Mahsi Cho, Mr. Speaker… [English translation not provided.]
Today I would like to pay tribute to the late Georgina Biscaye of Fort Resolution. A funeral service was held in her memory yesterday.
Georgina was born June 13, 1961, in Rocher River. Her family moved and settled in Fort Resolution when she was seven years old. Georgina always had fond memories of Rocher River and never forgot where she was born and was proud to remind others.
Georgina passed away surrounded by her family on Thursday, November 1, 2012, at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Georgina was 51 years old.
Georgina discovered she had cancer on April 12th, shortly after her partner and husband, the late Alphonse King, was detected with cancer. They both had lung cancer. Although, finding out they both had cancer, they decided not to let their illness get them down, and instead both chose to embrace and make the best of their medical conditions. Georgina and Alphonse were both hospitalized – she in Edmonton, he in Yellowknife – when he passed away on June 8th.
Georgina was a strong-willed Dene woman who always spoke her mind and got her point across. She got along well with others and had a great sense of humour. She had no problem accepting constructive criticism and was always willing to lend a helping hand to those in need. Georgina was definitely a family caregiver. She always took care of her parents until her father died, and right up until she got sick she took care of her mother. Georgina’s nieces and nephews called her Auntie Mom.
Georgina preferred to speak Chipewyan and only spoke English when she had to. She was committed to her language and culture, and it was a big part of who she was. She worked really hard to maintain this area of her life. Georgina was passionate about being involved in the preservation and revitalization of the Chipewyan language. She was confirmed to the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board and the Official Languages Board as a Chipewyan representative on June 20, 2011. She was nominated as the chair of the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board on February 17, 2011.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Georgina was very active in the promotion of her language through her work. Until recently, Georgina worked as the Akaitcho Chipewyan regional language coordinator with the Akaitcho Territorial Government and prior to that she worked as a Chipewyan language coordinator for the Deninu Ku’e First Nation. Minister Jackson Lafferty acknowledges her work in the languages area.
Georgina is survived by her mother, Therese; her sisters, Anne, Sabet, Julie, Violet and Gloria; her daughter, Lacey; granddaughter, Chase; and numerous nieces and nephews, cousins, and many, many friends. My sincerest condolences go out to Georgina’s mother, five sisters, daughter, grandson, nieces, nephews and many friends.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past Friday in Winnipeg, a well-known NWT musician – and, I have to add, a constituent of Inuvik Twin Lakes – Mr. Louie Goose was honoured by the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
---Applause
People may not hear it, but there are some folks in here singing “40 Days” right now.
---Laughter
Louie was taught at an early age by his mother, and he spoke during an interview about as he was growing up chording at some of the old-time dances for many of the old-time fiddle players who were always playing all night for the dances. He spoke about his early start with a band called the Deltanaires. He played lead guitar in this band and he spoke about how he had to start singing one day because their lead singer was resting, as he put it. I think that’s the politically correct term for passed out.
---Laughter
For well over 40 years Louie has been entertaining the residents of the Beaufort-Delta, and anyone that may have lived or attended school during that time can recall listening and dancing to the music from Louie’s band.
He started work with CBC for a while, for a few years, and along with Mr. Saturday Night Request Show, Mr. Les Carpenter and Roger Gruben and the late Willie Gordon who hosted the well-renowned Moms Show, they were, in my opinion, probably the best radio personalities the North has ever had or will ever have.
Louie’s musical influence is particularly evident as his daughter Leanne is starting to carve out a musical career of her own, with multiple nominations from the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards. She did a moving introduction at the awards to, as she put it, her hero.
I ask Members today to join me in congratulating Mr. Louie Goose on receiving the National Lifetime Achievement Award from the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards committee. This is a well-deserved award for a well-deserving individual, Mr. 40 Days, Louie Goose.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the former Member for Mackenzie Delta Mr. David Krutko, and also the former Member for Range Lake Mrs. Sandy Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to rise and welcome to the House again our esteemed colleague Mr. Krutko and former MLA, former Minister and Range Lake resident Ms. Sandy Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize three Pages from Yellowknife South: Megan Vu, Benjamin McGregor, Latetia Hammond. I would like to thank them for their good work, and also thank all the Pages that are here today.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Ben McDonald, a stalwart of Alternatives North and defender of the public good.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to recognize my former colleague Mr. David Krutko, and as I’ve told him before, I keep his chair warm for him down here. Also my former colleague Ms. Sandy Lee. As a little trivia point, there’s only ever been nine women elected in the history of the territorial Legislature and Ms. Lee is one of them. There’s not very many of us.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also wanted to recognize Minister Sandy Lee, and Member and Minister David Krutko. They look so happy sitting together up there.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to echo Mr. Yakeleya’s comments. I’ve never seen the two, Mr. Krutko and Ms. Lee, look happier together in my years. That said, I would like the occasion, as well as Premier McLeod, to recognize all our Pages. Specifically I would like to highlight Ally MacInnis. She’s a Page from Yellowknife Centre, and I want to thank her as well as all the Pages for their fine duties. They support us in our work and it’s a very valuable service that we treasure here.
As well as Mr. Bromley, I too wish to recognize Ben McDonald, who is a constituent of Yellowknife Centre. I do know Ben works very hard at various things and I wish to acknowledge that he is a very learned scholar out there as well.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I would like to welcome all the visitors in the public gallery here today. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings here today. Thank you and welcome.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge Winnie Elanik, a well-respected elder who passed away in Aklavik October 30, 2012. Winnie, in her lifetime, has done tremendous work for her community and has helped numerous families overcome hardship. She was always reminding her children and their families of the importance of having God in all our lives, and to always be kind and mindful of others.
In her lifetime she did sewing for her family, always making sure her children were dressed warm, and later on taking care of her grandchildren. Sewing traditional parkas, mukluks and mitts, she enjoyed dressing her family with her sewing.
Winnie had many health problems. She had patience with her family. She always had a home-cooked meal for everyone, even strangers. No one left her home without having a cup of tea. In return, her children looked after her and made sure her last few years were comfortable and always surrounded by family.
Winnie Elanik, the matriarch of the Elanik family, will be forever remembered and deeply missed. My condolences to the family.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned earlier today in my Member’s statement, the Yukon government is making carbon monoxide detectors mandatory. However, I pointed out that, in reality, the GNWT needs to invest more in public awareness and standardization of regulations for all oil-fired and wood use appliances throughout the NWT.
My questions today will be for the Minister responsible for such a topic, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. It’s clear biomass is on the rise in almost every community of the NWT. As I mentioned today, there are no regulations to support the installation of wood pellet stoves in 31 of our 33 communities. As well, many wood stoves are not compliant or meet safety codes and there is no established inspection process.
Can the Minister indicate to the House today by what means his department is using to monitor the safety, installation and inspection of wood and pellet stoves in most communities?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as inspecting them, we don’t have an inspection regime, and it is one we have been exploring the possibilities of. People are able to have them inspected by wet-certified inspectors. The numbers are starting to go up as far as those that are certified to inspect the installation of wood stoves. It is a very tricky subject because there is a lot of liability to it. They are unable to see the full installation unless it’s new construction, so existing wood stoves are very difficult to see. They wouldn’t be able to qualify for home insurance if they’re not inspected by a wet-certified inspector.
Public awareness is by far lacking in the NWT as it pertains to carbon monoxide detector use. I would be safe to bet that a large percentage of residents do not have one, yet at a mere $40, this unit is a cheap investment for one’s safety. Can the Minister indicate how much money is spent annually on public awareness campaigns to educate the public on carbon monoxide detector use, and will he commit to increase this amount?
As far as the actual budget amount to help with the awareness, I’m not sure of the actual budget amount. I could get some numbers for the Member. I do know that through the fire marshal’s office they had a very good awareness program. They were actually giving away carbon monoxide detectors to those that needed them.
On the housing side of it, I know that in all the public housing units they’ve spent a considerable amount of money ensuring that all our public housing units have carbon monoxide detectors that are up to code. Any new construction now, I think since 2005, is required to have carbon monoxide detectors in their units.
The installation of all wood and pellet stoves within most of our communities is not regulated. Will the Minister commit today in this House to immediately mandate the much needed regulations with his department, with the community fire marshals, and with various community government stakeholders in standardizing all our communities for compliance, safety codes and inspection process for all oil-fired and wood use appliances?
I can commit to the Member that I will do some exploratory work and see how we can advance this. I do know that a lot of those folks that are building $300,000 to $400,000 homes, it will be to their benefit to make sure that all installations meet code, otherwise they may not qualify for insurance. But I will commit to the Member that I’ll just start some exploratory work and see how we can best advance this issue.
I can say that we are acting now, and we’re not ignoring the fact that these are very important components in each home, and I think that was my response to a couple of the questions before. I think we’re proving that our commitment to ensuring that all homes in the Northwest Territories are safe and have a working carbon monoxide detector.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally, as a follow-up to a question I asked earlier this spring on carbon monoxide detector use in our local housing authority branches. We were informed back then by the Minister that all LHOs were compliant with carbon monoxide detector use. Could the Minister agree to table to this House a complete inventory of all NWT LHO housing and building inventory by region, with more specific information to carbon monoxide detectors, and more specifically, installation date, inspection date and expected replacement date.
I have said that all our public housing units are compliant. We’ve spent a considerable amount of money. We’ve installed carbon monoxide detectors in well over 1,300 units, because we have a lot of multiple family-type dwellings. They’re all compliant. But if the Member wants all this in writing we will assign someone to put all this information together and we will share it with the Members. Not only that, if that’s not good enough, then we’ll table it in the House so everybody across the Northwest Territories knows that what I said here today is the absolute truth.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to yesterday’s theme day when we were speaking about treatment programs throughout the Northwest Territories, I wanted to ask the Minister of Justice about some of the programs that they have in the corrections facilities.
Right off the bat, I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice what type of treatment programs specifically designated for addictions does the department provide in our correctional facilities currently.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the Department of Justice, through its corrections, does support a number of on-the-land programming available for inmates within our facilities where security issues are not significant. We also support inmates attending regularly things like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
In the last sitting, through Regular Members, we increased the budget at the South Mackenzie Correctional Facility where we have some traditional addictions counsellor positions available to provide support. Those types of services are available in our Yellowknife facility as well. There are a number of things that we are currently doing within the facilities to support inmates with addictions issues.
Speaking with the Minister of Health yesterday, and some of the answers that he gave us in terms of detox programs moving along the same lines, if anyone that gets incarcerated for a serious crime and does have to go to either a north corrections facility, are there any detox programs in place, medical services provided to the inmates that need that detox in our facilities currently?
When somebody is convicted and sentenced to time in one of our facilities, one of the first things that will happen is they’ll go through a documentation and classification where their individual needs are assessed. If an individual does require detox, we do have nursing staff within our facilities who can help develop a plan to help that individual detox. It may involve some time in isolation during the actual detox, but they do have nurses available to support them through that process.
When an inmate is about to get released, in terms of getting educated on possibly some of the issues and concerns that might have gotten them into the institution, what type of education programs do the corrections facilities offer to get inmates back, or what social skills programs does the department offer to get these inmates back into being a member of society and not going back out and becoming another repeat offender? What type of education programs are there in our facilities to get our inmates back as regular members of society?
Each one of these situations would be done on an individual basis, based on the individual needs of inmates when they’re being released. Currently, case managers and other staff within the department or within the corrections facilities will work with the inmate to identify programming in the community that they’re going to be released to that would help support them in their continued healing journey, or help them deal with probation issues that may exist. Each case is done individually. They’re targeted and linked with different programs and services that may exist in individual communities.
One of the things that we are doing right now as a department, is we have been approached by some communities to do some reintegration work and engage communities to help design reintegration plans that work for the communities, that can engage the communities. We’re exploring that right now with Colville Lake and we’re probably going to run a pilot there to see how it works. If it works really well, we will work with other communities to implement a similar type of process.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just in terms of alcohol related crimes in the Northwest Territories and people who are suffering with addictions and treatments, I was wondering if the Minister knows what the percentage of crimes throughout the Northwest Territories are actually alcohol related. Does he have a percentage that he can let the House know of?
I don’t have that exact statistic but I do have some information on this. The most frequent criminogenic needs identified amongst NWT offenders are those associated with drugs and alcohol. The vast majority of individuals who are going through their documentation and classification have indicated that alcohol is a significant factor in their lives and one of the reasons they may be within the facilities.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague Ms. Bisaro’s questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment the other day regarding late payment of income support.
I’ll start by noting that I raised this issue with the Minister in 2010 and was told at the time that the problem was due to staff changes. This time it’s attributed to the possibility of holidays or staff vacancies. Obviously, these predictable and regular occurrences should never deprive people, destitute people of their only way to pay rent, buy food and clothe their families.
Can the Minister assure me that, no matter what, there will be enough staff at ECE all the time, every time, to ensure these payments are processed on time?
