There are various criteria that we do look at, Mr. Speaker, such as safety, stage in the asset life cycle, environmental concerns, program needs, and preparation for further future business plans. As I mentioned, when the Department of Infrastructure looked at it, they said it was in good condition and extended the life cycle by 20 years; that is part of the criteria that we do look at. We base that on other infrastructure projects not only within our department but also right across the board of government. Those are some of the areas, but I can get more detailed information for the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member Tu NedheWiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak a bit about the Kaw Tay Whee School in Detah. Mr. Speaker, the Kaw Tay Whee School in the 20year assessment in 20162017 had been marked down as a renovation for $2.5 million. In 20172018 it was a replacement for $6 million. Then in 20182019 it was a renovation and an addition for $6.4 million. Last year's acquisition had another $6 million for replacement. I would like to ask the Minister what the plan is moving forward. Is this a replacement or a major renovation and addition? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Work at Kaw Tay Whee School in Detah has been on the capital planning list, as well, and needs some work. We are working with committee. Both for Detah and Ndilo, we are looking at addressing some of the capacity issues, but also the age of the school. Right now, a planning study will be undertaken in 20182019 for the replacement of the school.
Mr. Speaker, in the latest detailed plan I have, the planning study was to be occurring in this fiscal year, 20172018, and then the beginning of the renovation in 20182019, so I want to ask the Minister if that plan has just been shifted one year and that is the only change.
After we did the technical status evaluation, there were some other little things that needed to be addressed right away, such as in the areas of space and other technical issues. We needed to get that done. It has just gone off by a year, and we will get that planning study under way in 20182019.
That is good news. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if he can commit to involving the YK Dene in all aspects of the school, the planning, student needs, employment, design, and construction jobs.
Yes, any time we do any major retrofits or replacement of a school, we do meet with community members and leadership to see what that might entail. However, we do have capital standards when we build our schools and infrastructure in our communities, and in some cases we do have governments, Indigenous governments, or other organizations, that want to make it bigger. At that point, we would have to go to a P3 process, but we always do involve community input.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if there has been any discussion on where the school will be built. In other words, has there been identification of a site for the school? Thank you.
Yes, initial discussions between some of the YK Dene chief, the SAO, and some of our department have begun in March of 2017. We will continue those discussions this fall and see where we go from there. We will keep the Member updated on how that progresses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, as she has responsibility for consumer protection. I just want to add to my Member's statement that I am not aware of any widespread problems with the real estate sector in Yellowknife or the NWT and that I personally used their services to my complete satisfaction in the past. My statement outlined the situation in multiple representation or dual agency in brokering of real estate transactions. As I pointed out, our legislation is very weak when it comes to the regulation of buying and selling properties. Has the department received complaints or requests regarding this element of the real estate business in the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to date, no, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has received no complaints regarding the dual agency role of real estate agents. However, I would like to stress that within the act we do have a provision for a superintendent for real estate. If there are any residents in the Northwest Territories who have complaints regarding the potential role of a dual agency role, acting on behalf of the buyer and the seller, then please contact Municipal and Community Affairs, talk to the superintendent of real estate, and we will take note.
Thanks to the Minister for that response. I appreciate that very much. I acknowledged her reference to getting consumer protection information out earlier in my statement today and thank her again for this in the House, but I am wondering if her officials have researched other jurisdictions to determine how the real estate sector is regulated and what, if any, changes might be made here, in the Northwest Territories.
At this point, no, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has not done any research regarding the dual agency role for real estate agents. It has not been identified as a priority, it has not been identified in our mandate, and it has not been identified as a public safety issue at this point, so, to date, no, we have not done any crossjurisdictional research.
Thanks to the Minister for that answer. As I pointed out in my statement, our current legislation regulating real estate transaction deals with regard to ethics are under sort of a catchall section prohibiting "anything that dishonestly influences, discourages, or induces a trade." Real estate transactions, as I mentioned, are amongst the most complex and significant investments many people ever make. Does the Minister agree it is time to review how we regulate the real estate sector to more specifically address ethical issues and practices such as dual agency?
Yes, I do agree that there are a lot of acts and regulations that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs are governed by. Very many of them are out-dated. We do need to work on updating all of the acts and regulations. However, we have prioritized, based on the mandate of this Legislative Assembly, safety issues, other issues that are necessary, such as the Western Canada Lottery Act. I had committed previously in this House that issues that were brought up would be put onto a list. We are working with all the stakeholders to identify priorities. Some of them will not be able to be done within this Assembly, but we will be putting in a report recommending that they be considered within the next Assembly if we cannot get to them.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister for acknowledging her long legislative todo list. I am just wondering if she can tell me: the legislation that governs real estate transactions, when was that last reviewed, if ever? Thanks, Mr. Speaker.
As stated in my previous answer, I do recognize that there are a lot of acts and regulations that we do need to update. The Real Estate Agent's Licensing Act was introduced in 1991. No significant changes have been made since then. Thanks to the Member, it is on our radar to actually put it forward to all of our stakeholders and ask to prioritize where it should be within our review of all the acts and regulations that we are governed by. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Member's statement about the ministerial travel policy, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The $80,000 threshold for medical travel that I spoke about earlier does not take into account how many people in the household that $80,000 is supporting, if there is an ongoing medical condition that requires frequent trips out of town, and the fact that it essentially punishes citizens for living outside Yellowknife where most of these services are offered. I am no socialist, but I do not think that costs should get in the way of people in Hay River receiving the same medical care as people in Yellowknife. I would like to ask the Minister: what is the rationale for this $80,000 threshold? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the rationale for the $80,000 co-payment is or, rather, the level of the $80,000 co-payment. I know that my predecessor once referred to it as an arbitrary number. Clearly, we need to review the use of co-payment and the amount of the co-payment. That work is currently being done as part of the medical travel review, where we are reviewing a number of aspects of the medical travel policy, including the co-payment. We want to take into consideration not just the family income, but the size of the family; the illness that the individual might be suffering from; and the fact that some individuals, when they are ill, may not be able to earn, and looking at last year's tax return might be the complete wrong thing to do.
These are the types of things that we are doing. We are hoping to have this work done late in this calendar year so we can present to committee early in the next calendar year so that we can make important changes to medical travel to benefit all residents in the Northwest Territories and to make sure that they can get to the treatment they need when they need it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It seems like I am late to the game and the Minister is already on top of this, but I have been hearing about the medical travel review for quite a while now, and it always seems like something bumps it. Can the Minister commit that this review is going to be completed when he says it is going to be and that I can tell my constituents that they do not need to worry about these arbitrary numbers anymore?
The review of medical travel actually started in the last Assembly. There was a significant amount of public consultation that was done. The department went out and sought information from users of the system from across the Northwest Territories. A lot of data was gathered.
A number of things have happened. We have put in an appeal process, I personally think it still needs a little bit of tweaking, and we have put out a handbook to help people understand and navigate the system, but clearly, more needs to be done. The area the Member is talking about is certainly one of the areas in which we need to make more progress, as is looking at the rates that we provide for individuals who are on medical travel for ground transportation and for per diems for accommodation.
I have made a commitment already that that work will get done. My intention is to have that work done late in this calendar year so that we can make presentation to committee early next calendar year so that we can bring the changes into effect April 1, 2018.
I had a bunch of pointed questions, but the Minister is actually doing this work already, so he is off the hook. How about this, though? Because this is a ministerial policy, I assume you can change it with a stroke of a pen. How about at least adjusting that $80,000 threshold for inflation? For the next few months until this is in place, people could get the care they need and it would not be an economic hardship. This is not an academic exercise. I have people in my constituency who bring this up to me for whom this is a real issue, and it affects them every single month. Would the Minister be willing to do that?
I appreciate that the Member thinks that this is easy and it can be done with the stroke of a pen, but if we are going to make a change on some financial levels, we need to understand the implications of those. We need to understand why. I will say that in cases of undue hardship, where a family is experiencing some significant difficulty, we are willing to look at these on a oneoff, oneonone basis to make sure that we are not really disadvantaging families where there is undue hardship.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did some additional research and I have some additional questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about his decision to dismiss the Aurora College board of governors in May. According to the board minutes posted on the college web site from the February meeting, "Individual board members brought forward their concerns over the budget cuts, specifically the impact on students, regional centres, and staff." Can the Minister tell us what consultation he did with the board prior to announcing the changes to the teacher education and social work programs? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in previous sessions, our staff worked with Aurora College to look at some of these proposed cuts and made sure that we made informed decisions based on data and the information that they provided. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The minutes of that February meeting go on to say, "The board also noted their disappointment in how the decisions were brought forward with little consultation or discussion with the board." Does the Minister recall this statement from his February meeting with them?
If the Member wants, we can get that information on how the process went down in regards to our staff meeting with the Aurora College senior management, how this information was relayed, and how this discussion happened right from staff to staff. We will get that information for the Member.
I will take that as a commitment. The minutes of the February board meeting is that the board was fully functional. It was engaged in issues of financing, governance, strategic planning, and so on. I am still not understanding why the Minister decided to fire the board in May.
When the discussions of the foundational review had taken place in the May/June sitting, we looked at some direction that has come through, and one of those discussions and directions that were brought forth from some Members was that we look at the governance and we look at the structure of the college. There was a recommendation from the 2013 document moving forward. We took that decision, made that decision, and we are going to be looking at governance as we do this foundational review moving forward, and we look forward to the results.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am going to push back on that statement. I do not recall any of the Regular MLAs saying that they wanted the board dismissed and that this was something that they wanted to see in connection with the foundational review. What I want to say is that those minutes which I have just referenced indicate clearly that the Minister and the board were on different pages. The obvious question is: did the Minister decide to dismiss the board so they would not have any further pushback about the changes he wants to make at the college? Mahsi.
No, not at all. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following three documents entitled "Annual Report on the Activities of the Rental Officer, April 16, 2016 to March 31, 2017," "28th Annual Report, 2016-2017, Victims Assistance Committee of the NWT," and "Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Legal Aid Commission, 2016-2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu?
