This is one of the reasons that making the amendments to the Commissioner’s Land Act requiring security deposits would have helped us in recovering some of those costs. As far as the actual going after the contractors, I haven’t had that discussion and once I have a discussion with my officials, I’ll meet with the Member and relay those on to her. Thank you.
I hate to tell the Minister I told you so, but I’m afraid I have to because that certainly was mentioned by Members on this side of the House before the amendments to the Commissioner’s Land Act came into force, that we really ought to have security for things such as these.
I’d like to know if the Minister could advise if we do find that there’s some value, if we do find that we can get somebody to remove these buildings and equipment for us, how much is that going to cost us. Thank you.
During this winter we’re going to find a feasible solution for the removal of those assets and if we can work with somebody that can get rid of them at minimal cost to the GNWT. As far as an actual dollar figure, I’m not able to provide that right now. Once we have the discussion with the engineering firm, I think we’d be in a better position to have a bit of a dollar figure, but the bottom line is to try and remove these assets with minimal costs to the GNWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for his comments and I appreciate that he’s saying it’s going to be at minimal cost to us as a government. We’ve already incurred some costs; we’re going to incur more, from the sounds of things. I guess I would like to know from the Minister that should we not find a company who can remove these buildings for us, the bottom line is, is the government on the hook to pay for the cleanup of this particular mine site? Thank you.
As far as the actual mine site, we’d have to work with INAC -- because it is kind of a multi-jurisdictional issue -- on the actual cleanup of the mine site. The infrastructure I think is what’s in question here. I suppose if we were unable to find a contractor to remove those, then we’d have to go from there and see what actually it might cost us as a government to remove all of the old infrastructure, because they are starting to age and the longer we delay it, the more dangerous it becomes to have that infrastructure out there. So it is one that we’re hoping to have by the end of this winter, a plan as to how we’re going to deal with it and I’d be willing to share that with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague Mr. Ramsay’s questions about the potential savings to this government by bulk purchasing pharmaceuticals for people in the Northwest Territories.
I have a great idea for the Minister, one that will save the government a lot of money. Mr. Speaker, I think we can all agree that the private sector can do almost anything cheaper than the government can. In Hay River we have a long-established business called Medical Surgical Supply. It is owned and operated by two registered nurses with extensive experience in the Arctic and in small communities. At the present time they purchase pharmaceutical and surgical and medical supplies. They then redistribute these to clients, health centres, hospitals and facilities throughout the Northwest Territories. If the government were going to go to this bulk purchasing idea and this process, this might necessarily require some kind of infrastructure in order to receive and distribute these bulk purchased supplies.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Health, rather than putting a long-established business like the one in Hay River out of business, wouldn’t it be a good idea for the government to consider contracting them on a cost-plus basis to perform this service on behalf of the GNWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That would be one idea that we would need to look into and I’m willing to do that.
The general idea behind finding savings from bulk purchasing is so that a smaller jurisdiction like the NWT could partner with as many provinces as possible. The one that we’re aiming for is the western provinces. This is happening nationally, but provinces like Ontario are big enough that they can find their own efficiencies by doing their own things. The NWT is signed on with the western provinces to see the big ticket items, probably ones not even a small business in the North could buy, but to be a part of the bigger purchasing power so that we can find some savings. We have a lot of work to do on that yet. We have to get all of the authorities in the NWT to agree.
Obviously we need to see how our private sector could play and what role they could play. I would certainly be interested in looking at that.
I know that in the past there was some thought given to putting this function of purchasing pharmaceuticals and medical supplies under the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority and having it actually done through Stanton. Again, no offence to the government, but I submit to you that the private sector could do this cheaper. If this were a function taken on by the government, trust me, it would grow. It would become a massive operation. The thing that is also necessary is when we’re sending out to small nursing stations, they don’t need a hundred or a thousand of certain things. The idea is to understand their needs, break the packaging down, know the best way to transport and get it there. This is knowledge which is already established with this company.
I’d like to ask the Minister, does she agree that that kind of specialized service could be more efficiently provided by the private sector than a government agency?
I understand what the Member is saying and, in fact, I visited that outlet that exists in Hay River. I do believe they already supply a lot of centres in the Northwest Territories. I will make a commitment to the Member and this House that we will definitely factor that in and do a cost-benefit analysis. I would have to do a lot of work with the Members in the next coming weeks to have the analysis done and how we can find savings and wherever possible we need to bring our NWT suppliers into play. I would be happy to come forward with a proposal.
I am suggesting a process that would be cost-plus. We would still, as a government, realize the savings of the bulk purchasing because it would be a predetermined additional cost for the administration and provision of the service. Does the government at this time procure any other supplies on a cost-plus basis under such a plan?
First of all I should clarify that I don’t believe there is a system in place or idea in place that Yellowknife Health or Stanton will purchase for everybody. Right now we have a bit of patchwork going on and this is why we have been discussing that at the Joint Leadership Council. We need to work as a group. We need to agree that we need to purchase together. And wherever possible we would use local resources.
There are other things like pharmaceutical drugs that are used in the hospitals, for example. I think the outlet in Hay River deals with supplies. Purchasing drugs, health centres and hospitals would be doing on their own. We have a lot of work to do in coming out with the details of that.
I would once again commit to do an analysis and put a plan together, and I will be reviewing that with the Standing Committee on Social Programs as we move forward.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In Hay River we do have infrastructure already in place. We have a lower operating overhead than you would have in other places in terms of costs. We are very accessible, from a transportation network point of view, to get product out. If the Minister would contemplate going to a request for proposal on this, then all of these things could be brought to bear in considering an option. Also the management and capabilities of the proponents that would actually be delivering the service, these are important things. It’s one thing to just re-box stuff and ship it off to wherever; it’s another thing to know what those front-line workers are doing and have that experience firsthand. Would an RFP be a potential way of looking at getting some information back to the government on the potential for this idea?
That would definitely be one way of doing it. Thus far different health authorities have been putting out their own RFPs. There is more than one business, I believe, in the Territories who does that. What we would be looking at would be doing an RFP for larger and more than one authority at once. It’s a detail that we need to work out, but it’s something that needs a lot more attention and a lot more detailed analysis and I will undertake to do that.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to talk today about A Shared Responsibility that’s going to be tabled later today. Once again, I think it’s a great step forward. I’m curious, though, has the department, has the Minister developed a comprehensive evaluation framework so that we can actually assess over time whether or not -- the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, yes -- it’s actually working. Has an evaluation framework been developed to go along with this plan?
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. An evaluation form will come out of this framework that’s going to be before us. We seriously want to monitor each and every recommendation that is brought forward and the program changes that we will be making within our Department of Education. So it’s all preliminary right now, the recommendations that are before us today. Definitely evaluations will be part of the process.
That’s good to hear. We’ve been here before. We’ve had plans to revitalize aboriginal languages in the North before and I think this is a very good one. It’s building upon some of the successes we’ve had in the past.
Over the last 10 years the number of aboriginal people that identify their aboriginal language as their mother tongue has decreased as has the number of people using it in their homes. What I’m curious about, specifically when it comes to an evaluation framework, is will the department be collecting information on mother tongue and home language as well as the ability to diverse so that we can actually calculate language shift in the Northwest Territories to see that we are getting results. If there’s no mechanism to track whether the mother tongue numbers are going up and the home language numbers are going up, we won’t be able to determine whether in fact what we’ve done is working. Will that type of information be collected as we move forward with this plan?
I agree with the Member that we need to have a mechanism in place for the tracking and monitoring and evaluating of our programming. We want this strategy, the plan, to be successful. I believe the Member did indicate that this will be part of the legacy that we’ll leave behind for years to come. Revitalizing our languages, there will definitely be a mechanism in place to monitor it every step of the way.
Once again thanks to the Minister. It sounds like we’re agreeing. I would like the Minister to commit to actually putting in some system to track the aboriginal language shift over time, which means collecting things like the number of individuals who identify their aboriginal languages as their mother tongue and those that also indicate they’re using it as their home language. I think tracking the language shift every two or three years could actually be an important indicator to evaluate if the revitalization measures put in place are successful. I think we both want the same thing. I think everybody wants the same thing. We want these aboriginal languages to be healthy and strong. If I can get him to commit to tracking that specific type of information, I really feel that those indicators will help us to determine success in the long run.
The aboriginal languages will likely see some shift, because we want this to work. At the same time, we need to gather the information. We have done that along with the package that we have before us. Mr. Krutko did mention numbers as well that are out there that we have used so far. We will be monitoring that and collecting more data over the next two or three years. We need the committees, the language specialists, committee experts, the community members to provide that information as well. We will be working closely with the community. My department will be working with the Members as well as the communities very closely, a monitoring mechanism.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to speak in regard to the revitalization of languages and the language groups that aren’t classified as critically endangered, like the Gwich’in language and Inuvialuktun. I think we do have to take immediate action. I think we have to take giant steps to get there. I think one of the immediate things that we can establish is an action plan to deal with the Gwich’in Revitalization Program. I’d like to ask the Minister what we are doing to work with those groups that find themselves in the situation that their language is classified as critical or endangered so that we can implement some action plans immediately.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I think that’s the very reason why we’re here today producing this package. It has over 70 recommendations. We have done some work with respect to preserving our language and revitalizing our language. We have programs that have been implemented, the ALCIP program. I think we need to do more. Part of the documentation that is going to be provided speaks to immersion programming, elders in schools, specialists in schools on our language, teachers that speak the language. We need to produce those important people, the resources. We have done some work in that area but we’ll continue to do more, especially with a plan that will be before us for the next few years. Definitely we want to make it a successful project.
I believe it is critical that we do have some sort of central language development institute of some sort in the Northwest Territories. When you talk about aboriginal language it’s more than a language learning program, it’s also looking at the whole area of translating services, training services for language teachers and instructors in those language programs. I think it’s essential that whatever programs and services we do deliver are useable. That is one of the downfalls that you see of a lot of languages. You can see the strong language groups in the Northwest Territories such as the Tlicho or the Slavey in the different regions. It is because they use their language on a day-to-day basis. That is one of the critical downfalls of the languages, pressures that a lot of these language groups are under. I’d like to ask the Minister what we are doing to revitalize the language groups and impress on the importance of using those languages.
I’d like to focus on what we are going to be doing with the new package. We had the Language Institute here this past summer. That’s part of the strategy that’s been highlighted, that we need to deliver more language programming into the region and the communities to the people. That’s what we’re doing. Not only that, but it also captures Dene fonts onto our computers throughout the system, integrated language curriculum and immersion programming. Those are the key factors that are within the package.
I think, as we move forward, most of the concerns and discussions that were brought forward over the years by Assembly Members will be captured in this document and utilize community expertise such as elders and language specialists. We need their guidance and support. We also need the support of the Regular Members to make it a very successful project. We’ll continue to do so.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I spoke about how I look forward to the Aboriginal Languages Plan. However, I also mentioned that immersion programs lead to success in many languages. Not only aboriginal languages but throughout other jurisdictions immersion programs really work and they tend to support the local languages. I’d just like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment how many aboriginal immersion programs we have in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the exact number before me, but within the region I believe we offer… Within the three regions, but I have to get the facts for the Member, because I need to highlight the correct information that I can provide to the Member.
The vision that I shared earlier was that I’d like to see our aboriginal communities, of course, begin immersion programs. Even in our smallest communities it would be ideal, and a lot of our smaller communities, the majority are speaking an aboriginal language, like the community of Trout Lake. I don’t want to anticipate the Aboriginal Languages Plan, Mr. Speaker, but I’d like to ask the Minister, is there a current strategy to look at starting up immersion programs throughout our jurisdiction? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think we need to focus on what we have before us today. It is part of the package and we are going to start implementing that. The language immersion in all schools, that is also our vision, starting from early childhood. Not only that, but we’ve heard over and over, even in the Sahtu region, the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, that there was a language that was spoken that we need to start from home. Parents need to talk to their kids at home. The teachers are there as a resource tool, but at the same time some teachers don’t speak the language. So it has to come from home. We are trying to produce more aboriginal speaking teachers, as well, with the credentials. There are some immersion programs in the regions, but we want to do more. This package will allow us to do that and work with the communities as well. Mr. Speaker, this package has fingerprints of all the Northwest Territories and it is a package of the Northwest Territories and we want to make it a successful project. Mahsi.
When I speak about immersion programs is where we’ll actually be teaching the children from K to 3 in an aboriginal language. Do we have a current program such like that in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Yes, we do. We provide immersion programs in some of the regions, probably not all regions as we wish that we could do, but we are working towards that. We’ve been given the direction, the guidance and also the support to deliver that. At the kindergarten level, or even earlier than that, the Head Start Program has been successful as well. Those are the discussions that we’ve had throughout the Northwest Territories and now we need to start implementing the total package that will be before us. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to see that we are working on something. I don’t know if there’s an evaluation available on some of these programs, but that’s certainly something that I would like to see completed. As well, as we move forward with immersion programs, does the direction come from the Minister’s office or is that work, again, with the education councils? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve always respected working closely with the education councils and I will continue to do so. We cannot do this alone, implement this strategy. Definitely I will be seeking some guidance and support from the education councils and the Members as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue with some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services related to the other questions that I had for her. The Minister spoke earlier of all the good things that under her watch the department has been doing. If the Minister has been addressing the root causes of these deficits over her three-year reign as Health Minister, like the underfunding, the unfunded positions, the growing costs for medical supplies and equipment, billing issues, unwieldy accounts receivables, and governance structure, then why do the deficits continue to spiral out of control at our health authorities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
