Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I’ve heard the expression that work is going on. I have been asking, what work? But given that there is work going on and I’ve heard the Minister on the radio about the situation in Nunavut relative to harvesting and even commercial harvesting, given all these things, what does the Minister see, given our current, recent and continuing declines? What are the current priority management actions that are required and when will we be putting these into place to ensure the return of these critical populations? Mahsi.
The final harvest decisions on an interim basis will be done before the middle of October. We are in discussions now with all the impacted and affected Aboriginal governments, programs and boards, our Department of ENR. So that will be done.
In the longer term, we are hoping to get the Bluenose-East Management Plan up and running finally. I believe now that the conditions are right, where we can get the attention and interest of all affected parties to gather around the table to work on an ongoing, longer-term plan on the Bathurst herd, which is in the most dire straits. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will follow up to questions on my Member’s statement earlier for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As I stated, we’ve heard over the last little while the need for a treatment centre in the Northwest Territories. I do understand that we have four contracted treatment centres down south at any given time, pending that there are beds available.
How many of our NWT residents actually, through the fiscal year 2014-2015, went out for treatment during that fiscal year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2014-2015 we had a total of 174 residents who took advantage of the treatment facilities available to Northwest Territories residents. In 2015-2016, to date, we’ve had 109 residents of the Northwest Territories take advantage of those same treatment facilities.
Just as a note, we have put in an expedited referral process to ensure that people can get to those facilities as quickly as possible. Sometimes now is the right time for individuals. We have seen some significant success with those bonafide referral processes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad to hear that. Those numbers are pretty high for the Northwest Territories. I would like to ask the Minister if he’s been working with any of our Aboriginal groups or any other non-government organizations to look at the possibility of creating a facility or using an existing infrastructure, which is one of our priorities that we set out at the onset of this government, to create a treatment facility in the Northwest Territories.
We have 174 residents in 2014-2015 and 109 to date this year. We do have a facility up in Inuvik, Arctic Tern facility, and I do recall at one time there was only one person in that facility. Yet, we fully staffed that facility for the one person. I know the Minister has mentioned the feasibility of having a treatment centre based on the number of patients that would be in that facility at any given time.
I would like to ask the Minister, has he spoken to any NGOs or Aboriginal groups to partner – that we will take care of all the expenses to partner – and create a treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Just to be clear, we have on average, at any given time, about 12 residents for the Northwest Territories who are seeking treatment through facility-based treatment. The individuals who are attending treatment often have significantly different needs and, as a result, are going to any one of our four facilities available to our northern residents. For instance, Poundmaker’s Lodge is a co-ed facility with a wide range of spiritual-based programs as well as the ability to provide some level of social detox. They have on-site psychologists and psychiatrists who can provide support to the residents who need that particular programming. We also have Aventa, which is a facility for women only and it has gender-specific programming as well as trauma-informed treatment programs. It has a wide variety of programs that we’ve never been able to provide here in the Northwest Territories for a more generic type of facility that have been delivered in the past.
We also have Fresh Start Recovery Centre, which is a male only facility with gender-specific programs designed to support men through their healing process. We also have Edgewood, which is a facility more specifically designed for opiate use or individuals suffering from addictions to narcotics and other drugs. At no time do we have 12 people who are in one facility. We tend to have them throughout the four facilities because they have a wide range of needs.
When the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addictions was completed, it told us clearly that we need to offer a wide range of services to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Treatment facilities are but one of those options and we provide that option. We have an expedited referral process, we have no waitlists, and we can get people in there 24 to 48 hours if it’s appropriate. We do encourage people to do some level of counselling before they go, but sometimes now is the right time.
We also have on-the-land programs that are throughout the Northwest Territories, done in partnership with our Aboriginal governments. We’ve had some great turnout in attendance to those particular workshops. We also have community counselling, and we’ve recently put in new community counselling guidelines and processes to ensure that community counsellors are providing a high range of services. Before anybody goes to one of our treatment centres, they have to have a follow-up appointment booked for after-care with the community counsellors.
Mr. Speaker, we have a wide range of services. We are following the direction from the Mental Health and Addictions Forum. We’re always looking for ways to improve our services. We continue to move forward with our attempts to put in a mobile treatment so that we can provide more regional based, building upon things like the Matrix program that we have in place that is being used by residents of the Northwest Territories. So, we offer a wide range of services to people suffering from mental health and addictions. Thank you.
I appreciate all the answers that the Minister stated. However, the realities are, we can provide all these services but if we don’t have the resources to see them through in some of our small communities where we have some of our higher rates, even in the regional centres. You know, I’ve chatted with some of these people who have gone through these programs and have had a difficult time reintegrating back into the community because those services weren’t always provided during the times that they needed. So, obviously, the after-care is still a concern.
The Minister did mention the expedited process, and I know I’ve had a lot of individuals who I’ve spoken to who really needed to get the treatment right away but they were told that they need to go through counselling services, whether it was six or eight sessions, and as we all know, there are waiting times, but also in the small communities you might not have a counsellor or the fact that if it’s a really small community then everybody knows what the issue is and there’s a stigma attached to that.
I’d like to ask the Minister, what’s the expedited process and how can residents who really need the help be able to get that treatment sooner than later?
We do encourage residents who are struggling with addictions to attend a number of counselling sessions. I believe it’s four, depending on the nature of the addiction. But we also recognize that sometimes four sessions is too much. Sometimes now is the time. If you are suffering from mental health or an addictions issue here in the Northwest Territories and you know now is the time, you need to speak to a counsellor or health practitioner, let them know that now is the time, I need to go now, and we can get a referral through the department in 24 hours and we can begin the process of getting you into treatment after the 24-hour period. Sometimes we’ve been able to get people in treatment as quickly as 48 hours.
So, if you have constituents who have gone and said now is the time and they haven’t had that offered to them, you need to let us know so that we can make sure that we fix the process. In the meantime, if you have constituents who tell you now is the time, encourage them to talk to their counsellor. It’s an emergency situation. We always book emergency situations immediately. We can get you in, we can get the referral in 24 hours and we can get you to treatment as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that also needs to be reiterated and emphasized and encouraged to our social work staff, to our health professionals, because sometimes people who really need it are getting turned away and not getting the services that they need. I am speaking from the experiences I have had over the four years, especially since this expedited process has gone through.
I also want to ask the Minister – and it has been brought up in this House before – whether or not he’s speaking with his ministerial colleagues in Nunavut and the Yukon, so we are creating a pan-territorial northern treatment centre that would offer the cultural values, the traditions and provide that family and community support, that northern support that’s needed. I wonder if he’s had any kind of discussion with our Health Ministers from Nunavut and the Yukon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We remain committed to finding opportunities and we are always looking for opportunities to work with our northern partners. In the last four months, I have tried twice to arrange meetings with my counterparts in Nunavut and the Yukon. This is one of the agenda items that was on the list, that was on the agenda. Unfortunately, both meetings were cancelled by the other jurisdictions. I have asked to work with my colleagues in the other territories to gather information on the facilities and programs available in those jurisdictions to see how we can partner. Unfortunately, as I indicated, both meetings that I booked with the other jurisdictions were cancelled. We are committed to working with them if there is an opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to follow up on my statement from yesterday and today and talk about student financial assistance policies which, as I said, are not working as they should. The first one I would like to talk about is the residency requirement. I asked in my statement and I want to ask the Minister at this point, what is the rationale and why did we require for a student to be out of post-secondary schooling for a year before we will fund them for student financial assistance? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There are purposes for having policies in place and the process itself where individual students are sponsored, up to 1,600 students. There are students out there who also qualify for southern funding, as well, in provincial jurisdictions. We have to be careful that there are no duplications. We are mindful of that and we are monitoring it as well. Those are some areas where we have policies in place so there’s no duplication from other jurisdictions, so there is no double-dipping. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I didn’t really hear an answer to my question as to why you have to be out of school for a year. I can appreciate you don’t want people double-dipping and getting student financial assistance from a province and also a territory, but I don’t understand why we can’t monitor that and allow students to go from a school in Alberta to school in the NWT from one school year to the next.
The second question I would like to ask the Minister with regard to the residency is we have determined that someone must be in the NWT for 12 months before they are eligible for student financial assistance. It doesn’t seem to matter where you were born, where you grew up, how long you’ve been out of the territory.
I’d like to ask the Minister what the rationale is for 12 months in the NWT before you can establish residency. Thank you.
That policy has been in existence since 2000, for 15 years. We’ve heard from students about the particular policies we have in place. There are certain areas where 12 months’ residency versus what Members suggested, three months. If an individual moves south after high school, whether it is for work or school, and they come back for three months and go back to school again to further their schooling down south, they would qualify based on what the Member is suggesting, three months. There is no guarantee that these students will be coming back. We just have to be mindful and monitor those mechanisms that we have in place, Mr. Speaker. We are open to discussing these areas of residency. We’ve made some drastic changes, as you know, in 2015, 2013, 2006-07 and 2000. It does take time to make some changes, but we have enhanced our SFA program and we have one of the best SFA programs in the whole of Canada.
Thanks to the Minister for that response. I’m really pleased to hear that there’s a willingness to consider a possible change. I’m not too sure that he said he would consider three months. I’ll leave that to my colleague Mr. Bouchard to follow up on.
I want to ask a question with regard to the other policy that I mentioned, and that has to do with travel. I spoke yesterday about a mother who endured Christmas on her own because her children were flown home by the dad and she was left at school on her own. I had made a suggestion. I provided a solution to the Minister yesterday.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he will consider if what he considers wrong with providing a dollar limit to a student. They can travel up to whatever the dollar limit that SFA sets. Once that’s gone then they can’t travel anymore. Will he consider that and does he see anything wrong with that?
Again, that particular policy has been in existence since 2000 as well. Depending on which students you talk to, some students want to be down south with their family that they brought over there. They don’t want the hassle of coming back to the Northwest Territories, to their community, with the kids that they have without belongings, so it’s their choice if they want to pursue that.
There is a cost factor that we need to look at. How much would it cost us? With 1,600 students, how many are parents with children and dependants? Those are areas that we are currently looking at and how can we move forward on this. If there is any decision that needs to be made, obviously, it would have to be at the forefront of the 18th Assembly government.
Again, we just made substantial changes in 2015, so it will take some time to provide that recommendation to the new government.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks to the Minister again. I appreciate that there were a lot of changes that were made fairly recently, but I have to say to the Minister, he quoted both of these policies of having been in existence for a long time. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t cut it with me. Just because it’s been here for a long time doesn’t mean it’s right.
I would like to ask the Minister, in terms of allowing students, of doing the best for our students, and I guess I would challenge the Minister to read my statement from yesterday and for him to understand that this mother spent Christmas on her own and not with her family. But will he consider and will he recognize that there’s an ability within staff to make some of these situations work? Will he empower his staff with the flexibility to make decisions not to throw the policy out the window totally but to make a decision based on the particular circumstances of a student and allow for the best interests of the student to be met?
Any changes we make to our policies, obviously there’s a cost factor, as I stated, and this is an area that we are looking at.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Transportation will certainly be the lucky recipient of my questions this afternoon, and I’m sure he’ll be quite pleased to have them. My questions will be focused around, of course, the $32 million claim being submitted by the contractor.
As we understand it, we don’t know what the outcome of that is, so to be clear, I don’t think a decision has been made to spend money or not. But I think it’s important to stress this and build a good foundation on the issue of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway. I need to be clear, there is no question about the importance of that infrastructure to Northerners. In its very own way, of course, it’s nation building, and I have no doubt that the residents of that community will benefit from this and certainly the fact that it will lower the cost of living. It will be a beautiful highway, I have no doubt. Maybe not beautiful enough to drive a rented Audi A8 down, but it is certainly a beautiful highway in and of itself.
My question for the Minister of Transportation is: How does he plan to keep Members informed once the review of this potential claim has been submitted? Members want to know the next direction that will be taken long before any decision is made. How does the Minister plan to keep the Members informed? And this really affects whether there is an election or not.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the committee meeting of Priorities and Planning yesterday in the House, I committed to providing regular weekly updates on this potential claim to the committee. Thank you.
I’m sure I don’t need to remind the Minister that we only have basically a week of committee meetings left and the Assembly, of course, is done on October 8th from a sitting point of view and Members are still active, in theory of course, until I think it’s the stroke of midnight on Sunday the 25th.
But decisions are being made behind the scenes and I think the issue really comes down to what assurances can the Minister provide the House publicly that no decision, if there is a situation where there may be a need for extra money, that no decision will be made in absence of the Members having an opportunity to discuss the merits of this initiative and certainly debate them and, if need be, support them if necessary.
What assurances is the Minister going to provide this House that true accountability can happen?
The Member is correct. Of course, the writ will be dropping within probably the next four weeks or so. So, I guess we will ensure that the Members are advised, if it has to be in writing, advised up until the point the writ is dropped. At that point we have 30 days or 28 days of campaigning period. During that time, if there is a need for a decision, we’re hoping that there would be no need for a decision during the campaign period, but we would govern according to the contract that we have with the company.
The last thing we want to do is stop the project or delay the project. They’re already operating with reduced days because of the weather. So, I guess the best case scenario is we make our decisions prior to the election and any other decisions that need to be made will be made after the election.
Can the Minister clearly say to this House that no decision will be made if the case need be to advance money on this project, that no decision will be made if Members are not around in any normal form or fashion to be able to participate in a meaningful discussion, debate and decision?
If there is some decision, I just don’t know how it’s going to happen and I’d hate to see a Deh Cho Bridge déjà vu all over again.
So, is the Minister going to say to the House clearly that no decision will be made in absence of the Members being able to fully participate in the decision?
There may be a decision made prior to the writ dropping, to continue the operations, to continue the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk Highway. There will be no decision made after the writ is dropped until after the election of the 18th Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From my last question, it’s certainly seen as it can be an obstruction of the freedoms and rights of a Member to do their job if we are not able to participate fundamentally in a meaningful way on decisions of this magnitude. We’re not talking about a $100 decision here; we’re talking about a $32 million decision.
So, how does the Minister expect that we will be meaningfully involved in some type of decision between October 8th and October 25th prior to the election starting, because everybody knows October 8th is the last sitting day. So if they do not have any decision on what to do on this project, whether to give money or not to give money, we’re not going to be involved and we cannot allow that to happen. Thank you.
One of the reasons that we’re going through the claim process is to determine what the claim would be. Currently we know, one thing we do know is that the majority of the potential claims would be in the future. It’s something that would be looked at as year three and year four construction winds down. So, what we’ve done is we’ve divided the potential claim. There is actually no claim yet, but the potential claim has been divided in two. It’s $12 million for the construction to date. That’s what we’re engaging in now. The $20 million potential claim is for the coming construction.
What’s happening now is the project company is indicating that there is potential. If the weather is similar to what the weather has been in the last two years, there’s potential for a claim on the last two years of construction for $20 million. But what we’re looking at currently and what we’re meeting with the project company today on is the $12 million that has become an issue for them to date. So, the construction to date. That is not yet a claim and may not be a claim if we’re able to work with the company to get the construction going and using the money that’s approved in this House to continue construction. They mainly need to start construction and that’s what we are hoping to do now.
After October 8th, I’m hoping that there is no requirement for a decision, but nothing is going to happen in the $232 million, that’s for sure. We’re hoping that we can have a decision on the $12 million before the 8th. If we don’t, we’re hoping to have a decision before the 26th when the writ will drop. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s quite encouraging that we’re seeing the dances of the proposed wood pellet plant moving forward. I think there’s cause for excitement and there seems to be a sense of being positive in terms of the optimism that it is generating.
I wanted to take a business approach to this whole project and ask the Minister of ITI in terms of his role with his department in playing a support capacity. My question is to the Minister of ITI.
What support role, if any, does ITI have in terms of moving to establish a wood pellet plant in the NWT? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like other government departments, we’ve committed to support the development of the wood pellet industry here in the Northwest Territories, and we do have programs related to business start-up. Our South Slave office has been busy in talking to folks who want to get into trucking the harvest of timber and other pursuits related to biomass. Thank you.
My question is: How can the Minister ensure we have more biomass-related business initiatives in the NWT? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, we’re very excited about the prospect of the pellet facility in the South Slave. We will take direction on the development of that facility in the ensuing business opportunities for business start-up in the South Slave related to that new biomass facility. So, we’re waiting for ground to break on that and the opportunities that it will bring. Thank you.
The Minister has indicated that his department is playing a role in terms of assisting communities, more so for communities that are directly impacted by a project of this nature, whether it’s going to be positive or negative.
Could the Minister outline in terms of the availability of programs for funding that are available for communities that could perhaps access funding and research and discuss locally in terms of strategies in terms of mitigating a project of this nature? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, we’ve worked with communities with business development officers, economic development officers, to identify opportunities for folks to get into business. We have our SEED program, a loan program, as well as we have the BDIC for folks who are interested in getting some of these opportunities that a new biomass facility is going to bring to the Northwest Territories.
In the Member’s riding and in the South Slave, these jobs are desperately needed. We understand that. That’s why government fully supports the development of that wood pellet facility in the South Slave. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we’ve experienced a forest fire over the past two years. It’s really affected communities along the highways. So we have, in some places, fallen trees and burnt out areas. In some cases they are close to communities.
Would the Minister commit his department to work with communities that are interested in salvaging the burnt wood that is closely situated to their community or along the highway? Mahsi.
