Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government, in regard to the all-season road from Tuk to Inuvik, the federal government must see the potential, not the potential, but the resources there in the community and for a deep sea port for the Western Arctic, I think the Western Arctic, and my point has been left out. Everything that’s driven by the federal government that’s been given out to any sort of funding has been going to the Eastern Arctic. Mr. Speaker, we have to step up to the plate and get something done in regard to this highway. Not only the highway but for the pipeline and to get the federal government onside to push forward these initiatives. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I’d like to reassure the Member that we have taken every opportunity from all Members of Cabinet, including the Premier, to bring our projects forward. We feel there is a lot of potential in the Northwest Territories. There have been meetings with federal officials, there have been meetings with the Ministers, there also have been meetings with the Prime Minister. They are aware of our projects and we will continue to lobby and to meet with them to put our positions forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. I want to ask the Minister what type of solutions the corporation will be looking at in decreasing the number of evictions in Deline and probably other communities in the Northwest Territories, but I wanted to ask about Deline in regard to the evictions.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; there have been some eviction notices that were given out in Deline. Some of these tenants have gone through the rental officer. There were some conditions that were laid out. Most of these tenants did not meet the conditions of those. They didn’t meet the conditions so the eviction process was underway. Thank you.
Thank you. I want to ask the Minister about solutions. I know there’s probably going to be other eviction notices to residents in the Sahtu, in the Northwest Territories. Can the Housing Corporation work with the people in the communities to see if they could work out some arrangements so that these eviction notices are not hanging out in huge, large numbers?
Thank you. There are a lot of solutions that we can come up with. One of the first solutions is have all tenants pay their rent and for those that do fall into arrears, it’s not something that just happens on the spur of the moment. It’s usually a year-long process. They’re given many opportunities to address their arrears. They can speak to the boards, then they go to the rental officer and he’ll lay out some conditions. If they meet the terms of those conditions, then the termination won’t go ahead.
The trouble we have is a lot of times we get to the rental officer, he does put some conditions on, tenants do not meet them; therefore, they have to be terminate. But we do try to work with the tenants. There are repayment plans that they can enter into to help clear off their arrears and that’s a message that we as a Housing Corp are trying to get out there so the folks know that they can work out a repayment plan and continue to occupy their units. Thank you.
Thank you. I’ve been reading the latest NWT survey, the housing component. The result and the adequacy are unacceptable in terms of housing in the Northwest Territories. I think if you were to do that in Deline right now in terms of the survey, the adequacy percentage would go right up. I guess in terms of working out an arrangement with the Housing Corporation around eviction, you know, in our small communities unemployment is very, very high. There’s not very much economic activity happening there. Can the Minister look within his department to look at arrangements where tenants can work off these arrears rather than pay out of their pocket? Can that be looked at?
Thank you. That is one of the options that we looked at, one of the options that was discussed at the Ministers’ forum that I held recently attended by the Housing Corporation employees from across the NWT along with a couple of MLAs and there were a lot of ideas floating around. That was one of them. There is a liability issue, but it would be something I think that would have to be initiated by the LHOs and if everything falls in place as far as insurance and liability go, I think it’s something that they’d be willing to explore. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister work with the LHOs and the corporation in terms of direct, maybe -- I’m not sure if that’s the proper word -- the LHOs to work out some final arrangements as to tenants working off the arrears rather than have the eviction notice follow through? People right now are living in shacks, warehouses and tents in Deline. We need to get them back into units, for safety reasons and many other reasons I do not want to elaborate on. Would the Minister do that as soon as possible?
The LHOs basically operate or are run by a board. We do have some involvement in the financing that we provide to them. The Minister doesn’t normally give direction or orders to the LHOs. We can raise concerns with them, but we’ll continue to try and do what we can as a corporation to help tenants across the Northwest Territories deal with the arrears issue.
We’re $10 million in public housing arrears right now and with the money from the federal government declining, it’s important more than ever to start collecting on some of these arrears. It is something that’s on our radar and something that we’re following up on and hoping to have some options that we can discuss with the committee.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ITI -- Industry, Tourism and Investment -- on the film industry. I’m pleased to see that the Minister has met with representatives of the multi-media and film industry to discuss development opportunities and report the status of the promised review of the industry development and support requirements. I’m also pleased that the Minister committed to develop the terms of reference in consultation with the public. These are great moves, great progress. Can the Minister indicate yet when those draft terms of reference will be available for review?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was quite pleased to be able to work with some of the Members from the other side to help organize a meeting with some of the northern filmmakers. I thought we had a very productive meeting and we shared concerns from all sides. I think we found a way to go forward.
We’re currently drafting terms of reference that we will share with everybody that attended and anybody else that’s interested. My expectation is that we’ll be able to get them out within a month.
I appreciate that. I also appreciate that the Minister indicated that he would work hard to incorporate the findings of this review into the business plans. That’s my interest in the time frame. Obviously those draft business plans are due in just a few short months. Timelines for the inclusion are, therefore, pretty tight. Can the Minister say what schedule he has set or will be setting for the review to be completed and allow that to happen?
At the meeting we talked about trying to dovetail with the Government of the Northwest Territories business planning process and the call has gone out already. As you know, working with the new initiatives we’ve put in place a marker already. In the discussions that we had in our meeting it became quite obvious that there are different parts to filmmaking and there are different parts to it. I think as part of the terms of reference, we will be looking at all the different sectors of filmmaking. My expectation is that through a combination of existing programs and using the business planning process and concluding the review in time, that we’ll have something that has some meat that we can work together to expand the Northwest Territories film industry.
I appreciate, then, that the review would likely be moving towards completion by the fall so that things might move forward in the plans. I understand from industry reps that the current requirements for ITI support programs, such as the need to file three-year business forecasts, don’t recognize the reality of this industry that moves from project to project. This obviously points out the need for industry-specific programs as our sister territories have recognized. Will the Minister ensure that the unique operating conditions of this industry are, therefore, addressed in the terms of reference and any recommendations for targeted support programs?
It was pointed out to us a number of examples where the approach that we’re taking is resulting in missed opportunities. Certainly we’ve taken their input very seriously. We would look at expanding a film commission so that it really works and also to having people that are very familiar and have worked in the industry. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to collect an Oscar one of these years.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think there’s any question that we’ll be collecting those. We’ve already had people down at the big…or the Juno awards or the Oscar awards, filmmakers down there from Yellowknife. We’re well on our way, and with the Minister’s support I have no doubt we’ll achieve that.
ITI’s annual publication -- my last question -- the economic review does not contain, currently, information on the value and activity of the arts and culture industry such as film and media production. I’d like to conclude here by asking the Minister if he will take steps to begin to collect the data essential to monitoring the value and development of the industry and include that in that annual publication.
I’ll work very closely with my colleague, the Minister of ECE, and make sure that we do provide for this coverage in the appropriate places.
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 the commercial fishery as it relates to Great Slave Lake. I have questions for the Minister of ITI.
In my Member’s statement I failed to mention, actually, the collaborative work done by the Economic Development and Infrastructure committee as well with the Minister of ITI on this. I want to recognize them for their understanding of this situation as well.
We are now embarking on something that will be a new process for the marketing of the fish from Great Slave Lake. During this transition phase I would like to ask the Minister what the plan is for this year’s summer fishery.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan for this summer’s fishing industry is unchanged. We’ve just started the process of consultation in the Northwest Territories to make sure that we have input from all of the stakeholders before we make the next move, which is to formally request that we be allowed to exit the Freshwater Fish Marking Corporation.
The documents I have indicate that this consultation process should be concluded by June 11th and then there is a requirement of us to repeal some legislation which makes us part of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would anticipate that the repealing of that legislation could come as early as this fall.
I don’t expect that we’ll be able to do it by as early as this fall. We still have to work out the exit arrangements from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. We still have to go through due diligence with this Legislative Assembly and we still have to work with the fishermen to set up alternative processes. It’s not our expectation to replace FFMC with a son of FFMC. We would take a brand new approach which would focus on developing northern markets.
I think that the capacity for production of fish and harvest of fish from Great Slave Lake quite far exceeds what could be absorbed by the market here in the North, although that would be a really good place to start. But going forward, one of the requirements, if our fishermen did want to export their fish beyond our NWT borders, would be a place where that fish could be inspected and processed, which would have to meet the Canadian Food Inspection Agency standards.
Mr. Speaker, right now, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation plant in Hay River has been that facility. It is large. It is inefficient. It is hugely expensive to operate. Does the Minister foresee an opportunity for the GNWT to become involved in providing capital funding for a much smaller, more efficient place where fish could be processed to some extent and inspected for export beyond our borders? Thank you.
My expectation is that we would have to meet with the fishermen to see where their interests lie. Obviously they don’t want to be involved with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, so we would have to meet with them to see what their interests are. If they’re going to operate as independent businessmen, we’d have to see what their business plans would entail. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister given any consideration to lifting the border or export restriction to at least as far as Alberta? Would it be possible, in this transition phase while we’re trying to establish markets further afield, would a dialogue with the Alberta government, because they don’t have the big freshwater lakes that we have here in the Northwest Territories and that is quite a large market on our doorstep, would it be possible to have any discussion with the Alberta government Minister responsible about the potential for exporting our fish at least to Alberta on the interim basis? Thank you.
By all means, we’d certainly be interested in talking to the Alberta government about exporting of fish from the Northwest Territories to Alberta. We would be quite prepared to move on this fairly quickly to have those discussions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier and are in follow up to my Member’s statement from earlier today.
The Premier established five strategic initiative committees early in the life of this government: Building Our Future, Managing This Land, Reducing the Cost of Living, Maximizing Opportunities, and Refocusing Government. Some of the reasons that these committees were created was to help the departments work together to create awareness of initiatives happening across government and in individual departments, to provide an opportunity to share information across departments and, ultimately, break down departmental silos.
Mr. Speaker, could the Premier please tell me if these five strategic initiatives committees established by the Premier continue to exist and, if so, has the membership on these committees changed, how recently, and which Members lead each of these committees? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. There are a number of questions there, two or three. The Premier may answer one or all of them. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The strategic initiatives committees are still used by all departments. The formats and the memberships have not changed. Thank you.
Could the Premier tell me how often, by committee, each of these committees meet and when was the last time each met? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the strategic initiatives committees meet on a regular basis and, in fact, I believe last week every one of those initiatives committees had a meeting to discuss plans for the upcoming year. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Premier for that. I’m happy to hear the committees still exist and I’m happy to hear that they meet. Where my frustration lies is that the silos obviously continue to exist. I gave an example earlier, but I’d be happy to sit down with the Premier and give him a number of examples that I’ve received over the last couple of months. What is the Premier doing with respect with these committees to help break down some of these silos? I mean, what we want is an efficient government and I acknowledge that the committees have done an awful lot of good work, but these silos continue to exist. So what is the Premier doing to help break down these silos? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, not only do the strategic initiatives committees meet on a regular basis to discuss… And those strategic initiatives committees will be going towards more policy orientation as we fine tune the work they do. But we also have deputy minister committees who meet on a regular basis throughout the government. Those have been in place for some time. Of course, our challenge has always been and the reason we got these strategic initiatives committees in place was to break down those silos. I must say that at times it is a slow process. It’s frustrating at times. And I must say that some of the debate that happens around those strategic initiatives committees in this Assembly just helps slow things down because nobody wants to move if we’re not all happy with the direction we’re all paddling, even if it’s in a circle. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
QUESTION 156-16(5):
COST OF INTERNATIONAL
CALLING CARDS IN THE NWT
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Getting back to my Member’s statement, I have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, who happens to be the Minister responsible for consumer protection.
It’s come to my attention from a constituent about calling cards which are sold in the Northwest Territories that do not allow the same level of service for a similar card, an exact same card sold in southern Canada. In fact, there’s a 25 cent surcharge tacked on to the minutes for using these cards. I’d like to ask the Minister if he knows why calling cards in the Northwest Territories sold at retail outlets around the Territory are subject to this surcharge of 25 cents a minute. Thank you.
