Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that Committee Report 9-18(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report: Review of the 2016 Report of the Auditor General of Canada on Support to Communities for Municipal Services in the Northwest Territories, Municipal and Community Affairs be received by the Assembly and moved into Committee of the Whole for further consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is on the floor. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by Ms. Green on February 8, 2017, regarding student instructional hours in schools. Ms. Green asked what discussions have been held with Alberta Education about delivering the Alberta curriculum in fewer hours than prescribed for the high school level.
Mr. Speaker, staff from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment are in regular contact with staff from Alberta Education and have considered the potential impact of changes in instructional hours on course curriculum and student outcomes.
Students in the Northwest Territories will continue to receive grade 12 diplomas at the standard set by Alberta. In achieving a diploma, NWT students will continue to meet the same curriculum requirements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke about wellness programs and potential wellness days, so I have questions for the Minister of Finance. Can the Minister provide an updated status on the negotiation with the Union of Northern Workers? I know he's made a commitment to meet committee to provide something, but can he give us a general synopsis of this update, please? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct, last week at the request of the Member for Frame Lake we did commit to providing a status update to the Priorities and Planning Committee. Today I can confirm that the employees and the Union of Northern Workers are sitting back down at the bargaining tomorrow to continue negotiation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. Can the Minister tell us: what does the Government of the Northwest Territories do to help the employees' wellness in the workplace?
The Government of the Northwest Territories, we value the contribution that our employees bring to the Government of the Northwest Territories. As such, we have a number of programs to help with employee wellness. The Employee and Family Assistance Program, for example, is one that is available to all employees, and free of charge. In 2016-17, our Learning and Development Calendar offered 24 webinars on a variety of wellness topics, and there are plenty of opportunities that were included in that. I could provide some of the training opportunities to the Members. It is a fairly lengthy list to be reading out, so I will provide that.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I am happy to hear that we are doing some good stuff for our employees. In my Member’s statement, I talked about the potential for providing five wellness days for Government of the Northwest Territories employees. Has the Government of the Northwest Territories looked to this idea, and will they bring it to the UNW?
The Government of the Northwest Territories, we presently provide very generous vacation, sick, and special leave provisions to our employees. At the present, we are not looking to expend our leave provisions; however, in this round of negotiations, my understanding is that there was a proposed memorandum of understanding that both the employer and the union would work together, to review and recommend ways to improve mental health in the workplace.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I totally agree that this government has some really good packages, but we are talking about employees’ wellness, and to do that, we are looking at the hours of work. We heard the teachers work 52 hours a week doing their job, but also, I notice that regular workers have 37.5 to 40 hours a week, but they put more hours in. They put more hours into this, so with the cuts and eliminations to positions, and the potential for no raises resulting in the collective bargaining, it is important to show employees that they are valued. Can the Minister commit to looking at this idea in greater detail, and advise this House of the outcome of this work? Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am glad we got the 52 hours cleared up. I have five teachers in our family, so I know first-hand the amounts of hours that they put in, and for the most part, it is more than 52 hours a week. To the Member’s question, we have wellness specialists research the topic of wellness days, and I think that the Member asked if I would provide some detail to the committee, or the House, on the outcome of that work. Once we have that work done, Mr. Speaker, I will have a conversation with the committee.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Investment. Before I go there, I just wanted to acknowledge this statement that I read today. It was developed by a student of the Introduction to Northern Leadership program in Fort Providence, as part of the Commit to Learning Centre’s extension of their World College program. This statement was regarding the Telemia camp, which I think most MLAs had an opportunity to visit last summer. The students are seeking the wisdom and guidance of the Minister, so the first question is to the Minister: is the Minister aware of Fort Providence’s interest to develop Telemia to be a tourist camp? Mahsi.
Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister, I am not well aware that they have an application in to develop that tourism camp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The second question was if, perhaps, the Minister could try and imagine what it is that the community is desiring in terms of trying to tap into the tourism opportunities. What steps would he envision in terms of requiring to upgrade the Telemia camp, to make it a tourism attraction, in terms of, perhaps, the perspective from the Department of ITI?
We are always looking at ways of investing in the regions to promote tourism. I can sit down with the Member and have a conversation with him on what the community envisions in moving that forward, and seeing what program that we have within the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment will help fit the bill, to help them realize their dream of tourism there.
I appreciate the Minister’s extension in terms of meeting, and having a discussion, in terms of, perhaps, this opportunity. Before we meet, maybe the Minister can inform this side of the House, in terms of whether there is any Aboriginal tourism funding available, to help get the Telemia camp up and running?
I have announced earlier in the House, during this session, all the tourism programs that we have. We have the regional development workshops that we have had in different regions. We just recently had one in the Deh Cho, which pulled a bunch of stakeholders together from the Members’ riding. It was well attended by all Aboriginal governments and groups from the region. We do have an economic development person in every region, to help facilitate tourism. We can sit down and have a look at how we are going to do that. There are a number of different opportunities, different pots of money from the Community Tourism Coordinator program, to the Youth Mentorship one, to the regional tourism advisors that we have in all the regions. There are a number of opportunities that we can use to look at those opportunities.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think part of the challenge is to try, from a regional perspective, to maybe funnel those efforts into a community-type delivery, so that communities could, at least, realize some of the benefits that tourism could bring to at least some communities that really need the employment opportunities. My last question is: how can local people in our province explore tourism career opportunities and get further training? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have said, we have a number of new initiatives, along with the old ones, to help promote tourism in the Northwest Territories. If the Member would like, I can have the regional superintendent for ITI to go in there and have a discussion with the community on how they can leverage some of these dollars and programs, to reach the potential that they desire.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about manufacturing in the Northwest Territories. I mentioned that there were barriers to growth that needed to be addressed. They were too numerous to mention in detail in my Member’s statement, and too numerous to mention now. They include things outside the government’s control, but there are also bureaucratic issues that the government has the power to address. That is one reason that this manufacturing strategy is so important, and I have learned that when the government announces the development of a strategy, there is no point in asking for changes before that, because nothing changes until that strategy. With the exception of Aurora College, and I do support that foundational review, as an aside. My question is for the Minister of ITI: what is the timeline for beginning the development of the manufacturing strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As all Members know, we are mandated in the 18th Legislative Assembly to do this. We spoke about this in the House before. This is something that is very important to me, as I came from the manufacturing sector. The department is doing a bunch of preliminary work on how we are going to bring this strategy forward, and when the time comes, I will inform the House when the strategy will be implemented. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It almost leads into my second question. I asked when it was going to begin being developed, and he said he would bring it forward when it is being implemented. It is a good lead-in to my second question: will the Minister commit to working with the Standing Committee on Economic Development, in addition to the Manufacturers’ Association, in the development of the draft strategy, in a way that allows for meaningful input from the committee, as opposed to the current method of engagement, which only allows the committee to suggest tweaks to what is virtually a finished product by the time we see it?
ITI will gladly follow the prescribed process of GNWT to develop legislations and strategies moving forward and prior to its public release. I don’t have a problem having a sit down with committee and getting their input and review the document before it’s released.
We have to follow traditional set-in-stone government policy. I thought this was a changed government. Mr. Speaker, I can help with this strategy. I have ideas. I know the issues. I wish the Minister would just work with us. You know, take some pressure off his department. I’m sure they have a lot to do. That’s something I’ll follow up on. Another big issue has been these giant projects, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars, P3 projects where a company from the South would get it and the money just flows out of the territory. I’d like to ask will the Minister commit to working with Finance with the goal of using the P3 projects to better develop northern manufacturing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The P3 concept is probably a little more challenging one. I commit to the Member that we could sit down with Finance and figure out a way moving forward, but as all Members know in this House, with federal treasury money, there’s a different set of rules on procurement around that and we’re going to have to probably sit down not with just myself and the Finance Minister but with the federal government if there’s a way forward to implement this into a possibility with P3 projects.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m still shaken from that first answer and the second answer. How about this? Will the Minister commit to being an agent of change and working with committee the way I suggested in my second question? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m always willing to have input from anyone in the Northwest Territories, including Members from the other side or my colleagues along this side of the table. It’s just going to take all of us to make a better territory for everybody, especially around manufacturing.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask a few questions of the Minister of Transportation. It’s regarding, again, safety on our highways, and in particular the stretch between Yellowknife and Behchoko on Highway 3. This stretch has been raised with constituents of mine on a number of occasions now about the conditions of this highway. They’ve shared with me some complaints about potholes, washboard, a lot of ups and downs, dips and dews, bumps, and visibility issues, Mr. Speaker. Now at this time of the year, with a lot of trucks travelling up and down that highway, it has become even more of a concern. I’d like to ask the Minister: what exactly is the problem with this particular stretch of highway as it relates to an engineering aspect? Why is it this particular stretch that is so severely damaged? I’ll leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As anyone who knows anyone who has driven this stretch of highway in the last few years know, it’s a very challenging section of highway in the Northwest Territories; probably one of the most challenging. Due to the permafrost degradation and stuff that’s happening out there and the melting and disturbances that are happening on that section of highway, the department had to reach out to the federal government a number of years ago to get some research dollars to have a look at this and develop a program and have test sections on this highway. I think we have four sections, if I remember correctly, on Highway 3 to determine the most effective option to look at how we can assess the ground conditions and how we can move forward with repairs.
With that said, we’ve actually spent $18 million on this road in the last four years. As I said many times in this House, I can probably take all the infrastructure money in the Northwest Territories and put it into highways and it would never fix or infrastructure deficit just in the highway system in the Northwest Territories due to the challenges that we have based around climate change. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. I appreciate that the Government of the Northwest Territories is working with other orders of government to release or some form of funding to help invest in this concern; but that’s also troubling to know that over the last four years we’ve put $18 million into the stretch of highway that still proves to be a safety issue and continues to be a challenge.
I’d like to ask the Minister: what is the ultimate answer for fixing this stretch of highway? How are we going to stop going from putting band aids on it to making and finding a permanent, safe solution for this stretch of highway?
