Thank you. We do have programs available on a regional basis, as well, and I’d encourage community leaders in Enterprise to contact our office in Hay River. We could have somebody in the community to discuss funding options for the community, but I think before we move too far down that road we really do need to satisfy the land tenure issue on the former weigh scale site. That’s something, as I mentioned earlier, that will help the Member and the community to try to sort out in due course. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll be asking questions today on what kind of support the government is giving this year with the 50th anniversary of the Aurora Research Institute, which is a very big event in that it helps with the advancement of the NWT through another avenue, which is science and technology. My questions today are for the Premier.
I’d like to ask the Premier, being at the 50th anniversary, a very significant celebration in the Western Arctic, above the Arctic Circle, what is the government doing in support of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the Aurora Research Institute and what types of supports are there?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a very exciting year to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik. Considering that they’ve been conducting research or helping facilitate research for 50 years in the Northwest Territories is quite an achievement.
I’m very pleased to say that through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment that Aurora College is allocating $1,000 for every year of its existence, so they’ve allocated $50,000 for the 50th anniversary celebrations.
I should add that Aurora College provides the institute with about $1.7 million a year for its operations. The institute also accesses funding from a number of application-based programs. There are a number of events scheduled throughout October and November to celebrate.
That’s great for the commitment for every year. Can we see that commitment in the 100 year celebrations?
I know the work that’s been going on with the government in terms of investing in such things as the fibre optic link and we’re developing the satellite farm.
What is the government’s dialogue in supporting of the Aurora Research Institute in creating an office or some type of work station that will help with the fibre optic link and the data and all that information coming from the satellites? What type of investments, what type of support is the government doing in terms of this work that we’ve been investing in as a government?
I think it’s a very exciting period as to what’s happening in Inuvik, especially with the satellite tracking facilities that have been put in place. I think there are three satellite tracking facilities there now. When I attended the first one, we were told that with this fibre optic link that conceivably there could be 35 of these facilities, because Inuvik’s got the best location in the world for tracking of satellites. The Aurora Research Institute has been a very active participant and promoting this, and as part of construction of the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link, we see the research institute as playing a leading role.
There are very active discussions going on between the various departments involved, the various proponents and the international community. I think that you will see the Aurora Research Institute playing a very integral part to the future development in this area in Inuvik.
In that sense, in terms of international reputation, over 50 years the ARI has developed a strong network of researchers nationally, locally, regionally, territorially and, as the Premier stated, internationally.
What is our government doing in terms of supporting the researchers either through grants, through bursaries, through even scholarships for some of our young researchers, our students to look forward and going into to take some type of post-secondary education in the area of research, either biology, chemistry and those areas? Has the government created any of those types of monetary support?
We have a number of international researchers that set up and operate right in the Aurora Research Institute. We also provide a lot of logistical and backup and equipment support. As I said, the Aurora Research Institute receives funding from the Department of Education for annual operations, and they also access funding on an application-based process. We do involve and utilize them to do research on behalf of the government, and certainly, with the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link, I understand that we will do further investing in that regard.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask the Premier, he mentions they do a lot of support and looking for the ARI doing work on behalf of the government. If the ARI is doing work on behalf of the government, how often does the Premier and Cabinet meet with the executives of ARI as well as with the board of governors specifically on research findings that come out of the Aurora Research Institute that can help us as decision-makers make our jobs a lot easier and more efficient when we’re doing such work?
We receive results on a regular and ongoing basis. They are channelled through the Aurora College and through the Department of Education, and it finds our way to us. I myself, I think I’ve been to Inuvik about 10 times this year. On almost every visit I have the opportunity to drop in to the Aurora Research Institute for one reason or another, and at the risk of indicating how old I am, I negotiated devolution of the three arctic research centres from the federal government to the territorial government about 25 years ago. I think we have really benefitted from it.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I’m going to revisit a subject that I’ve spoken on a number of times, and that’s homelessness and what the Housing Corporation is doing about homelessness. In this fiscal year, I believe it is, we now have a homelessness coordinator, and I think the coordinator has been in the position for a while. I would ask the Minister to confirm how long.
My first question has to do with a question that I asked quite some time ago, and that was I expressed the need for standards for our shelters, that we do not have standards anywhere in the territory for any of our shelters.
I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not the homelessness coordinator is working on that or if the corporation in general is working on developing shelter standards.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The homelessness coordinator has been on board now for about a year and a half and has been visiting a lot of the agencies and gathering as much information as she can to assist her in her job. As far as the standards go, as the Housing Corporation, if we provide the infrastructure, we would ensure that infrastructure meets all the building standards. As far as the programming in there, I would have to have a discussion with my colleague, the Minister of Health and Social Services, because my understanding is that whoever the funding agency is to operate that shelter would have a set of standards that are built into the operating agreement. I will follow up with the Minister and see what type of standards that they have, but our part of it is usually just providing the infrastructure and having our own set of building standards.
Thanks to the Minister for that. It points out one of the problems that we have with homelessness and our government is that it crosses over departments, and I kind of thought with a homelessness coordinator that he/she would be responsible for all aspects of it, but perhaps not. So I appreciate the Minister looking into it for me.
The next point I wanted to bring up has to do with a resolution from the NWT Association of Communities 2014 annual general meeting. They passed a resolution there on homelessness and I want to read the operative clause: “Now therefore be it resolved that the GNWT fully fund homeless shelters within the boundaries of its communities and that the GNWT direct and fund its departments to end homelessness in the NWT.” So, you know, the resolution called for funding from the Housing Corporation.
I’d like to know first of all, how many homeless shelters do we have in the NWT, how many communities have a homeless shelter and what funding does the Housing Corporation provide to these shelters for their operations. Thank you.
As for the exact number of homeless shelters, I’m not quite sure. I will gather that information. I do know that through one of our programs, the NWT Housing Corporation, we were looking at four pilot projects in the communities where we would provide the infrastructure, do some necessary repairs to it, and work with a local agency, be it the band office or one of the local government offices, to operate this on our behalf.
I think we have three communities that have taken us up on that. We have one that’s in the works now. We’re looking forward to see how this rolls out, and this is to get people in the smaller communities that don’t have a place to stay, an opportunity to have somewhere to stay for a few days or…and supports that we have for housing, when we first got the portfolio, it was all rolled into this. There were different pots of money in different departments. We tried to bring all that money into the Homelessness Fund. We, I think, ended up with about $250,000, close to $300,000. This year we’ve added an additional $100,000 in the Shelter Enhancement Fund. So those that have homeless shelters, there’s an opportunity for them to put an application on this $100,000 to make some improvements on their facility. So that’s one of the many programs that we have in place. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. It’s good to hear that we are increasing funding, and I hope that continues, that we are going to continue to increase funding because it’s definitely an area where we have a definite lack. Emergency and transition housing is the other area where we really don’t have enough housing in any of our communities. Sometimes its non-existent or it’s very hard to come by.
The Minister kind of spoke to the fact that he’s trying to provide infrastructure in communities for emergency or homeless shelters. In those communities that have not taken up the Minister’s offer to date, what sort of a priority or what kind of actions is the Housing Corp taking to make sure that every community takes advantage of this offer? Thank you.
We had developed this as a pilot project with the hope that, well, with the four pilot projects, that the communities would put in the applications right away to take advantage of this. We were a little disappointed that we only had three come forward right away, and we do have, I think, a fourth one that we’re working on right now. We want to see how this works, and if this works well, this is a great opportunity for community organizations, too, because we will provide them with some funding to look after these homeless shelters on our behalf.
So, we’ll evaluate the results of this and then if there’s opportunity for us to expand this program into other communities, if they see how it’s working in these four particular communities, if there are opportunities there, we will certainly take advantage of those opportunities and see if we can expand the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Again, considering the interest expressed by the NWT Association of Communities, I would encourage the Minister and the Housing Corp very strongly to use NWTAC as a vehicle to get that information out and to get them to take advantage of the offer from the Housing Corp.
With the homeless coordinator in place now for a year and a half, in this 2014-15 budget year, can the Minister tell me what sorts of things the homelessness coordinator is working on? What are the priorities? What are the goals that this person is working on in this budget year? Thank you.
The coordinator is working with a number of different groups and hearing a lot of concerns out there, then they will package that information and come forward to the Housing Corporation.
We have two or three different pots of money. We have the Homelessness Assistance Fund. I think that pot is about $125,000. We have Small Community Homelessness Fund. We have $190,000 allocated for 14 projects in 10 communities to date, and the homeless coordinator plays a huge role in helping us with that. We have the Shelter Enhancement Fund that I spoke about.
So, the homeless coordinator is very important in helping us determine where some of these investments could be made, helping us look over the applications, and we have had fairly good success in the number of applications that have come in. We look forward to, again, working with the communities to try and help alleviate the problem with homelessness across the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been five days now since the trapping season opened up on the Mackenzie Delta. Many trappers are being challenged right now with the price of gas. We are paying anywhere from $1.79 to $2.00 per litre. Many trappers need at least $400 to $800 just to get started, even more, depending on the distance you travel.
I would like to ask the Minister of ITI, are there plans to increase the Harvesters Assistance Program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time there isn’t. I know I have fielded questions from other Members earlier in this session in regard to support for trappers around the NWT. On the Community Harvesters Assistance Program, or CHAP as it is referred to, we have just over $1 million. It’s $1.074 million. It goes to local wildlife committees to disburse the funds at the community level. If there are folks out there that feel that we should take another look at the funding, I know it was increased a few years back, but if, as I mentioned earlier, the pressures are there, that’s something that I can and would like to discuss with Members and communities. Thank you.
The pot of funding the Minister is talking about has a limit of $500 and it limits whether you can buy gas or groceries. A lot of trappers need the essentials like gas and groceries and skidoo parts.
I would like to ask the Minister, when is the department going to review that and increase that funding? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there are other programs that trappers can avail themselves of. Of course, there is the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program and the Grubstake Program that gets folks out. Based on the amount of fur that they think they are going to get, we can advance them some money before they go out and get to the trapping.
We have programs, but if the Member is calling on us to have a look at those programs and the level of support, that’s something that maybe, perhaps in next year’s business plans we could have a look at this and the level of funding that we do provide. Of course, like anything, there are cost pressures on government and, of course, there is cost pressures on trappers, as well, so we have to understand that and if we need to review that, I think, as I mentioned earlier, we can work with Members and communities and see that happen.
One thing I didn’t mention was in the community, for example, of Fort McPherson, we have between 50 and 60 applicants that apply for this funding, which is roughly $12,500 for the CHAP that the Minister is referring to.
Will the Minister work with those communities with high demand to work out something for next season? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, of course, we have to continue to work with ENR on this with the delivery there and also with the local wildlife committees. As well, they are the ones that administer the funds at the community level and we wouldn’t be able to do this alone, so again, we would have to have a discussion with ENR and the LWCs around the territory that do administer these funds. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about some concerns with the Mental Health Act. As the Minister knows quite well, the Mental Health Act was originated back in 1988 and it has a lot of particular issues, but I know the department is certainly looking forward to updating the act in a current way.
So maybe let’s start with that, because frankly, I have been dealing with families that have been struggling with the archaic act as it is written today and they are looking for some inspiration and certainly some hope as to what processes will be engaged and how soon we can see some development of the new Mental Health Act.
Let’s start with that. Maybe the Minister can provide a bit of an update and overview of some action. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year we actually went out and started doing some consultations and getting input from the communities. We had a discussion paper that was put online and shared with committee. Both the department and the committee went out looking for additional input on that. We’ve used that data to develop an LP. The LP has gone to committee. On October 20th the committee returned the LP and I am now taking that forward to Cabinet. As soon as it is passed in Cabinet, we will be issuing drafting instructions from the Department of Health and Social Services to the Department of Justice and drafting will begin very shortly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve been taking several calls from various families across the North, be it Inuvik, Yellowknife or even Hay River, and frankly, they are all expressing similar concerns about access to services on the ground and timely access to services on the ground that are relevant to the need.
Maybe the Minister can provide some update to that, because folks are feeling boxed in and powerless to be able to help under the present act. Maybe if the Minister could talk about those areas. What other areas can we do in that little space between today and when the new act becomes official, because it does feel like a long, relentless struggle that they are not making any headway. Thank you.
I have been having very similar conversations with constituents and front-line professionals myself, and there is no question that the current Mental Health Act is outdated, is not meeting the needs of our people, but it is the act that we have in place so we have to continue to be vigilant with the act we have and individuals have to keep coming forward and identifying individuals who are in need and reporting them to the RCMP and/or the health authorities as appropriate.
The bottom line is that the act doesn’t meet the needs of the people and we have to change the act so that we can actually start to make improvements for the residents of the Northwest Territories who are suffering from mental health or mental illness. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In dealing with one specific family, in fact it is not just about one family, many families struggle with the same problem, which is the justice system recognizes that people with mental illness, this really shouldn’t be the first stop, but unfortunately it is one of the processes that just happens to happen. In cases – and this is the only example that I will give – where the family is helpless because the justice system says that unless they do something to themselves or others, they can’t do anything. The Department of Health sits there and says unless they do something to themselves or others, they can’t do anything. So everyone is struggling. I am asking the Minister what can be done, because these families are feeling exceptionally struggled.
My third question here, to really get to the bottom line on this one, is: What can be done for these families to help them, because the update of the new act, which I welcome and they welcome, may take maybe two, maybe three years before it is fully implemented, although I know hard work is going on behind the scenes. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve had a lot of conversations with our director of territorial services as well as social workers on this particular issue. We know there are significant limitations in the legislation itself and we have to make those changes. I actually anticipate that the legislation is going to take less than two to three years to be rolled out. We are hoping to have legislation available in this government, in this Assembly, but it likely will be in the next Assembly. But we are moving on it because it’s that important.
As far as dealing with the individuals, we are continuing to make social services available. We are continuing to talk to Stanton, as an example, to encourage them to take individuals when front-line people call them. But there are some significant limitations to the legislation and we all have to continue to work together to find ways to be creative, to assist these people until such time as we bring in that new legislation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Often families tell me the difference between voluntary and involuntary commitment to these programs causes great fear and anxiety, but they continue to struggle with this. I’ll simply just describe it as they feel like they’re treading water in an ocean all by themselves and no one is in sight to help them and they worry.
The Minister says creative. Any ideas on how we can be creative on this problem? He knows some of the examples. We don’t have the time to go through them all here today. I’m looking for ideas to inspire hope. When these families call me, I have to be able to give them some answer that we’re doing something, and saying the act is being worked on, although it helps, it just doesn’t make them feel warm inside in the sense that they can see it in their lifetime.
So can the Minister give us some examples of how we can be creative and make sure that we’re helping those loved ones that really struggle and when they face these challenges they’re not alone?
Thank you. I hear the Member and I agree with the Member, but we are still limited by the existing act. We have to be careful on what we do because we may be in a position where we breach the legislation, which we don’t want to do. We have to change the legislation. The changes are coming. I’m looking forward to working with the Member and all the rest of the Members to improve this legislation.
In the meantime, one of the things that we’re trying to do, as a government and as a department, is break down some of the stigma that exists around mental health and mental illness and provide people with the tools that they need. So they can encourage people to talk to the people who can provide services and can help, whether it’s counsellors or doctors or psychiatrists and psychologists.
We need to continue to break down that stigma and we’re trying to do a number of things, including public awareness, education to help people understand and break down that stigma. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 8 written questions. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the agenda, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you. It gives me great pleasure to recognize a couple of the elders here who have done fantastic work here in Yellowknife, and I believe one, if not both of them, is leaving very shortly. I’d like to recognize Elder Ames, and I know he’s leaving here either today or tomorrow, and Elder Anderson, who’s come to Yellowknife to provide service, missionary work to the people of Yellowknife, and the work they do incredibly helps people. I want to thank them dearly for their contribution to our society. Thank you very much.
