I again thank the Minister for his answer. It was a little bit short and it could have been more elaborate, but we'll work on that. Mr. Speaker, last session I spoke about how the department was able to guarantee that companies' commitment was upheld for northern involvement. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please explain to this House what mechanisms are used to ensure Northern involvement are in these contracts?
Mr. Speaker, there's various mechanisms in place to ensure the Northern involvement in our contracts. This includes assigning a project officer to the project to monitor the subcontractor's involvement during the construction of the project. In addition, the contractor submits an employment record to the department each month with the progress of payments' request, and these reports are tracked to the employment records, so that confirms northern involvement of these individuals on the project.
I thank the Minister for that answer. This past summer, the contract was awarded to a southern company for Highway No. 7. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain how much local workforce was used for this project?
With respect to this northern contractor and the employment of residents in Fort Liard on this contract, I'm glad to report to the House that almost 31 per cent of the workforce in June was from the community, 40 per cent in July and 43 per cent in August, and that includes some residents from Nahanni Butte as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I was actually really impressed with those numbers considering I heard numbers lower than that before, so I'm very happy to hear that. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister provide us with what other work went to local companies, small businesses, in that area for this contract? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The contractor has also hired a gravel truck from Beaver Enterprises for resurfacing work and has used a local hotel for accommodation, but the contractor is also negotiating right now with Beaver Enterprises for the project cleanup of this project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question here today is directed to the Minister of ECE following up from the June 7th Hansard here on the issues of day homes and day cares. If the Minister could elaborate on what has been in place here going back to the question that I brought up at the time here that there would be those facilities rolled out in October. So if I can get a status reply? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With all the communities we do have some communities that have early childhood programs, some that don't. We also have funding allocated to some of these communities. For instance, in Deline pre-school we have 15 pre-school spaces. We fund just over $37,000 for that. We have funding for the Behdzi Ahda First Nation still there's no licensed program but we do have the funding there. There's funding that's allocated to Norman Wells to do some work; nothing has come to date yet; we're still trying to find an organization or group to work with. In Tulita we do have 20 pre-school spaces and we currently fund them over $40,000. Mr. Speaker, I might add with start-up costs, we do have a very good incentive package for organizations, even individuals that own their own home that might want to start up a daycare or a day home and we can provide that information to the Member that he can provide to his communities as well. Thank you.
It's very good to hear that the programs are there to help the working parents that are having their children attend school, and the ones that are not are looking at opportunities such as the program funding available to initiate a day home. Can the Minister elaborate on any facilities in the day home category in the five Sahtu communities?
Currently, I don't think there's any day homes that are licensed right now in the Sahtu communities. I can go and do a scan and see if there are any and also develop some packages that we could hand out to people who own their own homes and who might want to start up a day home. Like I said, we have a very good incentive package, but I can get that information and get it to the Member.
I'm glad to hear that the programs and services and criteria and guidelines are there as well as the money is there. Would the Minister commit to having these opportunities for funding to support the day home through a briefing presentation to the community by community leadership in the five communities?
Since I've been in the position, I've been to about 20 of the 33 communities in the NWT speaking on all the initiatives through the Department of ECE, and listening to the concerns of the people. I am looking forward to doing a tour of the Sahtu, not only bringing information on early childhood programming, the day homes, the daycares, but also all information that we take control of in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we'll work with the Member to get that tour set up at some point.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the sitting in June, Members on this side of the House moved a housing motion in which we requested that the Minister take action on the level of core need, which is at 20 per cent for the NWT, including investing, coming up with a fully costed comprehensive plan and so on. We received her response last week and it doesn't address the questions we asked. So my first question is: how is the NWT Housing Corporation going to reduce core housing need? Thank you.
Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The motion that was put forward was that I would provide a comprehensive response to the motion and then a comprehensive and fully costed strategic plan at the earliest opportunity. So it's a little bit early to give a fully costed comprehensive plan at this point. We're in the process of negotiations with the federal government. We've made some serious progress within that. The federal government has agreed to look at a northern component to the national housing strategy, and they've also -- the three areas of the core need, the federal core need, have always been suitability, adequacy and affordability. The last meeting that I went down I really stressed the lack of housing within the Northwest Territories and the reliance of many communities as the GNWT being the major and sometimes only housing provider. So the federal government has also agreed to incorporate accessibility within the core needs, which is a huge issue for us and I think that we will actually hopefully see some revenue coming forward with that. The other thing that we're doing is part of that, so that is one piece we're doing.
The other major thing we're doing is our engagement survey which we're putting out to every single user of Housing services, hopefully within this next coming up month, and then we'll be doing a cost analysis based on what people say. I've been hearing in the communities that home ownership is a big need within the communities, and so while we're in the process of looking at cost analysis between home ownership and public housing. So once we've done the engagement process, we've gotten some kind of contribution, we find out what the federal government is doing within a national strategy at that point then we'll be able to provide a cost analysis and a comprehensive plan. Thank you.
Thank you to you, Minister, for that response. In the response to the motion the government writes: "The GNWT has made affordable, adequate and suitable housing one of its highest priorities, spending approximately 8 per cent of its budget on social and affordable housing compared to a national average of 1 per cent." Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me whether she thinks that's an adequate amount of spending for the condition and availability of housing in the territory?
I do recognize that the Government of the Northwest Territories is spending eight times the amount of funding that is provided across the other jurisdictions. So I think that we have to recognize that we are spending a lot more than other jurisdictions. We also have to recognize that we have a small population base and our federal funding is really limited. So the fact that the GNWT is spending that amount on housing shows our commitment that we do care about housing within the Northwest Territories and it is a priority for our government.
Again, thank you to the Minister for that. The fact is, Mr. Speaker, that 8 per cent is not making a difference to the core housing need in the territory, and the availability of housing especially here in Yellowknife where the waiting list is about 180, across the whole NWT about 600. So I would like to hear from the Minister whether there is a plan to increase the amount of spending on social housing.
At this point, like I had said previously, we are in the process of just rolling out our engagement strategy. After that is all received back, we will be doing a cross-analysis, so it's a little bit premature of me to actually approach my colleagues and ask for additional monies when I don't know if we're using the monies that we are providing at the moment appropriately.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally today, a couple of timing questions. The first is, when does the Minister expect to conclude the negotiations with the federal government for more money? The second is, when does she expect to report to the House on the information she's collected from stakeholders? Thank you.
Masi. There's two questions, but it's up to the Minister if she wants to answer one or two questions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to try to attempt both. So the federal negotiations is not up to me actually, it is a federal government ruling, and so we are advocating very strongly and, as soon as the federal government lets us know when they've developed their strategy, at that point I will know what the timing is. I'm not sure that they know at this point either.
The engagement survey that we're putting out, we are allowing two months to people within the communities to actually provide their feedback because we do want as many people to answer the survey as possible. So we are recognizing that we need to need to provide them a little bit of time. Once the survey results are compiled, we will provide an interim report to the MLAs and we will continue to provide reports to the MLAs on the progress of that engagement survey process.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Under the GNWT's mandate, MACA has a responsibility to update the Fire Prevention Act to better protect public and private property from fire. Can the Minister advise the House on the progress of this work? What changes to the act has been considered? Mahsi.
Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. MACA's in the process, we've done some research over the years, we're actually just in the process of determining the stakeholder engagement process that we're expecting that'll roll out over the summer of 2016. Once it's finished, then we'll be looking at various things within the act. The act hasn't been updated since the 1950s, very small thing, so it's a lot of work and we'll be looking at a full review of the act in total. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Usually in a legislative process the way that I think we understand it on this side of the House is that there's an issue and the department begins research, as the Minister has stated, that then there's a legislative proposal that comes to the House, then goes through readings, then it's perhaps brought to the committee, then there's a level of public consultation. What is the timing for this legislation to be introduced in the Legislative Assembly?
Again, it's really hard to put a definite timeline on that. We do need to do the public engagement strategy, it will go to MLAs, it depends on their timeline, recognizing that they are very busy within their committees and they have a lot of things to put forward. I'm not sure if the MLAs would like to do a public engagement of their own on that, so it is dependent on the process of government. But we are committed; we are trying to get this act passed within this legislative term.
The Minister had stated that the old piece of legislation is from the 1950s. I think then, you know, fire alarms along telephone poles were kind of the usual practice then. Then most recently what we have been confronted with is the question of liabilities, at the same time hazardous materials in fire situations. Is the department proposing any initiatives designed to support communities and their volunteer fire departments?
The department has actually done quite a bit to support firefighters. We recognize the importance of firefighters and we really value the services. It is a huge honour to be able to represent the firefighters within the Northwest Territories. It's a huge honourable field that they go into, and so we're cognitive of that.
We've done quite a bit of things. We've released our volunteer firefighter recruitment and retention toolkit for the community governments, that's done. We've established a web-based community fire protection page for community governments and fire departments to access information and resources, that's completed.
We've developed the decision-making tools for communities to help identify and allocate adequate resources for community fire protection, that's completed. We've implemented a community fire service presentation to help educate elected officials on the roles and responsibilities and success factors, completed.
We've also done the development of an annual fire prevention program, that’s also completed. So we do value our firefighters within the Northwest Territories and we take seriously the work that they do within the communities and we're doing whatever we can to support them.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank the Minister for her reply and outlining the legislative process and the level of consultation that might occur. She seems to be suggesting that this side of the House would kind of determine the timeline and how fast perhaps the turnaround of the draft legislation could be prepared.
But, you know, if we had this way on this side of the House, one of the initiatives that has been outstanding is the progress in terms of dealing with highway emergency. Would this department, in terms of engaging stakeholders, including fire departments and citizens of the North, would the Minister perhaps consider and state to this House whether a movement towards highway rescue services will be also considered in the draft legislation? Mahsi.
We are working across the departments to find our way forward with the ground ambulance services and the highway rescue, and we are hoping that we can actually address that act as well within this legislation.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, follow-up to my Member’s Statement. I have a few questions for the Minister of Transportation. I'd like to ask the Minister, what criteria does the department use to determine when the ferry vessel must be replaced? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is continually working to improve the transportation system. Available resources rely on asset management tools which we use continually on an ongoing basis to make strategic operational decisions around all our assets. But moving forward, we have to maximize what we have with the limited funding we have, and that makes choices pretty tough sometimes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, what is the average estimated cost of a ferry vessel replacement?
Upgrading the Louis Cardinal to a larger vessel wouldn't be cost effective at this time we believe. But to answer the question directly, it's approximately $10 million to replace that ferry.
Mr. Speaker, I know that may sound like a lot, but actually for a vessel that size I think that's a very good deal myself. You know, with the infrastructure that we are spending, you know, $100 million, $200 million here, $450 million over here, I mean I think that's a small price to pay here. But moving forward, will the department start examining ways to address this cost and meet this challenge? For example, undertaking the planning study?
Mr. Speaker, the department data indicates that the Louis Cardinal is sufficient and it meets the adequate needs of the capacity of the region right now, and we continue to track that with the data received on the volume of traffic on the Louis Cardinal.
The other thing we do, and the Member stated, we're throwing money around with capital investments. We just replaced the bottom of the Louis Cardinal in the last cycle year, in the last season, and we're about to rebuild the engines on the Louis Cardinal this coming winter.
