Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I couldn’t say it better myself. Thank you for your remarks to our wonderful language workers and instructors throughout the Northwest Territories. Today I’d like you to join me in welcoming board members that sit on the Official Languages and Aboriginal Language Revitalization Boards, which is very important work as we’re moving forward in this government and was a priority coming out the 17th Legislative Assembly as well. I know they do really great work with our Aboriginal Language Secretariat as well. Please welcome me in welcoming Dora Grandjambe, from the Sahtu Dene Council. She’s the chairperson of the Aboriginal Language Revitalization Board. Beverly Amos, chairperson of the Official Languages Board from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. Emily Kudlak, John Catholique, Emma Amundson, Jonas Landry, Mary Ross, Tammy Steinwand-Deschambeault, Theresa Etchinelle, Nora Wedzin, Vance Sanderson. Also joining us here today are regional language coordinators, Barbara Memogana, from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation; Mary Ann Vital, Sahtu Dene Council; Violet Jumbo, from the Dehcho First Nations; William Firth from the Gwich’in Tribal Council; Nicolas Carrier, Federation Franco-Tenoise. Also, I believe up in the gallery is Shannon Gullberg, our Languages Commissioner and our great staff over at the Aboriginal Language Secretariat that’s doing some great work. I’d like to welcome our staff for joining us here today and have all Members join us welcoming our great workers throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to welcome Mary Ross and William George first to the House today. Thank you for all your work you’ve done for the Gwich’in language. Mahsi cho.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Dora Grandjambe, Theresa Etchinelle, and Mary Ann Vital. Welcome to the Assembly. Members of our home riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nunakput.
Quyanainni, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, also, I’d like welcome everybody from the Official Languages Board members, Aboriginal Revitalization Board members, and regional language coordinators. I think we should put you guys to work in the translation booths. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to welcome a fellow Inuvialuit, Beverly Amos, Emily Kudlak, and Barb McKenna. I’m always a big advocate for Indigenous peoples and while we advocate for the environment, we keep our language strong. Thank you. Welcome.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a few other people in the gallery. We have Kelly and Todd Slack and the new addition to their family, Sam, probably one of the youngest people who has ever been in the gallery. David Wasylciw, who runs Open NWT, a valuable resource for political junkies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too, would like to stand up here today and recognize a few constituents from my riding. Emma Amundson and Violet Jumbo and a shout out to Tammy Steinwand there. Thank you.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Thebacha.
To recognize John Catholique, representing the Akaitcho Territory Government, and Vance Anderson, NWT Metis Nation.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Me too, I’d like to recognize several people in the gallery. The official Languages Commissioner; revitalization board; Jonas Landry, Emma Amundson, they work on the Aboriginal languages; and Violet Jumbo. She’s working on the revitalization program. I’d like to recognize them for the hard work that they’re doing. Thank you.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. I too, would like to recognize people for the Official Languages and Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Boards. First, I’d like to recognize John Catholique, also mostly known as “JC”. Marci cho. Also, I’d like to recognize Vance Sanderson from the Metis Nation. Vance is my grandson’s dad. I’d also like to recognize Angela James, from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and Angela is part of my big family. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of Visitors in Gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague, I want to also recognize residents of the Yellowknife North riding, the Slack family: Todd, Kelly, and Sam. Thank you for being here.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my constituent, Nicolas Carriere, who is with Franco-Tenoise and helps to keep the French language strong here in the territory. Mahsi.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.
[English translation not provided.]
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I received an email from Sambaa K’e First Nation council in Trout Lake, district of education party, regarding concerns about Charles Tetcho School expansion. Mr. Speaker, construction is scheduled to start in February 2017 and is going until the school year ends in June 2017. They feel that there is no space in the community that will accommodate all the school-aged students during this time and they’re concerned that the students are going to miss out a lot of school while the construction is occurring. Mr. Speaker, they feel it is going to be very noisy and not safe for the children. I have some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Is the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment willing to work with the Minister of Public Works to ensure that their staff gets into the community to discuss the construction schedule since the last time they were in the community was May 2015? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you. Mr. Speaker and yes, some of the 12 are doing in Moose Kerr School and in our other communities and we’re looking at the capital planning studies for providing facilities and safe facilities for students. We want to make sure that we’re doing it in the right way in terms of safety and environmental protections, so yes, the same commitment. We’ll work with the school and the community and with Public Works and Services to ensure that we’re doing this in the proper way it’s supposed to be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Way too fast today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his answer. However, he didn’t really answer the question; I was asking if he’d get his staff into the community. But I can ask that a little bit later on. Mr. Speaker, with the construction happening to the school, has the department come up with a plan to house the students during this construction phase?
I thought the Member had asked if I was going to be willing to work with PWS and I did answer that one, and of course, our staff will go into the community and work with the community and the school board. We’ll get our superintendent in there. I’m also willing to make a commitment to go into the community and see for myself and work with Public Works and Services moving forward. Unfortunately, as the Member had stated in his preamble to the questions, space is an issue. We will be doing a phased-in approach when we’re working, making the renovations and the work that needs to be done while construction has been happening. With the phased-in approach, the students will be housed in one section of the school while work is being done. Then, on the second phase, they’ll be moved into the other part of the school while work is being done and we will be doing it within the best interests of the students of the staff, to make sure that the least disruption will be happening as we’re making these renovations to this school. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the government, Mr. Speaker and I thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell the House how the department is going to address such issues as safety of the site and the noise level during school hours that will impact on the students?
The department, along with Public Works and Services, will develop safe work plans and safety plans with accordance to the WSCC guidelines and approval. As I mentioned, we want to try to do this in the proper way. It’ll be a phased-in approach and we’ll try to do it with the least disruption to the students and the staff and try to adjust the noise issues as we are developing these safe plans on the building of the school.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I thank the Minister for his answer. He’s kind of answered, but I’m going to rephrase it a bit here. Will he commit to a timeframe when his staff and the DPW staff will get into the community, consult with them? He’s already made a commitment to come in and I’m assuming we’re going to have to do that in the fall because we’re in session right now, but will he commit to a time frame when the staff from DPW and Education get into the community and talk to the DEA and the council. Thank you.
Yes and unfortunately, we are in session nearing the end of the school year, but I’ve made a commitment to try to get out to all the schools, all the communities over the course of my term and I will commit to going into Trout Lake, working with the community, see how we can get this school built in the best possible way and you will bring staff in there.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister, NWT Housing Corporation, following my Member’s statement. I’d like to ask if the Minister feels that the Housing Corporation has an effective communications plan for the people that they serve, specifically, the public housing clients at this point. I hear a lot of people come to me and indicate that it was difficult for them to report their income and they’re having trouble with that because they would pay 30 per cent of their gross income towards rent. I know that hasn’t been the case for quite a few years that the maximum rent is just a little over 19 per cent of their gross income, so I’d like to ask that question to the Minister. Does she feel she has an effective communications plan for the people in public housing? Thank you.
Minister for NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think at the GNWT level that the Ministers and the Premier have addressed, have identified that communication within all of our departments is an area that we need to work further on. I have given direction to the Housing Corporation to develop a communication plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask if the Minister would consider looking at developing a housing plan which has all aspects of housing that we look at in the communities, meaning that they look at not only the public housing, but all of the home ownership in the communities and all of the market housing and all of the staff housing in any particular community. I recognize that this would be a difficult task in a place like Yellowknife and Hay River, Inuvik. In the small communities where a high percentage of people are reliant on social housing, I’d like to ask if the Minister would develop a housing development plan for each community.
Yes, the NWT Housing Corporation is committed to doing a community housing development plan, specific for every community. We will be looking within that to get answers from people who live in the homes, the LHO’s within every community, the community government and the staff of course, of the corporation. As well, I will be asking feedback from our MLAs in, to also give feedback into the questionnaires within this survey before it is put out.
Mr. Speaker, recognizing that the Housing Corporation has a number of programs to address the housing needs across the communities, I believe there are four main home ownership programs. There’s market housing initiatives. There are other staff housing initiatives and of course, public housing also. I’d like to know if within the point when the Minister is doing the community housing development plans, if there’s any contemplation that perhaps it could change the programs and change the way they try to address core need at the community level. Thank you.
Yes, the Housing Corporation is actually… The reason that we’re putting out the survey is to identify within each community what they define as their priorities because we do recognize that one size does not fit all and we need to take more of a community focus within our housing programs. We are open to looking at every program that we currently provide and other options that the communities may put forward.
Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister has there been any discussion with her senior officials at the Housing Corporation towards developing a plan for what we’ve been talking about through the mandate, aging-in-place for seniors. Thank you.
Yes, the senior management within the NWT Housing Corp. also recognizes the aging-in-place for seniors issue is huge and that we need to address it. We are taking a really proactive approach to actually providing housing so that people can age in place.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the challenges of housing faced by the residents of the Northwest Territories and so did many of my colleagues. My questions, of course, are for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, in its 2008 audit of the NWT Housing Corporation, the Auditor General said, “we believe that good planning and relevant performance measures will assist the corporation to identify and address its challenges, engage the corporation’s progress in meeting the housing needs of all Northwest Territories residents.” Can the Minister explain: what are the key components of the department’s approach currently to improving housing in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
