whole bunch of scholarships out there. When you attend a university or a college, there are all these bulletin boards that have opportunities for students to apply. Based on their academics, they can easily access up to ten, 15 different scholarships.
So certainly our department will continue to support these students for this year financially and also support them in any way we possibly can with summer employment, if they do apply in time, and also articling when they want to return to the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Mr. Speaker, when students take up studies in the area of law or medicine, these are more costly than other academic fields. Although our SFA support is very generous, it’s not generous enough when your tuition is $10,000 a year for law school and the cost of books is $1,000 a year.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot conceive of this government discontinuing support to someone who’s already out and going to law school, wanting to complete their studies. What if other areas of scholarships or foundation support don’t come through? Is the Minister suggesting that the student, if they don’t have the financial resources or the support of the government, should just drop out of the program?
Mr. Speaker, that certainly is not the case. We’re not encouraging students to drop out. We’re encouraging them to stay in school and be successful in their particular program.
This particular constituent is grandfathered as well, along with other students who are in the current system. So we do continue to support them during this transition period.
Mr. Speaker, it’s important to highlight that we are here to support them as the Government of the Northwest Territories, and our SFA program is one of the best in Canada. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement with regard to dental emergencies in the community and just to highlight the urgency. I just got another incident in terms of dental emergencies, so I’d like to bring that up with the Minister. What is the current and existing guideline that governs dental emergencies in the community?
The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that dental emergencies would be handled in the same way as any other medical emergency. When they present themselves to our local health facilities, the health care professionals in those facilities would examine them and make appropriate calls as to the treatment and plan of action. So dental emergencies are considered medical emergencies.
I also appreciate the information the Member has given me about a particular constituent, which I am in the process of following up on.
I think I’ll just speak to the medical emergencies in the smaller communities, as well as the need to develop a policy. I’d just like to know what current plan or what strategy the Minister’s office is going to develop with regard to developing a policy.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say, for the record, that I appreciated the opportunity to see first-hand and hear first-hand the challenges that the residents in small communities have with respect to dental care. For our aboriginal people it is covered by the NIHB services, but we have not been able to obtain service providers. There are lots of dentists and dental clinics in the North who have not taken up the opportunity to bid on this contract, in particular for the Deh Cho region. They had a challenge in obtaining a contract, and I believe only in the last month were they able to find a dentist who was willing to travel to those communities from Quebec. I’m hoping that with a new contract out, the contractor will be able to enhance our services there.
I’m very happy to see that the Ministry is working toward assisting the people in need in the communities.
Just once again, what type of guideline or policy is in place currently within the department for dealing with situations like this?
Once again, I think that dental emergencies are handled as any other medical emergency. I would expect that the health care professional in Fort Liard right now is responding to that situation.
On the larger picture of providing dental services to people in our communities, the service level in the Deh Cho region for the last number of months has suffered because we did not have a service provider. Now, with a new contractor in place, we are hoping we can increase the services there.
On the larger picture, I learned a lot about the requirements for additional dental service, and especially dental service for aboriginal children. It will be something I will be bringing up with the federal Minister of Health, because I think they could do a lot more to step up and be more stringent and more committed to this service to our aboriginal peoples.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Going back to my Member’s statement talking about seniors and the struggles they face, I want to direct my questions today to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corp. A lot of seniors would like to stay in their own homes, but the monthly utility costs are getting to the point where they can’t afford it. I’d like to ask the Minister of Housing whether there’s a program within the Housing Corp that assists seniors with monthly utility costs, which would enable them to stay in their own homes.
The honourable Minister Responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The one main program that is there for utilities, mainly fuel, of course, is the Seniors’ Fuel Subsidy Program that is administered by ECE. In addition, there is the fund that is administered with land taxes. We have, through Housing, a Seniors' Home Repair Program that homeowner seniors may be eligible for if they apply. These are three funds that speak to the area that’s been raised by the Member.
I thank the Minister for that. The fuel subsidy, I think, is a one-time deal, if I’m not mistaken. It’s very helpful. I’ve had seniors who’ve accessed that fund before. It’s much appreciated, but what I’m talking about are the monthly utility costs, like fuel and electricity. I think that would go a long way in assisting seniors to stay in their own homes and not have them move into public housing and take up public housing stock.
I’d like to ask the Minister if the department would consider such a program that would assist seniors with monthly utility costs and would allow them to stay in their own homes.
The Fuel Subsidy Program is an annual program that seniors can apply for. If they’re eligible, they’ll get up to the equivalent of five cords of wood, or 2,200 litres of fuel. We also have everybody outside of Yellowknife in the diesel communities in the North subsidized for the first 1,700 kilowatts under the Territorial Power Support Program.
Of course, through the business-planning process we’d be very interested to sit down and talk to and work with the Social Programs Committee. We’ve already looked at some of the issues for seniors, how the seniors programs are currently structured under the new core program, given, of course, the broad concern of our fiscal reality. We are always interested to talk about ways we can improve services that are affordable.
I thank the Minister again for that. I am aware of the fiscal situation we’re facing right now. It’s just that this is something I firmly believe is needed, and I think it’s something we could discuss during the business plans in September.
A senior moves into public housing and they’re over 60; I think they pay no rent. I’d like to ask the Minister: who covers the cost of maintaining the public housing unit they’ve moved into? Obviously there’s a cost to it, and I think it’s around $1,800 or something like that per month, per unit. I’d like to ask the Minister: who covers the cost of the maintenance and upkeep on that unit per month?
The Housing Corporation. There’s no rent or costs billed to the seniors, so this is covered through the operations of the Housing Corporation.
I appreciate the answer. The costs are eaten by the Local Housing Authority; I think I’m correct in assuming that. I’d like to ask him if there’s any subsidy that comes from ECE, or is the whole cost eaten by the Local Housing Authority?
Those folks who are eligible for the Public Housing subsidy would have funds flow to them from ECE. The issue with seniors’ housing and no rent was a political decision of this Legislature back in, I believe, 1995 or 1996. The costs have been built into the operation of the Housing Corporation, and the money’s been, over the years, put into the budgets of the districts and looked at yearly.
The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I spoke of impact of the proposed cuts to Community Justice committee funding. The elimination of a court worker position will affect the delivery of justice in my community of Tuktoyaktuk.
Can the Minister of Justice inform this Assembly on whether his department still has any focus on Justice activities at the community level?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly for our Justice Department and also the Government of the Northwest Territories, one of the focuses is to deliver programs to the communities, the regions. We will continue to do so. Wherever we need to enhance our programs, we certainly are listening to the people of the North. That’s one area we will be focusing on as the Justice Department.
I think the department should have considered cuts to the headquarters level before they started touching programs at the community level and regional level.
Can the Minister inform this Assembly as to whether he will consider increasing funding that’s available for the Community Justice committees?
I think that is one of the recommendations brought forward by the Committee of the Whole, and certainly we will consider looking at those recommendations. Also, we do have a three-year time span as part of our business planning. We have highlighted where we can enhance and improve our program delivery into the communities. Those will be taken into consideration.
That’s really good to hear. Would the department seriously consider re-establishing my court worker in the community of Tuktoyaktuk?
We will consider all the recommendations that were brought forward to our Justice Department.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to ask some questions on the plans for the business incentive program — the BIP. I’d like to give Minister Bob McLeod a chance to respond to some of these questions.
Could the Minister tell us exactly what is in planning for cutback or what changes are being contemplated? I see from the presentation yesterday that he has been requested by Cabinet to implement the recommendation. I’m gathering he must have some firm ground on that. What exactly is being contemplated, just to make sure we’re making our comments appropriately?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
The GNWT departments, as my colleague has stated, are seeing that the business incentive program has been having a negative impact on both the delivery of infrastructure and on the price of infrastructure because of the lack of competition. So what I will be doing is undertaking a process by which I would proceed through an orderly process to look at the BIP with a view to rescinding it and coming up with a way to protect local and northern purchasing.
Thanks to the Minister for those comments. Am I to understand that this process would include a public consultation or at least some firm and thorough and comprehensive consultation with the Regular Members on this side of the House?
That’s certainly been our intention, and we have followed that, and we have written to the committee advising them of that.
I appreciate that clarification. Again, looking at the presentation yesterday, “to generate the required interest, we need to consider removing the application of the BIP from these...contracts” is one statement, followed by “the subcommittee has recommended eliminating the application of the BIP from the GNWT and community government infrastructure projects.” That’s sort of two levels there. And then finally, Cabinet has requested implementation. So I just want to be sure. Can the Minister commit to bringing the Regular MLAs in on this process, and can we expect a briefing from the subcommittee on infrastructure and the opportunity for more input there, something I know we’re very interested in?
Seventy six per cent of the total businesses that have been BIP’d are located in Yellowknife, Hay River, Inuvik and Fort Smith. They obtain 62 per cent of government contracting in all of the Northwest Territories. Certainly we will be consulting with the Regular MLAs.
I should point out also that the Business Incentive Policy is only one of several ways to provide incentives to increase competition. One of the problems we’ve been facing is that several large northern businesses have been bought out by southern businesses and they’re still considered to be BIP’d. Similarly, large construction companies have moved south. There are other ironies; for example, Wal-Mart is one of my favourite places to shop, and it’s also a good business.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
I appreciate, again, the comments of the Minister. I wouldn’t be too proud about being a favourite shopper of Wal-Mart, myself.
Laughter.
But I really do appreciate the Minister’s comments and agree that some real innovation is needed in finding ways to protect our northern businesses. Thanks for that. I really appreciate that and encourage that.
Will the Minister include some of the ramifications of things like NAFTA — North American Free Trade Agreement — that’s been mentioned by my colleague Mr. Krutko, and the obligations we become vulnerable to when we lose these things that are forgiven because of grandfathering and so on? I’m asking for a very eyes-open approach to this. It sounds like there is a tendency to do that with an attempt to get some real protection and support for the local. I’m sure the Minister will be using full-cost accounting.
I know that Maude Barlow has made some comments about NAFTA, but I’m not clear on what the implications of NAFTA are on the Business Incentive Policy. I do know that under the Agreement on Internal Trade within Canada, which all of the provinces and territories have signed on to, we have been able to carve out the Business Incentive Policy. That allows us to have a northern preference for business. We intend to protect that part of Agreement on Internal Trade and also the fact that…. I’ll leave it at that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
