Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Without just Yellowknife and Stanton travel, would the Minister commit to providing all expenses on missed appointments and no-shows in the Northwest Territories as well as southern travel for patients that went down south and this government covered the expenses and either the patient missed the appointment, they didn’t make it on time, or the appointment got cancelled? Would the Minister commit to providing us with those details?
Really, that money could be spent more effectively and we might even be contributing to the problem of these no-shows and missed appointments with the medical travel process.
Mr. Speaker, yes, I will commit to providing the information to the Member of this House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to keep the Minister of Health and Social Services hopping today. I’m sure he will get a break eventually.
Earlier in our June session, I asked the Minister questions on the status of efforts to reduce pharmaceutical costs. I did get some follow-up response from the Minister after the session, in which he indicated that work is underway to create a pharmaceutical strategy for the Northwest Territories. I would like to begin by asking the Minister what the current status of that work towards a strategy is. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In early 2012, Alberta Blue Cross completed an analysis and report on the NWT pharmaceutical strategy policy options for the Government of the Northwest Territories. This included a number of observations and recommendations to the government.
I know that that report had been completed sometime before June. I am wondering what the recommendations say. Can the Minister say what the recommendations were and what progress is being made to develop the strategy with those recommendations? Thank you.
I don’t have the actual recommendations from ABC with me here today; however, I do know that the plan is not to continue any work on the pharmaceutical strategy until after the end of this fiscal year due to other priorities in the department.
That, indeed, is a surprise. Members and committee have highlighted this as an issue, and we’re not aware, certainly I was not aware that this has been put on hold. So I’m wondering, the Minister, I believe, was going to take the ABC report out for consultation with, for example, the NWT Pharmacy Association, other stakeholders. Has that happened and what has been their input? Thank you.
No, we have not taken this report out. We’re looking at some of the key recommendations in there. There were about four or five key recommendations in there that we are looking at closely before we take it out to the public. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, this is very disappointing and a real lack of progress in an area that committee has identified as important. So I just want to express my great disappointment there, and ask when we will see a draft strategy and if the Minister will table the ABC report in the House. Mahsi.
I don’t think there is any issue with the department tabling a report. I think we want to take a look at it to have a discussion with ABC on the recommendations that they made. They made some recommendations specifically to why they feel that the pharmaceutical expenses are so high in the Northwest Territories. So we need to have that discussion with them. We’d like to have that discussion with ABC one time before we do a tabling of the report.
I can commit to saying that we will have that discussion to ensure that the information in their recommendations made is based on information that is 100 percent accurate. So after we do that we will be able to table the report. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about the Child Tax Benefit being included as income in the Housing Corporation’s changes to their programming. Seemingly little changes that happen often have big impacts in our smaller communities and in this case that is such the case.
We had a commitment, as a full Caucus of this territorial government, to lower the cost of living, yet we make a change to impact parents and single parents like this.
I’d like to ask Mr. Premier, can the Cabinet review this situation where we are, in essence, clawing back the federal Child Tax Benefit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The new public housing rent scales came into effect July 1, 2012, and largely at the call of all the Members of this House to have a system that was much fairer and treated all of our residents in housing more equitably. At that time the decision was made that to be fair, all sources of income would be included in the calculation, and to change from that would mean we’re going back to the old rental scale approach, back to a shotgun approach where all different types of support were exempted. So that’s why the new public housing rental scales were drawn up so that it would include these forms of income. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I recall the debate that we had two Assemblies ago and there was a reason we exempted these federal tax benefits to single parents and people of low income. So I’d like to ask, Mr. Premier, how is this consistent with our goal of lowering the cost of living for our residents by including Child Tax Benefit and clawing back the much needed little income that these people need.
On average a mother with one child receives about $300 a month in Child Tax Benefit. Two-thirds of that is exempt. One-third of that is included in income assistance. So that works out to about $100 a month and this is consistent with all across Canada. Thank you.
We’re all aware that, of course, we’re living in the North and the cost of living is much higher up here and that’s the reason we had exempted these federal transfers. We are clawing it back, and I’d like to ask Mr. Premier, can he commit for his government to review this situation and correct that and exempt Child Tax Benefit as income. Thank you.
The new rent scales that were introduced July 1, 2012, charge very low rent for low income households. If you make less than $1,677 a month, you pay $70 to $80 a month in rent. So I think that exempting Child Tax Benefit would have minimal impact on the rent that’s charged. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Premier doesn’t seem to at least review it and I’d like to ask the Premier one more time, will he and his Cabinet review this and to the point where how much benefit is this government actually getting by doing that, by taxing our low and middle income people and single parents. Thank you.
I don’t know if the Member is asking us to go back to the old rental scale that was in place, but as a government we’re always prepared to review our policies to make sure that they’re working the way they’re supposed to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have raised the issue and problems with home boarding of students in Inuvik several times in this House. Students from Tsiigehtchic and Sachs Harbour have nowhere else to go to complete their high school studies, but all too often home boarding does not work out and the students drop out of school entirely. What is the Minister doing to secure a residence where students can stay during the months they have to study in Inuvik?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that we closely monitor with the regional school board, and that would be the Beaufort-Delta. My department, Education, Culture and Employment, has informed me that there are approximately 20 students home boarding in Inuvik, including eight students from Sachs Harbour, 10 students from Tsiigehtchic and two from Fort McPherson. All students are in place except for the two that we’re still working on to place them in the community of Inuvik. So that is closely monitored by the superintendent and also the school board on those placements and the teachers are working closely with the students. So that’s an area that we continue to work with the school boards at this time. Mahsi.
One of the reasons home boarding doesn’t always work out well is that the students just don’t fit in where they are assigned to stay. How are families chosen to board students from Tsiigehtchic, Sachs Harbour and now Fort McPherson, and how are they screened to ensure they are the appropriate choices? Thank you.
The school board that we work closely with, especially the superintendent and the parents, to identify the students and where they should be staying and identifying the home boarding, the place of residence. Most especially the teachers have been closely monitoring where the students are staying. Eighty percent of the students we’re home boarding completed in the school year as well. There is a mechanism for teachers to closely monitor where the students are staying, if their homework and attendance are accurate, and continuously monitoring that.
When it comes to the students that are home boarding in Inuvik, there is a process in place where the school board would have to be informed by the parents and vice versa, and work together with our department, as well, so we can work closely with the Inuvik school as well. That’s part of the process that we continue to work with within our system.
Will the Minister be open to a proposal from either the Gwich’in Tribal Council or the Inuvialuit Development Corporation to offer home boarding for the students from the smaller communities?
I believe we are open to proposals that may be before us when it comes to opportunities to deal with these students. We’re more than willing to work with the Gwich’in Tribal Council, if that’s the case. I will be meeting with the board chairs, as well, in December, to talk about the complexities of the home boarding and other educational factors that are before us, such as early childhood and other ASA and Aboriginal Languages Strategy. That is the discussion that we will be having. This will be part of the discussion that will be put on the table in the December meeting as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do believe I heard a yes there. I have no further questions at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my statement and ask some questions of the Minister of Justice, who also happens to be the Minister responsible for the social issues committee of Cabinet.
The Premier spoke a bit in his statement earlier about the actions of the government in relation to development of an Anti-Poverty Strategy and I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the social issues committee if he would provide a bit further information, an update for us as to just what work the Anti-Poverty Strategy group has done, kind of where we’re at.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve mentioned previously, we have a steering committee in place which consists of government and non-government NGOs and individuals who have lived in poverty. There is also a working group, which the Member has mentioned herself, which has pulled together and done two roundtables where they’ve had an opportunity to bring different information to the table. They all come with their own perspectives and program areas. They’ve had an opportunity to discuss the different program areas and set some priorities for an Anti-Poverty Strategy for the Northwest Territories.
Originally we had indicated that we wanted to have an Anti-Poverty Strategy in place by Christmas of this year. However, based on comments from Members, based on a suggestion and a request from the working group and the steering committee, Cabinet has agreed to extend that deadline. We have extended the deadline to March 31, 2013.
As the Member has indicated, we want an Anti-Poverty Strategy that is right for the people of the Northwest Territories. It’s not just a government strategy, it’s a strategy for the people, for governments, all governments, NGOs and industry. We want to get it right. We have extended the deadline.
I’d like to thank the Minister for that update and elaborate a bit on what the Premier had said earlier. I know that both the steering committee and the larger group at the roundtables have been working very hard and I know that they have been working on preparing a draft strategy, some kind of a document. I’d like to know from the Minister when this draft document might be available and at that time, when it is available, will it be given to Members and the general public for comments.
We had hoped that we would have something prior to Christmas for the Members to look at, but we are in negotiation with the working group right now, trying to discuss when exactly we might be able to get something to committee and to the public. As soon as I know that, and I will have conversations with the lead department on that, I will get that information to the Member. We hope to have something early or something draft-like for the Members to see prior to Christmas.
A draft-like, that’s an interesting term. I appreciate it. I think that’s a commitment to have a document out there that Members and the public can actually have some input on.
Can the Minister at this point give us any indication of what kind of consultation with the public will be done once this draft or draft-like document is available?
I strive to come up with new and creative terms. We will have the draft available. It will be shared with committee. We’ve also committed to taking this draft out to community governments, Aboriginal governments, sharing it with the NGOs, sharing with individuals who are actively engaged in trying to address poverty in the Northwest Territories. We will take that out in that way and have everybody give us some feedback before we finalize this NWT document.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to see you didn’t cheat me of my last question. To the Minister, I’d like to ask, I appreciate the commitment that we’re going to, I think, have broad consultation on the document once it’s out there. I’d like to know if the Minister has any idea how long it will take, once the document is finalized, to start implementation.
As I’ve indicated, this isn’t a GNWT document exclusively. This is a document for Aboriginal governments, community governments, Government of the Northwest Territories, federal governments, NGOs and industry. It will have recommendations that every organization and government can help to set their priorities for combating poverty. When we get the document finalized, it will come to the House for more discussion and hopefully we’ll see some of the activities begin to roll out through the business planning process. I couldn’t say when any individual activity will take place because, quite frankly, I don’t know what those individual activities will be.
