There have been discussions with the community ongoing, but as far as the most recent round of discussions with respect to the opening, I will have to confirm that information with the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority. I will commit to the Member to get him an update as quickly as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to follow up on his statement from today about Aboriginal language programs and progress. The Minister mentioned it his statement that the GNWT invests $15 million each year to support and promote Aboriginal languages. One of those is to build the capacity of Aboriginal governments to implement their five-year regional language plans. I support that change. It is a change in the approach from the department. It’s an investment in language and it’s one that’s needed, so I support it.
I would like to first ask the Minister, of the $15 million that Education puts into language programming, how much of that goes to the Aboriginal governments for their five-year language plans? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On an annual basis we provide $15 million to Aboriginal language organizations. It does vary to various organizations within the communities and Aboriginal governments. I highlighted some of the key factors, I believe it was last week. Approximately $15.127 million: $8.4 million goes directly to education authorities; $6.2 million is split between Aboriginal governments and the Aboriginal Languages Secretariat; we provide the breakdown to the DECs that I can share with the Member, a breakdown of $3.2 million investment captures teaching and learning centres, Aboriginal Languages Program support, Aboriginal languages culture instructor support; broadcasting, terminology and, as I stated in my Member’s statement, language acquisition initiative, cultural, heritage. That is money going directly to the organizations, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Maybe I got lost in the numbers there, but I don’t think I heard the Minister tell me how much of the $15 million is going to the Aboriginal governments for their regional language plans.
This is public money. It’s coming from taxpayers. It’s coming from the GNWT. So I feel that the Legislative Assembly has to be accountable for this money that is going to Aboriginal governments and that we need to be accountable for all the money that we distribute.
So, I’d like to know from the Minister, is there a system in place between the GNWT, his department and Aboriginal governments to account for both the money that they are receiving and the results, in terms of language that is happening or not happening, relative to this money that we’re giving them? Thank you.
Yes, indeed there is. There has to be strict accountability when we provide public funding to any organizations in the Northwest Territories, not only Aboriginal governments or Aboriginal organizations. The organizations that we deal with, we want them to be accountable, whether it be reporting mechanisms, how the money is expended. There is monitoring, evaluating and also accountability, MEA that is currently in place with Aboriginal governments and Aboriginal organizations and other organizations, as well, throughout the Northwest Territories. It is an accountability mechanism that’s in play now. So, we follow through with those organizations with monitoring, evaluating and accountability reports. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. So, I’d like to know from the Minister, then, I presume monitoring and evaluation and accountability will produce a report. I think he mentioned a report at the end of his answer there. So, these reports presumably would go to the department. I’d like to know if the reports will also go to committee and to the public so that the Members and the public will know how their taxpayer money is being used. Thank you.
When we received the reports, obviously it’s public money so it is a public document as well. Most of the information that we receive is also on our website. Through the monitoring, evaluation and accountability we make sure that everything’s accounted for. Any time that the standing committee requests a public document, we’d be more than happy to share that with the standing committee, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I guess I would say, it would be nice if committee didn’t always have to request a document, but if a document is being publicly posted, it would be nice if the Minister advised committee that it was there so we could go and look at it.
I know that this is the beginning of these regional language plans with Aboriginal governments so it’s fairly new, but I’d like to know from the Minister, apart from these monitoring, evaluation and accountability reports or plans or whatever it’s called, a framework, how is the Minister going to assess success of the program.
What will he be looking at to determine whether or not the money that we’re spending on language is actually increasing the use of language and broadening our Aboriginal languages across the territory? Thank you.
Obviously, seeing the results, strengthening our working relations with our partners at the regional level, the stakeholders that we work with, obviously the success will depend on each group. So we’re doing what we can as a department to work with them. But at the end of the day, it’s just the results through monitoring, evaluation and accountability that will be in play with the Aboriginal governments, with the Aboriginal organizations and other organizations in the Northwest Territories. The communities need to determine their success as well. So, we’ll be monitoring that as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I had the opportunity to go and meet with some of the participants at the Weaving our Wisdom territorial wellness gathering over at the Explorer Hotel. I had some really good discussions with past colleagues as well as with some people here who are doing some good work. One of the areas that we talked about was prevention and promotion, in terms of putting funding into our dollars.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, is there anything that currently mandates this government, or is there any legislation that we have that says that this government needs to put money into prevention and promotion? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t have legislation, as far as I’m aware of, that dictates or requires us to put money into health promotion. But as the Member knows, we have increased the number of dollars that we have put into promotion and prevention here in the Northwest Territories during the life of this Assembly significantly, and we’re always looking to work with partners to find ways to create awareness and encourage healthy living for all residents in the Northwest Territories by way of prevention and promotion. Thank you.
I agree with the Minister in terms of putting more dollars into prevention and promotion, and we are slowly seeing some of the results with the health status reports and what we’re hearing in the communities.
I know in Ontario, Ontario has a Health Protection and Promotion Act. Would the Minister be looking at this legislation and looking at possibly seeing if it’s something that this government might want to look into and possibly put into documents going into the 18th Assembly? Thank you.
I’m, unfortunately, not aware of the particular legislation that the Member is talking about, but it is an interesting idea and I’ll certainly have the department take a look at the legislation and provide me with a bit of an overview of what it is and how it works within that jurisdiction.
As far as moving forward, I’ll share the information I get with committee, and if it’s the wish of committee, we’re certainly willing to have those discussions. Thank you.
The good thing about when you talk with people in the public is they have a lot of information, and this was just brought to my attention and I think it’s something that this government really needs to look at in terms of legislating, that we have to go out and educate people and it’s got to be part of our mandate. So, I’m glad the Minister is going to be looking at it. I know we have a lot of legislation to get done from now until the end of this Assembly as well.
Continuing on prevention and promotion, can the Minister provide me with details on how many regional health promotion offices we have currently in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Unfortunately, I haven’t memorized the number of health promotion officers that we have throughout the Northwest Territories, but I will get that information for the Member as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we’ve put a lot of money into prevention and promotion. Is there a percentage of those dollars that are allocated to the training and the development of our community health representatives or health promotion officers? Are there dollars that are allocated to the training and development of our employees? Thank you.
Our employees are our most valuable resources and we’re committed to their continued development. I know that there are dollars available for training particular activities, but as far as the number of dollars allocated to train health promotion officers, I don’t have that number.
We are, as I’ve indicated, committed to our staff. We want them to be current. We want them to be up to date on practices and procedures, and we want them to be continually evolving so that they can be current at all times. So, I will do a little bit of digging and I’ll get some specific numbers for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Growing up, my grandparents used to tell me stories of when people were limited to the amount of beaver they could harvest in a year, and it was just a handful. The game wardens, as they called them at the time, would go around and keep an eye out on people’s axes as they used them to chop open beaver houses. But since then we’ve had an explosion in the population of the species of beaver, also foxes and mink, but the fur advance doesn’t match that. It’s a minimum of a $25 advance for these furs and people are paying $45 to $50 for five gallons of gas. It just doesn’t match the cost of living up there with the advance, so my constituents would like to see an increase in this.
Is the Minister willing to work on making changes to the Fur Pricing Program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The prices are set at a five-year rolling average and they’re reviewed every year. However, I’d be happy to sit down and talk to the Member about specifics if he has any dollar figures that he’s looking at. We have to manage the money that’s available to run this program, and the beaver prices are very low at the market values. Thank you.
As the Minister knows, we have the best fur in the world. There is a huge demand, you see it all the time, for sheared beaver, beavertail wallets. It’s just like snakeskin. I had one a few years back; it was pretty nice.
But as the Minister is just taking this department back on, I think it’s time that we make this review. Even changing it to $45 or $50 for an advance, that would help out the harvesters a great deal. Is the Minister willing to do this?
Thank you. Yes. One of the things we’ll be doing is doing a review, and as the Member has requested and suggested, we’ll be looking at that particular issue as well. Thank you.
Thank you. Was that a yes that he’ll increase it to $45 or $50? Thank you.
Thank you. I’d have to check Hansard. I understood the question to be that since we’re taking it back over, would we look at the prices and see if we would consider moving it from $45 to $50 and I said yes, we would consider looking at that as we get this back into ENR’s authority. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is to do with the management of wildlife. Does the Minister have funds that they could contribute to encouraging our people to harvest more of these species? Thank you.
We have funds tied up in the Community Harvesters Assistance Program. We have some money still available in the Western Harvesters Assistance Program as well. As well, we have the fur pricing advances that we do have and prime pelt fund as well. So we do have some funds available. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the terms of reference for a Special Committee on Transition Matters.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Pursuant to Section 5 of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the Summary of Members’ Absences for the Period of October 16, 2014, to February 3, 2015. Thank you, Mr. Clerk.
Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 12, Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act; Bill 36, Health and Social Services Professions Act; Bill 46, Deline Final Self-Government Agreement Act; Committee Report 10-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories; Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016; Tabled Document 205-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2014-2015; Tabled Document 206-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2014-2015; and Tabled Document 207-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016, with Mr. Bouchard in the chair.
Good afternoon. I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’d like to deal with Bill 46 and, following that, Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, the Department of Education.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
We’ll continue after a short break.
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Committee, before us today is Bill 46, Deline Final Self-Government Agreement Act. I’d like to ask Premier McLeod if he would like to deliver his opening comments on this bill. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to be here today to speak about Bill 46, Deline Final Self-Government Agreement Act.
This bill approves, gives effect to and declares valid the Deline Final Self-Government Agreement. This self-government agreement will create the Deline Got’ine Government, which is the first stand-alone community-based self-government in the history of the Northwest Territories.
---Applause
This bill also gives effect to the Deline Tax Treatment Agreement, which relates to the tax treatment of the Deline Got’ine Government.
The bill provides for consequential amendments to the Waters Act. These amendments are consistent with the approach taken in the context of the Tlicho Agreement.
Finally, the bill also provides for the repeal of instruments pertaining to the establishment of the Charter Community of Deline, and for instructions on how the Deline Got’ine Government is regarded as a municipal authority in other Northwest Territories laws.
I would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have regarding this bill. Thank you.
