Mr. Speaker, last month I joined former residential school students from across the Northwest Territories in Fort Providence for the Journey to Healing and Reconciliation Conference. The conference was hosted by the Dene Nation and featured several important discussions.
One panel discussion was led by Alex Janvier, who is a Denesuline Indian Residential Schools survivor and Order of Canada recipient, and Robbie Weismann, who is a Jewish Holocaust survivor. Another panel had Jane Morley, a commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and representatives from the Assembly of First Nations, Indian Residential Schools Resolutions Canada and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
At this conference, Mr. Speaker, I was asked to speak about how the Government of the Northwest Territories is supporting former residential school students. I spoke about the Residential Schools Interagency Committee, which we have always been a part of and provide funding and support to. The interagency committee facilitates government and non-government agencies to share information with former students about available programs and services.
Specifically, the Department of Health and Social Services continues to provide trauma support, counselling and referral to advanced psychological services. The Department of Justice funds community programs that support and encourage healing. Court workers provide information on the legal system. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment continues to work with former students to provide records related to their school years.
Some of the people at the Fort Providence meetings acknowledged that we are the only provincial or territorial government that is providing support the way we do. They indicated how grateful they are for that support. They also indicated how important it is for the Government of the Northwest Territories to continue its support as we move into the truth and reconciliation phase of residential school resolution.
Later I also listened to some of the residential school survivors’ painful disclosures about what they went through, how they turned to alcohol or drugs to help them forget, and how difficult it had been to become straight and sober. This made me realize how much work we still need to do to assist survivors in their healing journeys.
It also made me realize that this government cannot afford to stop our support to residential school survivors and that we must in fact try to find ways to increase that support for our constituents, our friends and our relatives.
The Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the interagency committee are now turning their attention to the truth and reconciliation panel. We will share details about the panel’s plans to travel through the Northwest Territories as soon as information is available.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, this is Small Business Week, an opportunity to recognize and celebrate entrepreneurs and their businesses across the Northwest Territories.
Small businesses play a vital role in the economy of our communities and our territory. They provide products, services, knowledge and skills that are the foundation of sustainable local economies and enhance our quality of life.
Since March of this year an average of 2,100 individuals per month have reported being self-employed. This represents 10 per cent of all individuals employed in the Northwest Territories. Many of these individuals have and will grow their businesses to the point of being able to employ others as well.
A number of events are being hosted across the NWT in honour of small businesses. Here in Yellowknife a number of agencies — territorial, federal and non-governmental — are offering a full slate of workshops, seminars and video conferences. There are activities related to small business on every day of the week.
In particular, the Northwest Territories Business Development Investment Corporation and Canada Business NWT are offering a daylong workshop on small business bookkeeping, a noon hour video conference on starting a studio craft business and an afternoon video conference on developing a market plan. All of these events will be broadcast live to Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Hay River and Norman Wells. In addition, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment will be presenting a full day arts workshop in Yellowknife.
Mr. Speaker, one of our goals as the 16th Legislative Assembly is a diversified economy that provides all communities and regions with opportunities and choices. Our priorities include developing sustainable local economies through small businesses. Small Business Week is an opportunity to meet with local entrepreneurs, attend events with a small business focus and meet some of the many individuals who work to support our small businesses every day.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Mr. Speaker, today we begin Foster Family Appreciation Week. This is the week each year that we take time to celebrate the important contribution that foster families make in the lives of children.
Foster families open their homes to children and youth, providing them with stability, guidance and nurturing. They are people who find the time and energy to give a child a home, to give a child a chance and to give a child a place where they can be a child. They are there to help, to offer words of encouragement, to provide the care and attention needed by all children.
These families are important partners in the NWT social services network. They work in partnership with social workers, mental health professionals, schools and health care professionals to provide services and to ensure the well-being of children. They contribute to our success as a service provider in meeting the needs of our most vulnerable children. The dedication of foster parents is to be commended.
Mr. Speaker, nationally there is a shortage of foster families, and we in the NWT are no different. Foster home recruitment is a priority across the NWT, as there is an ongoing need for additional homes. Not only is there a need for all types of homes and homes with a variety of backgrounds, but there is a tremendous need for aboriginal foster homes.
I am pleased to say that the majority of the children in foster care in the NWT are placed in their home community and with their extended family. Our most current data shows we have 611 children receiving services with over half of them staying in parental, provisional or extended family homes, with 94 per cent of these children being cared for within the NWT. However, we need to do better. Our children need homes that are in their community, within their family, and homes that will ensure they remain connected to their culture. To do this we need people to come forward to open their homes to the children in need of love and support.
I would encourage anyone in the NWT who has a loving home and a desire to nurture our children in need and help care for them to call the social worker in their community and explore being a foster parent. The children of today are our leaders of tomorrow. Let’s give them the best opportunities we can.
During this week, throughout the Northwest Territories, events will be taking place to celebrate the contributions that foster families make to our communities. I wish to convey my sincere appreciation to all of the families who are choosing to make a difference in a child’s life. Thank you to all the foster families for being there for our children.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to update Members on the status of our efforts at the national level to improve housing conditions and also to engage the federal government to partner with provinces and territories.
Provincial and territorial housing ministers met with representatives of national housing organizations and aboriginal leaders in Ottawa on October 8, 2008, to make the case for long term federal engagement in housing. It is our hope that our efforts will encourage the federal government to commit to work with provinces and territories on long term pan-Canadian housing solutions.
Despite a recent federal announcement extending federal funding to several key housing programs, I believe that only a long term federal commitment to housing can provide the stable and predictable funding needed to meet Canadian housing needs. This is certainly the case in the Northwest Territories. The announcement, while welcome, illustrates the problem with the current system. The lack of certainty around federal funding makes it next to impossible to conduct long term planning and develop strategies to create more affordable housing.
At the national level federal subsidies for existing social housing are declining as federal mortgages mature. Annual federal funding to provinces and territories for assisted housing will decline by $500 million over the next ten years. While housing needs grow and existing social housing stock deteriorates, the federal government will save hundreds of millions of dollars on its housing portfolio. The Ministers believe that these savings must be reinvested in existing social housing, much of which needs repair and upgrading.
For the Northwest Territories this is an even larger issue. The positive decline of federal social housing will create serious challenges for all provinces and territories. Here in the NWT it creates concern for the long term sustainability of some of our communities.
There are communities in our territory where social housing makes up the vast majority of our housing stock. It is critically important that we ensure that adequate resources are available to invest in and to operate our housing stock or risk the well-being of families in many communities.
To give you a sense of the magnitude of the problem, the subsidy provided by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation towards the operational public housing stock is declining each year and is scheduled to end by 2038. As a result, the Government of the Northwest Territories will experience a shortfall of $340 million in essential operations and maintenance funding for public housing stock over the next 30 years.
It is an incredible challenge to sustain the delivery of public housing under these circumstances. As the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation I will continue to work with my colleagues on this issue while focusing on the unique issues facing our territory.
While in Ottawa I clearly stated that we’re also not satisfied with per capita funding for housing, as it is insufficient for our needs. Later this year I plan to meet with my colleagues in the Yukon and Nunavut to start a coordinated effort for further investments in northern housing and to ensure that our unique housing needs are recognized nationally.
Mr. Speaker, in closing I would like to thank the Legislature for unanimously passing a motion in our last sitting that stated our position clearly. While our call for an extension of our housing programs appears to have been answered, we must remain steadfast in our belief that sustainability of our social housing stock is one of this government’s key issues and will become an even larger issue in the future without support from our federal partners.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following documents entitled Ministerial Benefits Policy and Report Respecting Benefits Paid to Ministers Under the Ministerial Benefits Policy for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2008.
Document 108-16(2), Ministerial Benefits Policy, tabled.
Document 109-16(2), Report Respecting Benefits Paid to Ministers Under the Ministerial Benefits Policy for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2008, tabled.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, Minister’s Statement 80-16(2), Tabled Document 93-16(2), Bills 14, 15, 16 and 17 — and by the authority given me as Speaker by Motion 10-16(2), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House — with Mr. Abernethy in the chair.
Thank you. I’ll be calling Committee of the Whole to order. Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters. We’re looking at Member’s Statement 80-16(2), the sessional statement; Tabled Document 93-16(2), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2009–2010; Bills 14, 15, 16 and 17. What is the wish of the committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would suggest we resume consideration of Tabled Document 93-16(2), Capital Estimates 2009–2010. In particular I suggest we pick up consideration of Capital Estimates for Transportation before we continue with Industry, Tourism and Investment and Environment and Natural Resources. Following that, we’ll resume with consideration of ECE and Public Works and Services, in that order, and hopefully consider these matters through to conclusion today.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Is the committee agreed?
Agreed.
Mr. Miltenberger, do you have witnesses?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
If we can get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses in, that would be great.
Mr. Miltenberger, can I get you to please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Financial Management Board, Mr. Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation, and Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Public Works and Services.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. We’re on page 8-10, Transportation, Activity Summary, Highways, Infrastructure Investment Summary. Mr. Krutko.
I have a question with regard to the insurance and liability of this government. I have several inquiries from my constituents about the condition of the roads and damages that occurred to their vehicles by way of punctured fuel tanks, busted steering rods and in some cases wheels falling off.
I know this government has under the Department of Finance a risk management and insurance section, and I know that it insures normal wear and tear. But when you have steering rods busting off and people’s tanks being punctured because of the condition of the roads, I think this government has to face the possibility that there is some liability.
I’d like to ask the Minister: exactly what is the case for individuals who find themselves in a situation where they’ve been stranded because of having a wheel busted off? I’ll use a scenario. I know that a number of years ago there was an individual killed on the Dempster Highway when his eighteen-wheeler hit a pothole in the road — basically corroded from the bottom up. The guy hit the hole, flipped his vehicle, and he was killed in the accident. I know this government was taken to court, and it cost us about a million dollars, so there is that liability aspect of our responsibility. We note a lot of times driving the highway that there are these holes along the road. You see them popping up. Once in a while you’ll see an orange cone sticking out of them by way of a marker. But, again, we have to realize that we’re not immune to these liabilities.
I’d just like to ask the Minister: exactly what is the government’s responsibility when it comes to those types of liabilities, knowing we’ve already been taken to court, knowing we’ve already been found to be at fault? Again, I’d like to ask the Minister: exactly where are we in regard to this issue? I know the Minister has been receiving correspondence from a constituent of mine. So that’s why I’m bringing it here today.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister Miltenberger.
The normal course of practice is that the Government of the Northwest Territories doesn’t pay for damages when the road has been maintained. If there are specific circumstances where there’s litigation and we’re named in the case, that would be a different matter. But as just a general matter of course the practice is that where the road has been maintained to the appropriate standard, we don’t approve payment for claims of damages.
I think this government does have to do a better job of maintenance and dealing with the hazards that are put in front of our travelling public. I think we do have to realize that we have to take some responsibility for that. In cost reduction efforts and whatnot we sometimes sort of forget that public safety is supposed to be paramount. But when you start having three or four people taking buckets of gravel and filling in potholes on a highway because the government is trying to think they’re going to save money, to me that’s not proper maintenance, especially with the condition of the Dempster Highway in the last number of years.
We had previous commitments last spring to see an improvement in the highways. Again, this year has been nothing but complaints when talking to people driving the Dempster. More importantly, read the logs in regard to the visitors’ centre, and you can see exactly what the tourist traffic are saying.
So again I’d like to ask the Minister in regard to this issue about liability associated with the travelling public…. I know that this government has to take some responsibility in regard to those reductions by way of maintenance, in which we are causing damages to individuals’ vehicles because of the conditions of the roads. Have you looked at this whole area of compensation or in regard to insurance? What are we doing by way of risk management to focus on that specific area? I know that people have insurance and whatnot, but again, the insurance usually only covers the PL/PD on a vehicle, so what is the government doing to ensure that?
There are two factors, of course. There is the condition of the road and the condition of the vehicle. We have, clearly, responsibility for the condition of the road and the maintenance that we provide. But as I indicated, the normal course of practice is that we don’t pay out for complaints for damages for people just driving on a road that we are maintaining. The other question that we don’t have a lot of awareness of, of course, is that when we get a complaint, the condition of the vehicle may be involved, that resulted in the complaint. That’s the current status. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I believe there is a correlation between maintenance and no maintenance, and we know people are complaining that there is no maintenance being done on the road by government because of cutbacks or reductions. We’ve been telling the people in the field, “Sorry; we don’t have any money; we can’t do any maintenance,” and basically using that as the reason for not doing maintenance. I think we do have a responsibility to ensure that maintenance takes place. Cost reduction reasons is usually the excuse for not doing maintenance.
So I’d like to ask the Minister again: what is this government doing to ensure that whatever we do by way of reductions in policy does hinge on the public safety in regard to the traveling public?
Transportation is spending about $5 million a year on capital and $2 million to $3 million a year on maintenance on the road, which is where we’re demonstrating our commitment to maintaining the Dempster to the best of our ability with the resources that we have.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Next on the list is Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just want to note that for the communities, they don’t get to see this part of the Leg. work, the Committee of the Whole business. Usually we’ve concluded the TV time, as we call it, for the communities before this section. I’d like to say hello to the communities.
While we’re discussing the capital budget with respect to Transportation, in my region, the Nahendeh riding, we had a huge upset in the travelling public when the roads collapsed in the spring. There are a number of reasons for it, but the main reason is that it is an old road and structure that needs continuous improvement. In fact, that was recognized by our government, and we’ve reconstructed huge sections, especially from the B.C. border towards Fort Liard. That was very much needed. The 20 kilometres they have done to date is a huge improvement. We’d sure like to see the other 12 kilometres done up to the standard that is there. We’re hoping that we can press towards eventually chipsealing that section again. I know that part was chipsealed briefly for the three months before it all broke apart.
There was a good foreshadowing of a much improved road transportation system that we could have, but now we’re seeing to improve the road and do it better. It takes reconstruction to do that, and it takes a lot of our Transportation resources. We have done that in the past using our CSIF dollars, especially at that one section.
The new collapse in the road there, Mr. Chair, is about one kilometre — I think 170 to 190; I may be wrong on that — but for almost two kilometres, maybe more actually, the cover was destroyed right to the sub-base, right to the clay base, and became, in effect, a mudhole, so we shut down the highway system. Transportation tried their best to get it restored in the early months, but they had to wait for better weather to do that. As a result, these roads were shut down.
It is part of our national highway system and also part of our tourism strategy for the NWT to bring tourists off the Alaska Highway and up Highway No. 7 toward the Northwest Territories to come and see the beauty of our great country. But once the word gets out that Highway No. 7 is shut down…. Word of mouth spreads very fast to all the travellers from our southern provinces, as well as the U.S. The fellow that owns an airplane company in Fort Simpson indicated that his contacts in Europe and Germany were actually mentioning the fact that Highway No. 7 was closed in the Nahendeh riding. He said, “Look, Kevin, it’s a very important road; we’ve got to do something about it.”
So this spring I made numerous Member’s statements and got assurances from the Minister at that time that the section that had collapsed would be reconstructed. In fact, I had — I like to say Granny from Nahanni — Granny from Nahanni tell me: “Look, Kevin, what you do is you open the road, and then you bring in more gravel. You fill it in with rip-rap and rebuild the road.” Housewives and grannies are telling me how to reconstruct the road.
What, in effect, they had done for that section is just open it up, dry that clay base and then put it back together, and now they’ve got a good gravel cover. But I’m saying and my people are saying, “That is not good enough, Kevin. Come this spring we just may get the same situation, because in effect the same type of base is still there.” So we’ve got to look at some kind of reconstruction.
Numerous memos and e-mails to the department and to the Minister indicate to me that they’re going to be looking at some more work next year, but what has happened is that they had to take away from the resources that were there initially for the first 32 kilometres, Mr. Chair. To take away that much…. We needed to work and reallocate to another section that collapsed. Maybe there’ll be more; there’s got be more assessment done on Highway No. 7.
It’s that old classic syndrome of taking away from Peter for Paul, Mr. Chair. I cannot advocate for that. In fact, I had thought that here is a sure, good case for extraordinary funding, if any, that our government should identify. Nowhere are there any indications in any of my correspondence that there was extraordinary funding looked at for Highway No. 7, particularly for this collapse of the highway. Often we do that, like when there’s an emergency. We have classic examples of schools collapsing and cracking in half and that kind of infrastructure. You know, there’s emergency funding, and this type of infrastructure is collapsing as well, so I don’t see why it doesn’t qualify for extraordinary funding. I think that should be so.
I just want to talk a little a bit about our discussion on, I believe, last Friday. We removed $1.4 million from, I think it was, Highway No. 5, the chipsealing. I’m not too sure how that was going to work, but we removed $1.4 million. What I would like to see is a reallocation of those resources. I know that’s something the Committee of the Whole has being been discussing and looking at, and at the appropriate time we will debate that in the motion, Mr. Chair.
For me, I would like to continue to reiterate that Highway No. 7 is a very important piece of highway. It was regarded Canada-wide, and even globally people talk about that piece of infrastructure. We’ve got to treat it as such, as a highly valuable piece of infrastructure that we’ve got to continue to rebuild. The case here is to rebuild and reconstruct it.
So I’d like press upon the department that we continue to spend those resources. They will not take away from other reconstruction efforts on that section. That’s the key. Even though it happened in the springtime, the slowdown and the load restrictions on Highway No. 7 impacted us throughout the summer. In fact, there were many, many cases where it caused great disruptions of moving freight, et cetera. I could just go on. Well, actually one of the biggest ones was that we had high school students who got interrupted two ways: once because they got overflowed on Highway No. 1 just this side of the Providence junction, and the school bus went around and just about got interrupted on the Highway No. 7 side to get back to Fort Simpson, but fortunately the road had not deteriorated to where it was impassable at that point. It just goes to show the importance of Highways No. 1 and No. 7.
I cannot reiterate enough the importance to my riding of having a good base transportation infrastructure that is solid and reconstructed. If there’s anything I can ask the Minister at this point, Mr. Chair, it’s this: what exactly is the strategy and the go forward plan to work on and reconstruct Highway No. 7?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly do appreciate the comments from the MLA. He was very aware of the situation that happened on the Liard Highway this past year. As I explained before, it was really a series of events that led up to the problems that occurred from section 100 to 125, about a 25 kilometre stretch of road that just, you know, essentially because of the wet fall that we had the year before, because of the way the snow melted in the spring…. It just created all kinds of challenges for us to maintain the surface, coupled with perhaps the lack of the granular surface topping material that was on the road. So we were challenged with that.
We did have a couple of projects in the capital plan in the 2008–2009 fiscal year to deal with Liard Highway. The first was some money that was under the CSIF program, as the Member mentioned there, where we were constructing from kilometre zero to kilometre 20, a benefit for the folks from Fort Liard in their travels south.
We also had another million dollars in the capital plan last year and this current year to take a look and start putting more surfacing material on the remainder of the highway so we could try to get ahead of this type of challenge. That’s essentially why we didn’t need any extraordinary funding last year; we already had a million dollars in the capital plan to address that type of work. We said that at contractor capacity and then our own staff capacity, we knew we couldn’t spend any more than the million dollars, so we used that to direct it to the work that’s required.
The issue is in regard to not being able to carry out the work. I don’t believe that is true. I believe we have the capacity and ability to do as much work as we can, but I’m not going to argue that point with the Minister or his officials. I do want to reference the motion I spoke about earlier. I’d like to move a motion here.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche.
I move that this committee strongly recommends that the Department of Transportation take urgent action to increase funding in the amount of $1.4 million for Highway No. 7, kilometre 0 to 254.1 project on the Liard Highway; and further, that the necessary funding arrangements be included in the second estimates document that will be presented to the House in February of 2009 for fiscal year 2009–2010. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is on the floor, and it is being distributed. The motion is now distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. A lot of my deliberations I’ve pretty much stated already for the public record. I would just say again that Highway No. 7 is a critical piece of infrastructure that runs between Fort Simpson and Fort Liard and Fort Liard to the B.C. border. I believe and the committee believes as well that with their support we must continue to establish the importance of this highway system. It is 40 to 50 years old, and much needed reconstruction has to be continued and done on those sections. I know that we’ve got the CSIF dollars slated and that we’ve been dedicating a lot of our resources to reconstruction from kilometre zero to 32, which is the B.C. border to Fort Liard, but it’s the other sections that we’re going to have to pay attention to. I believe that by reallocating more of this money to Highway No. 7, we can expedite the process, because, let’s face it, it’s deteriorating faster than we keep up with it. The only way we can keep up to it is dedicating more resources. I believe this is one of the ways we can do it.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion.
Question.
Question is being called. I will call on Mr. Menicoche to conclude debate on…. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly have some thoughts about this motion. I thought about the highways in all the Mackenzie Valley in the north, and I’m going to not support this motion.
I think this motion should look at other highways. I also mentioned before that the Dempster Highway up in Inuvik certainly needs some work, especially with dust control. I have seen it. That’s a whole region that has been in the dust for a long time in terms of the use of that highway. I certainly understand Mr. Menicoche’s concerns about this situation. I’ve been made aware of it.
However, for myself, I look at some of the roads. I certainly do not agree with the motion in terms of the recommendations to reallocate the funding. I think that the people of Beaufort-Delta and the Mackenzie region, in terms of dust control and what they can do to enhance safety…. This is something that should be strongly considered with the amount of money that’s in here from Transportation for Highway No. 5. However, I want to state for the record that I think there are other areas that should be on record. I am going to leave it at that and have some discussions with the department after.
