Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to welcome and recognize Shane Thompson. He’s been a very strong mentor and role model to a lot of youth in the Northwest Territories, including myself. Along with Shane I’d like to recognize his son Steven, who is a recent graduate, and congratulate him on that. I’d also like to recognize Colinda Blondin, who is a graduate of the Recreation Leaders Program and is doing a lot of great work with the youth, from what I hear.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. I would like to welcome all people visiting us in the gallery today. It’s always nice to have an audience in here, and thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to know when the Sahtu long-term care facility will begin to see its construction.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Madam Speaker. The plan is for some of the preliminary work to be done now and we’re hoping that the long-term construction… I think the target date for the long-term construction is to begin construction in the summer of 2013 and conclude it in the summer of 2015.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Minister and I had a tour in the Sahtu and we stopped in Deline. We talked to the people in Deline. The people in Deline know that the old long-term care facility was shut down in 1994 and that it hasn’t been opened since. The people want to know, there are some units there that some of the older people wanted to see if the Minister could consider, with asking his colleagues, if some of those units could be opened so that they can bring some of the people back from outside the region so they can come back and stay there for the last days of their life on Earth. Has the Minister made any progress in seeing where this request that has been asked by the people of Deline to see if it’s being taken seriously, to ask if the Department of Health could open possibly maybe six units in Deline’s old long-term care facility?
The building itself, both buildings and the outbuildings that the long-term care or what was referred to as the senior citizens home in Deline does belong to the NWT Housing Corporation. Right now it’s being leased out to Health and Social Services and we are using the main part of the building. The community wishes that part of the building would be opened up and the administration of health and social services, I think their home care programs and counselling and so on that were in there, would be moved to one of the out buildings. At this time there needs to be an evaluation done by ourselves and NWT Housing Corporation to determine how we could feasibly move the individuals that are working in that building to the outbuildings, or another location, in order to turn that back into a senior citizens home.
The issue of the long-term care facility in the Sahtu has been long-standing. Like I said earlier my Member’s statement, I’m grateful for the 16th and I’d certainly appreciate the 17th Assembly and this government here to keep their eye on the ball or the prize to build a long-term care facility in the Sahtu region. This is the only region without a long-term care facility. I want to ask the Minister, since this is the first one we built and I think it’s the only one that’s going to be built in the Sahtu, what is the Minister doing to work with the people in the Sahtu to prepare for the long-term care facility in terms of construction, training, programming, staffing. What is the Minister doing with the Sahtu people?
This new 18-bed long-term care facility is intended to be a regional long-term care facility for the entire Sahtu. There is a plan to fill all the positions in the building with people from the Sahtu. I believe that there will be as many as 27 people in the building. It’s going to be a long-term facility with a new, modern health care attached to it. The plan is to have all the people right from the registered nurse to the aides that work in there to the cook to the cleaning staff, everything, that they would be trained. We’re going to be scheduling some training in there so that place is run by the people from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Can the Minister briefly tell me if there are some plans in place with this government and the Sahtu through the Sahtu Health and Social Services, or some other government agency that the department is overseeing, that they from time to time could monitor the progression of the building of the long-term care facility, where they would be able to monitor and keep checks and balances as to the progression of this entire long-term care facility?
Yes, we can do that. We can work with the Sahtu Health and Social Services to ensure that they keep tabs on the project and that we communicate the progress to the people in the Sahtu. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. In follow up to my Member’s statement, I have questions for the Minister of Housing.
Will the Minister make changes to the CARE program right away so that the northern communities can take advantage of this this summer? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The CARE program has been in existence for awhile. There are opportunities for those that are in need of repairs to access the program. The CARE program, as it sits right now, is fairly sufficient and people are given a lot of opportunity to apply for the program. Thank you.
It doesn’t seem fair that the maximum amount of assistance available through the CARE program is the same everywhere. You will get a lot more done for $3,000 in Yellowknife than in Aklavik. Will the Minister take local costs into account and adjust the CARE program? Thank you.
The Member makes a good point and it’s one that we’ve had discussions about as a corporation, the fact that it does cost more to do business in some of the higher arctic communities than it does in some of the South Slave communities.
We are looking at it. The Member referencing the $3,000, that would be the Preventative Maintenance Program. The CARE program actually has a maximum of $92,000 that folks can access to do repairs on their home. But the Preventative Maintenance Program is one that is designed and a lot of seniors take us up on that, for some maintenance on their homes. We are looking at the option of funding communities where the costs are a lot greater than some of the South Slave communities. Thank you.
When the Housing Corporation does repairs for public housing in small communities, could arrangements be made for its crew to assist private homeowners? Thank you.
We’re quite proud of the fact that in some of our small communities a lot of the work that is done on public housing units is from people within the community. As far as assisting, I mean, there are opportunities there to assist people that need to repair their own homes. Obviously, there is going to be a cost to it, because it’s not part of our mandate. It is home ownership and homeowners are responsible for all maintenance of their unit. However, we do have a lot of programs that are designed to assist homeowners wanting to do some repairs on their units. The option is there but it’s not one that we would consider because we need those folks to be doing the work on the public housing units and then home ownership can make other arrangements. Or they may use them, but again, it’s the cost to the homeowner. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have no further questions at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today my questions will be for the Minister of ITI.
To set the tune, I guess, for today’s questions, tourism, promotional monies, our territory versus the Yukon. Very similar in nature and I think it’s a great comparison tool. Our territory spends just under $4 million a year and we turn over about $110 million to the economy at about 70,000 guests and people that visit us every year. In retrospect, the Yukon spends twice as much – about $9 million – and they get about $200 million to the economy and over probably four times more visitors.
With that, I want to ask the Minister, obviously under the terms of the 2012-2013 marketing plan, under that plan there is an approved Tourism Marketing Advisory Committee. This is under the watchful eye of the Minister. Can the Minister indicate to me that all monies and all provisions of monies for marketing – because again, monies are important – translates to dollars here for the economy? Have all monies been given and all opportunity given to this marketing arm so that they can ploy their strategies? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. That question is similar to one that I had responded to from MLA Menicoche earlier during this session. He was saying that we are cutting back the marketing initiative to NWT Tourism. But, in fact, that is not the case. There is, through Tourism 2015, marketing money, and I believe that this isn’t the case. I would be more than happy to discuss this situation with NWT Tourism. Thank you.
The Minister is indicating a 2015 initiative. I’m referring to the 2012-2013 marketing plan initiative. Again, can we get clarification whether or not there have been any holdbacks of monies for initiatives or marketing initiatives for this fiscal year? Thank you.
I am not aware of any. I’ve got that question into the department, again, in relation to some of the comments made earlier during the sitting of the House. I will try to get a response back to the Members. There may be some confusion over some of the marketing money and how it rolls out to the organization. If that is the case, we’ll try to iron things out so that folks know that there is no holdback. That money is going to be available. Thank you.
Again, I do appreciate the Minister for coming forward with that. Can the Minister indicate, if he is indeed looking into that, when would we be able to expect that to the House? Thank you.
As soon as I get some clarification on where the confusion is, I will get that information to the Members of this House. I believe it is in relation to $400,000 for marketing under the Tourism 2015 plan, and we’ll get that ironed out for the Members.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice.
In December I asked the question to the Minister of Justice regarding the establishment of mental health diversion courts. This mechanism is commonly used to more effectively deal with the high numbers of offenders suffering from mental illnesses and addictions. It also avoids the administrative cost burdens that will result from the new Bill C-10 provisions that we discussed earlier.
I’ve since met with the Ministers of Justice and Health and Social Services to discuss mental health diversion courts and wellness courts, and the Minister promised actions and confirmed them in a written reply to my oral question. I’m asking: Could the Minister update us on the status of this work since December, including the research he mentioned is underway on the Yukon wellness court? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Justice, Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Work continues to be ongoing. As a matter of fact, our director of court services has just got back from the Yukon, where she was meeting with counterparts in the Yukon to review the actual wellness court that exists in that jurisdiction. We aren’t looking at just that model. We are looking at a number of models and pulling information together.
Currently, a terms of reference to support the work of the interdepartmental committee, which will examine the feasibility of a specialized court as well as consider ways to improve service delivery for mental health services, has just been completed. Those terms of reference are now up and running. From there we’re going to develop a work plan. We hope to have the work plan done by the end of August, and then work on the analysis done by the end of this fiscal year, so we can share it with committee and Members to figure out the next step and which model we want to pursue, how we want to move forward. We have to have those three steps done by the end of this fiscal year.
I appreciate that update from the Minister. In the December statement, the Minister said he would be working with the Health Minister on prevention and treatment options, and I think that’s what the Minister was talking about. I’m wondering, given that this work is ongoing, and hopefully we’re going to come up with a good solution, is the Minister aiming at avoiding the costs of Bill C-10 through his prevention program or is his strategy to come up with the dollars for new facilities and services and so on. What is the goal? What is the strategic direction of this Minister in consultation with his other colleagues taking?
Madam Speaker, if and when we get this court in place, this will obviously be a particular tool that is available to us to help offset the cost by keeping some of the low-risk offenders out of our facility. It is something we need to do. It is something that we are pursuing. As I indicated, we hope to have something available to share with Members so we can actually set a direction on which model we want to use.
In the meantime, we are managing within to make sure that we can handle the number of inmates coming into our facilities. We do know that we do need to upgrade the facility in Fort Smith, the female facility. That needs to be done regardless of Bill C-10 and that is something we need to do. We know that when we build it, we need to build it thinking about the future, not just the present. It will have to be larger than it is. We are focused on right now trying to manage the load, not have to pursue additional space and finding ways to get the lower risk inmates out of the facilities appropriately.
Madam Speaker, I would like to mention that, of course, this all started with motions in the 16th Assembly. There has been a lot of time for the government to react to those requests. We started discussions, I would say, within two weeks of being elected, so this has been going on since October. Every time that I meet, there are promises made of when they are going to… Now we are talking the end of August for plan at the end of this fiscal year.
Does the Minister find this satisfactory? How does he see it in terms of the timing of the consequences of this crime bill and the implementation of these ephemeral programs that keep receding in time? Thank you.
Madam Speaker, this is actually the first time that I have indicated any deadlines that we are going to be moving forward, in particular with the work plan for August 12th and then having a decision point for the end of the fiscal year.
Right now we don’t have a significant demand on our system. A lot of the acts on Bill C-10 haven’t actually come into effect yet, so we still have time. We are still in the planning phase, trying to make sure we can accommodate these changes when they come forward. We know this court is a valuable tool. We want to continue to pursue it, but honestly, we would rather get it right, than right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thanks for those comments from the Minister. I think we are at least in total agreement on the last statement he made. We do want to get it right.
One of the administrative mechanisms the Minister has mentioned is a move to an integrated case management, meaning that GNWT treatment and client service that work cooperatively to bring the various available programs to bear in helping individual clients. This would break down the cycles and improve the effectiveness of the individual programs. What progress has the Minister made on that front? Mahsi.
This is one of the items that is actually falling under the work plan and the terms of reference that I mentioned earlier. The departments, including MACA, Housing Corporation, Justice, Education and Health, have been working together on these types of initiatives, trying to find ways to break down some of these barriers. We will continue to do so. We will find some solutions hopefully that will improve service delivery in this area in particular. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. As you all know, the Protected Areas Strategy initiative is a collaborative effort from two levels of government, including the federal government and the GNWT, also along with NGOs, First Nations, and it has been an initiative that has been fairly successful throughout the Northwest Territories. It makes the effort to identify special ecological cultural futures of community initiatives and to try and set aside those lands for protection. Can the Minister give an update of the various PAS initiatives across the NWT? Mahsi.
