Debates of June 8, 2006 (day 8)

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member from Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize the new president of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Jeff Polakoff.

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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Polakoff has experience in the Northwest Territories. He worked for the Housing Corporation in the '70s and '80s in Inuvik and here in Yellowknife. Mr. Polakoff comes from Manitoba where he served as the executive director of the Manitoba Housing Renewable Corporation and also he’s a director of housing for long-term care with the Inuvik Regional Health Authority. So with that, I’d like to welcome Jeff and I look forward to working with him. Thank you.

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Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member from the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize two of the Pages from Fort Good Hope, the Kakfwi ladies, Courtney Kakfwi who is in Grade 8 and the other Kakfwi, Jennifer Kakfwi. So we’re covered by the Kakfwis. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member from Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the president of the Native Women’s Society of the NWT, the president of the Seniors’ Society in Res, my mother, Terry Villeneuve.

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Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member from Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Terry Villeneuve, a former constituent and anytime you want to move back to Simpson, please do. Thank you.

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Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I just have some caribou management issues that I wanted to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about some of the actions that he’s planning for the summer. The department is working with the Department of ITI to address some hardships resulting in the low numbers of caribou. I just want to ask the Minister how or what plans or how do they plan on addressing all the hardships in the smaller communities that aren’t seeing the caribou numbers like they used to? With the high price of food in a lot of these remote communities, have they come up with any ideas or recommendations on how the government is going to be addressing the hardships? Maybe he can just brief the House on those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Return To Question 83-15(5): Hardships Created By Declining Caribou Herds

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’ve identified that early on as one of the potential impacts if the declining herd numbers remain down and there’s restrictions to the hunt placed on hunters, but we don’t have a definitive answer yet. We’ve identified that as an area that we want to pay some attention to as we move through the coming months and into the next winter. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 83-15(5): Hardships Created By Declining Caribou Herds

Mr. Speaker, I just want to ask the Minister, I guess, if they haven’t really identified how to address the hardships, how to subsidize freight for food or give out food coupons in the remote communities that rely heavily on caribou and just not for the hunters and trappers and the harvesters in the communities, but are they going to take into consideration all the outfitters that are being affected by the low numbers that they’re allowed to harvest? Are they going to be included in the hardships that they’re going to address? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 83-15(5): Hardships Created By Declining Caribou Herds

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have an arrangement with the outfitters and we’ve set some targets in terms of quotas and we’re going to continue to work with them as the new numbers come in. In regards to the communities and the impact of the potential restrictions to the access to caribou, many of the examples or suggestions made by the Member are the very type of things that we’re looking at as possible ways to deal with the issue, but we haven’t come to any final conclusions. But we do know that this is an area that’s going to need some clear, undivided attention. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 83-15(5): Hardships Created By Declining Caribou Herds

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Definitely we need some real attention paid to the caribou management issue. I’m getting word from a lot of outfitters that they’re going to be closing their doors because of this new quota that the government has imposed on their operations and the caribou harvest that they’re allowed. I just wanted to ask the Minister about what I suggested last time, and what a lot of elders have also brought to my attention, about the quota on males only, which could lead to a further decline in the caribou herds or just weaker herds in general. I wonder if the Minister has considered changing that quota to not include the prime bulls in any of the herds or restricting them definitely to the outfitters, but also to the hunters and trappers and say well, you know, we don’t want to take all the prime leaders of the herd. Can the Minister make an amendment to his actions to accommodate that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 83-15(5): Hardships Created By Declining Caribou Herds

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand there’s leadership roles played by both bulls and cows and one of the concerns is with the shooting of cows, is that in many cases when cows are taken, you lose the potential of anywhere up to a dozen or so calves and I’ve heard many stories of pregnant cows being shot. So there’s a concern about the breeding stock, as the Member has indicated. The reality is, we have a bulls-only policy for the resident tag hunters, as well as the outfitters. It’s not a restriction at this point on the aboriginal harvest, but it is an issue that’s going to require discussion, because there are differing points of view and we’ve got to get the best advice as we move forward on this. But very clearly the concern is if you shoot cows only, that you’re going to lose tremendous breeding potential and we have to have the balance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 83-15(5): Hardships Created By Declining Caribou Herds

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just with regard to all the outfitters that have been affected by the drop in their quotas, I’m wondering if one suggestion that was brought to my attention is raising the number of tags that the outfitters in the northern North Slave region might be able to bounce back with is raising the number of tags for grizzly bear tags that they’re allowed to harvest in the northern part of the NWT. A lot of outfitters feel that if they raise those quotas -- the number of grizzly bears is definitely grown quite significantly with the amount of polar bear, human incidents that are arising in the mines and in the exploration camps and stuff -- will the government consider bringing the grizzly bear tags to the attention of the outfitters and say hey, you know, this is something that you probably could fall back on in the five years that this Caribou Management Strategy is going to be rolling out. Is that a consideration? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 83-15(5): Hardships Created By Declining Caribou Herds

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve met with the Barren Land outfitters, I’ve met with the Mackenzie Mountain outfitters and the issue of grizzly bear tags did come up. At this point, though, we haven’t made a firm decision. There is the option of looking at what are now considered defence kills and where grizzly bears are shot when they come into camp or are too close to humans and to see if there’s a potential offset in terms of tags. However, we have not reached a final decision on that particular issue. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. (Translation) Today I’d like to ask about the elders regarding housing. Sometimes when there’s a power outage, it’s hard for them to restart their furnace. (Translation ends)

…backup generator for Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home in Behchoko last February following a long period of power outages, which created an emergency in the community. The Minister has now had over three months to look into this matter or issue with the community and the staff. I would like to ask the Minister responsible of the Housing Corporation, is he now prepared to have a backup generator installed in the seniors’ home in Behchoko? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Return To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have not made that decision yet. We have been working with the community, the emergency measures people and also working with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation who have upgraded the power plant in Behchoko so it is able to operate when the power goes down by way of a backup system for the hydro system that comes offline. Because of these changes, we are hoping that once we have a final report, we will be able to meet the satisfaction of the community of Behchoko by way of having a backup system in place.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Supplementary To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me what the difference is between a seniors’ home in Behchoko and a seniors’ home in Hay River and Fort Smith which do have backup generators? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Mr. Speaker, since the Member raised this question in this House, we are looking at all our seniors’ facilities to ensure we have a system in place where they are going to be required and the extent of the emergencies that we can respond. Like I mentioned earlier, we are working with the emergency measures people, through MACA and the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, to ensure that when the power does go down in those communities, what is the backup plan to deal with these emergencies. So we are looking at it. I have not received the final report on it, so, for the Member’s information, we are considering this possibility.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Supplementary To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we talk about the value of our elders and the respect for our elders. I would like to ask the Minister, for the benefit of the elders and their families, why does it make more sense to put the health and lives of frail elders at risk by forcing them to travel to Yellowknife, away from their families and their communities in minus 45 degree temperatures, than to install a simple backup generator in the seniors’ home facility? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I have to sympathize with the Member and I am sorry for the incident that did occur. It was a natural occurrence where the power system went down when one of our towers collapsed under the weight of the ice that was on it. It was an unforeseen accident that occurred. The other situation we ran into was the backup system we had did not work because it was not maintained. So the Power Corporation has replaced the existing power plant in Behchoko with a modern power plant, so the system does work. We are trying to avoid this situation from happening again. Again, I want to apologize to the people of Behchoko for the incident, but we are doing everything we can to ensure that doesn’t happen again.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Supplementary To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you know, the summer is here already and the winter is not too far away. Can the Minister affirm, in this House, that he will expeditiously work with his department and identify the need for a backup generator in the community of Behchoko for this winter? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Mr. Speaker, if it’s okay with the Member, I would make an attempt to go into Behchoko with the Member and have an official opening of the power plant in Behchoko to show that we have a new power plant. It is up and running and it is going to work this time, so we don’t have the situation that we had last time where we had the hydro system go down and also a backup system go down. I commit to the Member that as soon as we have this system up and running, we will make an official visit to unveil it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Supplementary To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do accept the Member travelling to my community. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, we are talking about two different issues. Of course, there is the power outage and the backup generator for the seniors’ home in Behchoko. The backup generator is badly needed in the community. Even though the power has revived now, anything could happen with the power. I would like to ask the Minister again, if he happens to visit the community, sit down with the community and identify the need for a backup generator, can he commit to this House that there will be an investment in the seniors’ home in Behchoko? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 84-15(5): Alternative Power Source For Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Home In Behchoko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, having the facilities identified in our communities as a central emergency facilities that do have backup systems, again, it’s worked into our emergency measures plan with MACA, ourselves and other agencies. Again, because the situation happened in Behchoko, we have to see exactly the recommendations that come forward from the emergency measures report, review those recommendations and act on them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he can inform the people in the communities about the types of action plans his department has planned for serving the percentage of patients in the Stanton Territorial Hospital. What is he doing to provide good quality service that is serving the high percentage of aboriginal patients? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Return To Question 85-15(5): Aboriginal Wellness Services Available At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Stanton Territorial Hospital is an $80 million, 500 staff facility. It is our major tertiary care facility. The Member is correct; there is a high percentage of aboriginal population who use the service and we have been working with Stanton, with some of the MLAs over the last number of months and have been getting advice from elders across the Northwest Territories about how we can start to better incorporate traditional healing practices and wellness approaches into Stanton hospital. There has been a lot of work done. We’ve taken the time to go to other jurisdictions that have done interesting things like Whitehorse, like Sioux Lookout, we have been down to look at the Royal Alex in Edmonton. We are going to be bringing together an advisory group of elders who are going to sit down with Stanton and we are going to start mapping out some of the things we can do more effectively, keeping in mind that we already have a lot of good things underway in terms of interpreter services, the wild foods that we bring in and there are 15 aboriginal nurses now operating in Stanton, which is a real asset. So we want to continue to improve that service. The Member has been involved with the Social Programs committee and we are going to continue on that path. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 85-15(5): Aboriginal Wellness Services Available At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister also inform me and the House, the people of the Northwest Territories, are there any specific type of plans you would seek Stanton go out into a place where there will be units or places where the aboriginal people can have a unit similar to the Whitehorse General Hospital where there is a unit set aside for the needs of the aboriginal people? Thank you.