Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Her Worship Mayor Tina Gargan and also the following former residents of Fort Providence, Doris Camsell, Cheryl Bonnetrouge and Cecile Deneyoua. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish to acknowledge Her Worship Tina Gargan. We’ve been friends since we were kids, and when we were kids she showed leadership qualities, and clearly she’s demonstrating the ones we could always see. I’d like to thank her for coming today. I believe we have two constituents from Yellowknife Centre, Lorraine Phaneuf and Annemieke Mulders. I’d like to welcome them both. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Like I always say, it’s always so good to see our youth when they come to the capital to take in our proceedings. Mr. Menicoche said it perfectly, you are our future, stay in school and keep doing what you’re doing. I’d like to welcome all visitors in our public gallery. Thanks for taking an interest in our proceedings here today in the House.
Item 6, acknowledgements. Colleagues, I’m going to call a break.
---SHORT RECESS
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources in follow-up on my Member’s statement on the 21st of February and some questions then.
I believe it was two weeks ago today that I described the stalled effort to create an independent oversight body to watchdog the Giant Mine Remediation Project. I pointed out there were six drafts of an oversight discussion paper and eight drafts of an environmental agreement. The work is dead in the water and the working group hasn’t met since August.
On February 21st the Minister committed to direct his department and encourage our federal partners to get the work going. Nothing has happened. What has the Minister done on this and when will the working group be contacted and called together again? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve taken that discussion in the House. The Member also put in written questions that we are looking at responding to. We are having the discussions. Once we’re through this budget process, we’ll be able to pay more attention to the matters of the day. I have been thoroughly occupied here in the House, so there hasn’t been a lot that’s happened out of my office other than the initial contact with the department at this juncture. Thank you.
I will await the Minister getting in gear. Since the close of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review public hearings, the board has taken the uncommon step of opening up the public record again with the request to the developers – that’s us – for further information on the plan to dump toxic waters into Back Bay. Apparently the board is determined that the project proposal contains insufficient information to make wise decisions on this dilution of pollution solution.
Can the Minister update us on our activities to provide this solution and whether we will push to have this project element removed in favour of complete water treatment if the results prove unsatisfactory? Thank you.
Thank you. The Member has quoted a number of technical issues at some length and I don’t have it before me. So I will get in gear and I will take that question as notice. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the elders’ wisdom and their discussions with me and I want to ask the Minister responsible for Seniors regarding helping out elders in our small communities. It seems that the elders are really in need of some tender loving care and I want to ask the Minister are there any type of discussions within his department, with his colleagues to review looking at the role of the Minister responsible for Seniors and put some real dollars behind that department? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister for NWT Seniors, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. As Minister responsible for Seniors, I don’t have a specific budget under that ministry. However, I have access to budgets within the other departments. So far I’ve been meeting with the NWT Seniors’ Society, the group have fairly regular contact with the Seniors’ Society, and their requests come through me, and then I take those requests and go back to the various departments depending on which department they’re making a request of. So we are engaging the Seniors’ Society definitely. Thank you.
Thank you. That being the case, I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s willing to continue to work with his colleagues, but also maybe come to a point of asking his colleagues saying I need some money, I’m out there begging the Department of Education, MACA, Housing, you know, I need to have some money in my own budget so I can take care of the seniors the way I think they need to be taken care of The Minister has heard a lot of complaints from me about the seniors and I want to know when will this Minister get a pot of money to help our elders rather than go and beg the other Ministers to help him out, to help the seniors? This is ludicrous. Thank you.
Thank you. As the current structure is set up, we do go through the budget process, business planning process, and within the provisions of those business plans and those budgets there are seniors programs from the various departments. So if there is a consideration that those budgets would be pooled and put under the Ministry of Seniors, then that’s something that we would have to have a discussion not only with Cabinet, but I think an open discussion with the entire Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister if he will start that discussion with his colleagues, with the Assembly within the life of this government, start putting together some discussions, some option papers, to see that the Minister of Seniors can have some type of authority, some leverage of funding just like the Native Women’s Association or the youth or the Women’s Secretariat. We’ve got to have some money for the elders secretariat. The elders need that. So I want to ask the Minister is he willing to commit, within the life of this government, to put some discussion papers, have a discussion with us and do what’s right for the elders?
Thank you. In all fairness, we do fund the Seniors’ Society, the territorial society as well as the local seniors’ societies, but I am prepared to have the discussion at the Member’s request. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister indicate to me, make a commitment within this time frame before the next business planning cycle, to come to the House with some discussion papers as to how we could look at creating an elders secretariat that would be fully responsible just for the elders in the North?
Mr. Speaker, yes, I will work towards producing a discussion paper to be shared not only with Cabinet, but the rest of the Legislative Assembly, on looking at consolidating budgets under my responsibility as Minister of Seniors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Item 8, written questions. Sorry. I never saw any hands. Mr. Nadli.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I made a statement in terms of kidney disease and how it affects the human body system, but more so to try to highlight people’s knowledge of a very critical part of the human body and how it is a disease that can affect one’s health. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
What is Deh Cho Health and Social Services doing in the small communities to raise awareness of kidney disease and how to avoid it? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working with the health and social services authorities right across the region. We are compiling some diabetes work which will be completed this month, or I suppose has been completed, and we’re trying to put the rest of the program together to expand out. We did the pilot projects in Norman Wells and the Yellowknife Health and Social Services, and Tlicho Community Services Agency in Behchoko, and the intention is to try to develop a diabetes program that can be applied right across the territory to all of the communities in the NWT. Thank you.
How does the department get the information to people whose first language is an Aboriginal language, mainly in Slavey for my part of the region? I also recognize this is an official language in the NWT.
Mr. Speaker, definitely, language and culture is a huge part of our diabetes work. In fact, we work with the home care…(inaudible)…Canadian Health under the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative. We get funding from that and the work is more or less in the chronic disease prevention. So this is the work we do. We specifically get money for the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative, so language and culture would be very important in the delivery of that specific program. Thank you.
How prepared are small community nursing stations to diagnose and monitor kidney disease, especially in small communities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the case of where diabetes gets to a point where there is dialysis needed, as an example, we have a couple of options. They have dialysis in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and I believe we have dialysis in Inuvik, although I don’t know that specifically off the top of my head. In addition to that there are people who have diabetes in small communities who cannot travel to these centres, like the requirement to have the dialysis three times a week. Sometimes the other option is to train members of their family to assist them right in their hometown. We have some of that as well. As far as preparedness goes, I suppose, as they try to train through home care they provide assistance to people to deal with diabetes, as prepared as they can be for the onset of diabetes.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The major push for this Assembly is to try to put some preventative programs to ensure northern residents live a healthier lifestyle. The Minister indicated that there are pilot projects in several communities to become more aware of the affliction of kidney disease and ensure that it remains healthy. He’s also stated the programs that more likely will be unveiled at some point. Can the Minister tell exactly when those programs may be delivered?
As a result of the program, the plan is to release the final evaluation next month in April 2013. Then in collaboration with the chronic disease management people, we’re hoping that once we release the report that we will start to develop a framework through the Healthy Choices Framework and Health Promotion to start to deliver the program soon after that. I would anticipate that sometime this summer or this fall we will roll out the programs as a result of those pilots that we had run.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier. I would like to follow up on the questions that I addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services yesterday and the concept of policy by commitment. I gave an example yesterday of two statements made in the House by two different Health Ministers referencing a policy which was not written and not part of the Cabinet sanctioned official policy. I would like to know from the Premier, when a Minister makes a commitment in the House, if he could explain to me and explain to Members what kind of weight that carries. What does it mean when a commitment is made here in the House?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess it depends which government you’re referring to. If it was made in previous Assemblies and it was inaccurate, I don’t see how anyone could expect it to be a commitment that would have to be followed up at this Assembly, especially if it was an incorrect statement.
If a Minister does provide information in response to questions in the House, and the Minister does provide information which is incorrect, and we as Members are advised of something that is incorrect, who is responsible? Will that Member then be advised that the information is correct and will that information then be corrected? Is it the responsibility of the Minister and/or Cabinet to correct it for us?
I guess my understanding of various interpretations of this House is if you believe it to be correct, it doesn’t necessarily have to be true. But if you make a statement and it’s obviously incorrect, then I guess what I expect would happen is that you would want to correct your statement at the first possible opportunity so that you don’t want to be seen as providing incorrect statements to this Assembly.
Thanks to the Premier. That’s good. I would like to see that. If a statement is made and a Minister or a Member believes it to be true – Ministers in particular, if it’s a policy commitment – what action takes place on the part of either Cabinet or staff to follow through and ensure that that information is correct or not?
I guess, first of all, we don’t go back and review all of the Hansard to make sure there were no incorrect statements. But going forward, if we have staff that track Hansard to make sure that if there are incorrect statements that are not consistent with government policy, they bring it to our attention, either to the individual Minister or to Cabinet. Then we take the appropriate action to make sure that the statements that we make are accurate, correct, and up to date.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Premier. I wasn’t going backwards. I was referring to the current Assembly. The Premier said that action would be taken. Does that action involve informing the Member that the information in the House is incorrect and advising the Member of what the correct information is?
Generally, the individual Ministers that make commitments, their departments will bring it to their attention. In other cases where we have Cabinet Ministers that have experience in the different departments and if they become aware of it, then we would bring it to the Minister’s attention. Then we would deal with it appropriately.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
