I believe it’s easier to put them in the speeches. It’s just two little words that I’ve been asking for for nine years. If it’s not a priority of this government, then those words do not end up in any of our documentation. I’d like to ask the Minister to fight for my people, my constituency and the highways that I represent. There has got to be some government documentation to make it a priority and to recognize to my people that it is a priority to have a safe transportation infrastructure.
Certainly going forward, Highway No. 7 is a red flag project. It is going to be a priority of this government to try to identify capital dollars to keep that highway maintained at a safe, safe clip.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. How is this Minister keeping Highway No. 7 a priority with his deliberations with his Cabinet colleagues and the federal Ministers?
My Cabinet colleagues are well aware of Highway No. 7. It’s a discussion that comes up time and time again. I have committed to the Member some time during this session that the Member and I will drive Highway No. 7. I want to get a look at it firsthand. I know it’s experienced a great deal of precipitation in the past week and I look forward to going with the Member to take a look at the highway. Certainly it will be a priority as we go forward.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask several questions to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. As you all know, the GNWT and the Sahtu have signed on to the Devolution Agreement. I understand that three out of at least seven or eight groups have come on board. I just wanted to ask the Minister if he can provide us, this House, an update as to the progress or the next steps of the devolution negotiations. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now we are negotiating a final agreement with the Government of Canada and the participating Aboriginal governments. We are keeping the other Aboriginal governments that have not signed on the AIP, we are keeping them informed by regular detailed updates on the negotiations, and we are also in discussions with four Aboriginal governments to see if we can find common ground with regard to devolution and other Aboriginal issues. Thank you.
As negotiations unfold and as the public kind of observes this process, at some point it is inevitable that conflict will arise. I want to ask the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs if there are mechanisms in terms of arbitration or mediation that perhaps this government will consider as this progress towards a final agreement progresses. At some point perhaps there could be an anticipated juncture where conflicts will arise.
Is the Minister and the negotiations team aware or even considered, perhaps, where there could be mediated measures or arbitrated measures to ensure that the progress is made but at the same time the common interests of all groups are maintained? Thank you.
As the Member is aware, the framework agreement that was signed by all three parties, which guides the Dehcho negotiating process, points out that both the federal government and the Dehcho have different understandings on the interpretations of treaties 8 and 11, and our preference is that the Aboriginal and treaty rights for the Dehcho be negotiated through the land and resources agreement.
As I talked about before, the Dehcho understand that devolution is based on a modern land claim treaty and they don’t agree with the written version of the treaties. Their view is their oral version where they had not given up any Aboriginal rights or land under their treaties. Right now the Dehcho are negotiating a final agreement which will take precedence on anything that’s negotiated, so we are using the negotiations as the process. We did get correspondence from the Dehcho in 2006, where they concluded that devolution would not affect their lands and that they wished us every success in our devolution negotiations.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I like the term “common interest.” At some point, I know there’s progress, and negotiation is an agreement-in-principle and it’s non-binding on the parties. I wanted to ask the Minister if at some point, with the two parties at the table – and of course, with the interests of the GNWT to treat the whole Northwest Territories as one main body – has there been discussions with the groups in terms, perhaps, principle agreement to the concept of a central government working with the regional government and how those governments will be sustained through resource revenue sharing.
We are trying to do that through bilateral discussions with the Aboriginal governments. We have been meeting with the Tlicho. We have been meeting with the Dehcho and, unfortunately, we were weathered out on a meeting this Thursday. It’s our intention to meet with them to see if we can find a way forward, and we are planning to have some high level discussions.
Similarly, with the Akaitcho we had a meeting planned for this past Tuesday but one of the elders from the Akaitcho passed away, so those meetings were deferred. It’s our expectation that we will continue to have discussions to try to find some common ground.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you may all know, Aklavik is an isolated community. Last year the only road to safety up to the foothills was washed out and the community was left to use their capital funding to pay for those costs. My question to the Minister of MACA is: What emergency assistance does MACA have available for communities that face flooding, such as Aklavik? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We look at it on an individual basis and see where the money would be best put. In Aklavik’s case, I know a couple of years ago they had used some money to fix up a lot of their roads in town. One of the things that we’ve just recently done during our meetings with other Ministers of emergency measures from across the country is Canada’s rolling out a Disaster Mitigation Program which would go towards mitigating situations such as the ones that we’re facing in Aklavik. If there’s an opportunity there to access some of the money – they’re still working out the details right now – this would be one of those projects that would be ideal for this type of program once the details are ironed out. Thank you.
Will the Minister have emergency funding set aside for the community of Aklavik in case the community faces a flood this year?
Again, Mr. Speaker, I say we will look at it on an individual basis and if there is a lot of flooding in some of the communities, we have to look at it on an individual basis and see where we can best assist the communities.
The communities themselves are well prepared to deal with a lot of emergencies that come their way. I think 29 of the communities have emergency plans put in place, so as far as the financial part of it, again, we’ll have to look at it on a case-by-case basis and see – going back to the Disaster Mitigation Program – how that rolls out as there may be opportunity for some funding there.
At this time I have no further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement today, I was concerned about this process, about the new found love for sole sourcing, or as the sleight of hand may call it, a negotiated contract.
Mr. Speaker, my concern is strictly about the process and not about who’s getting it. Although there seems to be an undertone trying to describe it as that’s the issue, and by no means it is. Mr. Speaker, I, too, speak in favour of the virtues cited about training skilled development, local employment and Aboriginal involvement, so you won’t hear me speak against that. It’s the process. Mr. Speaker, quite frankly, here this is the issue. What’s stopping the McLeod government for allowing Highway No. 7 to go out for an RFP that recognizes all these great virtues that we talked? That’s directed to the Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, it’s Highway No. 4, not 7, and secondly, Mr. Speaker, I know the Member, for having been a Member of this House for the past eight years, I would think that he would know the difference between a sole-sourced contract and a negotiated contract.
Mr. Speaker, if he’s going back in Hansard, I challenge him to find one example of where I stood up as a Member of this House and said one thing negative about a negotiated contract with an Aboriginal company in this territory. I challenge him to find that, Mr. Speaker.
Clearly, we can see how thin skinned the Minister is by turning it into an issue like that. As I said to start off, my issue, quite frankly, is the process, but if it hurts his feelings, I mean, I can rephrase my question.
I have to actually admit I liked his quote, and that will be my question, which is it’s not about the competency or the fair price, but his question was: How can we guarantee these things without going through an RFP process? Mr. Speaker, that is the question.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Before we go on, Members, I want to make sure that we are here for a reason. It is to represent the people. We have the question and answer. Respect one another. In regard to your little shots that you are taking here, I am not liking it right now. Keep it in order. Mr. Ramsay, you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with you on the respectful dialogue that has to happen in this House, but if the Member is in one statement he uses terms like “sleight of hand, little respect for taxpayers, embarrassment, insult, shameful, back door, dismal and cannibal,” that makes it very difficult to have a respectful dialogue with a Member that is conducting himself like that.
Let’s just stick to the issue. The issue is we are negotiating a contract with Det’on Cho Corporation, the business arm of the Yellowknives Dene and Chief Drygeese territory.
Mr. Speaker, I take very seriously the allegations that we are insulting the public’s intelligence, that we are doing things nefariously. Mr. Speaker, we are not. We are being as transparent and open as we possibly can with Members of this House. Thank you.
I would like to do a point of order on 23(i), imputes false motive. The Minister is suggesting a nefarious conduct or suggestion by me. That is not true. I also follow that up under the same issue under 23(j) and 23(k), which falls under charging an MLA with some type of falsehood, as well as insulting and bad language that causes disorder of this Assembly. Mr. Speaker, quite frankly, nefarious is quite a strong word. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I will take it under advisement and I will get back to the House sometime next week. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question about the new love affair for the Department of Transportation for a negotiated contract, how many sole-source negotiated contracts or similar types of documents have been signed under this Minister’s watch since taking the helm of the Department of Transportation last fall? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, on an annual basis, 80 percent of all contracts that the Department of Transportation has are tendered. Twenty percent would be negotiated. If the Member wants detail in the past year, I can provide that for him. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will take that particular detail as the Minister had offered. What better learning experience could any particular company get from a potential contract by actually applying themselves in a constructive way by actually tendering documents to try to win? If we are talking about capacity building, bidding on contracts is one element of capacity building. That is the question, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, much like the Member’s press release, I don’t really understand the Member’s question. Thank you.
The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on the questions that were raised by my colleague with respect to addictions treatment facilities. Mr. Moses indicated three communities where there were buildings that he thought perhaps the government could look at for addictions treatment.
I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if the Hay River Hospital, currently scheduled for replacement within a few years, is a building that could be considered. There are a lot of young people in the Northwest Territories that are obviously addicted to drugs and alcohol. I think this building, although it may not be good for a hospital anymore, certainly is good enough for a youth treatment centre. I would like to add Hay River hospital to the list of buildings that may be considered as treatment facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a considerable amount of work that has to take place in order to use a piece of infrastructure specifically for a youth treatment facility. Like I indicated, almost 100 percent of the youth that attend treatment are forced into treatment. There’s not a whole lot of youth from the Northwest Territories that are going into treatment at this time. There’s not a whole lot of youth identifying themselves to have alcohol or drug addiction issues at this time. So until we have a program developed that addresses youth treatment, it is very difficult to commit to using any facility for youth treatment. But we would look at any facility that could be used for treatment. Thank you.
So let me understand; the Minister is not denying that there are many youth in the Northwest Territories that could benefit from treatment, but there are not youth that are coming forward, identifying themselves as candidates for treatment and the ones that we are sending to the South are being forced into treatment because they’ve come in contact with the law or have been referred there kind of as a desperate measure. So we have a drug and alcohol problem amongst our youth and we don’t really have any way to get them into treatment. They don’t really want to go do treatment. So they’re coming out and looking for a facility in which to treat them. Wow! We’re deferring a problem. We’re deferring a problem until later.
I actually have the statistics right here, and I’ll table it later, on the number of youth in the Northwest Territories referred for treatment. In the last three years it’s like five, four and three. That is like a sad, low number.
Does the Minister have any idea of how we could encourage, any program that could encourage these young people that are addicted to drugs and alcohol to seek help and seek treatment at an earlier rather than later stage in their life? Thank you.
Thank you. There is the problem, the fact that there are five, four and three youth going to treatment. It’s very difficult to have a facility that services that type of number.
What we’re looking at with the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan is we’re going to the communities and we’re trying to find ways where the youth can get treatment using one of the things that the communities asked us to do, is use the elders. Take the youth and the elders out on the land and see if that works as a treatment option. Because if they are self-identified, those are the numbers we have. If they’re being forced by the justice system or their parents, those are the type of numbers that we have at this time. It’s very difficult to put youth in an infrastructure type of residential treatment.
As MLAs we’ve heard the desperate cry of parents who have children that are addicted to drugs and alcohol that are turning to us as a government and saying what can you do for my child. Is there any mechanism through the Department of Social Services, through community wellness workers? Is there any tool that this government has access to that could work with these youth to encourage them to seek help, to help them self-identify as having a problem and seek help? It’s almost unbelievable to me that we have this big a problem with drugs and alcohol and yet we as a government say hey, we’ve got no need for treatment facilities because they don’t want to participate. Is there a mechanism within the department through our existing staff that could help with this? Thank you.
Right now the department, working with health and social services, is spending about $8 million targeted at treatment, mental health and addictions. But as people know in the House, a lot of that is for adult treatment; $2 million to Nats’ejee K’eh for adult treatment and $6 million to community counselling programs. That’s targeted to everyone, including youth. This is what we have. But the community wellness plans that we’re hoping to develop, that we will develop and that will complement our action plan, hopefully will identify ways that the community will see or advise us how they see their own youth being treated.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister raises the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Facility on the Hay River Reserve. That is an underutilized, to a large extent, facility. They do have co-ed treatment. They have men’s programs; they have women’s programs. Is there any chance of taking that existing infrastructure, the counsellors and the folks that are already working there, and having some time designated for youth treatment? Thank you.
