We adhere very closely to the priorities and mandates that are set by this House. We have a federal engagement strategy that we have shared with the standing committee, and we follow the protocol that is set out in the Guiding Principles and Process Conventions.
I think every single session I have been here, I keep raising these issues and concerns. I just don't seem to be getting anywhere with my Cabinet colleagues. I have tried to suggest a number of constructive ways of improving this working relationship. Can the Minister commit to regular reporting on meetings held between GNWT Ministers and federal Ministers and the tracking of results, for example, the kind of statement that the Minister made today?
I believe that, with all of the responsibilities that Ministers have, there are probably about 25 to 30 federalprovincialterritorial meetings that occur on an annual basis. I believe that, in every instance, there are press releases and communiques that come out of them. Certainly, I understand that we share those with Regular Members, and we will continue to do so.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I can assure the Minister that, if there are communiques and so on, that we don't always see that kind of material, so I would certainly encourage him to share it with this side of the House. Again, can the Minister commit to recommending to federal Ministers and their staff that during visits to the Northwest Territories there be meetings with Regular MLAs through the appropriate standing committees? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will communicate that to the Prime Minister.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice. My Member's statement outlined a recent catalog of judgmental action, or inaction rather, suffered by a woman who has asked repeatedly for protection from intimidation by a person who is accused of having sexually and physically assaulted her. In holding these experiences up against the findings and recommendations of the HushHush Report, I must conclude that safeguards for victims are lacking or nonexistent. Can the Minister tell us what victims should do when they feel threatened by a person who is supposed to be restrained by an emergency protection order or conditions of reconnaissance? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can advise that the Crown attorney's office and the RCMP do treat these breaches of undertakings, in particular, very seriously. If a person feels threatened or there has been a breach of conditions, they can go to the RCMP. My experience over five different decades in the court system is that these breaches are treated very seriously, often leading to a hearing in which the accused person who is charged or accused of a violation of his undertaking, that is the conditions of his release, then has to establish, the onus is on that person then to establish why they should be released.
So these are treated very seriously by the RCMP and the Crown attorney's office. In addition, we have victims' assistance workers in, I think, six of the communities, and they can be of great assistance in these types of matters. Thank you.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. I think that he has had a more positive experience, or his clients have, of this court system than the woman I have been working with. In this instance that I cited in my Member's statement, the victim had to visit the RCMP three successive times to report just one instance of intimidation, each time requesting interviews with more senior RCMP members and then finally getting the support of the Status of Women. Only then did the police take action to enforce the conditions of release. My question for the Minister is: why should it be so hard?
I of course cannot speak about individual cases, but, again speaking from my own experiences, the police and Crown attorneys do treat these matters very seriously. In fact, if I recall, approximately 40 per cent of those in custody are on remand, often for violating terms of their release and being held in custody.
If a person, an individual, is not satisfied with an RCMP investigation into their complaint, they can make a complaint to the local detachment, which usually then goes to the senior RCMP officer in G Division.
Thank you to the Minister for that response and for talking about the complaint process. I want to repeat one of the dismal remarks from this account that I have given:
"I now wish I hadn't gone to the police because the system's gross insensitivity towards the victim now makes me feel more vulnerable than ever. I am never going to encourage any woman to go to the police due to domestic violence."
What can the Minister say in response to that?
Of course, I can't address the individual complaint. As I mentioned, there is a process. If a person does not feel that a matter has been properly investigated by the RCMP, they can go to the local detachment head and that matter would likely be passed on to the senior RCMP officer within G Division. However, if a person is not satisfied with the results of the RCMP investigation, they can ask for an independent review by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, the CRCC, so there are avenues to deal with complaints about the way in which a case has been handled by the RCMP.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for his response. I recognize that there is a process in place to try to get better service from the RCMP if we feel that the service we are getting is not adequate. The fact is, Mr. Speaker, that fewer than 10 per cent of women who have been sexually and physically assaulted report, just exactly because of the onerous nature of trying to follow up the conditions of recognizance that are placed on the accused. I didn't hear from the Minister that he acknowledges that this may be a problem or what he might do to fix it? Masi. Mr. Speaker.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. Clearly, the Member opposite has raised an important issue. I just repeat that we do have victim's assistance workers who are of great assistance to those in these types of very difficult situations. I can advise again, in my many decades before the courts, that a lot of these supports were not available 30 or 40 years ago, so we are getting better at assisting those who are victims of crime, as I mentioned, the victim's assistance workers. Also within the Crown attorney's office, they have those who assist witnesses in preparing for the trial. Everybody knows these types of trials, domestic violence or sexual assault trials, are particularly difficult. All I can say is that our support is mostly from the federal government in the PPSC and our government in the form of victim's assistance workers.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Speaker, I would like to the ask the Minister how our plans for pre-suppression activities, like fuelbreaks, are prioritized? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have been working with the communities to update their firebreak plans. The Member pointed out before, quite correctly, that the last one, I believe, was done in 2012. They are working with the communities now to update their fire protection plans. I know for a fact they are going to be up in the Member's community this summer working with them to evaluate the fuelbreaks that are there and see if they can take ways to mitigate them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I mentioned in my statement, the community did put forward a proposal, which was so close to being approved, but then things got so busy with the fires down in this area. What resources are available for communities to implement their community wildland fire protection plans?
I think if there is some need within the community, I believe, through the money that we provide to the communities there are opportunities there. ENR is working to identify funding that might be made available to communities with their fuelbreak. We were growing a forest full of trees but they went up in the great fire of 2014.
What steps does Fort McPherson need to take to get its fuelbreaks completed, or start doing the work this year?
As I said before, our focus will be in the Member's riding this summer working with them to identify some of their needs as far as fuelbreaks go and then work with them. Again, ENR has committed to try to identify any types of funding that we might be able to provide if there is a need for it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last couple of years the department has had in the neighbourhood of $50 to $60 million each year, so I am sure that the department can find some funds available. Moving forward, would the department set aside some funds for communities throughout the territory to complete their firebreaks to protect their communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member talks about resources. My comment before was actually our forest full of money trees that went up in smoke in 2014 to the tune of over $50 million, so we have been fairly challenged. We recognize the importance of fuelbreaks. That is why we are going into communities, working with the communities to update all their fire protection plans and evaluate what condition their fuelbreaks are in, and if there are opportunities, identify some resources to put towards that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about ground ambulance and highway rescue, as I have done many times. Just to bring everyone up to speed, I would like to recap what we have learned so far from my previous questioning. No single department is delegated with authority over this issue. Twenty-seven communities don't have ground ambulances. Community governments provide highway emergency services far beyond their own borders, mostly out of their own pocket. There has been $1.8 million to provide community governments since 2007 to deal with the issue. The issue is going to cost millions of dollars to fix. There is no timeline to address this issue. The government needs to save money, so it can't provide any further support. That is what we have learned from the previous questioning.
I may not have many questions if there has been nothing going on, but I will give it a shot. Since the last questioning, last October, what steps have been taken to create a coordinated and adequately funded service delivery regime for ground ambulance and highway rescue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, we have been doing some movement on this file. The Government of the Northwest Territories recognizes that it is an issue. We don't want to leave people stranded and we want to make health and safety our priority, to take care of people.
We have met with the municipal government of Hay River to hear their concerns. We have also met interdepartmentally with Health and Social Services, Transportation, Department of Justice, and Municipal and Community Affairs. We have committed to hiring a consultant to go in and do an action plan; not a research project, this has been researched to death, but to actually do an action plan to see how we can support ground ambulance within the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Usually I hate to hear that the government is doing another action plan, but in this case it is better than what has been going on. The regional centres are providing the highway rescue services for large areas. That is because 27 communities don't have ground ambulances. The Minister said the departments have been in talks with some of the communities. Have they been in talks with all of the communities to address not only the highway rescue but also the ground ambulance part of this equation?
We will be meeting with some of the communities, but the five tax-based communities is what we will be focusing on, recognizing that there are 33 communities within the Northwest Territories. However, not all of those 33 communities have road systems, and we are talking about ground ambulance, not highway rescue.
There is an action plan in development. Can the Minister provide us with a timeline of when we can expect the action plan to be completed, but also when we can start seeing the effects on the ground, whether it be money rolling out to the communities or legislative changes or anything in that manner?
We will be starting the project in the spring of this coming year. There are a couple of issues. There are a few things that we are looking at as difficulties; for example, the municipality of Hay River seems to have issues with collection of fees, yet the municipality of Yellowknife has no issue with the collection of fees. We are trying to figure out what the difference is. We are looking at gaps. We are looking at overlaps. We have heard that even those we have given up boundaries and said, "These are your limits to pick up people," we are hearing that three communities are going to the rescue. It is not only about the funding. We will be looking at the funding formula, but it is also the coordination of ground ambulance and highway services.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned that Hay River has trouble with collections whereas Yellowknife doesn't. Yellowknife has a much bigger staff. So would the Minister commit to funding another position in Hay River that's responsible for collection of ambulance fees? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As Members should be aware, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs worked on a new deal -- what was called a new deal many years ago, I believe it was 2007, where the communities actually decide for themselves what they want. We provide funding for that. If the municipality of Hay River would like to hire somebody out of their own, then we would more than support that decision from the municipality.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to ask more questions on junior kindergarten. Mr. Speaker, the Minister indicated that the first group of schools that started junior kindergarten rolled out kindergarten at their own expense. So $2 million was taken out of the school boards. Is the Minister saying that that $2 million is not part of the fully funded -- the term "fully funded" that's been used by the GNWT right now to fund junior kindergarten, that $2 million spent by the school boards is no longer in the mix? Is that the case? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, the $5.1 million is only money coming to this government to fund junior kindergarten 2017-18. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I didn't even mention the words $5.1 million. I'm asking the Minister, $2 million was put in by the school boards against their own judgment. They said that they couldn't afford it but the department made a decision that they would have to fund it themselves. I'm asking the Minister if that $2 million is part of the full funding?
As I mentioned, those initial dollars helped set off the implementation of junior kindergarten in 20 of our 33 communities, so it's ongoing funding from the beginning, the onset, and if the Member and committee would like a briefing on it, a detailed briefing on junior kindergarten, I'd be more than willing to do that.
I'm going to assume that that $2 million is not part of what the government is referring to as fully funded from the answers I've got. Mr. Speaker, in 2000, teachers went on strike. One of the results of that strike was a ministerial directive on inclusive schooling. Since then that inclusive schooling has been eroded. Can the Minister tell me what the initial money for inclusive schooling was put in place for and what was the reason that directive was put out by the Minister of the day?
