I thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister of the department hasn’t spoken to these companies I’m not sure how we saved $2 million by going to a public tender process. To me, if it’s a negotiated contract you work out a price, but he didn’t do that so we can’t really say that we saved $2 million. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please explain how we saved $2 million with this project going out to a public tender?
What I can do is I will commit to the Member that I can pull together that information on how we came up to that number and supply that to the Member.
Again I thank the Minister for his answer. They’ll be a lot of stuff coming from his office or his department in the future I hope, and I thank him for that. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding as part of the BIP process, southern companies make commitments to have a certain percentage of northern content. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please explain how the department ensures that that percentage of the bid is adhered to?
The procurement process allows for the BIP that’s supplied on to contracts in the Northwest Territories, and that is supplied through the Public Works and Services when it’s put out to tender and that’s how the bids are adjusted accordingly. Southern bidders do not qualify for northern content or the BIP process and the northern people do.
Masi. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for the education about the BIP process. I totally understand the BIP process; what I’m asking for the Minister to explain how the department guarantees, when Southern company says they’re going to put 60 per cent of the cost to Northerners so the money is vested back into the communities, how does the department guarantee as part of the bid or contract when they sign it, because that’s what they bid on, is adhered to? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I’ve said, the Public Works put out the tender; there’s a BIP process that’s applied to all tenders of these bids. If the southern contractor states that they’re going to have 60 per cent that the Member has alluded to in part of their bidding contract that has nothing to do with the BIP process of this contract. We can follow up with the Member and have a discussion on the number that he’s talking about, but Public Works and Services applies the numbers to the tender process.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about mental health in Nunakput. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. My first question, Mr. Speaker, is: can the Minister provide an update on the activities supporting mental health that will take place in our small communities across the NWT, including the Nunakput region? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member in his statement actually identified a significant amount of the work that’s actually taking place in the communities. We do have the NWT Help Line which is available free of charge to all NWT residents, and, as the Member said, it is confidential and anonymous and is available 24/7. The department continues to support health and social services authorities to offer different courses and different services in the community such as the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training which is often referred to as ASIST, and the Mental Health First Aid courses. Those are delivered in every region twice per year, and I know that in Nunakput we’re just finalizing some contracts to make sure that those programs can be delivered this fiscal year. Mr. Speaker, We also have the Community Counselling Program that offers free counselling for mental health and addictions to all residents of the NWT. In Nunakput we have those in three communities. We don’t have a position in Sachs Harbour, but those services are provided either out of Ulukhaktok or Inuvik depending on staffing levels. Mr. Speaker, we can’t do all these on our own. Health and Social Services is one part of the solution but we do need assistance. The Department of Health and Social Services has been working very closely with Education, Culture and Employment to offer “Talking about Mental Illness,” which is often referred to as TAMI, which is a program for grade eight students. I think we’re happy to say that we should be able to bring those to the schools in Nunakput this year, to their schools. We also work closely with Aboriginal governments to deliver on-the-land healing programs. We have $1.23 million in the budget. We make $125,000 available to every region so that they can deliver tailor-made on-the-land programs in their communities. I know that in Nunakput the IRC is delivering Project Jewel, which is a phenomenal program. We will continue to work with communities to develop their wellness plan. Every Aboriginal community in the Northwest Territories has a wellness plan tailored to meet their needs, delivered by each community, and we flow $5 million to the communities to support their individual wellness plans. It’s a partnership, Mr. Speaker. There’s multiple things happening. We’re working on an updated framework on mental health and addictions that will help us expand in those areas as well. There’s lots happening, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, my second question is: earlier this year the Minister spoke about Nunakput women’s group to set up to address mental health and stressors within the relationships. Can the Minister update the House on the status of the work of this group?
Mr. Speaker, I’ve made a number of announcements in the House so I’m not exactly sure which one the Member is referring to. The Member could be referring to a camp that was held as part of the IRC’s land program, Project Jewel which I mentioned in my previous statement. If so, two of those camps were offered for women in February 2016. In August 2016, the IRC is expanding this program and intending to provide follow-up to the women and their families. In addition, the IRC is determined that this women’s camp will actually be a permanent part of their programming. However, the Member could also be referring to a women’s group in Tuktoyaktuk that is in partnership with the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Community Counselling Program, the local women’s shelter, and victim services. The group was set to start in June 2016, but has unfortunately experienced some delays so they’re looking for an executive director. Once they hire an executive director they’ll be able to move forward with that pilot as well. The focus of this group will be on building knowledge and support for women; the importance of strong connection to culture and resources and relationships within the community. That one has been delayed; they’re looking for an executive director. Should they get hired, they will be able to move forward, and the IRC is moving forward with their Project Jewel Program.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the response from the Minister and getting back to what IRC is doing. They have some programs for women out on the land and those are very effective programs, and I hope that we can continue to work with the GNWT to promote these programs and encourage participation by women across the NWT and in Nunakput. Mr. Speaker, my final question: how do the department’s mental health activities and programming work and respond with communities’ cultural needs?
Mr. Speaker, one of the ways that we obviously engage in this way is through communities and regional governments with the on-the-land programming and things like that. Specifically in-house, the Community Counselling Program is a community-based service that is made up of counsellors as well as wellness workers. Having counsellors based in the communities means that they have the opportunity to engage and become more immersed in the culture of the communities where they happen to be living. In the Department of Health and Social Services we are also working on cultural competencies that all staff will be required to take at the front line so that they are aware of the different cultures in the Northwest Territories and they’re aware of the cultures and differences in the communities they live. Wellness workers, Mr. Speaker, are often local individuals from the communities who already know the people and the culture and they’re a great resource for professionals who do have to come in from other communities or other locations in Canada. Our work with Aboriginal governments around the delivery of the on-the-land healing programs, I think, is another great example of how we’re trying to incorporate culture. With those on-the-land healing programs, Mr. Speaker, we don’t dictate how they will be run. We accept and recognize without question that the best people to design and deliver these programs are the people who are living in the communities, the people who have on the land experience. There’s a number of different things that we’re doing. When we roll into one single authority, we’re looking at putting together an Indigenous committee to help us identify traditional healing practices that we can incorporate across the whole system, including places like Stanton. This is an area that we take very seriously and we’re going to continue to move forward to make improvements.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last five years complaints were made to the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP about NWT officers. Most of these grievances filed were for alleged excessive use of force. Investigations into many of these incidents revealed that the officers in question had faced assaults on their own by complainants and none of the officers were found to have been in violation of excessive use of force. These reports show us that there’s a troubling number of RCMP members who go through a very difficult job. What is the Minister of Justice doing with our government’s resources to support our police officers in the field here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, of course 70 per cent of the RCMP budget is actually paid for by the Government of the Northwest Territories. The individual programs dealing with these types of issues of course are those of the RCMP. I believe they receive training, extensive training, at Regina. Our resources go into supporting the RCMP. In that way; however, they devise the programs that they feel are most appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Maybe to clarify, some of the RCMP officers reported that they were physically assaulted consistently on the job, verbally assaulted even more so, and one example where excrement was involved. This is unseemly treatment and it’s entirely unjustifiable. The role of the RCMP is very important in our communities and we have community justice committees. Are these community justice committees being used to build strong partnerships where RCMP members have the ability to express these concerns to local leadership and make a real difference in the community in terms of their treatment as police officers who are keeping us safe?
Yes, the RCMP of course do have relationships and agreements with all of the communities in the Northwest Territories. Although I’m not sure what is discussed at the meetings, I know that there are meetings on an ongoing basis. Certainly, I cannot comment on any individual cases, but I think the story the Member opposite is referring to shows some of the risks and dangers our RCMP members face on a daily basis. I would hope that those concerns are brought forward to community meetings, and, as I say, the RCMP do have community meetings with all of the communities in which they have detachments, and even the ones they don’t have detachments there are agreements with those smaller communities.
The RCMP are not the only peace officers working here in the Northwest Territories to keep Northerners safe, we also have many territorial police officers, including sheriff’s officers and the Department of Justice. Can the Minister explain if there’s a similar complaint process in the Department of Justice for sheriff’s officers, and how many complaints were received in the last year?
I’m not aware of any complaints that have been received. If there are, I will certainly look into that and get back to the Member with that information. I’m not certain also whether there is a complaints process specifically dealing with peace officers that are not RCMP officers so, again, I will look into that and get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s imperative that the public has confidence in our security services, including sheriff’s officers. I would strongly recommend the Minister to be aware of those processes and, furthermore, to meet with peace officers, in particular the sheriff’s department, and get firsthand information about what they go through on a daily basis. Will the Minister commit to meeting with the sheriff’s office and seeing if their experience is similar to what RCMP members have gone through in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There may be similar issues with the sheriff’s office that are clearly issues with the RCMP. I will have the department contact the sheriff’s office to see if there can be a discussion on these issues that have been raised by the Member opposite.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my statement today, it is very challenging to follow the government’s spending intentions from the budget address to the main estimates to the public accounts. My question for the Minister of Finance is whether he’ll commit to find a way of reporting on the GNWT’s fiscal performance using plain language so that the results are available to all of us? Mahsi.
Mahsi. Minister of Finance.
Mr. Speaker, also in the statement there was a comment that the Minister of Finance was unable to explain the public accounts, well which makes perfect sense because I was not at that briefing. It was a technical briefing given by the officials of the department, so I just wanted to make that point. To the Member’s questions, I take her point; it is a very taxing document to read. I will make the commitment to work with my officials to have it available in a plainer language that’s easier for us to understand.
I certainly take the Minister’s point on that, that he had his officials there, which is the case. In committing to providing the plain language version of this reporting, could the Minister give us an idea of how this plain language version may be made known to the public?
The public accounts, I believe, is a tabled document. If we are going to put together a plain language summary, then we would also make that as a tabled document, put it on our website and let people that are interested in a plainer version of the public account document to be able to access it, and hopefully we can understand it a bit better.
I’m going to move on to the other component of my statement, which is that it is my understanding, after reviewing the public accounts, that in fact the government did not meet its own requirements in its Fiscal Responsibility Policy, meaning that it didn’t raise enough of a surplus to meet its spending criteria. When that happens, which is what happened in 2014-15, what are the consequences? I guess the government has to borrow more money, but what are the consequences if the government fails to meet its own requirements of its Fiscal Responsibility Policy?
I would have to sit down and have a conversation with the Member and try to explain how this works. You know, the cash that’s generated from our operations in 2014-15 was about $175 million, as was reported in the public documents. We were able to generate this level of cash from our operations because of the $95 million surplus achieved in 2014-15, which included about $80 million for non-cash items like amortization expense and all the GNWT needs to account for. Again, as I said before, it is a very difficult document to read without properly understanding it, and I would be glad to sit down with the Member and we can go over the document together.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that offer. On that same page that the Minister is quoting from it says that the cash used for capital transactions was $236 million, in round numbers, and so the math just doesn’t add up; even I can appreciate that. I guess I’m back to my original question of what the consequences are when the government has not abided by its own fiscal policy. Thank you.
I’m not sure what the consequences are, maybe there’s an empty seat here, I don’t know. I will have a conversation with my officials, I’m sure we’ve met the requirements to the Fiscal Responsibility Policy, because I’m sure if we hadn’t then we’d be called onto the carpet for that, but I will confirm that and I will have a conversation with my officials.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today, I spoke about the divergence in views between the federal and our territorial governments regarding participant funding for environmental assessment in the Northwest Territories as found in the 2015 Environmental Audit. This issue’s been around for over 20 years and it’s time to solve this problem. Can the Minister of Lands tell this House whether the issue of participant funding was raised during the devolution negotiations, who raised it, and what the response was? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding was that funding was not addressed in any detail during the devolution negotiations as legislative responsibility for the MVRMA or its boards remain with the Government of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m a bit disappointed to hear that GNWT didn’t use the devolution negotiations as an opportunity, we’re always on about capturing opportunities, to try to resolve this situation when we had some leverage. I spoke earlier this week about the recently announced federal review of environmental assessment processes, the federal government wants to rebuild public confidence in resource decisions; I think that’s a good thing. Although the North was left out of this process, we should perhaps capture that opportunity to push the federal government to treat us the same as other Canadians. Will the Minister commit to writing the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change and ask that the issue of participant funding be considered in the context of a review of environmental assessment processes?
GNWT Ministers are going to be meeting with the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change next month, and I can assure the Member that this issue will be raised at that time.
I appreciate the commitment from the Minister and I look forward to hearing back from him about his discussions with the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change. I mentioned how residents of Northwest Territories along with residents of Yukon and Nunavut do not have access to participant funding for federal environmental assessment except in very limited circumstances, and these are usually at the discretion of Ottawa. Truly, we’re treated as second-class citizens in this country. Can the Minister of Lands tell this House whether he would be willing to work with our northern neighbours to attempt to resolve this injustice of no participant funding for Northerners?
We’re not interested in being second-class citizens in our own land anymore, and I will commit to having conversations with my counterpart in our sister territories and see how we can work as a unit to try and address this issue.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
