Good morning, colleagues. Welcome back to the House. Before we go to orders of the day, it’s a special day for a couple of our Members today. Mr. Beaulieu has a birthday.
Applause.
And without disclosing his age, I would just like to give a message to his MLA that in 30 years’ time, he’ll be eligible for a special award.
Laughter.
We also have another birthday in the House. Ms. Bisaro’s birthday is today.
Applause.
I thought I had the distinction of being the oldest Member, but not quite.
Laughter.
Anyway, happy birthday to both of you.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a former builder, supporter and fierce advocate of our tourism industry in the Northwest Territories.
Jim Peterson passed away on April 15 of this year, just weeks before his beloved lodge on Point Lake opened for its 22nd season.
Jim first came to the Northwest Territories in 1979 with the Canadian Armed Forces and established northern roots that were, thankfully, never uplifted.
In 1986 he became an active participant in the NWT tourism industry with the establishment of Point Lake Lodge north of Yellowknife. A seasoned outdoorsman and outfitter, he was elected for two successive terms as president of the NWT Arctic Tourism Association and served as a vocal and committed president for the Barren Ground Caribou Outfitters Association.
Jim Peterson held a great love for the North and a deep passion for the industry that allowed him to share its unique environment and beauty with his worldwide circle of clients and friends. He was a man of rigorous principles, an exemplary Northerner who addressed his challenges head-on but never lost the humble spirit with which he supported his colleagues and friends through their own times of hardship.
Mr. Speaker, the headline in the Yellowknifer on April 18 read: “Jim Peterson fought the government, enjoyed his friends and loved his lodge.” The words offer a succinct and fitting description of a man whose achievements and efforts on behalf of tourism in the Northwest Territories deserve our recognition, appreciation and celebration.
Friends and family will be gathering at the Adlair air hangar on Friday, May 23, at 5:30 p.m. for a celebration of life for this great Northerner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this is a budget session, and I want to talk about the budget information that was tabled in this House yesterday.
Mr. Speaker, we talk about our unique style of consensus government, and there is an anomaly in that system. As soon as we choose the seven from among us, they are assigned areas of responsibility on behalf of MLAs and the residents of the Northwest Territories.
But at some point, they become the equivalent of a minority government and take on the characteristics of a governing political party, complete with party discipline, solidarity, confidentiality. They clearly differentiate themselves from those on this side of the House. Maybe this is an anomaly within consensus government that we need to rethink.
After the lack of consultation and representative participation in the development of this budget, maybe there’s a more fitting model that will encourage Ministers to embrace and return to their commitments to work with all Members. Perhaps, like municipal councils, we should just strike committees and elect chairpersons to oversee those committees, and have Members serve as liaisons with various sectors of our territory. Perhaps responsibility for chairing these areas of responsibility should be rotated from time to time to build capacity, to plan for succession in future governments and to give everyone a chance to understand thoroughly the different dynamics and challenges of governing this vast territory.
There has been a very distinctive reluctance on the part of this government to demonstrate the values of the politics of inclusion. The Regular Members of this House have an amazing array of knowledge, background, experience and skills that are being disregarded when this Cabinet fails to consult in a meaningful way.
After our strategic planning session when we developed our Northerners Working Together — a bit of a contradiction…. When we developed that document, Cabinet committees were struck to deal with refocusing government. Many other initiatives committees were struck. Regular Members asked to have representation on those committees, and we were denied. Federal funding in the form of the Building Canada Fund, the equal trust and municipal debt development fund and community trust funding have had projects identified with no input from the Regular Members at the front end. We haven’t been allowed to sit at the table. Decisions were made about reduction targets, job reductions. All this was done in consultation with deputy ministers and departments. Regular Members were lucky to hear about them after the fact and sometimes after the communication was already in the public — if not formally, at least informally.
Now the Finance Minister has brought forward a budget and can’t understand why Regular Members are having a hard time to buy in. There may be more to be said.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted.
There may be more to be said about what’s not in this budget than there is to say about what is in it. Some of the Budget Address could have been well spent explaining the rationale for the cuts and job reductions so that Northerners could understand the big picture. What we heard were vague metaphors, analogies and hard-to-understand riddles. If we can’t understand the communication on this side of the House, how is the public supposed to make sense of it?
Speaking of the big picture, that is something this budget missed all together.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to bring to light today a situation affecting my constituents and, I suspect, the constituents of other Yellowknife ridings. Yellowknife’s rental housing market is extremely tight at the moment; the vacancy rate is less than 1 per cent. We’re all well aware of the current costs that are attached to the provision of heat, power, maintenance and so on that landlords must endure — particularly fuel costs. So it’s no surprise that tenants across the city of Yellowknife are receiving notices of pending rental rate increases.
Constituents have advised me that their rent increased in 2007 more than 16 per cent, with an increase in 2008 of another 11 per cent or 16 per cent, depending on their apartment size and the term of the lease.
I don’t begrudge the landlords the opportunity to raise rents to meet their costs and to have a positive balance sheet at the end of the day. The current Residential Tenancies Act allows landlords to raise rents once in a 12-month period, and that’s not unreasonable. What I am concerned about is the lack of any control for the amount of a rent increase. I find it unreasonable that tenants will have to endure rent increases two years running, each one as high as 16 per cent.
In a housing market with a normal vacancy rate, residents would have the option of looking for cheaper accommodations. Yellowknife renters don’t have that option today. They are effectively held to ransom by the landlord.
The NWT needs to put in place a mechanism of appeal for tenants who feel they are facing an unacceptable rent increase. At the moment they can’t appeal to the rental officer; he can only respond to things that are in the act. The act is silent on the amount of allowable rent increases. The act is also silent on the need for a landlord to provide any justification to tenants in regard to a proposed rent increase.
I think tenants recognize the rising cost of doing business and are willing to accept some increase in their rent. But a 16 per cent increase when the cost of living increase is no more than 3 per cent seems out of line.
I urge the Yellowknife rental property owners to consider meeting with their tenants to explain why such a huge increase is necessary. At the very least, they should provide their tenants with written justification, including facts and figures to back up their proposed increases.
Few of our residents have the capability and capacity to appeal a rent increase via the court process, but at this time that is the only possibility open to them. Maybe it’s time for the NWT to seriously consider establishing an ombudsman service to hear appeals from residents on any issue — not just rent concerns — where legislation has no avenue of appeal. I believe it’s a service whose time has come. I hope the government will give it serious consideration in the future.
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will have questions for the Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, when you’re back in the community, a lot of people come to you. They talk to you about cost of living. It was mentioned in the Budget Address yesterday. Cost of living is a great concern in the Northwest Territories, especially, as my colleague from Mackenzie Delta pointed out yesterday, the cost of energy.
One of the biggest complaints I get from back in Inuvik is the cost of power and the power bills and how they’re distributed. The power bills have been coming. I was talking to a constituent and he was saying it’s getting to the point where you almost can’t afford a mortgage anymore. By the time you’re finished paying your mortgage and your power bill, there’s almost no money left for food.
The billing is coming out of Hay River now, where it used to be done out of Inuvik. They are behind. I was talking to a constituent this morning who’s had five power bills in two months because they’re trying to catch up and they’re trying to make up. What kind of an organization is this?
The folks back in the Mackenzie Delta and in Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta are getting a little frustrated with having to constantly deal with the Power Corporation and the way they do business. There’s some serious talk; they’re looking at options for pulling off the grid. Your biggest customer base is in Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta.
If they were to pull off the grid, that would seriously affect the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. If they can supply the power themselves, then we don’t mind having to pay into our own community. But the folks in the Beaufort-Delta are getting these outrageous power bills. They’re getting too many power bills.
I can just see the next power bill. They’re going to have a rider on it, because they had to send out all these pink slips to remind you how they’re going to fix your bill. We’ll get a rider for those, like we get a rider for everything else. It’s just very frustrating for people who constantly have to struggle to make ends meet.
Everything is going up. We talk about the cost of living being a priority of this government, and yet we do very little about it. The subsidy the government provides helps, obviously. Without that subsidy, times would be a little more difficult. It’s just a frustrating time for all people in the Beaufort-Delta to have to keep paying these outrageous power bills.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was very disappointed with the Budget Address yesterday. There was no mention in regard to the access road for Aklavik. I’d like to congratulate my colleague from Tuktoyaktuk; they received recognition in the Budget Address.
After reviewing the budget last night, I was again not able to find anywhere in that budget reference to a motion that I passed in this House regarding an access road to gravel sources in Tuktoyaktuk to site 177 and an access road from Aklavik to Willow River to that gravel source.
This issue has been around since 1991 by way of motions from the Beaufort region, from the communities, and also from me as a Member of this House for 13 years. Yet somehow it has been totally erased or eliminated from the planning process of this government. This project has received government funding by way of the community access road project for several years, in which they’ve built two kilometres of road, because the cost of moving gravel from the Willow River site to the community…. This government has known about this project for some time.
The residents of Aklavik are very disappointed that this is not being recognized by this government. Mr. Speaker, this government has been divvying up money among themselves by way of the Building Canada Fund and the strategic initiative funds. Again, a large number of these projects have nowhere been previously budgeted or previously planned for in the planning process of this government.
I can remember standing up in this House many times and being told by Ministers across the floor that in order to get any projects, by way of roads connecting communities to highways or expanding our highway system, it had to be part of the NWT Highway Strategy. These new projects aren’t even close to being in the NWT strategy.
Mr. Speaker, I’m very disappointed in regard to what I heard yesterday and how we’ve been treated on this side of the House. As a Member who’s been here for 13 years, this is the worst I’ve seen of dialogue between Members of the 16th Assembly compared to what we did in the 13th Assembly. That was a major budget exercise then.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted.
As a Member for the 13th Assembly, we went through a similar exercise, but at least the 23 members of the 13th Assembly were involved. We knew which departments were going to be cut. We knew exactly what our situation was so we could go back to our constituents and explain it to them.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I will continue to fight with regard to the constituents of the Mackenzie Delta and the access road for Aklavik. I have to state that I’m very disappointed that there was nothing mentioned in the budget.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about the serious issue that is affecting many of our communities: a lack of adequate housing for teachers.
This is not a new issue. As a matter of fact, it’s been making headlines for some time now — headlines like: Teachers’ Housing – Headache for Education Body; Frustrated Teachers Quitting Beaufort Jobs; High Rents, Housing Crunch Drives Teachers from NWT Communities; Five Beaufort-Delta Communities Losing School Principals.
Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious issue for many communities. Things are no different in my riding. The district education authority in Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution, the South Slave District Education Council and even the NWT Teachers’ Association have raised the issue of housing for teachers in my communities numerous times over the past five years. There’s been little or no improvement.
Mr. Speaker, there are three main issues with teachers’ housing: availability, affordability and adequacy. Contributing to the problem is the fact that Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e are smaller communities with no private rental market. The cost of housing is a significant factor when prospective teachers are deciding whether or not to take the positions. Affordability is a huge factor when it comes to communities getting good teachers or retaining them.
In these smaller communities, availability of adequate housing is severely limited. As a result, teachers often find themselves having to share living quarters with others. One teacher was even forced to stay in a local bed-and-breakfast. In most cases they have month-to-month leases. This can be a major distraction for teachers. It often results in high, fast turnover and places a heavy burden on school budgets. In one case, a teacher had to go without laundry services for a full winter because of a faulty water system and other issues, like maintenance.
At the end of the day, this is not only a teacher’s problem. It affects the students and the whole community.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted.
This is a territory-wide problem that demands immediate attention. Later on today I will follow up this statement with questions for the appropriate Minister. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to honour the passing of an elder: Madeline Villeneuve from Fort Simpson. Madeline — best known as Madeleine, as she had been called all her life — was the oldest member of our community. She was 101 years old by church records. However, other elders and community members maintain she was far older than that. She was definitely the oldest one in our community and our region. She had lived a long and formidable life: from bows and arrows through to the moon landing, as it was said in her eulogy. This is significant, Mr. Speaker, because I read recently that the oldest person in the world is only 105 or 107, and she was up there.
She contributed greatly to our community. She had a large family. She had 43 grandchildren, 90 great-grandchildren and 28 great-great-grandchildren. I am proud to say that my children and grandchild are counted among them through their mother, Connie Villeneuve.
I just wanted to honour her today here in the Legislature, Mr. Speaker, and as well to say: Madeleine, you have done a great job with all of your children, and I wish you peaceful rest as you have taken leave from us. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During our last session I went on the record concerning morale in the public service. After receiving the Main Estimates yesterday, it's clear that 231 positions have been targeted for reduction. Fortunately only 147 of these will result in potential job loss, as 84 are currently vacant. Although 147 affected employees is definitely better than 231, it's still far from appropriate, and it's bad for the public service.
Staff of the GNWT are our most valuable resource. They're the people who provide the essential services to our residents in the Northwest Territories. Without a happy and motivated public service, we fail in the delivery of the essential services we are expected to deliver as a government.
These job cuts do nothing but radically reduce already poor morale. Further, this job-cutting exercise is seen as only the first round of cuts. Whether or not a second round of cuts is coming, it does cause uncertainty within the public service, which currently affects morale and the quality of the services provided by our dedicated yet nervous and apprehensive staff.
As I indicated previously, I believe focusing on job cuts is exactly the wrong way to pursue the course of direction with respect to the government's spending patterns.
The public and the Members on this side of the House have offered Cabinet many suggestions on ways to improve our financial situation without cutting staff: things like reviewing and improving our energy use and consumption within the government itself, restructuring boards and agencies and increasing cooperation between departments in order to reduce duplicate spending.
During the last session I and my colleagues on this side of the House strongly encouraged the Premier and Cabinet to make every reasonable effort to reduce our overall spending through streamlining, as well as creative and innovative thinking and planning. After looking at the Main Estimates last night, it appears to me that our encouragement to find reductions other than through cuts has largely been ignored. Don't get me wrong. Upon review, it's clear that one or two of the departments were more creative and did find alternative savings without jobs cuts; however, the vast majority appear to have gone directly into job cuts themselves.
I am a realist. I know that this restructuring exercise will result in a few — and I stress, a few — job cuts. However, as I indicated previously, these job cuts should be the last resort. They shouldn't be the government's first solution to our financial difficulty. I’m disappointed that Cabinet has pursued this course of action, as I believe they're setting us up to relive the mistakes of 1996 government cuts.
To avoid repeating these same mistakes, I encourage Cabinet to listen to the Regular Members, your colleagues, and reconsider many of the job cuts you are proposing. We must support our most valuable resource: our dedicated and committed staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Speaker, the three most important things in the basic cost of living for all our residents are food, energy and housing. This Assembly has made it a priority to address the soaring cost of living. Because our small communities have little economic development, they must be subsidized at increasing costs, with significant implications to our residents and to the GNWT budget. In the budget presented, I see little comprehensive and effective government action to actually address these costs. I want here to suggest a basis on which to move forward on this key issue.
When basic needs are derived from resources that are imported from increasingly remote locations, costs cannot be controlled and rising costs result. Money and economic resources are pipelined out of the community as fast as they comes in and are concentrated in fewer and fewer large corporations without any relationship to the community. Environmental impacts rise and eventually are felt globally. Everyone pays those costs, but few have input into the decisions that could address those impacts. Development of skills related to providing those resources is not enhanced. Finally, increasing subsidies are required to provide the basic needs necessary and to address the social and other consequences that naturally arise from this situation. This is what we currently face.
In contrast, many benefits can accrue when basic needs are met, largely from local resources. Costs can be controlled, financial gains are maximized and distributed locally, and economic interactions circulate money in the community. Environmental impacts are quickly addressed because they're felt immediately and locally, and community capacity rises. Indirect benefits include a strengthened social fabric, respect for the land and people who provide for the needs of the community, and an overall increase in community capacity. Economic development becomes specifically designed to local conditions and resources that vary widely, and it doesn't actually yield diversity.
Mr. Speaker, while we have the challenges of climate change impacts and soaring fuel costs, we also have solutions that will address both of these and the cost of living. We have an incredible potential to raise vegetables, herbs and even grains, as was demonstrated in the '40s through the '60s. Our varied crops are phenomenal. Our potential for harvesting meat is high, with marine mammals, bison, moose, waterfowl and the long-term caribou. Our forests offer….
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our forests offer an amazing potential for diversifying our diet, from birch syrup to nutrient-laden mushrooms and other foods. Renewable energy is available in every community, varying from area to area. Building skills and materials are available, but need investigation and development.
The Minister of Finance noted yesterday that we are totally vulnerable to rising costs and global economic conditions, yet he failed to address how to become less vulnerable. Instead, this government's sole response seems to be to join the madness and pursue mega-development with predictable social, environmental and local economic consequences.
Mr. Speaker, I urge this government to recognize the incredible potential and innovation of our culturally diverse people and to provide real incentives, opportunities and requirements for environmentally, economically and socially sustainable development. We need to meet real needs with real solutions. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the Premier's Budget Address yesterday and found it quite interesting that there was absolutely no mention of the $165 million Deh Cho Bridge project. It didn't get any billing whatsoever from this government. Mr. Speaker, is that not a strange omission?
According to the government, isn't this $165 million bridge supposed to reduce the cost of living? And wouldn't you think that the government would be boasting about this massive piece of public infrastructure? Or was it left out intentionally? Perhaps the government does not want any more attention given to this project, or perhaps it's embarrassed to have gotten into such a poor deal in the first place.
Many of my constituents and residents around the Northwest Territories do not understand or comprehend why, if we are in financial duress and expenses are outstripping our revenues, would we ever, ever sign on to a project that's going to increase our annual operational expenses by close to $3 million per year, indexed for the next 35 years.
Mr. Speaker, the bridge is going to be built. During questions to the Premier in October and in February, he did commit to having a post-mortem on finding out why the government signed the agreement three days before the last election and who was responsible for that action. I'm in receipt of a response to a set of written questions that I had asked the Premier in February — on February 8, to be specific — regarding the Deh Cho Bridge concession agreement. I want to thank the Premier for the responses, but they only add more questions to what the government was thinking when they signed off on this agreement.
In response, the Government of the Northwest Territories finally admits to the public and to this House that they did not have an updated cost-benefit analysis done prior to signing that agreement. How could this ever, ever be allowed to happen with public funds, Mr. Speaker?
We had the discussion yesterday regarding the need for sound decision-making. How on God’s green earth is this sound decision-making when the government was relying on a five-year-old cost-benefit analysis to sign off on a $165 million concession agreement? This is completely and utterly unacceptable and inexcusable, especially since the deal itself was signed in a veil of secrecy.
Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Premier at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin I would like to make special mention of Red Friday, where people wear red to honour the troops.
Mr. Speaker, today’s Member’s statement is to talk about a couple of community grassroots events that will be happening here in Yellowknife. The first one is the Gumboot Rally. It will be happening tomorrow, Saturday, May 24 at 10 a.m. at the Yellowknife Education Board parking lot. It will be the scene of fun, games and a lot of laughs at the Yellowknife Association for Community Living, where they are holding their 16th Annual Gumboot Rally.
The rally is the association’s major fundraiser to maintain programming throughout the year. The YACL is a non-profit organization that supports families, children, youth and adults with intellectual disabilities so that they are included and able to contribute to community life here in Yellowknife. The association provides services in eight different programming areas, including employability, family projects, living and learning with FASD projects, literacy outreach centres, respite, supportive living, skills training and inclusions.
Mr. Speaker, at the Gumboot Rally 15 to 20 teams will don hilarious costumes — and their gumboots, of course — to come out and compete in such games as basketboots, skinny ankles, boot toss and catch ‘n boot. Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of notable prizes that will be donated by Canadian North: two trips, which can be a trip to Edmonton or Calgary. One is for the person who raises the most money, and the other is for the person who gets the most sponsors. Mr. Speaker, at the end of the event there will be a barbecue.
I’m just letting folks know that there are still packages available. Every year teams don funny costumes. In past years we’ve had the Loan Arrangers from the TD Bank, Aurora Jiggers from the college, the Flashers, Sisson Judges and the Hippies. So Mr. Speaker, that community event starts on Saturday. I’m making special note of our sponsors who make sure this event happens. They are Canadian North, YK1, Artisan Press, Northbest Distributors, BHP, and the Gumboots, as well as Coffee Break.
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, I had two community events that are important in Yellowknife, and they’re grassroots. Of course there’s the Walk for the Cure of diabetes, which I’ll be attending as well. That happens here at the Legislative Assembly on Sunday, May 25. Registration starts at 1 o’clock. I’ll just say in closing it’s put on every year by the Lions Club. I want to thank them for leading that initiative starting here at the Legislature on Sunday. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins, The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to bring up a problem that we’ve been having in our community of Tuktoyaktuk since February of this year. Our x-ray machine has been broken down. The residents have to fly to Inuvik to get an x-ray done, and that’s not acceptable in this day and age. We have to get a timeline on when that machine will be brought back to town. I’ll have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the family of the late Jim Peterson, who are in attendance today. I appreciated the remarks this morning. Welcome to the Peterson family.
I’d like to recognize Candy Brown from Fort Simpson.
