Debates of October 25, 2006 (day 15)

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Return To Question 187-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know which one is the main one, but I tell you, us not working together is one for sure. We need to work together. You put your finger on that one today. A second one is a real infrequence by the bureaucracy in Ottawa who just don’t get it. They want to treat us as if we are a colony out there. Mr. Speaker, I think those are the two main things that are stopping us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Supplementary To Question 187-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Premier for that answer because it is something that I have always been wondering about. I look around this Assembly. We have Inuvialuit in here. We have the Gwich’in. We have the Sahtu. We have the Dehcho, Tlicho, Akaitcho, Metis. We pretty well have everybody covered in here as far as the major claimant groups go. The Premier just heard me name off the major groups as I see them. Has the Premier ever sat in a room leader to leader, government to government with these seven or eight major claimant groups, came up with a strategy and tried to move this issue of resource revenue and devolution forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 187-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Mr. Speaker, yes, I have several times. I have sat down with all of the leaders and tried to come up with one consensus on agreement. In fact, we have done it through the Circle of Northern Leaders. I think we are the first government to have all of the leaders together, 50 some leaders together around the table, to try to get a consensus. Mr. Speaker, we need everybody to work with us and to recognize and maybe some compromise and so on on everybody’s part to make this work. But we have done it. We have done it on several occasions. I have done it individually. I have done it with everybody together. I have done it with those with land claims, those without and so on, Mr. Speaker. I am going to continue to do that, because I think working in partnership is something that you can’t just do once. It is an ongoing exercise. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Supplementary To Question 187-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Premier said that he met with all these groups. I was asking if he met with them all at the same time, all seven or eight major leaders, because I have gone to a few leadership summits. There is the Aboriginal Summit, there are some other groups, but it seems to me that there is always someone missing. There is always a group missing. Are all of these groups part of the Aboriginal Summit? Has he met with every single leader in the same room? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 187-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Mr. Speaker, I met with every single regional leader in the same room several times. The most recent time was in Norman Wells in about April. At that time, in fact, I met with the leaders and with Minister Prentice in the room as well. Mr. Speaker, we have had several of those meetings. In terms of all of the leaders, chiefs, mayors and everybody we tried; we never got everybody together, but regional leadership, yes. We have met with them several times. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final, short supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Supplementary To Question 187-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was something that I always wondered about because there always seemed to be one…Someone is always missing. My colleague from the Sahtu likes to quote a commercial, hands in your pocket. We don’t have pockets. They have the whole pair of pants.

---Laughter

The Premier talks about the bureaucrats. This is not about the bureaucrats. I would like to see the Premier and major leaders go down to Ottawa, meet with the Prime Minister, skip the bureaucrats. We have to start skipping the bureaucrats and relay that message to the Prime Minister that we want to negotiate with him directly, no bureaucrats, because that is why it has gone on for 20 years and that is why it may go on for another 20 years. We are going to wander around in the wilderness for another 40 years before we reach this Promised Land. Would the Premier communicate to the Prime Minister that he does not want to meet with any more bureaucrats; meet leader to leader, government to government himself? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 187-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to clarify, I don’t go to Ottawa to meet with bureaucrats. I don’t meet with bureaucrats here. They meet with our bureaucrats. I go to Ottawa and meet with the leaders and that is the Prime Minister, the Minister of DIAND or another federal Minister.

Mr. Speaker, just to be clear though, I think it would be very difficult and it may be impossible to have the Prime Minister to agree to meet with me as a political leader without having one of his staff in the room and so on. I think putting in that kind of a request, we probably wouldn’t get the meeting. But even if the bureaucrats are sitting there, it is political leader to political leader. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland. It is in follow-up to Ms. Lee’s questions. The Minister was here last week when I was questioning the former Minister of Health and Social Services on a meeting that I had with 17 constituents here in Yellowknife who brought to my attention a number of issues, patient safety, staff safety, and staffing in general at Stanton. Mr. Speaker, I have been hearing, after making those comments in this House last week, from other health centres in Inuvik, Fort Smith and Hay River, that some of these issues are prevalent in other health centres as well, not just Stanton Hospital here in Yellowknife. The former Minister said that it would take two weeks to get a redraft of the staffing report that was done in April that went to the department. Obviously, it wasn’t good enough or it didn’t say what the department wanted to say. It went back to the drafters or the consultant for a redraft. I would like to know exactly when we are going to get a copy of this staffing report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 188-15(5): Stanton Territorial Hospital Human Resource Survey

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can’t give the Member an exact date of when the report will be brought forward. I was part of the discussion or listening to the commitment made by the previous Minister in this area. As I stated earlier to Ms. Lee, it will be our duty to follow up on that to ensure that the information does come forward in a timely fashion. There has been much work done that we have to look at and pull together. But I believe there was a commitment made already. Again, I have confirmed today that we will bring that forward and deal with that. It is easy enough to say that there are difficulties within the territory in the delivery of health care services. The more difficult thing is how are we going to work together to ensure that we provide the adequate level of service to all residents? I think we have gone a long way in trying to meet those needs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 188-15(5): Stanton Territorial Hospital Human Resource Survey

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my mind, and judging by the comments I have heard, the e-mails I have got, and the telephone calls that I have taken on this issue, I don’t think the government is listening to the front-line health care professionals here in the Northwest Territories. It is obvious to me that there are problems, especially in the area of staffing. When management says that the front-line worker is expendable, that causes me a great deal of concern. This is happening far too often. I think we run the risk of losing a lot of our front-line staff here if we don’t take some immediate action to try to address this concern. I am not sure who is going to be the next Minister responsible for Health, but in the meantime, the Minister responsible today, I would like to ask him if he would entertain getting together some Regular Members from this side of the House to actually go out and do some of the work and listen to the concerns that are out there, because I think people want somebody to listen. Management is not doing it. We are here. I will certainly make myself available to do that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 188-15(5): Stanton Territorial Hospital Human Resource Survey

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not prepared at this stage to have a committee of Regular Members and myself or a joint committee of members and Ministers go through a political process of questioning staff and putting them under that situation. In fact, I believe an employee survey was used in 2002, if I have the dates right or the year right of an employment survey done on an independent process. I think that would be the more appropriate tool to use.

As the Government of the Northwest Territories on the human resource side, dealing with the front-line workers, we have done a lot to try and alleviate the problems. It is not 100 percent, but we have gone a long way. The use of agency nurses to cover our shortages and that is not the best response but that is a response that we have been able to do. Recruitment of nurses, we have now a unit within Human Resources to deal with that. Community Health Nurse Development Program has been put into place. Graduate Nurse Placement Program, the guarantees of jobs for those graduates here in the Northwest Territories, Nurse Practitioner Education Leave Bursary Program, Physician Program and bursaries that we have available. We have done what we can to try and meet the needs out there and deal with front-line service issues. We are not going to be able to take care of it all at once, but we are working to ensure that we are dealing with them respectfully. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 188-15(5): Stanton Territorial Hospital Human Resource Survey

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I respect the Minister and what he has brought to the table here today. There are a number of programs out there. I am not talking about programs. I am talking about our front-line staff who want to be able to have someone to listen to their concerns and act on them. You can have all of the programs you want, but if you are not listening to your staff, there are going to be difficulties and such as I mentioned earlier, patient safety and especially staff safety. There are a number of areas of concern here. I would like the Minister to again make a commitment that he will go out, if he is, in fact, the next Minister of Health and Social Services of the government, whoever it is going to be. Somebody has to go out. Somebody has to listen before we lose any more front-line health care workers in this territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 188-15(5): Stanton Territorial Hospital Human Resource Survey

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree; we have to listen to the front-line workers. We have to listen to, whether it is on the health side, social services side, the teachers’ side, people that deliver the programs that we discuss in this Assembly, those people that are on the front lines delivering that to meet the needs of our residents. We have to pay attention to what is being said out there. But at the same time, we have a responsibility to ensure that we are doing it at a level that is acceptable throughout the territory. That brings its own challenges. We also have to deal with boards out there that have impact on the delivery of those programs. We have to work with them. Ultimately, it all comes down to the dollars we have available to deliver the program in the Northwest Territories. That is always a challenge that we try to deal with as an Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 188-15(5): Stanton Territorial Hospital Human Resource Survey

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister why he is so quick to say a group of Regular Members couldn’t work in conjunction with the ministry of Health and Social Services to go out to Inuvik, Fort Smith, Hay River and Yellowknife here at Stanton and actually talk to the front-line workers and come up with a game plan how to address the issues that are there and are real. I would like to ask him that question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 188-15(5): Stanton Territorial Hospital Human Resource Survey

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have been a Member for a number of assemblies now. I have seen the committees put together. I have seen the results of them. We have come up with some positive changes in a number of areas. Ultimately, if it does become my full-time responsibility in this field, I want to make myself comfortable with the file as to what work has been done. For example, I know, under the previous Minister, that a Joint Leadership Committee between all health boards and the department has been formed. They have put together a strategic plan. That would be, I think, some of the things we need to ensure we get on with and ensure that we bring to completion, because I have also been part of governments where a lot of work has been done and shelved. Really, we don’t change anything. That is not what we want to be about. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, the Honourable Joe Handley. As everyone is well aware, we did sign an MOU in Lutselk’e to look at the viability of establishing a protected area in the East Arm area. Lutselk’e, the Government of Nunavut, the Government of Canada, the Lutselk’e First Nations Council and the Akaitcho Territorial Government recently approved the Thelon management plan that would ensure better protection of the Beverly herd calving grounds in the Thelon area. This management plan has been provided to the government a little over a year ago, I guess, for their approval so they can begin work on extending this protection for the Beverly herd. With the dwindling, declining numbers of caribou and the Barren Ground Caribou Management Strategy that is coming out, why hasn’t the GNWT, being the last jurisdiction to approve this management plan, approved it to date? I just want to know what the hold-up is. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Handley.

Return To Question 189-15(5): Thelon Area Management Plan Implementation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure all of the reasons for the delay. I want to first congratulate Lutselk’e on the protected area and the MOU that was recently signed. In terms of delay, I am not sure of all of the reasons for it, Mr. Speaker. I can tell you, though, that there is a workshop being held in November of this year to work on some of the issues, to look at survey results and also to work with the people involved on a management plan for that caribou herd. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 189-15(5): Thelon Area Management Plan Implementation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I realize that the workshop is coming up, but since this management plan has the approval of the Government of Nunavut, the Government of Canada, the Lutselk’e First Nations and the Akaitcho Territory Government, but not the approval of this government to move this plan forward, and with the declining numbers of caribou that we are addressing here today, why do we need another workshop for this government just to basically rubber stamp the plan and move it forward so the WWF in conjunction with the Lutselk’e First Nations and the Beverly Caribou Management Board can start moving on sort of working to develop and implement the protection of this critical caribou calving ground? Can the Minister commit to me, after this workshop, I think it is November 12th, that the government will give us a response, hopefully a positive response, as to when they plan on approving this management plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 189-15(5): Thelon Area Management Plan Implementation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will give the Member my commitment that we will be there. We will participate in the workshop. We will share our latest survey results and we will work with the other partners on a management plan with the objective of having an agreed to management plan by all of the partners. Mr. Speaker, we don’t have any particular reason to delay this. We have a lot of concern about the health of that herd and do want to make sure that the management plan we and all the partners come up with is one that takes advantage of the most recent survey information we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Short supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 189-15(5): Thelon Area Management Plan Implementation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, the plan has been approved by everybody but this government. I don’t know what the hold-up is. Basically what the people are worried about, Mr. Speaker, is that the claims that have been staked in that area are uranium exploration claims. The amount of activity is dramatically increased because the price of uranium has obviously gone up, so everybody is going in there and investing in their exploration towards mine development in this area. The people want to get some protection against the mines to ensure that the calving grounds of this Beverly herd are not damaged or developed. Can the Minister provide a commitment to the Lutselk’e and Nunavut residents who rely heavily on this herd as their main meat source, that this government will approve the management plan shortly after the workshop, within the next month or so? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 189-15(5): Thelon Area Management Plan Implementation

Mr. Speaker, I will give that assurance but, at the same time, I want to discuss this further with the officials in ENR. But I don’t know of any reason why we would not be able to achieve what the Member is requesting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Time for question period is expired. However, I will… Thank you, Members. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to return to Item 6 on the Order Paper, oral questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the first day of session, which was October 17th, I was asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment questions about the literacy cuts and what he was doing about it. Mr. Speaker, if I may roughly quote from page 627 of our unedited Hansard, the Minister said he would be hopefully attending this meeting next Tuesday, which would have been yesterday, on the 24th of this month. His meeting was supposed to be with the Council of Ministers of Education. Mr. Speaker, did anyone go on the Minister’s behalf? If they did, what did they say and what are they promoting? Can the Minister give us those details? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 190-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, the Honourable Diane Finley notified the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada that she was unwilling to meet with a group of Ministers and asked if one Minister would be delegated to speak on all of our behalves. I transmitted my approval for that position to the chair of the CMEC. However, the majority of Ministers from across Canada did not support that; therefore, the meeting did not take place.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 190-15(5): Literacy Program Budget Reductions

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. While I am not glad to hear that the meeting was cancelled, I am glad to hear that the Minister was doing something in the sense of making sure it could go forward. Mr. Speaker, I asked the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if, assuming that nothing has changed as far as the cuts are concerned, what is the Minister now doing in regards to the literacy cuts so we can get a handle of this situation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.