Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on the shocking numbers that I see here. As of May 18, 2011, 3 o’clock, there’s only four people in the Summer Student Program hired in the Sahtu region by this government compared to the South Slave where there’s 36, 42 in total; North Slave region 103. Four students that are given the opportunity in the Sahtu to be hired. I listen to the Ministers of Public Works and Services and Transportation and it doesn’t quite cut it with me. I want to ask the Premier if he would work with his officials and see if there’s any way that these numbers can be increased. Aurora College in Beaufort-Delta hired one student in Sahtu, but in the other communities they haven’t hired any. Can these numbers be improved to maybe five or six, rather than a dismal four?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought I heard Public Works and Services or Transportation in his statement. It went on for a while, so I lost track.
Seriously, though, the issue of student hires has been one that this government has pushed and worked with the Department of Human Resources and all departments to improve on our numbers. The fiscal situation that we find ourselves in, the departments are doing their best to improve on that, but as we’ve heard from a number of Ministers, with our fiscal restraints departments have had to voluntarily squeeze in some areas. We’re still trying to match or do a bit better in some areas than we did previously. There are areas where, yes, it’s weighted heavy. When some departments have only a headquarters function, other departments help balance that off, because we’re into all communities and regions and will continue to try to improve on that.
I mentioned the Ministers of PWS and DOT because he talked a little bit on this issue here. For example, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority is going to hire four, but in any other regions, none of their health boards are hiring any summer students. This is an agency of something like the Sahtu Health Board. I want to ask if this opportunity can be given the same as the Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority, which has hired six people.
The fairness and equality is not there. Can the Minister ensure that our regions will also have the same opportunity as the boards in Yellowknife and Fort Smith so that we can also hire summer students? Come on, let’s increase these numbers more than four.
The issue with the health boards is that in trying to get the numbers, some have not been able to provide the additional numbers, so there may be some additional summer students out there that we’re not aware of. The other area is we’ve given them budgets to operate within and we’ve given them the authority to make those decisions, as well. We’ll try to get all the information so that we have fully updated numbers as we progress. I know the Department of Human Resources works with all departments to try to pool all those together and we’ll continue to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Cabinet and Premier have been extremely helpful today in providing information. Obviously, they were prepared for these questions.
I have a question. This is something I get asked about a lot in my constituency when it comes to summer student hires. Could they give us a breakdown, please, between P1 candidates and P2 and other candidates for summer students hired by this government for this upcoming summer season?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have that information and I’ll provide it to the Members.
Mr. Speaker, thank you. I understand that the Minister does have that information. Will he make it available now? Later? Thank you.
As of May 18, 2011, 3:00 p.m., we have 166 summer students hired: 91 are indigenous Aboriginal; 75 are indigenous non-Aboriginal; zero other summer students. We have 16 job offers out for signature: four to indigenous Aboriginals; 11 to indigenous non-Aboriginal; and one to other summer student, for a total of 16 job offers out there. Thank you.
I’m sure that although this information was available to the Members, it is good for the public to know that and it is very good news. Thank you very much.
Thank you. I didn’t hear a question there. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills.
Colleagues, before I go on to the next item on the Order Paper, the Chair is going to call a short break.
---SHORT RECESS
Colleagues, we’ll return to orders of the day. Item 17, motions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 44 to deal with Motion 8-16(6), which I gave notice of yesterday. Mahsi.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
WHEREAS the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act was enacted in 1994;
AND WHEREAS in the 17 years since the act was passed, e-mail, laptops, flash drives, smartphones and other technological developments have dramatically altered the way government manages, uses and communicates information;
AND WHEREAS other Canadian jurisdictions have conducted comprehensive reviews of their access to information and privacy legislation in recent years;
AND WHEREAS since the coming into force of the act, the Information and Privacy Commissioner has made a number of recommendations for amendments to the act that have not been addressed;
AND WHEREAS the Information and Privacy Commissioner has recommended a comprehensive review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act in her 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 annual reports;
AND WHEREAS the Standing Committee on Government Operations also recommended a comprehensive review of the act in its Report on the Review of the 2008-2009 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner;
AND WHEREAS the Government of the Northwest Territories February 2011 response to the standing committee’s recommendation did not provide an undertaking to complete a comprehensive review of the act;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends the Government of the Northwest Territories undertake a comprehensive review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, including an examination of access to information and privacy legislation in other Canadian jurisdictions and all past recommendations of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and bring forward a bill during the first two years of the 17th Assembly;
AND FURTHER, that the Government of the Northwest Territories include mention of the need for a comprehensive review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act in any transition document or report to the 17th Assembly;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 90 days.
Thank you, Mr, Menicoche. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 44 to deal with Motion 6-16(6), which I gave notice of yesterday.
---Unanimous consent granted
Proceed with your motion, Mr. Yakeleya.
WHEREAS people with post-secondary education are six times more likely to have employment, and completing post-secondary education dramatically increases the lifetime prospects of having well-paid, stable employment;
AND WHEREAS the Department of Education’s Student Financial Assistance Program is designed to support full-time students pursuing a post-secondary education;
AND WHEREAS the living allowance for these students has not increased for 11 years, since the year 2000;
AND WHEREAS the Consumer Price Index in Canada has increased 27 percent since 2000, which indicates that the value of Northwest Territories students’ assistance has eroded a great deal in that time;
AND WHEREAS many students are taking part-time jobs to meet their essential needs, such as rent and food, while attending post-secondary institutions;
AND WHEREAS financial hardship can lead to Northwest Territories students failing to complete their post-secondary studies;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment increase the living allowances set out in Schedule B of the Regulations to the Student Financial Assistance Act by 27 percent;
AND FURTHER, that the structure of the program be altered to ensure that Student Financial Assistance grants be indexed and subject to annual changes that are linked to the Consumer Price Index;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 90 days.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all know that a good education is a way to a good job. By ensuring that student financial assistance meets our students’ needs, we are investing in our future and the future of the Northwest Territories is in their hands. We badly need these students to come back to our communities and work in our communities. All kinds of companies and organizations need well-educated employees; our local businesses, governments, our schools and our Aboriginal development corporations, our health centres and, yes, this Government of the Northwest Territories.
The Consumer Price Index in Canada is up 27 percent since we last adjusted the Student Financial Assistance Program 11 years ago. So, Mr. Speaker, those dollars students get for food and rent just don’t go as far as they used to. I’m all for students working part-time if they can, but I also know some students are always short of money. In some cases, some real hardships if the parents cannot afford to send them any more money or food.
If we raise the student financial assistance to catch up with the prices since the year 2000 -- a student is currently receiving $700 a month -- that would give them an extra $189. That could easily be the difference between success and failure, Mr. Speaker, when you’re trying to get by on a small budget far away from home, and we need these students to succeed, especially in our small communities. Too few of our students go on to higher education. We need every one of them to succeed. They will show the way for others and education levels will improve all around.
Maybe the Finance Minister will say we just don’t have that money to do this. I will expect he will point out that we are already spending $9.2 million a year on student financial assistance. The proposal I am making is to add $2.7 million to that. Let’s not be too hasty to say no, we can’t do it. These few dollars that we put into the student financial assistance will come back to this government many times over during the lives of these successful students. We also know, on average, better educated people require less health care and social assistance, so every successful post-secondary student also saves our government money in the long run. It should not be necessary to debate the level of the student financial assistance every year in this House.
We set up a program and now I’m asking the government to make sure students don’t fall behind when the prices go up. By tying SFA grants to the Consumer Price Index, this is only fair and reasonable. This government is tying more fees to inflation all the time and we should do the same with these students. The government is pretty fast to boost revenue from higher fees, but not so quick to pay a little more to people who need help. Let’s not be too chintzy about our students. Let’s help them complete their post-secondary studies with flying colours. Let’s do it and be very proud of them.
When our students return home with diplomas or degrees in hand, they have a bright future ahead of them. I thank you, colleagues, for allowing me to speak on this motion and to support this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I’ve seconded the motion for the Member for Sahtu on this because I, too, am a believer that we have to put money in for the students, as much money as possible. I think the benefits down the road are tremendous. If we have an educated society, then we have improved health and that’s statistically proven that higher education is better health, better housing, better income. The whole thing of even the social problems and everything are eliminated. A lot of social problems are eliminated when you get into a society where you’re talking about people that are well educated.
I think we should do everything that we can during the time that the students are going back to school. We have people who need income. Right now in the Northwest Territories we have a lot of students that are going right from high school into universities and colleges. I recognize that. This is positive for them too, because it’s not a lot of money and any increase to that would benefit them a tremendous amount.
We also have a lot of mature students that go back to school. So students who have been in jobs that are the best jobs they could get under that circumstance, Grade 12 and so on, and now they want to go to college or university. They have kids, they have child care, they have the cost of food, the cost of rent, the cost of actually operating something back home and then having to go to school and paying for that cost, as well.
I second the motion and am obviously supporting that, to support the students that are going to be going to post-secondary education.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 44 to deal with Motion 7-16(6) which I gave notice of yesterday.
---Unanimous consent granted
I move the following motion:
WHEREAS our elders hold the wisdom, history and knowledge of our communities and our territory, and should be respected and honoured;
AND WHEREAS elder abuse, including physical, sexual, psychological and financial abuse and neglect is sadly a common and significant threat to seniors in our communities;
AND WHEREAS the International Network on the Prevention of Elder Abuse has proclaimed June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day;
AND WHEREAS the NWT Seniors’ Society has declared June 12th to 18th as NWT Elder Abuse Awareness Week;
AND WHEREAS proclamation of an NWT Elder Abuse Awareness Week would raise public awareness of the various forms of abuse older adults experience throughout the NWT and would encourage seniors to become more informed and educated about the signs of elder abuse and the supports and help available to them, and would support efforts to make the lives of older adults better;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the Legislative Assembly resolves to formally observe June 12 to 18, 2011, as NWT Elder Abuse Awareness Week.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to my colleagues. Some may consider this a somewhat unusual motion and feel that perhaps it isn’t necessary as often the various departments will recognize particular weeks. I think it’s really important that we as legislators and that this Assembly makes this motion and passes this motion, because it indicates the importance that we as legislators give to our seniors.
I’ve often heard Members speak and say that part of our culture is that we respect seniors and honour seniors, and that elders are a very important part of our culture and our society. Unfortunately, we have people within our communities within the NWT who don’t respect our seniors and elders and don’t honour them. Some of them are subjected to abuse, and I’ve mentioned many of the forms of abuse within the motion. Thankfully there’s a growing recognition of that abuse of elder and abuse of older adults is a problem.
The NWT Seniors’ Society is working very hard towards giving greater recognition to this problem, and to addressing the problem, and are finding solutions for it. The report that was tabled earlier today entitled Making Connections has some excellent work that the society has done, and there are some excellent recommendations in there which I hope the government will take advantage of.
I feel that the problem of elder abuse needs to be given a higher profile. We need to increase the public awareness and I think that this motion will get us some ways towards that. I think the motion tells all NWT residents that their legislators, we as MLAs, respect the values that elders bring to our work and to the territory. I think it also indicates the importance of this issue and that we are going to work to eradicate it.
I would encourage all Members to support this motion. I hope that the Executive Council will consider to vote on this. There is no requirement for them to spend any money. I would ask for a recorded vote.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a few comments to my support. Anytime we look at something that would support the elders in whatever fashion, I like to lend my support. I would like to thank the Member from Yellowknife here for bringing this forward to recognize the date of June 15th to 18th, I believe it’s Elder Abuse Week, and also to bring awareness to the elders.
When you read the report that the Member has made reference to, it’s fairly frightening. A lot of the issues that the elders are dealing with, sometimes they think it’s the normal way of how things are done in the community, or they haven’t really recognized the level of degrees of abuse that they may be suffering or taking on. They think that’s okay or normal for friends and family members to take advantage of them.
Financial, not taking care of them, emotional abuse, or just by using your mouth. A lot of these elders are scared in our communities. A lot of them shouldn’t be like that; however, that’s the way society is operating. That’s how we’re living today.
As Members of the Legislative Assembly, if it wasn’t for our elders, we would have it difficult in our communities. It’s the elders that through the preservation of their strength and courage that they give us advice to keep on going. It’s a sad day in the Northwest Territories when we as legislators think that we know it all and we don’t want to really give that much support to our elders. This is giving some promise to the awareness for our elders, for the prevention, and to really understand our grandparents and understand our people.
I want to say thank you to the Member and hope that one day we’ll have an elders secretariat within the government, that this government here can take some real ownership, like they have with the Women’s Secretariat, and the secretariat can be set up within the future government to say you are important to us, you matter, and abuse has to stop at all levels. No more shall elders be taken advantage of. That is not our culture and that is wrong. That is wrong by all our people. Hopefully our elders can have some level of comfort that this week here will be given to them, because they certainly deserve it. My grandmother deserves it. So do each of the grandparents in this room here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the motion. The Member has requested a recorded vote. All those in favour, please stand.
Ms. Bisaro; Mr. Yakeleya; Mr. Lafferty; Mr. Miltenberger; Mr. Roland; Mr. McLeod, Deh Cho; Mr. McLeod, Inuvik Twin Lakes; Mr. McLeod, Yellowknife South; Mr. Krutko; Mr. Bromley; Mr. Abernethy; Mr. Menicoche; Mr. Ramsay; Mrs. Groenewegen; Mr. Beaulieu; Mr. Hawkins; Mr. Jacobson.
All those opposed to the motion, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand.
Results of the recorded vote: 17 for, none opposed, none abstaining. The motion is carried unanimously.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 20, Vital Statistics Act, be read for the first time. Thank you.
