When I questioned the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment when I spoke about the same and similar responses back from the Minister, which we appreciate, I’d like the Minister today to really think and seriously take the opportunity to come in to Deline, look at the school, look at the conditions that we’re subjecting our children going to school in these types of conditions. It’s amazing that school is still together with the condition that it’s in. If you look at the foyer and the school gym, the foyer and the school gym are falling apart. I think the only thing that’s holding them together is that strip of tile on the floor there. It’s just a gap in there. If you took that strip off, you would see a gap in the gym floor. It’s like this. It’s amazing. It’s a crying shame in this day here that we’re subjecting our children to this type of education facility.
I want to ask the Minister if he would be willing to come soon to Deline to look at the school and have a sit-down with the leadership to look at some partnerships where the community can take a larger role in building a new school. Deline needs a new school.
What the Member is referring to, obviously, is the floor movement between the gymnasium and the corridor, and my department is fully aware of that. The Member and I are considering visiting Deline, if it all works, on June 12th for the grad. We’re still working on the logistics for that. If it works, then that will be ample opportunity to sit down with the Member and also the leadership to go visit the school, as well, because that is part of the plan as we speak.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement about the bridge at Willow River, the community is very thankful for the support from the Minister and department, but moving forward in the next Assembly, the community would like some assurance that this Community Access Program will continue in the 18th Assembly.
I’d like to ask the Minister, will they recommend that the Community Access Program continue in the 18th Legislative Assembly?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That program is fully utilized all the time. It’s a very good program. All the communities like it and we’re going to maintain the program.
This program that I’m referring to, the Community Access Program, has roughly a million dollars in that fund. We have 32 communities that make use of these funds and it’s very limited to the amount that you can put in for.
Will the Minister recommend that this fund be increased?
We had recognized that it was the previous government that had tripled the budget from around $300,000 to just slightly over $1 million. We recognize that the budget is fully utilized and we are receiving applications well in excess of what money is available. We continue to have internal discussions in DOT to see if there’s a possibility internally to move some money around. So, we continue to have that discussion.
There are a lot of areas where there are pressures, of course. We have highways, we have marine services and airports and winter roads. So within those areas we are looking to see if it is possible to move money around internally.
Alternatively, I guess we go back to the House to look for additional funds, but at this time we are looking internally at that, in hopes that maybe in the future there will be a little bit more money put into the Access Program. Thank you.
We’re getting our transition protocol here to recommend to our next government what to carry on with, and I thank the Minister for doing that with this program here, but I’d like to also recommend that this fund be increased. Even by $200,000, it helps the communities a lot with programs that create employment in the communities and I hope that happens. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At this point in the transition planning, we are not working specifically on any of the budgets, departmental budgets; however, we would have an opportunity to maybe discuss some of the programs that are very well-utilized, some of the more popular programs, and we could have that discussion in the transition meetings as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Before we go on, colleagues, I would like to welcome back to Yellowknife, I guess, Mr. David Lovell, former mayor of Yellowknife. Welcome to the House.
---Applause
Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Housing. Specifically, I have questions for the Minister. The need for housing is acute throughout the Northwest Territories, as we heard, for all people on the ever-growing waiting list, but the need is even more acute for people with disabilities.
Can the Minister tell me how many clients on the housing waiting list in Yellowknife and the NWT are people with disabilities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have 894 people on the housing waiting list across the Northwest Territories. I’m not sure if we have them broken down as to those with disabilities or not, but I will find out and I will share the information with the Member. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I heard 894 people. I believe they would be families. People.
---Interjection
Okay. So, we don’t know how many families.
Another group of housing clients in desperate need than most are single parents. Not only are they suffering from lack of housing but their children, especially for the very young, are not getting a secure, healthy beginning in life that we desire for all of our children right from the start.
How many of the families on the current waiting list are parents with very young children? Mahsi.
As far as the ones who have young children, I’m not quite sure of that. I do have the numbers for the people who are waiting for one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom and that would give you a fairly good indication of the number of people that are in the family. But we recognize that our largest growing segment in the population are those with young families, so we’re going to take the direction that we put up a lot more family one-, two-bedroom, multiplex-type units across the Northwest Territories and I think that will address that particular issue.
I’ll get the numbers for the waiting list on the number of bedrooms and share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Obviously, 894 people for our population is very shameful. We have to do a better job. When people who lack safe, warm, secure housing see unoccupied Housing Corporation dwellings with no tenants in them being heated through consecutive winters, they are understandably frustrated and feel that this is a horrible waste and an unjust use of scarce public resources.
So, what changes in policy are being contemplated? I thought we’d done this already. This is going on for years. What policies are being contemplated or will we finally act to make sure that in the face of the desperate needs we see, available housing is not left aging and empty? This is just common sense, while real people with real needs are left unserved. It’s mindboggling. Mr. Minister, will you fix this?
We’ve taken a number of steps in the last little while to try and address some of the issues that the Member speaks of. We’ve had a number of vacant units in the communities. Through an Affordable Housing Initiative, we built a lot of these units on spec, assuming we were going to have the clients for them. Unfortunately, we overestimated the clients who might be eligible, so we turned a lot of those units into public housing units to try and address the public housing shortage.
The units that the Member speaks of, we’re just in the process now of... Those again were built trying to transition people from public housing into homeownership. Again, we overestimated the number of clients that we might have. So, we are in the process of converting those particular units into public housing because the need now is for more public housing. I think we’ve pretty well tapped out a lot of our homeownership clients, so we’re going to convert those into public housing like we did in a number of other communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last five years in small communities, but it’s been at the cost of people in Yellowknife and especially people who have moved here from other communities. This is totally unacceptable. The Minister is continuing to focus away from Yellowknife and it’s getting ridiculous.
Reallocating existing housing stocks between programs and changing rules regarding eligibility does not alter the basic fact that there are not enough homes in the territory for the people who live here.
How many new housing units does the corporation plan this year, and how many of those homes will actually be assigned tenancy to the most vulnerable citizens of the Northwest Territories, the homeless? I’d appreciate that information for both the Northwest Territories and for Yellowknife. Mahsi.
We apparently budgeted $45 million to put into housing programs for this year. I think we’ve got about 45 new or replacement public housing units, and I will confirm that number and share it with the Members. Plus, I’ll also share the allocation.
The Housing Corporation, as the Member said, I think has seen a change in the last five years. We’ve tried to address a number of housing issues. We’re taking over the funding from ECE. I think we’re going to be able to access probably 55 more units in the capital, plus a number of the other programs in the capital that we support through contributions, and then we’re working with the developer, I think through the ECE transfer that offered us a few options. So, we’ve taken another 19 units for the capital.
So, with the limited budget we have and the challenges we face, I think we’re continuing to try and address some of the need for homes and places to stay across the Northwest Territories, and I disagree with the point that we’re doing it at the expense of Yellowknife. I don’t think that’s true. I think we’re treating all regions across the Northwest Territories fairly, and if you look at the numbers in our budget, you will see that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement earlier today, I would like to reference from edited Hansard, March 11, 2015, where Minister Miltenberger stated, “Depending how we evolve in terms of distribution and generation, we have to look at things as I raised previously, the role and relationship of the Power Corporation. Right now it is a stand-alone power corporation with a board. Given our close working relationship and financial investment, is that the best structure, could it be structured more efficiently and effectively in any other way?”
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister elaborate what he meant when he stated these comments in the House? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of the Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has shown himself to be a very vocal and aggressive defender and supporter of powerful money, multinational interests headquartering outside of the Northwest Territories and clearly today he’s going to vent his spleen on the Power Corporation, which is, I think, a very good corporation that we’d all be lost without.
On the issue of dividends, let’s make the distinction between the Power Corporation and a private company. The people of the Northwest Territories own the Power Corporation. There’s one shareholder. Rather than take a dividend, we reinvest all the money back into the system in the Northwest Territories to make sure we provide services. Over time we have had a relationship with the Power Corporation that has become closer because there has been significant things that have happened that if we did not have that relationship, would have led to very, very significant increases in the rates. Let me specifically talk about the money we put in the life of this government to cushion the shock of the increases due to diesel costs. Let me talk about the $20 million we put into low water that would have had to have been covered by anybody providing that service.
So, that relationship has become very close. The Auditor General has pointed out that that relationship has been close and that we should look at how we should change our reporting relationship because of that close working relationship. The Power Corporation is the main vehicle for energy policy for the Government of the Northwest Territories and, in many cases, social policy in the Northwest Territories. When we work to do alternative energy, when we work to minimize our greenhouse gas emissions, when we look at LED lights across the Northwest Territories, when we look at converting Colville Lake to solar with batteries to cut our diesel and our greenhouse gases, when we look at the solar in Fort Simpson. Those type of things, they’re a part of the government’s policy, energy policy, carried out on our behalf by the corporation that we own as a collective.
So, those are some of the musings and the Auditor General has flagged them for us, as well, in a very practical reality in terms of how do we account for the money that the Power Corp spends in a relationship with the territorial government.
I’m a supporter of the truth, transparency and accountability, so the Minister of Finance can characterize all he wishes. I’d like to go back to November 7th to the Northern News article where the Finance Minister was openly musing about the NTPC’s demise, suggesting that NTPC be taken over by the GNWT and, as he stated, “If we hadn’t given them this $80 million, I shudder to think what the rates would be.”
Again, can the Minister elaborate why he was so keen on threatening to dissolve the NWT Power Corporation? Thank you.
I wasn’t expecting to dissolve the Power Corporation. The Power Corporation is a critical vehicle for the territorial government and its energy policy. However, the relationship has evolved over the years. There was a time, many Legislative Assemblies ago, when there was a dividend required from the Power Corporation, but as things have changed, cost of energy has gone up, the decision was made to not require the dividend, to reinvest whatever money they have back into keeping the costs as low as possible.
We have had to engage with the Power Corporation clearly in a way that it doesn’t make it as stand-alone as it would be in some other jurisdictions and we have other configurations that we live with. For example, we have a Housing Corporation that has no board that is part of the territorial government and is our vehicle for delivering public housing, market housing in the Northwest Territories.
So, post-devolution, as we evolve, we have to look at that relationship with the Power Corporation, and as we look at the borrowing limit and we look at generation initiatives and who is going to drive those and the direction that the government is going to provide to the Power Corporation to do the things that the Legislature and the government needs done, that means a close working relationship and, once again, point to the fact that the Auditor General himself has pointed out that we need to change how we account for our relationship with the Power Corporation because of that close working relationship. Thank you.
Now, months later, the Minister in his own press release of May 26, 2015, clearly and boldly supports NTPC’s participation in an RFP process in Hay River, and he points out this “could potentially lead to lower electricity rates.”
To the Minister: Why the flip-flop? In November, you’re shuddering to dissolve the Power Corporation and now you’re praising their ability to somehow lower electricity rates. I think the people are a little bit confused. Can the Minister explain this flip-flop?
The government has been very consistent in its approach to energy and to the Power Corporation to how we deliver things, how we deliver power, our emphasis on the cost of living, and it’s very, very simple. The issue that the Member refers to, we have the proof before us. You have one community at 31 cents per kilowatt, you have two neighbouring communities at 21 cents per kilowatt.
Can we effect a positive change? Yes, we can. I believe that we will significantly close that gap if that opportunity is presented to the Power Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Too bad it’s a done deal, as it appears to be here. The NWT Power Corporation, by its own statutes, is more than able to submit a bid for an open RFP process. However, this week we clearly saw political interference and action on our Minister of Finance responsible for NTPC, and our Premier jointly endorsed a ticker tape parade press release in support. The question we need to ask is why. Why would this Cabinet need to endorse and intervene with an open public process? Can the Minister explain this?
Some would suggest that intervening in a process that’s already underway would be meeting with one of the proponents after the public process has started, as has occurred. However, the issue here is very clear. It’s a political one. I’m the Minister responsible. I’m very well aware of the political sensitivities that this issue has, that if the Power Corporation would have gone ahead without political due diligence we would be in a considerably different situation. Then we would be getting pilloried and vilified and hectored for different reasons. We have covered the bases. We have looked at the issue carefully. I took it back to Cabinet. Cabinet looked at it and said, “Power Corporation, carry on with your business.” We went to committee and we’ve talked to them about that. We wanted to politically, as the shareholder, make sure that we were in sync with what the Power Corporation is technically able to do on its own, but politically it made only eminent sense to have us touch those bases.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the goals of the 17th Legislative Assembly is a diversified economy that provides all communities and regions with opportunities and choices. Going back to my Member’s statement with the Business Incentive Policy, I threw out a solution there in terms of looking at increasing our local content in the Business Incentive Policy. One suggestion is, when I’ve talked to local businesses back home, maybe flipping it, flipping the local content to 15 percent and the northern content to 5 percent. You’ll still get the northern content in your local content for the Business Incentive Policy, but when you’d make it localized then you’re diversifying economies to the communities across the Northwest Territories. I gave a lot of benefits in my Member’s statement to that, all the benefits if we focused more content to the local businesses, and we’d be supporting local businesses.
My first question to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment: Has the department looked at increasing the local content or even, furthermore, switching the local and northern content percentages during the Business Incentive Policy review?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We looked at this a few years back and we had contracted a company to take a look at the scenarios and how we could do our bid adjustments. A couple of different scenarios were put in place and at that time it wasn’t considered necessary to be looking at the changes to the current adjustments. But that’s not to say that as we go forward, Members and the business community here in the Northwest Territories may have other ideas on how we can strengthen the Business Incentive Policy here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
I appreciate the history of the review of this Business Incentive Policy, and maybe in future I can look at those findings. In that review, or even now since it hasn’t been reviewed since 2010, has the Minister spoken to some of our key stakeholders in our local communities? I’m not talking about key stakeholders like the NWT Chamber of Commerce, NWT Construction Association, none of these territorial stakeholders. We need to hear from the local stakeholders that do business in our communities and provide jobs for our local residents.
Has the Minister consulted with the local businesses to see what they are saying and not what the territorial organizations are saying? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
If we were going to go down the path of opening up a review of the BIP, key stakeholders like the NWT Chamber of Commerce, the NWT Construction Association and other industry associations would certainly be part of that.
For the most part, we believe that business here in the Northwest Territories is benefitting from the current BIP that we have in place. We have heard some concerns that it needs to be strengthened. There needs to be more protection for what I would deem as true northern businesses with headquarters here in the Northwest Territories and employees here in the Northwest Territories.
Again, this is something that, as we continue to move on, I know that we are getting late in the life of this government, but it could be something that is flagged in the transition to the next government. If the Members feel that there’s enough concern out there about the status of it today, it could be something that we could look at as we move forward to the 18th Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
As I mentioned, and as the Minister knows, as mentioned in some of the ministerial statements, our economy is slow and in some of the regions and some of the communities there is hardly any work or no work at all. If we can start looking at when we are delivering contracts, we do in fact try to increase the local content or increase the amount of work in that project that a local business can do.
Has the Minister consulted and looked at what businesses we have out there – I know we do have a registry – that can focus on doing the business that we put out RFPs and contracts and they ensure that our local businesses do get that part of the contract? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We do do that type of work, and I guess a good case in point is the Tuk Inuvik Highway. It was very important that the money stay in the North and that local contractors were involved there. We see the benefit of that with the employment levels in both communities of Tuktoyaktuk and also in Inuvik and other communities in the Beaufort-Delta as well.
There are ways the government can continue to emphasize the importance of keeping money here in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to look at opportunities to do just that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s my case in point. I mean, that wasn’t a contract; that was out for public tender. But if we did have a contract out for public tender and we increased the local content, then we get more people working in that community and then we get people from all over the regions, the Sahtu, Yellowknife, even from the Yukon, and all the communities in the Beaufort-Delta benefitting.
That is what I’m trying to say here. If we change this, not the sole-source or the negotiated contracts, but if we put it in the contract, in the BIP, we would see those results.
I would like to ask the Minister one last quick question with the registry. How often does he update the registry and ensure that local businesses and businesses in the Northwest Territories are up to date on the registry? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As Members know, as part of our decentralization we did move the BIP office to the community of Hay River. I will get the information that the Member is asking for and I’ll provide that to all Members when the registry is reviewed and when that happens. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
