Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Moving forward, can the Minister inform this House as to what he thinks could be accomplished by May 2017? Mahsi.
May 2017, that is two months away. I expect that by then we should have the ministerial special reports, we should have identified a path forward with the Government of Canada, and I think that we will be able to engage our colleagues on the Cabinet committee and the joint committee and hopefully find a way to work with the Aboriginal governments on the negotiations.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. I have spoken a couple of times now about the need to update the family violence survey. It was last done 10 years ago. In the June session, the Minister said that she thought the survey was a valuable tool and she would advocate for funds to do a new one. How is that going? Thank you.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The conversation of an attitudinal survey is actually interesting, and I would like to kind of address that. I would like to start with stating that I am quite offended by the Member's statement, when she stated that it is clear that Members do not agree that family violence is insulting. Because Members do not have a desire to continue to punish individuals who have served their time after committing domestic violence but rather focus on healing, because we want to preserve rights in place, does not mean that Members do not understand or care about family violence in the Northwest Territories. If the Member meant that we do not agree on punishment versus healing, then, of course, the Member is certainly correct. The attitudinal survey, we did discuss it. We looked into it. We talked about it within different departments. We have made the decision that, with the state of the economy right now, with the way we are going right now, spending $100,000 on a survey is probably not the best use of the money. I am taking the stance that I would rather focus that money on prevention and healing at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I didn't realize that responses to questions were also a rebuttal time, but that is good to know. What I have asked the Minister for and she said she can't afford is a commitment to redoing the family violence survey. She said that it was a valuable tool, and she said she would advocate for funds to redo it.
How about just taking half the Cabinet to Vancouver? That would free up $100,000, which is what the family violence survey cost last time. How about taking $100,000 out of the infrastructure budget? There are a number of ways that a hundred thousand dollars can be found very readily by this government. I have seen it done, so how about finding that money?
Masi. I would just like to remind Members that, whenever there is a question to a Minister, the Minister has either the right to answer or not to answer a question. Second set of questions to the Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to state that family violence is an issue within the Northwest Territories. It is something that we have to donate time and energy to. Again, I would like to say that I believe that we need to focus on prevention and healing at this point. I also want to state, since it was in the question, that not only is the issue of family violence an issue within the Northwest Territories, we have to take care of all the residents, and that means we have to provide support and money to our mineral industry, to our infrastructure, to housing, to transportation, to education. We have a lot of priorities, and I will not advocate that we use all of our money to address one issue when we have many issues within the Northwest Territories.
I am advocating $100,000 out of a $1.7 billion budget. I am talking about half the population. I am talking about making people safe. We need to address this problem in more effective ways. What we are doing is not addressing the root causes of family violence. So my question to the Minister is: is she willing to make a commitment to look at a systemic fix to family violence? The information for that would be provided by a new family violence survey.
I am definitely committed to addressing the root causes of family violence, and the root causes of family violence is not an attitudinal survey. It is a lot of other things. It can be a host of ideas, and that is why I will commit to supporting prevention and healing.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. How is the Minister going to prevent family violence going forward? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not my responsibility alone as a Minister, as a human being, to address the issue of family violence and the root causes. We are working across departments. We are working with our colleagues, Regular MLAs. We are working with Aboriginal governments. We are working with non-profit organizations. This is a societal issue, not one person's issue. I will commit to working in partnership with as many people, as many organizations I can, to address the issue of family violence.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister of ITI. Mr. Speaker, my question is: cruise ships bring great economic benefit to their ports of call all around the world. How is the department working to maximize the opportunities available for our remote communities from increased marine travel through the Northwest Passage? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year, ITI was up there to help to facilitate, to get the best economic impact from the arrival of cruise ship Serenity. We worked with all the communities and we were involved with the landing of all the ships within the community, and even our announcement yesterday how we can work with the IRC around the seal products of the fur, to be able to sell that to the European markets, so hopefully we have some European people on the cruise ships in this coming year, but we will continue to work with the people in the Members' riding to leverage the best economic benefits from this Crystal Serenity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, it appears that we may not have time to make seal and ivory sales happen for this season unless things happen very quickly. Is the Minister willing to direct the department to work with communities to seek ways to maximize the benefits from summer tourism and in the interim that do not necessarily involve animal products that can develop and diversity the local economy?
As we have tabled in the House, Tourism 2020, there are a number of initiatives there that we can work with all the communities in the Northwest Territories and Aboriginal peoples that want to go into the tourism industry, and I would be glad to sit down with the Member to work with his communities on how they can leverage some of that programming.
That answered pretty much all of my questions. My final question to the Minister is: will the Minister be willing to accompany myself to Ulukhaktok during the Crystal Serenity visit?
I would have to look at my schedule, but I would be very interested in going up there and seeing the impact of the Crystal Serenity docking in these communities, and the economic benefits it brings to the communities.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my statement today, and my questions and statement yesterday, I have more questions for the Minister of Justice about the A New Day program. As I mentioned, the RFP is quite sparse on details, and that is raising all the concerns and questions, so I am just trying to get at this, and get some more information out there.
My first question is that, the Coalition Against Family Violence was integral in developing the original A New Day Program, and it is a network with considerable corporate knowledge and experience. My question is: how will the new program integrate the coalition and tap into these resources? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, a careful evaluation was made of the program which was referenced by the Member opposite in his statement earlier. Naturally, they will be going out, and have gone out to all parties who were interested in the program seeking advice. Hopefully, that good advice is reflected in the request for proposals that is presently out. Thank you.
I believe the Minister said that they went out seeking advice from the coalition which went into this RFP. I have heard otherwise, but that still does not answer the question. Will there be a role for the coalition in the formal program that roles out from this RFP?
I am not certain, Mr. Speaker, whether there will be a formal role. I have not examined the RFP in detail. I do know that those interested in bidding, there will be a meeting put on so that those interested in making a submission will be able to meet with the Department of Justice. That meeting will be held on the 14th. If there is additional information required by possible bidders, they could perhaps obtain it at that time.
The RFP indicates that all clients must self-refer to the program. When I asked the Minister yesterday if the program would accept referrals from outside organizations like probation services, he said it was his impression that it would but he would get back to me with that information. I would like to find out if the Minister has found out that information and would like to share it with me?
A New Day is a voluntary program based largely on self-referrals. Men have never needed a referral from an outside agency to access the program. During the pilot, which has taken place over a period of I think five years, community agencies such as probation would often make recommendations to their clients to take the program.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of what has happened in the past. That is why I am asking questions about the future. Going back again, I asked the Minister yesterday if he would make the details of the new program public because, as I mentioned, the RFP is quite vague. Even the appendix referred to was a blank page in the RFP. It has since been updated, and it contains -- actually, the PowerPoint presentation was given to the standing committee. It does not even make sense in the context of the RFP because -- it is going to take me all day to discuss, so I will just cut it short here. There are just too many problems here.
The Minister responded that he had not had an opportunity to view the RFP, but he was confident that it contained what is required of potential contractors. I would ask the Minister again if he will release the program detail, not so that the potential contractors know what they are applying for, but for the sake of the Members of this Assembly who have spent countless hours discussing this program and fighting for this program, and for the members of the public who deserve at least one successful and efficient men's healing program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, there was a very comprehensive report prepared on the New Day Program. Building on that, an RFP has been issued. Those that are interested in bidding on that can go to the meeting on Tuesday and obtain additional information should they require.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, I asked a question about procurement reform, and the Minister responsible said that he is not aware of any complaints. Today, I have a complaint for him. Some of my constituents are concerned about the 50 per cent plus one ownership requirements of BIP, saying, it is extremely frustrating for us to stay here year round, pay property taxes on several properties, pay extremely high living costs, and watch all the work go to divisions of southern companies who have a majority of equipment and employees in the South come up on a seasonal basis. There is a complaint.
Will the Minister now commit to actually reaching out to the business community and soliciting their input on how we can make our procurement policies such as BIP, the Business Incentive Program, and other procurement policies better? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism, and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Member to be a little bit more specific. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Will the Minister commit to raising the 50 per cent requirement to 100 per cent northern-owned?
No, I will not.
Again, I might not have all the answers. Clearly, the Minister does not have many answers that I will like today, but I think there are people out there in our business community who are very concerned about these issues and want to be heard. I would like the Minister to hear from them directly. Will the Minister commit to engaging them in a comprehensive conversation around procurement?
As I said yesterday, I haven't heard any of this. This is the first I have heard of it from the Member. If he has people who would like to talk to me, we will sit down and have a conversation.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Mr. Speaker, if the Minister is committing to hear from all my constituents who have concerns, I will make those appointments. Again, I think it is fairer not to do this on a one-off, but to have a broad conversation involving procurement experts, perhaps experts who do not reside in the Northwest Territories, and bring them together to discuss this. We have energy charrettes. We hire consultants to look at Aurora College. Why is the Minister so confident that our procurement system doesn't require any reform or any improvements? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. He is putting words in my mouth. I didn't say that we didn't need any type of improvements or any type of advice moving forward. I came from the private sector. I spent my whole life in the private sector. I have used the procurement system within the Government of the Northwest Territories. There are rules and policies in place that make it beneficial to northern businesses and individuals who want to participate in procurement with the Government of the Northwest Territories. We will continue to look at those, how we will make it better moving forward.
