Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we need to ask the question are we, the government, failing our students or helping our students. You choose. Mr. Speaker, I ask this question because it puzzles me to hear so many stories of how our students just do not get the education here in the Northwest Territories that is of the same quality as education in the South. I will admit that what I hear is all about one individual student or another, but over the six years I have heard so many personal stories from the leadership in the Sahtu about the failures of our young people, that I have to wonder, is this government’s education system failing or still maturing as we have only taken over the responsibility of education since 1969. That is 40 years ago, Mr. Speaker.
Right now, there is a young man who graduated from high school in the Sahtu who faces two years of upgrading to bring his education level up to Alberta Grade 12. Mr. Speaker, this young man graduated English 30, Phys. Ed. 30 and Grade 11 math and other subjects. How is it that he has an NWT high school diploma when he does not have a high school education?
Mr. Speaker, upgrading is going to cost him $32,000. The Department of Education will fund any NWT student for post-secondary education, but there is no funding to support a student attempting to upgrade to Alberta Grade 12. I guess there is a presumption that if you give someone a piece of paper called a high school diploma, they will actually have a high school education and that is the end of it. Shouldn’t the diploma mean that they achieve a Grade 12 education before we pass them and they leave high school? Mr. Speaker, how is it possible that a young person can graduate only one academic course? Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of discussion about this issue in the media lately. What is happening in the Sahtu is probably happening in other small communities.
Mr. Speaker, this problem did not happen overnight and it cannot be fixed overnight, but it needs to be out in the open in order for us to create a solution that works. There are really dedicated teachers in the Sahtu, really good people that will help us on our task to provide quality education in our small communities. Students need courses that aren’t offered in their home community. We need them to get education elsewhere. Mr. Speaker, we have some young people -- and great young people -- who are trying to work hard and get an education. We must give them the financial support they need. Their education is a good investment. We will see a return on that investment as the young people return to the North as educators, lawyers, chiefs and doctors, even politicians, Mr. Speaker. We need to stand in front of these students…
Mr. Yakeleya, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, we need to stand in front of our students as they work to achieve their goals. The future of our Territory depends on this. Let us clear the way for them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to recognize some of the many people that helped work on the Water Strategy from the steering committee made up of representatives of the aboriginal governments. We have Richard Binder from Inuvialuit Regional Corporation; Joe Acorn, Deh Cho First Nations; Tim Heron, NWT Metis Nation; Joline Huskey and Eddie Erasmus, Tlicho Government; Mardy Semmler of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. From INAC, our close partners, we have Tricia Merrithew-Mercredi, regional director general; Sevn Bohnet, Tricia Melander-Forde, Michele Culhane and Bob Reid. From the Government of the Northwest Territories we have Gary Bohnet, deputy minister; Mark Warren, Jane McMullen, Joel Holder, Meghan Beveridge, Jennifer Skelton, Katarina Carthew, Judy McLinton and Ella Stinson and last, but not least, Mr. David Livingstone. Thank you all for your help and welcome to the Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Hay River South.
It is my pleasure again today to recognize in the visitor’s gallery Mr. Rocky Simpson who is here for meetings. I hope he had a very successful visit again. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome two residents of Inuvik into the gallery. One is a constituent. I am not sure where the other one lives. I believe she is a constituent too. Mr. Richard Binder and Mardy Semmler. Welcome.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
I would like to recognize a constituent, Bob Reid. As well, at the same time, I would like to recognize Sevn Bohnet, a friend from here, in Yellowknife, for a long time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today is Take a Kid to Work Day. I’d like to recognize my daughter Cheyenne Lafferty who is here with us, my shadow, and her friend Alex McLean here with us as well. I’d also like to recognize, of course, Eddie Erasmus and Joline Huskey. They’re part of the Water Strategy team. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure to recognize a hardworking member of the Water Strategy group, a constituent, Judy McLinton who’s up behind me somewhere. I’d also like to recognize two of the Pages who have been working so hard on our behalf over the last three weeks, Aimee Yurris and Michael Callahan, who are constituents as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Joe Acorn, the chair of the Public Utilities Board. Also, a couple of constituents from Yellowknife South, Jane McMullen and Mark Warren. Also a long-time colleague and a person recently recognized by the Aboriginal Sport Circle for his contribution to sport and long-time former chief, Jonas Sangris. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to recognize Jonas Sangris of Dettah. Other residents of Weledeh that I’ve spotted so far include Michele Culhane and Joe Acorn. I’m sure there are others. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. It’s always nice to have a good audience in here.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to acknowledge the exceptional achievement of one of our citizens and a Weledeh riding resident. Arlene Hache will be in Ottawa tomorrow to be invested as a member of the Order of Canada. The citation announcing this recognition reads:
Arlene Hache dedicates her time and energy to the welfare of Canada’s northern citizens. One of the co-founders and executive director of the Yellowknife Women’s Society Centre for Northern Families, she has spearheaded numerous programs that address issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, education, unemployment and child rearing. A tireless champion of social justice and human rights, she has also fought to raise awareness of the needs of the poor and disenfranchised. As well, she has lent her leadership skills to local territorial and national associations including the Society Against Family Abuse and the Canadian Mental Health Association.
I ask all Members to join me in congratulating Ms. Hache for her recognition with Canada’s highest civilian honour. Mahsi.
---Applause
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister responsible for NTPC, the Power Corporation. I’d like to ask the Minister, in terms of planning for capital projects and major infrastructure replacements, I’d like to ask him how NTPC plans for and puts in place major capital projects or replacements. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Power Corporation plans for maintenance as well as replacement of assets on an ongoing basis, so it would be part of their corporate plan that they put forward. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that answer. I guess I was referring and I needed to be a little more explicit, but for extraordinary expenditures where you have an unforeseen capital cost or an unforeseen expenditure of a fairly large nature, what kind of planning goes in place for those sorts of things? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in situations where there was an unforeseen cost, for example, the Member used in her statement the high cost last year as well as the rate rider, that they’re termed as, when there’s planning for a certain cost of running our diesel plans, for example, those costs would initially be absorbed by the Power Corporation, but they would have to put forward a request to the Public Utilities Board for an increase or a rate rider. On an annual basis or an ongoing basis, there are times that general rate applications go forward to increase the overall cost of service and end up having that passed on to the customer. Thank you.
I would like to thank the Minister again for that answer. I would like to follow it up a bit with a question relative to whether or not the Power Corporation has ever considered a different process in an effort to try and minimize the cost to customers on their power bills, and in order to try and eliminate rate riders and to keep things on as much of an even keel as possible. Has the corporation ever considered a different model for the recovering of capital costs other than the current one? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not aware if the board at this point have had discussions. I’m sure, as they go through their corporate plan, they have much discussion about how they would provide the information and provide for the service necessary. More importantly, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have looked at the issue around the capital plan and had some discussions from our side to see what could be done differently. As well, as the Member is aware, through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee we’ve had some work done looking at our rates, subsidization and regulation around delivery of power in the Northwest Territories as well. Thank you.
The Minister’s answer points out two things for me; one is that this Assembly, this government has little input, can provide little direction to the NTPC board and the Minister referenced that he’s not really aware of what the board has done in this particular instance. I’ve totally lost the other one out of my head, so I will go on to my next question and that is, to the Minister: how will the replacement of the Bluefish hydro dam be funded? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Bluefish replacement project is something that’s been planned for by the corporation. They’ve been looking at that facility for quite a number of years and, again, part of their corporate plan would be for the replacement of that asset. Within ongoing dollars we have available, we would also have to look at if there is higher cost on the project to see how that would be dealt with. I will get that information and provide that to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier and are in follow-up to my Member’s statement on the implementation of a gender-based analysis policy for the GNWT.
On March 9, 2009, in follow-up to some questions that I had, the Premier indicated that the Executive was developing a position paper. To date, I haven’t seen anything released from the Executive on gender-based analysis and I was wondering if the Premier could please provide me with an update on the progress of this initiative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of the Executive along with the Women’s Advisory Office has been working on this initiative for some time, as the Member has highlighted. We’re hoping to have a position paper on gender-based equity being finalized by the end of this calendar year. Thank you.
During my last round of questioning on this topic back in March 2009, I referenced a number of outside organizations who have already done a lot of work and research on gender-based analysis. In the development of this position paper were any of these outside organizations contacted and asked to provide input and feedback on the value of gender-based analysis within the GNWT?
What I’m aware of is the Minister responsible for the Status of Women, through the Department of the Executive, has been working with a number of groups across the Territories: the Status of Women Council, the Native Women’s Association, and the Dene Nation has also been involved in that. A lot of the start of this paperwork and this initiative has been based on work that’s been done through a national network and involves federal and provincial governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the NWT Council of Status of Women’s involvement there. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Premier for that. I think that that’s good news and I’m happy to hear that something is going to be done by the end of the calendar year. I understand that full-scale implementation is a significant undertaking, but obviously we must start somewhere.
Educating staff seems like a reasonable place to start, at least to me. The GNWT currently delivers a lot of training for staff. In March 2009, the Premier indicated that the Executive Council will also be working on some training documents and a training schedule for the implementation during the upcoming fiscal year, which would be the one we’re in. In relation to what he’s already said, could the Premier please provide me with a bit of an update on the progress of this initiative, the training aspect of things? Thank you.
Indeed the training aspect is an important one and working through the Women’s Advisory office, there’s been a training session provided for or planned for and designed on the development of tools and approaches and has been put in place. It’s open to all public servants. It’s being piloted through the process and has been placed on the GNWT training calendar. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s fantastic news. Has there been any consideration by the Premier to make that type of training mandatory for individuals within the GNWT who are responsible for the design of policy and writing policy within the government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I don’t know if there’s a message that’s been given to those who are in charge of the policy end. I know it is open to all government employees across the Territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the Elders on the Land Initiative. I know that the NWT Housing Corporation changed their programming to basically four programs and when this occurred, Mr. Speaker, the Elders on the Land Initiative was nowhere to be seen. I would just like to ask the Minister of the Housing Corporation, what prompted the department to take away this program that was well used by the communities in my riding? Thank you very much.
