Mr. Speaker, I’ll certainly make a commitment here to deal with the scheduled visits to the communities. I’ll work closely with the RCMP G Division. We do have schedules in place. We need to monitor those schedules. My department will certainly follow up with that, and I will certainly get back to the Member on this particular item.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, earlier today I talked about raising the bar of our trades programs here in the North by offering training that doesn’t exist today. That training would be the Red Seal Program for a cooking school. I had the chance and the privilege to bring the Minister down to a facility here in Yellowknife run by Chef Pierre, to see his facility and what could be done to elevate trades programs here in the North.
My question to the Minister of ECE is: would he be willing to look at this possibility of moving forward on implementing a cooking trades program here in the Northwest Territories, to run through Aurora College?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Lafferty.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Member for inviting me to tour the facility. At this time we do have our department staff and our Aurora College staff, and possibly the chairpersons, visiting the facility. I want them to see what kind of facility there is there. So from there, we can talk about the process.
Certainly, the Member wants to push this forward, but we need to sit down and develop plans. We need to work with the industries as well. It has to be based on the needs of the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I compliment Aurora College for having their camp cook program that they operate in their existing programming, but I think it’s time that we can expect more and demand more.
The Minister has said that he would be looking at this situation. When can I get some type of commitment that they will bring down the Aurora College board and the officials to take a serious look at the nuts and bolts of this operation, to see if this is something we can do here in the Territories?
Mr. Speaker, the tour happened just before session, so I told the Member that I will certainly sit down with my department and work out a plan of when the scheduled visit will be. It would have to be probably sometime after session, to have them tour the facility and then sit down and start planning what we can do next. Certainly the Member will be involved in that, and other Members who are interested.
The Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mr. Speaker, a question to the Minister of Human Resources. Today I spoke about counselling services in Lutselk’e and made reference to the front-line staff.
With Lutselk’e having over 95 per cent — and Fort Resolution having over 90 per cent — of its population aboriginal, can the Minister tell me if the front-line professionals with Health and Social Services who work in these aboriginal communities are mandated to have cross-cultural training?
The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, with the difficulty in attracting some of the frontline workers, it’s certainly something that we would like to see — that they have cross-cultural training. But unfortunately, the reality is that sometimes this cross-cultural training is not made available until after the fact. The ideal would be for frontline workers to receive cross-cultural training.
Mr. Speaker, would the Minister commit to reviewing the situation to ensure that frontline staff such as Health and Social Services workers are properly trained and culturally sensitive to their respective working environments?
Mr. Speaker, I’ve worked in a number of environments where cross-cultural training was provided across the board, and it was a requirement for not only front-line employees but all employees to take cross-cultural awareness training.
This is certainly an area that I think is important, certainly for people who are new to the North and new to the communities. We develop training programs, and we will make sure that this service continues to be provided.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm whether the boards and agencies for which Human Resources is responsible for providing service get the same response and attention as the regular departments do?
Mr. Speaker, boards and agencies generally operate on a different basis. I think that we would certainly request that the Health Minister direct boards and agencies to deal with cultural awareness, but the boards are independent and would have to make that kind of decision themselves.
It’s an area where it’s not as straightforward as just asking them to fulfill requirements with regard to cultural awareness. But that’s something that I’ll discuss with the Minister of Health.
Final short supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, I shifted gears just slightly there. My question was more about the service being provided to boards and agencies from the Department of Human Resources, just strictly on hiring versus the services provided to the departments. I just wanted to know if there was a difference in the Department of HR’s role when hiring for boards and agencies versus hiring for departments.
Mr. Speaker, HR’s role is not different. It’s just that we may take a different approach with some of the larger departments and some of the larger boards in how we approach the staffing for boards and agencies.
Thank you, Minister. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, going back to the proposed closure of Arctic Tern, I’d like to direct my question today to the Minister of Justice. During the course of some discussions I was told that there was an engineer’s report being done on the facility. I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice: what is the status of the report?
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Minister Lafferty.
Mr. Speaker, there is a review that’s been undertaken, and that review should be completed sometime early next month, I do believe. Once we have that package, then we can certainly discuss it with the Member.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that timeline. I’ve got 18 full-time staff and some casuals in there depending on me to bring their concerns forward.
I’d like to ask the Minister: who is doing the report? Is it being done by the department — which I could have a problem with, because they might use that to justify closing the facility — or is it done by an independent engineer?
Mr. Speaker, our department is working with another firm that is doing the overall.... We’re working closely with PWS, as well, on the foundation itself and the structure of the building.
The building is a fairly new building, but there are some structural damages to it, so we need to develop plans on that, the next step. The review has been done on that part.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister what would happen if the engineer’s report were to come back that the building was structurally sound. Would that be an opportunity to still use it as a young female offenders' facility?
Mr. Speaker, if the report comes out stating that the building still could be utilized for a number of years, then we can certainly utilize the building, whether it be for program delivery.... We are looking at options for that particular building, and we are going through some stages here. What we propose here is part of the Arctic Tern plans, but there are other options that may be fully utilized in that facility.
Mr. Speaker, the facility was built at a cost of around $14 million, I understand. It’s six years old and was built to house young female offenders. We have people that believed us when we said, “Go get training and we’ll employ you.” So they’ve done that. Moving them around the territory is not an option. These are people who were born and raised around there, so they would obviously like to stay. I would like to ask the Minister if this proposed closure of Arctic Tern is dependent on this budget being passed.
Mr. Speaker, one of the proposals is the reduction in the Arctic Tern facility. Not only that, but the cost for us to operate the facility, with the way it’s been operating with the number of inmates in there and the number of staff.... It’s just the feasibility of the operations. So that’s what our department’s been tackling.
Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s answers. I would like to ask the Minister if his department is aware of any potential changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act of Canada, which would justify, probably, keeping the facility to be used as it’s being used now.
Mr. Speaker, when I met with the federal minister and the provincial ministers last fall in Winnipeg, one of the discussions was potential changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act. They are seeking our input, from all jurisdictions, and I do believe that review of the input will be starting this summer, late fall. It could change. There are a lot of concerns in that area, so we’ll certainly provide our input to deal with those issues.
The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
My question is for the Minister of Finance. Given that our estimate of operating surplus at $44 million has risen now to $69 million — that’s a $25 million difference — and we’ve firmed up the Building Canada Fund…. I think we’re $12 million to $15 million this year and then $35 million per year. Given that our intent, laid out before that, was to have a net savings of $30 million a year, considerably less than the sum of these, do these affect the budget? Do these affect the perspectives? Is there a little more opportunity for doing things a little differently?
I understood the Premier’s statement. We need to do things based on certainty. We can’t just assume there will be incomes and whatnot. But now here we have proven income with the $25 million from the surplus, $35 million from the Building Canada Fund, and part of that this year. Our net need is for a $60 million drop over two years, and this is one year. Is there some room for moving there?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.
Mr. Speaker, the end cash position of the government is one consideration of moving forward. It gives us a starting point for the upcoming budget planning cycle. What we have in this situation is that we also recognize some of those bump-ups that end up making our surplus position look a little healthier. It’s a one-time fund. They are not ongoing funds, and that’s the problem we’re going to have to tackle as we go forward.
The Building Canada Fund may be a one-time fund, but we know it’s a one-time fund for seven years. We have a pretty clear record of establishing surpluses greater than $19 million over what was estimated every year for the past number of years. This year we’ve surpassed that yet again. So I don’t think these can be categorized as one-time situations. Looking at our estimated revenues last year, it was about $60 million or $70 million less than turned out to be the case. We’re at the same estimate for the Mains this year.
Mr. Speaker, the one-time funds I speak of are those adjustments that happened from past corrections to transfers from the federal government. Those are one-time. The Building Canada Fund is cost-shared dollars, and it’s for capital only. There are no O&M dollars attached to that, so that’s something we can’t plan on — making increased expenditures to O&M that will continue to grow with forced growth on an annual basis.
As well, Mr. Speaker, we have to recognize that the last government — and this is the issue…. You’re looking at the history of the government, where we’ve had to account for one-time funds in the year we receive them, but they really are three-year funds. For example, the Affordable Housing Trust: $50 million spread over three years. So those are accounted for in the year they’re allocated.
We have a number of other issues that are about to impact us in ’09–10. The Territorial Health Access Fund is due to run out in ’09–10. We have housing transfers from the federal government that are on a steady decline until 2033. As well, we have existing problems within our health authorities around some budgeting issues that we need to be prepared to deal with, and if we don’t take the opportunity while we have some flexibility, we will lose that all in years to come.
We recognize there are things that we have to bank on, and bank on, on a basis that will allow us to proceed. If we continue to go down the path we are, where revenue’s going — and I would refer to B3 in the actual Budget Address document…. If we don’t make any changes, we will see big problems in the future.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The time for question period has expired. However, a lot of Members have supplementary questions. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for those comments, Mr. Minister. I don’t really disagree with any of them, except that I wouldn’t throw out history like that. I think we need to make use of the information we’ve got in the past.
I’d also like to point out we’ve done things in a rush here. We’ve got to get in gear. I disagree that we have to rush things, given that we have this $25 million unexpected surplus, which is about what we had anticipated in the reductions this year. So I don’t quite see the hurry that the Premier’s in.
I have a written question for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services provide me with information on the number of people in Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e who suffer from diabetes?
Mr. Speaker, the petition I would like to table contains 1,282 signatures of residents from across the Northwest Territories. The petition asks that Members of the Legislative Assembly vote “no” to any budget proposal that contains such reductions.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of regional position reductions in the sports, recreation and youth area. The petition contains 37 signatures of young people from the Deh Cho region. The petitioners request that the Members of the Legislative Assembly reconsider proposed regional positions and reduction to the sports, recreation and youth area.
