Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome the SADD group who were here earlier and left. I think the work that they do is much appreciated and it’s extremely valuable.
I’d like to welcome all the students from Aurora College and particularly mention Ginny Wainwright, who is a resident constituent from Frame Lake; and Geraldine Hunter, who is the student representative on the Aurora College Board of Governors. So, welcome to all.
Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a former resident of Inuvik, Ms. Alyssa Carpenter, whose family made a big contribution to the community of Inuvik before they moved and resided here in Yellowknife. I just want to wish her best of luck in her studies and welcome her to the House and welcome everybody here to today’s proceedings. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too want to recognize the Aurora College students. We had a meeting some months ago and it was very informative, and I’d like to say how much I appreciate listening to them.
I’d also like to recognize Kevin and Wendy, Mr. Bouchard’s constituent and constituency assistant, in the gallery.
More importantly, I’d like to recognize the special guest we have sitting in front of us, Mr. Whitford. From time to time there are certain words that people tell you that continue to grow on you, and thank you, Tony, for those kind words that you gave me a long, long time ago.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too wanted to recognize the Students Against Impaired and Distracted Driving that were with us earlier today as well as all the students from Aurora College. It’s great to see you here. Good luck with your studies.
I also wanted to recognize my constituency assistant, Ms. Morgan. I didn’t realize she was moonlighting for my colleague Mr. Bouchard.
---Laughter
But I’m happy to see her here and I’m happy to share her services. I want to recognize the services that Ms. Morgan provides my office with. She does a great job, so thanks to Wendy.
I also wanted to recognize Mr. Kevin Wallington for helping bring agriculture where it is here in the Northwest Territories and for bringing Polar Eggs to the store shelves across the territory. Thank you very much. I know you are exporting them, too, so good luck and best wishes with everything. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. I’d like to welcome Ms. Morgan, too, because she moonlights for me too. …(inaudible)… Anyway, thank you for coming today, Wendy. Ms. Carpenter, I’d like to welcome you to the House. I watched her grow up as a kid in Inuvik, because her Dad and I grew up together and went to high school. It’s always good to see you here and I’m real proud of you guys and all the nursing staff, social work, going into a field that we really need across our great territory. So, thank you.
Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize a member of the Weledeh community who we all know as Tony. I think he’s been well-recognized in the House today. You know, it’s great to hear all the words of renown for this gentleman. Welcome, Tony, to the House.
I’d also like to recognize SADD and the students and their supporters and the very important work that they do.
Finally, the incredible amount of time that Ms. Morgan contributes to Weledeh, and with the assistance and stuff that she does, it’s also great.
---Laughter
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also recognize a Hay River resident, Mr. Kevin Wallington, who is also a very dear family friend of ours. I would also like to recognize Wendy Morgan. We couldn’t get her in here for her 60th birthday last Friday but we got her here today.
---Laughter
Oh, did I day 60? Sorry. Anyway, you will notice on her door it says, “Wendy Morgan, Constituency Assistant to Jane Groenewegen, Hay River South.” Thank you.
---Applause
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Wendy, we are going to strike that from Hansard, your age.
---Laughter
I would like to welcome all the visitors here today in the public gallery. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask some questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services around the infrastructure needs for seniors in the NWT. I mentioned some statistics in my statement, and the numbers of seniors that will be increasing are really quite scary, particularly here in the city of Yellowknife where we can expect the number of seniors to triple in the next 10 or 15 years. Yet it seems to me that Health and Social Services is ignoring the results of their own studies and the recommendations from their own reports. We see very little indication that they are working on providing infrastructure for seniors housing.
I would like to first ask the Minister a bit of a background. The cornerstone of the Avens renovation and expansion project is Aven Manor and the renovations to Aven Manor, and they have been identified for quite some time. Soon Aven Manor kitchen may be actually declared unfit for use.
So I would like to ask the Minister initially, where the renovations to this territorial facility, Aven Manor, are on the capital planning list for Health and Social Services. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been working closely with Avens on their desire to increase their facility as well as improve the current facility. We have put together a committed team, a steering committee that consists of the Department of Health and Social Services employees as well as some proponents from Avens itself, and we have contributed $25,000 to this initiative, to Avens, so that they can have their individual participate.
We are doing a number of things, exploring opportunities for funding and trying to come up with the most appropriate way to move forward with the construction of this new facility and the renovations to the current facility. It isn’t yet on the capital plan. We are waiting for this particular work to be done and we are waiting for that group to submit a proposal to Cabinet and the Regular Members so that we can figure out how to move forward with this project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate the work that the Minister is doing. I know that he supports the project as much as I do.
The Avens kitchen has long been known, and it has been evident, that it’s deficient – it’s been many years now – and it is in need of upgrading. If Avens does not get the funding that they require to renovate this facility and to do their expansion project, which is an integral part of it, it may be closed down by the very department which is actually responsible and funds the whole facility.
So if that comes to fruition, what will the Minister do to avert such a closure, a closure of the kitchen, and a closure which would then force shutdown of the whole Aven Manor facility? Thank you.
We are aware of the desires of Avens to expand the kitchen and improve it. We are working closely with them to make sure that we can find a way to move forward collaboratively together. We will continue to do that. We are waiting for the report to come from this committee, this steering committee, on the whole plan for the Avens facility, and we look forward to seeing it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, in terms of funding, I know it certainly has been an issue for the board when they discuss this plan that they need to get a guarantee of use of their new facility in order to get the backing that they need from the bank, and it’s my understanding that the Avens board of governors, board of directors, can find mortgaging, can find funding for the facility, but they need to get a guarantee from the government that they will actually use the facility once it’s built.
So I would like to ask the Minister, why is it that I haven’t yet heard that the board of directors has gotten that assurance from our government that once we build a facility for seniors that we will guarantee that we will actually put people in there? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The funding to actually run the Avens for their O and M comes primarily from the Government of the Northwest Territories. We provide about $3.6 million per year for O and M to run the Avens facility as well as about $3.4 million for the Dementia Facility. If we move forward with the expansion together with Avens, we are also going to likely be on the hook for the additional $3.6 million to run that facility. If this facility gets built, it’s fair to assume that northern residents will be utilizing that facility.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think I heard an answer to the question there. We can assume that residents will be there, but in order for Avens to go to the bank, they need some kind of a guarantee from the government that, yes, we will actually put people in there and yes, we will provide the funding for operations and maintenance. I know that the Minister knows that the need is there and I don’t yet understand why we can’t get that done.
My last question, my usual question, has to do with timing, and the Minister says that he is looking at getting this renovation, this expansion into the capital plan. I had no indication of any kind of timeline. I know it takes a while, but I’d like to know from the Minister if we’re talking about a year or if we’re talking five or 10 years.
We are committed to working with Avens. We will continue to work with Avens. We’re waiting for them to come forward in this collaborative team, this steering committee, to come forward with a plan and a suggestion on how we should move forward. We don’t know that that’s going to be full-on GNWT capital or whether there are going to be some other opportunities. We’re exploring all of those opportunities at this time, and obviously, we’d like to see some partners come in on this.
At the same time, this report, this work that the committee is doing will come to us shortly. But the Member knows that we have an extensive capital process and the Member knows that there are a large number of projects on this capital list that are on the line, schools, health centres, hospitals. All these things are in the works, so we need to fit that into the plan. I can’t say where Avens will fit in the plan, but we do know that we need to increase the number of beds in the Northwest Territories for seniors, and we will do that in the fullness of time.
Order! Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the rising costs of petroleum products. Everything we do in the North, it seems like we rely on these products to drive our vehicles, industry depends on it, subsistence harvesting, we heat our homes with heating oil. Even in Hay River where we use propane, that’s tied to the price of oil, that’s how they set the price of propane.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs if his department has been doing any monitoring and research to look at the correlation between the prices on the world market and the prices that we are charged on a retail basis here in the Northwest Territories where we are a very captive market at the end of a long road.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was driving down the road today, I was passing a gas station, and I noticed the price on there was $1.38.9, and I thought, well, geez, I’m sure the rest of the Northwest Territories would love to pay that even if it was reversed, $1.89.3, because that’s what a lot of people are paying in some of the higher Arctic communities or the community I represent.
But in 2013, October 2013, we tabled a report that we had commissioned comparing the prices in the Northwest Territories to the rest of the country. We had a lot of different prices across the country. Here in the capital, actually, the price is lower than some of the southern jurisdictions. That, I was quite surprised to find. The conclusion of the report was that we didn’t feel that there was a need to regulate gasoline prices in the Northwest Territories.
The world price for oil has gone down substantially in the last few months. It is the leading story often on the evening news as markets respond to this declining price.
What’s the lag or delay time between when those prices appear and when we might actually see some relief in the prices that we pay at the truck and at the pump here in the Northwest Territories? How is that regulated?
In a lot of the market communities, a lot of these are driven by what the actual owners of these gas stations pay for the product that they bring in. I’m sure if they bring product in at a lower price, then that price will also be reflected at the pump. I’ve seen it firsthand where our supplier got some gasoline a little cheaper and our prices actually had gone down by a few cents. My understanding is the prices here in the capital have been fairly level for the last 18 months.
---Interjection
Four years. They’ve been fairly level for the last four years.
There’s an opportunity for consumers out there if they feel that there’s price fixing or price maintenance, there’s an opportunity for them to contact Competition Canada, because they enforce the Competition Act and they would be able to do an investigation into the concerns of the consumers that call them.
As the only government department that is involved in the protection of consumers through, I don’t know if it’s an agency or secretariat, consumer affairs in the Northwest Territories, does the Minister see his department having any role with respect to that federal Competition Act? Is that something that he, through his department, could be involved in on behalf of consumers in the Northwest Territories if those complaints were raised to him?
I’m sure the role we can play is if we were to get some complaints, I’m sure we can forward those on to the Competition Bureau of Canada, or we can put the information on the website that we’ve just developed where we’ve provided a bunch of information to people. We can make it known what their numbers are, if people have a concern. But again, we’ve had one complaint, I believe, in the last year.
Obviously, being consumer affairs and people expecting us to assist them when they have concerns is something that we should have a look at to see if we can forward their concerns to the Competition Bureau of Canada.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not here to launch any kind of attack on retailers of petroleum products, but I guess we’re so attentive to these costs and the cost of living in the North that it’s something that catches our attention and we think that we should also realize the benefits when the prices go down.
When the GNWT buys petroleum products and then redistributes them to the small communities where there is no private retailer involved, what’s the lag time? Like, how far ahead do they buy or fix those prices?
That, I wouldn’t be able to answer. I would have to consult with the Minister of Public Works, who is responsible for bringing fuel into the communities. I will have that conversation with the Minister and share the findings with the Member.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on questions to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources with regard to the Bison Management Strategy and, most particularly, the Nahanni bison herd that’s causing grief to the residents of Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte and Lindberg Landing.
Has the draft Bison Management Strategy been completed?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do apologize to the Member for the protracted process that that strategy has, and I will commit to him that we will have a final strategy for him before we come back for the winter session.
Certainly, it’s a concern for the residents. One of the unique things that a resident had brought to my attention was that he had visited his neighbours down in BC, the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, and they have managed to curtail a lot of damages to private property by harvesting some of the bison there. Is that something that the department can consider?
That is an option that we have used in other locales and we are definitely looking at that. We’re looking at the possibility of finding somebody with a tag that would be prepared to harvest one of the animals that are nuisance animals or, failing that, we would look at doing such an emergency cull on our own. So we are actively looking at that.
Thank you very much. I was wondering: would the Bison Management Strategy, once implemented, have, say, a 1-800 number that the residents can call specifically for this Nahanni bison herd? Thank you.
Thank you. The intent would be to use the ENR staff that is available in the communities in the Member’s riding to be contacted within the nearest specific community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to the updated strategy as the Minister had committed. As well, if he can get that to the community leadership that’s been affected as well. Thank you.
Thank you. We will ensure that we continue to touch all the appropriate bases as we provide the finished management plan to the Member as promised.
