Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about a potential taskforce concept or certainly a business team that targets business growth in the Northwest Territories that reaches out and finds good business that could invest in the North and create jobs. In combing through ITI’s business plan, I didn’t see anything that focused in on attracting new business to the North. I provided a number of examples. Can the Minister tell me who’s been tasked with that type of initiative that can attract business in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I missed who you’re addressing your question to, Mr. Hawkins.
The Minister of ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member is aware of this old saying about great minds think alike. Just last week I had a meeting of my ministerial advisory panel and I posed exactly that question to them, as to whether the businesspeople in the Northwest Territories thought it was a good idea for the Government of the Northwest Territories to get involved with attracting businesses from the South to relocate to the North and whether the Government of the Northwest Territories should develop new programs or invest any money in doing so. We’re still waiting for a response from the ministerial advisory panel.
I’m really glad that the Minister didn’t comb over the issue as I’ve been combing through the department.
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And recognizes how important it is.
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Not that it’s a problem for either of us.
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As the Minister says, he’s proposed the concept to the ministerial advisory panel. Actually, we did talk about this some time ago and he did suggest that he’d make sure he brought something similar to the concept to them and it sounds positive. Does the Minister see their good value for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment with coming up with a taskforce that could target these types of initiatives as well as reach out to local businesses to see how we can dovetail our policies to do this attraction of new business to the North?
The initial reaction to the question that we posed to the ministerial advisory panel was that we had to be very strategic in attracting new businesses to the North. That whatever we did should be to meet some specific needs and also would build on northern capacity. Also I know that with the preference policies that we developed for northern businesses, is our northern businesses don’t mind competing as long as it’s on a level playing field, so they would want to see whatever businesses come up here invest in the North and set up their businesses accordingly.
I’m glad the Minister talked about trying to find specific targets that would point at present needs of business. Certainly, I guess he was alluding, in one form or another, to what would work in our economy that makes sense. I would say, would the Minister be interested in supporting some type of panel discussion or conference that would work with business to help develop a business growth strategy here in the North that could attract new business and investment and, furthermore, get Northerners to work? This is not just a Yellowknife-centric issue. I think we can find ways to spread and seed businesses throughout the North that could help everyone.
We’d be quite prepared to work with our partners. We work very closely with the chambers of commerce, with the Northern Aboriginal Business Association and other groups to see if we can set up such a conference or workshop.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s answer was very exciting. Does the Minister see any policy problems that we have that would stop something like this from getting momentum or getting off the ground immediately? I’m only concerned that policy or process of department may have issue with this. I just want to make sure that if the Minister says we can do this and he likes it, I want to make sure we can do it right away.
I think that we’d have to be very careful, because, as I said, we do have northern preference policies for northern businesses. As well, we’ve expended a lot of effort to develop an interim northern manufacturing directive and we would really want to support those northern businesses or northern manufacturers that manufacture in the Northwest Territories, because it’s a high-cost area to operate out of and there are also issues and challenges with regard to attracting skilled labour and availability of housing. When we support our businesses, what we do is focus on the labour issues, reducing red tape and also providing a level playing field.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, before we go on with oral questions, I’d like to draw your attention to the gallery and to the presence of a former Member of this House from the 12th Assembly representing the constituency of Kitikmeot, Mr. Ernie Bernhardt and his daughter Donna, who happens to be the CA to Member Jackie Jacobson. Welcome to the Chamber. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement was on the Mackenzie Valley Highway, particularly the Tuk-Inuvik section. I mentioned that it’s a great opportunity and we made great progress with the department. I want to thank the Minister of Transportation and his department for working so well with the community in the past year. We still have a lot more to do. Can I ask the Minister of Transportation what actions we are taking to promote the highway to the federal government?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This has been an issue that has been on the drawing board for some time. We have moved forward fairly quickly in the area of Tuk and Inuvik with a project description report, a report that we had anticipated was going to take several years and ended up taking a little over a year. That’s been submitted for review. We are, and have been, raising it with the federal government. We, as early as last week, met with the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of INAC and this was raised as something we wanted to talk further about. Also, while attending the National Council on the Ministers responsible for Transportation I had an opportunity to have a brief chat with Minister Strahl and we agreed that we needed to get together and have further discussions on infrastructure issues in the Northwest Territories. This would be part of the discussion. I’ll also be meeting with Minister Aglukkaq while we’re down there in a couple weeks.
Since the Minister has begun lobbying the federal government, when does the Minister anticipate the Environmental Impact Review Board process will be completed?
The EIRB process is something that’s outside of our jurisdiction at this point. We don’t control the process, however, we hope that the final reports or approvals for the Tuk-Inuvik section of the highway will be ready sometime next summer.
You know, I’m glad to hear the process is moving so quickly. The sooner this project gets completed for the cost of living for my constituents, the cost of food, the fuel, transportation between the communities and all up and down the valley making it accessible for people to take their families out on holidays a lot cheaper. It’s beneficial for the sovereignty of Canada, because I always say I always have all the oil and gas in the northern Beaufort. Will this government receive the necessary permits from the Environmental Impact Review Board? What are the Minister’s next steps in continuing the progress on this important road link?
A big challenge, the biggest challenge, and will continue to be the biggest challenge, will be to secure appropriate funding to continue the work on the road once all the approvals are in place. We would expect that as soon as we hear positive response, we would, of course, move forward and try to secure those dollars to do further work. We would also have to start the process to develop more detailed road design. While I can’t commit to any dollars for the life of this government, I would expect that those issues will be brought forward and will continue to take precedence. The work would take probably more than a year to complete.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions follow up on my Member’s statement from earlier today and are directed to the Premier as the Minister of Executive. I’d like to ask, recognizing that civil society in the voluntary sector is an important third leg on the stool of government market and the civil society, what actions are we taking as a government to ensure a strong civil society and voluntary sector in a jurisdiction where our government sector is so huge and powerful? Of course, we have a strong market sector.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess we need some clarification on this. We have a couple of areas we work in that we would determine, and through the Executive, the NGO, non-government organizations who deliver programs through department initiatives, and then we have the volunteer sector that the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs is involved in.
On the NGO side, the funding stabilization side, multi-year funding process, that work has been ongoing and we have put in a funding package to try to help stabilize on the NGO side. Thank you.
I appreciate those comments and those actions that are being taken. I think what I’m talking about too is, as a third arm I think we have the role of assisting communities in recognizing that they have a responsibility and an opportunity in fulfilling an important role that’s sort of independent of government. It’s a self-strengthening exercise, if you will. Government has a role in helping them out in that. I’m wondering if we are working with communities to get that sort of independent spirit out there and helping them recognize the role that actually individuals and families and communities can play in strengthening that civil society on their own, perhaps with some assistance from government.
I’m aware in communities and trying to strengthen the role of the volunteer organizations and those organizations serving our communities in a very, I guess it would be a supportive capacity. I know the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is working through the Volunteer Organization Development Contribution Policy. As well, we continue to do, through MACA, the Outstanding Volunteer Awards Program that they continue to help.
I’m wondering, the voluntary sector -- speaking specifically about the voluntary sector -- has called a number of times for an independent office within government, such as the Department of Executive, that would serve to simply help them in building capacity. That’s something this government has talked about a number of times. I think we may even have talked about it earlier in this session. The Premier I believe is putting some consideration into that. I’m wondering where the Premier is at or when we might be able to give a positive response to these organizations that are requesting that office.
I know that there has been call for establishing of an office within Executive. We have not been able to get there at this point, as we have gone through our business planning to look at what options are there. I’d have to get back to see what the request was from committee in this area and then be able to provide a better response.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that commitment again. Let me just ask whether there is anything we can do on this side of the House or, in fact, that our voluntary sector could do to help support the Premier in making that positive decision.
As I’ve said many times, any new initiatives that we would look at putting in place or expanding the role of within departments, we go through our business planning process and look to Members when they make recommendations on any potential changes or new initiatives we’d like to see put in our business plan. So for us, we look at key areas during the budget development process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to my Member’s statement on the health care provided in northern communities and the importance of this service, which is an essential service to the residents of all these smaller communities. A lot of times we don’t have the privilege of walk-in clinics or even seeing the doctor. Basically you have to wait for the doctor’s visits. In some cases it’s a month or even longer. In some cases we don’t even have a community nurse stationed in a lot of our communities.
Mr. Speaker, I think it’s important this government has some baseline guidelines in regard to services that are being provided to ensure that there is a minimum level of services in our communities so that people can really feel that their well-being is being taken care of. I’d like to ask the Minister, do we have minimum standards for health care services in all of our communities in the Northwest Territories so we at least know there’s a minimum level that you can get and work your way up from there. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member’s statement and question speaks to the importance of thinking territorially, that whenever we are planning the business plan, programming, we need to look at our work as being territorial. We need to make sure that all of our residents are treated fairly and equitably. This is why in our Foundation for Change we put so much focus on access, because what the Member is talking about is that every resident needs to have access to essential medical and health care and that’s one of the three pillars of the Foundation for Change. Thank you.
Again, in my Member’s statement I talked about the lack of services in a lot of our communities. I think the importance that we talk about here, we talk about respite care, we talk about home care, we talk about supplementary health, but a lot of the times people in a lot of our communities don’t have those fundamental services. Like the communities I represent, a large portion of the population are elderly. We want to keep our elders in our home communities. We want to keep our elders close to their families, but, again, they need that important delivery and service and care, regardless if it’s respite care or home care. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, I know that there’s a lot of wants out there, but what are we doing to ensure that those services are spread fairly throughout the Northwest Territories and everyone has those types of programs and services in the communities that we serve, regardless of the size of the community.
Thank you. The Member is absolutely right in what he’s saying and this is why our work in the department has been in creating a territorial team where doctors, nurses, everybody is working as a team to make their services available to everyone in the Territories, especially the small communities. The Member is right when he says that a lot of our communities, actually over 25 of them have to wait for doctors, eye doctors, specialists, and nurses even come two or three times a week, they’re not there permanently. So we are working and medical directors and all the nursing professions are coming together to work out a territorial plan so that at any given time, anybody in the Territories has access to the essential medical and health services, at the same time, enhancing respite care and home care and community level care so that our residents can stay in their communities as long as possible. Thank you.
Another item that I touched on is the importance of medical travel, of medevacs. In most of our communities that’s the only means of getting in and out of our communities. People have to travel to meet with the different specialists either in Inuvik, here in Yellowknife or Edmonton, or by way of clinical services out of Inuvik hospital. I think it’s important that we have to enhance that program to have a better delivery of medical travel services for the services we do provide. Again, that’s another way that we can improve our medical services in the Territories. So what are we doing to enhance that program so that people really understand medical travel is an essential way of delivering our health care service in the Northwest Territories?
The Member is right when he says that medical travel is an essential part of delivering health care in the North, and this is why we fought for and got, and we have a federal Minister who understands the importance of medical travel in the North and all across the North. That’s part of our additional funding we got under THSSI. What we need to do on the medical travel is that we use the money wisely so that anybody who needs medical travel gets to their medical care. So part of what we’re doing is using technology to make sure that we have the money available to those who really need to get medical travel -- and often they need medical escorts -- where we can use technology and local staff by supporting them where they are we get the diagnosis at home. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the Minister’s comments, a lot of times in the House, I think sometimes we lose the perspective of the territorial health care delivery system we have in the North. A lot of the time the focus is on the Yellowknife delivery system. I think that we have to ensure that the people outside of Yellowknife are being taken care of and that we are ensuring that their issues are being dealt with. So I’d like to ask the Minister, at some point can you make a statement in this House clearly identifying the delivery service that your department provides to the Northwest Territories as a health care provider. Thank you.
We do have a dichotomy of our residents going down to the Primary Care Centre and they’re concerned that they have to wait for half an hour on the phone for an appointment, whereas in many of our communities we have people who have to wait for days and if they miss a doctor’s appointment, it’s weeks.
So, Mr. Speaker, when Action Canada, the research tank, was up here, when they looked at the fact that we are delivering health care to 40,000 people in 33 communities over a land mass that’s four times bigger than France, he just said that is a challenge. Medical travel, medical technology and efficiency, we need to find those so that we do as much as possible to provide equitable health care service delivery all across the Territories. I will undertake to make a statement on that in the House, as per the Member’s suggestion. Thank you.
