Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Last week, he, his Cabinet colleagues, and various officials attended the annual Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver at an estimated cost of $75,000. Unsurprisingly, my constituents have been in touch with me about both the cost and the benefits of this trip. The media quoted the Minister saying: "I am confident that we will be returning to the North with the solutions that will define the next generation of exploration and mining in the NWT."
Could the Minister please elaborate on the solutions he returned with? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mineral roundup, as I said last week when we were down there, is an important mission for this government in the Northwest Territories. We went down there and engaged with a number of stakeholders, from prospectors, to mining companies, to juniors, to finance companies, and got input on a number of things around the table, many of which my colleagues on my side have helped me discuss with these people in industry. We need to figure out a way to bring new mining people to the Northwest Territories to create new mining opportunities for the residents of the Northwest Territories, bringing jobs and business opportunities to fill the gaps that will be coming with the closure of the present diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. With these conversations that we've had with industries, and among the stakeholders and other government officials, we were trying to find solutions, to find a way to bring more mining investment to the Northwest Territories to benefit Northerners and businesses. That's what we did, and we've got a number of feedback from all people in industries. It was a great conference, and I believe a great investment on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Keeping in mind that a meeting is not an outcome, but a means to an end, could the Minister please elaborate on the solutions that he returned to Yellowknife with?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated, we had a number of meetings with different stakeholders on how we can improve the mining situation in the Northwest Territories. If we want to get into specifics, the solutions, I could stand here and probably talk about stuff all day from mining -- from staking in the industry in the Northwest Territories, to go online, to the regulatory process, to better geoscience information available, to junior mining companies, to socio-economic agreements, and how do we deal with Aboriginal governments moving forward, to land claims. As I said, our regulatory process, and how can we make that better moving forward, once we get things straightened out with the federal government. Those are a number of topics that we discussed, and a lot of input from stakeholders, as I said, and I've got a lot of great information on how we're going to try to move this file forward.
As we all know, mining tradeshows are numerous. Not just the roundup, but the Geoscience Forum, and coming soon, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. Has the Minister's department done a cost-benefit analysis of attending tradeshows, and if he has, can he share the results?
The one thing that I can say is roundup this year was definitely -- it was cheaper than previous roundups that we have attended. As far as doing a cost-benefit analysis of our attendance versus bringing mining to the Northwest Territories, this is a long process for juniors to become a viable mine in the Northwest Territories. One in 1,000 actually becomes a mine, if you look at the stats in the industry. We will be working towards trying to bring those things forward. It will be when we see some development. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I take it, then, that there is no cost-benefit analysis of this, but rather a feeling that this is a good thing. Another possible use for this money which would be a good thing is to increase the Mining Incentive Program. That actually puts money directly into the pockets of the miners. Is there any thought to doing a cost-benefit analysis, especially since there are more tradeshows coming up, of putting the money into the Mining Incentive Program rather than into a junket? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Mining Incentive Program is one of the things we heard around the table, as I said, along with a number of other things that I've previously mentioned. I will not commit to doing a cost-benefit analysis, just because I know going down there, meeting with industry, meeting with the Mining Advisory Board, the Chamber of Mines, the input that we get from a number of stakeholders, be it industry, like I said, or governments, or financial institutions, moving this file forward is to get down there and be in front of these stakeholders that want to look in the Northwest Territories, give them a clear picture of what we're doing, how we're trying to move things to make it more -- unlock our potential for these mines to open up in the Northwest Territories, and I believe it's good value for money with what we spent. The conversations were very valuable to myself and my colleagues on this side of the House, and I believe that Mr. Vanthuyne who was also there participating with us, this is the biggest part of our industry in the Northwest Territories. It's 20 per cent of our GDP. We've got to continue to work with these players, so how do we bring the next wave of mines to the NWT so we can all prosper. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke on the health transformation initiatives that became an effort that the Department of Health have worked on for some time. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. For those listening at home, can the Minister describe some of the real changes that will be brought about in small communities by the move to a single health authority? For example, how will a visit to the health centre be different for the average patient? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's a very complex question because every case and every situation that comes into a health centre will be different dependent on the different conditions that a citizen or a resident may be presenting with. In the Member's statement, I think he actually answered a number of the questions for himself, I mean, things that are reality. We know this is going to improve healthcare in the Northwest Territories.
We are working on a strategic plan, or rather, the authority, with input from the regional wellness councils, is developing a strategic plan that is going to set the direction for the provision of services. That includes a voice from the people in the small communities on how to tailor programs to meet the needs of individuals.
Also, Mr. Speaker, as has been said over and over again, the patient experience will improve as a result of removing some of the barriers that they experience today. Information will be able to be shared within a circle of care between authorities where it has been really difficult to do that in the past. We have had individuals who have had multiple needles when now they will be able to get away with one, which personally, I prefer, and I think everybody who is getting a needle would prefer.
Mr. Speaker, the authority, the single authority, has developed the framework to conduct an investigation of their implementation, which will be done in 2018, and they will have another report outlining the outcomes that they are seeing, which will be done in 2019. This is going to help us inform future direction and continue to evolve as we go on. But the system is about better healthcare, better future, better results for residents across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
The Minister seemed to suggest that I have answered my own questions. The question verges on the complexities of the healthcare system and also highlights the differences. In my understanding, the initiative towards the health transformation is to alleviate those differences and try to come to some commonality in terms of bringing better service to communities. This change was brought about by the recently established Territorial Health Authority. What is the protocol for constituents who want to raise a concern with the healthcare service they have received?
I think this is an incredibly important question. In order to improve healthcare in the Northwest Territories, it is going to take all of us working together. One of the challenges we have had in the past, where we had multiple authorities often competing for resources, is we had a difficulty with quality control. We would hire a quality control individual at an authority, and if that person left, then we had no quality control in that authority. As a single authority, we have more individuals involved in quality control who can provide backfill when a certain individual or an individual leaves a region.
What I would like the Member to do, as all Members, I would like the Member and myself, everybody in this House, to encourage our residents when they are having challenges in the healthcare system to engage the quality control system, share their stories so that they can be investigated and we can learn from them. We can make real meaningful improvements in the health and social services system here. I believe I have shared those quality control numbers with my colleagues. If I haven't, I will commit to doing so again, so that we can work together to encourage our residents to engage quality control to help make real improvements moving forward.
The final question is: what is the role of the regional wellness councils? The Minister seems to highlight that, you know, more the system to really try to improve the system, but at the same time ensuring that residents have access to good quality healthcare. We also have Regional Wellness Councils. What is the role of the leadership council in such a situation?
The regional wellness councils are regional representatives who are responsible for helping bring the voice of the people to the authority. First, to help make programs specific within individual regions, but also through the chair of the individual Regional Wellness Councils to bring that voice to the territorial authority to make sure that every region, every community's voice is heard at a territorial level.
I have had an opportunity to meet many if not all of the members of the regional wellness councils. We have unfortunately had a little bit of turnover already. We are looking to go find a couple of members where a couple have resigned. They have all been trained. I have encouraged them through the territorial council to talk to their residents, to get the feedback, to be a voice, to be somebody people can go to and talk to, in addition to the quality assurance staff, to make sure that the voices are heard.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it seems very clear that the Minister is committed to improving the services of the healthcare system, the wellbeing of the residents of the NWT. He seems to emphasize that we are going to have a better product.
However, my final question is: if we are really focusing on the idea of quality control, has that position been filled for the regions to ensure that there is such a unit or a position out there that they will ensure that residents with healthcare concerns can raise it with this position or this unit to ensure that, indeed, we have good quality healthcare systems? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the positions exist. We have filled positions. We have had people resign. We have had turnover. Some are more stable than others. We are committed to filling the positions. We continue to move forward to fill those positions when incumbents do leave. Our goal is to have those positions full at all times. They are not currently all full. We are recruiting where they are vacant.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the mandate commitments is this government will take steps to close the skills gaps using the Skills 4 Success strategic framework, by working with Aurora College, a renewed strategic plan refocusing support for post-secondary institutions in the NWT, improving outcomes from our community learning centres, strengthening the apprenticeship program, and improving our career development services. I want to take a look at this specific mandate commitment, Mr. Speaker, and ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment how the government is strengthening the apprenticeship program. This is a big concern for my constituents in my riding. They want more apprenticeship opportunities. I would like to ask the Minister, what are we doing to strengthen the apprenticeship program? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, we are working on developing a strategic plan that we have worked with many industry partners, businesses, to get the input. We do know there are challenges out there in terms of practices. We have also heard this when we were at the mineral roundup working with certain industry. We worked with Aboriginal groups as well. The Aboriginal governments that came down to mineral roundup also brought this up. We are working on a strategy right now that we are hoping to have brought before the House sometime this year. Thank you.
Certainly, the Minister is correct that this is an area that needs a lot of work. I spoke to a business owner in my riding of Kam Lake who said he is ready to hire if only there are people for the jobs. I think it is imperative we get Northerners going. Can the Minister provide some more specifics on where this plan is? Have we started it? Are we going to see it early this year? Late this year? It doesn't sound like we have a very firm timeline for the development of this. I would like to get a little bit more detail if he could.
The Member wants a firm date. We should have it released by April.
As this strategic plan is going to be coming into effect with the coming budget as well, is there money in the budget to help implement the strategy and support the apprenticeship program?
We currently have a lot of partnerships moving forward where we continue to fund. We have labour market agreements where we work with municipal communities. We also work with businesses. We have a small communities employment program that works with communities to help address some of these needs that are needed. For apprentices and the program to move forward, right now we can't put any dollar figures to it when we don't have a strategy, and that strategy is going to come out in April.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there are some dollars that are required by the strategy, is the Minister able to indicate whether the government will have fiscal flexibility to invest in apprenticeships in the Northwest Territories as per our mandate commitment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. As I mentioned, we do have a lot of partnerships. The strategy is going to reflect what we are hearing from the businesses, industry, and the dollars that we have already allocated to the labour market areas is going to be same thing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation some questions that kind of came to mind when Mr. Blake was asking questions about the survey. I would like to ask the Minister if they had considered going door-to-door if the survey online is not proving to bring some results. I was wondering if the Minister would consider doing a survey, maybe not to every household in the NWT but to maybe small communities and so on? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated before, the results coming in for the survey are actually pretty positive. We're at over a thousand already, which is significant considering we have about 2,400 public housing units and about 400 market housing units, so a thousand out of 2,800 homes is pretty high, recognizing some of that is government.
As stated previously, I will not hire someone specifically to go door-to-door. I think there are better usages of the funds. We are doing a very comprehensive, strategic radio campaign, and, at the smaller communities, where they have very low results, we will be putting pressure on our local housing organizations and really trying to get the government service officers out and trying to reach as many people as possible. I will emphasize to them to try to reach the seniors in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
A thousand surveys out of 2,800 is pretty good, but a thousand surveys out of 14,000 may not be as good. So, we're talking about, we're surveying, individuals that live in private homes, as well, and people that rent off other companies, and I wasn't I didn't know that this survey was restricted to public housing and market housing people only.
The MLA is correct that the survey is actually open to whoever wishes to fill in the survey. The majority of results are coming from people that are accessing housing programs. Again, that is compiled through Survey Monkey. I have stated that I will not hire someone for every community it would be a huge amount of money but I can look at any community that does not have either a local housing organization or a government service officer in that community, if there are any communities, then I will consider hiring someone for that community, but, any communities that have either a local housing organization or a government service officer, we will be asking those people to provide, to do, an intensive work for us.
I guess the idea of the survey, to review the policy, to improve policy, do some program planning, there must be some policies now that the Minister has really seen as outdated policies or this whole review and surveys wouldn't be occurring, so are there any policies which we would consider to be lowhanging-fruit policies that the Minister can look at immediately and make changes to show this House that she's serious about making changes to the policies?
Actually, at this point, now, we're just getting things in place. We had expected that the survey would be finished on January 27th. I was approached by an MLA in asking if I would consider extending it, like I had said. Again, this is the first time this is public knowledge or being put out there, that we have agreed to extend it for one month because it is important to get the results.
So, we're in the process of restructuring our whole office to make sure that we have enough people within the policy department to provide the analysis that we need, so we're doing that right now. We also are already starting to take off the information from the surveys that we've gotten. We will be producing at the we were hoping by the end of this session, but, since we're extending it for a month, we will hopefully in April have a document called, "What We Heard," and then, at the next session, we will be actually tabling it in the House so that it is public information.
Lowhanging fruit, like I said, there are three ways to do that. We have simple things, things that don't impact other departments or don't impact legally or previous tenants. Those things we will be looking at quite quickly, but, out of respect for the process, out of respect for when I became a Minister and promised to consult with people, to promise to use accreditation standards, we are in the process of getting things ready. We will not make major changes until the month is finished, in order to respect the input that will come from the people of the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at one point the NWT Housing Corporation did a comprehensive survey across the Northwest Territories in 1992, where they surveyed every household in the Northwest Territories. We're not asking for that. The Housing Corporation has been doing surveys for a long time, using statistical analysis on doing several households, but they do actually go to the households.
So, I would like to ask the Minister she had mentioned a few times that the cost was huge if the Minister could provide that cost of doing, not a complete comprehensive survey, but something that's been pretty standard in the past. What would that cost so that we could have an opportunity to analyze that cost compared to what we think the results that will bring? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, the request from the MLA requesting that I extend it because of the low numbers within the community just came to me the other day. I felt that I am working with them, working in consensus government, to try to meet the needs of the Members, and, in all honesty, for the best programs for the residents of the Northwest Territories.
I did not sit down and do a cost analysis. However, the survey itself can take between it depends how much time you want to put into it. It can take between 15 minutes to three hours. Some organizations have taken many days to do it, so, for us to sit down and look at 33 communities or even taking out the market communities, it is a huge amount of communities, a huge amount of potential time, and I am not a hundred per cent confident that that would be the best interest of the taxpayers' monies.
So, again, what we will do is a strategic radio campaign, and we will be working with our LHOs and GSOs to try to get them out there in the communities that have low results, to try to get as many surveys as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I spoke about the infrastructure deficit when it comes to commercial fisheries in Hay River, so I have some questions for the Minister of ITI.
As far as I understand, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation is responsible for maintaining their commercial fishing infrastructure in the territory. Somehow, we let them shirk their responsibilities, and the fishermen are the ones who ultimately suffered. Now we're left with a packing plant that needs about $2 million in upgrades to bring it up to code. I'd like an update on the status of the negotiations with Freshwater and when we can expect work to begin on our processing plant in Hay River? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
