The complaining about the federal funding, the CMHC declining funding, is an old song and an old dance. I have been a Member for 11 years and I hear about the same story every year, woe is me, declining funding. We have not come up with a new formula, rather than standing here with empty hands going, Ottawa, please give me more.
What new initiatives is this Minister leading to ensure that we get new houses built? Is he working with the private sector? Can he prove that this is actually happening? Frankly, we have seen, on average, no wave of new building and we cannot keep up with the existing demand. What is he doing? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if the Member and I are living in the same territory because I know from the work that we’re doing, we’re getting as many units on the ground as possible. We used the Affordable Housing Initiative a few years ago to get a number of houses on the ground; we’ve converted them to public housing. We are trying to be as innovative as possible, recognizing the fact that we are losing funding. The Member says he has been a Member for 11 years and that has been the complaint for the last 11 years, and it will be the complaint until 2038 when we’re down to zero. So we have to continue to find ways to be sustainable, get houses on the ground, and we have a number of units that are going on the ground. Again, we continue to update Social Programs and get their feedback. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last comment was nothing more than just a shot at me, which I’m fine with, and a promo ad by the Minister. Mr. Speaker, we can’t continue to blame others. In this fiscal cycle we are only going to build less than one unit per community. He has not said one thing about trying to get new units in above the rate we are providing when we’re provided money by CMHC. He’s not telling us how he’s fought with Cabinet to get more money. He has not told us how he’s engaged private sector investment in communities that have no market. I’m not hearing anything innovative. I’m hearing the same old same old.
Would the Minister start talking about something new and useful rather than us sitting here and listening, we’re going to do less than one unit per community. It doesn’t keep pace with family growth, community growth. Mr. Speaker, we will never get on top of this problem under this style of leadership. We need something new.
I think we will get somewhere under this leadership this Assembly. I think we’ve proven that we’ve gotten somewhere. If the Member would have attended some of the Social Programs briefings, he would have been up to date on some of the initiatives that we’re taking and will continue to take them.
It is a struggle to work with Canada on the funding, but we’re not using that as an excuse, we’re trying to meet that head on. We’ve updated Social Programs on some of the initiatives that we’re taking to deal with the declining funding to go to a multi-unit type configuration. We find that would be able to stretch our dollars out a bit more and, also, they’re a lot easier to maintain, cheaper to maintain.
I’m going to get the numbers and I’m going to confirm the numbers, because our investments are strategic. If a community needs more units, then we will distribute some of the resources to that particular community. We have some communities that are fine with their allocation. So, we’ve continued to distribute our resources equally, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Transportation. Over the past fall here, we had some issues with the shipping company, NTCL, and certainly in some of my communities we did not see the full shipment of some of our supplies or fuel into our communities.
I want to ask the Minister of Transportation, has he had any meetings with NTCL to see what was the problem and how can it be rectified so this is not a continuous issue for us every year in the Sahtu or in any other small communities?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have met with NTCL as a Department of Public Works. A lot of the discussion did spill over into my responsibilities as Minister of Transportation. They had offered some solutions to the problem that occurred this year and we’ve agreed to include them in our multi-modal Transportation Strategy. Thank you.
That is good news. I want to know if the Minister, along with NTCL, will have a meeting with the people in the Sahtu on the solutions that they’re talking about, some of the agreements that he’s talked about on the multi-modal of transportation, because people in the Sahtu would certainly be willing to listen and we want to know who’s driving this ship here. Certainly I would welcome the Minister if he can schedule a meeting in the Sahtu with the Sahtu people to talk about the NTCL issues.
More specifically, what are the solutions so that people will not have to have their materials shipped up this summer?
Definitely, the recommendations that were made by NTCL would require a lot of consultation with the people that live along the Mackenzie River. There’s no question about that. The main issue was due to the fact that this year they had record low waters, and often when NTCL monitors the water and they notice the water levels dropping, they’re always comforted with the fact that it usually comes back up in the fall. That didn’t happen this year, so this year we had probably a record low of all time water levels in the Mackenzie River.
That’s why it’s so important to come into the small communities of the Sahtu and talk to us about the solutions. We don’t know, and people in our region are asking, why is the water so low? There was no oil and gas exploration. There were dams that were running low and we had to pay extra millions of dollars to offset the costs for the request for a high percentage of an increase to the power bills.
We want to know from the Minister that NTCL and the Minister, if possible, can come to the Sahtu and talk to them about some of the solutions for barging their supplies into the community. Can the Minister make that commitment?
I should indicate that to navigable waters is not the responsibility of the Government of the Northwest Territories; however, we want to see success, as well, when we are shipping items and fuel down the Mackenzie River, so we will participate as the Department of Transportation, the Department of Public Works and Services, we will participate in any discussions, but I can’t direct NTCL to have discussions with the communities.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
I would certainly hope the Minister would be in contact with NTCL to say, listen, we have an issue here. The government supplies, we don’t know if they all got in. Private industry supplies didn’t get in. Homeowner supplies didn’t get in. Things that didn’t get into the Sahtu certainly affect our people, so I would strongly suggest that the Minister have a conversation with NTCL and say, who’s driving this ship here?
My question is: Is NTCL paying for the freight costs that are affecting my people that have to come in because the ship didn’t go up the Mackenzie River? Our highway was closed.
Like I indicated, we had discussions with NTCL. As a government, we are one of the prime customers of NTCL. We do business with NTCL when we are shipping in the summertime. We do all our ordering in January before the season starts so that we are ready to go. When the first ships leave, then our stuff is on there. This year we did have things and items and some fuel on the ships that were turned around, but those were some of the reserve fuels that we had and some materials that we could get in through other methods.
I wish to table the following document, entitled “Traditional Knowledge Annual Report 2013-2014.”
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Take a Kid Trapping and Harvesting Report 2013-2014.”
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Northwest Territories Housing Corporation Annual Report 2013-2014.”
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, November 3, 2014, I will move the following motion. Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the 17th Legislative Assembly supports the national Aboriginal organizations’ call for a national inquiry and a national roundtable into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls;
And further, that this Assembly supports a national roundtable on missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls to have a national dialogue that will allow all levels of government to work together to identify concrete outcomes that will prevent further violence against Aboriginal women and girls;
And further, that this Assembly supports the efforts of the Premier of the Northwest Territories to help the national Aboriginal organizations facilitate the development of a national roundtable;
And further, that this Assembly urges Premier McLeod to continue his dialogue with the federal government on the proposed roundtable and report back to this House as progress is made;
And furthermore, that the Premier of the Northwest Territories transmit a copy of this motion to all his provincial and territorial counterparts with a request for their consideration of support for a similar House motion.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, November 3, 2014, I will move that Bill 39, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015, be read for the first time.
I also give notice that on Monday, November 3, 2014, I will move that Bill 40, Appropriation Act, (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2015-2016, be read for the first time.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 34, 2015 Polling Day Act, be read for the first time.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Bill 34 has had first reading.
---Carried
Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act; Bill 27, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2014; Bill 29, Human Tissue Donation Act; Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act; Bill 32, An Act to Amend the Pharmacy Act; Committee Report 7-17(5), Report on the Development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development Strategies, with Mr. Bouchard in the chair.
Good morning, committee. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act, Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act, and Bill 27, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2014.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. We will reconvene after a short break.
---SHORT RECESS
I will call committee back to order. We are reviewing Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act. I will go to the Minister responsible. Minister Beaulieu, do you have opening remarks?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have some opening comments. Mr. Chairman, I’m pleased to be here today to discuss Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act. This bill proposes three amendments to the Public Service Act to simplify human resource management for the benefit of our employees.
A range of legislation, policy, Collective Agreement terms and conditions of employment, human rights and labour law governs human resource management in the public service. This provides a transparent, balanced approach to ensure employees and managers understand their responsibilities and rights.
Through the Bill 30 amendments, I believe we created an efficient and sensible approach for employees to fulfill the government’s duty to accommodate obligations, meet the government’s commitment to retain employees affected by layoff and realize the Chief Electoral Officer’s recommendation to eliminate a perceived conflict of interest for those employees interested in seeking political candidacy.
During the standing committee’s review of the bill, concerns were expressed on impacts to employees and members of the public interested in GNWT employment. Bill 30 does not change our established commitments. Public service employees’ rights and responsibilities remain unchanged. It does not expand the power of the GNWT to appoint individuals without competition. GNWT managers act responsibly within the legal and policy frameworks provided in the best interest of their employees and the public service as a whole.
Bill 30 simplifies and fine tunes the existing legal mechanisms we use to accomplish our accommodation and staff retention goals.
I would be pleased to answer any questions Members have today. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Now I’ll go to the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Government Operations has been considering Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act. The purpose of this bill is to enact three changes to the Public Service Act:
to remove the potential for conflict of interest in the process of granting a leave to an employee who wishes to run for elected office by shifting the authority to grant such leave request from the Minister responsible for the Public Service to the deputy minister;
to permit employees who have been identified for layoff to be placed in vacant positions without disrupting their continuous employment status as the act currently requires;
to expedite the appointment of employees in order for the government to fulfill its legal duty to accommodate someone who has been impacted by illness or injury.
The committee has no concerns with the amendment that proposes to shift the authority to the deputy minister to grant the leave requests for the purpose of political candidacy. This change is consistent with the recommendation made by the Chief Electoral Officer and his report on the administration of the 2011 General Election and subsequently concurred with the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures.
The committee is, however, divided in its support for the remainder of this bill because there are aspects of the remaining two proposed amendments that some members of the committee find troubling. Nonetheless, the committee completed a clause-by-clause review of the bill on October 16, 2014. Following the committee’s review, a motion was carried to report Bill 30 to the Assembly as ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole.
This concludes the committee’s opening comments on Bill 30. Individual committee members may have additional questions or comments as we proceed. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. I will ask the Minister, Mr. Beaulieu, do you have witnesses to bring into the House?
Mr. Chair, I do.
