Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Member's statement of a moment ago regarding the RCMP staffing levels in Hay River, I would like to direct these questions to the Minister of Justice. The RCMP presented to the GNWT a request and a business case for two additional general duty constables in Hay River. Will the department include these positions in next year's budget? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is working closely with "G" Division to develop a business case to support additional policing resources in the community and is working its way through the GNWT planning process for 2018-2019. We have heard not only from the Member opposite but from the RCMP about this request, which does seem reasonable. Thank you.
I understand that upcoming budgets are often kept pretty close to the chest, so I appreciate that answer. I will take that as a positive. One of the other issues I touched on is how the RCMP are responsible for duties that sheriffs are generally responsible for in other jurisdictions.
My question is: why can we not put the responsibility for transporting and overseeing prisoners to and from court and while they are in court on the sheriffs instead of the RCMP? I am sure it is a much cheaper option, and there is already a sheriff in the courtroom. Why can we not do this?
The department and the RCMP have formed a committee to review current practices and recommend the most effective model for providing prisoner security. Currently we are looking at the situation in Yellowknife, and this would appear to make sense in many ways.
I know that, in Nunavut, I think exclusively in Iqaluit, the sheriffs have taken over duties that were formerly conducted by the RCMP. We will be looking at this, initially for the Yellowknife courthouse, but perhaps, after that, looking at other communities where this might also create efficiencies.
That is a great start. Another issue that takes up the time of the RCMP, and it is tied in with this last one, is the prisoner transport to and from Yellowknife to attend court in the South Slave. They have to do that because the remand centre in Hay River is no longer being used. This comes at a cost to the RCMP.
That is the RCMP budget that is used to transport the prisoners, and they do not even get the GNWT rate when it comes to flights. Can I ask the Minister: why does the RCMP not get the GNWT rate for these flights, and can we get it for them to save them a few bucks and put that back into community safety?
Of course, the RCMP is a federal agency and have their own procurement rules, but I am happy to have our department working with the RCMP to see if efficiencies and cost savings can be found.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally, this is something I have brought up in the House many times, and it is all tied in with everything we have just been speaking about. The remand centre in Hay River is not being used. This would save the RCMP money, and it would save everyone time.
I would like to ask the Minister: can I get an analysis of why the remand centre in Hay River cannot be used? What I always get is it is a minimum security centre. Well, there is a remand centre surrounded by a minimum security centre. Remand is located in minimum security prisons in Alberta, other places in Canada, and places in Australia. Why can we not do it here? Why can we not put that back into use? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand that the last time that the remand centre was used in Hay River was 2005. Inmates on remand are considered high-risk, and for that reason they have to be housed in a medium- or maximum-security facility, and currently the facility in Hay River is minimum-security. Housing remand inmates in that facility would hinder the operations, simply because the facility, as I mentioned, is minimum-security, not medium or maximum, which is required.
I do know that there is a lot of traffic of prisoners back and forth to court, and that can add some additional expenses. I am hoping that members of my profession will be using video conferencing more often to reduce some of those costs.
It is really a matter of security to have Hay River act again as a remand centre. It would require considerable changes to the facility as it now stands to raise it from minimum to a medium or maximum, and at this time we are not contemplating those costs. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Infrastructure questions on Highway No. 6; that is Highway No. 6 that runs into Fort Resolution. I would like to ask the Minister what the current status of the highway is insofar as the construction phase. Whether they are currently on the highway, they are shut down for the winter, that type of status, I am looking for. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we had a successful season. Prior to me getting this portfolio, there was a contract awarded to a local contractor, along with Aboriginal groups, in the region to rehabilitate this Highway No. 6. They have been continually working on specifically kilometre 42 to 62. That work began late November of 2015 and was completed up the last year. This year moving forward we want to rehabilitate 14 kilometres of that highway and continue to invest in it, and application of chipseal will be part of that as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to ask the Minister when Highway No. 6 will be completed 100 per cent to a chipseal state.
I do not have that type of detail with me. I know I have a budget for chipsealing across the Northwest Territories, and we continue to move that forward through our various bundles. I will get that information for the Member, when he can expect to have that highway completely chipsealed.
Insofar as local business and so on on the highway, I would like to ask the Minister if there was a lot of local labour, and the sense I am trying to get is the numbers, if the Minister has the numbers, of what percentage of the people working on site were from Fort Resolution and so on. Just a feel of what type of local business and local employment was seen on Highway No. 6 to date.
I can gladly try to get that information for the Member pulled back from the department and see what we have got for information. It was a joint venture, as I said, with the two Aboriginal groups and a local contractor from the area. I should be able to get those exact numbers for the Member.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Highway No. 6 there is one bridge, Little Buffalo River bridge. I would like to ask the Minister if there is an intention of rehabilitating the Little Buffalo River bridge. Thank you.
I know there is ongoing work on Buffalo River bridge and the Hay River bridge moving forward on the bundles that we have allocated the money to. The specifics around Little Buffalo River bridge, I will have to get the details on that and see if there is any planned work on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked questions of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about Student Financial Assistance. I would like to follow up with some questions with the Minister here today. I have heard from various students throughout the years that they were not as successful in high school as they should have been. As they start looking at their future, they realize they need to upgrade their marks, and they start looking for institutions that offer this type of program and funding. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise us: are students eligible to access Student Financial Assistance to attend college or university to upgrade so they can get into their chosen field of education? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member's concerns, as well as his interest in the support of post-secondary education programming, as well as our Student Financial Assistance program. In determining a student's eligibility for funding, Student Financial Assistance cannot take into consideration any courses that are considered upgrading, as they are not a post-secondary course.
However, if a student is enrolled in a full course load at post-secondary level, the student can enrol in additional classes that may be considered upgrading. In situations like this, Mr. Speaker, it is important for students to contact the Student Financial Assistance office to ensure they still meet the regulatory requirements to be considered a post-secondary student. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for that answer. We will work with them on that. I am familiar, basically, in that you have to take 60 per cent of a work load to get that. I thank the Minister for that. Mr. Speaker, if the department is not able to fund students to upgrade, what funding programs are available for students to upgrade, and how is this information shared with the students?
There are other avenues of potential funding for students who want to get into upgrading or adult basic learning. Obviously, there are income assistance and labour market programs. There are university and college entrance programs, known as UCEPP, administered by the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs. There is also ASETS, which is Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy, administered by Aboriginal governments.
Students who apply for SFA for an upgrading program are issued a denial letter which advises them of alternative sources of funding, and as I mentioned, any students who want to look at upgrading and have that denial letter, that will help them get other programs such as UCEPP, income assistance, labour markets, as well as ASETS.
I thank the Minister for that answer. That is great to hear, that there are other opportunities for students out there besides Student Financial Assistance. Throughout the years, I have heard that students can attend Aurora College and take upgrading courses and be eligible for SFA. Can the Minister explain how this is possible? Is it an access program, or is it upgrading just specifically through the Aurora College?
As I mentioned yesterday, when some of these questions were coming by, the Student Financial Assistance Program must abide by the act and regulations when determining a student's eligibility. Here, with Aurora College, there is an upgrading component to the access programs at Aurora College. That program still provides courses that are at a post-secondary level, which allows students to qualify for SFA and further their education.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that clarification. That is very helpful. I have witnessed some of the challenges for the students first-hand and have been very fortunate that my constituent assistant has been well-versed in this area and has been able to move mountains to help the youth in some of these other funding programs out there, but it has been challenging. Will the Minister have his department look into feasibility to have Student Financial Assistance available to students who need to upgrade and wish to do it at a southern institution? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The purpose of the SFA program is to assist with the costs of obtaining a post-secondary education. Students who wish to get funding might want to look into pursuing some of our access programs or look at the ways of getting other avenues of potential funding that I had mentioned earlier. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Anti-Poverty Strategy. As I have frequently pointed out, along with the NGOs, the first step in eliminating poverty is to measure it. We need to identify a set of indicators to measure income and the effects of poverty, such as use of emergency housing, food banks, and so on. Will the Minister commit to begin the formal collection and assembly of this kind of data in partnership with the Bureau of Statistics? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Territorial Anti-Poverty Action Plan included a commitment to monitoring and reporting. It recognized that there are many partners involved in the collaborative framework and that each partner would be responsible for monitoring and reporting on their own actions. However, the GNWT did commit to a number of things. One of those was compiling a set of broad social indicators that identify those factors associated with poverty, its causes and effects, and developing a schedule for reporting on them.
Mr. Speaker, during the last Anti-Poverty Roundtable held in Inuvik, a large number of indicators were discussed at length by the attendees, and the advisory committee took all that information they compiled and provided some advice and direction to the government on the establishment of some performance measures of poverty in the Northwest Territories. These measures are now being reported by the NWT Bureau of Statistics and collected by them, as well.
Thank you to the Minister. It is good to hear that there is some work going on in this area. Will the Minister further compile this information into a sort of annual report and release it at the Anti-Poverty Roundtable in November in Norman Wells?
This is obviously an ongoing discussion. The Anti-Poverty Roundtable is an important opportunity for the GNWT and stakeholders to get together to talk about progress, and it is my understanding that that information is intended to be shared with the individuals at the roundtable. We are also working with our stakeholders. We have a $1-million anti-poverty fund that we provide to different stakeholders. Many of them are providing reports on the work they are doing. We are still working with others to make sure that they are providing some evaluation work on the reports. We are hoping to have that information, as much as possible, available for further discussion and insight from the roundtable.
The Minister has anticipated my next question, but I am going to ask it anyway because it is a little more detailed. In the last budget, as the Minister said, the Anti-Poverty Fund went up to $1 million, but, up to this point, there has been no effort to evaluate the effectiveness of that spending, so I am wondering if the Minister could produce an annual report that once again would come out to coincide with the roundtable. I need to emphasize this very strongly, to evaluate without creating a large burden on the reporting agencies to carry out, so some kind of reporting but that is not onerous.
Compiling an annual report on the specific achievements in the plan is something that we are currently working on. This includes projects funded through the Anti-Poverty Fund through the annual roundtable. We have reported back to the roundtable every year on which projects are funded.
We have not yet reached the point where every funded project, as I have indicated, produces a report, although I would like to confirm that many, many of them in fact do. Staff continue to work with funded projects on this component, and that is getting an evaluation of the individual projects, recognizing that some of them are small and that, as the Member said, we do not want to create an overly burdensome process that actually makes it more difficult for them to do the valuable work that they are doing.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, I am sure the Minister is aware that a $1 million Anti-Poverty Fund is a start, but will not provide a systemic fix to poverty, so I am wondering, fuelled with the information he is collecting on the outcome of the different kinds of measurements, whether he is in fact willing to look at building on the work of some of the most successful programs through other programs or adjustments to other funding streams outside of the anti-poverty fund. Thank you.
The Anti-Poverty Fund is just, I think, one opportunity presented to us to help combat poverty in the Northwest Territories. The Housing Corporation is doing a significant amount of work to support safe and affordable housing. Education is doing work to renew the education system in the Northwest Territories to ensure that our children have the best opportunities moving forward. Health and Social Services is working on a continuing-care action plan. Education is working on an income assistance to make improvements there, to help increase affordability and sustainability throughout the Northwest Territories.
These are all important initiatives, which is one of the reasons I think, as the Member has indicated, it is incredibly important that we continue to renew the living document which is the GNWT Action Plan on Poverty. The anti-poverty working group actually met this week and talked about next steps and how we move forward to renew and re-create and grow the current GNWT action plan.
The intention now is to move forward with a renewal of that GNWT action plan, highlighting all the important work that has been done but also targeting future work. The advisory group is going to meet after the Anti-Poverty Roundtable up in Norman Wells to begin planning for that process of renewing the GNWT action plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue with the municipalities providing access to information to their residents has been a long-standing recommendation of the ATIP commissioner here in the Northwest Territories. I know that new legislation is being considered, but what I would like to ask today of the honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs is: does the department have a plan to assist communities in meeting new ATIP requirements should they be implemented? Have they explored this, or will they need time to catch up should those changes be made? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
