Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m really pleased to welcome all the ladies up there who will be working at the Campaign School this weekend, working for and in and about. I would specifically like to mention a Frame Lake constituent, Laura Boileau, and I would also like to give my thanks at this point to Ms. Lisa Dempster, who is the Member of the House of Assembly for Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair in Labrador. I’m not sure if Lisa is up there, but I wanted to say thank you to her for coming to see us this morning and to help us with the school. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Debbie Dechief, one of my constituents. She is a participant in the NWT Campaign School. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to introduce, to you and through you, a resident of Range Lake, Ms. Candace Johnson, and of course all participants of the NWT Campaign School. Good luck this weekend; have fun. Of course, the NWT Status of Women Council, great job for hosting. Good luck with that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also recognize folks who are in the gallery today who are involved in the Campaign School. I look forward to meeting with you this afternoon. I’d like to recognize two former Hay Riverites, Sarah Pope and Samantha Thomas. You have to claim some, you know, credit. Also, a constituent of mine, Diana Pellissey from Hay River South. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Nadli.
Mr. Speaker, I too would like to acknowledge the presence of all the potential candidates that more than likely will be campaigning along with us, perhaps, this fall. In particular I wanted to recognize a constituent of mine. She’s the president of the Status of Women Council. She’s a strong leader in her own right. She served as mayor for a long time in Fort Providence and I wanted to recognize Tina Gargan. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s an honour to recognize constituents in this House, as every Member enjoys. I would like to recognize Pertice Moffat, who is a constituent of Yellowknife Centre. I would also like to first say thanks to the Status of Women Council for the excellent initiative that they launched. I often have said to get more women elected, you have to get them to campaign and this is exactly what it’s doing, getting people out there and giving them the right tools. So, specifically, Lorraine Phaneuf and Annemieke Mulders are constituents of Yellowknife Centre.
Finally, I want to acknowledge two other ladies in the gallery. Although I may have grown up with both of them, they are both way younger than I, and I want to acknowledge the leadership that they both played in their communities and that’s Tina Gargan for the many accolades she deserves and certainly Darlene Sibbeston for the leadership she provides in her community. Two women I grew up with who are doing great work today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I would like to welcome everyone here in the public gallery today. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings. Welcome.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of petroleum products. I want to ask the Minister on lowering the fuel prices on the heating diesel costs in our communities. As you know, in Colville Lake 86 percent of residents own their homes. There are 20 percent of single parents in Colville Lake, so this will greatly help them.
I want to ask the Minister, how did this come about in regards to lowering the costs and will we see more reduction in the heating fuel costs in these communities?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. We were able to lower the costs by seeing that the fuel that we buy is referred to as fuel at rack prices that came down quite drastically over the last few months. We are anticipating that by the time you get the fuel into the community, it will be at a much lower cost. We are sort of blending at this point and lowering the costs. We do anticipate additional costs for heating fuel when we actually deliver the fuel sometime between the middle of this month and the middle of next month. Thank you.
Certainly it is good news for the private homeowners to see the lower costs of the heating fuel, especially for the high percentage of single families in the Sahtu region.
We also have about 112 trappers. In Fort Good Hope, 77 percent of the families rely on country foods, food from the land. The residents of the Sahtu are asking, will this also happen with the gasoline prices?
Mr. Speaker, we are anticipating that the cost of gasoline will be lowered in the communities as well. In the case of gasoline, we want to deliver the gas before we make the adjustment. It appears to be a little more volatile and the gas price could actually go back up and we do believe that some of the gas prices have been rising down south and we could feel the impacts here and in other communities. We are going to wait until we do purchase and deliver before we lower it, but we do anticipate that it would be coming down from what the current prices are now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That is anticipation, waiting for good news from the government. I want to ask the Minister, would that happen before the closing of our winter roads, which is usually about March 30th or 31st, depending on weather. Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, it will be. We will be moving gasoline into communities on the winter road. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Recently there was an incident from Fort Liard, well not so much of an incident but more of a miracle, she had a child in our Stanton Territorial Hospital. Unlike many women from the small and remote communities, she was able to come here and wait at our facilities for the birth of her child, but the father was not able to be with her. When that happens, at the time of the birth she’s given the required forms for registration to fill out and the father was not available at this time, which is probably the case in many, many instances in our North. So she went back home. She did fill out the father’s information, but when the birth certificate arrived to her, it was just her name on the certificate. So she said okay, I’ll just add the father’s, but our system requires a $30 registration fee to add the father at a later date.
I’d like to ask the Minister, can he change this rule or procedure? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the name had actually been provided on the registration form in the beginning, there would have been no additional fee. We go to the steps of printing forms and mailing them out, but to do changes later there are significant costs to doing that. That’s why there is a fee for changes at different times. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Of course there are lots of other administrative changes that may have to occur, but in this case I’m saying that because the family, the father could not travel in this case and I’m making the case, as well, that it happens throughout the North, not only from my riding, that the father has to add his name at a later date for an extra $30 cost.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, what kind of rule or guideline is this that you have to add the biological parent at a later date for a $30 fee? Thank you.
At the birth of a child the parents can put their names on the birth certificate, and the name of a parent who is not present, the father in this case, could have been included on the certificate, as well, and it would have required no additional fee. To change a certificate after the fact there is some administrative requirements and as a result there is a fee, but I would strongly encourage parents to get their names on their certificates when they first fill out their application, both mother and father.
Thank you very much. I was just trying to speak on a general basis, but I would be glad to let the Minister know about this other specific case. In general, I think the policy that I saw says that after 60 days that they have to pay a fee and that’s the issue I’m getting at, is that constituents in small, remote communities cannot always travel for the birth of their child. So why do we have to charge them an extra $30 to get their name on the certificate? Thank you.
I hear the Member and I’m certainly willing to have a conversation with the department to see if we can extend the deadline or the amount of time it takes for individuals to get their names on the forms, but for changes after the fact, it does involve reprinting forms, it does involve reprinting certificates where there is a significant expense. So the fee for those changes would have to stay in place, but I would certainly talk to the department to see if we could extend the time for individuals who live in small, rural and remote communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess I think part of the issue, too, is that I’m not too sure if it’s the department’s requirement that they fill out the registration while they’re in the hospital in Yellowknife, or can they wait five or six days when both parents can be together in their home community, especially if that’s the case. Thank you.
I’m not quite aware of the specific details as to why they can’t fill it out on that day or whether they have to wait a couple days, but I’ll certainly get that information and provide it to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Premier. It’s kind of a wild idea, obviously, given the direction we’re headed and so many jurisdictions around the world are.
Is the Premier and his Cabinet familiar with the science suggesting that 80 percent of the fossil fuels known reserves must stay in the ground if we are to avoid dangerous climate change and also the most recent publications in Nature that deal with those areas and types of resources that can be tapped into and still avoid that condition? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not familiar with that theory or recent publications in Nature magazine that the Member is referring to, but I do know that greater than 80 percent of our oil and gas reserves are already underground and stranded here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you to the Premier for that response. I will share some of those resources with the Premier and, hopefully, Cabinet. My colleague mentioned February 13th Divestment Day. I’m sure the Premier has heard that many billions of dollars have been divested away from fossil fuels around the world. It’s a bit of a movement from people recognizing the extreme degree of action that’s required. The Rockefellers and so on have divested their interest in fossil fuels.
Will this government recognize that sort of thing and bring that into their thinking? The science clearly says that we must be moving away from fossil fuels with consideration of that science. Mahsi.
I guess we’re not all Rockefellers here in the Northwest Territories, but we are taking action in that regard with the Energy Charrette. We are moving in that direction. We are waiting for the outcomes of the Energy Charrette and we are committed that we will take action when we have those results. Our government is taking a balanced approach to development and we expect that going forward we will be, as we stated in our second Energy Charrette, that those are the kinds of things we are looking at doing to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Premier. That’s exactly why I’m bringing this up, although it’s extreme. The science is recognizing that we are dealing with an extreme situation and the government is thinking about these things, so it’s an opportunity. The regional expectations are great. Hopes and dreams are based on fossil fuels. I know this sort of thing will be very disappointing to them, but on the positive, renewable energy development is much more labour intensive, much more equitable in spreading the benefits around and produces a much more durable economy.
Does the Premier agree with that and is he going to take that and pursue every opportunity to follow that model of development? Mahsi.
Certainly, we are headed in that direction. We expect to be spending significant amounts of investment in alternative and renewable forms of energy. Just to show some of the things we are already doing in our government of the 17th Assembly, through alternative energy products, building retrofits, biomass projects, cumulative savings of over $3.3 million have been achieved in the last three fiscal years; the energy conservation projects have helped reduce the Government of the Northwest Territories’ reliance on fossil fuels, heating oil in particular. Since 2007, Public Works and Services energy conservation projects have displaced the equivalent of 13 million litres of fuel oil and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 35,000 tonnes by the end of 2013-2014. We are planning on investing much more in those areas. When you see the results of the Energy Charrette, contrary to what the honourable Member across the way was talking about yesterday, it’s more than just a report. It is a report that is being promoted across the Northwest Territories. This government will respond to the recommendations and we will take action. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I heard the Premier say he will respond to my recommendation and get us out of the fossil fuel business. The science is clear. It’s peer reviewed in the most prestigious science journal we have globally. Yet, the Premier is pursuing fossil fuel development in his expensive travels about the world and so on.
Will the Premier, in fact, shift the resources? I believe looking at the budget we have about $5 million in fossil fuel development. Will he shift those resources in pursuing a sound and sustainable economy that’s based exclusively on renewable energy? Mahsi.
I think the Member is putting words in my mouth. At the Energy Charrette we were told we have very complex 65 megawatts and we will still need to burn fossil fuels in order to have redundancy. You reference our travel around the world and I think many of the Members here have travelled around the world as well. They should see the value in doing that. We see oil and gas development having a future in the Northwest Territories, but we will be investing millions of dollars in alternative and renewable forms of energy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Two days ago was World Cancer Day where it was said one in 10 patients don’t take the medication they need due to cost. Earlier today I mentioned the fact that the GNWT is one of the few jurisdictions left in Canada without a catastrophic drug coverage plan. Under the current Extended Health Benefits Program, the GNWT does cover many diseases and conditions under a plagued, misaligned NIHB formulary while other conditions are sorted through a complicated consortium of case-by-case management policies. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
In 2010 the Department of Health and Social Services undertook a review of a supplementary health benefits program. This joint working group recommended an income-tested catastrophic drug coverage plan which was never implemented. Can the Minister indicate why not?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Health, Minister Abernethy.
