Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize my parents, Rocky Simpson and Betty Lyons, citizens of Hay River and constituents of Hay River South. Thank you, Mr. Speaker
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Betty and Rocky Simpson from Hay River South. Welcome.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the retirement of three individuals from Echo Dene School in Fort Liard: Kiatch Nahanni, who has taught for 30 years in the Dehcho; Dianne Nelson, who has taught 29 years in the NWT system and 14 years at the Echo Dene School; and her husband, Kevin Nowoselski, has 29 years within the NWT system and 14 years at the Echo Dene School. All three teachers have been great supporters of youth in the community and have done a great job impacting the youth, whether it's in the school or personal life. They will be sadly missed. I wish them all the best on their next adventure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the state of Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk, and my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, my first question is: in the past the department has said that Mangilaluk School was not at capacity and, yet, we are seeing overcrowding. How does the department evaluate school capacity, Mr. Speaker? Quyanainni.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We look at the capacity and the utilization rates, enrolment rates, we take everything into account, space needed in the classrooms to allow the students and the teachers to do their work in a safe environment. Mangilaluk School: it is a priority for our department and moving forward with the capital plans in the fall. We did just go do a tour in the Beaufort Delta and Tuk was one of the communities we visited. We did speak to the leadership there, we spoke with the education council chair as well as staff and faculty, and we did get a tour of the school and we do understand the issues that are with Mangilaluk School. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, my second question to the Minister is: when was the last time the Mangilaluk School's capacity was evaluated?
As I mentioned, the Mangilaluk School is on our priority list. We did go and do a needs assessment of the school. What we're looking at proposing is an additional 1,000 square metres in order to respond with our capital standards and criteria for NWT schools. We're also looking at upgrading to existing program areas to accommodate current program requirements and also do a mid-life technical retrofit that'll include an energy-efficient exterior building envelope.
As everything that comes through the government, whether it's hospitals, schools, roads, it does have to go through a capital budget review, and that's going to happen in the fall. We are going to be working with the Member to try to see how we can get this on the books for Tuk. Initially, when the school was built, it was built for kindergarten to grade nine. Now they've started offering more courses, specifically junior kindergarten as well as the secondary schools. Now we've got to look at reviewing it for junior kindergarten to grade 12, and that's what we plan on doing and hopefully get these in the capital budget in the fall time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that answered my last and final question. More of a comment and I look forward to working with the Minister on this.
Masi. I'll take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I talked about the reduction of crew sizes for firefighters across the territory. I'd like to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources questions. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise me how the overall crew configuration comes along with no actual job reductions? However, looking at it from a constituency point of view, there appears to be job reductions not only in one community of Fort Resolution, but I understand in Lutselk'e as well. I'd like to know where those positions have gone to, whether they have been amalgamated into other positions in the community or if they've left the community. Thank you.
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the department anticipated this, we did a review a while back, a couple of years, on where we were going with fire crews. Over the last two fire seasons we've gone to basically having four four-man crews there with casual staff hired in these positions. We're still anticipating hiring these two individuals as casuals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I didn't hear that very last part of the response. I'll continue on with my questions. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why positions were cut from small communities where seasonal and casual employees have no other options to find employment in the small communities?
Upon doing the review of the fire crews for the Northwest Territories, we changed from a five-man crew to a four-man crew and redistributed the resources territory-wide, and what the Member is saying is not totally accurate. We went from 28 crews to 36 crews across the Northwest Territories, and have added additional crews to a couple of communities, I think in Tsiigehtchic and Wekweeti.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the GNWT lays off positions or employees there's a process that help them identify new jobs where P1s have been eliminated. In situations where only the P1 is eliminated, whether it be filled by a casual or a seasonal employee, then that person that's impacted is the only one that has to deal with it. We need to go the extra mile to try to find positions. Can the Minister advise me what efforts were made to minimize the impacts on the change of the crew configuration so that people that used to be in those positions, maybe casuals, are given opportunities within that department or with other departments within the community? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In an attempt to minimize the impact of changes to the communities like Fort Resolution, ENR over the last two years, like I've said, has gone to only permanently hiring four out of the five-man crews. The fifth person for each crew has been hired on an as-and-when-needed basis as a casual for the summer.
Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if he can look at ways to ensure that PYs are restored in the communities. If the fifth firefighter in these communities is actually still there and still working as a casual, then that must mean that there's a function for the individual. I'd like to know if the Minister can restore the PY, whether it be in forest management or other areas that may be of interest to the casual or other areas within ENR mandate or other areas within the GNWT mandate to ensure that those PYs are not lost. Because they're not filled with actual positions, I can't really say employees, but it's just as important that the PYs remain in the small communities. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand the concern about PY positions in the communities. Moving forward, we will do what's deemed to fit the ENR's business practice as best as possible and we will continue to look at hiring as many people as possible in the communities as the fire season event moves on in the current fiscal year. We will try to hire more people as needed and we will be committed to that. ENR is always committed to hiring as many fire personnel in the communities as we can. I look forward to maybe discussing it with the Member. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my statement, households that depend on government for income are at greater risk of being hungry than other households with low income. The government has acknowledged this fact by raising the food allowance portion of income assistance. Can the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment confirm his commitment to follow through with increases to the food allowance in the next two fiscal years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member's correct in her Member's statement, the last time we increased the income assistance was on April 1, 2015. We're always reviewing our programs and services that we offer to our most vulnerable people and the ones that really need some of the basic needs.
I did field questions on this topic last week. Just some extra information out there. On April 1st we did increase it by 20 per cent, 2015. We also mentioned that in the Yukon they're looking at indexing, so we've got the department looking at what they're doing in the Yukon to see if there's any way we can reflect that. Obviously, there would be some changes that we would need to make within our regulations with the new announcement of the federal funding with the child tax, and we're trying to adjust those so that our low- to moderate-income families will see a significant increase. We have gone over those numbers yesterday during the business main estimates review in Committee of the Whole. We're working with the Members and we're also looking at what other northern jurisdictions are doing. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for that response. I just want to confirm with him that in fact there is a commitment to follow through with the increases scheduled earlier to the food allowance under income assistance.
As we went through our business planning review, as well as our main estimates review, and with the regulations, when those go through we're going to see a significant increase to our low to moderate-families, which the Member is bringing forward with the NWT Child Benefits and how we're going to be assessing those and addressing those now. There will be an increase to our families that have low income to moderate income. It's just going to take time, as we have to go through the regulations. We will see those increases as we move forward.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. Mr. Speaker, what efforts is the territorial government making to ensure that Nutrition North becomes a more useful program in the North for providing nutritious and affordable food? Thank you.
We're always working with other departments on how we can address some of the shortfalls in some of our communities, such as high cost of food. In 2014, we did develop a Northern Market Basket Measure. Every jurisdiction in the Northwest Territories does have a market basket measure, but it doesn't reflect what the costs are living in the Northwest Territories. We work with Yukon and we worked with Nunavut to create a Northern Market Basket Measure. We're using those statistics to reflect how we fund our income assistance. We’re also working with our other departments and with adjusting some of the high costs of food prices in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that answer. What I'm wondering in particular with Nutrition North, which is a federal program, is whether the territorial government is taking a role in trying to make Nutrition North a more useful program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Of course, Nutrition North has been a concern for all Northerners in the last few years. We want to see how we can work with our federal partners to make the program more feasible here in the northern communities, so definitely working with our federal counterparts to address those issues.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I asked questions to the Minister responsible for Homelessness about the Housing First plan. Unfortunately, the information we learned was incorrect. Housing First in the city of Yellowknife has made a commitment to house one person by the end of August 2016 this year, and 20 people over the life of the project, not just one person. I am wondering if today the Minister can explain why inaccurate information was provided to this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that comment about the 20 people and another in 2019. The City of Yellowknife has actually put forward in a meeting with the city councillors and the Yellowknife MLAs that they would be piloting one person this fiscal year. They also put it in their June 3rd in the media that they would be housing one person within this fiscal year to begin with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it's important that if this government is to invest in a real solution for homelessness, that we have a full understanding of all the options available to us. Housing First remains a viable option, and there's a big difference between building new shelter spaces and empowering people with their own homes. I'm wondering if the Minister today will commit to reconsider her plan and commit to matching the current funding for Housing First so we can address more of the critically chronic homeless who are in need and using 51 per cent of our emergency services.
The Minister is committed to addressing homelessness. We have put forward our agreement to partner with the city of Yellowknife within their Housing First model of housing one person, hopefully within the next three years to get 20 people in.
However, coming from this community, I know that if we were to only sit back and support only one agency providing one model, it probably would not be the most efficient use of our funds. To house one person within the community would not make a significant dent, and the other model would provide for 30 people. I must say that the other model is following a Housing First model as well, because Housing First does not only belong to the city; it belongs to whoever wants to use it. Even though the shelters will be using it, the location of the units will be separate.
There is already one agency within Yellowknife, actually, that does use the model that we are looking at, and that is the YWCA within their Rockhill. They have done this model for many years and they have shown it is successful, so if we have a model that is successful within our community, why would we not duplicate that so we can get more people into housing?
Certainly, the Minister is an expert in this field, and I respect her expertise, but I also am a Yellowknifer and I know that this problem is only getting worse, and when you look at the evidence-tested, proven methods that have worked across the country, Housing First is a clear model, a specific model that gives consumer choice and empowers people. That's what we are talking about today. I am wondering if the Minister will clarify her comments yesterday, this plan to expand the shelters to house 30 people. Construction will begin in the summer is what the Minister said yesterday. Can the Minister clarify if these are new beds or homeless spaces that are being constructed, or if it is existing beds and they are providing more dollars to the shelters to care for more people?
As most Members may be aware, once the move goes into Housing First, then we are at risk of actually jeopardizing the emergency shelters. Emergency shelters will always be a necessity within the homeless population, especially in the North because we have such a transient population, so if I was to go out and put every single person into a house today, by tomorrow, perhaps even this evening, we would have more people. My obligation is as we move forward in the Housing First model, we need to make sure that our emergency shelters are sustainable, and through that, if they are only based on the amount that they are given now per bed night, then that is not a sustainable model. The second part of his question, will these be extra funding to the emergency shelters? The money will not go into the emergency shelter component. We are looking at totally different spaces for the shelters, and similar, I will again now use the agency that has showed the success within our community. The YWCA does have a family violence shelter, and separate from that, they have the Rockhill apartments, which is again a successful model of housing families. We are looking at a similar model to house men and females so that these shelters are sustainable and that Housing First is actually a model we are using, so totally separate from the emergency shelter, but within the same facilities that provide those services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
