Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I thank the Minister for that. In the interview the project manager did with the CBC he said the bridge’s general contractor, it will be up to them to figure out how to make up the lost time and pay for any added costs. I’d like to ask the Minister, is that exactly how this is going to work? Thank you.
Yes, but, Mr. Speaker... Mr. Speaker, that’s correct, but if there are any issues that arise that are attributed to something we’ve done or that are under our responsibility, then we would have to absorb those costs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about NGO funding, multi-year funding. We have a fine group of volunteers in Hay River who went to some amount of work out of a genuine concern for offering services and programs to persons with disabilities in Hay River. We should have multi-year funding. They ended up with funding for one year. The funding was late in coming. There was no discretionary latitude applied to the money that they had received to allow them to re-profile some of those funds for the months that had been lost while they waited for approval.
I realize that we need to have accountability for contribution agreements that we make to NGOs. There needs to be accountability, but we need to find a balance between burdening those NGOs down with endless compiling of statistics, and reporting, and report writing, and application proposal writing, with actually doing the work that they want to do and that is on the front-line helping those people. I can tell you that the program in Hay River has been extremely successful.
I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services and Minister responsible for Persons with Disabilities, what can we do in the future to avoid this?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Listening to her questions as well as the Member’s statement, I want to say first off that we do provide multi-year funding to organizations. We review them on a case-by-case basis. So I want to state that to start with.
There are two issues the Member is raising. One is there are some specific situations here that happened with respect to this organization whereby they asked to make adjustments specifically, and I would like to look into that and I can commit to look into those details and see how we could accommodate. Secondly, I will undertake also to see if we could look into doing multi-year funding with this organization.
It seems like it would be a lot of work to judge each application, each proposal, each funding agreement individually. Are there not guidelines, parameters that, for example, four months into a fiscal year an NGO has their funding approved? In the meantime they have not been able to procure the services of an office manager or Internet services or different things that they would have on a monthly basis. Then they receive their funding four months into that fiscal year for the full year, but they’re only allowed to spend per month what was in the proposal. Is there not a standard? Would it really require the Minister to judge those individually or could there not be a standard policy whereby if the NGO was seen worthy of that contribution, that they would also been found to be worthy to make a judgment call about, for example, increasing the hours for the remainder of that fiscal year for their office personnel, for example?
Ideally when a group gets funded they should be given enough notice to make adjustments between fiscal years and to be able to plan. I’m not sure if you need a multi-year arrangement to do that, because an argument could still be made that even if you had a multi-year, if there’s some kind of an operational and procedural delay, that’s the issue there in what the Member is saying. Without knowing details of the situation, I don’t know what happened to have the delay and also why some of those very specific adjustments that were requested were denied. I think we should leave room for some of the financial accounting rules or some other rules that we’re not aware of in this Chamber that our officials are asked to follow. This is why I’d rather undertake to look into this and get back to the Member with a more detailed answer. I am willing to be open-minded to look at some options.
In the case of this particular NGO I would certainly be happy to provide the detail to the Minister on the delay in approval, the delay in commencing the services that would normally be carried out by this office, and the amount of money that was related to that delay and get the Minister’s approval, I guess, if that’s the level that we have to take it to, to get the Minister’s approval to have that money re-profiled and reallocated for the remainder of that year. I’m happy to provide that to the Minister. I’m just hopeful that an NGO would not have to in all instances make such an application, that there would be something within the framework, within the policy of the funding and contribution agreements that would, when we know it’s a delayed approval, it’s a delayed receipt of funds in that year and so many months have gone by, that there would be a way of making a more blanket policy that that funding could be spent by that NGO in that remainder of the fiscal year.
I think I can safely state that just for our department there are lots of NGOs that we fund that are delivering many, many really substantive programming, like YWCA, Sally Ann, all of our...I don’t know. I don’t want to exclude anybody. They have the stability of funding. All those applications do not come up to my office where I need to review them. So I think we need to accept that there are different types and sizes and characters of NGOs and I want to assure the Member that I don’t micromanage in that way. This is why I just want to undertake to look at this situation and see what happened from an accounting and procedural point of view. I will look to see if this group is one that could be considered for multi-year funding, if that’s what could have prevented what’s happening here. It’s because there are so many kinds of NGOs it’s hard for me to say that we could just do a blanket approach in this way.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services and follow up on my Member’s statement. I looked at the Minister’s statement on Nutrition Month and I see a real focus of programs on obesity. Poor nutrition during the youngest years for people, though, is a likely reason for nutrition-related issues like obesity in older children and adults. Yet the Minister’s statement offers no programs that actually put nutritious food in the mouths of our youngest citizens. Why is that?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member knows that it’s the Department of Education, Culture and Employment that has programming for providing support for food in schools. Education, Culture and Employment has extensive school nutrition programs.
I’m certainly aware of a number of programs that have been dropped from our programs. This House is on repeated record calling for providing nutritious food or subsidizing milk for our youngest people that are not receiving a nutritious diet. What has the Minister done either within the Department of Health and Social Services or in concert with her ECE colleague to serve the will of the House on these directions?
A large part of the work that we do in the Department of Health and Social Services is health promotion. Our staff is out there promoting healthy eating habits, dangers of child obesity, just eating healthy and not abusing things that are harmful to us. The pre-natal and post-natal health; there is so much work we do. In the past the government has reduced the power rates in the communities and that really helps with the cost of food in our smallest communities. As well, we have increased food mail programs. Not food mail, food basket. I think it’s important that we understand that there are many departments that are involved in the issue that the Member is raising.
There was a brief program for a school nutrition coordinator to serve three school boards, funded under the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative. Is this program still running or has this gone the way of other programs and, as the dodo bird, is extinct?
I would need to look into that specifically, but I am aware, in visiting a lot of schools in our communities, that they do serve these programs and we have lots of food programs in the communities. The information from Education, Culture and Employment is that under NWT funded programs we have spent almost $600,000 and that under federally funded, with resources managed by GNWT programs, we have provided funding to almost every region to help with Healthy Food for Learning, Drop the Pop, Health Promotion Fund, Together for Healthy Living, Breakfast for Learning. There are lots of programs that Education, Culture and Employment provides, as well as Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Almost all of which seem to be ending or dropping out of our routine programs. We need responsible parents who provide their children with proper nutrition and breakfast before school, but for those children with parents who cannot meet this responsibility, for whatever reason, does the Minister agree that we should just let the children suffer the consequences or, indeed, should we work on both fronts and work with both parents and children until that capacity can be achieved?
Of course not. I could tell you that under NWT funded programs, under Healthy Food for Learning Education, Culture and Employment provides: $94,685 for Beaufort-Delta; $6,867 for Commission Scolaire; $50,488 for Deh Cho; $49,000 for Tlicho; $44,000 for Sahtu; $64,000 for South Slave; $23,989 for YCS; $45,000 for YK1. That’s just one column. I could provide the Member with the list. While we speak about the need to do things, I think we should be careful about just sweeping generalizations, saying that in a very kind of very mean way, I must say.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about past efforts to get northern issues on the table for discussion and certainly commitments during federal campaigns. In the past, former-Premier Handley has done this as well as, I’d like to note, even Premier Roland during the last election followed suit on the particular issue of raising questions to get responses from both candidates who are striving for that much coveted seat of Western Arctic and of course getting it from the national parties.
My question for the Premier is: does he intend to follow this particular practice if an election is called in the next while, while Members are between sittings of the Assembly of the House, and how will he discuss this particular issue with Members to get their points of view to ensure that the right questions are asked to the candidates in these parties on commitments for the North?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Indeed we have made it a practice as the Government of the Northwest Territories when a federal election is on, to put our positions forward on where our key concerns lie. We’ve done that, for example, around climate change and our infrastructure in the North. We start by using the goals and vision of the Assembly and follow up through clarifying it as we have usually, through a Caucus process. I’d be prepared to go to Members with what our positions are existing, as we have them, and follow up with e-mails so that if an election were to be called we’d have some framework that we could send out to potential candidates.
That’s the exact type of answer I’m certainly looking for and certainly constituents of mine. Recognizing that the Assembly is a non-partisan Assembly, it makes it very difficult to support one party over the other.
Would the Premier have any specific plans on how to articulate the answers provided by both the national parties and the individual candidates to make sure that, first of all, our questions are out there and certainly that the answers are meeting the needs of Northerners? That’s part of the issue out there, is people want to know what the national parties will bring to the table to show that they’re committed to supporting the North.
We’ll follow up. Again, we don’t know if an election is going to be called, when an election is going to be called and all that timing, but we have made it a practice as the Government of the Northwest Territories to get our issues out there so that they can be discussed, part of commitments made, hopefully, by potential candidates in a federal election, and we follow it up with Members in writing, I believe, to that rule. We’ll continue to use the same practice. Thank you.
It may be difficult to answer today, but I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing some creativity from the Premier on this particular issue. How do you think we could get the commitments made by the national parties out there to our northern citizens? I want to make sure that they earn the seat of Western Arctic. I don’t want anybody to get an easy ride and realize that the Government of the Northwest Territories is standing by supporting either one candidate and not another or, of course, making sure that the people have a full digest as to the commitments people are willing to make from a national point of view of to how to support this Legislature and the people of the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I wouldn’t mind hearing some possible ideas as to how the Premier can get that message out from the federal parties, if there is an election called, on their clear commitments on how they plan to support the North. Thank you.
Again, because, as the Member stated, we’re non-partisan in this Assembly, we have the same questions go to the candidates and we follow it up with the leaders of the parties with our positions. Much of the work on implementation to see the proof in the pudding, I think what the Member is looking for, is something we make it our job as a government to follow through on. Our request for infrastructure commitment requests, for some political leadership on some files like climate change, like infrastructure, like the Mackenzie Valley Highway, like the pipeline. Those things, again, we follow through with and we follow through with notifying Members. I believe we had a practice of trying to put it out there for responses and, again, we’ll look to the practice and precedent we’ve set in the responses received. Thank you.
Your final supplementary question, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I’d like to define the Western Arctic seat is a much coveted seat by all the parties in their desperation to get a majority. I wouldn’t want to give them an easy ride and assume that it will go one way or the other, I think they should fight hard and earn that seat, Mr. Speaker.
I guess my last question to the Premier would be: would the Premier see either good value of the territorial government publicizing all answers provided by national parties on northern particular issues as they respond to questions from this government about how they plan to commit and further support this government on its endeavours to work for the people of the Northwest Territories? That’s the kind of thing that I think the everyday citizen of our North deserves, to find out what the actual parties are willing to do, because, Mr. Speaker, elections don’t come every day and we want clear commitments we can hold their feet to the fire. Even though it’s one seat, they all want this seat, and it’s an important one we should consider and not forget. Thank you.
The Member does have a flair for making statements in this Assembly. Clearly, as the Member is a veteran of elections and election processes, he knows that any election process is a very difficult one, whether it is at a constituency level for the Legislative Assembly or the bigger picture of the Northwest Territories. Of course, we have an interest, as representatives of the people of the North, to try to get the best voice out there and a commitment to what we’re trying to do as the Legislative Assembly. We have, I believe, established a past practice of communicating with potential candidates, leaders of those parties, and then providing that information to residents of the North, so we’ll follow past practice. Thank you.
The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are to the Minister responsible for the Department of Justice and are a follow-up on my Member’s statement.
I talked about V-Day North today, where a local organization over the last two years has raised $25,000 to help increase awareness on violence against women and also to help break the cycles of violence in the Northwest Territories. Clearly, prevention and treatment are critical to helping break the cycle of violence. To that end, V-Day North has actually asked me to ask the Minister of Justice today: what is the Department of Justice doing to help victims break this cycle of violence here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Through our consultation with the communities and also our partners with various organizations such as the RCMP and NGOs and other organizations and interdepartmental as well, we provide various programs. One of our priorities, of course, is prevention and preventive measures, and also the Member referred to the treatment, how we can have a program in place that those individuals, the victims who are seeking out some sort of support from our organizations in the Government of the Northwest Territories. Through that, there have been some programs such as I just highlighted today in my Minister’s statement, the Victim Notification Program that’s going to be rolled out, the program for men that’s going to be rolled out, we’re hoping, this fall, and also Domestic Violence Treatment Option Court, which is scheduled to be rolled out this month as well. Those are just some of the captions of the programs that we deliver to develop a preventative measurement in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
I listened, with interest, to the Minister’s statement today and I’m very happy that this Victim Notification Program is going to be implemented. I didn’t catch the title, but it’s the Domestic Violence Treatment Option Court that’s going to be rolled out later this year. Can the Minister tell us how that is intended to help break the cycle of violence? What is the value in that program in breaking that cycle? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Domestic Family Violence Treatment Option Court Program has been developed through the court proceedings and it has the involvement of a chief judge, Chief Judge Gorin, Judge Gagnon. The Department of Justice, my department, is working closely with them. The Public Prosecution of Canada, the RCMP and the defence bar are the parties that are involved in developing this program. The program will be delivered here in Yellowknife, working closely with the offenders and also the low-risk offenders.
Mr. Speaker, we feel that this is a great opportunity to work within the court system that will provide some sort of a preventive measure. Those individuals that are going through the court proceedings, certainly we don’t want them to come back to face those crimes again. Again, this is just one of those programs that we’re going to be rolling out this month and we’re looking forward to successful results, based on the discussions that we’ve had.
Thanks to the Minister for that. Is this program, the Domestic Violence Treatment Option, starting off as a pilot or is it a fully established program? The Minister did say that it’s going to be rolled out here in Yellowknife. Violence doesn’t just occur in Yellowknife. Can we expect to see this program rolled out into other communities throughout the Northwest Territories so that we can get some people who are committing these violent acts the treatment and the support they need to break this cycle of violence? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this program, as I stated, will be rolled out this month. It will be a program for the Northwest Territories that will be delivered here in the capital of the Northwest Territories. At the same time, I did commit to the standing committee, when I presented to them on this specific program, that one of our goals is to deliver this into the regions outside the Yellowknife jurisdiction and potentially going into the communities. That will take some time, Mr. Speaker, but that’s one of our goals as the department, that we want to roll out the program into the regions. The communities will be offset, covered in that respect. Mahsi.
Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward, like I said, to seeing the results of this program. It sounds good. Between that and the Victim Notification Program, I think some good work has really been done in the department. But as I talked in my statement, the V-Day North has been rolling money into the community to help break the cycles of violence and one of the organizations that they have been giving some money to help them break that cycle of violence is the Centre for Northern Families. I know that many departments in this government are supporting the Centre for Northern Families in different ways and I know that there are some difficulties there. I’m wondering what, if any, money the Department of Justice is flowing to the Centre for Northern Families to help them break this cycle of family violence and what this department could do to support the Centre for Northern Families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Member is correct that a number of departments are providing funding to the Centre for Northern Families. ECE, Health and Social Services, NWT Housing Corporation and the Executive provide just over $600,000 to deliver programs and services such as the Early Childhood Program in different areas, outreach workers and the shelter funding, emergency shelter. Within the Justice department, through community justice programming, we are going through the review or programming of the dollars that are being contributed to the communities. We have to work with the organizations such as the community government or the band council. Through that venue, there’s money available. Again, there are other possible funds that may be available to various organizations. I can provide some of the programming that we may have available to the organizations. Mahsi.
The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have some questions on the Deh Cho Bridge for the Minister of DOT. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me if the entire management structure for the Deh Cho Bridge is the sole responsibility of DOT or is there any management outside of DOT for the Deh Cho Bridge? Thank you.
