Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I started off this sitting of the Legislative Assembly raising a concern about a medical professional practising in the Northwest Territories who I had serious concerns about.
As a result of some follow-up with the Department of Health, Mr. Speaker, I was able to determine that a new Medical Profession Act was passed and came into force on April 6th -- so just over a month ago -- so complaints after the date of April 6th are now managed under the new act.
The new act gives a disciplinary board and the investigator better and up-to-date tools, temporary suspension, a wider variety of ways to deal with the terms and conditions of a licence, mediation and dispute resolution techniques for a complaint, and better ways of dealing with difficult physicians who may not wish to cooperate and who may leave the NWT or let their licence lapse in order to avoid a complaint process.
Mr. Speaker, here are a few of the improvements. If there is improper conduct that is deemed to be a criminal offense, this allows the GNWT to revoke the licence upon conviction of that individual, it allows for sanctions if a practitioner fails or refuses to comply with the settlement agreement approved through proposed alternative dispute mechanisms.
Mr. Speaker, it allows for the investigation of a complaint for up to two years after a physician is no longer registered in the Northwest Territories. The accused practitioner can be compelled to testify in an inquiry. The board of inquiry can proceed upon proof that the complaint has been served to the accused. The complainant can have a very limited role in the inquiry. The written decisions of the board of inquiry must be provided. An appeal of a decision by the board of inquiry to the Supreme Court does not set aside the judgement. Also, the new act allows for the recovery of costs from a physician, but not exceeding $20,000.
Mr. Speaker, I was very, very pleased to learn of these changes to the process and I would encourage people who feel that the previous process did not serve their complaint, or did not give them the satisfaction of feeling like the physician complained of was dealt with in a proper way, to look at this process and consider whether it might be appropriate to file their complaint again to have it dealt with. I do say I’m very pleased with these changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many people had a hand in the developing of our Water Strategy, Northern Voices, Northern Waters. We have some of these fine folks in the gallery today and from INAC I’d like to recognize Teresa Joudrie, director of Renewable Resources and Environment; Sevn Bohnet, technical coordinator; Tricia Melander-Forde, senior communications officer; Carole Mills, former manager, water resources division, now working for the Government of the Northwest Territories; and with the GNWT we have our stalwart deputy, Mr. Gary Bohnet; Mark Warren, assistant deputy minister of ENR; Megan Leverage and her soon-to-be baby,...
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...and Loretta Ransom. Thank you all for your help.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize my old boss Gary Bohnet, who used to be the president of the NWT Metis Association. I was his vice-president. So it’s good to see the boss up there in his position. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a couple of Pages from Fort Smith this week. A Page named Paige McKay, and Julia de Pelham. I recognize the chaperone, Ms. Megan Okrainec. Welcome and I hope you enjoyed your week and had a great experience. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to thank two Pages from Hay River South for their work and their help in the Legislative Assembly this week, two Grade 8 students from Diamond Jenness Secondary School, Mr. Bryce Maher and Mr. Zachary Martin. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, have a Page that I’d like to recognize for his hard work: Branden Horn from Range Lake School here in Yellowknife. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize all the folks who worked on the NWT Water Strategy, fantastic work. I figure there must be residents of Weledeh in such a good group, so...
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...there we go, thank you very much. And as well, of course, I wanted to...
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Mr. Speaker, order. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to mention Gary’s son, Sevn Bohnet, just to conclude the family circle there.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Mr. Chris Hunt, entrepreneur around town. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It’s always nice to have an audience in here.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke of the NWT Housing Corporation delivering programs to seniors and the tax and lease arrears being a deterrent to that delivery. I would like to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation some questions. Can the Minister change the policy of the repair programs so that land and tax arrears will not adversely affect the approval of seniors from obtaining repair programs for their units? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation goes a long way in trying to assist seniors in home repairs and getting work done on their units and getting into homeownership. There are many things we do for them. If this is something that is a concern, I’d have to explore that with officials from the Housing Corporation to see if there is something that we might be able to do to address this concern. Thank you.
I guess I’m asking for a change of policy, which would be long term. But at this point in the year and the importance of the construction season, can the Minister direct his delivery staff in the regions to set aside issues pertaining to land arrears as far as tax and leases go for the delivery to our seniors’ households? Thank you.
All those that wish to enter the program through the Housing Corporation are encouraged to apply. There is a process that we have to go through as far as addressing policy changes. So I would encourage those that may know that they’re in arrears, to apply and then the district offices will follow the process as it’s laid out. Thank you.
For the Housing Corporation to be able to address the size of the problem with coordinating issues pertaining to senior households, can the Minister separate the seniors’ core need issues from the rest of the households like families and single peoples’ core need issues and do that as a top priority? Thank you.
Providing programs to seniors is one of our priorities. We do have some programs that are designed specifically for seniors through the Housing Corp and through MACA. We have preventative maintenance programs. So we do have some programs geared towards seniors, but as I was mentioning before, we will look at all ways that we can improve our service and delivery to seniors. We could look at possibly identifying a lot of the seniors out there. The Member has actually been very helpful in identifying a lot of seniors in his constituency that might qualify for some programs. So we continue to take that work on and applying for the Preventative Maintenance Program. Once the seniors are in the system, then they continue to receive that benefit every year. So that’s one of the ways that we track the amount of seniors that are in there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that’s good. I would like to thank the Minister for that response. Can the Minister develop a delivery strategy that’s focused on seniors so that when we go back to the seniors’ households and discuss housing issues with them, that we are able to tell them that there is some certain specific attention being paid to those households? Can the Minister develop a delivery strategy for seniors’ households? Thank you.
This is a concern that we’ve heard from some of the Members on how we deliver programs to the seniors and I had committed earlier to the Member for Tu Nedhe that we do have district staff going into the community. If there were seniors that needed our staff to go see them and help them fill out the applications and also with translation, they’d be willing to do that. So we continue to refine how we deliver our programs for seniors because we do want our seniors to have a nice, comfortable lifestyle and if there is anything we can do to assist with that, that’s something we are constantly looking at doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to my Member’s statement, I talked about the regulatory process and the affect it has on land claims agreements. So my questions are probably better directed to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, the Premier.
Mr. Speaker, under the McCrank report, page 14, which talks about any fundamental restructuring in regards to the agreement, all the parties to comprehensive land claims agreements, comprehensive land claims agreements are constitutionally protected and any amendments without the effective parties being in the agreement cannot be amended. Then it talks about Section 35 of the Constitution, existing aboriginal treaty rights, aboriginal people are hereby recognized and affirmed, and also Section 50 of the Canadian Constitution which basically says the Constitution of Canada is supreme law of the land and any laws in respect of the provision of the Constitution basically has paramount with other laws. So I would like to ask the Premier, who is responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and, more importantly, responsible for this government, I believe you had a meeting with regard to Mr. Pollard with regard to where he’s going. What got me is Mr. Pollard’s comments in the paper that this is not going to have any effect on the land claim agreements and they are going to go ahead and make these changes. But in the recommendations put forward by Mr. McCrank, it was basically totally going in the opposite direction. So what’s the government’s position on these process changes and also what affects these changes. But in the recommendations put forward by Mr. McCrank, it’s basically totally going the opposite direction. So I’d like to ask the Premier what is the government’s position on these process changes and also what affects it could have in regard to aboriginal land claim agreements and treaty rights. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raises a valid point on the interaction of the land claims in the Northwest Territories, how they’re protected, and any changes to any regimes that are in place need to be paid attention to.
As the Government of the Northwest Territories, we’ve developed a consultation strategy and a consultation framework with First Nations and aboriginal governments here in the Northwest Territories to look at any program that might impact on those types of agreements. The federal government has just initiated its work to look at doing some work around the regulatory environment that we’re faced with, and the initial meeting we had was very preliminary, more or less a chance to meet firsthand Mr. Pollard, who will be doing the work for the Minister of DIAND, and we’ll see what the work presents. Right now, we don’t know what that final work will do. We’re going to stay in touch with the work as it develops to ensure that, in fact, the processes are in place, that the respect for them are being paid and that we continue to build a positive environment with our aboriginal governments in the Northwest Territories.
So we’re going to stay in touch in that manner. As well, from a Government of the Northwest Territories perspective itself as well as just to the type of work that’s going to be done, I think, in fact, that the work that we all think about when the McCrank report came out is going to be somewhat less than that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, again, in regard to my Member’s statement and also the quote I just read where basically it says that there has to be a fundamental agreement on any changes, my fear is that the government seems to have its mind already made up that they’re going to go ahead full speed and make these changes without full consultation with the affected land claims and, more importantly, the affected treaty rights.
So I’d like to ask the Premier, what is the government’s position on inclusion of the aboriginal groups who are going to be affected by this change to ensure that they’re full participants on any redrafting or changes to the Mackenzie Valley Resources Management Act?
Mr. Speaker, the chief negotiator on the regulatory reform file is in the very early stages of his consultation with all governments in the Northwest Territories. We’re going to track that involvement and the work that starts to flow out of it and see where things go from that point of view.
So it’s very early. Again, the meeting that we had was very preliminary and some of the basic sort of steps that are being looked at. We know that all the First Nations and aboriginal groups and governments out there will be paid a visit and we’ll see how they react. In fact, I think this may be a subject matter that regional leaders would like to have a discussion on as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that’s the fear I have, is that they’re simply going to pay a visit. For me, that’s not consultation. I think there have been court cases in Canada, especially the Delgamuukw decision, there was also a court case here in the Northwest Territories in regard to the Mackenzie Valley Resources Act in regard to the people of Kakisa who took the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Review Board to court on the basis that they basically weren’t fully consulted. I think that we have to ensure that we do everything to protect the rights of those people, not only with land claims but also without, to any regulatory changes that are going to take place. It has to include the fundamental principle of full involvement by way of participation, not only by consultation but involvement under regulatory boards and systems we set up. So what type of guarantees can we get from the government to ensure that those full consultations take place and not simply them paying us a visit?
Mr. Speaker, the chief negotiator is an experienced Northerner and a past representative of the Legislative Assembly in his own time. I think that’s one of the reasons why, with his experience in the North, that may help in the deliberations that are to follow. We’re going to stay in close contact with him. We have our consultation framework that’s in place and we’d be prepared to share that with the chief negotiator on the file and see what work comes from that. Again, we’ll stay in touch with the regional leaders, as well, with this issue as it develops. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Premier allow us to be included in whatever processes going forward and making sure that all Members of the House are informed and consulted fully in regard to where this government is going and, more importantly, where this issue is proceeding to? So can we be fully informed and consulted by the Premier? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we will encourage the chief negotiator to set up a meeting with committee as well as the work that we do in preparation. As our practice is, we will set up some time to sit down with Members to see what positions are being developed and how we should respond to some of those. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Transportation getting back to my Member’s statement and also in reference to the Minister’s statement that he made earlier today.
I’d like to ask, given the fact that the Deh Cho Bridge Project was a partnership originally with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, much of the information for the public and for Members of the House was shrouded in a great deal of secrecy. That’s not the case anymore, Mr. Speaker, as the government has taken on full control of that project. I’d like to ask the Minister how the government is going to get all the information about the project so that the public can see all the relative information on the project. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my position on the Department of Transportation’s project, and that includes the Deh Cho Bridge, is one of transparency. We’ve taken all avenues to provide information to the Members of this House. We continue to look for ways to communicate with the general public. We plan to incorporate a newsletter into our communications on the bridge, we’re also working towards developing a website that will have all information around this project, and we want to have an on-site camera where people can patch into the site and be able to view construction as it proceeds and moves forward. So those are some of the things that we want to be able to do for the general public. We also want to commit to the Members, which I have already, to provide regular updates either through e-mails or face-to-face committee meetings. Thank you.
In the Minister’s statement he says the intent is to highlight all the positive accomplishments associated with the bridge. I’m wondering will those positive accomplishments include updated status of the construction audit, updated revenue forecasts, updated financial information on that bridge project? Thank you.
We plan to update all the positive aspects. The Member’s been doing a good job highlighting some of the negative ones, but we also have to flag those. There are a number of audits that are going on. There is a technical audit that we have embarked on and we have committed to the Members that we would share that information. We’re about halfway through that. We have a lot of documents. We have a lot of information to be able to sift through and see where things are at and we hope to conclude that in another three to four weeks. Of course, we have the Auditor General that has been invited by motion in this House to do an audit and discussions have been taking place. Mr. Speaker, we commit to providing all the information when it’s timely, possibly to the Members of this House and to the general public, good or bad. Thank you.
