Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment regarding his Directions for Change document that was tabled in the House yesterday. In the opening message in the document, the Minister talks about the coming action plan will breathe life into this framework. I’m just wondering what the time frame is for this government and people of the Northwest Territories, specifically the educators.
What is the timeline for that action plan? When are we going to be able to see that action plan in a document that we can go by and our educators and families know what’s going to actually be in that action plan? Can I get a timeline on that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We just produced a document and tabled it in the House yesterday, Directions for Change, the Education Renewal and Innovation Framework.
Part of that will be developing an action plan in the coming months. We’re hoping by next session, February or March, we want to table a document, an action plan that will deal with the nine commitments that have been identified as part of the framework. So the next session is our objective. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the standing committee had a short timeline to give their feedback and input into this document moving forward. It is a 10-year action plan, so it’s very important that we do it right the first time and that all the recommendations and input are addressed with moving forward with this.
I just want to ask the Minister, was proper consultation with the district education authorities, the Aboriginal student achievement committees, the NWT Teachers’ Association, did they have a bigger time frame, because obviously these guys are the ones that are going to be working on this education action plan moving forward. Did they have sufficient time to give proper and quality feedback into this document and the action plan, and will their input be reflected in the action plan that we are going to see in February/March?
This whole engagement has been happening since just before 2007, before I became the Education Minister, and I’ve been engaging the general public, the DEAs and DECs, the schools boards, the parents, the educators, the elders and the students. They’ve been engaged since day one and we will continue to engage them.
Yesterday’s event with the media presentation, we had two of the partners, TCSA and also NWTTA, that have been actively engaged along with other DECs and DEAs who were in the audience. They are our true partners in the communities, and we will continue to work with them on developing this action plan, and we will be keeping the Members informed as we move forward because we need their input as well.
I understand that the Minister’s department had been engaging residents of the Northwest Territories since 2007. I was asking specifically to the Directions for Change document that committee saw and only had about a month to reply on that. However, I’ll move on to my third question here.
With a lot of the monumental changes that are going to be happening within this education action plan, I would ask the Minister, will there be new dollars going into this action plan and is the action plan going to be implemented within the schools across the Northwest Territories in the 2014-15 school year.
With any new initiatives, we need to be innovative and creative how we can move forward. Developing the action plan, we need to identify through the school boards, through our partners, the cost factor. Some of it will be with internal reallocation potentially, as we’ve done in the past, but obviously, we may have to look out for new funding, as well, new partners such as we’ve done, again, in other jurisdictions.
When it comes to education and teaching, those are some of the areas that we need to improve. We’ve been told over and over from the communities, the engagement we’ve had, even from the Assembly Members, that we need to change our thinking patterns.
We do not have the set cost today, but we will be developing that over time, and in the February/March session we want to produce that document that will highlight the detail of the action plan.
The reallocation of these internal funds also brings to light a concern. Which programs are they going to be taking the dollars from and which programs may be hindered by taking on these new initiatives? However, with the Aboriginal Student Achievement, before I got in this position, I did do some work with some of the committees in Inuvik in the elementary and in the high school in my previous position. I want to ask the Minister what is the role of these Aboriginal student achievement committees moving forward in this Directions for Change. Also, he mentions in his document that there was an Aboriginal Student Achievement Action Plan in 2011. Myself, I didn’t see that action plan and I wonder if that was an action plan that was tabled in the House or that was sent to committee.
The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative that we’ve engaged the general public, this particular piece of work, the Education Renewal and Innovation Framework, is building on that. It’s building on the success of our engagement. Through that there will be engagement with the committee that the Member is referring to, Aboriginal Student Achievement. There are committees being established at the regional level, at the community level. We must engage them, as well, because what it comes down to is we have to involve everyone and not just our department going to the community and saying this is good for you. It’s coming from the people, the general public, the educators, the parents, the grandparents. It’s their voice. We have to keep moving forward on that and developing an action plan. They will be engaged and they will be participating in that too.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Colleagues, before we go to the next oral question, I’d like to welcome Mr. Ernie Bernhardt, a Member of the Legislative Assembly pre-division. Welcome back to the House, Ernie. And I welcome your wife too. Beatrice, welcome to the House.
Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The World Health Organization has classified tanning beds as carcinogenic. The Skin Cancer Foundation qualifies it as ultraviolet tanning sessions increase a user’s chances of developing melanoma by 20 percent. Lastly, those who begin tanning before the age of 35 increase their chances of getting melanoma by almost 75 percent.
I keep raising the issue of tanning beds and the concerns on our youth. My question for the Minister of Health and Social Services is – this is not a new issue – what is he now going to do about this problem.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll certainly have some discussions with the department to find out where we are with this, and I’ll work with committee as we move forward, if we move forward.
Study after study keeps pointing out its significant risk on youth. We have an obligation. We restrict cigarettes for youth. We restrict access to alcohol to youth. Why aren’t we doing the right thing and restricting access to tanning beds to youth? There’s an immediate opportunity here today. The Minister could issue an order for promotion activities to bring forward this concern, and we could also agree to work on a policy to restrict access for youth. Will he do that?
Like I said, I will work with the department to get briefed up on this particular situation, and I’ll work with committee as we move forward, if we choose to move forward.
This is not a new issue. I hear the Minister say he’s going to work on this. It’s well within his purview. He’s heard this concern many times. I can even hear on the microphone he’s being whispered to by somebody over there. Maybe somebody over there can help guide him with this immediate concern. I’d like immediate action.
Would the Minister be able to, at the very least, start a public campaign stressing the concern noted by the World Health Organization as well as the Skin Cancer Foundation, by stressing the risk that youth can have by doing tanning sessions?
I’ll certainly get myself briefed. I’ll work with the department, I’ll share the information with committee, and we will work as a consensus government to decide how to move forward on this issue.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today, in my Member’s statement, I made reference to the fact this government has a potential open door, a loophole, if you will, in its tobacco tax collection process. Specifically, we have a process whereby we are relying on wholesalers based outside of the NWT to self-report on tobacco sold from their facilities to retailers within the NWT. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance.
Can the Minister clearly articulate why he continues to support the process of self-reporting on tobacco sold?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Member’s statement he made some very clear comments about the public purse and having to mind the public purse. It’s an issue that we are, of course, very aware of. We work collectively on that all the time. We have an Aa1 credit rating. We have the lowest debt to GDP ratio in the country. Our debt servicing costs are the lowest in the country. We just tabled our public accounts information. We just approved our capital budget.
As we look at the revenues, of course, we also have to look at the other side of the equation, which is managing expenditures and expectations and the prodigious proclivity to engage in ramping up expenditures. As a government, we are very concerned and cognizant of our responsibility as fiscal financial stewards and do the things necessary to keep our Aa1 credit rating and the fact that we are on such secure, stable footing.
The half response or quasi attempt to answer the question leaves me and the public at the Minister’s mercy and convenience.
The recently tabled Interim Public Accounts for the Year Ended March 31, 2013, has tobacco tax collected in the main estimates at $17.326 million, yet the 2013 actual collected is reported at $15.587 million, a shortfall of $1.739 million.
Can the Minister explain this approximate $2 million in the shortfall? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, one is called an estimate and one is called an actual. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it’s clearly unfortunate we’re not hearing answers here today.
Can the Minister reassure the public, given what I just quoted in the public accounts, that self-reporting of tobacco sold in the NWT is foolproof?
Mr. Speaker, I don’t think any human system, any tax system or any reporting system is foolproof, so I can’t give that ironclad guarantee. I can tell you we have a system that we believe is effective. We have a lot of very helpful feedback and advice from the Member. We’ve exchanged ideas. We’ve put into effect some of the recommendations he’s made and we are taxing due diligence. We are confident that the system we have is effective. We are going to make improvements like having all the black stock cigarettes are going to now move towards getting them so they have a mark and they are marked and we can track them better. We are going to do more audits and those types of things. We have a system that we believe is effective. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s obvious, by our own public accounts, we have an issue, and it’s painfully clear today that the Minister is not answering the specific questions pertaining to the tobacco self-reporting. I agree that the Minister putting provinces’ stamps on tobacco does have merits in tax control, but it does nothing to address the self-reporting.
Will this Minister subject his tobacco tax collector process to the rigours of the Auditor General of Canada for review? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I’m standing and I’m answering every question. The fact that the Member doesn’t like the answers doesn’t mean I’m not answering the question fully and in a forthright manner as befits a Minister of the government. Everything we do is subject to audit. If there is any part of the operation that Members want us to put under a magnifying glass, as they have done in the past in different areas, absolutely we will put any system we have under the rigours of the Auditor General. If they can give us advice and recommendations that we haven’t contemplated, we’ll look at those. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Colleagues, before we move on today again, I would like to welcome to the House chief of Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Mr. Ernest Betsina. Welcome to the House.
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Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask questions to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. In my research on the housing in the Sahtu region, it shows a high percentage of households that reported at least one problem in their houses. In Fort Good Hope it was 68 percent; in Deline it was 72 percent; Norman Wells, 25 percent; and Tulita, 69 percent. I wanted to ask the Minister of Housing, with all the initiatives that I understand are going to be happening, do some of the reported incidents have to deal with water damage or molds in the public housing that we have in the Sahtu region?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t get as many concerns regarding mold as we used to. It was quite an issue a few years ago. We have taken steps to try and remediate some of this. Education of the tenants and our own maintenance staff, I think, was a big first step. The reports of mold in some of the units, not only in the Sahtu but all across the Northwest Territories, are coming down a bit. We look forward to having that number down to basically zero here very shortly. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, certainly I am with the Minister to bring the issue of mold down to zero in our public housing units. Is it possible for the Minister to direct the staff in Housing to look at the units in the Sahtu to look and see if there is a mold issue? I have been getting some calls that there are being some mold issues in the Sahtu. Look at all the public housing units: in Fort Good Hope, 53 units; Norman Wells, 36 units; in Deline there are 88; in Tulita there 69 units in that community. Again, do a sweep and say there is water damage, possibly there is some mold in this area, then that can give you a clean bill of health on the public housing units regarding mold in these units.
Mr. Speaker, our maintenance staff in all of the small communities, they do condition ratings every year where they go from unit to unit and look at some of the work that needs to be done in there. They kind of use those condition ratings as a basis for some of the major improvement programs that we have through the Public Housing Program in our small communities. We do go through the units every year and identify all the potential maintenance issues, and then our staff in the small communities will then start generating work orders and remediate a lot of the issues that they find in the units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, fair enough. I am asking if the Minister can work with staff in regional offices. Can he then direct them to look at the public housing units, give a clean bill of health to the public housing units, and say yes, we checked all 53 houses in Fort Good Hope? We did it, there are no signs of mold, there is no dispute, then we can have, once and for all, this issue dealt with for all, not only in the Sahtu but other communities also in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I think I have already answered the Member’s question when I said that we will do our condition ratings on these units. Most of the condition ratings have already been done for this year and that will give our maintenance people in the communities an opportunity to identify some of the issues that the Member speaks of, not only identify them but start to do work to repair those, not only with these particular issues but with everything else that may be wrong with the units.
With all the investments that we’ve been making in the improvement of our public housing stock the last number of years, the condition ratings in the communities are getting to be higher and the percentages are getting to be higher. They’re identifying a lot of the issues and they’re starting to take the steps to do all the maintenance on them. I can assure the Member that through the condition ratings they would be able to identify any potential mold issues, and if they do find them, then they remediate them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Certainly I did hear the Minister. Maybe I’ll be more direct in asking the Minister if he would he commit to a time frame that these condition ratings can be done within the next three months, for example. Molds can be found anywhere. There are a lot of damages in the public housing units that mold can become a health hazard for the family. Between now and, say, New Years, can the Minister look at these condition ratings of these units and direct the staff members to take action within this time frame? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I will follow up on the status of our condition ratings. I do know that usually by fall all the condition ratings are done and any potential maintenance issues in the units are identified.
Again, dealing with the mold issue, I think through the investment we’ve made in the last number of years into the improvement of our public housing units, we’ve been able to see a lot of those issues come down. There are a number of factors. We have a website where the public can access, and for those that don’t have a computer, I’m sure our LHOs will do some education on their part. It is a joint effort between the tenants and the local housing authority. So, again, I will follow up on the status of the condition ratings, but I can assure the Member that most of them are probably done by now and they’re identifying all the maintenance work that needs to be done. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to congratulate my colleague across the floor, Minister Tom Beaulieu, for taking on the big portfolio for Transportation.
My question is: Can the Minister provide an update on the relationship of the GNWT with the community of Fort Providence since the bridge has been in operation for about a year? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has entered into a Community Opportunities and Involvement Agreement with the community, paying the community $200,000 a year until the bridge is paid off, over 35 years. So that money is for the community to take a look at tourism opportunities and any opportunities that they may want to look at as far as tourism, such as a museum for transportation, marine transportation in that area and so on. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for that answer. Can the Minister, other than the $200,000 annually that the community receives, clearly explain to the community – I’m sure they’re listening at this point – their obligations other than the funding to the community? Mahsi.
Thank you. The Department of Transportation has tried to find positions for individuals that were working on the ferry and the ice crossing. So at this point, the individuals that normally built the ice crossing will be given opportunities to assist on the Dempster ice crossing if they wish to do so. There were 13 employees on the ferry, most of them being casual employees, but three affected full-time employees. One retired. One of those positions was maintained by the department and another one had moved to run a different ferry, at Fort Simpson, actually. Thank you.
