Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions for the Minister of the social envelope today, Minister Abernethy. The Minister has been working hard on an Anti-Poverty Strategy and more recently an Anti-Poverty Action Plan. The strategy and plan are based around five pillars.
Could the Minister explain which pillar addresses the poverty traps that are built into our income security programs that I’ve been talking about for the last three days? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have the Member’s comments and I appreciate his perspective. I agree that we need to do more to support the individuals, to break down the barriers to keep them out of poverty. We do have five pillars: children and family support, healthy living and reaching our potential, safe and affordable housing, sustainable communities and integration of services. I think all of these combined start addressing the issues. Maybe not to the degree the Member would like to see. Clearly, some more work is necessary and I’m happy to work with the other Ministers on the Social Envelope Committee to try and break down some of these barriers to benefit all of our residents and keep them out of that poverty trap that the Member continues to refer to. Thank you.
I appreciate the Minister’s openness here. I know the Minister has stated that he’s committed to eradicating poverty and I believe him and fully support this goal. But I’d like to know, how will we know we have reached that goal? The income support system traps people in an income zone that does not even provide people enough to eat.
Will the Anti-Poverty Action Plan develop a definition of a poverty line or perhaps a poverty zone, income zone, that will allow us to know what we are aiming for? Mahsi.
Thank you. I’ve had that discussion, that exact discussion with people all over the Northwest Territories, including on Cabinet and Members themselves and members of our original action team that put together the framework. I’ll have that discussion with the group that’s actually working on the territorial action plan, as well, but the feedback I get on a regular basis is how do you truly define poverty, and I hear that that’s what the Member is asking us to do, but many individuals who might fall under what one person might consider a poverty line don’t feel like they’re living in poverty. It’s about an ability to live life to its fullest, depending on the expectations of the individual.
So it may be really complicated to come up with that true definition. If the Member has something in mind, I’d love to hear it. Thank you.
Thank you. I think there are a lot of people out there that could make suggestions that are caught in these poverty traps, but I’ll take the Minister’s offer and work with him on that.
I know the Minister and I have the same goal here, so I hope he takes these points as constructive and friendly suggestions.
Would the Minister commit to including the six recommendations I made this morning on income support in the anti-poverty work that he is doing? Mahsi.
I have a copy of the statements that the Member made today and I’m happy to take it to the Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet to have some further discussions. I’ll also share it with the working group that we have working on the territorial action plan and we’ll continue to have those discussions. I’m not committing to necessarily doing these things, but I think it’s important to have the discussion and finding a way to get to the same goal that the Member and I share. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I don’t claim to have all the answers. A critical look is more than fair.
This morning the Minister was on the radio talking about child protection with the greatest source factor being neglect. Does the Minister share my assessment that child protection issues and many of social, health and corrections issues are actually symptoms of families living in poverty, and investing in poverty reduction will address this underlying cause saving us money in the long term?
The Member and I were both on the review of the Child and Family Services Committee in the 16th Assembly, and that was one of the clear recommendations, and we believe that. I still believe that is one of the key findings of that review that we did and is one of the reasons that I’ve worked hard on the Anti-Poverty Action Plan and the Anti-Poverty Framework. I continue to champion for the territorial development of a territorial action plan. The answer is yes, I think we can do better in that area. This morning I talked about neglect on the radio and that we need to move forward with some fundamental change on how we’re providing supports to families to avoid having children apprehended.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in the day I mentioned in my Member’s statement about devolution and some of the legislation that this House will be passing. Mr. Premier committed to a public review of the devolution legislation starting soon after it’s passed or after April 1st.
Could he describe how he expects the process to unfold so that the public knows what to expect?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The honourable Member will be very pleased to know that we’ve already started that process. We have started a process of informing the public, educating the public with a media blitz whereby we are putting inserts about devolution in the media outlets, and as we go forward, once we know devolution will, in fact, happen on April 1st, we will expand that so that we can have more interaction with the general public.
The Premier has done well to engage the four Aboriginal groups. How does the Premier prepare to propose to involve the other Aboriginal governments, especially the Dehcho and the Akaitcho regions, in the review process?
We are having active discussions with the other Aboriginal governments who have not signed on as of yet. Our objective is to have 100 percent of the Aboriginal governments sign on. The federal government has indicated that their financial contributions will cease after one year, but as a government we will welcome the Aboriginal governments that have not signed on yet. Preferably, our objective is within a year, but I think it will be a standing offer.
We have in place with the Dehcho, a working group of senior officials with oversight provided by myself and the grand chief of the Dehcho First Nations, and I think we’re making very good progress. We’re both going through our different processes to do the due diligence and we’re hoping that we will be able to do the same thing with the Akaitcho Government.
I’m pleased to hear progress on the Dehcho and Akaitcho fronts there.
Just with respect to the bills, are there any significant restrictions on amending the devolution laws, and if so, what are they and what are these limits?
For the bills that are passed and given assent to by this government, this government has the authority to deal with them like any other legislation. Obviously, our expectation is that we should at least let them run, have us implement them so that we can get them going. We said we always want a seamless transition, and we recognize that we have some very important responsibilities so that we have to work with the people and also with the third parties and the other Aboriginal governments that are out there so that we can have some certainty and we can have some due process. But the way this government works, any legislation that we have, this government can change it. Obviously, there’s due process for doing that as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Premier has indicated that he’s already doing a public awareness campaign, but just in terms of a public review, I know there are many bills and, of course, I don’t expect for them to review them all, but after April 1st when would the Premier begin a more extensive public review process? Thank you.
Obviously, when we discussed this we talked about involving Aboriginal governments. I know that committee also has some ideas of who should be involved. We will take all of those ideas and work with committee to come up with a process that would be acceptable to the majority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, like many residents, am concerned with this government’s antiquated negotiated and sole-source contracting policy and how the taxpayers are forced to be holding the bag of its mismanagement. The recently tabled response to my question on GNWT contracts over $5,000 does raise awareness of this concern. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance.
Can the Minister comment why taxpayers were forced to pick up the tab of $34 million in the GNWT contract change orders in 2012-2013? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Change orders often result from when you’re doing major renovations and things are uncovered during the course of a project that were not anticipated or seen by anybody, including engineers or the architects or the people doing the project management. It’s all tied into required work to complete the project according to the schedule and according to the agreed to project plan. All the capital plan is funded with taxpayers’ dollars, as are our O and M budgets for the most part. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the negotiated and sole-source contract policies were designed years ago when there were all but a handful of Aboriginal companies and they wanted to build capacity in the Northwest Territories. Today we have well over 500 with the same mandate.
Can the Minister indicate to the House why the government has not tried to modernize this policy? Thank you.
In fact, there were changes in the last government, I believe. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this is news to me. I have not uncovered those changes.
The issue of companies dealing with market saturation or market economy is all too real in many jurisdictions of our territory, yet the negotiated and sole-source contract policy makes no mention of such.
Can the Minister of Finance indicate by what policy this government judges when a market is oversaturated with competing Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal businesses and still grants a negotiated or sole-source contract? Thank you.
In the last government there were changes made to BIP and to the Negotiated Contracts Policy which we follow. We also have criteria that we use that are part of that policy. As well, in the North we have had agreements in the past in terms of agreements with the Aboriginal governments when it comes to contract use and allotment in their areas. So the issue of market disruption and the issue that the Member referred to as saturation, I’m not quite sure what the Member considers market saturation with Aboriginal businesses, but we try to consider all the variables. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have no problem explaining my term of saturation with the Minister in his office, but my fourth question is: Will this Minister commit to the House that the negotiated and sole-source contract policy will undergo a robust review by Cabinet, by committee and the public during the life of the 17th Assembly? Mr. Speaker, a simple yes or no will suffice. Thank you.
It’s difficult to just say yes or no to an extensive array of questions the Member just presented. What I will say is this with regard to his last question, if there is an interest from committee, we’re going to be starting the business planning cycle for the next budget year, ’15-16, and if it is the wish of committee, we would be willing to fully discuss and review whatever policies any committee wants to during that process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did request some concerns from constituents back home regarding some of the HR practices being presented to people who want to get into the workforce and also with some members that want to access some of their HR files.
I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources what is the policy for any GNWT employee, current or past, that would like to access their Human Resources personnel files. Is there a policy and how does one go about accessing them? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process is current or former employees of the GNWT wishing to review their files have access to them. They are able to go to a Human Resources office where their file is contained and they are able to review their file with a human resources officer. They are free to look at their entire file if they wish to do so. Thank you.
Most recently, I heard that we had some GNWT employees who were trying to access their file and were told they had to go through ATIPP and pay the fees to access their own personnel files, which I believe under the UNW Agreement they have the right to look at their files.
If so, when did this practice come in, GNWT employees now having to pay $25 to access their own personnel files? Is that something new that HR has implemented and when did it occur? I’m sure committee hasn’t heard anything on that, so I would like a little more information on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I indicated, if the employee then wishes to have a copy of the entire file or is asking for the entire file to be given to, say, a lawyer or something, for that process the entire file will be copied to the employee through an ATIPP request. Thank you.
Just moving on with more of these human resources issues that have come to my attention, when we’re trying to get casual employees into the workforce, in some cases the individuals have to go through a criminal records check and there’s a cost to that. Most recently, I’ve heard when people are seeking employment with the GNWT, when they are filling out their forms and applications, now they have to look for a Commissioner for Oaths to sign off on the new forms.
I just want to know if the Minister would look at waiving those fees or if there is a process and how we can get this done a lot quicker? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Department of Human Resources has many employees who are a Commissioner for Oaths. We are able to provide the signatures or signed documents for people who are looking for employment or need some documents signed in front of a Commissioner for Oaths free of charge by our employee who are commissioners. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to signing off on these forms, if the Commissioner for Oaths is not available to sign it off or they might be working or out of town – some communities don’t have too many of them – it seems that an easy fix to this may be to have someone in the Human Resources department sign off on these forms.
Could the Minister look at developing a position or giving someone in the Human Resources department authority to sign off on these? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Commissioners for Oaths are trained by the Department of Justice. They are given the circumstances under which they sign off on statements or declarations by various individuals. I’m positive that if a person is to receive the required training from the Department of Justice and recognizes the responsibilities and knows the responsibilities of signing off declarations under all circumstances, then we would work with any communities or any groups of people who wish to try to get a commissioner to sign off on documents. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
