Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Piling remediation work has been completed. It was completed in September 2008 and it provides a permanent foundation solution for the school. Remedial work is certified by an engineer and it has been given a life of 25 years. So the pilings under the school are good for 25 years.
That’s good news for the people in Deline, because they were complaining that nobody from PWS has actually talked to the leadership and said, this is the status of your pilings.
I want to ask the Minister if this is something that Public Works has neglected, or if it is something that they are looking to see that they need to talk to the communities on these projects.
I do appreciate the Minister taking the lead on another subject, fixing those toilets up in Colville Lake. The community of Deline wanted to know why Public Works hasn’t talked to them on these pilings. For them it’s still an outstanding issue that needs to be talked about.
I can’t say. The foundation work was done in 2008. I will commit right now to having staff from the Department of Public Works and Services contact the leadership in Deline and set up a meeting where they can come and talk to them about the work that has been done in that particular school.
Over $1.64 million in maintenance and other activities has taken place. We do have some work scheduled for 2013-2014. We are planning to do some envelope work and some roof work. I understand there are some concerns about the roof and we’ll have some work done there.
I’ll commit right now to having staff from Public Works and Services go in and meet with your leadership to talk about the work that’s been done, show them how the pilings were done, explain the assessments and the life of those pilings, but also talk about the work that’s going to be done on the school, which is obviously an important building and an important centre for the community of Deline.
The people from Deline hearing this will be very pleased with what the Minister is saying is coming into the school.
They have also talked about the roof as being paper thin and leaking. They are scared, because all the children are being sent there, and the safety and integrity of the school... The school is built over a riverbed; the riverbed is underneath the school. The elders have told them, don’t build a school here. However, the government of the day refused to listen at the time and that’s where they built the school. That’s why the elders are saying that in partnership we need to have this government here listen to the people of our communities. I look forward to the Minister’s commitment to having the people talk about some of the work that needs to get done.
Will the Minister look at an overall assessment of the ?ehtseo Ayha School and report that back to Deline on the integrity and safety of the school?
As I’ve already indicated, for 2013-2014 Public Works and Services is planning to do an envelope upgrade and roof replacement under the Deferred Maintenance Program on that school, as well as some energy efficiency work and upgrades to the GNWT’s energy priorities investment funding. These improvements will obviously help control costs in the school and whatnot.
Based on the facility condition and program requirements, Education, Culture and Employment has identified the need for major upgrading of the Grandfather Ayha School starting in 2018-2019, so that is on the books and is something that Education will be pursuing.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the department look at a comparison if the community would like a new school versus a major upgrade, which at this time makes more sense as to the community coming to a partnership maybe and looking at a new school or, rather, doing the major upgrade? I know the community really does want to look at a new school and I know the financial restrictions that we have. Can the department be open to looking at a partnership if they want to look at a new school for Deline?
That’s a discussion that’s going to need to be had. Fiscal year 2018-2019 is a little ways off and it will have to be a discussion between Education, Culture and Employment, the community and the builder, in this case Public Works and Services. I imagine and I expect those conversations will take place.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement, I was in Aklavik this past week and I was very surprised to see that the renovations to the Joe Greenland Centre did not happen over the summer. I’d like to ask the Minister what is the holdup for the renovations that were supposed to be done on the Joe Greenland Centre this past summer.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was our intent to start the renovations to the Joe Greenland Centre on the former side that Health and Social Services used to manage, and we still intend to proceed with those renovations.
I’d like to ask the Minister when will the renovations be started and completed.
As I said before, it’s our intent to put a call out for tender and get the work started on the Joe Greenland Centre. I’d have to do a follow-up and see exactly where it’s at now and I will communicate that to the Member.
When can we expect to have the Joe Greenland Centre ready for elders to move in and have a full-time home care worker on site?
As I said before, our goal is to have the Joe Greenland Centre open as soon as possible. If we can get the contract awarded, ideally we’d like to have them in there by the spring. As far as a full-time home care worker, that is out of my jurisdiction and that’s a discussion that the Member will have to take up with the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
At this time I have no further questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened with interest as my colleagues raised the issue of the Child Tax Benefit and how that is clawed back. Mr. Miltenberger will remember in a previous government we had a Minister of ECE that we dubbed “The Claw.” I’m sure that Mr. Lafferty would not like to receive such notoriety.
I had an incident recently in my constituency which causes me to wonder about how far we go to claw back things. This constituent had an unfortunate tragedy in her family. Community members came together and raised money and made donations to help this family cope with this. Now, I understand that when she went to income support the next month, that they treated those donations as income and actually clawed that back from her in the form of not giving her the income support.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, is it the policy of our government to treat donations to a family that’s had a tragedy, which is a common, common practice in the North here, is it our practice to treat that as income.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have to look into that specific case, but any income that comes into the household, it is considered as household income, and due to that it’s based on the policies that we have in place. Mind you, policies can always be amended, as well, and there is an amendment that’s coming very soon on one of the subsidies that we provide. We’re going to make some changes.
With respect to this individual case, I have to follow up with the Member on the specific topic on the donation itself, because it is an issue that we may have to be faced with and possibly make some changes, but I need to look further on this case.
I do appreciate the Minister being willing to sit down and look at this individual case, but I want to know what is the general policy of this government. Because as we know, if people have a tragedy, if they have a death in the family, if they have to travel for some reason, a sickness, that it is common for people to rally around them and donate to that family to see them through that difficult time. Surely the Minister knows, in a yes or no answer, is it the policy of our government to claw back such donations? I have never heard of it ever before until this particular incident. Is it the current policy, regardless of the flexibility, is it the policy of this government to claw that money back?
Mr. Speaker, I need to confirm with my department on the specific policy on donations. If it’s part of the clawback, I will need to get back to the Members on that specifically. I do not want to give an answer now. It may be a question down the road. I want to verify that with my department first, prior to giving the answer.
Mr. Speaker, over the years we’ve had much debate in this House about whether impact and benefit agreement payments, beneficiary shareholders payments, bingo earnings, you know, we’ve had discussion about all kinds of, you know, the Child Tax Benefit, whether or not these things should be treated as income. Is there any review or does a policy review occasionally take place to determine or is it just on an as-required basis? Is there any forum, I guess, in which we can have input that could go towards changing that policy?
Yes, again, there is a policy that’s coming forward, and I want to give the Members a heads-up that we want to make some changes and make some amendments to what the Member’s alluded to, whether it be IBA or land claims or other areas. That we are, on a regular basis, listening to the Members, if they want to see some changes. We are taking them seriously, and this is one of the areas that is coming forward based on the Member’s discussions, and I will be sitting down with the Members to give them an update on the amendments and changes before the end of the year.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of ENR, I believe it’s the Minister for handling the hazards of contaminated sites, if they have done some work around the Deline water treatment plant. I’ve been told by the leadership that they cleaned up certain specific parcels around the new water treatment plant; however, they have not yet cleaned up other areas around that water treatment plant that are contaminated. Has that work been done?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware of that specific circumstance so I will have to talk to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs and I will take that question as notice.
The question is taken as notice. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should also say thank you to Mr. Miltenberger, too, for leaving the time on the clock.
The Minister of Health and Social Services sort of left I guess I’d say certainly me, and I can definitely feel confident with the public, with a big surprise answer with this, sort of, maybe yes, maybe no answer we’re going to fund the day shelter going forward. I’m asking for leadership on this particular file, because the day shelter has been heralded as a positive step forward on helping people in the homeless area that we need to help. What is holding the Minister back from making a clear commitment in this House, saying that his department will get behind this initiative, yet again, as a regular programming service we supply?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department will do an evaluation of this fiscal year, but it’s not going to wait until the very end of the fiscal year to do an evaluation. We’ll evaluate as we go along to see if some of those programs, like I had indicated earlier, a navigator service to see if there are individuals in there that can find employment or find education and so on. Once that evaluation is done, we still have time prior to the next budget review of main estimates and the finalization of budgets for the 2013-14 budget year which will happen, I guess, this coming January. That will be presented to the Legislative Assembly and the MLAs. We will then make a decision on whether or not we will be funding that project any further. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is a different answer. I will have to say it is a little more clear than the last couple he supplied the House. You would think the department has been evaluating this year after year over the last three and a half years. You would think that they would have some grip of what is going on. He said January.
What type of consultation has the department done with the public to realize the value of this particular service in Yellowknife that has been helping homeless people with places to go during the day, warmth in the winter and certainly washrooms that was a much needed service in this community?
Mr. Speaker, initially when the shelter opened, it was just to give the people a warm place during the day so that they are not wandering around and up and down the main street. It was someplace where they could sit in a warm place, watch movies, watch TV and use facilities and so on that were available there. That was the intent of it.
As time went on there were more demands placed on the society that was running it, such as are there any programs available for those individuals? Is there something that could be done with them? Could you do in-house programs? Do you recommend them to counselling and so on?
As these things went, we can indicate, and everyone could see, that just having a shelter that only serves the purpose of providing a warm place for individuals to be was really not fulfilling the intent of a good social services program. Now we are starting to add on. So now that we are adding stuff on, we want to be able to evaluate that. We all know that we can provide a warm place for people to go. We all know that we can provide a place for people to watch movies. What we don’t know is what type of impact it is having on the surrounding area. So far, some of the impacts on the immediate surrounding area have been very negative, but the impact on the main street has been very positive. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, some of the negative impacts have strictly been drawn out by the operator of the particular shelter. That has been a fact. All I am asking for the Minister here today is, quite simply, does he define the concept of the downtown day shelter a success, from his position as Minister of Health and Social Services, as it has impacted our community of Yellowknife.
There is no question there, Mr. Hawkins. It is an opinion. I will let the Member stand up and reiterate his question. Thank you.
Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Speaker. Has the Department of Health and Social Services seen the establishment of the downtown day shelter a success story? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, probably more success than failure or we would have probably quit funding it after the three-year pilot. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister agree with me that the natural evolution of the downtown day shelter should envision programming and a safe environment that does not support substance abuse of any kind? Would his department support that type of philosophy? Thank you.
Yes, our department does support that type of philosophy. Thank you.
