Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The cost of money costs money. What I mean by that is that whenever we have to finance a dollar, it costs the GNWT a lot of money.
Back in Committee of the Whole last session we were doing an extensive review of some of the expenses and supplementary estimates. We came across what I thought was a fairly alarming finding, and that was the money owed to this government from one of our sister territories, the Nunavut government. Upon requesting a review, later on we did get some information from the Minister and my question would be for the Minister of Finance. Because of costs, as I said, money does cost us money. Can the Minister indicate, in terms of a rolling average and maybe breaking it down, how much money was owed to this government from the Nunavut government back in June of this calendar year?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we last discussed this issue there was about $2.93 million that was owing to us. That number has been now whittled down to $2.39 million.
That is quite an alarming number. Anybody who has a mortgage, who owes money, knows that $2.9 million being financed does have a cost to it. That cost is borne by you and I. It’s borne by the taxpayers. At the end of the day, it affects programs and dollars we don’t have. We don’t have the ability to finance large sums of money like that at any given time. More alarming than that number is the fact that there’s a substantial amount of money that is debt owed to us from a long period of time. Can the Minister indicate, out of that number, how much is owed to us that is over six months old?
The information that I have is that currently there’s only $2,000 owing that’s over 90 days.
This is a substantial improvement from the last time we asked this question. I’ll ask my third question: What was the amount owed to us back in June of this calendar year when this was brought up in the House?
The number provided to the Member in June was $2.93 million. The number I just gave to him now has been whittled down to $2.39 million.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should reiterate my question a bit better here, I guess. That was the amount in June that was owed to us that was over six months old; not the total amount but what was six months or older in June of this calendar year. When this issue is brought forward in terms of high debts of finance cost to this government.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. No question but I’ll give it. Moving on. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked yet again about the concern of the lack of a treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories. I’m committed behind this problem in such a way that it doesn’t have to happen here in Yellowknife; it can happen anywhere that it can be properly resourced to treat people who have problems. Yes, as the Member for Yellowknife, it would be nice if it was here, but I care about the problem more than where it shows up. That’s what’s truly important. I’ll make a deal with the Minister of Health today. I’ll stop nagging about this issue if he’ll start doing something about this issue.
My challenge to the Minister of Health is this: What is he willing to do in a practical and effective form to help treat hard drug addictions here in the Northwest Territories so we stop sending people out to places like Ontario, Alberta, or even Vancouver?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although it may appear that the drug issue is a huge issue in Yellowknife, we want to identify exactly how huge the issue is. One of the first things that we are doing is to put together groups of individuals that will be looking at the addictions across the territory, including Yellowknife. So we have a group of people that we’ve selected that will look at the addictions issues in Yellowknife. That’s the first step.
That’s certainly good news. I’m glad to hear that it sounds like we’re making headway on this particular file. This particular group that the Minister is able to form, which I have to admit this is public news now for everyone, is he able to describe what mandate this particular group has? Do they have the power to make the suggestion and provide a direction to the Minister of Health to build a treatment centre in the Northwest Territories?
No. The only people that have the power to determine capital infrastructure is this House.
I’m talking about a particular mandate that this group would be empowered with. If they decide that the treatment problem is significant enough, as I’ve been saying for nine years, that people have said over the last six weeks during the municipal elections, people said over four weeks of the last territorial election, that half the population of the Northwest Territories is expecting some type of response on this particular issue. If they say a treatment centre is needed, what is the Minister of Health and Social Services willing to do?
I guess, first off, a Caucus priority was to look at a treatment centre, looking at existing infrastructure. Where the actual treatment centre, if that is the direction that the various forums across the Territories come up with and that is the best direction they feel that it’s going to be to have a treatment centre located somewhere in the Northwest Territories in addition to Nats'ejee K'eh, then we will move in that direction.
Right now we’re serious. We’ve employed these 14 individuals who will go across the territory, and they will come to us with recommendations. If a recommendation is to have an actual treatment facility, a physical treatment facility in one location or another, indications were that they were looking for, initially, just discussions in the communities have been looking for a treatment centre near into the Beaufort-Delta area and something in Yellowknife. That was something that we are hearing often. We want to have these people take a closer look at it. It’s not going to add that much time to it. We’re expecting these guys to come back with a report by the end of this fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. A final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to know a little more about this various group of people and when they’re expected to deliver a decision. I couldn’t quite hear the Minister’s last comment on his response, although I was listening very carefully. Is he expecting them to provide him a report that he can table here in the Legislative Assembly by the end of this particular year, and if that’s not the case, when will be the case that we’ll expect a report to be tabled with those types of recommendations, and who is this particular group that he can inform the public?
I think there are a few questions there. What we’re doing is we’re bringing these individuals together. We’ve appointed an overall chair of the groups. We have one group that is going to do the Beaufort-Delta. We have another group that is going to do the Sahtu and Tlicho communities. We have another group that’s going to do Deh Cho and South Slave, and we have another group that’s going to do Hay River and Yellowknife. They’re going to get together and they’re going to determine what the best action would be to go out into the communities to gather information. At the end of all of their travel, they will get back together again in another location and sit down and determine the best course of action to address the addictions issues. I have no problem whatsoever with tabling the report in the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I gave kind of an overview in terms of where the Deh Cho riding is in terms of the status of where things are at in the community.
My question today is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. We all know that one indicator of economic prosperity is just jobs. I want to ask the Minister if he could provide an update to this House in terms of the current employment and unemployment rates. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the employment across the Northwest Territories, it does fluctuate in the communities, but we do provide programs into our communities such as the Small Community Employment Program and the others, the Labour Market Agreement and the Labour Market Development Agreement as well. We work with the community organizations to deliver those successful programs and we will continue to do so.
I will provide the Members with the stats of the current status of the labour market in the community, how we can address those areas and what kinds of programs are being delivered.
I’d like to thank the Minister for giving us another general update in terms of where things are at in terms of employment and unemployment rates.
My follow-up question to that is: What action is the Department of Education, Culture and Employment taking to address and taking measures to reduce unemployment in the communities?
I did touch on some of the programs that we are currently delivering. We work closely with the regional career development officers, and although we may not have them in all communities, those communities that are without it, we do contact through the regional representatives and they deliver various programs at the community level. I will provide the breakdown of various programs that are being delivered at the community level, whether it be the Deh Cho riding, as well, and then the current activities that are happening, whether it be the training that’s currently being delivered in the community.
I remember there was heavy equipment, I believe, delivered in Hay River and other places as well. We also work closely with the college to deliver specific training programs into the communities. I will be providing that detailed information to the Members.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the support mechanisms that we have in place for people that are unemployed is income support. I want to ask the Minister if he could provide, to this House, reassurances to the people that rely on income support, that the government will remain committed and steadfast to ensure that those services remain as is and that they will be available for people that are, unfortunately, unemployed and looking for opportunities.
I would like to thank the Member for that specific question, because it is an important one. With respect to the income security framework, there are productive choices as well. But at the same time, we realize those individuals are looking for employment opportunities. At the same time, we provide those labour market agreements. A labour market agreement is reflecting on those individuals that don’t qualify for EI, so we provide training programs to those individuals.
Yes, I agree with the Member that we need to continue to provide those subsidies, the training programs that are productive choices, and also the Labour Market Agreement to the communities. And also…(inaudible)…community initiative as well. We will continue to provide those services to the communities.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate you letting me get back into the queue here regarding the questions on what I was talking about and the cost of borrowing money, or basically being one who is owed money in accounts receivable.
In my last question I was trying to ask the Minister of Finance was the fact what is the amount of money owed to us, which was a rolling average at that time back in June of this year from the Government of Nunavut, over 180 days.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, with his extensive financial background, we go 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 days. What the information I have tells me is that at this point we only have about $2,000 owing that’s older than 90 days, that everything else is less than that, which means we’ve brought the numbers down and they are being paid in a much more timely way, less than 90 days.
I would also offer to the Member, if it would allow us to have a more informed discussion collectively here, that we could provide a detailed aged listing of all the accounts currently.
I do appreciate the Minister’s offering. In fact, we’ve already had the offer within the backrooms of our offices. I’m trying to get this information out into the public, and the only way I can do that is when I’m asking forthright questions, and I’m asking the Minister to be forthright back.
I understand what the amount is today. But I think it’s because we’ve brought some light onto the subject a couple months ago and now we’re getting current, and I can’t say that number out loud, because that number’s not public yet, and that’s a hard thing for me to ask. I’m asking the question what that amount was less than a few months ago, in terms of what the rolling average was.
As the Minister indicated, this was close to about $3 million. We are financing $3 million on a rolling average and that has a cost to it. All I’m trying to do is to show savings in design in how we can set up this account with the Government of Nunavut so that we’re more current, on a more current basis and not to overly extend the so-called 180 days that appear consistently through the program.
Again, Mr. Speaker, my question is: What was the amount in June of this year owed to the Government of the Northwest Territories from the Government of Nunavut at over 180 days?
I appreciate the Member’s sharp concern and clear eye on the public finances. I would point out that over time, given my time in this House, there was a time when that number was well over $8 million, and some of it seemed to be uncollectable. Now we’re talking about $2.93 million down to $2.39 million from June to currently, and most of it less than 90 days.
I don’t have that specific number that the Member asked me. I gave him the large number, the quantum number of $2.93 million as of June down to $2.39 million. I would have to commit to get the Member that other specific number that he has requested. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it is fairly obvious that that number doesn’t want to be surfaced here today. I will leave it at that, Mr. Speaker. I have no further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue with my questioning on this superbug infection rate that arises in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what is he doing with his other Ministers to work on this in a comprehensive manner, Housing, MACA, Health, Education. What is the Minister doing to put together comprehensive information, preventative measures to deal with this situation? Mostly infants are affected. What is the Minister doing with his other colleagues to deal with this dangerous, infectious superbug?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department’s environmental health officers are visiting communities that are at most risk and working with local staff from those communities on how to address the issue. We haven’t done work with the other departments specifically on this as we try to address the issue of overcrowding or trying to address the issue of municipal services, if that is a factor at this time. We have not done that work. We are doing our work with the local health authorities and local health centres to see if we can address that issue in that way. Thank you.
The problem of Alberta attracts the community acquired MRSA disease, is this department tracking the community acquired… I know the Minister talked about the monitoring, but is he tracking it?
By knowing where the incidents are and monitoring this infection, we are in a sense, I guess, tracking. That is what is happening. We also are projecting to see if we can predict what is happening and try to do some prevention work. We are continuing to examine the patterns and the causes of this infection through the NWT, by monitoring the cases that are being reported. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it is a pretty deadly disease here. It takes the young children, the infants. It can cause some serious infection in internal organs and up to the flesh eating disease. People have died from it.
In regard to the territory having only two oral antibiotics that work against the MRSA and doctors don’t want to over-prescribe them and allow the bacteria to build up resistance, why is that? What are we doing to prevent this over-prescription of antibiotics?
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, drug-resistant infections cost a tremendous amount to the health care system. I think that these are clinical decisions made by doctors and that is their decision, is to not over-prescribe a certain drug into the system due to the fact that the virus or infection may be able to build up an immunity to that drug, then that is something that the department will follow. These decisions are clinical and then we try to take the advice of clinicians. Thank you.
