Debates of March 10, 2009 (day 26)

Mr. Speaker, as I advised the Member, we are still working with the Government of Canada to try and see if there is some way we can apply some of this funding to the project that has already been completed in Norman Wells. We will continue to work on that. If we get some information on that, I will pass it on to the Member and the community of Norman Wells. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the town of Norman Wells would be very appreciative of the Minister’s response. I want to ask the Minister in terms of another source of funding under the Emergency Measures Fund, or are there other emergency funds his department has that could also help with this situation?

Mr. Speaker, again, the town of Norman Wells identified a need and they were protecting some infrastructure. I will assure the Member that MACA will explore all of our options in trying to access funding for the project in Norman Wells. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, again, the town will be very appreciative of the response here. In terms of this situation here, can I ask the Minister in terms of instructing his officials when they do meet with us, what constitutes emergency measures such as a situation like this with Norman Wells? Does this type of funding that the town is requesting fit in some type of policy that constitutes an emergency for this situation?

Mr. Speaker, I would imagine that this would fit under an emergency, as this seawall needed to be built to protect their infrastructure. As I advised the Member, I will be bringing all this forward with the department and we will see what kind of options we have and I will advise the Member and the community of Norman Wells. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement, I talked about a number of policies. I have some questions in regards to the comments in my statement for the Minister of Human Resources. My first question would be to know what policies exist that apply to employees within the GNWT public service. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a code of conduct for employees respecting conflict of interest. We also have an oath of secrecy for employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister and those are the ones that I was aware of as well. By the way, both of those policies are quite valid and they should be there. I think they are important. Relative to some of the comments that I made in my statement that employees are required to report activities to their supervisors, could the Minister advise us whether or not there is an established practice or procedure to request activities outside of an employee’s work environment from the employee? Thank you.

The code of conduct that I referred to outlines responsibilities of employees as to how to prevent themselves from getting into conflict of interest situations and the reporting requirements I am not aware of any reporting requirements for the examples that the Member used in her Member’s statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister. I totally agree that if any employee is involved in an activity that could put them in a conflict or could leave them in a situation where they have access to confidential information, that should not be shared publicly. So I fully agree with the policies that are there, but is the Minister aware -- if he doesn’t know of a practice or procedure -- of instructions that are given to managers, deputy ministers, directors, or senior managers to find out from their employees what activities they are involved in?

I’m not aware of any specific directions that are given to deputy ministers or senior managers other than I know that most employees take it upon themselves to report to their supervisors if they are involved in any organizations and so on, just to be on the safe side, I presume.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I guess that sounds to me as though employees of their own free will are providing this information. That’s not the impression that I was given when I got this information. I would like to ask the Minister if he would be willing to look into this situation and to determine whether or not there are managers who are asking for this information as opposed to taking it from the employee when they offer it of their own free will.

Certainly, Mr. Speaker, I’ll endeavour to do that. Certainly we don’t want employees reporting on things that we have no interest or no need to be involved with.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today was on the income support cheques and regarding the way they’re distributed to the communities. Will the government re-evaluate the way income support cheques are distributed and how various government departments deal with residents in the small communities?

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Member did bring that to my attention a while ago about distribution of cheques into the small community, whether it be some sort of non-cash item in the stores. Some family members are not getting the actual food that they should be getting. Those are the areas we are seriously looking at, how we can distribute a certain amount, whether it be the cheques or vouchers to the stores, so that the families can certainly benefit from it. I’m glad the Member is raising this issue because it is important to us, the well-being of the children and the community.

Will the government commit to develop a true one-stop shop for all government support services?

Certainly that is one of our goals when we transfer the program, the one-stop shop that we’ve been talking about here in the Assembly. We continue to do so; provide various subsidies in a one-window approach. So we continue to improve in that area. However, if we can improve in certain areas, we’d like to hear from the Members as well. Certainly that will be one of our mandates to move forward, to have a one-stop approach.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue that I raised today in my Member’s statement will be the focus of my questions to the Minister of Justice. I keep raising the issue of fair rent for working families. My first question to the Minister of Justice is, what is stopping his department from looking into the issue of some type of rent control that provides protection for working families due to increased cost to the rent?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The rent control is a separate issue that we’re currently talking about here. That area will definitely have, whether it be positive or negative, impacts. We realize that other jurisdictions do have rent control and we have reviewed that. We have investigated that. There are pros and cons. We can certainly share that with the standing committee if we need to move in that direction. The local contractors may not be able to build units if they can’t control the rent. So those are the areas that we seriously looked at. We continue to do more research in that area.

With respect to how the rental officer deals with issues or complaints that are brought to attention on notification of rent increase given notice, those are the areas that the rental officer is in charge of. We continue to work with that.

I would like to ask the Minister of Justice if he would take on the initiative to consult with people in a public way on their feelings regarding rent control and the matter of providing reasonable protection for renters and, at the same time, provide reasonable protection for landlords who have to make sure they cover their costs and make a reasonable profit. Would the Minister take on that challenge and create some type of public discussions so that we can have some public awareness and some real, true public feedback on this issue?

Certainly this is one area we need more consultation with the general public. It will be, I guess, a bigger discussion that we need to have within this Legislative Assembly. We need to hear the input of the general public. We can certainly work towards that with the Members of the standing committee on how we can pursue that.

The Minister had said we need more consultation with the public and then he said a few other things I didn’t quite write down, but he also said works towards this with the standing committee. I just want to be clear, in my experience here, that almost sounded like a commitment that the Department of Justice will investigate this issue and create some type of public dialogue. Can I get that clearly on the record today, that the Minister of Justice will create some type of dialogue framework or discussion paper, get out, speak to committee as well as speak to the public?

As the Minister responsible for Justice, I continue to work with the standing committee and I certainly don’t want to run with the legislation without consultation with the standing committee. As a commitment from my perspective portfolios and also this government, we need to consult with the standing committee. I will continue to do so. I’m making a commitment to work with the standing committee on a moving-forward basis.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. Can I get some clarification from the Minister when the particular committee, which would be the Standing Committee on Social Programs, when does he expect to be able to reach out and create some type of discussion with that committee before going public with the public discussion paper on the issue of fair rent for working families?

I did mention in this House that there is a business plan in process that will be underway after session concludes. That’s when we can start opening a discussion with the standing committee. I’m willing to meet with the standing committee and we will continue with our dialogue on how we can improve our program.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice in response to his Minister’s statement on improving family law services. I’m quite pleased to hear the announcement that they’re going to be moving or setting up a new mediation project with a roster of five mediators. I know that a number of Members in this House, both in the House and in the back hall, have been encouraging the department to go in this direction of setting up a mediation process.

My first question is just a question for clarity to the Minister responsible. Is this mediation going to be mandatory or is it going to be optional?

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I think on a long-term basis we’d like to have this on a mandatory basis. I did mention in my Minister’s statement that other jurisdictions do provide it on a mandatory basis. We’ll continue to work towards that. This is a new program we want to initiate. We’d certainly like to look at the pros and cons of the particular program, but that’s a long-term commitment that we have within our Justice department.

I’d like to thank the Minister for that. I think it’s a great program. I’m really happy to hear that they’re looking to going mandatory. I’ve done some research on this as well, and everything that I’ve seen has suggested that mandatory will save us a lot of money. To the Minister, how long do you think it will be until we can make some sort of decision as to whether or not we are going to make this mandatory for the sake of the children?

Certainly the program will be rolled out within a couple of weeks, three weeks. Certainly we will continue to monitor the program itself and how the program is going, and also looking out for other jurisdictions and how their program is doing, with mandatory or without mandatory. We can probably say late fall we’ll certainly look at this as if it could be mandatory at that time. Certainly we need to have some time to deliver the program, see how it turns out. From there we’ll certainly decide to move forward and we’ll certainly give the standing committee an update at that time.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is also for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It’s regarding my Member’s statement earlier today. I’m wondering if funding to daycares...Well, we know it fluctuates quarterly in unpredictable ways. I’d like to know what we are doing to stabilize that funding and make it more predictable for daycares so they can provide consistent service.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly I appreciate the Member’s comment on this area. This is one of the priorities within our government, within our own department as well. Early childhood and the daycare facilities, the daycare funding is a priority for us. We do provide ongoing funding. We have increased our funding as well. Back in 2007 we increased our contribution to licensed, non-profit, early childhood providers by 30 percent. So through investment of $600,000. Also, 2007-2008 we included funding to assist eligible providers with basic rent or mortgage expenses. So the subsidy can contribute a maximum of 25 percent rental towards the mortgage expense. So those are areas we continue to improve in our programs and we continue to monitor and evaluate our programs where we need to increase funding.

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. I really am appreciative of the increased funding and the help with mortgages for daycares. Specifically on the consistency and providing predictable funding, which would really help budgeting for these daycare centres, do we still penalize the daycare centres when a child is missing for five consecutive days? Do we still penalize them financially? And are we still assessing the daycares four times a year instead of providing them funding on the basis of average attendance?