It is really unfortunate to hear that our elders are actually feeling that their heating bills are more expensive. We do expect that it would be more expensive due to the space heaters; however, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has made a commitment that we will be paying for the elders' heat during this time until the units are fixed. So if there are any elders within the centre who do not know that and are paying their own bills, then we will be knocking on those doors and telling them to provide them to us and we will be reimbursing them and telling them that, in future, until the heat is resolved that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation will pay for their heat.
That's great news. I hope we could go back to last year when the actual problem started. Our elders have been paying these bills all last winter and this winter. I hope we could fix this problem. The other thing was, I know in our last government we were looking at putting more wood pellet boilers into many of the communities to fix these sorts of issues. Would the Minister be willing to look at this for the Joe Greenland Centre?
As said earlier, we have done a study to determine what the heat issues were. We are committed to working with the contractor and making sure that these issues are alleviated. At this point we are not looking at a boiler system in that building; however, if we continue to have heating problems within the next winter then we will then seriously consider this as an alternative.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I apologize, I didn't give him much of a head's up, but he heard my Member's statement, so it's about the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre. I know he's been in there, he's seen the condition of the building. Based on the statistics that I mentioned earlier, would the Minister agree that the Northern Frontiers Visitors Centre is an indispensable facility for capital city tourism? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member had it in his statement today, all the facts that he's brought forward with the increased tourism in the Northwest Territories, which we are totally supportive of to help diversify our economy, we are totally in support of trying to help alleviate the burden on the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre, and I'm sure he's going to have more questions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Laughter
It's not often that I actually get to congratulate a Minister, but, hey, that's fantastic. What a great leadin to my next question. Can the Minister tell us how his department is consulting on and contributing to the completion of the assessment that I mentioned earlier on the condition of the building? Is the department prepared to move forward on the recommendations that come out of that study really quickly?
I guess, to inform the House, there are a couple of things going on. Public Works and Services and ITI are involved in a couple of things on this facility, and so is CanNor.
There are two parallel streams going forward. We've hired an engineering firm to look at and do the structural investigation on the facility and what can be done and what needs to be done if anything can be done. At the same time, CanNor has supplied some money to do a business case on how do we move that forward for the Northern Frontier Visitors' Information Centre. That business case will decide if the current building meets the needs of tourism in the Northwest Territories, and particularly Yellowknife. It will also address if we need a new space, if that's going to be big enough or not, and the program delivery. So there are two things going on right now. We are waiting to hear back on the engineering firm and the business case.
Thanks to the Minister for that response. He confirms what I said in my statement, where there are a couple of different studies going on. I'm just wondering if the Minister can tell us, though, is there any funding in the 201718 capital or O and M budget with regard to additional assistance for the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre?
I would have to double check that with the department, but I know we are waiting to get both of those studies back before we decide the next steps on how we can help with the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre.
There are a number of parties that would be involved in this, depending on what the reports come back. There is ourselves. There is the City of Yellowknife. The Northern Frontier Visitors Information Centre is a standalone organization. When this building was built in the early 90s, there were a number of people that contributed to building this, from the federal government to the territorial government to the City of Yellowknife. Once we get these reports back, we'll be glad to keep the House advised on how the next steps are going to be on this.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that response. I'm aware that there are a number of other visitors' centres in the Northwest Territories. We've got one at the border. There's one in Inuvik. I believe there's one in Fort McPherson. These operations are basically run as government offices.
There is significant support for these other centres, so can the Minister give me information about what sort of support is provided to these other centres? One of the models that's being considered for the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre is to basically turn it into a government operation. Can he just tell me a little bit more about what the other support is for other centres and whether he's prepared to look at that as a model for the visitors' centre here? Thanks, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll get back to the department and pull together how we fund and operate these other tourism centres in the Northwest Territories. I know in particular in Hay River, it's the Hay River Tourism Information Centre, but I believe we actually probably give them some kind of contribution to help offset some of the costs, but I will get that information together and give it to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier. Yesterday, the Premier gave some answers on the new healthcare funding deal which was signed with the federal government last month. He repeated, "The new healthcare deal provides what Northerners want and need." The healthcare accord has a 3 per cent cost escalator rather than the 5.2 per cent the Premiers asked for in December. I didn't hear a clear answer to the question yesterday, so I'm going to repeat it today: what is the point of walking away from those talks and then settling for less? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know what channel the Member was watching yesterday, but I certainly didn't say that. We walked away because they offered us zero on the territorial health funding, and we obviously settled because they offered more. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Premier. What was reported in the news is that Canada offered 3.5 and that the leadership walked away from that deal although they had wanted 5.2. You got 3. You wanted 5.2. There's a gap. Why did you settle for less?
The federal government said, "Take it or leave it." We didn't take it until they came back and offered more.
Thank you, Premier. The problem is that healthcare costs are forecasted to rise significantly, and I gave some numbers in my Member's statement especially around the provision of longterm care to our aging population. That's on top of home care. What is the plan to ensure that healthcare funding is adequate to meet our needs? Because I don't see that this deal with $7.4 million in it will do it?
I'm not sure what $7.4 million she's referring to. I think she's referring to targeted funding of home care that the federal government raised. We spend approximately $420 million. We also get funding through the Healthcare Act which is provided on a per capita basis, which, on a per capita basis for the Northwest Territories, works out to about $40 million. This year, because the federal government reduced the healthcare funding percentages to 3 per cent, they offered targeted funding of $13.5 million over ten years for home care and for mental health. We still have to work with the federal government to determine how they want us to spend that money. Obviously, $13.5 million over 10 years works out to about $1.5 million a year. That's not going to help us with the longterm home care, but it was never intended to do so.
Prime Minister Trudeau, during the government election, now Prime Minister, wrote to us and indicated that there was some significant infrastructure funding that would be available, including social infrastructure funding. We are still waiting for details. In his letter, he pointed out that funding under those programs could be used for seniors' housing and other options to raise money to provide for seniors' housing. We are still waiting for that detailed information. We're looking forward to the federal budget, upcoming, where we expect to have more details of those programs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Premier. It's my understanding, but this math really needs to be set out, that the reduction of 6 per cent to 3 per cent is not offset by the $13.2 million over 10 years. Infrastructure funding is good, but the longterm care beds cost $139,000 each per year to operate. By the Health Minister's own estimate, that's $33.9 million annually required to provide care to people in longterm beds. I'm still not clear. Where's that money going to come from? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The healthcare funding was not intended to provide for that. The federal government provided $7.4 million over 10 years from homecare, and we're still waiting for them to tell us how they wanted to spend that targeted funding. The housing for seniors over the long term will have to come out of whatever funding that our government comes up with and whatever federal government funding we can access through the social infrastructure funding.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Human Resources a couple of questions on the PeopleSoft report. I'd like to ask the Minister if the Minister can provide the latest full PeopleSoft report to committee? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Human Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Human Resources, we do have a number of reports that we can access through PeopleSoft. I can work with the Member opposite and see exactly what his requirement is for a report, and I can work with the department to see if we can pull that information together for committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm not expecting the Minister to maybe give me a definite answer in this, but if I recall the PeopleSoft reports did not identify unfunded positions, so the PeopleSoft report was essentially generated from the main estimates. I'd like to ask the Minister, while providing the PeopleSoft report, if the Minister could also provide a quick one-pager, or whatever it takes, to identify any positions that are not funded in the main estimates.
Again, as I said before, I will work with the Member opposite and we'll come up with exactly what the committee is looking for and then we will work with the department to put the information together to provide for committee. Through the PeopleSoft, as I said before, we can produce a number of reports and find out exactly what the committee is looking for, and I'm sure I'll have that conversation with the Member. We will pull the information together and provide it to committee.
Another interesting dynamic about the PeopleSoft report, as I said, essentially it's generated from the main estimates. There is something that is not in report that I would like to also request the Minister to provide, and that is the amount of casuals who we have in the GNWT, long-term casuals. Perhaps any casuals who have been on longer than six months. I'm not referring to casuals where they work for a very short period of time and don’t come back, but I am referring to casuals who meet the requirements to a certain degree and then get some break and then get back on, and I believe that there are many casuals who are in the system for a long period of time. So if in addition to PeopleSoft, which is generally something that's generated from the mains, if the Minister could the additional casuals that the GNWT has also?
Through some of the reports that do come out of the Department of Human Resources we've included some of them, I think, in the conversations we've had with committee. You know, we talk about the number of employees we have, the number of indeterminate employees we have, the number of casuals we have, which is, in the spirit of transparency, we have approximately 852 casuals within the government system right now. So those type of reports I think we've tried to make available. I think some of the information that the Member is looking for, committee is looking for, is in addition to what we already provide. So I've made the commitment before that I will work with the Member and try to provide all the information that they're looking for.
Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not really changing directions here. I'm trying to more or less talk about PeopleSoft, but at this point on April 1st there's going to be some changes to PeopleSoft as a result of any reductions that may be in the budget. I'd like to ask the Minister when there's reductions that the Minister refers to, and the number was given in here and I don’t want to get into the numbers things, but there was an interesting dynamic in there where indicated that many of those positions were not filled. I'd like to know if those positions were actually filled with casuals. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that level of detail I will have to work with the department and find exactly the information that the Member's looking for. So I do commit to working the Department of Human Resources and I will work in providing all the information committee is requesting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back to junior kindergarten. There's still a lot of confusion about this program, and I'd just like to try and clear it up for my constituents. I'd like the Minister of Education to just let us know what's the difference between junior kindergarten programming and, say, the programming at daycare and the difference between junior kindergarten and kindergarten. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The difference is junior kindergarten will be a free play-based program that's offered to all communities across the Northwest Territories. Currently, there are 11 communities that don’t have any licensed daycare programming, and we want to fix that. Daycares and day homes, they do their own programming; we also work with them to provide some programs, but junior kindergarten will be one that's offered throughout the whole Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
So is the level of education going to be higher in junior kindergarten than a child could expect in a daycare, in a playschool, something like that? That's really what I'm getting at.
The NWT JK curriculum for four- and five-year-old children is play-based and supports children's cognitive, social, emotional, creative, and physical development, as well as cultural. As I mentioned, the EDI results that we've been seeing with the programs that already run in the Northwest Territories, we're seeing a big improvement in the communities that are offering junior kindergarten that are entering into the kindergarten system.
I realize that there are some communities who have no daycare, no playschool programs, so I'll confine this to Hay River. Can I tell my constituents that, if we're going to put daycare, playschool operators out of business, that it's for the benefit of our children because they're going to be getting a higher education in junior kindergarten?
Mr. Speaker, junior kindergarten is going to be optional to families, and secondly I also mentioned that we enhanced our early childhood programming to daycares and day homes. We see that there's a lot of waiting lists across the Northwest Territories for daycares and day homes that offer programming for zero to five, and the infants we've increased the funding. So I think that those messages need to be put out there for daycares and day homes and that it is optional for families.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
The Hay River Playschool takes three- and four-year-olds. It's probably going to shut down after decades. That's an option. That's a real option that could happen. So I just want to make this as simple as possible: are kids coming out of JK going to be smarter than if they were in a playschool or a daycare program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
