The information is that people could renew their lease when the current lease expires, although I am expecting, if they had the options, that many would seek actual ownership. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice regarding the renewal of the men's healing program, A New Day. I wonder, can the Minister explain to us what factors or, more importantly, evaluation findings led the department to change the counselling process in the RFP? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I am sure Members will recall, there was an extensive report on A New Day, which we tabled in November of last year. As a result of that, we have made some minor changes, I regard them as minor, to the program. The group therapy model and the curriculum are not changing. That will stay the same. What is changing is some of the administration around the program. That was seen to be an issue. The program will become more flexible, and efforts will be made to have more facilitators available to run the program more often. This would also assist us, should we decide to take the program outside of Yellowknife.
"Minor changes" is putting it lightly. Obviously, the changes don't reflect it being more successful because there was no uptake on the RFP. Can the Minister explain why the RFP does not reflect the input that the department received from the Coalition Against Family Violence?
Mr. Speaker, in designing the RFP, of course we did listen to concerns of all stakeholders, but we mainly relied on the report, the very expensive report, which was tabled in November. As I say, I don't think there are significant changes in the program. What is changing is the administration. There was an indication in the report and from what we have heard that this was a problem. We are going to make that portion of the program easier. I am hoping to make, therefore, the overall program more effective.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister shared with us concerns during budget deliberations, and when this matter came to the House some time ago, about budget concerns with regard to running this program and what the actual numbers were of people using the program. Since there were concerns about that, can the Minister describe how the department calculated the competitive costs of ongoing family violence to the healthcare system, as an example, the education system, the justice system, even public housing, and the continuing cycle of violence to future generations? Can he tell us those kinds of numbers?
Mr. Speaker, I don't think I could tell the House those numbers because I think they are essentially unknowable. How can you quantify those things? It is almost impossible, but you know that there were relatively few graduates of the program. I think we are up to 31, and our costs have exceeded $1 million. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Mr. Speaker, those are the challenges that we face all the time when we don't recognize good service and programs. When they are successful, when we don't get behind them and support them, we never take the time to actually go and calculate the costs that they are costing our society. It is a failure. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise the Assembly, since no bids were received to manage the program, going forward, what the department plans to do to make sure the men's healing program continues? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, this government is very interested in continuing this program. I can advise that we are dealing with some NGOs, and hopefully I will have good news in the next few weeks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned in my Member's statement here earlier on advertising and welcoming the students to encourage them to seek employment within our summer student program for 2017, I want to ask the Minister of Finance what initiatives are under way for this summer's recruitment program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Member for that very positive question. I can inform this House that we are projected to be ahead of last year's numbers. I think, last year, we had 306 summer students who were hired. My understanding is we have 272 who have been hired so far this year, and I think we have another 50 job offers that are awaiting signatures. We are well ahead of last year's numbers, and I think we have heard the concerns from Members of the House.
As far as the advertising goes, a lot of the kids who go to school or come on as summer students are well aware of the program, and they are well aware of where they want to work and how they need to get their applications in. If there are any ways we can improve that, we will continue to work on that, but so far, Mr. Speaker, the numbers early in the summer are quite encouraging.
Thank you to the Minister for the response. It is encouraging that we are going to see the numbers increasing. I was very encouraged by the latest report on the recruitment numbers. Looking back at the Sahtu historically for the last two summers, in 2015, we had five; 2016, we had five. Recently, 2017 started off with two, so I am of the impression we can see that number increase, more specifically for the riding that I represent. My question is: what targets or what methods of advertising are in use to recruit and exceed what we have done so far for the Sahtu region?
Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. We currently have two, but, as I said, we have 50 more that are outstanding, awaiting signatures. I am not quite sure where those are. I can find out and see how many we put into the Member's riding. As I said before, I will have to get the exact details on the actual advertising for summer students, but this is a program that has been going on for a while, as the Member has said. The numbers are improving this year. Two years ago, the numbers were 341. We are hoping to exceed those numbers.
If you count the other agencies that are funded by the Government of the Northwest Territories, and I have asked officials to try and find some numbers for me, like municipal governments, what do they have for summer students, because those are funded by the territorial government, as well as local housing organizations, just to give us an idea of exactly how many summer students we have working across Northwest Territories with funds that this government is providing to all agencies.
Would the Minister commit to working with the Minister of ECE and the regional representatives or the superintendent to issue a letter of encouragement for applications submitted by the graduates to the program of their choice or their endeavours of seeking summer student monies?
Mr. Speaker, all winter, we have been encouraging our departments to try to hire as many summer students as possible. I think it is a priority of this government to try to get as many of our young people out in the work force as we can, to help them get through school, and I can say that the departments have responded very well.
Right now, I think the Department of Infrastructure has the most summer students, followed closely by ENR, but I am told we just hired two, so I think we just passed them. I would be glad to share these numbers so that we know exactly which departments are hiring summer students. The other departments might see that as a bit of a challenge and take that up and try to bring more on. It is very important that we get our young people out there working and get them ready for the next stage of their lives. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we include the new Department of Infrastructure, I guess we can expect two job-shadowing positions there that will help implement the 14 kilometres that are on their way for the all-season road. Would the Minister commit to exceeding or doubling last year's statistics? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, I am not going to commit to doing that, but I am going to commit to encouraging our departments to try to bring on as many summer students as possible. I think, in the Member's riding alone, with the amalgamation of the new departments, there were an additional 24 positions being brought on into the Sahtu, so the Member has done quite well representing his riding.
We will continue to encourage our departments to try to bring on as many summer students as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice. The department has advertised for a service provider for the revamped A New Day program, and, despite holding a bidders' conference and then revising the RFP, none of the non-profits have submitted a proposal. At least one that was approached directly declined to take the program on. What is the Minister's understanding of what the problem is here? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, when we went out for proposals, we were hoping that there would be more of a response. There was a pre-bid meeting with various possible bidders, and unfortunately none of them, including the bidder currently holding the contract, decided to put in a bid. At that point, we started looking further afield and went out to NGOs. As I say, that is an ongoing process, and I am hoping that I will be able to give some good news about that in the next several weeks.
I did not hear an answer to my question in that response, so I am going to ask it again. I would like the Minister to tell us why he thinks nobody wants to run this program.
Mr. Speaker, I have no idea why the expected bidders did not bid. Perhaps the Member opposite should speak to them.
I think that was an invitation to join Cabinet. I will take it.
---Laughter
Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Social Development was briefed on this RFP in January, and we flagged some problems at that time, which the department then ignored. They put out a completely unpalatable RFP, patently unpalatable. Nobody has bid on it. Is the Minister prepared to work with the Coalition Against Family Violence to revamp the revamp so that this program has someone who wants to offer it?
As mentioned previously, Mr. Speaker, we are dealing with an NGO that has expressed an interest. We are hoping that things will work out well. As I mentioned earlier, the program has not been significantly altered, in our view. Some improvements were made as a result of the evidence that we received in the report which I have referred to earlier. I want to see how the negotiations with that NGO or another NGO work out over the next few weeks. If that does not work out, we will have to reconsider.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, which brings me to my last point. We stand to lose the knowledge and skills of the current course providers if there is an interruption of service, and, inevitably, this process will not be ready for the 1st of July, so will the Minister extend the current program funding? All that is required is to sign the contract. The money is already in place. Will the Minister do that to help victims of family violence? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, I am optimistic that we will be able to enter into a contract with an NGO. There are always costs involved in these types of programs. The money, as the Member opposite has pointed out, is there. As I mentioned earlier, we have spent well over a million dollars on this. I may have overstated the number of graduates; there are only 21, actually. But, as I say, I am optimistic that we will have an NGO that will accept the terms and conditions of the RFP. Again, the changes made to the program were evidence-based on the A New Day healing program evaluation report tabled in this House, so, again, I am optimistic that we will have a contractor by July 1st. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am overjoyed that we are finally talking about cannabis regulation in this House, and I would like to ask the Minister of Justice: given what he has rolled out here, we have 12 months to put in place legislation in order to meet the deadline that has been established by Ottawa's proposed cannabis act, which gives us seven months to develop legislation after the consultation period. Can the Minister assure this House that cannabis legislation and regulation will be in place by the time legalization takes place nationally? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
That is our plan. However, we will have to work very hard on this together. As I mentioned, we will be going out to people to get their responses and their ideas with respect to this very complex issue. We do realize timelines are short. The federal government is going to be plowing ahead next July 1st, whether we're ready or not.
I hope, on this consultation process, that minutes will be taken when these public hearings are had. The Minister knows that this work has been ongoing on the departmental level. There's nothing to show in the form of documentation, so what has been done to date on developing this legislation on working with the federal government to understand the implications? Other provinces have indicated some of the regulatory measures they want to bring in place. What do we have in the hopper that is informing this survey or this consultation period?
Mr. Speaker, when the federal government made its announcement on April 13th, it caught all of the other jurisdictions by surprise. Admittedly, it was a commitment of the Liberal government to proceed with changes; however, the nature of these changes, there was very little discussion between Ministers or Departments of Justice.
We do realize that it is going to be very difficult to get through this and have proper legislation in place. We are expecting that there will be very many comments and concerns raised in the public engagement portion and as the bill, the ultimate bill, works its way through this House. I am sure we will have the cooperation of the Members opposite to move this ahead quickly, and, hopefully, we will have legislation in place on July 1st. As I mentioned earlier, if we don't, however, the federal government's legislation will proceed in any case. They are not going to wait for us.
That's exactly the point, is that they're not going to wait so we need to be prepared. I question, you know, how surprising this development was. It has been in the federal Liberal Government's platform. I'd like to ask the Minister how many FTP meetings have they had around this issue and how many internal meetings have we had that have been informed by those FTP meetings?
Yes, this was a long-term Liberal commitment, but I am not certain that they have kept every one of their promises. In any case, there has not been a specific federal-provincial-territorial meeting with respect to this matter, and officials have been meeting and discussing this. Those discussions will be ongoing.
We are particularly interested in what other jurisdictions are doing. They have more resources than we do. I have heard that several of the jurisdictions may be more advanced than we are in this. However, we are intending and hoping to get this legislation in place by July 1, 2018, when the federal cannabis act comes into force. Again, it's going to put considerable demands on staff both at Department of Justice, other Members of this House, and I am looking forward to working together with all of you to conclude the studies, the public engagement, and getting the bill, our ultimate bill, through this House. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
