Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had a theme of safety today, so I’m going to continue on this theme with the Minister of Transportation.
As we indicated today, the first day of November, we are hoping the opening of the much anticipated Deh Cho Bridge is going to be happening in this month. As we’ve heard in our dialogue earlier in some of our capital discussions, we are dealing with some temporary issues as we prepare to go across this bridge in a degree of safety. What I mean by that is we have temporary electrical set up, we have temporary aviation marine lights hooked up, we have temporary navigation, we have temporary accent lighting, we have temporary conduit or conduit that needs to be done. More importantly, we don’t have an active or operating emergency phone system. These are all not actively in a final state.
Can the Minister assure that, because these are obviously requirements for safety and for the completion of this bridge, that indeed if this bridge will be open here at the end of November, are NWT residents safe? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Safety, of course, is the number one concern by the Department of Transportation. When we open the Deh Cho Bridge, it will open this month, and I will have an announcement next week to that regard.
We take safety into consideration. There are a number of engineers. We have project managers. We are not going to open the Deh Cho Bridge if it’s safe for traffic to cross that bridge.
There are a number of things that will be temporary. We have an electrical contract that we’ve let and hope to get that work done as soon as the weather permits in the spring.
The Member is correct; we will be without an emergency phone on the bridge for seven to eight months, but there will be a phone there eventually. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this is going to be our first year of operation, or anticipated first year of operation with this bridge and we are going to be learning lots of new things about a bridge of that magnitude over a body of water, icing, snow cover. If anyone has been down there to see it, it’s quite a large angle of inclination, so we could be running into issues of sliding, small accidents and things of that nature. If we run into a problem in our first season of operation, as the Minister indicated, we don’t have a phone. There is no emergency phone to call.
What does the department suggest we do if, indeed, we have a problem on this bridge? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we would anticipate that there wouldn’t be any incidents this coming winter on the structure. It’s located in close proximity to the community of Fort Providence. If you had an accident on the highway system between, say, Edzo and Fort Providence somewhere near Chan Lake, you’re a lot closer to help on the Deh Cho Bridge itself. So we don’t see that as a big issue. We don’t see that as an impediment to opening the bridge this month. The bridge will open and it will be safe to traverse. Thank you.
Thank you. Obviously, these deficiencies or these temporary systems, including emergency phone, were deemed important for engineers to keep it as a permanent part of our bridge. So I’m really at odds as to what are we going to do for our first year, but that leads me to my other question.
Because we’re in a temporary state, we have temporary systems in place, we don’t have an emergency phone that will be active, we obviously have to carry insurance or liability as a department, as a government. Would these deficiencies or non-compliance to a so-called final inspection report or a final signing off of the project, are these deficiencies going to affect our liability and our insurance? Thank you.
Thank you. We need to celebrate the opening of this bridge this month and we’ll do that. As to whether or not not having a phone on the bridge and operating some temporary lighting this coming winter will impact our insurance premiums that we pay, that is information that I’d be happy to get for the Member and other Members of the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think many people are quite curious and I’ll definitely have to ask this last question. As we’ve talked about the final completion, we heard about an RFP that has been issued; we’re not sure if it’s closed or not. Can the Minister indicate if this is going to be new monies, potentially, that will be asked in the upcoming next budget, or is this something that would be included in the overall project design and scope and budget? Thank you.
Thank you. That contract, that would be money that is included in the overall project cost. It wouldn’t be new money and it certainly would be included, and that is related to electrical type of work on the bridge itself. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to just note that many of my constituents work on behalf of elders across the Northwest Territories, and certainly many of them and many of our NWT seniors are concerned about the lack of dementia facilities and services, particularly in the small communities.
So I’d like to start by asking the Minister when will full dementia facilities be available in small community health facilities across the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services recognizes that we don’t have the facility to match all the situations in the Northwest Territories in the appropriate locations. So we’re developing a system called Continuum of Care for Seniors, and within that care we are looking at, first, all the possibilities of keeping individuals in their home as long as possible; secondly, working with the NWT Housing Corporation to develop assisted living inside the senior citizen’s home that they own and operate; thirdly, going into long-term care at the regional levels; then lastly, there are 132 people that have been placed in the last three years and 19 of them were appropriate for placement in the dementia centre. So there are only 24 beds in there – we recognize that – and 19 of them were placed in the last three years. Thank you.
Thanks for the comments from the Minister. Obviously, most of those don’t deal with dementia, but the last category is certainly the one we’re focusing on here today. The Territorial Admissions Committee makes decisions about placement of older adults – and I have no doubt that’s what the Minister was referring to there – and they make decisions to ensure they get placed where there is proper care. However, if there are facilities that are not being used, they’re in danger of making poor decisions. In fact, just such a situation exists in Fort Smith, where we have spent $6 million to open a wing and yet we have nobody to staff it. So, no use of those beds.
So my question is: How can this happen and what’s being done to correct it immediately, given the demand we have out there? Mahsi.
Thank you. There are 15 people on the overall waiting list for long care treatment. Right now we have five people on the waiting list to go into the Territorial Dementia Centre. That’s just added information.
I think that we need to use the units in Fort Smith. I recognize that people that need care because of cognitive issues are in the Northern Lights Home right now in Fort Smith, but to build a new wing and not have the money to operate it is not acceptable. We’re going to come back to the government as a department to try to get money to continue or expand the operations of that wing. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for those comments. Indeed, it is a principle to try and place people as close to home as possible, obviously, when we have a facility, but no way of operating it that’s not happening. So I appreciate the Minister is going to do something about this. My next question is when? Thank you.
I will start discussion with the authorities across the Territories immediately. I am in constant communication with the Joint Leadership Council through the chairs and the public administrators of all of the authorities across the territory. A dementia authority, yes, it is needed. It’s often a territorial resource. So I’ll discuss it with all of them in my next meeting, which I have scheduled for late January. We’ll start the discussions on how we could get the dementia centre, or the six-unit wing in Fort Smith operational as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses. I’m sorry; Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was three questions. I wonder if I could just get my fourth one in.
I’m sorry, Mr. Bromley. Yes, short supplementary. Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister. I’m still shaking my head over this $6 million and now we have to go discuss it with a bunch of people on whether to make this operational or not, given the demands on our infrastructure dollars. I’m shaking my head.
My last question is: Are other regions in the NWT in the same situation as this Fort Smith facility? Thank you.
Thank you. No, there’s no other area in long-term care, dementia or assisted living where there are units that are vacant that are ready to be used. There could possibly be units that are vacant that are not ready to be used at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are on the Minister of Health and Social Service’s Minister’s statement that he made today. Obviously, it’s sparked a lot of concerns and questions on this side of the House in question period today.
In the statement that he made earlier, he made reference to the government offers addictions counselling through community wellness workers, mental health workers. Then he mentions detox programs. That caught my attention.
Can the Minister tell me what these detox programs are, where they are, and can he give me a specific example other than the emergency rooms and the jail cells? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Detox is available in the two hospitals that we operate, Stanton Territorial Hospital and the Beaufort-Delta Regional Hospital. There is also, I think, a capability of an individual to go through detoxification in the larger health centres. Thank you.
I’d like to ask the Minister how many detox beds does this territory have to help clients that are in need; the number of beds for our 45,000 population here in the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One bed in each facility comes to mind, but I don’t have that information with me. Thank you.
That sounds like two detox beds for a situation that we have that’s very disastrous in the Northwest Territories under mental health and addictions, specifically alcohol abuse. In the statement, the Minister goes on and talks about a territorial treatment centre, followed by saying that we support communities and NGOs to provide community-based programs, and then he says, and send people to southern Canada to attend treatment programs. What’s wrong with the one we have here in the North? In fact, Mr. Speaker, I believe that our Territorial Treatment Centre is only about 50 percent accommodated at best. I want to ask the Minister why we send clients south when we have a Territorial Treatment Centre that’s not always fully occupied. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Sometimes there’s a specialized treatment that’s not available at Nats'ejee K'eh. However, in order for an individual to get a southern placement, they have to go through a process. That’s a process that’s usually initiated at the community level and then goes through some form of either a regional health and social services authority or through the department. Although I don’t know the details on how people end up in southern treatment, I do know that it is a process and usually the placement is first. If somebody wants to go to residential treatment, the placement would be first at Nats'ejee K'eh. If they can’t provide what’s necessary for that individual to stop drinking or stop using drugs, they would then be placed in the South. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Short, final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister goes on and says it’s a simple question with complicated answers. I can find some simple answers here. We need a detox centre and beds. We need a culturally appropriate treatment centre, mental health workers, and we need to decrease the days needed for people to be sober to gain access to these treatment centres. We also need early childhood programs.
I’d like to ask the Minister, in his discussions in the region, what’s the cost for the Minister and his staff to hold these discussions in the region, because our service providers that are struggling would really like to know what that cost is going to be. Thank you.
I’m assuming that the Member is asking about the cost of me and my staff.
---Interjection
The forum? It costs $300,000. That’s our budget and we will be getting the money from the federal government to cover the cost. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of ITI a question. Yesterday he talked about oil and gas exploration in the Sahtu that potentially could happen in the Good Hope, Tulita and Norman Wells area. What is his department doing with regard to dealing with the potential impact of the recent interest of the exploration in that area?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. ITI is leading the Government of the Northwest Territories in the preparation of current and future oil and gas development in the Sahtu. We’re working with other departments on advancing on a government-wide approach. We’ve done that.
We’ve also helped coordinate the preparedness session that both the Member and I attended in Norman Wells in September. We certainly are looking forward to working with other stakeholders in the Sahtu to advance the interest of the communities there and the opportunities that are going to come. Thank you.
The Minister and I did attend the exploration readiness session. One of the issues that the communities talked about was the past Mackenzie Gas Project Socio-economic Development Fund of $500 million that the federal government was holding to deal with the impacts.
I want to ask the Minister, is there any way that he’s working with the Sahtu leadership to ask the federal government if they would release the Sahtu portion to deal with the interest of the oil and gas exploration that could and is happening in the Sahtu region regarding some of the issues we are talking about today.
That $500 million socio-economic money was tied to the Mackenzie Gas Project. When we were in Norman Wells in September, there was some discussion about asking the federal government that what-ifs with what’s going on in the Sahtu. Could the federal government look at supplying some socio-economic money to the Sahtu given what’s happening there? That is a good question, Mr. Speaker. My belief is that things will continue to progress in the Sahtu. That money was tied to a pipeline and I still believe firmly that both Mackenzie gas in the Beaufort-Delta and gas that’s going to be produced from the shale oilfield west of Norman Wells and Tulita will reach market via a new pipeline. I do believe that will happen
Can the Minister make a good case argument to the federal government that this $500 million can be tied to the development, and possibly look at the Sahtu as being zoned or designated as a special economic area that the federal government can release this $500 million?
I believe that things are going to continue to progress. Those types of discussions will undoubtedly take place with the federal government. We are still relatively in the early days of the development in the Sahtu with the shale oil and the large volumes of gas that would come out of that as well. I do believe it’s good to start talking about these things. It’s good to get out in front of them, but certainly as the resource is proven up, if it’s going to get into commercialization, those are discussions that need to happen. They need to happen with the federal government and our government and the folks in the Sahtu. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
The increase of the development of the Sahtu, you know we’re early in the development. We are spending just over $630 million in exploration. Of course, there are a lot of social impacts that are going to happen with that money and the development we are talking about today. We need that money.
I want to ask the minister if he can work with his colleagues to make a strong argument to the federal government so that they can release some of the dollars, all of these dollars to the Northwest Territories to help us with the social impacts of oil and gas development. We need that. Can I ask the Minister to give me a commitment to go to Ottawa and make a strong argument with the Sahtu leadership or Cabinet saying, release that $500 million, Mr. Harper?
ITI will continue to work with other departments in government to ensure that the social impacts of development in the Sahtu are addressed. We’ve done that. We’ve been leading the discussions with other departments. Undoubtedly, it is going to have an impact on other areas of our government’s operations, so it’s important that we stay on the same page, that we’re communicating with other departments on what’s happening there. We’ve done that this past year with what’s happening there this winter. Those discussions will continue to take place.
As I mentioned earlier, the $500 million was attached to the beginning of the construction of the Mackenzie Gas Project, tied to a pipeline. I do think eventually we will see a pipeline built in the Mackenzie Valley. Whether or not we can start those types of discussions with the federal government on advancing those types of socio-economic dollars, we have to really get in and prove up the resource that’s in the Sahtu. Every day that goes by, we have a more compelling story to tell the federal government. I think time will tell and it’s going to be a good story that’s going to be written in the Sahtu. Thank you.
