Mr. Speaker, on April 22, 2015, the federal government announced a $500 million increase to the GNWT borrowing limit, bringing the federally imposed borrowing limit to $1.3 billion; as well, the definition of self-financing debt is being revised. Post devolution this increase in our borrowing limit gives the Government of the Northwest Territories increased flexibility to invest, in consultation with Members of the Legislative Assembly, in much needed infrastructure that will support the responsible development of the NWT and its economy and bring down the cost of living for communities and residents. The federal government has recognized both the positive economic outlook for the territory and our disciplined fiscal management that this increase represents.
We as an Assembly must remain vigilant. As Members will recall, one of the more important fiscal planning principles adopted at the start of the 17th Assembly was ensuring the government had the fiscal capacity to respond to revenue shocks and in-year expenditure pressures by maintaining at least $100 million in borrowing authority at the end of the 17th Legislative Assembly.
The government will continue to face flat revenue growth and expenditures pressures due to low water levels, health and forest firefighting costs during the 18th Assembly. To ensure we maintain the fiscal discipline required to be able to respond to these issues even with the added borrowing room, the fiscal strategy will be revised to ensure that at least $160 million in borrowing authority is retained going into the 18th Assembly. This will
provide sufficient flexibility to allow the 18th Assembly to undertake targeted projects and participate in the Build Canada Plan and other critical projects, like Stanton Territorial Hospital Renewal, while also providing the financial capacity to respond to any further one-time revenue or expenditure shocks.
Mr. Speaker, the increase to the borrowing limit does not, however, address the fiscal issues facing the government. Over the next five years, revenues are forecasted to be flat, growing by only 0.44 percent over the next four years, or about 0.1 percent per year. There are limited options available to raise revenues from own sources in the short term, without impacting the cost of living or curtailing our economic growth potential. Furthermore, if the increased borrowing limit is used to enhance programs and services through our operations and maintenance budget, the GNWT may be forced to cut spending in other areas in order to finance the debt service payments associated with this debt.
It is therefore important to start thinking about the fiscal parameters to guide the development of the fiscal strategy to be considered by the 18th Legislative Assembly. This includes linking net operations and maintenance expenditure growth with the growth in the Territorial Formula Financing Grant. This will likely require the government to undertake reductions to operating expenditures to ensure we can continue to finance at least 50 percent of our capital expenditures with operating surpluses and start to return the government to a cash surplus position.
As we move into 2015, there are signs that some parts of the NWT economy are beginning a modest recovery from the financial and economic crisis, but our current real gross domestic product remains 25 percent below its pre-recession peak in 2007.
More importantly, Mr. Speaker, the NWT has experienced no population growth for several years. We have initiated steps to address this trend and start growing the NWT population. We will continue to pursue our Population Growth Strategy to increase the NWT population and work with the mining industry and other business sectors to encourage rotational non-resident workers to reside in the NWT.
Until these efforts show success, our fiscal capacity will continue to be vulnerable due to declining revenues from Canada under Territorial Formula Financing.
An adequate borrowing limit based on affordability, while critical, will not mean the fiscal challenges of this Assembly or the next will disappear. Even though the increased limit allows us to invest in key infrastructure priorities, we still need to maintain control of expenditures to adhere to the Fiscal Responsibility Policy and maintain a fiscally sustainable operation. This government secured an increase in our borrowing limit, and we have begun planning on potential projects to responsibly increase economic growth and attract investment and people to our territory.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
The final decision on what projects to invest in to secure our economic future belongs to the 18th Legislative Assembly.
Our fiscal challenges are not unique and we will not be shrinking from them. Recognizing our reality prepares us for the tough choices we will have to make now and in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The cost of energy continues to be one of the leading contributors to the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories. This past winter a drop in wholesale prices for heating fuel and gasoline gave the Department of Public Works and Services the opportunity to pass savings on to the residents of some of our most remote communities.
Through the Petroleum Products Program, the fuel services division of the Department of Public Works and Services provides essential fuel services to 16 NWT communities where the private sector does not. Fuel is supplied via winter road to nine of these communities. This year, thanks to lower market costs, the department was able to reduce retail heating fuel, diesel fuel and gasoline prices from 4 percent to more than 18 percent per litre.
With this in mind, Mr. Speaker, the fuel services division is committed to passing on cost savings on fuel products it provides wherever possible. We anticipate that with the present stability in the market price for fuel, the department will be able to pass similar savings on to those communities resupplied by barge this summer.
Lower fuel prices have provided some relief from the high cost of living to residents in Whati, Gameti, Wekweeti, Jean Marie River, Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake, Wrigley, Deline, Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake and Tulita. As residents and as a government, we must continue to improve our energy awareness, promote energy-efficient behaviour and seek out affordable alternative and renewable long-term energy solutions in order to achieve our vision of an environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories.
The fuel services division is a key function in the newly established energy activity within the department. The energy activity is also actively engaged in identifying renewable and alternative fuels and energy solutions to better support the GNWT’s goals of energy efficiency, sustainability and greenhouse gas reduction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Mr. Speaker, in October 2014 I tabled Building Stronger Families – An Action Plan to Transform Child and Family Services, supporting the government’s commitment to improve the quality of child and family services for those receiving services under the Child and Family Services Act. I am pleased to provide an update to Members on the progress to date and implementation of our Action Plan to Transform Child and Family Services.
The action plan outlines 12 major initiatives in response to the many recommendations made for system-wide change. These initiatives support our goal to provide more assistance to families at risk. Increased early support will reduce child apprehensions and the need for court proceedings. The initiatives contribute to a flexible approach to service delivery, grounded in collaboration and building on family strengths and needs.
In order to transform child and family services, we must ensure staff have the tools required to assess risk and improve practice and service delivery.
In the past year we have taken a number of steps to increase staff capacity. We have begun to adapt structured decision-making tools that staff can use when screening reports of child protection concerns to help them assess the immediate safety and long- term risk to the children and families involved. We have revised the Child and Family Services Standards and Procedures Manual, ensuring it reflects best practices and provides increased resources to support children. We have brought forward amendments to the Child and Family Services Act that, if passed, will extend child protection services to the age of majority and the provision of services for children in permanent custody to the age of 23.
Work in areas of risk management and quality assurance focuses on the systems in place to support the work of our staff. In the past year we redesigned the child and family services annual file audit process by introducing a revised audit tool, establishing a regular annual audit schedule and creating regional audit teams with a collaborative approach to the audit process. We are also replacing the current Child and Family Services Information System with a new system that will provide enhanced case management capabilities and improved data reliability.
In the area of program administration and management, we have strengthened accountability by appointing chief executive officers as assistant directors of child and family services and have provided training on their responsibilities under the Child and Family Services Act. These appointments ensure there is direct accountability to the director for the delivery of services.
Last year the Auditor General recommended improving leadership and communication within child and family services. In response, the directors of Social Programs Forum have been reconvened. This group brings together senior staff from each region who deal with child and family programs, meets by teleconference monthly and face-to-face twice a year to discuss Building Stronger Families and the variety of initiatives guided by the action plan.
We have enlisted the Child Welfare League of Canada to complete the first phase of a workload management study. We worked with child protection workers and other authority staff to identify significant workload drivers that impact their ability to efficiently provide services. We now better understand the primary drivers we will address to create an effective and efficient workload management process in child and family services.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, as we move forward with the system transformation outlined in Building Stronger Families, we will continue to work with our partners at regional and community levels to ensure these changes acknowledge and reflect the many participants in the delivery of programs and services. We are committed to working together and understanding the unique interests and challenges throughout the NWT as we improve our delivery of child and family services.
Mr. Speaker, our government remains committed to realizing this Assembly’s goal of healthy, educated children. The steps we are taking will help ensure NWT children and families get the services and support they need. I look forward to working with Members as we continue our work to transform child and family services in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to point out an irony, as I see it, with respect to hiring summer students to come and work in the Northwest Territories. Post-secondary students at southern institutions, we are supporting them, we are paying for them, and many of them who want to come back to the Northwest Territories for the summer cannot get a job with the public service.
The irony I speak about is that this government, on the other hand in another department, spends I want to say millions. I don’t know the exact number, but millions of dollars to go out and promote a program called Make Your Mark. They are going out across Canada, trying to assess people who have never been to the North, don’t know anything about it, don’t have any connections, and they are trying to attract them to the public service.
Meanwhile, we have students in post-secondary education who are priority 1, priority 2 students who are down south working for their education. We are paying for their education; we are investing in them; but when they try to get a job in the public service, we don’t have enough money to go around. We can’t hire them all. So, they are down there perhaps taking a specialized field like an engineer or something in the nursing field, some experience where we could bring them home to work for the summer. You know what? They might come back and work for the Government of the Northwest Territories at some point in the future.
I think it’s ironic that we would spend millions of dollars to attract strangers to come and work in the Northwest Territories in our public service, yet we can’t seem to find enough money to employ our students who are coming home.
Just in case anybody out there listening doesn’t know, priority 1 is an indigenous Aboriginal person under our Affirmative Action Policy. A P2, or priority 2, is an indigenous non-Aboriginal person.
I think we need to up the numbers in both of these categories. It’s understood that P1 is probably for the most part in our public service disproportionately under-represented. I understand that.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s a sad thing when we only have enough summer jobs in the public service to offer those jobs to priority 1 students. We need more to offer also to priority 2. After all, when we go across the country to try to attract people, those people have no priority hiring status in our government. We don’t even know them. The fact that a priority 2 student is indigenous non-Aboriginal means they are from here. Their family is here, but we are letting them slip away from us.
Later today I will have questions for the Minister of Human Resources on how we can better direct our resources to have more public service employment opportunities for our post-secondary kids. Thanks.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to thank the Minister and the Department of Transportation on their ongoing efforts for a bridge at Willow River near Aklavik.
Last year the bridge was purchased and this year the bridge was hauled to Willow River and is now on site. We are hopeful that with sufficient funds the bridge will be completed next year.
One of the biggest challenges that we have, as you know, is we don’t work during winter months, which is about two and a half months. By the time we get our new funding, it’s April 1st, so we only have the window of two to three weeks to get this job completed. We are hopeful that with ongoing support from the department that we will have time next year to complete this work.
Once the bridge is complete, this will create opportunities for tourism and other economic opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to applaud yesterday’s Oscar performance by the Finance Minister in attempting to answer questions about NTPC’s recent attempt to enter into an RFP franchise process in Hay River.
As I said yesterday, I respect the openness, fairness and transparency of the RFP process. However, what I don’t respect is when the process is flawed and riddled with a hidden Cabinet agenda that has secretly changed our energy policy without the public’s oversight.
Now, every resident in the NWT wants cheaper power. This is a given. However, the way this government is trying to sell you this spin is not only missing key ingredients such as facts, its leaders are paving the way with a ticker tape parade that suggests they have the real solution.
The McLeod government’s new secret energy policy is designed to convince you they have the answers to our energy costs. That by a singular design they can rid the oversight of the Public Utilities Board and eventually, township by township, through RFP process, expropriate a privately owned Aboriginal company.
So, in fairness, let’s test their not-so-secret winning NTPC formula and let’s evaluate it for efficiency and for the return on investment, as they said, for their 42,000 NWT shareholders.
So, for accuracy, let’s visit the public accounts from 2004 to 2015. The first question: Can the NTPC stand on its own two feet and at least break even for the taxpayer? The simple answer is no. In fact, when we add up all the subsidies, all the contributions to NTPC, NT Hydro and NT Energy, plus calculate the dividends taxpayers did not receive from 2010 onwards and factor in the bad debt, the write-off at over $2 million, are you are left with a grand total of $104,482,910. This figure of almost $105 million is what it cost our shareholders, our people, out of their pockets, to run their Crown corporation jewel from 2004 to 2015. I must add, not once did our power rates go down.
Real power savings for our residents require real solutions. But moreover, reducing our cost of living starts with partnerships, not secret agendas and definitely not misspending $105 million of our tax dollars. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The Kids Corner Daycare in Fort Simpson is raising money for the construction of a brand new facility. A few months ago the Department of Education, Culture and Employment was approached for a $200,000 contribution. Minister Lafferty responded negatively and noted that his department does not typically fund infrastructure projects if they are linked to daycare.
I need help in understanding this statement. Early in the 17th Assembly a daycare facility in Inuvik received $1 million under the capital plan. If Inuvik was eligible then, why isn’t Fort Simpson eligible now?
In the same letter, the Minister noted that his department is working along with other departments on a new policy to address infrastructure needs of non-profit and private sector organizations. The message was that this may be a way for Kids Corner to get funding. So, I will be asking the Minister about the status of this new public funding of private infrastructure policy later in question period.
But I’d like to take a step back. I’d like to frame the needs of this new daycare within two significant debates. The first debate is about the proportion of vulnerable children in small NWT communities and specifically how these small communities are responding to the results of the Early Development Instrument. Compared to their counterparts in Yellowknife, and Canada more generally, many children in small communities lag behind in key areas of development.
The second debate is global in nature. Compared to other developed countries, Canada is a weak contributor towards early childhood activities. As of 2014, Canada’s early childhood development spending was substantially lower than the average. The evidence closer to home is no better. In comparisons of ECD spending across Canadian jurisdictions, the Northwest Territories fares poorly next to its provincial counterparts, a statement that can be verified in the 2014 Early Childhood Education Report published by the University of Toronto.
This government says it cares about the well-being of children in small NWT communities. I invite the government to provide funding for this bold plan to build a brand new Kids Corner in Fort Simpson. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s another session, so I need to bring up the other big issue in Hay River: dredging.
For three and a half years, I have been the MLA for Hay River North, and every session I’ve opened up talking about dredging. I am concerned this is going to create an economic shutdown of Hay River. We are the hub of the Northwest Territories. Because of the drought situation, we are seeing levels right now, in May, levels that are in September or August. That water level is down two feet. We have shipping issues; we have the Canadian Coast Guard having difficulty getting their boat out of the dry dock because the water is so low that the lift at NTCL won’t even allow it. They are having to jimmy rig it.
I continue to get from this government that it’s a federal responsibility, and I sure hope the federal government is listening to our proceedings because the federal government needs to step up and give us the money. We as a territorial government need to start working on figuring out a plan, a way to get the federal government involved. The federal government has been giving millions of dollars here and there. Why can’t they give us some on the dredging?
I’d like to thank the Regular Members on this side, because we’ve made some progress. We’ve written letters to our Minister of Transportation. He’s written letters to the federal Minister of Transportation and still no answer from the federal government. Very shameful.
We need to get this situation resolved. We need our government to step up. They’ve done some calculations, and now we need to call on the federal government and all interested parties to have a meeting.
I would suggest to the Minister of Transportation that we have a meeting in Hay River this summer to deal with dredging in the Hay River and the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of a well-known verse that it takes a community to raise a child. However, it could be said it takes a community to educate a child.
I have made several Member’s statements on and about the ?ehtseo School in Deline. Recently, I visited their school, last week. They need a new school. Knowing the financial conditions and situation in the Northwest Territories and what we are possibly facing in the coming years, there are overwhelming needs in our communities. We must think differently because of the needs. This will mean we can go further than beyond the financial words of “there’s not enough money in the pot,” or “it’s good to do, but where will you find the dollars?”
Mr. Speaker, the Deline school is falling apart. The joined floors between the gym and the foyer have a gap that’s covered up with a strip of tile so we don’t see the ground. The gym walls are leaning outwards and cracks are showing up in the walls. The floors are arching. If you were to put a ball in the middle of the floor, it would roll down pretty quickly to one end. In the classrooms, floors aren’t even. They are slanting down towards the outside. As I walked the halls to visit the classrooms, I became somewhat in a state of sea sickness because the floors were like waves on the lake.
The leadership would like to build a new school and they need our government as a partner to build it together. I will ask the Minister if he would look at a new partnership in building a new school for Deline. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, more now than ever, there are curious choices before all of us, choices that will pretty much define us as we go forward. It’s like sewing a seed into the future every step we take. A future we hold for ourselves and our children. If not our children’s future, then who?
Who do we secure this future for? Right before us, not unlike yesterday and certainly not unlike tomorrow, we must be faced with choices that have to be made by ourselves because we have been the ones we have been waiting for. We need the change that we promised we’d bring. We certainly need the strength and courage and willingness to ask the tough questions that, unfortunately, and sometimes with great courage, need to be asked. Do we have the strength within ourselves? I believe we do.
We should be defined by this opportunity that stands here today. What opportunity is that? Let us be known as the Assembly that has the courage, the willingness, the strength to ask, should hydraulic fracturing happen in our territory? It doesn’t take a lot of courage to ask that. It takes enormous courage to stand by that. They’re more than just words on paper. They are about our future, the future for ourselves, the future for our friends, the future for our families.
Some will stand by and lean on old decisions, the NEB’s policy and direction under their watch. If we do it their way, why did we fight so hard for devolution? These rules are of the old regime. I thought we were working to untie those shackles. We wanted to go forward in our own way.
The LP hardly would tell us the past is a foreign country. They do things differently there and I thought that’s why we were fighting for devolution. I’m calling for a one-year educational pause on hydraulic fracturing because we need to ask the right questions. It’s not about how we should do regulations on fracturing but whether we should be fracking no matter what conditions. We will never be Alberta and nor should we try. We have a great and powerful region called the Sahtu. That region needs opportunities, and before them these are the types they have. Are we giving them the support they need? We must give them their chances.
As I said, why are we doing this? We have the courage to do it for the right reasons. More than words, let’s stand by them through actions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I think about issues my constituents come to me for help with, housing tops the list by a wide margin. A person with disabilities and on the waiting list for years, sleeping in stairwells or couch surfing, young mothers with two-year-old children homeless and on the waiting list since their child was born, waiting, wondering where they are going to sleep that night.
Currently, the waiting list for socially assisted housing in Yellowknife has more than 200 families on it and it is not getting any shorter. At a constituency meeting in Detah this week, I was informed that there are five new Housing Corporation units sitting empty, heated and unoccupied during the winter. How galling for those families in desperate need of housing to see these houses sitting empty. And for what reason? No one on the waiting list qualifies for them.
What qualifications do desperate people need for access to public housing units that remain empty for years? While we spend millions on infrastructure to benefit industries that enrich shareholders and hire workers from afar, we continue to ignore the people of the North, the very people we are elected by and sworn to serve. Our priorities are skewed. Healthy, housed families with early childhood security and support are the best economic generators known.
The City of Yellowknife is trying to come to terms with the needs of the homeless through their Housing First program, recognizing that housing is the foundation of a productive, healthy life and must be considered first and foremost. As it’s actually their mandate, GNWT needs to follow this lead and get going on work to fully integrate the Housing First program with Yellowknife and other communities. Building infrastructure is one thing, but making it a successful and functional part of our community is something else again, as we’ve seen.
Communication with clients remains an issue. Before they write off clients or shunt them down the waiting list, housing workers need to envision walking a mile in the client’s shoes to learn the context for the difficulties of reporting highly variable income, being at an unfixed address, having transportation challenges for repeated visits to the office and making sporadic payments on housing arrears.
Affordability issues for housing in Yellowknife increased by a whopping 65 percent over the last five years.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Affordability issues for housing in Yellowknife increased by a whopping 65 percent over the last five years. Based on a lengthening waiting list, leaving disabled people and young single mom families in vulnerable conditions, it’s clear that the simple number of housing units is extremely inadequate too. This in a market community with ready solutions.
Mr. Speaker, let’s make the shameful public housing situation in Yellowknife a priority and look after our people. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been quiet on the fracking front the last few weeks, but about a month ago it was anything but quiet.
Industry, Tourism and Investment had started their public engagement sessions on fracking regulations and many of our residents were expressing their opinions. “You’ve got the cart before the horse,” many said. “We don’t want fracking,” or “we want to discuss if we should frack, we don’t want to discuss the regulations,” were some other comments.
In response, the Minister told residents that the meetings were not to discuss the merits of fracking, that it was not the time for that. It was time to consider regulations. Mr. Ramsay reiterated that yesterday in his statement, “This work and dialogue is not about deciding if hydraulic fracturing will take place in the NWT.”
It is clear to me that the government is forging ahead with fracking regardless. They have every intention to open the NWT up to development at any cost, and the concerns of residents do not seem to matter.
As I have said before, a conversation about fracking needs to happen, a conversation about if fracking should happen, how it should happen, when and where it should happen. That conversation has never been had and many residents are now and have been asking for it. There must be a thorough investigation of the practice of fracking to educate people, to comfort people, to weigh all the pros and cons of the practice. The highhanded “we know best” approach of Minister and Cabinet is not reassuring anybody. I’m not even sure if the investors are reassured.
We have a lull in fracking exploration and development applications in the Sahtu. Let’s use the time wisely and do the much needed consultation with our people. The Minister said yesterday that he’s committed to allowing more time. Let’s be sure that we use that time for the right purpose, to consult on and review the practice of fracking.
I am not against development, much as it may sound as though I am. I am against any development that has not been thoroughly thought out, a development where the risks and benefits are unknown.
That’s where we are today: a Minister intent on development without thorough examination of the pros and cons inherent in fracking development. Maybe the Minister has seen enough, heard enough to be convinced of the benefits of fracking, but many others in our territory have not. It is only just and fair that they be given the opportunity to get educated, as well, and then have a hand in any development decisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have stood up in this House before and spoken, and other Members have spoken, on the Business Incentive Policy that continues to have some concerns from businesses in the Northwest Territories. I’m only bringing it up today because we have missed opportunities in the past. There are businesses that have missed opportunities in this government and previous governments.
If you look at the application for the bid adjustment that is recognized in the policy on contracts more than $5,000 and less than $1 million and also any other contracts that are over $1 million, there is a local content bid adjustment applied to the local businesses of only 5 percent.
When we get contracts over $1 million, not too many of our small businesses can bid on those contracts or put down the money to secure that contract. We can’t always compete with bigger businesses that we have in the regional centres, maybe here in Yellowknife or even some southern businesses. That is the concern.
Also, the concern is that I know we haven’t reviewed this policy since 2010. With that review of the policy, you look at the key stakeholders who looked at this policy and some of them are the bigger organizations throughout the Northwest Territories that also do business with the bigger projects.
Are we getting the information and input from our smaller businesses in the communities, especially the small communities? I just want to bring this to the attention of Members as well as businesses in the Northwest Territories and the public that say we adjust some of these percentages, whether it’s northern content or even switching to local content. What are some of the benefits we can see at the local level?
For instance, if we adjusted it between 5 and 10 percent, we’d have more local hires in communities. We’d be supporting the small businesses that can’t actually compete for these contracts. We could actually do some of the apprenticeship work that I know the Department of ECE is working on to get some of our local guys doing some apprenticeship work. There would be local economic runoff for the hotels or the schools, for the restaurants.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
As I said, a lot of these businesses in the small communities cannot make the bid on the contracts around $1 million or over $1 million. If you get a business of a high local content of 10 or 15 percent, we will get more people working in that community or migrating to that community from the region or around the Northwest Territories and we’ll build the economy wherever the work is happening. So, it’s an option I want to explore more.
I will ask questions of the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment later on, looking at these options that can help our local businesses, help our local economy and diversify our economy throughout the Northwest Territories outside of the regional centres and outside of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I know in my Member’s statement I mentioned that the Kids Corner Daycare in Fort Simpson asked the Minister of Education for $200,000 towards a new daycare facility. In his rejection letter, he noted that his department doesn’t typically support infrastructure projects that are linked to daycare, yet a daycare facility in Inuvik received $1 million in the capital budget early in the 17th Assembly.
Can the Minister explain the rationale for his decision not to support the daycare project in Fort Simpson? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to daycare operations, we work closely with the operators. With the experience in Inuvik, that was some time ago. There was a need for a daycare establishment. The community fund raised up to 90 percent of the funds. That is an experience we’ve gone through. There is a policy being drafted now on public investment on private infrastructure. It’s been shared with the planning committee. Now there’s feedback to Cabinet. It’s before Cabinet to develop a policy with respect to that, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
The funding of private infrastructure policy is certainly being worked on, but before I get to that, the government, right from the start the Early Childhood Framework aimed to enhance the quality of children’s programs and services. In a document on the department’s website, I noted that a review was underway to examine program funding and governance.
Can the Minister indicate whether the review is addressing the matter of daycare infrastructure and whether any funding will be earmarked for the purpose of enhancing daycare facilities? Mahsi cho.
With our programming, obviously there is always room for improvement. What the Member is referring to is enhancement of feature programs that we’re concentrating on as we speak. There are programs that we are going to enhance as well. So, it is looking at the programs and services in the 32 communities we serve. We will be making those changes that will benefit the communities along the way. Mahsi.
