I appreciate that and I will definitely work with the Minister if he’s asking for it.
As to the question of what the department is actually doing to mitigate these no-show rates, can the Minister clearly articulate what his department’s policy on addressing this issue is? Thank you.
Thank you. Recognizing that we have eight health and social services authorities in the Northwest Territories, each with their own unique challenges and their own unique realties, some being all community-based, some being more regional centre-based, some being hospital-based, like Stanton, each one of them has developed their own policy or their own procedures around trying to encourage people to attend their appointment. One thing we do, and all the authorities do, is I know that they do encourage people to let the authorities know, or the practitioners know, when they’re not going to be able to make it. That way appointments can be rebooked, but when people just don’t show up, that is a big problem and that’s something that, I agree with the Member, more work needs to be done. Each of the authorities has their own plan to deal with that because each authority is unique with their own unique challenges. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For my final question, everything we do or don’t do has a cost to the taxpayer.
Can the Minister quantify and indicate to the House what is the potential financial impact on the entire health care system with these no-shows? Thank you.
Thank you. It would be very difficult to give an exact dollar figure for that because the reason an individual might not attend an appointment or, rather, the appointment the individual misses may have a significantly different cost than an appointment that another individual misses. So, just having a number of missed appointments doesn’t really help us quantify it. We would have to dig in for each appointment, figure out what the procedures that were supposed to be done would have been and work from there. This would take a significant amount of work. We do believe it’s significant.
I do agree with the Member that this is something that we need to continue to work on, and once again, I’m very interested in the Member’s opinions and thoughts on this with respect to his previous experience as a health provider outside of the public service. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask a question to the Minister of ITI. This morning on CBC we heard representatives from the Fort Nelson First Nation Band talk about the impacts of hydraulic fracking in the area. Certainly they have their challenges and it’s good to hear their stories for the Sahtu.
I want to ask the Minister, in regards to the activity that is happening up in the Sahtu region, has this department been calculating or analyzing some of the benefits that are going on with the recent economic development activities?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, there’s been some significant advancement in the Sahtu because of the activity that’s taking place there. In Tulita, for example, we’ve seen a number of Aboriginal-owned businesses in Tulita, be it six in 2010. Last year we had 28 Aboriginal-owned businesses in Tulita and I think that says a lot.
We’ve seen grocery sales go up 200 percent, vacancy rate at the hotels in Norman Wells are up around the 90 percent mark. We’ve seen a number of people be employed. You can also look at a figure like 150 percent in the amount of gas that’s been purchased. Grocery sales are up 300 percent. There is obviously a lot happening. There is a lot of money being spent in the Sahtu. A lot of people are working, and some other telling statistics are we’ve seen the amount of income support – and I know this question came up in the House the other day on income support – in the Sahtu drop by $1 million in the last two years. I think that’s a great figure to put out there. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, going back to the two ladies, the chief and the lands director from Fort Nelson, they talked about striking a balance. Certainly we hear the benefits that Mr. Ramsay indicated. Now we are talking about striking a balance of the economic benefits plus looking at the sustainability of our land, water and animals. Mr. Ramsay communicated with the Minister of ITI. We are actually on the verge of a huge turning point in the Northwest Territories.
Is there some type of discussion with his department and ENR, saying we need to look at balance with the land and with the economic development that is happening in the Sahtu?
Mr. Speaker, certainly that is our goal going forward, is to have an integrated approach to resource management here in the Northwest Territories involving the departments of ITI, ENR and also the new Lands department. That’s something that we’re very excited about. We believe we can strike a balance. We believe we can protect the environment, have sustainable development and also see the economy grow, providing the much needed jobs and opportunities for the people that live in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
That’s good to know. Would the Minister then look at some type of forum so that people in the Sahtu, people in the Northwest Territories could have that discussion as to the types of regulations we have with the Land and Water Board and environmental types of agreements in place with the economic development activity, have that forum or summit in the Sahtu so that we can properly negotiate our way through this type of activity that is happening in our region?
Mr. Speaker, I have committed to looking at a readiness session in the Sahtu sometime in the very near future. Perhaps as part of that readiness session, we could also look at an information session on devolution, what it means, how things are going to work, and that would be perhaps very beneficial for residents in the Sahtu.
I know our government has done a tremendous amount of communications, getting word out in newspapers, on radio and through town hall meetings that we’ve had. Certainly, if there is more of an appetite out there for information on devolution and how it works, that’s something we could certainly look at. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the amount of dollars going into the Sahtu and people having that type of opportunity, those are some good things that people are doing with the money. There are also some things that people are not doing so well. With this type of readiness session sometime in the future, hopefully it will be in the next five months, we want to look at the social impacts.
Recently, we’ve seen lots of liquor being confiscated by the RCMP. We need to talk about some of the social issues. Will that be part of the forum?
If we were to expand that type of discussion, that certainly would involve other departments. I know when we’ve had the readiness session in the Sahtu in the past, other departments were involved. From the social side of things, we could look at including other departments again in discussions in the readiness session that will be held in the Sahtu again in the near future. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. While I was asking questions to the Minister of Public Works yesterday, he mentioned that if the community was in support of building the parking lot for Moose Kerr School, he would look towards that. The community does have a motion that they would like to see action taken on that.
I would like to ask the Minister of Public Works, will the Minister ensure they stockpile gravel to build a pad at the school in Aklavik before the spring is over? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Department of Public Works ensures that the community has a stockpile in each community for the work that’s required during that year. In 2013, the haul this year, we had a plan to put a stockpile in Aklavik and we were advised by the community that there was a local contractor that had sufficient stockpile of granular material that we could use, so we didn’t stockpile any further, but we think there’s enough material there for us to do our work.
Is the Minister saying that they do have enough gravel at the moment to build a pad for Moose Kerr School for the parking lot? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
What I’m saying is that for all the capital plan activities that require granular material, there was sufficient granular material for that. I’m not sure if part of that plan included construction of a parking lot for Moose Kerr School. If the community is wishing to do that, that becomes part of the capital, but I do know that at the beginning of the year all the capital that was planned and the need for granular material, we had enough in Aklavik to do that. Thank you.
For sure the parking lot isn’t in the capital plan because this issue just came up in the last couple of weeks. The Minister did state that if it was a major concern for the community that they would pursue that.
With the emotion in place from the hamlet, will the Minister ensure that the department acts on this issue as soon as possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The requirement for granular material in Aklavik was 23,300 cubic metres of granular material, which was about 3,250 cubic metres for the GNWT and the balance of it being needed by the hamlet. So the hamlet had indicated that the projects they would like to run during the year and had indicated that they had sufficient granular material. If the hamlet is going to move some of the material, assuming that they had only that amount, that they don’t have a surplus, and they need to move off another project, I guess that’s a discussion that will occur with the hamlet locally.
We were advised that with the projects we were running, there is certainly sufficient granular material. So, hopefully there is enough to do all of the projects, plus the parking lot. That is our hope today, but I don’t have a very recent update as of today whether or not all of these projects, plus the parking lot, is what we have granular material for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be on the safe side, the community is planning to make a road up to the gravel source at Willow River.
Will the Minister ensure that they do have sufficient gravel in the community for all the projects, including the parking lot at Moose Kerr School? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Part of the 18,000 cubic metres of granular material that the hamlet is to use this summer is also material for Willow River, so there is a plan to start using some of this granular material to build to that gravel source. Aside from that, we can work with the community to make sure there is sufficient granular material to do all the projects, including the parking lot. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement today in terms of the Regional Recruitment Program. There was a press release that went out on October 23, 2013. I just want to get an update. In the statement it said training is anticipated to start to be on the job in early 2014.
I would like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, what is the update on that program and do we have actual full-time government employees who went through this program? If so, how many?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, we do not have people on the ground yet as part of the Regional Recruitment Strategy that the Member speaks of. We have done the program design. We have finalized all of the documentation necessary. We have completed the approach that the trainer is going to use in training individuals. We have talked about the training allowance specific to that. We have met with the UNW. We have negotiated a memorandum of understanding, so we’re ready to roll. We have all of the regional meetings in place. Individuals have come forward and we are now seeing the targeted positions that we’re hoping to fill with this strategy. Thank you.
I want to ask the Minister, has he changed any policies or do any policies need to be changed in order to get individuals into the job? Like I said yesterday, there were some challenges for some individuals in Inuvik who were just trying to get casual employment and had to go through all the hoops to get their application on the desk.
So, have any policies changed within the government system that allows residents of the Northwest Territories to actually get into these jobs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Any policy change that would occur would have been to try to accommodate the Regional Recruitment Strategy. As I indicated, we have discussed this and signed an MOU with the Union of Northern Workers. So, there hasn’t been anything put in place to make it difficult for individuals to apply. In fact, it’s been the other way around. We are trying to accommodate this. Now that interest is starting, we are hoping we will have our first employee underneath the Regional Recruitment Strategy this month and more in April. We’re going to get some employees in March and April through the strategy and hopefully expanding that beyond the communities that have shown interest now, which are at this time coming from Inuvik, Fort Simpson and Fort Providence.
In the news release that was sent out on October 23, 2013, it mentioned that the program would help reduce barriers in entering the workforce. Yesterday I got a call from a constituent having some issues with them getting into the job system and this was just for a casual position.
Would the Minister consider, or is his department looking at some of the lower level job positions or entry level job positions such as administrative assistants or jobs on the front line, working with individuals who have been in the job for five, 10 or 20 years? We have those statistics. Would he look at trying to get individuals who have been in an entry level job for 10 years-plus and give them the support to become a supervisor, a manger or take another position within the government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, we do plan to look at that. Right now we do have two strategies developing our employees. One is a strategy of the positions of associate superintendent positions that we’ve created. Now we’re looking at creating some associate manager positions, moving officers up to that level. The recommendation from the Member, taking people who have been long term in administrative positions and moving them up a level to officer level, is something that we would certainly take a look at seriously, and I will talk to the Department of Human Resources who go on to talk to the other hiring departments to see what is possible here. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that we’ve looked at the 20/20 strategy and we do understand that a lot of our employees are going to be retiring. They are coming to that age where they’re going to retire and we will need people to fill those positions. A lot of them will be in senior management, so I think it’s a great opportunity to look at our long-term service employees and give them the tools.
The Minister did mention that this month we’re going to have one of our recruitments in place, so I wonder what his targets are for this year in terms of getting individuals into this program.
Does he have a target set for getting our NWT residents into these jobs, these vacant positions and these higher level positions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We have not set targets as a department. We are asking all of the departments to come forward with the positions that we are hoping to fill with the Regional Recruitment Strategy. Once we have all the departments who have identified their positions, then we, as the Department of Human Resources, will go back and engage those departments to make sure that there aren’t more positions that can go under this strategy. At that point, we will set targets of how many positions we hope to fill using the Regional Recruitment Strategy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are following up on my Member’s statement directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The Minister is reducing annual funding to Yellowknife school boards by hundreds of thousands of dollars each, starting in a few months.
What will be the total reductions for the next two years and what will be the amount reinstated in year three when Yellowknife’s junior kindergarten must begin? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the process is, of course, rolling out the program in a three-phase approach. There will be 29 communities and the second year will be on to Hay River and the third year will be Yellowknife.
There’s Detah, Ndilo. So Detah will be $14,000 surplus for year one, they will be given the funding to operate. For Ndilo, $91,000 in year one to operate. YCS, the first year will be minus $434,000, year two will be minus $264,000, and year three will be plus $484,000. So a slight decrease of 1.2 percent of their overall budget, Mr. Speaker.
YK1, year one, $569,000 in the minus. Year two will be $322,000 minus. Year three will be $829,000 in the plus. That’s a difference of 0.3 percent of the overall budget decrease. So those are just the minor decreases that are happening over the three-year phased approach. Mahsi.
So, essentially they’ll be slightly less at the end of this time and, of course, the Minister forgot about the cost recovery programs that are in place that he’s requiring that they drop. So a net substantial loss. In the third year, obviously, with 120 extra people, small children to look after, they’ll be expected to provide junior kindergarten with no new funding in year three. This will be on the backs of services currently provided to our children, as I’ve mentioned.
What is the Minister’s assessment of the impact students will have to bear from this failure to provide new support for these new responsibilities? Mahsi.
Mahsi. The Yellowknife school boards have been offering the monthly fee-for-service four-year-old pre-kindergarten spaces beginning in 2008. So it has been operating for the past six years now, which has grown over the years. Currently, it would include approximately 163 licenced four-year-old spaces. So YK1 with a possible 90 fee-based four-year-old preschool space, bringing in revenue of approximately $600,000 per school year. Same with YCS, approximately $500,000 per school year on fee for service. So that will continue for the next two years and in the third year we will be providing them funding at that level.
As I stated, it is 1.2 percent for YCS, a decrease, and YK1 is 0.3 percent of their overall budget when you look at the territorial-wide budget and their budget as far as our contribution agreement. So there is a decrease, but we have to think long term as well. Mahsi.
Thank you. Indeed, we do need to think long term and I don’t believe the Minister is doing that. Obviously, these school boards are losing over $1.5 million over the next two years and then they’ll lose all of the revenue that they have from junior kindergarten currently in the third year, so they will be in a net deficit and yet huge new responsibilities that the Minister is asking them to take on. \What collaboration and support has the Minister experienced for this plan from our school boards? Mahsi.
Mahsi. I did mention in this House that there have been various meetings that took place since August 21st of 2013, September 18 and 19, 2013. These are with the superintendents of the school. November 27, 28, 2013, January 2014. These are ongoing discussions that we are currently having. There has been a recommendation brought forward by a superintendent to make adjustment to our approach of the PTR and we took that into consideration and instead of using 10 to Grade 12, they indicated that maybe we should try K to 12. So it does balance it out, all of the communities throughout the Northwest Territories.
We are listening to the school boards, we are listening to the superintendents and there are a lot of supports out there as well. Especially the small communities, the 29 communities, as I highlighted, there are 10 communities without any licenced programming for early childhood development. So, those are just some of the discussions we’ve been having. Mahsi.
