Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So most payments, once they're in the system, are swift. 95 percent of the maintenance enforcement clients receive their funds through direct deposit. There's sometimes situations where one of the parties might be outside of the territory and in those instances, we have legislation, and other jurisdictions have complementary legislation, whereby we cooperate. And all jurisdictions in Canada, except for Quebec, also use direct deposit. So there may be delays in some situations, particularly when one of the individuals is living in Quebec. But for the most part, funds are processed within a day. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I got so excited, I jumped ahead one question. So I know that the Minister I'll just have to surprise him right now.
But I'm just wondering if there's any kind of annual reporting or tracking of how long it takes for these crossjurisdictional payments to be made for child support? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have that information. But I will I can get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Housing.
In order to address core housing needs in the communities, there needs to be an assessment done on every asset. This is critical piece in building the plan to improve core housing. Can the Minister of Housing provide a total estimate budget to address housing core needs for the Tu NedheWiilideh riding? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently right now we have the local housing authorities and we also have the district office that is run out of Yellowknife. I don't have those numbers in front of me to look at specific budgets for each of the regions. But as of today, just looking at my housing delivery, for Fort Resolution there will be a delivery of six units. N'dilo, there will be a delivery of two. Lutselk'e, there will be a delivery of four. And Dettah, there will be two units delivered. And the final construction for these units would be 20222023. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister of Housing provide me the detailed housing assessment to bring homes out of core need for all homes in the Tu NedheWiilideh riding? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have that information in front of me, but I can tell the Member that we have been working with the community of Fort Resolution I mean, the community of Lutselk'e that has started on a draft community housing plan. And Dettah and N'dilo are in progress, and Fort Resolution has not get begun.
With these housing plans, they start to identify the housing needs right from the ground level. The importance of these housing plans to go forward is to start that communication with the Indigenous groups and with the Housing Corporation to further look ahead and what are they wanting to plan and what it is that they want delivered in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for your answers, and that helps. I just had a couple quick questions here.
I recognize that the NWT Housing Corporation will provide a plan to address core housing needs in the NWT to this Assembly before the end of the session, and this is a very positive one. However, Mr. Speaker, I'm looking for a detail assessment data for every home in my riding, every home by community. Can the Minister provide that level of detail to me? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have a detailed plan for all of the housing ownership in each of the communities. We don't own all of the assets at the ground level. I just have some numbers here for the Member.
So in Dettah, we have an operation of 43 units. In N'dilo, we have 34 units. And in Fort Resolution, we have 94 units. Lutselk'e, we have 63. I also have the population ranging from 548 to 335 in each of these communities. And once again, Mr. Speaker, I want to just the Housing Corporation does not own every single house and every single asset on the ground level. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. Can the Minister of Housing explain how the Housing Corporation is engaging with Indigenous governments in my riding to address the housing crisis? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just at this time I really want to highlight the Council of Leaders Housing Working Group that is open to all Indigenous groups throughout the Northwest Territories, and this is where our renewal strategy and our policy review, the whole pretty much revamp of the Housing Corporation, is the main topic of discussion of that table. And it also helps us to work with the federal government. If housing money is not going to flow through from the federal government to the GNWT to Housing Corporation, I'm advocating that the Indigenous groups are able to acquire funding that has been announced by Canada.
Looking at our partnerships that we do have, right now we have a partnership with Deninu Kue right now who is looking at constructing two of our units as well too. And I just really want to emphasize on that partnership as well, and that's not the only one, but with these housing deliveries that we do have coming within the lifetime of this government, I've sent out letters in April of last year acknowledging each of the Indigenous groups whether they would want to participate or whether they felt that they wanted to construct these units.
The other thing that I've put in as the Minister is that each of these contracts going out, they have to have an apprentice. So it's built right into those negotiated contracts. To date, we have 33.
And then for the Member's riding, I just sorry for taking so long, but we have one certified boiler mechanic for the local housing authority. I don't have the name of the authority. I don't know which community it is in. I had it right in front of me, but I misplaced it. I'll follow up with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister provide to me at a later time the statistics on population of jails in the NWT over the last five years? Can this information include Indigenous male and female, and the ages. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is really should be presented as a written question, but I will work on that. Thank you.
Thank you. Well, some of this is going to be written questions tomorrow.
Okay, so the Hay River correctional centre was to transition to the therapeutic community model in the spring of 2021. This is a very positive step in providing rehab programming. Can the Minister explain how the results of this program will be evaluated and what are their plans to expand this to other correctional facilities?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I think this really is one of the bright spots in corrections in the territory, what is going on at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. I had the opportunity to tour the facility, and the program had really just been in operation for a number of weeks, but I could tell that it was you know, it was going to make a difference, really, in the lives of the people who are there. So, really, the proof will be in the pudding. And, you know, we are the the residents are, you know, part of the program and so there's constant feedback from them about how things are working. It really is a community model and so everyone is involved; everyone is reporting on the progress. And for perhaps for some specifics, I can follow up with the Member about, you know, how we are really tracking progress. But the idea is to ensure we know how to run this program appropriately and then see how it can be expanded. It won't be we won't be able to just transfer it to NSCC. It's a different type of population. There's a number of differences. But I think we're learning valuable lessons there that we want to be able to share with the rest of the territory. Thank you.
Thank you. Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am concerned, Mr. Speaker, that if the population of jails has decreased, does that mean that we are seeing people overfill or bottleneck in other parts of the justice system? Can the Minister provide me at a later time the statistics on the number of people people under probation by ethnicity, age, and gender in the NWT over the last five years?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, this should be a written question and so in the future, it would be nice if these were presented in accordance with the rules. But we can work on putting something together. Thank you.
Thank you. Can the Minister describe what kind of traumainformed support services are available to people under probation? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been doing a lot of work over the last number of years on ensuring that first of all, beginning with frontline staff, that there has been traumainformed training. So in the past number of years since 2016, 375 Justice frontline workers have received traumainformed approach training, as well as participated in the Living Well Together Program that's required for all GNWT employees. And that includes the probation officers. And I have to say that, you know, some of the probation officers in the territory really have been leading the charge on integrated service delivery long before it was, you know, the "in thing". So many of them are from the communities. You know, we have some positions in the territory where people are brought in but a lot of our probation officers really understand the communities, and they work with the clients in ways that are really above and beyond what they you know, what you would expect them to be doing. So the services available to those on probation really vary depending on what community they're in.
If you're in Yellowknife, you have obviously, you have access to more services than if you are in a small community with very few services. So it's not I can't give you the I can't say that, you know, we have these services available to everyone because everyone's situation is different based on where they are and what their needs are. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Lands.
The NWT rumor mill was flying this weekend as the alarming events in Fort Smith unfolded, and my thoughts are with everyone there as they continue to cope with this tragedy. Can the Minister explain how, according to this rumor mill, guns from the Department of Lands ended up in the hands of the young perpetrator? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Lands.
First of all, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to offer my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the individual in Fort Smith who lost their life on Friday. Incidents like this shake a small community to its core, and it's a very has an impact on all of us across the Northwest Territories as we know most people there. It's more important now to remember that ever that we show kindness and compassion to our neighbours at this time.
In regards to the questions for the Member, all equipment on site in Fort Smith was securely and safely stored in adherence with the policies and legislation of this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since he's raised policies and procedures, about a few years ago there was a similar breakin at the Department of ENR in Fort Smith in which guns were taken. What lessons were learned from that incident, and were any updated safety measures or protocols provided to the Fort Smith lands office to prevent a similar occurrence there? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For that detail, I'll have to get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's concerning to me that that wasn't the first question asked by this Minister when this incident occurred. So does the Minister then confirm that those were the guns that were used in the incident in weekend? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to talk about what's going on right now with the investigation but I can make a commitment once we have been advised from the RCMP that we're able to provide information, we will provide that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just find this to be extremely concerning as well as the lack of information from any of Cabinet over the weekend about what was happening in Fort Smith.
Can the Minister please commit that the next time as anything is occurring that he actually notifies other Members that things are going on in this territory? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I reached out to the Member from Thebacha right away as soon as we found out what was going on. The Premier has reached out to the Member from Thebacha, the justice minister and the health Minister. So it was in her riding. We were understood of the situation. We worked with her. And I have to applaud the Member from Thebacha for the work that she did, the leadership in that community, including the RCMP. They took their roles and responsibilities sincerely. And we worked with the affected Member moving forward. We don't want to get out there spreading rumors until we have facts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NTPC.
My first question, Mr. Speaker, is NTPC's most recent rate application was authorized for three years starting in May of 2019. That means the current rate schedule has almost expired and the PUB needs to approve a new one. And so I'm wondering if the Minister can update the House on when the public can expect to know the proposed changes to rates over the next three years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Quanani. The Northwest Territories Power Corporation will file the general rate application, or the GRA, with the Public Utilities Board on March the 25th. So, you know, in order to be able to meet the requirements to file by March 31st. Quanani.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister can indicate what ratepayers can expect to pay for power as a result of the general rate application and how they can get involved in the process? Thank you.
Quanani. The general rate application by NTPC will be posted on the Public Utilities Board soon after it's received. Quanani.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, NTPC's capital plan has budgeted over $300 million in spending over the next five years. The plan shows that the federal government will provide only 27 cents on the dollar. A lot of our other infrastructure projects here in the Northwest Territories received 75cent dollars. And so I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to why that is and whether this government intends to pursue 75cent dollars for NTPC. Thank you.
Quanani. The GNWT continues to work with Canada to look for flexibility in our previously approved projects under the federal funding agreements. Many jurisdiction are facing this challenge with COVID and other inflationary pressures that affect capital projects. It is also, too, important to note that any contributions from the GNWT for capital projects will not impact the general rates. Quanani.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Minister wants to minimize rates as much as possible across the Northwest Territories, and a big help for that would be increasing third party funding. So I'm wondering if the Minister can confirm whether NTPC has its own dedicated team to source federal funding or if a dedicated position to source innovation and partnership dollars can be implemented within NTPC staff? Thank you.
