Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response from the Minister, but I continue to make these Member's statements, raise questions around where is our system, and I just keep hearing these same sorts of answers. So I hope I'm not going to be here two years from now, asking the same questions over and over again. I keep giving the other side of the House some hints about some ways to look at how to improve our current system, but there doesn't seem to be much uptake.
In my Member's statement, I mentioned the Institutional Control Program in Saskatchewan, where mining sites are returned to the Crown with appropriate payments into two funds to cover monitoring and maintenance costs and then unforeseen events. Can the Minister tell this House whether his department has studied this program in Saskatchewan and whether it might be applied to the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I only became aware of this program very recently. I have no idea whether the department has had the opportunity to look into this program, which may be a model that we should follow. As I mentioned in my response to an earlier question, this is a very important issue that is important to this Cabinet and this government, as brought out in the mandate. So certainly we will look at that model, amongst others. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned in my Member's statement here, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. My understanding, the Norman Wells Sahtu Regional Health Facility is going to create in the neighbourhood of 45 positions. Which positions are we expecting outside of what we have there already and the recruitment advertising plan for those extra positions coming into that facility? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, with the building of the new health centre in Norman Wells, we are also adding a long-term care facility, an 18-bed long-term care facility. This is the first long-term care facility in the Sahtu and we're very excited about opening it. However, it is going to require a large number of new positions to be established in the Sahtu. To date, we have worked with SSI and the Inuvialuit Aurora College to do some training of some local individuals that did occur in Inuvik on resident care aid training, so that we could start getting some people ready for those positions when they are established.
As the Member knows, and I think all Members are aware, we are in an incredibly tight fiscal situation. We will be coming forward through the business planning process to establish some positions in the Sahtu to fill those needs, but we do have to compete against other priorities and other challenges, and recognizing the tight fiscal situation we as a government, we as Members of the Assembly, are going to be forced to make some difficult decisions about reductions or corrections so that we have money available to invest in new priority areas, new mandate items, as the Government of the Northwest Territories. So we are all going to have to work very hard. In the meantime, as I've indicated, we're working on training some individuals. Some market housing units have been built in Norman Wells that will hopefully help accommodate people who we will have to hire from outside. But ultimately, with many of these jobs, it would be best to train and hire local employment.
I think I heard we're going to create 17 positions, so let's use that number.
---Laughter
Dating back to May the 3rd, there was some correspondence going between ourselves with the Minister's office here on the transition plan, and that plan was supposed to be made available or is going to be made available this fall, all these questions are going to be redirected with the contents of the transitional plan for the new facility. Mr. Speaker, my question is: when we can expect the transitional plan? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since we last discussed this topic in the House I have been provided with some additional updated information. It's my understanding that Public Works and Services will be taking possession of that building in the winter as opposed to the fall.
They will be, at that point, commissioning, doing some necessary commissioning, bringing in health-related equipment, and we are looking at moving into that building late summer next year. So it's a little further away that I had originally indicated. I appreciate Public Works and Health for providing me that additional updated information. I apologize for the inaccurate information that I gave the Member previously.
Currently, we are hiring a person in the Sahtu who is going to be our transition planner and is going to work with all the different divisions, sections, Public Works and Services and other organizations to help transition ourselves into that building. Once that person is hired and the transition plan starts to be developed, I'm happy to have a sit down with staff in the region and the Member to walk through how we're going to transition into that facility.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Looking at the logistics of opening the doors for this facility, as the Member knows the whole Sahtu region is approached in two land ways: either by barge or by the winter road. So if we're going to open the doors to this facility next year about this time, we've got actually two options of access for heavy building material, trailer material for accommodations, large pieces of equipment over the winter road, and the secondary final option is during the next coming barging season. So I urge the Minister to see if we can get the transitional document made available? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
More of a comment, but I'll allow the Minister to respond if he wishes.
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated we're currently hiring an individual to do our transition planning. We're trying to get somebody local; somebody from Norman Wells. Once that individual is hired, we hope to begin the development of a plan moving forward. It does involve multiple bodies, many departments, but I'm happy to have a sit down with the Member to go through how we plan to move into that building over the next number of months.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu. Okay. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I know the Minister is new to this department but I have this general question: does the Minister believe the department is adequately staffed to fulfil its mandate especially when it comes to supporting communities and providing essential services? Masi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
As the Member has stated I am fairly new to the portfolio. My assumption is yes, we are adequately staffed. I have had no indication from my management team that there are any issues; however, we will be looking into it to ensure that we're using our services based on the audit appropriately.
Thank you to the Minister for that response. If staffing is not the issue, can the Minister tell us what stands in the way of the department fulfilling its mandate?
There's a number of factors that actually stand in the way of -- it's not that we don't fulfil our mandate it's maybe we're not progressing and maybe not doing as much paperwork as we need to, so there are some issues. Municipal and Community Affairs is based on -- years ago we changed it into what's called a "New Deal" and that is really about community development. It's about empowering the communities to acknowledge what their strengths are and their needs are; which is something I really support. So we do try to provide training and support to them.
One of the other challenges that we have is that out of the 33 communities, nine of those communities are actually designated authorities, which means that we can provide the funding to them; we can be there to assist them as they want, but being designated authorities they do not fall within our jurisdiction and so they actually are federal and it's only if they ask for help that we can actually engage services with them.
Mr. Speaker, the Office of the Auditor General identified the problem within MACA itself, not within the communities. I'm aware of the New Deal program but it seems to me that it is, in fact, a paperwork problem; it's providing oversight and looking at reports and validating them and so on. So what kind of resources does the Minister need to bring the department up-to-speed on implementing the New Deal?
The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has actually come a long way in a short time. The department has really focused on water quality which is important to our residents as well. So we actually did really well in our audit around water quality so I am quite proud of that. We do have issues in other areas, but until we've actually sat down -- we were just presented the report yesterday, so until we've actually sat down and done a thorough analysis of all of the recommendations, we won't be able to look at any restructuring until we have looked at it thoroughly and see where we need to go next.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my last question for the Minister is whether a zero-based review might help the department to better understand how its current resources are allocated and where the gaps are. Can the Minister commit to undertaking zero-based review of her department? Thank you.
Our first step actually is to do a thorough analysis of the audit and look at the recommendations that are in that. The other thing that we are doing actually, and just implementing currently, again is we are asking all of our staff within the Municipal and Community Affairs for suggestions on ways to improve, and that includes the recommendations within the audit. So until that work is done then I can't commit to doing a zero-based review.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. I'd like to ask the Minister if there is any singles housing strategy that has been developed by the NWT Housing Corporation? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
Yes, actually we just put out this year a pilot project for single/bachelor fourplexes in the communities of Fort Simpson, Behchoko and Aklavik, and we will be doing an evaluation of those fourplexes to see how they work, and if favourable, we will be moving forward with that.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if those units are restricted to single people and how do you prevent couples from moving into those units, because there would be more people they'd have more points? I'd like to know how the Housing Corporation was able to sort out that issue.
Those units are only for single people within the Northwest Territories. In the same manner that we have units that are designated only for seniors we will have units that are designated only for singles.
Mr. Speaker, it's a huge issue in the NWT, especially in the small communities, many singles do not have housing. So if we're now building units that are specific to single people is that program going to be expanded into all communities in the NWT.
That is a really tough question to answer directly and say yes or no. The reality is that we are in the process of doing the engagement survey, we have committed to doing community plans, individual community plans, for each community. If a community states to us that singles in their community is their number one priority, then that's where we'd be focusing our efforts. So it does depend on what the community surveys come back with.
Mr. Speaker, are those units a part of the public housing inventory managed by local housing organization, or are they going to be managed by some other organization in the community?
The units that I've talked about, the pilot project, are actually managed by communities themselves. They are not managed by the housing corporation. As stated before, this is a pilot project, and so we're going to do an analysis to see how they work. After a year and at that point we'll determine whether we continue with that model or if we have to change our model to more accommodate the needs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I heard the Minister of Transportation give a statement earlier today about new transportation corridors, and in there he mentions that a route has been identified for the Slave Geological Province. Can the Minister tell this House, is there actually a business case that's been prepared for this road route? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The short answer is no, I do not believe there's a business case developed for this quarter yet.
In his statement, he says that a route has been identified that will provide the greatest economic benefit to the region in the Northwest Territories. So I'm just wondering can the Minister tell us how were environmental effects considered in the route identification?
That would be determined through an environmental assessment and we aren't at that stage yet. The early work to determine a route was through the Geological Survey of Canada and input from the Chamber of Mines and others in the area how we would proceed with this road through different routing.
Well, it's interesting that we can locate a road based on economic benefits but we can't perhaps change the routing in terms of environmental effects, but we have to wait for environmental assessment, so I'm wondering can the Minister then commit to table a map of this route in the House, and on that map could he also show key caribou habitat?
I can table a map on the various routes that were proposed for this. As far as the caribou habitat, that would have to be something that would be considered to the Minster of ENR.
Glad to hear that we're going to get a map of the route that he mentions in his statement today, but can he then commit to work with his colleague that sits next to him in terms of getting us a map of key caribou habitat, and the reason why I'm saying this, Mr. Speaker, is the Bathurst caribou herd is a desperate situation, and we know where the post-calving, calving grounds of the herd are. I'm concerned about this road and it's routing, whether it's going to disrupt the caribou herd. So can the Minister commit to work with his colleague to table a map in this House that shows the route of the road in relation to key caribou habitat for the Bathurst caribou herd?
The Department of Transportation works with all the key stakeholders on any proposed roading or highway in the Northwest Territories, and I can commit to the Member we will be working closely with ENR in any such a proposal and any other department that this takes into account including Industry, Tourism and Investment.
