Thank you very much. I’m very pleased that departmental staff, especially from libraries, will attend a meeting in Fort Simpson. That’s something that we’re looking at. Knowing business planning as I do, I’m hoping that the meeting that will occur at the end of this month will have enough impact to urge the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to be getting some financial resources in the business planning for our next fiscal year. Thank you.
These are the discussions we’ll definitely need to have, along with other capital projects that are in the system. But this will lead to our general discussion about the community library. It has been in the works for quite some time now. The discussion has been brought to this level as well. Mr. Speaker, I’m sure the Member will be addressing that issue, as well, as we move forward discussing the capital plans within Education, Culture and Employment. So, Mr. Speaker, yes, we will be discussing this topic along with other capital projects as we move forward. Mahsi.
Once the meeting is completed, is the Minister prepared to provide some advanced funding to start some work on the pre-planning, looking at building size, et cetera, even towards costing out a Class D estimate of a project of this nature? Thank you.
We haven’t identified funding for that particular initiative, but we want to see what comes out of this meeting that we’re going to be having with the departmental staff and the Dehcho board as well, and also the superintendent that’s involved. We need to have a planning process coming out of that so we can involve that into our capital planning process. So I can’t really say that we will commit funds at this time, but that should be a part of the working document that will be put toward us as a department from the DEC. Mahsi.
Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is hopeful that as a result of this meeting at the end of the month, that the community will pick one of the four options and want to begin moving forward with it. So I’m asking the Minister, can he look at his resources and see if he can assist the community of Fort Simpson in moving forward with whichever plan they choose at that time? It will be very helpful as we work towards the business planning this coming fall. Thank you.
Yes, I would commit to the Member that we’ll provide departmental staff to work closely with the DEC, and also the Member, as we move forward developing a package plan for the capital planning and whatever we need at the development stages. So we’ll provide those resources that we possibly can to provide an action plan. Mahsi.
The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Minister reported on statistics yesterday, in response to oral questions, that outlined some really horrible wait times for diagnostic and specialist medical services. She did report that our volume of services has gone up. I’m happy to see that, but that still leaves too many people waiting. She made a reference to our wait times being the same as down south. Again, I want to discourage in this, as well as in the supp health question, trying to be the same as the rest of Canada. We expect better. So what are we doing now to reduce these backlogs to zero? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The point of saying that our rates of wait time is similar to the rest of Canada, that is just showing the challenge that all jurisdictions in Canada face, and to stay similar to the rest of Canada, actually we are making really good effort on the part of all the people who are delivering those services at Stanton.
Mr. Speaker, to give the Member more information, the CEO of Stanton and other CEOs actually, because we’re working at a territorial plan together, and all of the medical directors in each health authority, Doctor Corkal at Stanton and Doctor Claude and Doctor DeClerc, all the medical directors in charge have been working for months together with the department, to come up with a plan to reduce wait times. As I indicated to the Member earlier, I am planning on announcing that soon, when we have it in place. But, Mr. Speaker, we are working to reduce the wait time.
Lastly, it’s important for people to know that our physicians examine the people on the list constantly and if there are any emergencies or urgent cases, they are dealt with accordingly. Thank you.
Thank you. Last fall the Minister announced the launch of the new website, the recruitment and retention website, hopefully to overcome some of these chronic problems of staffing our professional and specialist vacancies. So I’m wondering what monitoring is being done, what the results are. Can the Minister tell me what progress is being made as a result of that and whatever other efforts the department is taking to decrease our vacancies in our medical staff and specialists? Thank you.
Thank you. I could follow up on that, Mr. Speaker, and give him the latest information coming out of that website. I think what’s important to note is reducing wait times for some of these procedures doesn’t necessarily have to do with the vacancy, because for those procedures, we have our staff in there. If there is nobody permanent there, we have locums in place. What we are trying to do is we need to have a team of specialists, whether surgeons, internal medicine specialists, nurses, supporting staff, they need the space to make sure that they do the job they need to do as quickly as possible, and that’s the team approach that we are working on. Thank you.
Thank you. The Minister had mentioned the wait times and wait time standards, per se. We don’t have such standards. That seems odd to me and a slippery slope. If we don’t have standards, of course we’re going to continue to allow those to slip and slide without correcting them, and obviously they need correcting. So I’m hoping the Minister will actually put those standards in place so we can prevent that.
I’ve repeatedly asked the Minister to say whether analysis is being completed on the increased cost of administering a co-payment system, and this information has never been supplied. I’ve spoken about, in my statement earlier today, the four in a row fumbles and rebounds of my constituent’s prescription cost claims to Inuvik, which could be a prophecy of what lies ahead. I’ll ask again, has the Minister completed analysis of what the increased administrative costs will be? And since she has not met with the Pharmaceutical Association and others, how can she know what key burdens this will place on our front-line providers who have a bottom line to meet? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the plan is that once a decision is made as to the implementation of this policy, we will be going for RFP to find a service provider such as Blue Cross or any other insurance companies. They are equipped and trained and set up to deliver a program like this. They do that for our other existing GNWT program, as well as the GNWT employee program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Your final question, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will speak more on what those costs were and, of course, the lack of progress we’ll be able to make on reducing our costs, given the complexity of what the Minister is currently proposing. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to have from my last question, how are we encouraging Metis and non-aboriginal residents to get and maintain third-party supplementary health insurance? It’s a pretty straightforward question and I don’t think it was answered when my colleagues asked that question. If we don’t currently have the answer to this, which I assume to be the case, not having received an answer to a repeated question. And that may just be a fact: we don’t know what the answer is. Do we intend to fill this gap, given its potential to again negate any hope of achieving cost reductions with the current plan? How are we going to encourage third-party insurance? What mechanisms are we putting in place for Metis and non-aboriginal? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In all of the, I believe, written material that’s been on the website, the presentations made in public meetings about supplementary health benefits, we have stated that NWT residents receive supplementary health benefits in various ways by all kinds of different third-party insurance. NIHB is a third-party insurance. MHB is a third-party insurance. Employer health insurance is a third-party insurance. People who have private insurance, that is a third-party insurance. And supplementary health is trying to address these people who don’t fall into any of that, who don’t have any of those. That is who we are trying to help. So that’s what we mean when we are saying third party. Third party includes NIHB, MHB and employee insurance. Thank you.
The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today get back to my Member’s statement and that is the financial well-being of our Territory going forward. Mr. Speaker, the numbers are out there. They don’t lie and all you have to do is look around. You know, investment in our Territory was down 24 percent last year and a net job loss of 900 jobs last year. At one point in time we actually lost 7 percent of all jobs in the Territory during 2009, a net loss of 500 people from the Territory, and a decline in our gross domestic product, which would lead me to believe that, Mr. Speaker, our revenues going forward are in tremendous peril. I’d like to ask the Finance Minister what do our future projections for revenue look like. Thank you.
The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to point out that we, along with every other jurisdiction in the world, have been managing our way through the most turbulent economic times, by many estimations, since the Great Depression, and we’ve done it in a way that’s allowed us to maintain service levels to provide us a role of stability in our economy as the private sector suffered and struggled through the downturn. We are continuing to do that. We’ve just come through the two biggest capital years in our history. And, yes, there are challenges out there and there always will be challenges out there.
Our projections are that there is some modest growth on the horizon both nationally and in the Northwest Territories. Mining exploration is looking like it’s going to start inching back up. The price of diamonds is holding. The price of gold is at an all time high. We have some good prospects with Avalon and Nechalacho and rare metals. But, yes, we still have cost pressures, we have expenditure issues, and we have the issue of beefing up our revenues. But we are managing this. We’ve laid out a fiscal plan that’s been successful to date. What we’re projecting and proposing for the coming year is going to see us being able to continue to manage that. We have to be careful. We have to be wise. We have to be frugal. But we can do it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I agree wholeheartedly with the Minister. I think one of the best things this government has done is the capital planning process, revamping that, getting money out the door in an effort to stimulate the economy when it needed it the most. I think that’s a good thing during an economic downturn, to be doing that type of thing.
What I’m getting at, and I think the Finance Minister knows what I’m getting at, is if the numbers aren’t there, how are we going to plan future budgets on declining numbers in people that are living here for the grant to Canada, CIT, PIT and the payroll tax? If the numbers are trending downward, to me, the revenues would start to turn downward as well, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Finance Minister how we’re going to address that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as we do our fiscal planning and the overviews we provide regularly to Members, we factor in anticipated costs. We recognize, like we did last year and the year before, that there has been a downturn, to a certain extent, in our corporate income tax. We believe, and the numbers showed us, that there has been a stabilizing and a flattening out and in some cases an actual upturn in some of the different areas.
We, of course, have to watch very closely our expenditures. We have to look, at this late date, as I pointed out, it’s a time to consolidate. I think the Member said the same thing, as well, that this is a time to consolidate, to secure what we’ve done and not be looking at new initiatives that haven’t been budgeted or planned for. We’re going to do that as well. We’re going to look, as a government, at how we are spending our money to make sure that we are doing it as wisely as possible so that we maintain as much of a fiscal cushion as we possibly can for the coming year, and most of all we want to make sure that our last budget is strong enough and forward looking enough that the incoming 17th Assembly will, in fact, have some flexibility. Thank you.
I thank the Finance Minister for that. Being that the Government of the Northwest Territories has recently gotten this $75 million reprieve, an extension on our debt limit to $75 million, and we’re getting precariously close to that limit in the future, Mr. Speaker, I’m wondering what extraordinary measures the government may be looking to employ to make sure that we aren’t setting ourselves up for failure should a catastrophe happen. Like I mentioned in my Member’s statement, a really bad forest fire season or, you know, hopefully not a great deal of further expense on a project like the Deh Cho Bridge. Thank you.
I’d like to point out that even including the Deh Cho Bridge into our financial considerations, Moody’s came up and they reviewed our finances and they came back with an Aa1 rating, one of the best in the country. They recognize that, yes, we have taken on this challenge, but we have shown, over the number of years preceding, that we have been prepared to make the right decisions, sometimes often tough decisions, to make sure that we maintain control of our expenditures, that we recognize that we’re in an economic downturn, and that we have to manage our money very carefully. We’re going to be looking at measures to make sure that we are spending the money wisely. We want to look at trying to, as I indicated, have as much of a cushion as possible for this year and the coming year. As we’ve shown to the Member through our fiscal update, this year and next year are going to be the most problematic, but after that, all trends and indications are that we will be able to get back to historical spending patterns and minimize our short-term debt. And I point out again, at this point we’ve avoided taking on any long-term debt. Thank you.
I’d like to recognize the clock and time for oral questions has concluded; however, I will allow Mr. Ramsay to ask his final question. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I’ll keep this brief. I’m just wondering if, you know, given the projections that the Department of Finance comes up with, given the fact that we are so close to the debt wall, we’re in a precarious position. I’m just wondering, would it be wise or prudent to send the projections the Department of Finance has to a third party or let somebody else have a look at these projections to make sure that we are, in fact, on a solid track with our financial situation going forward? Thank you.
We do have significant third-party involvement in our finances. We present our consolidated accounts. We have our books audited by the Auditor General. We are going to have the bridge audited. We have the Members here that are vigilant and keen in terms of monitoring our expenditures, our budgets. They are fully involved in our budgeting process.
We’ve been up to date and on the mark for three years. We’ve managed our way through the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression. We’ve done that collectively because we’ve applied ourselves, we’ve paid close attention and we’ve made the right decisions; in some cases, hard decisions. We are going to have to continue to do that. We’ve passed three budgets unanimously in this House and we’ve managed, even with whatever curve ball we may have been tossed, to be able to manage our way through this and protect the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of the John Tsetso Memorial Library funding.
Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 144 signatures of Fort Simpson residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide the funding necessary to construct a new John Tsetso Memorial Library. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has reviewed Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Veterinary Profession Act; Bill 2, An Act to Amend the Dental Auxiliaries Act; and Bill 3, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2010.
The Standing Committee on Social Programs wishes to report that Bills 2 and 3 are ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole and Bill 1 is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Item 14, tabling of documents. Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table a motion put forward by the Elders Parliament on the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier today, I wish to table a package of drawings of Fort Simpson students age nine to 11 years old. Mr. Speaker, through their words and colourful drawings, the students share their thoughts about what they enjoy about the John Tsetso Memorial Library. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, May 14, 2010, I’ll move that Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 17, motions. Item, 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 4-16(5), Executive Summary of the Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project; Bill 2, An Act to Amend the Dental Auxiliaries Act; and Bill 3, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, with Mr. Abernethy in the chair.
I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. On our agenda we have Tabled Document 4-16(5), Executive Summary of the Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project. What is the wish of the committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.
