I would like to recognize two of our Sahtu Pages from Fort Good Hope, Melina Tobac and Taylor Kaskamin, and all the other Pages doing a wonderful job taking care of us. I would also like to recognize some of the constituents from the Sahtu, Pauline Roche and Betty Grandjambe; and also a resident now of Yellowknife, Laura Tutcho; and also the other language members who are doing our good work, specifically Agnes Kuptana and Samuel Hearne schoolmate Cathy Cockney and also the chief of Ndilo. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, as well, would like to take an opportunity to recognize some constituents, an opportunity that doesn’t often befall out-of-Yellowknife MLAs, Vance Sanderson, Leah Desjarlais and Ria Coleman. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I would like to welcome all the visitors here in the gallery today. Thank you for taking the time to come watch our daily proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up with my statement earlier today with questions to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. We are making some progress on transitional housing here in Yellowknife. We have the Bailey House, transitional housing run by the YWCA, and the Betty House is under construction.
Could the Minister remind us what the Housing Corporation’s understanding of the purpose of these transitional housing units is? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The purpose of these transitional houses is to get people to transition, if they’re homeless or if they need a temporary place, to move into transitional housing, from there either try to get into the public housing or market housing or homeownership. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. That’s my understanding too. The clients that are accepted into transitional housing are generally not well off financially. They may have even been homeless in the recent past.
Given that situation, where does the Minister think that these people are going to transition to after just a few months? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. The people that are in these units, our hope is to see them transition, I think, in most cases, into the public housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, these people are trying to turn their lives around. They have taken the first steps, but then they find themselves at a dead end.
Could the Minister confirm that the Housing Corporation has integrated its programs with the Transitional Housing programs, and that clients in transitional housing will be prioritized for appropriate public housing above the clients who are homeless who could then be put into transitional housing? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, as far as prioritizing them, we have a point rating system to get into public housing. There are a number of things that are taken into consideration: crowding of their current housing, the housing condition that they are living in now, affordability of their current housing. There are also some other factors that are taken into consideration like the income, the length of time that they’ve been on the waiting list and whether they are a victim of family violence or have a disability or any kind of health condition. There are a number of factors that are taken into consideration when the local public housing authorities do the point rating system, and obviously being in a transitional home, they would be point rated like everyone else because we have to ensure that all factors are taken into consideration when public housing is being allocated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
The result is that those in transitional housing have to choose to be homeless and put themselves in very risky situations in order to get on the public housing list.
The Housing Corporation has a new program to assist with rental payments, which is great, but I was surprised to learn that clients that pay $1,400 per month to live in the YWCA’s rental units are not eligible. It is hardly surprising that people end up leaving the territory.
Again, why is the Housing Corporation setting up barriers to people who are trying to transition to a better life?
People have to realize that by making themselves homeless, I mean, they’re still given certain points, but I would encourage people not to make themselves homeless thinking that it gives them an opportunity to get to the top of the list because, as I’ve said before, there are many factors that we take into consideration.
I don’t believe that the Housing Corporation puts up barriers. I think, if anything, the Housing Corporation eliminates some of those barriers by having people more eligible for a lot of the programs that we have. With the Rent Supplement Program, it’s a fantastic program and we’re having good uptake on it across the Northwest Territories. It’s for market rental, and the folks in some of these transition homes, the homes are already subsidized. We provide some assistance to these homes, so it’s more geared towards the market rental side of it.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on Aboriginals and Northerners getting employment with our government. More specifically, constituents are contacting me. They’re telling me that a lot of the entry-level positions, they seem to be overqualified as well as they’re being screened out because they’re not being credited for their years of service. I understand, and perhaps the Minister of Human Resources can answer the question, when they have years of service it kind of qualifies for education equivalency. Maybe the Minister can explain that to me.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Directly related experience sometimes can be used as equivalencies. When the departments do a job description, in the process of advertising a position then they put in the qualifications, and the minimum qualifications are used to advertise jobs, so an individual that has lot of experience but no education, if the experience they have accumulated over the years of public service is not directly related or does not enhance their possibility of doing the position that’s being advertised then those qualifications would not be considered equivalencies.
The Minister touched on it briefly. It’s still not clear. Is it three years of experience is equivalent to some type of education level or programming or degree? Perhaps the Minister can answer that.
With our Regional Recruitment Strategy, if there is directly related experience, that would be then viewed very closely by the department and the Department of Human Resources when developing equivalencies for a position. If an individual is applying for a job in accounting and does have directly related accounting experience but maybe not the education, then we may use the Regional Recruitment Strategy, and the department may say that this directly related experience would be considered an equivalency, and then that person could be put in the job at that point. But it’s very difficult to speak on this issue unless it’s very specific, because some things may appear to be directly related but there may be some specifics in the actual job description that do not directly fit, but that is what we’re trying to achieve. Thank you.
The Minister somewhat clearly described the process of equivalencies, but my issue is that I have three files in my constituency where people have been screened out. They do have the years of experience, some certification. More specifically, it was an accounting clerk position, an entry-level position in our government yet they wanted three years of business management and a bunch of experience. No wonder people are frustrated with trying to get a job within our government.
Can the Minister explain why entry-level jobs have such a high qualification? I know that when somebody gets into a job, they learn the environment, they learn their job, they can be very good employees, but it’s a matter of getting our people in the door. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the departments across the GNWT use the Hay Plan system to evaluate jobs. Essentially when there is a job that is required and the department has put out a job description, that job is then matched with what type of qualifications would be needed in advance, before the job is ever advertised.
Our goal – and we are actively trying to develop that goal – is to try to match the individuals in the communities to these jobs as much as possible. It is unfortunate that so many people that feel they have qualifications and may be close to what they’re applying for are being screened out. We would certainly like to hear specifically about those. We know we’ve heard of a couple that we’re working on now to determine exactly what has occurred, but the idea is exactly what the Member is requesting, that we would bring people that have qualifications that are close, not exactly matching, to train them, using regional recruitment to train them to bring them into those positions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess another issue that’s directly related to this is that we have 570 job vacancies in our government, 21 of them in Fort Simpson alone, but it appears that there are three or four of them advertised. Those impacted employees who are going through the shared services reorganization certainly have first priority at those. The Aboriginals and Northerners in my communities want to apply on jobs but they’re limited. There are 21 positions in Simpson.
What are the Minister and this government doing about getting those jobs out in the public system and getting people to apply on them? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m working with the Department of HR to deal with all of the departments. We are taking a very close look at what’s happening with 575 positions that are to be staffed.
As the Member can appreciate, we can’t put 571 jobs out there at some stage of vacancy. Some would be just recently vacant. Well, that was back in October, but when you take a snapshot, some have been recently vacant and not out for advertisement yet. Some are going through advertisement, some are being temporarily filled by a casual, a transfer assignment, or some are in the offer stage and some are waiting for an appeal. So there is a spectrum that we have to look at the 571 positions, but we are working with the departments and we are confident that departments are moving through all of those positions and trying to fill them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I was asking about Moose Kerr School, so I have questions for the Minister of Education. As I mentioned, the school is 45 years old and built around the time that asbestos was used in many of the buildings.
I’d like to ask the Minister, has the school been tested for asbestos? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We work closely with PWS when it comes to these assets in the communities such as schools. There is scheduled regular maintenance and upgrades to the educational facilities, so they remain in good standing. We have to be up to code on all schools. So if there is such an asbestos issue, then we would be proactive and work on it with PWS and put in mitigating measures to deal with that.
At this point, it hasn’t been brought to my attention if it is an issue, but those are just some of the areas we are working closely on with PWS. Mahsi.
As I mentioned, the school is 45 years old. So I’d like to ask the Minister, at what point do these schools or any other buildings get replaced? Thank you.
This particular school was built and constructed in 1969. Again, there was a major, major retrofit in 1999 and since 2008, 2012 we’ve spent well over $2 million upgrading this facility. So we are on top of the renovation.
But at the same time, first on a typical capital planning cycle, Moose Kerr School will be scheduled for replacement or renovation in 2019. That is the overall plan and this is 20 years from the date of the last major renovation. Mahsi.
I see that the Minister has said that this building is due for replacement in 2019. So I’d like to ask the Minister, is the school on the red flag list? Thank you.
As I mentioned earlier, it is scheduled for replacement or renovation in 2019. This is an area that we need to work on the Member. We’ll continue to work with the DEA pertaining to that.
When the time is close, we’ll definitely work towards that as part of the capital planning process. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
It has been identified over the last couple of years here that we need to do things differently. One thing we’re lacking in our small communities is quality education like automotives and carpentry and welding, those kinds of facilities in our schools. I’d like to ask the Minister, will he ensure that that building is replaced and have those facilities at hand? Thank you.
Those are discussions that we will be having through the education renewal innovation. As you know, one of the pillars is to focus on small communities. The discussions we’re going to be having today until we develop the action plan with the work of the DEAs and the Aboriginal leadership, this is an area that will be targeted, the small community schools. By this summer we should have a clear idea of which communities we’ll be working closely with pertaining to these schools, what kind of programs should be delivered, upgrading and enhancing our programming. It will be part of the education renewal innovation process when we develop the action plan.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA. I talked about the hard work and the efforts of the many volunteers in the Northwest Territories. Is there a register that lists the volunteers in the North?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our volunteers are a very important part of communities as the Member pointed out. Through my role as Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs we have an opportunity to recognize a lot of the hard work that the volunteers are doing through the award program we have every year and this year we’ll be having it during the NWTAC again. Nominations come in, people nominate a lot of their local volunteers and then we honour them at the NWTAC’s annual general meeting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Certainly, it’s a good thing that this government, through this department, does celebrate and recognize the many volunteers in the Northwest Territories.
Is there a registered list of volunteers per region or the Northwest Territories as a whole, so we know how many people are registered as a volunteer for the many events that they volunteer for throughout the Northwest Territories?
As far as a territorial-wide volunteers list, not to my knowledge is there anything like that that exists; however, in every community for local events they do know within the community who is always volunteering for different events. As far as a territorial-wide list, I don’t know of one. Thank you.
The reason why I’ve asked for a registered volunteer list is because we are so busy throughout the year with the hand games in Whati or Tulita or Fort Good Hope, or tournaments we have throughout the year in Inuvik, Norman Wells or Deline or Yellowknife or Hay River that at the end of the year we can see the number of volunteers that contributed to making these events successful. That way we can get a percentage of the number of volunteers that we have in our communities, regions and even the Northwest Territories.
I want to know if that is something the Minister would consider through his department as to a registered list of volunteers for NWT events.
Again, that would be something that would be awfully difficult to do because if you got a territorial-wide volunteers list, I think a lot of people would have trouble putting their name on it because they do volunteer a lot in their community. Within the different regions across the Northwest Territories, they have volunteers that help out with all events that take place. Again, as I said before, everyone in the communities and regions know who the pool of volunteers is.
I must also point out – and I failed to mention it before – MACA just announced last year at the NWTAC AGM in Hay River, we support communities, honouring their volunteers with $1,000 to help go towards some kind of a community event. I know there are some volunteers who take advantage of it and some communities that do an excellent job of honouring people in their community. I think that’s something we try to encourage as a department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
