Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to report today that H1N1 clinics in the Northwest Territories have been successfully launched and that the H1N1 vaccine is now being administered to residents in the Northwest Territories.
In the short period of time since the vaccine was officially authorized by the Public Health Agency of Canada last Wednesday, over 2,500 NWT residents have already received their H1N1 shot.
Mr. Speaker, this is a testament to the success of our efforts, both to prepare for, and to communicate the important steps that we are taking to ensure that this vaccine is available to all NWT residents as quickly as possible.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to reiterate that the GNWT has secured enough of the H1N1 vaccine for everyone in the NWT who wants to receive it.
Unlike some southern jurisdictions, we have already received our entire shipment of vaccine and there is no priority list for the delivery of our vaccinations. Everyone in the NWT -- young or old, healthy or with chronic conditions, pregnant women or young men, aboriginal or non-aboriginal -- will be vaccinated as they show up in our clinics.
Our vaccination schedule is posted and updated on the Department of Health and Social Services website. Catch-up clinics will be provided for people who miss the first dates.
Mr. Speaker, it is Health Canada that has the authority for evaluating the safety, efficacy and quality of vaccines to be used by Canadians to help protect and maintain their health. Health Canada
works in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada to protect the health and safety of all Canadians. I can assure all residents of the NWT that the pandemic vaccine developed in response to the H1N1 flu virus has been evaluated and authorized by Health Canada for distribution.
It would encourage anybody who requires additional information about the vaccine, including its ingredients, to call the flu hotline for this information. The number is 1-888-920-3026, and in Yellowknife it’s 920-3026.
Mr. Speaker, we are dealing with the pandemic that is spreading across the NWT and throughout our country. We all have a role to play in protecting ourselves, our families and each other and, in doing so, to do everything we can to prevent the spread of H1N1 in our communities. Getting immunized against H1N1 is a key part of that.
All residents should get the H1N1 vaccine. Only those with lab confirmed cases of H1N1 do not need to receive the vaccine.
Mr. Speaker, while it is an individual choice, I would like to once again encourage all residents of the NWT to be vaccinated for the H1N1 virus. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to update you on collaboration between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the three Northwest Territories diamond mines -- BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc., Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. and De Beers Canada Inc. -- under the Northern Mining Workforce Initiative Memorandum of Understanding.
The memorandum of understanding was negotiated to assist the Government of the Northwest Territories and the diamond mines to work their shared goal of increasing the number of Northwest Territories residents employed at the mines.
Collectively, we have two objectives under the memorandum of understanding. Our first goal is to improve northern skills and experience. We will address this through more coordinated training and through improved transportation options for getting workers from Northwest Territories communities to the mine sites. Our second goal is to attract and retain Northwest Territories residents so that as many mine workers as possible can be Northwest Territories residents.
Work under the memorandum of understanding is guided by a steering committee made up of the most senior and influential executives from the three diamond mines, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and myself. Staff assigned to working groups work together to investigate options and put forward recommendations to the steering committee.
Individuals from each organization involved in the memorandum of understanding have shown dedication, openness and a strong spirit of cooperation.
Last week the steering committee met to bring new momentum to our collaborative efforts to maximize northern employment at the Northwest Territories diamond mines. The steering committee reviewed the progress of working groups on training, travel and residency. These groups have been busy over the past year, investigating practical possibilities and examining problems.
Industry, Tourism and Investment has played, and will continue to play, a large role in the residency committee. The first major task of the residency committee has been to understand the opportunities and challenges of attracting and retaining a skilled northern workforce. The mines, Industry, Tourism and Investment and the Northwest Territories Bureau of Statistics collaborated on a survey of the diamond mines’ current employees.
Options for addressing longer-term challenges will also be investigated. The memorandum of understanding parties will look for opportunities to work with a number of partners, including community governments and other agencies and actors, to implement concrete actions that address challenges identified by the survey.
Industry, Tourism and Investment will continue to work together with Education, Culture and Employment and with the three diamond mines to achieve our shared goal of maximizing NWT employment at the Northwest Territories diamond mines. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to speak about the reductions in fuel prices that have taken place this year for communities served by the petroleum products division. These reductions represent significant savings for retail and government customers. During 2009, petroleum product prices charged to retail customers by PPD decreased by an average of more than 25 percent across the Northwest Territories. Gasoline prices have been reduced by no less than 16 cents per litre to as much as 33 cents per litre and heating fuel prices have been reduced by no less than 16 cents per litre and as much as 51 cents per litre.
Under the current FMB-approved pricing guidelines, the cost of purchasing, transporting and delivering fuel is recovered in the retail prices charged in the communities served by the petroleum products division. Prices are normally adjusted after each annual resupply to reflect the costs of the fuel purchased for resale.
Many of our communities are resupplied with fuel only once a year, and because of that, by December of 2008 customers in many of our communities were paying high prices while prices were falling elsewhere in Canada.
By January of 2009, fuel market prices had stabilized at a lower level, and a decision was made by this government to pass a portion of the future cost reductions to our customers well before the annual resupply adjustments took effect. With prudent fiscal management, the petroleum products division had accumulated a modest budget surplus. In January the petroleum products division used this surplus to reduce the retail prices of heating oil and gasoline by 16 cents per litre for all non-government customers and community government customers in all the communities they serve.
Mr. Speaker, communities also received further price reductions after their annual 2009 resupply. The price of heating fuel was reduced in Sahtu, Tlicho, Deh Cho and Nahendeh winter-road-supplied communities in April and in the barge-supplied communities of Fort Good Hope and Lutselk’e in August. Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok and Paulatuk price reductions took place on October 1st. Gasoline prices in Fort Good Hope were reduced on October 20th. With barge resupply for Tulia now complete, the petroleum product price reductions will take place before the end of October.
Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to say that the use of more cost-efficient marine transportation routes, the prudent use of the Petroleum Products Stabilization Fund, combined with the general decline in world market prices for petroleum are factors that have converged to provide a measure of price relief to those most affected by the high cost of living in our remote communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Jackson Lafferty will be absent from the House for the remainder of this week to attend the federal/provincial/territorial Justice Ministers meeting in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The most important element of building public infrastructure is gravel, from those housing lots, to public roads, to water treatment facilities, to schools. Without the access to a year-round gravel source, these simple infrastructure needs take years to complete.
Mr. Speaker, it is essential that communities have access to a gravel source so that they can meet these fundamental challenges. But, Mr. Speaker, add climate change to the mix and you have a whole different problem.
Mr. Speaker, with melting permafrost, shoreline erosion on our rivers and in the oceans, it makes it even a bigger challenge for communities just to maintain the existing public infrastructure and not have to also deal with the fundamental challenge of climate change. Every community in the Northwest Territories must realize that we’re seeing more floods, more erosion, more affects on public infrastructure and collapsing buildings, to collapsing highways and roads. Mr. Speaker, we, as a government, must ensure that we do everything that we can to protect public infrastructure in our communities and shore up the public investment that was made to put this public infrastructure in all our communities in the Northwest Territories, and ensure the well-being of the residents of those communities are being able to have access to gravel sources.
Mr. Speaker, I have been talking for years about access to a gravel source in Aklavik to ensure that they can deal with the fundamental challenge of public infrastructure. To build simple things like a water treatment plant or public housing unit that should take one year, takes three years.
In regards to improving access to improving public infrastructure such as the roads in the community, basically it takes three or four years of planning, but yet, Mr. Speaker, we have year-round access to a gravel source, which is the Willow River source, which is around 20 kilometres from the community. We will be able to expand the community infrastructure, improve the existing roads and airports in our communities. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will have questions directed to the Minister of Transportation in regards to where we go with the access road to a gravel source in Aklavik. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report of the Joint Review Panel on the Mackenzie Gas Project is expected within the next two months. In past years, requests for new MGP-related departmental funding has frequently been turned down because we couldn’t be sure the project would go ahead. Meanwhile, this government has trumpeted its support for the project, apparently on any terms.
The MGP would be one of the biggest events in the history of the NWT and, typically for mega projects here, the federal government stands to collect bounteous royalty revenues while the NWT faces social and environmental impact costs, not to mention the huge infrastructure, training and mitigation costs that will result from the project. The release of the JRP project will create an immediate expectation on this government for a timely reaction to its findings and recommendations.
I have been raising the point of Members’ participation in shaping the major policy positions of this government. This issue is too big and its consequences too far-reaching for the government to respond to its details without the input of Regular Members.
While expectations will be high, the time frames are sufficient to allow the required thoughtful and considered response rather than an immediate and desperate yes-at-any-cost response. We cannot continue to rely on poorly funded NGOs to lead the analysis of impacts and costs, though their input will be key once again. We must ensure that the MGP will not once again create a boom that makes it too expensive for our citizens to live in their own communities.
Independent assessments have already pointed out that there is inadequate analysis of socio-economic impacts resulting from the project. How will the project’s doubling of NWT greenhouse gas emissions be mitigated? At a minimum, we must assess whether the JRP report has indeed addressed the shortcomings, which will require careful and detailed analysis.
Mr. Speaker, this government cannot blindly endorse a report without a firm plan for ensuring benefits and for dealing with the costs and impacts that will also flow through our citizens. I will be calling on the Ministers of ENR and ITI to outline plans for reviews and analysis and how Regular Members will be involved in analysis and development of a government response and position. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk a little bit about a disturbing trend that has potential to be extremely damaging to the residents of the Northwest Territories. That trend is an increasing number of home heating oil spills.
Legislation in the NWT requires all homeowners who experience home heating fuel spills to report it to ENR. In 2007, there were 20 home fuel spills reported to ENR. In 2008, there were 32 home fuel spills reported to ENR. Already in 2009, there have been 43 home fuel spills reported to ENR.
These numbers may be lower than the actual as some people may choose not to report due to the fear of the potential costs of a clean-up. All homeowners are responsible under legislation to clean up their property when they have had an oil spill. Unfortunately, cleaning up oil spills on your property could be far more devastating to the pocketbook than most people might think. The reason is the standard insurance policy requires that the insurer cover the damage to existing dwelling and property; property does not include land. As a result, homeowners are on the hook for the costs of cleaning up their land. The cost for cleaning up even the smallest of leaks is generally around $10,000. Where the cost of living is already high, this can be a bill that pushes homeowners past their financial brink. I know of one Yellowknife resident who had a spill that is going to cost in excess of $60,000.
Due to the increasing number of spills, the insurance industry is expecting to tighten up this practice considerably, sooner rather than later. This suggests to me that homeowners will likely receive less coverage than they currently do. This is more bad news. I’ve talked to a number of businesses in town, in Yellowknife, involved in installing fuel tanks. They have indicated that leaks are definitely on the rise, particularly with single-walled tanks. One brand of oil tank that is causing problems and presenting challenges is known as Tidy Tank. It’s my understanding that their single-walled tanks use lighter gauge metal than most other brands and they are springing leaks as early as one to three years after being installed.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to send a message to the residents of the Northwest Territories: please keep an eye on your tanks. Go out and check them on a regular basis. Don’t let them get to the point where they leak, especially if you happen to have a Tidy Tank, they only offer a 12-month warranty.
If you are concerned with your tank, swap it for a new one, preferably a double-walled or double-bottomed tank. If you must go to a single-walled tank, please consider going to one made of a higher grade metal.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
If you must go to a single-walled tank, please consider going to one made of a higher grade metal. If you have the resources, consider going to a pellet boiler and avoid the possibility of oil leaks on your property altogether.
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will have some questions for the Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, where I’ll be seeking his commitment to prepare and release a public awareness campaign warning homeowners of the risks and potential ramifications of home heating fuel leaks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. On my most recent visit to Nahanni Butte I had the opportunity to tour the new gymnasium once again. The community is quite pleased with the building as it provides students and the community with a gymnasium for physical education and all community activities.
Regretfully, we have not yet had the official opening. Unfortunately, there are serious outstanding construction deficiencies that prevent full use of the gymnasium and negatively affect the comfort of the users.
One of the major problems is the gymnasium floor. Its installation was done by rolling out and gluing down synthetic flooring. Since then, moisture has seeped in and dissolved the glue, causing the floor to lift. There are large bubbles on the surface of the gym floor. It is not much good for indoor sports and it could easily lead to accidents.
There are a number of other deficiencies. Light diffusers need to be replaced and there is water seepage in one of the back rooms. The ventilation system in the gym is so noisy that you can’t carry on a conversation. As well, there’s an acoustic problem. The building easily echoes, Mr. Speaker.
It seems that Nahanni Butte has been plagued with delays in completion of government projects. I recently expressed my concern with the deferral of the improvements to the winter access road, and last spring spoke to delays in completion of home renovations.
In this case, the end of the warranty period of the school construction project is coming up. I urge the Minister of Public Works and Services to review this matter and ensure that deficiencies that are the responsibility of the contractor are corrected. Then the students and community can enjoy the safe and comfortable environment they deserve. Then we would be deserving of a full opening ceremony for the community’s dream: the Nahanni Butte gymnasium. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak about the extension of the Ingraham Trail from Tibbett Lake to Lockhart Lake, which is located about 151 kilometres north of Tibbett Lake. This extension also has been referred to as a seasonal overland route into the Slave Geological Province.
Mr. Speaker, there are many reasons why our government should pursue this new road construction. I believe the time is right to get it started. The extension is expected to come in at just under $200 million. This, hopefully, will lead to opportunities for local businesses and contractors to do the work, and also opportunities for training and workforce development. This project also will have to have partners in order to proceed. Industry, the federal government, aboriginal governments and the Government of the Northwest Territories will all need to work together to make this road extension a reality.
It remains to be seen as to what this road would do in terms of potential revenue for the Government of the Northwest Territories, but it will certainly increase the life of the existing mines and exploration. Mr. Speaker, that is the key. Much like the Mackenzie Gas Project, it will be a basin opening project. A road into the heart of the mineral rich Slave Geological Province will open up the area for more exploration and could very well make the difference in whether a mineral deposit becomes economically viable to mine. Mr. Speaker, the potential in the area is absolutely immense.
I have said before that the future of our economy here in the Northwest Territories will depend greatly on resource development and, obviously, the potential development in the Slave Geological Province will hopefully one day help fund future government operations.
Mr. Speaker, as a government, we also need to continue to work with aboriginal governments and the federal government to work out a resource revenue sharing arrangement that is long overdue. Mr. Speaker, given the discussions that are currently underway on the extension of this road into the Slave Geological Province, this resource revenue sharing agreement is much more important today than it ever was before. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe. Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about programs and policies of the NWT Housing Corporation. Having just returned from Fort Resolution, I find that housing is still a big problem with many residents of Tu Nedhe.
Mr. Speaker, I think part of the problem may be changes made a few years ago with the corporation’s housing programs. Unfortunately, when the corporation revised programs from 14 programs down to their current four programs this created a whole new set of problems for housing clients.
Hear! Hear!
According to the corporation at the time of the change, they said the change was driven by the clients. Mr. Speaker, with the amount of housing issues I’ve been working on in my riding, I find this very difficult to believe.
Mr. Speaker, the corporation is in a tough position trying to address a huge arrears collection file while, at the same time, trying to encourage and accommodate homeownership clients and doing so in a stricter context of accountability and efficiency. Mr. Speaker, I feel the corporation needs to be flexible with its approach and needs to work this flexibility into its programs and policies.
When the corporation made these changes, as stated in the press release, the four new programs provided standardized and consistent program requirements. Well, maybe standardization doesn’t work in this case. How can four programs accommodate the needs of over 3,000 families with core needs across this vast Territory?
Mr. Speaker, needs vary from client to client and even from community to community. A program designed to serve the needs in Yellowknife and Hay River will not do the same for clients in Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. The simple fact that some clients will receive huge gains by the market alone while others live in a non-market community says it all.
While I’m saying that although you can see the rationale for the consistent and standard approach for the delivery of programs when it comes to a variety of housing needs in the NWT, the NWT Housing Corporation must be more flexible. Each applicant will present their own unique factors and challenges and, therefore, I feel should be treated as such and assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation is trying to make people eligible for programs as opposed to making programs that can be delivered to the people to take them out of core need. I believe that is the objective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In February 2008 the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation tabled the Auditor General’s Report on the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation’s Public Housing and Homeownership Programs. This report shed light on many shortcomings in the Public Housing Program and made 11 recommendations addressing three major areas of concern: the management of public housing, the management of the Homeownership Program, and the planning and reporting conducted by the NWT Housing Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, my concern today is that these recommendations have not been addressed. What improvements have been seen in NWT public housing for our Territory? In the NWT Housing Corporation’s response to committee’s report on the Auditor General’s performance audit, the corporation stated: “A key element of the NWT Housing Corporation’s response will be a revised framework for action to be released in early 2009.” The document I am referring to was tabled in October 2008. I have yet to see a revised framework for action that specifically details how the corporation plans to address the recommendations from the Auditor General and, certainly, committee.
Another one of the standing committee’s recommendations was the Minister provide periodic updates on the progress of the implementation of the Housing Corporation’s action plan. The corporation agreed to this recommendation, but we need to clarify what this reporting period will be. What progress has been made in the area of rent collection? What is being done to get LHOs out of arrears? What are the results of renewed and upgraded policies and procedures designed to address issues raised by the Auditor General?
A new formal housing appeal mechanism was scheduled for implementation on April 1, 2009. Is this mechanism working well? In the overall picture, what progress is being made in the corporation’s primary mandate of reducing the number of NWT households in core need from housing assistance?
Mr. Speaker, it is a challenging mandate and I acknowledge that, but we need to make sure they are moving in the direction of our goals. We owe our full accountability to public housing clientele and the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We come to these sessions several times a year and express our concerns from our home communities and our region. Some of our concerns are serious in that we bring them up every time we are here, and hoping and demanding the government act upon their commitments.
One of these issues is a lack of counsellors and social workers. Some of the communities never have access to counsellors, social workers, or the system lacks necessary resources and the effort seems unnoticeable, and that seems a shame. All across the Territory, communities, government organizations are saying the same thing: the community’s number one problem is not enough counselling support. As a government, we must provide proper services that are needed in the community. The fact that communities lack real support for people returning from substance abuse treatment.
Centralization of these services does not work. People can no longer go to the Territorial Treatment Centre and then go back to their communities while all of the support systems are in the major centres, Mr. Speaker.
The solution to this is to provide the services in the communities. Social workers and counsellors work in Inuvik and are supposed to be servicing the communities, but when talking to front-line workers in the community, they have never heard of visits of that nature.
What our communities need are facilities that people can go to without the huge paperwork and long waits. A small, fully functional, around-the-clock, fully equipped addictions centre with nurses and counsellors is what we need.
The Beaufort-Delta Social Services Authority and mental health addictions services office have operations in the Inuvik Regional Hospital. The office offers counselling programs for clients, people coping with loved ones dealing with drug and alcohol addictions or other social problems.
In order to receive service, we must see a nurse to be referred to a doctor and wait for the doctor’s visits in the community. People with real problems, and often very complicated problems, have nowhere to go and no one to talk to. This contradicts the commitments made by previous governments and this government.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Capacity building with real social supports is very important and it’s very critical that government commits and delivers the required support, not just deliver the rhetoric on local communities. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is no secret that NWT communities are diverse. They are small, medium and large. They are on the road system and not on the road system. They follow the traditional economy, the modern economy, and sometimes both. Providing services to our communities is a serious challenge for the GNWT given this diversity. It is particularly difficult to ensure that the same services are available in each of our 33 communities.
My colleagues on this side of the House have often spoken to our failure in that regard. But do we, as a government, really know what level of programs and services we should be providing to our residents? Have we established standards for the delivery of programs and services in the NWT? If we have, they haven’t made it to my desk, Mr. Speaker.
We should know what level of service and what programs we want or need to provide. We should have a target level of service, particularly in the areas of health and social services, education, income support, housing and community services, all of the GNWT service departments. For instance, should every community have a nurse and a doctor, a mental health worker, an addictions counsellor? What is the minimum acceptable level of service for our income support and housing programs? Should every community have staff on site or should service be provided by regional office staff? Should every community have a recreation officer and who should take financial responsibility for that position? Should every community have child care available for working parents?
I have no doubt that all of these questions have been considered by various Assemblies at one time or another, but did we get answers? Are the answers documented and in any organized and coordinated way? Have we, as a government, ever looked at the provision of GNWT programs and services across the whole system to determine the must haves, the nice to haves, and then delivered them as allowed by our available finances? I think not and I think we need to do that.
I realize what I am suggesting is a big undertaking, but it is a necessary step. To quote a well used expression, how do we know where we are going if we don’t know where we are? We need to do the work to find out where we are, to determine the standards for our programs, the services required. We owe it to our residents, particularly those in our smaller, isolated communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize my dad. Mike Krutko is in the gallery. He is 94 years young. I noticed he drove over here today. Also, sitting beside my dad is Ed Jeske. Hi, Ed. And a friend of mine from Hay River, Rocky Simpson. Good to see you, Rocky.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to recognize my constituent, Mr. Rocky Simpson from Hay River South and also in the visitor’s gallery today is Al Stan who is with a company called Avro Canadiana up here looking at business opportunities in the North. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, first off, would like to thank the Member for Mackenzie Delta recognizing my two constituents. His father, Mike Krutko, a very well-known Northerner, and certainly Mr. Ed Jeske is a very well-known hockey supporter in this community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
