Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I guess I’ve got some great concern over some comments that the Minister made at her constituency meeting where she talked about the proposed changes to supplementary health. In fact, one of the quotes that the Minister made at that meeting was that portions of that plan would be implemented in November. That’s two weeks from now.
The report from the working group has just come forward recently. I’d like to ask the Minister what exactly she is referring to. What exactly is going to be implemented in November as she mentioned at her constituency meeting?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, the joint working group on the Supp Health Benefits Program completed its work. We have jointly submitted the report to the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning and Cabinet. The supp working group’s work is done and we are looking forward to getting feedback from the committee on the work that the joint working group has completed.
I was wondering if the Minister could outline for the Regular Members here and the public -- obviously there are going to be questions and concerns stemming from the release of this working group’s report -- what process is going to be followed that is going to allow questions and concerns for Members and the general public to be addressed by the government before anything is implemented.
The joint working group recommendations and suggestions are in the report. It is in the hands of the committee. The committee is made up of all the Members on the other side, and I look forward to the feedback from the committee as to what their response is to that and if the details of the report will show exactly the questions that he’s asking.
I’m not sure how officially the report got to us today. We did receive it and I’m not at liberty to discuss that report right now. Obviously it’s not before the House. However, what I want to ask the Minister is: Is that report the gospel according to this Cabinet? Is this Cabinet going to entertain parking the proposed changes to supplemental health until next fall when rightfully it can become an election issue here in the Northwest Territories?
As the Member knows, the joint working group was made up of three Ministers and three Regular MLAs. We were tasked to look into certain things about supp health benefits. We looked into those and some other issues that came up. We made recommendations on those. The report was officially transmitted by myself and Mrs. Groenewegen, who is the co-chair. I don’t think we need to preclude the work of the committee. I am sure that the committee will take a look at the report and give us considered feedback on the recommendations, and I and the Cabinet Ministers, my colleagues, are looking forward to hearing from the committee on their response.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the recommendation of the committee is to look at shelving the proposed changes to the supplementary health benefits in the Northwest Territories until next fall when it can become an election issue, is that something that the Minister could support?
We have a consensus government. I don’t know what the committee’s feedback will be. I would like to ask the committee to consider all the recommendations made there. There are some very good recommendations that I think would benefit and that I think the committee would want to adopt. We haven’t had enough time for the Members to give us their feedback. I am open to receiving whatever feedback the Members have on that report.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I talked about the streetlights in smaller communities or the lack thereof on the roadways. Especially now with winter coming, we all know that there is limited sunlight, it’s very dark, and it’s quite terrible, actually, especially when I go there in the wintertime. I can’t walk around much later than 6:00 in some of the areas of Lutselk’e and Fort Res because of darkness. I’d like to ask the Minister, I understand that at one time the NWT Power Corporation used to install lights on the poles and then charge the municipality for the kilowatt usage. I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs if he could advise me how the departments fund streetlights and who is responsible for streetlights in the municipalities.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The way it worked before was that the Power Corporation would install the poles and streetlights and then bill MACA, when MACA had the responsibility and all the infrastructure money. Since the implementation of the New Deal, it is now the community’s responsibility to work with the Power Corporation in having streetlights installed in the community.
Could the Minister advise me if at the time when Municipal and Community Affairs had the responsibility to deal with the Power Corporation on street lighting, if the department has some sort of regulations, policies or formula for how many streetlights are needed to light up a street, how far between and so on? Any sort of regulation?
My understanding is there weren’t any regulations that were in place. It was something that the community would identify to the Power Corporation and try and have the proper lighting installed. The communities worked with the Power Corporation to come up with the needed lights in the community.
Since as an Assembly we really don’t have access to or any way of dealing with the NWT Power Corporation on this issue, I would like to know if the Minister could commit to having his department work with the municipalities and the NWT Power Corporation to have some of the lights installed in key places in the communities where the streets are not lit up at all.
Each fall and winter we work with the community governments to support their revised capital investment plans and if they identify streetlights as one of their priorities, then we would work with them to include the streetlights in their capital plans. The communities have done quite good at doing their capital plans, and I can inform the Member that one of his communities has actually identified street lighting as part of their capital plan and they’re hoping to do the implementation during this fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When you talk about lights, there are a lot of analogies that can be made. I’m listening to some of those. When the New Deal was formed and the New Deal was signed, because there was a relationship between the Power Corporation and this government through MACA, I suspect that was included in the formula when the New Deal was signed by the communities. Can the Minister tell me if he’s prepared to commit to going back to the formula in the New Deal and to see -- apparently this is a fairly expensive proposition – if lights were actually included in the infrastructure transfer in the capital planning.
I will commit to working with the different groups and seeing what was included and what was not included. The Member mentioned earlier on in his statement about the infrastructure that transferred over to the communities and how some of it was aging, which is true. Had we gone about doing business in the old system, a lot of that infrastructure would never be replaced for a long time because they’d be at the end of the line in priorities. So by doing this, giving the money to the communities, having them have the responsibility, I think we’ve seen some good work towards some of the infrastructure being replaced a lot sooner than it would have been had it continued to be administered through MACA. I will commit to speaking with the interested parties and the parties that were affected to see how the formula was arrived at.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our face-to-face services for medical travel have been critical and expected, especially where language and communication barriers exist. Up until now the medical travel office has been located in Stanton on the main floor directly across from the intake booths, which has been a great location especially for individuals coming in from out of town, from the small communities, the grannies from Nahanni who wish to have actual communication with the medical travel office. Now it’s gone. Now we’ve moved it behind locked doors, security windows, and there is no face-to-face contact whatsoever. Now it’s all phone and e-mail. I’m confused. There doesn’t appear to be a transition plan. If there is a transition plan, I’d like to know what that is.
My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Was a transition plan designed and implemented to help those individuals who are using medical travel transition from an open and friendly face-to-face service to a rigid and closed-off digital and telephone services? Right now I find that people are surprised, not notified, and they’re confused, not informed. To the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member’s comments. I listened carefully to what he said in the Member’s statement. I would be happy to convey his concerns and the questions he has to the administration of Stanton Hospital and get back to the Member.
I’m quite happy to hear that. I’m glad that the information is going to be sent to them. I’m more interested in getting a commitment from the Minister that she will have Stanton implement a comprehensive transition plan. Given that there is an empty office out there and I saw with my own eyes that there was nobody in there, it was completely vacant, no sign of anybody using that, I think it would be good if the Minister would commit to bringing back one of the medical travel officers and putting them in that office for a transition period to give the people an opportunity to transition from a face-to-face, open system to one that obviously the department is not interested in having face-to-face contact. Will the Minister commit to doing that?
Mr. Speaker, I would absolutely, yes, commit to the Member to get all of the details that he is asking for, transitional measures and the plans, and discuss with the Member and get input from the Member. Thank you.
I’ll go back and read Hansard, but I’m pretty sure I’m talking about some action, not just a request for some information. I’m asking the Minister to commit to actually taking one of the medical travel officers back, putting him in that vacant office as part of the transition plan. If eventually we want that person to move out because we want to move to a phone and digital service, that’s fine, but help us understand and build a transition plan so it’s not a turn off of the switch, it’s not a no service from service. So will the Minister commit to putting somebody back in that office?
Mr. Speaker, yes, I would not preclude that option, but right now I think it’s important for us to get the information from the authority as to what they have being planned for the front office. I think everybody here knows that space in a hospital and that sort of a facility is more a premium and so we need to hear from the administration as to what their plans are. I would be happy to share that with the Member and come up with an action plan together and seek input from the Member as well as the Standing Committee on Social Programs, if necessary. So, yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to working with the Minister on that. I understand this base issue and I’m glad the Minister brought it up, because it’s my understanding that they’re taking the medical travel out of there, which is a face-to-face and has traditionally been a face-to-face sort of service, and instead they’ve put the director of medical services in there, which isn’t a face-to-face service type position. In fact, the services that that director is responsible for is ophthalmology, clinical services and medical travel, all of which are out of Stanton. So why did we take a director, which has no face-to-face service with clients, and stick him in prime, prime client service face-to-face contact location and move medical travel, which is historically a face-to-face service, and stick him behind closed doors? It kind of seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that they got it exactly backwards. I’m hoping the Minister can help me understand the logic behind that, because, quite frankly, I don’t see any.
Mr. Speaker, I take the Member’s point and he’s asking questions and making suggestions. He brought this issue to me yesterday. I’m committing to the Member to get the information from the authority as to exactly what their plans are. They may have a very good explanation as to the move and what other plans that are part of this move. So I think it’s important for us to get a full picture of if there are any other related issues surrounding that, and then when we get the full picture, of course, I’ll welcome the Member’s input on what we can do better or do differently or anything else. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned in my Member’s statement that I have a few concerns about the search that the Premier is on to find a vision for the NWT. In my experience and in my view, a vision, when it’s written down, is usually about three or four lines of text, and the questions that are part of the Premier’s process are very broad, very vague, and that’s, as I mentioned, the answers that we have gathered, or the Premier has gathered, are a very broad range. It leads to my concern about how we are going to end up with a vision from the results of these forums.
Any time we enter into consultation, I think it’s acknowledged by Members, it’s acknowledged by the public that there’s a cost involved. We’ve gone through five forums, I think, to date, and I think there may be a couple more yet to come. So there’s obviously a cost involved. I know that the Assembly approved a budget for this particular exercise, the Northern Leaders Forum exercise, but I don’t know whether or not the Creating Our Future was part of this exercise. So to the Premier I’d like to know: What is the cost of this Creating Our Future exercise that he has embarked on, what will it cost by the time it’s done, and how much of the, I think, $860,000 that the Assembly approved is being used for this exercise? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; the budget was approved by this Assembly and we’re operating within that budget. A portion of that has been allocated to the aboriginal governments for their work in that area and we’re gathering all the information between not just the forums but the mail-outs, the website, and seeking all that from individuals as well, and by sitting down with the aboriginal leadership. We’re targeting the end of November to pull that work together and discuss at that point how we would proceed to, for example, how we bring that work back to this Assembly and this House for discussion and how aboriginal leadership may take that work as well and use it in their efforts. Thank you.
Thank you to the Premier for that information. It kind of leads into my next question. I was going to ask what are the next steps that the Premier is going to take to take all of this information to get to a vision. He referenced the Northern Leaders Forum, and I guess I still need to know how the Premier expects that these forums that we’ve engaged in will lead us to a vision. Will we have a vision that gets to the Northern Leaders Forum and then they will bring their visions and then they start all over again? So, you know, who’s taking these next steps and what are they going to be? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we brought forward this idea of reaching out to the people of the North, building a common vision between aboriginal governments, public government, the future of the Territories, and it was through that work we brought the request for funds. Through that work we came up with a process of using some of that for the aboriginal governments to do their work and, of course, for our work. But as we talk about that future of how we build and how we go forward, that work, as I had stated, we are going to get together and pool all of the work that has gone on, the information we receive from the forums, from individuals who are responding to the website, individuals who are responding to the mail-out, and pull that together with the aboriginal governments’ work, discuss at that level what possibilities can flow out of that, how do we pull it together, and I will be bringing that work back to the Members of this Assembly. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Premier mentioned beyond just the forums. There have been mail-outs to people who have wanted to send their comments in by mail. There’s been an on-line survey that’s been ongoing. So there’s any number of responses other than what’s summarized from the five or so forums that are the Premier’s website. I’m really concerned that… I guess I need to know again from the Premier, I didn’t hear an answer to how are all those broad answers, ideas, suggestions, specific ideas, specific actions relative to programs, how in heaven’s name is the Premier going to take those and condense them down into something that can be laid at the feet of all the members of the Northern Leaders Forum for, I guess, a constructive discussion? Thank you.
Much like what Members of the Legislative Assembly do every time there’s an election and they gather together to form a vision for this Assembly itself, we will do similar. As we pull their work, there will be similar areas, whether it is around economic development, whether it is around our environment, whether it is around our government structures. As I stated in my sessional statement today, some of those key areas that we’re working on revolve around those very issues and how we can work together to promote a common vision that we could use as northern governments in our approach to, for example, the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier for that explanation. I guess I still have my concerns that any time you take a huge amount of information and condense it down into something smaller, which is what that sounds like this is going to be, that an awful lot of it gets lost. You know, there’s the wheat and the chaff and I think a lot of this information is going to become chaff.
The Premier mentioned that the Northern Leaders Forum will meet at the end of November. I’d like to know, once this vision is developed from whatever comes to the table at the Northern Leaders Forum, will that vision that comes out of there be made public and when will it be made public? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the area of the work that’s being done at the Northern Leaders Forum, which we do have involvement from Regular Members, we will pull that work together, we will come up with options of how we proceed. How much of that, for example, will be run through this forum, being the public government, the process for it and what type of recommendations... Do they get debated, for example, in this Assembly? Do we put it out there for more comments? Our goal is to come back in June of the upcoming year for discussion by this Assembly as how we would progress on those key areas and adopting the work that has been done. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I raised the issue yet again regarding the concern of distracted driving and the fact that we don’t have an appropriate level of legislation that reflects banning cell phones while people are driving. I continue to raise this issue with the Minister of Transportation. I am well aware that there is some discussion out there regarding maybe we will have a law, maybe we won’t have a law. Quite honestly, I am starting to wonder that perhaps maybe the Minister is waiting until either cell phones become obsolete or certainly perhaps he is waiting for cars and vehicles to become obsolete before the Department of Transportation will take this issue seriously.
In all honesty, Mr. Speaker, the real question today is: What is the plan of the Department of Transportation in respect to distracted driving? Are they planning on bringing forward any type of legislative amendment to make sure that our roads are safe on this particular issue? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
