Good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to the Chamber.
Colleagues, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and commend one of our own at the Legislative Assembly.
Security supervisor Ray Jahner was honoured recently by the Yellowknife Association for Community Living for his commitment and support for persons with disabilities in the workplace.
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Mr. Jahner’s helpful and friendly attitude was noted and much appreciated by the members of the Skills Training and Community Inclusion Program, whose work brings them regularly to the Assembly.
Mr Jahner is taking a two-month leave of absence effective tomorrow, to help care for his grandson. We hope you enjoy that time, Ray, and look forward to your return in December.
On behalf of all Members, please accept our congratulations.
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Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to provide an update to the Legislative Assembly on Not Us, the Government of the Northwest Territories anti-drug campaign.
Addictions and the crimes they lead to have serious life consequences. This government has a focus on prevention by promoting healthy choices and lifestyles, and the role of personal and family responsibility. The Not Us campaign is unique. It’s community-based, so it’s different everywhere. We don’t tell people how it’s going to be. They tell us how it’s going to be. There’s no right or wrong way to fight addictions in your community. It’s all about
local control and innovation. Residents know what they need.
Mr. Speaker, on September 29th the town of Inuvik kicked off its Not Us campaign with a community feast in partnership with the schools. Their program focuses on youth and family. They’re having family nights and traditional activities. It’s a community approach through partnerships with local groups and concerned citizens. Nobody can do it all, but together we can make a difference. It evolves through work with the communities, respects local priorities, and promotes local role models.
Inuvik is the newest Not Us community. Over the summer we held a Not Us event at the regional justice conference in Fort McPherson. People from all eight Beaufort-Delta communities were there. We talked about drugs and what communities could do to support their own people. Sports groups in several communities have proudly worn Not Us gear to promote drug-free, healthy lifestyles. And we’re continuing to support Hay River, our launch community. They have evening activities, drug-free-community signs, and partnerships to keep their program strong.
Mr. Speaker, we’ve also had interest from Colville Lake, Behchoko, Tuktoyaktuk, the francophone school board, Fort Smith, Tulita, Fort Providence, Lutselk’e and Yellowknife. We look forward to working with these communities and others who want to develop their own campaigns to deal with drugs. We’re partnering wherever it makes sense to support a consistent message: Not our Territory.
This campaign is part of the Healthy Choices Framework, and partnerships have always been a key to its success. Not Us can only work when local people decide it’s the right thing for them. We help with the issues that are important locally. In some places, that’s alcohol. In others, residents want to talk seriously about hard drugs like crystal meth, crack and ecstasy. Wherever we go, we work with families, communities and schools to improve the physical and mental well-being of our youth. We encourage people to find common sense solutions that will work in the long term. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Sandy Lee will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend to a personal family matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today focuses on the priority of ensuring that students graduated from Grade 12 but without the course credits they need to pursue their chosen careers are receiving the assistance they require. Too many times I hear the story of students who have worked hard and graduated with high school diplomas, only to find they are lacking the types of course credits necessary to enter specific post-secondary programs.
While our school counselling services work hard to advise students throughout high school, these stories often contain the statement, “If only I’d known.” Students who achieve Grade 12 lacking necessary course credits -- usually it’s the sciences and maths -- are then stalled by the need to do upgrading to enter some programs. Unfortunately, they sometimes give up.
Statistics show the need to deliver course-qualified students to post-secondary education is crucial. Students with a trade or post-secondary education are six times more likely to be working than students without post-secondary.
I am aware that the Minister is working on this through the aboriginal student and community initiatives, including improved counselling. But, meanwhile, we have a legacy of people with Grade 12 diplomas that are insufficient to enable access to post-secondary programs. We cannot leave these people hanging.
I am told there aren’t enough student financial assistance resources for the stranded graduates who face the costs of upgrading their education. The department must recognize this exceptional demand and government’s responsibility for this situation with an identified and larger support fund and outreach program to assist these students in upgrading and going on to post-secondary education. To this end, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister questions on these matters later today. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From time to time Members on this side of the House don’t feel that we’ve been necessarily heard or listened to by Cabinet. Fortunately, this isn’t always the case. Last year I asked the Minister responsible for ITI some questions and I made a statement on convention support. Today I’m happy to thank the Minister for listening to what I had to say.
During that Member’s statement and those questions, I asked the Minister to provide some awareness or create a greater awareness of convention capacity in the Northwest Territories, but also to provide some financial support.
I’m happy to say that the Minister has come out with, or has facilitated, the creation of a meeting and conference planner for 2011. It’s quite a good document. I’ve gone through it and I’ve read it page by page. I do feel the department has given a bit of a conservative estimate of the conference size capacity that can be facilitated in each community. Hopefully in future editions we’ll expand that a little bit.
I’m also happy to see that we have made specific reference to the capacity in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Simpson and Norman Wells, so we’re not focusing just on Yellowknife. I do feel that in future editions we can probably expand that to include some conferences in lodges and some of the other smaller communities in the Northwest Territories.
Over the last couple of years we’ve lost over $20 million in business travel and meetings in the Northwest Territories. There is still significant opportunity to expand on this. In my statement last year, in addition to asking to create some awareness of conference capacity, I asked the Minister to provide some moderate financial rewards to NWT-based associations when they convince their national or international counterparts to come to the NWT for their annual conferences or AGMs. This is still a great opportunity for both local associations and the NWT. With an incentive like this in place, I believe that many local associations would be happy and willing to begin campaigning their national and international bodies to come to the Northwest Territories for their annual meetings and conferences.
Later this afternoon I will be asking the Minister responsible for ITI some questions on this topic and seeking his commitment on this next step, which is to provide some financial incentive.
Once again, I would like to thank the Minister for putting together this conference planner. It’s great that we’re actually being heard from time to time.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to make a statement today about family violence shelters in the NWT. The five NWT shelters provide safety and support for women and children fleeing family violence. In some cases the shelters provide outreach programs for women and the children who have witnessed abuse programs in the communities. The five shelters are: Aimayunga Women and Emergency Foster Care Shelter in Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik Transition House, Alison McAteer House in Yellowknife, Hay River Family Support Centre, and Sutherland House in Fort Smith.
These shelters have been assisted for the past four years with capacity building funding provided by the GNWT Department of Health and Social Services. For a relatively small amount of money -- $100,000 per year -- the directors of family violence shelters in the NWT have been able to meet regularly to look at and develop policies and procedures, share information, best practices, coordinate approaches for high-risk cases and situations. These meetings are scheduled when possible to take advantage of training opportunities or allow shelters outside of Yellowknife to participate in the Coalition Against Family Violence.
This funding has supported a variety of training efforts for staff. For instance, two shelter workers, one from Fort Smith and one from Yellowknife, are well on their way to achieving certificates in the Women’s Shelter Crisis Worker Program through Portage College’s distance education program.
This week, for the first time ever, the directors of family violence shelters from north of 60, from the Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut, are meeting in Yellowknife. This meeting was made possible through a grant from the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
I want to acknowledge the important work that staff of our family violence shelters performs for women and children in the NWT, as well as the board members of each of those organizations. I want to also acknowledge the support of this government, which is aiding shelters to maximize the collected resources and increase the quality of services for women and children in the NWT.
The capacity building funding enables our shelters to try to do more than just apply band-aids to the issue of family violence. Family violence shelters are a critical pillar in the broad range of services that are required to prevent and address family violence. I certainly support any expansion into smaller communities and, once again, I applaud the efforts of all these organizations throughout the NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I’m speaking on behalf of Deninu K’ue [Translation ends]
...the highway into Fort Resolution. Since being elected, the community has let me know time and time again that the gravel section of this highway is in need of major repair.
As you may know, Highway No. 6 is the only way in and out of Fort Resolution. There is no air service and there are only two small stores. Many residents travel over 300 kilometres to and from Hay River on a regular basis to buy various items that cannot be purchased in Fort Resolution, and groceries.
[English translation not provided.]
And so, Mr. Speaker, time and time again I have made numerous statements and asked many questions about the highway. Mr. Speaker, it’s been three years since I first raised the issue. I am happy to say that the Department of Transportation has responded. Much has taken place with respect to Highway No. 6 work, including complete reconstruction and resurfacing of 22 kilometres into the community from Little Buffalo River.
Mr. Speaker, this is a huge benefit to the community. Many of the residents have cabins in the community and the community often holds little events at Buffalo River. Also, with the quarry work proposed on kilometre 72, more work will be created for the residents and businesses of Fort Resolution and this helps alleviate some of the pressures created by low employment rates in the community.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to say that we are finally headed down the right road. With that, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the residents of Fort Resolution, I would like to thank the Department of Transportation for listening to the people of Resolution, by committing to and making improvements to Highway No. 6. However, Mr. Speaker, this is only the beginning. We need to make sure that we continue the work until all of Highway No. 6 is completed to a chipseal state.
Later on today I will have questions for the Minister of Transportation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope it’s not news to the Members of this House that our NWT non-governmental organizations are invaluable to us. Since starting my job here three years ago, Mr. Speaker, I’ve advocated for the better treatment of NGOs, organizations who very capably provide services to our residents on behalf of this government.
Today I want to highlight a recent but alarming change in the practice of our government in regard to the relationship to NGOs.
Since the start of this fiscal year there’s been a move by the GNWT away from multi-year contracts with NGOs to one-year contracts. The strain that those single-year contracts put on the administrative staff of our NGOs is enormous. Yet, year after year it seems we require them to apply for the program funding on an annual basis, and when contracts are not signed on time, we ask them to continue to provide services without any guarantee of payment because there’s no contract in place. It creates cash flow problems for the organization and it creates uncertainty for NGO staff and the organization’s staffing requirements.
About a year ago I sensed some willingness on the part of the government to change this situation. I sensed some improvement in the relationships with NGOs: better communications, faster executing of contracts, and an emerging standard of multi-year contracts. But we seem to have gone backwards since then, since April, to have reverted to older, poorer practices. Why can’t we realize and act on the need to be efficient with our partners to make life easier for our NGOs, not harder? Does the signing of GNWT NGO contracts get bogged down because our departments lack the expertise, or are bureaucrats just too busy with other work and this part of their job is not as important to them?
This situation must change, Mr. Speaker, and for the better. We cannot continually put these organizations and their staff in jeopardy.
I applauded the creation last year of a manual for GNWT program managers who deal with NGOs. I was optimistic we’d see some progress towards fairness in financing and towards stabilization of our NGOs. Now I’m not so sure how much progress there’s been. We need to put the elements of that manual into practice, Mr. Speaker, and we need to create financial efficiencies around our contracts with NGOs.
I will have some questions for the Premier at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleague Mr. Abernethy talked about gatherings, conventions, the capacity of communities to accommodate people, and the appropriateness of some communities to accommodate certain discussions and dialogues. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report to the House that on October 16th and 17th, last weekend in Hay River, a group of representatives of community organizations interested in preserving the cultural and historic heritage history of their communities gathered together in Hay River. They held their meetings at our little Hay River Heritage Centre, which is a very down to earth kind of a grassroots... It doesn’t seem like that discussion would have been quite the same if it had been held at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre here in Yellowknife, because these are people from communities where grassroots individuals in the community are trying to volunteer their efforts to preserve the history and importance of some of their cultural distinctiveness in their communities.
I am pleased to tell you that there were about 20 people in attendance at this gathering. They came from the Aklavik Interpretive Display Project, the Fort Simpson Historical Society, the Fort Simpson Heritage Centre Society, the Inuvialuit Cultural Liaison Centre, the Northern Lights Museum and Cultural Centre in Fort Smith, NWT Mining Heritage Society, NWT Arctic Ambassadors Program, the Hay River Museum Society and the Hay River Visitors Centre. Also in attendance at this gathering were representatives of the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre and also a representative from the Canadian Heritage department in Regina. These folks served as facilitators and resource people for this gathering.
Mr. Speaker, this summer we had the pleasure of attending the 10th anniversary of the Hay River Heritage Centre. I would like to publicly thank our Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, the Honourable Jackson Lafferty, for attending that relatively small grassroots event. It was a very small town, but very nice. Mr. Lafferty showed up with his entire family, which meant a lot to the people who have put their heart and soul into collecting the artefacts and creating our little heritage centre in Hay River, not on a big budget, mostly with volunteerism.
I would particularly like to thank Vicky Latour and Peter Osted in Hay River for being the backbone of a strong volunteer board in Hay River for doing that. I think the conference will encourage people from smaller communities to realize they can play a part in preserving a culture and a heritage. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had an opportunity to take part in the power rate conference here in Yellowknife a couple of weeks ago. It was a real eye opener in regards to the number of people in the Northwest Territories that are living in poverty, regardless if it is economic, social or simply reacting to the cost of living.
Surprisingly, Mr. Speaker, almost 45 percent in my communities of Aklavik and Fort McPherson live with an income of under $30,000 a year. That is the majority. Forty-five percent of households in my riding have to maintain themselves with $30,000 or less. But yet, Mr. Speaker, in the larger centre, 50 percent of the households make over $100,000 a year in regards to take home income. I think, Mr. Speaker, that clearly shows us that we have to make more economic investments in communities to bring the cost of living up to a level with the other communities, but, more importantly, stimulate those communities, make them communities that are self-reliant. More importantly, give the people in our communities an opportunity to work.
Mr. Speaker, in Fort McPherson I have some 45 percent of people at the present time who are unemployed in the community of almost 800 people. There are a lot of people in the community that are capable of working, but because of the economics in the region, they are not able to find work.
I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that we, as government, take a close look at these statistics, realizing the problem is not getting better, it’s getting worse. We see it happen in our communities. We are seeing the homeless people here in our streets in Yellowknife. We are seeing them show up in our regional centres, and also the people that we do have homeless in our communities were basically going from household to household every other night trying to find a place to sleep, either on someone’s couch or in someone’s tent frame.
Mr. Speaker, this problem is a very critical point on how government deals with the most vulnerable in our society: the poor. When people are trying to maintain themselves and show that basically they do have dignity, they do have respect, again, Mr. Speaker, what they want is a job, put food on their table, take care of their families, and that is all residents of the Northwest Territories are asking from this government.
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister of ECE questions on what are we doing to increase our unemployment rates in our communities. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In September, late September, a group of veteran leaders in the Northwest Territories, aboriginal leaders, met in Yellowknife and talked about the state of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, they came out with a report, and in that report it stated that in 1992 the NWT commission, the constitutional development report published a phase I of this report, it’s known as the Jim Bourque Report.
Mr. Speaker, this report had extensive consultation across the Northwest Territories to all people in terms of constitutional reform in the Northwest Territories. A lot of good work had been done on the consultation and the report. A lot of good work, as I said, was put into it.
Now you can look at phase II of the report, Mr. Speaker, and the significance of phase II at this time, in this day and age, of our political development. Our land claim, Mr. Speaker, was the first land claim, in 1984. Four were signed by the IRC and in 2003 the Tli Cho signed the self-government land claim, also, which has a lot of significance in going forward.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated before, the aboriginal governments have experienced breaches of their treaties through the past and today, and the government has failed to honour the intent of these agreements in the implementation of their commitments.
Mr. Speaker, today we have mines, we have discussion about the pipeline, and now we’re having discussions on a draft AIP over lands and water. Mr. Speaker, now is the time to begin phase II of this report that can address some of these issues that are facing us today. We need to look at the public and aboriginal governments. That will truly address the fundamental outstanding issues that block the evolution of a unifying approach to northern governments. This report identifies how the issues critical to northern people will...(inaudible)...the challenge of the aboriginal governments, the aboriginal governments and this territorial government, and also re-establish a public government.
This report sets out the path to examine major principles to guide us all in the Northwest Territories. It also sets out a road so that we can work together. Truly, a feat that is capable of all leaders to make this a worthwhile deal. It’s time again to look at the Bourque Report, look at phase II and let’s get on with it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to speak today about an agreement that’s posted on the Department of Transportation’s website. It’s entitled Community Opportunities and Involvement Agreement. It’s an agreement between the community of Fort Providence, represented by the Deh Gah Got’ie First Nation and the Fort Providence Metis Council.
Mr. Speaker, the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation was, for all intents and purposes, the best laid efforts of the community of Fort Providence to construct and manage the Deh Cho Bridge. Events of the past year have led to the dismissal of the original general contractor and the removal of the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. For most people across the Northwest Territories, the belief is that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation was out and the Government of the Northwest Territories was stepping in to manage the construction costs and the project through to conclusion.
The wrinkle was the concession agreement had to be terminated and an agreement reached with the community on benefits. The letter agreement provided for an orderly termination of the concession agreement. It also provided for the Government of the Northwest Territories to manage the legal defence to claims against the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation.
The former government and Premier kept repeating that the project would benefit the community of Fort Providence through a return on investment via their equity position in the project. The equity was supposed to be $5 million. It never ever did materialize and this did not stop the previous government from still signing the concession agreement. When asked, the former Premier used the term “deemed equity.” The truth is, Mr. Speaker, without the equity, the benefits were never ever going to materialize.
Once the concession agreement needed to be terminated, the government and Minister felt it necessary to negotiate a deal with the community of Fort Providence. The deal is, Mr. Speaker, $8,000 a month until March of 2012 and from there on an annual grant of $200,000 to the community for 35 years beginning April 1, 2012. That’s $7 million with no less than four opportunities to address adequacy over that time.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve always supported opportunities for the community, but I remain sceptical of this very one-sided deal which will be the envy of all communities across the Territory. The way I see it, the deal was always a partnership. If revenue does not materialize to pay for the bridge, are taxpayers in this Territory going to be forced to pay for this agreement and make up any shortfall in the operation of this bridge? Most definitely. I’ll have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to clear the air about the plan to build the wind farm in Tuktoyaktuk. I don’t want our community and the whole region of Nunakput to miss out on this opportunity because of misunderstandings.
The plan is to put three wind turbines to generate electricity and feed into our local grid. This will reduce the amount of diesel fuel that we burn, because the fuel costs will be going up in the long run. This will save money as well as give us cleaner power.
The Northwind 100 turbines are state of the art. They are designed to work in cold climates like ours. They’re working very well in Alaska.
This project is a $4 million project and is a win-win for our community, with almost no risk. Our government is committed to financing the deal with the Tuktoyaktuk Power Corporation that ensures a positive revenue stream. It might not be the 15 percent profit, but it will make money and will create two new jobs right off the bat.
These turbines were scheduled to be put up next summer and it should happen without delay. Not only is it good for Tuk, but this project will help other Nunakput communities get theirs started. Most of them have stronger winds and higher electricity costs than Tuk, but in the long run this will cut the price of power in the communities and will put money into people’s pockets. It will mean more businesses, more jobs, more training for the people in Tuk as well as other communities that I represent.
I don’t need to remind you how badly we need good-paying jobs in the small communities. I’ve worked hard to advance this project and I’d like to thank my colleagues for all the support they’ve given me.
We do need the best for our people of Nunakput. We need to get this wind farm built and do the right thing for the future. This is an opportunity for all communities. This is a stepping stone that the other three communities will get after this first project is done.
I’d like to thank the Premier for all the help he’s given me in regard to this, and the ENR Minister.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the students that are here. They are fourth-year nursing students from the Yellowknife Campus of Aurora College Nursing Program. I’ll just name a few of them. Forgive me if I misstate your name. Ashley Crump, Ashley Woytuik, Brittany Marceau-Chenkie, Brittany Jones, Candace Manuel, Frances Sinclair, Gwen Hysert, Hawna Cooper, Leanne Niziol, Malerie Hardisty, Mohamad El Hariri, Natalie Decker, Pearl Martin, Robyn Lavoie, Samantha Digness, Shawn Roper, Soura Munroe-Rosen, Vanessa Vandewater, and Jodi Brennan is the instructor. Thanks for being here. Mahsi.
The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
I believe one of the graduates or nursing students is from Inuvik, so I would like to recognize Candace Manuel.
I’d also like to recognize, while I have the opportunity, our two hardworking Pages from Inuvik Twin Lakes: Ashlyn Hendrick and Tessie Chinna.
The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
It gives me great pleasure, as well, to recognize a nursing graduate, and that is Malerie Hardisty, who is from Jean Marie River. As well, I’d like to recognize Ms. Leanne Niziol, who’s got Wrigley roots. Welcome.
The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
I’d like to recognize Mr. Mark Bogan, a constituent to the Great Slave riding.
If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. It’s always nice to have an audience in here.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked about Highway No. 6 and the work that has been done and the work that’s planned for the coming years. With that I have some questions for the Minister of Transportation. With respect to future work on Highway No. 6, can the Minister tell me what is planned for 2011-2012 for Highway No. 6?
