Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have the full details of the heritage funds that we have here for the Northwest Territories. I know we do work closely with our federal counterparts to look at some of our cultural sites as well as our museums and the learning centres we have in the communities to do some of that work in terms of heritage, but I can get the numbers and I'll get them to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister's commitment to do that. Is the Minister aware of how we prioritize heritage? His department has a number of very high priorities, especially in lines with this mandate and creating employment and supporting education. Where does heritage fit into this, and is the department adequately supporting the preservation of culture and history in all of our communities?
In 2015, the government of the day tabled a Culture and Heritage Framework. Right now, we're working with all departments to develop an action plan that we will present to the House, and that will focus on some of the priorities. Also looking at all 33 communities and also looking at some of the land claims that are out there in terms of culture and heritage throughout the Northwest Territories here, we're taking the lead, the department is taking the lead in developing that action plan, and we should have something hopefully in the new year brought before committee and before Cabinet and then we're going to be working with all the departments to look at our priorities moving forward.
I'm looking forward to that report and I thank the Minister for his answer. Does the Minister agree that preserving our heritage is a boost to our tourist system and creates more opportunities to show off the North to visitors and that that is an important economic aspect of heritage promotion?
I do believe that is part of our economic drivers, as well, but we've got to look at our cultures, our traditions, our values for the people that were here, our First Nations, our Inuit people that helped shape the Northwest Territories to what it is. So it's more than an economic driver, it's preserving culture, it's preserving language, it's preserving what our ancestors, our grandparents have laid before us. So it's more than an economic driver and more than a tourism thing, it's about preserving our culture and heritage in the Northwest Territories for the people that helped build this territory.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I do agree with the Minister's response. This is important for so many reasons, but when we are trying to draw more attention to the North, having a place to showcase our heritage, our culture, and the unique contributions our people have made, in some cases since time immemorial, is exactly why we need to prioritize this. This action plan that's rolling out, will the government also be consulting with the Mine Heritage Society and other cultural heritage societies like that across the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
As mentioned, in 2015 a framework was tabled in this House. As we're going out to develop the action plan we do want to continue to get support from our stakeholders, Aboriginal governments, societies that are out there that focus on culture and heritage, as well as our residents of the Northwest Territories who provide that knowledge and experience of where we need to put our focus as well. As I mentioned, we have 33 communities in the Northwest Territories; we want to make sure that all priorities, all areas in terms of culture and heritage are met for the communities, for the Aboriginal groups and peoples of the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a follow-up to my Member's statement. As I mentioned, the department is doing brush cutting to the Dempster Highway which is much needed. As I travel through all the different highways, whether it's to the Yukon or even from here, Mr. Speaker, it makes a huge difference; much more safe for drivers. I'd just like to ask the Minister: is the Minister and the department planning to continue brush cutting next year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
First of all, I want to thank the Member for his compliments today. Brush cutting is very important to the safety of all residents travelling on the Dempster. I had the opportunity this year to travel with the Member up and down the Dempster and see some of the challenge areas where we have a lot of willows. This year, we did approximately two hectares of brushing on the highway. We did from kilometre 75 to 95, and the coming year we have approximately five hectares of brushing, so more than double what we did this year, and we're going to do from kilometre 95 to 142.
That's spooky, that's just what I thought the --
---Laughter
-- Minister might say. No, that's great, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, I noticed a big difference in driving that highway over the last couple of years. I'd just like to ask the Minister: is the department going to continue working with the contractors as we move into next year?
To inform this House, we actually have a five-year labour supply contract that started in May of 2015, with Rat River Development Corporation, so that's going to go to 2020.
Mr. Speaker, that's great, but we also have a Rat River Corporation Band Limited and the Inuvik Native Band, I believe. Will the Minister and the department continue working with those two contractors as well?
As plans move forward and we develop our business cases for the next consecutive years we will continue to look at all people and opportunities and engage all Aboriginal groups in the settlement area to be involved in the contracting.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All I heard there was blah, blah, blah.
---Laughter
You know, Mr. Speaker, as winter is coming along here even though there's not much snow I'm hoping that, for example, in Tsiigehtchic that they can finish their contract. But, you know, if by chance we get too much snow and the work can't be done, will the Minister be willing to extend that work into next year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I will look into this particular contract, but I suspect that, depending on where they're at, we can have a look at carrying this work over.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made my statement on profiling the Aboriginal Head Start Program so I wanted to follow up with questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. As I stated, the Aboriginal Head Start Program has been in operation for the past 20 years, and it's a federally funded initiative, so I wanted to ask the Minister: what is the status of the Aboriginal Head Start Program within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Early childhood is an important aspect of the work we do here within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment as well as working with the Department of Health and Social Services to make sure that our children get the right education, the right start to a long life and a very prosperous future. Working with that are groups, whether it's daycares, day homes, Aboriginal Head Start, we take all that into consideration when we're supporting them. We have supported Aboriginal Head Start for the last few years and will continue to support them and work with them to make sure that the programs that they're providing is meeting the needs of the community. We do have eight communities that are providing Aboriginal Head Start in Northwest Territories and I was also very glad to be in Fort Providence this past fall and witnessed the graduates, the ones that went through that Aboriginal Head Start Program.
I'd like to thank the Minister for his reply. Recently we passed a motion in this House basically positioning the department to contemplate the idea of an implementation plan to move forward on the JK initiative. How will the Aboriginal Head Start Program be part of the JK Implementation Plan?
I know we've heard those concerns of the implementation of junior kindergarten; the impacts it will have on daycares, day homes, in particular on this question Aboriginal Head Start. We have consulted and we have engaged with the eight Aboriginal Head Start staff and managers. We have been meeting with them on a regular basis. On August 24th we had the Public Health Agency of Canada come and speak with the managers as well and inform them that funding will not be affected going forward with the implementation of junior kindergarten. It is in our mandate to provide early childhood programs, quality early childhood programming, in the Northwest Territories, working in collaboration with our partners and I think working together we can do a great job. I think some of our communities are offering junior kindergarten as a half day and Aboriginal Head Start as a half day, so students are getting a full day of early childhood programming, particularly the four-year-olds.
Mr. Speaker, my question is the Aboriginal Head Start Program surely has amassed a lot of experience and expertise in terms of running program directly benefitting children in small communities. What lessons can be learned from the Aboriginal Head Start Program as Education, Culture and Employment moves forward with the implementation of the junior kindergarten?
When we're providing program services in the Northwest Territories, we always engage and consult with our stakeholders moving forward. Aboriginal Head Start has been very successful, and they focus on the culture and identity of the people of the Northwest Territories, and that's something that we're really implementing within our education system from JK to grade 12 and beyond and we want to make sure that some of their best practices and around the curriculum that we're developing is working closely together.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the Minister of ITI for his statement earlier today and showing our support for mining and what it does for our economy. So my questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and the Minster alluded earlier today that the Mineral Incentive Program has been a very big success. In fact, it's been oversubscribed, so my question for the Minister is is there any consideration to increase this investment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister for Industry, Tourism, and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is well aware, I've recently just got this portfolio and I've been reading up as much as I can on some of this stuff. I believe when we get into looking into the strategy of how we're going to move some of this stuff forward, we're going to have to sit down and review some of this and welcome probably input from the Regular Members when we do this as well, and that could be one of the things we looked at. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister's reply and I look forward to working with him on the possibilities of increasing the Mining Incentive Program. Second question would be that the Minister alluded today that we're going to be working to create a new act that will modernize our government's approach to mining by streamlining our regulatory environment. I wonder if the Minister could please share with us any particular specifics about what he means in terms of streamlining our regulatory environment.
Like I said in my Member's statement today, moving forward with the act this will bring our act in line with northern priorities and the realities of how operating in the Northwest Territories is, and we will work with NWT intergovernmental council and the Aboriginal governments industry and NGOs and the general public in how we're going to move this forward, and so there's going to be a lot of information gathered in how we're going to bring this forward to work for Northerners.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister spoke today earlier about that there has been community participation in mining through regional mineral development strategies and that the Deh Cho in fact has been a leader in this regard and that the Inuvialuit, Sahtu, and the Tlicho regions are also interested in developing such strategies. I'm just wondering, Mr. Speaker, is the regional mineral development strategies going to be any different than our own territorial one, and will they be inclusive of land use plans?
Yes, it was quite exciting actually to see the Deh Cho being a leader in this. As my prior life when I was the Metis president, it's something I strongly believe that we should be doing in the Metis South Slave Region. So getting back to the Member's question, I think developing regional strategies is very important and we need to work on this initiative. Is it going to be part of the land use planning? I believe regionally they want to work on how they're going to move their land use plans for their own self-governments and their own governments and their own regions, but they're going to have to be tied, work closely, how we develop the territorial land use plans and the regulations and stuff moving forward.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. Earlier today, also announced that there's been some success in delivering the mining matters curriculum, and this is in schools now and in particular in the Sahtu and the Deh Cho region has interest in wanting to put this in their school programs as well. I just wonder can the Minister let us know if in fact other regions would be interested in having this mining matters curriculum brought into their schools, eventually having a territory-wide curriculum?
Yes, we are rolling this out into the Deh Cho I guess because all three schools that are going to be taking it on this week are all in the Deh Cho region: Fort Providence, Fort Simpson and Liard, and I believe we will be working closely with ECE on how we can implement this across the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi. Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. YWCA Yellowknife reports that eliminating the income assistance food and clothing allowance for children is already having a devastating impact on NWT families. For example, when women and children flee violent homes, it can take some time to have the Child Tax Benefit migrated to the person who left with the children. So for the Minister, if the income assistance applicant is not receiving the Canada Child Benefit because they're waiting for changes in taxation filing to go through, how will ECE ensure the family does not suffer even more as a result of the elimination of the food and clothing allowances for children under 18? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In cases such as the one the Member brought forward, I'd encourage the Member to set up a meeting with our CSO at the office. Any families that find themselves in that situation obviously want to provide the best overall supports to the families so that they do see this benefit, but in any cases as the Member has stated, I'd like to encourage the Member to talk to the families or even have the YWCA to explain to their families, come talk to us at the department, speak with the CSO on how this can be addressed, and I'm sure we can find a solution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm wondering if the Minister can tell us if this issue can be addressed by paying food and clothing allowances until the Canada Child Benefit is available?
We have a lot of clients that are on the Income Assistance Program. Obviously it's by a case-by-case basis. I've mentioned about the net income of the whole family, how many children are in the house and the ages of those children when we do the assessments. In this case, like I said, it seems very unique and in that case any families that do find themselves in that situation, I encourage them to come talk to the CSOs to find a solution.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. Another situation that's like this that I'll bring to his attention is mothers with newborns. They often will take months of waiting to get the money paid, to get on with the support of the Canada Child Benefit. The other problem I want to bring to his attention is timing. So food and clothing allowances used to be paid at the beginning of the month. The Canada Child Benefit is paid in the last half of the month and people end up at food banks and other food security places earlier because they run out of money. Can the Minister say how people should be budgeting the lesser funds to make them stretch further?
