Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the Northern Farm Training Institute, or NFTI as it is known, on successfully completing its first full year of operation, which included planting, growing and selling crops, raising livestock, and training 42 students from across the Northwest Territories.
NFTI began in 2013. Back then, the institute would hold short courses on other people's farms. It quickly became clear that there was an appetite for more in-depth training. Three short years later, NFTI is providing that training in spectacular fashion. NFTI’s campus is now the largest farm in the territory and includes a barn, greenhouse, classroom, student accommodations, as well as goats, sheep, cows, pigs, and more.
In total, NFTI has trained 127 people from 28 communities and outside the territory as well. Training now includes short one- or two-day courses, as well as longer internships. In addition, the institute is used for research by southern academics and hosts conferences which draws attendees from outside the territory and the country.
However, Mr. Speaker, the most exciting thing about NFTI is the potential it has to transform our territory. Students don’t just learn how to plant seeds and harvest crops, they learn everything they need to know to start farms in the North and turn those farms into sustainable businesses. We’re not just talking about community gardens; we’re talking about food and economic independence for Northerners. Not only will food security be enhanced in our small communities, where it’s desperately needed, but it will create wealth and that wealth will stay in those communities. Where conditions are right for larger-scale farming, like in the South Slave, NFTI will no doubt be one of the leaders in growing the industry and helping diversify our Territorial economy.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to say congratulations to NFTI. The territory and the South Slave is lucky to have them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize my constituency assistant, Liz Wright. Also, the chair of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, Joe Tetlichi, and the secretary/treasurer of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, Deana Lemke. As you know, the Porcupine Caribou Management Board is the only wildlife management board that has a management plan for caribou, and I'd just like to thank them for all they do for the Porcupine Caribou on behalf of my constituents. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Yellowknife North resident and executive director of the NWT Seniors' Society, Barb Hood. I'd also like to take this opportunity to recognize the Yellowknife Seniors' Society's executive director, Kim Doyle. Thank you, and welcome to the House.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Nick Sibbeston, senator, lawyer, MLA and former Premier of the GNWT Legislative Assembly, and also a former member of the Sacred Heart Residential School, a survivor from Fort Providence. I would like to welcome him to the House. Mahsi.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Nick Sibbeston, who is a constituent of mine, and his wife, Karen. Welcome to the Assembly. As well, I'd like to recognize Kim Doyle, who is a friend of mine. Welcome to the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, looking at some documents given to various partners regarding the Western Canada Lottery Program Funding Framework. I notice the department is looking at a five-year average and not a three-year average on giving their supplement, or their funding. This doesn't seem fair, as the lotteries during the 2012 to 2014 fiscal years were not as successful as the past three years. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister direct her department to go back and do the recalculations based on the past three years' deal that they had with the Sport and Recreation Council? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, at this point we won't consider to go back and look at lowering the average of the years, and that is based on knowledge that we have. The Sport and Recreation Council used to control the funding, and their contributions for 2014 to 2017, so that was the three years, were based on ticket sale projections that were not achieved. This resulted in reduced contributions for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. So using the five-year base for the funding is actually more appropriate; people can more count on what they're getting. So we have promised to every organization that they will actually get the same amount of funding they got last year regardless, and we are projecting that there will be more funding for the organizations based on the tax savings that we will be taking in. So at this point, no. We will look at it after a year or two, but right now we will not do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for her answer. I'm a little disappointed that they won't look at it, because I know the lotteries and they seem to continue to grow. So I'm hoping that at least we can look at it a couple of years down the road anyway. In looking at the proposed allocation of lottery dollars, it seems to be weighted heavily towards the sports sector. This needs to be explained. Can the Minister please explain how the lottery dollars are being invested and the rationale used by the department to make these decisions?
As the Members may know, taking in the lottery funding into the governance of the Northwest Territories is a new endeavour that we're doing. It is basically to save the taxation that may come out if we leave it within an independent organization. So that will result in hopefully about $1 million in savings that we might have had to pay for taxation.
So like I had said previously, we have promised that the Sport and Rec programming will receive the same amount of funding for this year, and probably more. Given that many of the organizations that we work with actually provide both sport and rec programming, the department will monitor future allocations and make necessary adjustments in the future.
I would like to, again, thank the Minister for her answer. The funding framework that I have received from various organizations, I've noticed that 80 per cent of the lotteries over $5.1 million will be allocated towards multi-sport games. In my opinion, this doesn't address needs for more inclusive and substantial sport and recreation physical activity programs. I firmly believe that we need to develop a more inclusive program for women, girls, and older adults. Will the Minister have her department re-look at this decision of putting the money back into new initiatives that look at these areas of concerns, plus maybe some arts and culture programs that can be offered by these organizations?
Yes. At this point, yes, we will be. We actually have already called a meeting of the five sports organizations, so we're going to sit down, we're going to talk about the overlap that there may be and gaps within services and to try to help them with their long-term planning and also the planning that we need to do within the MACA, Municipal and Community Affairs, itself. So, yes, I can commit to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
I'd like to thank the Minister for her answer. I believe these organizations are going to be very happy to hear that. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke about the consultation process. I firmly believe the consultation process will improve this important area of our lives, and the residents of the NWT. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister make a commitment to do a thorough consultation process in the developing of a new sport recreation and physical literacy and physical activity policy with the five partners and their members?
As stated previously, we've already called for the -- or we will be calling for the five partners to come together and work on issues that we're facing. So, yes, I will commit to having the department work with the sports and recreation organizations on the development of a wide sectorial policy in full consultation with the organizations.
Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on my Member’s statement, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House what the status of the recruitment of doctors in regional centers is today? Thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recognizing that it's somewhat fluid, I can give the Member a bit of an update of where we are today on physicians. In Fort Smith, there's 4.5 positions of which one is filled by a local physician. In Yellowknife, there's 29 family practitioners, 26 are filled by local physicians. In the Tlicho, there are two family practitioner positions. Two of them are filled, but those physicians happen to be located in Yellowknife and split their time between the Tlicho and Yellowknife. The Sahtu, there are two family practitioner positions. They're both vacant at this time. In the Beaufort Delta, there's nine family practitioner positions established, three and a half of them are filled on a full-time basis by local practitioners. In the Deh Cho, there's three family practitioner positions. None of them are filled by local practitioners at this time. In Hay River, we have five family practitioner positions, two are filled by local practitioners at this time.
In a number of the cases, Mr. Speaker, we have regularly recurring physicians. For instance, in the Deh Cho we have a physician who isn’t permanently residing in the Deh Cho or at Fort Simpson but returns on a regular basis, so it's a repeat locum. We do utilize locums from time to time to address things like shortages, when some of our staff physicians go on holidays, take training development. So there's always a need for some level of locum physicians. Ultimately it's our goal to hire and fill all these positions, preferably in the regions where the positions happen to be located. But since we've moved to a territorial authority, we have the ability to have our physicians move around to provide backfill.
I think the Member's statement was very clear and the direction he outlined in his statement is the exact direction that we're moving towards as we speak. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'd like to thank the Minister for that response and I'd like to ask the Minister if all of the specialist positions at Stanton are filled at this time?
Mr. Speaker, to date, or currently, there is 21 established specialty positions located in Stanton, 16 of those are filled by resident physicians. On top of that, we have a number of unfunded physician specialists who come in from time to time. There isn’t enough demand to justify a full-time specialty in some areas. So we have some locums who come up on a regular basis, as well as the 21 that we've established.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if, aside from the Tlicho doctors, if there are other doctors that are splitting their time between Yellowknife and the regions.
Not at this time, Mr. Speaker. This is early in the life of the new territorial authority, but this is some work that actually started a number of years ago. I think the Member was actually Minister of Health and Social Services when we started exploring the possibility of territorial physician services.
With the advent of a single authority, we have the ability to actually roll that out in a little bit more thorough manner. In the past we had a situation where we had one authority competing with another authority for physicians creating competition within the territory itself. Now, they're working together, and I can say the Territorial Medical Director has just recently been working with the Medical Director in the Beaufort Delta and together they're participating in a recruitment drive in Vancouver to promote rural physician services and try to gain and garner interest in the Northwest Territories as a place to come and practice. Whether you're in Yellowknife or in one of our more remote locations, Inuvik, Simpson, Norman Wells, examples.
Maybe the question will be obvious, but I'd like to just get in on the record. Has the Minister seen an improvement in recruitment as a result of a new direction that the department is taking with health transformation?
Mr. Speaker, we’ve really only moved to the single authority for the last couple of months. We need a bit more to time to assess, but I can say that the work that the Member started when he was a Minister to bring more of a territorial model together in allowing physicians in one region to have credentials in institutions like Stanton did actually help us to recruit some physicians and hire them in remote locations recognizing that they can also have some privileges in locations like Stanton. Working together as a system and having the doctors across the territorial system has helped. By moving to a single authority we believe we have more opportunities to continue to enhance that important work that was begun in the last Assembly.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about trade agreements and their impact on the Northwest Territories. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister describe what steps his department is taking to convey the NWT's interests to the federal government with regard to international trade negotiations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government is involved in a number of bilateral and multi-lateral trade agreements, and with that being said, they involve the Northwest Territories, they communicate with us in the provinces, and we have representatives, ITI has representatives, at the table with the federal government to engage on these processes and we will continue to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The response is appreciated and it's good to know that we have representatives at the table. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister describe the economic benefits his department believes can come our way through freer trade, and if he could provide specifics it would be appreciated?
These trades we believe will help benefit the Northwest Territories because we are such a small domestic market, and we are reliant on trade to advance growth opportunities in the Northwest Territories in sectors such as fisheries, forestry, manufacturing, the tourism industry and traditional harvesting in another big one. We believe that these free trade agreements will give us access to larger markets.
Thank you to the Minister for his response. Mr. Speaker, some folks are concerned that trade agreements can limit our ability to protect our local economies by removing protections. How does the Minister believe that would impact our ability to buy northern through programs like the Business Incentive Program?
It's my understanding that the threshold in most of these agreements is such a high level that in won't affect a business' policy or the manufacturer's policies.
I appreciate the Minister's reply, but I'm not sure on some of the agreements that's the certain answer; however, I can work with him afterwards with regards to clarity on that matter.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, there are also concerns that trade agreements can constrain us from environmental protections. They say if a company from a TPP country claims our environmental regulations compromise its profits that company can sue our government. We know in the North at Selwyn Mine, for example, has Asian interests and that could potentially fall under this scenario. I'm interested, Mr. Speaker: how would the Minister respond to such a scenario? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
The previous Minister wrote a letter to the federal Minister requesting that Global Affairs Canada hold consultations in the Northwest Territories and we believe that federal Ministers are very willing to come here and do that. They haven't set a time when they want to do that. I believe when the Global Affairs Canada comes here to hold consultation with us that would be a good time to engage in a question in this type of scenario.
Masi. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Health. Does the Minister support a marijuana regulation regime for the Northwest Territories that both allows us to capture more taxation revenues and keep our kids safe from a substance that is very much out of control under the current prohibition regime? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, within the Government of the Northwest Territories the Department of Justice is the lead department on the NWT Working Group, which includes the Department of Health and Social Services, Finance and Transportation. There are a number of departments that are involved in figuring out the GNWT's response to legalization of marijuana. The federal, provincial and territorial governments have actually formed an interdepartmental working group and the GNWT has two members, one from the Department of Justice and one from the Department of Health, on that intergovernmental working group.
Mr. Speaker, we are paying close attention to what the federal government is doing; we're getting briefings from them at every opportunity when they offer to present them. From the Department of Health and Social Services’ perspective, we understand that there's a desire to legalize marijuana here in this country.
Moving forward, we're just trying to make sure that the federal government is aware and is working to ensure that residents in Canada, including the Northwest Territories, remain safe; that marijuana stays out of the hands of children; that appropriate resources will be available to educate people on the harms of smoking marijuana; and that individuals who have been authorized by their health practitioners to utilize marijuana still maintain safe access.
Mr. Speaker, when the federal government did their initial call, I sent a letter to Minister Philpott indicating our willingness to work with them obviously but encouraging them to seriously support the provinces and territories, preferably with financial resources, to get out in front and do some public awareness on the harms of smoking marijuana. Smoking a carbon-based product whether it's marijuana or cigarettes isn't good for you; we need to make sure that the public are aware.
