Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this past Wednesday the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and his department had the opportunity to present to the Standing Committee on Social Development on the NWT Education Renewal initiative. Mr. Speaker, it was a really good, very informative, and good presentation. Today, my questions are directed to the Minister around some parts of this presentation. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please explain to this House what type of course material is being developed as it pertains to Northern Studies 20 and 30? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, we just have Northern Studies 10 in the curriculum that is being offered throughout the Northwest Territories. We do have a Wise People Committee made up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders that is currently working on a Northern Studies 20 and 30. Following the same process that we did with Northern Studies 10, the Northern Studies 20 and 30, under direction of the Wise People Committee, are looking at exploration and developments of things like land claims, treaties, self-governments that are all going to be focused on Northern Studies 20 and 30. That is the direction that they are moving toward: letting our youth and our people who take our Northern Studies 20 and 30 courses, when we start offering them, learn about their culture, their traditions, as well as their history. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, this is very exciting news, as we educate our youth on the history of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is Northern Studies 10 is a course requirement for students to graduate. Will these other two Northern Studies courses be deemed prerequisites for our students to graduate? If so, why?
Yes, currently Northern Studies 10 is a required course to graduate for all NWT students in the Northwest Territories. What is exciting about Northern Studies 10 is that the curriculum is around residential schools, so our students learn about residential schools and how they are part of our history in the North and throughout Canada. Northern Studies 20 and 30, there is a lot of interest with our Aboriginal governments who we have been consulting with. As I have mentioned in the House, Alberta is redesigning their curriculum, and we have our staff who are working with staff in Alberta to redesign the curriculum.
We are going to try to see if there is an opportunity that our Northern Studies 20 and 30 courses can also be the equivalent to Social Studies 20 and 30. Those talks are in discussions with the Alberta government, and as you know, we are unique in the North and we follow the Alberta curriculum. We are going to see if that is a possibility. As I mentioned, those talks are currently happening right now.
I thank the Minister for his answer on two of my other questions. I thank him very much for that. Can the Minister please advise us as to when we think we will see this being implemented for the school year?
Yes, as I mentioned, we do have a committee that is currently working on it. We are collaborating with our Aboriginal governments, engaging our Aboriginal governments on what they would like to see in this curriculum. It is very important to get their knowledge, so that we can in return teach our youth in the school system. I imagine over the next two or three years, I think the curriculum will be completed, and hopefully delivered in the school system.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Earlier today, I offered some observations on statistics for employees as provided by the Minister of Human Resources, now the Minister of Finance. There appear to be about 100 vacant, undetermined departmental positions at any given time. Can the Minister explain whether this is comparable to other jurisdictions, and what efforts we are making to improve our recruitment efficiency? Merci, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT is a very large organization. Staff turnover and vacancies are a reality. Our vacancies do change from day to day. As of March 31 of this year, our vacancy rate was 3.4 per cent. I don't have comparisons with other governments, but we would assume that our rate would be similar to the national average across the economy. We put various efforts towards recruitment and filling vacancies, including the use of competitive process, transfer assignments, development opportunities, direct appointments, and regional recruitment programs. Also, the intern program that we have is very successful. As I was saying in the House earlier this session, the summer student would also be another excellent recruitment tool.
We have 272 plus, I believe, another 46 or 50 offers that were still out there, so those are the different types of recruitment strategies that we are using. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his response. Our government is spending a lot of money, more than $11 million between April 2016 and mid-February 2017, on overtime. Can the Minister explain what efforts we are making to reduce overtime, and whether that includes hiring more full-time staff at a reduced cost?
We haven't hired more full-time staff, but we have introduced full-time relief positions to provide coverage where needed. Relief employees say they are an important part of the GNWT, and their use is a very important part of ensuring that vital programs and services are provided to the residents of the Northwest Territories without interruption. As of December 31, 2016, the GNWT has had 374 relief employees, and overtime is authorized for operations required as necessary to support our programs, services, and delivery. In the Member's statement, he quoted the number of departments that do have a lot of overtime, and it is a lot of the departments where they are fairly stressful jobs, so there are times when folks need to be called in to relieve the employees who are there.
I thank the Minister again for that information. I am glad that he recognizes that overtime is stressful on our employees, and that the idea of relief workers is a good one. I will be tracking this during the rest of my term, certainly. As I mentioned earlier today, though, a great deal of the overtime is concentrated in Health and Social Services authorities, and Stanton hospital alone accounted for 18 per cent of the overtime costs. This may not come as a surprise to our healthcare and social workers, but I believe this is causing a lot of stress and burnout. What is our government doing to reduce overtime particularly in the Health and Social Services authorities and at Stanton hospital, which is actually in my riding? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before, there are a lot of relief positions that we have and there is some overtime that does happen within the health authorities. Part of that can be attributable to the fact that it is a highly stressful job and there are times when the regular workers can't make it in so they have to call a relief person in. There was a study, in my understanding, done a few years ago, I think, by Health and Social Services on the amount of overtime that was being used across the health authorities in the Northwest Territories. My understanding is there was no particular recommendations that came out of that, but I will follow up with the Minister of Health and Social Services to see if I can obtain a copy of the study that was done and I will share the information with the Member.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I truly do appreciate the commitment of the Minister to look into that and provide further information to us on this side. Sick leave hours for employers are concentrated in the Health and Social Services authorities and in the Department of Justice. While I can understand how health and social workers are often overworked and need to take sick leaves, it's not clear what is happening in Justice. Can the Minister explain these patterns of sick leave and what are we doing to improve employee wellness? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can do some analysis. However, in 24-7 continued operations where shift work is required, if you notice a pattern, there does seem to be some sick leave but that's working 24-7. The health and wellness are in the workplace are a key initiative of the NWT, and this includes raising awareness about the GNWT Employee and Family Assistance Program as well as providing a variety of education sessions on health and wellness related topics. There was also a suggestion earlier in this Assembly about the concept of having Shane Days as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the issue of offshore drilling, most Arctic nations have noted several concerns related to offshore drilling. The environmental sensitivity, remote locations with limited access, oil spill response, and winter Arctic conditions, limited Arctic class drilling and marine infrastructure, late season operating challenges such as limited daylight and ice conditions. The proposed solutions to these problems haven't often worked. I'd like to ask the Premier if he believes that industry is positioned well enough to safely conduct Arctic drilling in our waters or offshore of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been over 100 wells drilled in the Beaufort Sea and we have not had a blow-out like they have had in the Gulf of Mexico. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, I appreciate that we've been safe so far, but these problems persist. This is the reason why a ban was put in place by Canada. I'd just like to take a minute to quote from debates in Hansard of February 2, 2013, when the Premier said:
"The Government of the Northwest Territories is focused on managing the business of the territory. It has to be our primary objective not telling the Government of Canada how it should do its business. Further, we aren't the federal opposition. We're governing our own right and we need to concentrate on managing our own affairs. We will continue to work with the federal government and raise issues that matter to Northerners."
So why has the Premier now taken a different approach to this, which seems not to respect the jurisdiction of Canada; and instead of working with Canada to find a solution to the challenges related to offshore drilling, we've condemned them in a political forum. Can the Premier answer that, why his approach has changed and his relationship with Canada on this issue?
The Member is quite quick to put words into my mouth, but I'll set the record straight. We were a bit opposed to the process and approach that the Government of Canada took to impose a permanent moratorium and ban on oil and gas drilling in the Beaufort Sea. That's what we're opposed to. We have wanted a system that would be safe and protect the environment. We believe in balance, development, and to permanently ban oil and gas drilling without input from people most affected without any economic development strategy in place to offset the jobs that would be lost, to leave trillions of dollars' worth of oil and gas in the ground, I think is abandoning the responsibility. Also, we negotiated in good faith the Devolution Agreement with the Government of Canada. Part of that Devolution Agreement was that we would negotiate the coal management of the Beaufort Sea and the offshore and also how resource revenues would be dealt with. That's what we're concerned about.
I appreciate that explanation from the Premier. There's a clause in that Devolution Agreement that allows us to take disputes through that process. Is the Premier going to use the Devolution Agreement to bring Canada to task on this issue? I should point out that it's not a permanent ban. It's a five-year ban that can be revisited, so is the Premier going to wait for five years until we can revisit that decision or are we going to access the Devolution Agreement to start these negotiations early and as he's clearly stated, he's a strong believer in this economic opportunity. Are we going to make it happen through the Devolution Agreement?
I'm a strong believer that, if we pontificate on something, we should make sure we get the facts right. In this case, it is a permanent ban and the Prime Minister has written to me to confirm that and, as well, he has stated that they would review the need for a moratorium every five years. I've also written to him expressing my concern about the fact that we have had no responses to our request to get on with a negotiation of offshore management. He wrote back and indicated that he has put together a reviewed team led by Minister Carr and Minister Bennett in which they will be undertaking a one-year consultation process with existing offshore oil and gas rights holders to seek views on their interest. This process will engage key partners including rights holders, territorial governments, and land claim agreement holders. These consultations will be an opportunity to discuss a number of issues that you have raised including home management and resource revenue arrangements in the Beaufort Sea. We believe that those are legal commitments and that we should get on with it and it's not something that we should tie on to some other process where we can just raise it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like the Premier is starting to understand what it's like to be a Regular Member. Often, we raise concerns that are put to study or put to an internal working group when we're not at the tables, so perhaps this will inform his relationship when we're working with the government to find out how to make good decisions for people. My last question, Mr. Speaker, we've cut $5 million out of our public service capacity to address oil and gas development in the Northwest Territories. With what little is left, is that being used to address these issues and to develop an appropriate response to offshore drilling? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there's an old saying about shutting the barn door after the cows have left the barn. We have no oil and gas development production going on in the Northwest Territories as of this date. If you look around the territory, there's not one drop of oil being produced. A large part of this is the oil and gas moratorium in the Beaufort where everything is shut down and, since then, there's been no other oil and gas development. People have lost confidence in their ability. If the federal government can wipe away trillions of dollars of oil and gas in one swipe, then how do you expect industry to invest millions of dollars to develop? As a government, if there is no activity what do you want these people to do? If there is nothing going on, do you want them to sit there? That is why we have taken the approach that we are going to get ready, we are going to develop an oil and gas strategy, and when oil and gas industry comes back, if it comes back, we will be ready to go. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Member's statement, my question is to the Minister of Housing. My first question: will the Voices on Housing survey be shared with the community leaders to a public forum? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had previously made a commitment and I have made that commitment at every meeting that I have made, bilateral meetings, individual meetings with Aboriginal governments, municipal governments. I have committed to sharing the Voices on Housing report to Aboriginal and municipal governments, and I will do that, but it will not probably be in a public forum. The reason is because I need to get them out timely and we have 33 communities all with municipal governments and Aboriginal governments. There are huge lists, and if I was to do them all individually it would take me many, many months. So, no, I will be distributing the information via letter. We are in the process of doing that now, and it is not that I would not like to it publically. It is that we need to be timely in the distribution. Thank you. Mr. Speaker.
Will the Minister commit to a regional Sahtu forum to engage in the delivery of the survey?
Again, as I stated in the previous question, I have already made commitments to the Aboriginal municipal governments to get them out in a timely basis. It was tabled the other day, and so we are working on getting it out immediately. However, I have not done the Sahtu tour yet, and there was a commitment made by our Premier to get Ministers out into all the communities. So I would be more than willing to do a tour of the Sahtu to be able to take any input that the communities may have in any of the portfolios that I carry, including the Voices on Housing document.
Thanks for that response to the Minister. The attraction in the Sahtu this time of year is very ideal for fishing. As part of the consultation here, will the Minister commit to developing an action plan based on the survey so that a next step engagement is consulted with the forum if it is on a regional basis, and commit to that action plan being delivered as well?
Now that the survey is completed, we are in the process of actually developing an action plan not for the dissimilation of the material, but also to make sure that we meet all the needs and that we address the policies and programs in a timely manner, defining which ones can be solved early, which ones will take more consultation and time to deliver. So we are developing an action plan on how to do that now? We are going to try to be as inclusive of communities as possible in the determination of the final policies, so once we roll out with the policies we will be looking for feedback. At this point, I cannot say what that feedback will look like because we are still developing that strategy.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to engaging community consultations or a regional forum with the Minister, so would the Minister provide me some suggested dates here over the coming summer on the availability to discuss in some form to include community leaders of the Sahtu and also discuss some of the fruits of the labour of this document here for the rest of the term so the general public can have an idea what are the objectives for the term of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated before, I am more than willing to visit the Sahtu region for a constituency tour to address all issues that community members in that region may have including the housing survey, and I am committing to try to be as inclusive as possible in the development of the policies and the new programs going forward. However, I cannot state yet what that would look like because we are still developing the plan on how to roll that out.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in the week, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment issued a good statement about the NWT apprenticeship and trades strategy. The Minister's statement described efforts to connect industry and employers through partnerships in education and training. I am wondering: can the Minister give us more detail on industry partnerships the government has developed to support increased training and employment and how are we going to get these kids in front of potential employers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off, I just want to thank the Member for his support and encouragement for our students participating in the National Skills Canada Competition, and good luck to those students as well. We do have some really good students up here in the skills area. Along with the strategy that we did table earlier and made comments about, we do have a board that is made up of mostly industry. It is an industry-driven board. So they do a lot of the work and we work through that board to get a lot of this information out. They come up with a lot of the ideas on how we should move forward in terms of putting the strategy forward, and in the strategy we do have a lot of key actions that we are going to be working to complete and address, and it is mostly through this industry-driven board and working with our department that we are going to be focusing on getting those students into the job industry.
