To say that these people, yes, they are living in the South; however, they lived here for a very long time. I think two out of the three I know for sure were here for 10 or 15 years. To make this change in the middle of an environmental assessment is what really concerns me. I don’t think that the Minister has accepted that.
In replacing these board members, what skillsets did he consider are needed for the board to do its job? What were they looking for in replacing these board members? Thank you.
There are three members out of the board, so there is critical mass there already. If, God forbid, these three hardworking individuals from the South were hit by lightning and were unable to do their jobs, we would soldier on. We would pick up the pieces and we would put people there to do the job. So this is a circumstance where there’s a natural break where we can put Northerners in place and we are looking for people, Northerners, educated, knowledge of the regulatory system, knowledge of the context of the work that’s being done, knowledge of the players, knowledge of the history of the North that live here and that have a clear, vested interest in making the right decisions, working with the rest of the board members. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister may consider that it’s a natural break, but I think there are people who don’t consider replacing people in the middle of an environmental assessment is a natural break.
The decision to make the change was a political decision. The decision on how it was going to be done was worked through so that it would come at a time that makes logical sense, which the board was involved in and which the board supports. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment made a statement in the House the other day about the Oil and Gas Strategy, and in his statement he mentions that he’s got a job on the expertise and knowledge of regional territorial stakeholders, Aboriginal governments and industry to develop a strategy that truly reflects northern values and priorities.
Can I ask the Minister just to get an update on where he is with that? Has he held these regional meetings, specifically up in the Beaufort-Delta, to look at developing this strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re still in the process of doing consultation. We’ve had probably about 20 meetings with individuals, Aboriginal governments and people involved in industry. As we get towards developing our Oil and Gas Strategy – and we will be at the earliest opportunity – I mentioned in my statement the other day that we will be getting in front of SCEDI and the Regular Members and getting their input on the developments of an Oil and Gas Strategy for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
In terms of just starting the process of consultation, I’d like to ask the Minister, has he had any consultation with Aurora College and learning centres? Specifically in Inuvik, they have that mobile trades unit that can go into the communities and train our individuals on these particular appropriate trades and skills for the oil and gas sector when that economy picks back up.
Has he had those consultations with Aurora College to start developing those kinds of trades programs so that we’ll have people trained and educated and ready to take the jobs when the economy picks back up?
Having an able-bodied workforce and people ready to take advantage of the jobs that are going to be coming in the oil and gas sector is very important. I know we had a focus group session in Inuvik recently. I’d have to go back to the department. I’m not sure if Aurora College or folks from ECE were at that meeting. I’ll get that information for the Member. Thank you.
I appreciate the efforts that are going into this Oil and Gas Strategy and looking at trying to get our resources out to market. However, we do have two communities in the Northwest Territories that are actually surrounded by oil and gas and having issues with their gas situation, and that’s Norman Wells and Inuvik.
I wonder if, in this strategy, whether or not the Minister would look at… We’re building all this infrastructure and roads with the Canada Building Fund, once that gets approved, to get our resources out to market. I’m thinking about a different type of infrastructure in terms of… Can we get some infrastructure built to one of the wells near Inuvik so that we can start supplying natural gas back to the community, which will lower the costs for residents, for the businesses and also lower costs for this government as we’re paying all that money to trucking up all the LNG and paying for all those bills that we have our government buildings on diesel? Is that going to be part of the strategy, building this other type of infrastructure?
Utilizing the resource that we have here in the Northwest Territories for our own residents and our own communities certainly is something that we should be striving toward, and of course with Inuvik being surrounded, as the Member mentioned, with gas, and the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk highway, there could perfectly be opportunities here as we move forward to get more gas into Inuvik, into Tuktoyaktuk and other communities in the Mackenzie Delta as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to hear that that’s a possibility. I want to make sure that there’s an assurance to that.
When this strategy is being developed and with the Inuvik-Tuk highway being developed, as well, can the Minister ensure residents of the Beaufort-Delta that infrastructure will be on the agenda to get the oil and gas back to the communities of Inuvik and possibly Tuktoyaktuk when we’re developing the strategy? Thank you.
Of course, infrastructure is a key to any success we are going to have in the oil and gas sector as we continue to develop our resources here in the territory. I would encourage residents in the Mackenzie Delta and in the Beaufort region to go online because we are going to have a survey online. I would encourage Members, when we do have consultation with Members, to continue to highlight that fact.
Undoubtedly, infrastructure will be a key part of the Oil and Gas Strategy on how we get our resources developed. So, again, I would encourage the Member and residents to please take part in the consultation process as it plays itself out. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions for the Minister of the Housing Corporation. I certainly did express support for the transfer from ECE to the Housing Corporation for some of our income assistance clients. Hopefully, we will soon see a reduction in the barriers to affordable shelter for some of our most vulnerable people.
When will we see the protocols in place for the new Housing Corporation takeover of the ECE clients and when will people be able to access these new supports? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are just in the process of working with ECE to identify possible income support clients that we could transfer over to this program. We find that this program is going to be a good step going forward because, in the past, income support clients have had difficulty accessing private rentals. We feel with the NWT Housing Corporation having the lease, or sub-lease, then we would be able to make it a little easier for these clients to access housing. As soon as we come up with a progress report, or as we are moving along, we will be sure to update committee on the work that we are doing as we go forward. Thank you.
I didn’t hear an answer when this will be in place. I hope it will be in place April 1st.
Seventy-five new public housing spaces NWT-wide, 50 new places in Yellowknife is a good start, but it’s not nearly enough to make a dent in the pent-up demand. Affordable housing is one of the most pressing social issues that this government faces in market communities.
What are this government’s plans to expand this program to further address the crushing need for affordable housing for income support clients? Mahsi.
Working with income support clients and trying to get people into units is obviously our top priority. In response to the Member’s question before, and I apologize for not giving a timeline, it’s actually effective April 1st that we will be leasing or subleasing private rental units. There is an expression for interest out there right now. We’re trying to deal with the affordability issue, especially in some of the market communities, through the Transitional Rent Supplement Program and other programs that we are trying to introduce. We are seeing this as a first step in trying to help address that. It is obviously a challenge and we will have to continue to deal with it as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. I hope he is going to work with committee on this. One thousand fifty-five Yellowknife families have housing affordability issues, up 45 percent. Yet $900,000 in rent supplement budgeted to help people exactly like this remained unspent last year.
So, what is the Minister doing to ensure that the money budgeted for housing assistance this year, through the Rent Supplement Program, for example, makes it to the people who need it in the market communities like Yellowknife? Mahsi.
I think that’s a point that needs to be clarified. I did see it in the media that $900,000 was unused, which was in my response to Member Bisaro the other day.
We had $1 million originally budgeted for this program. We have reduced that to about $900,000. We were doing some math the other day and it comes to about $75,000 a month that we are trying to assist transitional rent supplement clients and that works out to $900,000 per year. Our uptake right now is not where we want it to be and we need to make people more aware that the program is out there. We have had some ads in the paper. We have helped 158 people who have gone through the program. Some have moved out for different reasons. We need to get the information out there and we will continue to do what we can, as the Housing Corporation, to ensure that residents are aware of these programs and how it might benefit them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. With the crushing need out there, the Minister needs to do something beyond just the normal communications efforts, I would say, to get this happening.
As I mentioned, 60 percent of the housing affordability issues are in Yellowknife for the whole territory and the problem is worsening considerably.
What other action does the Minister intend to take to lessen the burden of finding affordable housing in Yellowknife and the NWT? What evaluations are planned to ensure another five years of failure are prevented? Mahsi.
I shudder to think where this territory would be without the investment from the NWT Housing Corporation. To say five years of failure I think, Mr. Speaker, is an unfair statement. If you look at the money the corporation has spent housing people, they have helped many people. We know there is an affordability issue in some of the market communities and that is a result of the market, and we take steps to deal with that. We continue to invest money, such as the territorial Rent Supplement Program or Public Housing Program. We have other initiatives that we are working on right now to try and help address some of the housing crunch in some of the larger communities. We will continue to plug along.
We have made a huge investment in housing in the Northwest Territories along with the Legislative Assembly and we will continue to go forward and do what we can to ensure all residents of the Northwest Territories are adequately housed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, are there any updates to the requests for the Deline palliative care bed study that they have been asking for, for some time.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there are some updates. In October 2014 we made a commitment to evaluate the palliative care needs in Deline. I do apologize to the Member; the Member asked the question yesterday and my response wasn’t as clear as I had hoped it would be and I added some additional confusion. I do apologize to the Member for the frustration there. But, yes, we are moving forward with palliative care needs in Deline. We do intend to have staff come in in 2015-2016 to visit the community to assess the existing infrastructure and evaluate the applicability. The assessment is necessary to help us better understand what type of resources and potential infrastructure and improvements may be required to have additional palliative support in the community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the need to prioritize Highway No. 7 as a priority of this government. Like I said in my Member’s statement, despite all my best efforts over the years, my two words “Highway 7” never gets in any official documents like budget addresses or speeches by Cabinet. Despite that, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation about… He indicates that there is investment in Highway No. 7 this year in the capital plan and there is a bit of a strategy, so I would like to ask the Minister, what is the strategy going forward for Highway No. 7? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has quietly spent $12 million on Highway No. 7 to date.
---Laughter
For this coming year, we have $3 million in the capital plan and we’re going to concentrate on that serious area that the Member referred to, kilometres 169 to 170. We’re fixing that area. A lot of that money is going to go to strengthening the road from Liard to approximately where the Nahanni Butte turnoff is, and also there’s some finishing work still to be completed between Liard and the BC border. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The Minister mentioned completing the work that’s between the B.C. border and Fort Liard and there were plans for chipsealing. So I would to ask the Minister, will that work be completed this summer, 2015? Thank you.
Yes, that work will be completed this summer.
The continued investment in Highway No. 7, because we also know that we’re also talking about a proposed Canadian Zinc mine expansion plan. As well, not to mention the benefits of tourism that travels up Highway No. 7. They’re often delayed or else they’re actually told at the B.C. border, the B.C. Tourism, about the condition of Highway No. 7. So I would like to ask about mitigating the impact of the traffic increase on Highway No. 7.
What other work is being done to let the public know and the tourists know about Highway No. 7 when it comes open for this season’s traffic? Thank you
Of course, we’re continuing the maintenance work on the highway and making Highway No. 7 as passable as possible. We’re always striving to improve that road. So, with this money we’re also going to improve any areas where there have been problems. The people know exactly which areas are problems, and for the first package of work that we intend to do we intend to spend an additional $12 million over the next four years. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Now, I was pleased to hear about the investment in our transportation infrastructure and I’d like to invite the Minister to come see that work this spring, and also residents of Wrigley would like to see him, as well, this spring. So I’d like to invite the Minister one more time. He was just there in December, I know, but he’s going to have to come with me and ride the roads. Thank you.
More of a comment. Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would commit to driving Highway No. 7 to Liard and also to Wrigley with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. We’ve heard plenty in this House about the impending demographic shift, the rapidly increasing proportion of elders. Even before the 17th Assembly, the department was talking about moving away from long-term care facilities and toward more cost-effective home care programs.
In the Mackenzie Delta there are more than 300 elders over the age of 60 and yet there’s a chronic shortage of home care workers.
What is the Minister doing to improve health care in Fort McPherson and other communities in the Mackenzie Delta? Thank you.
