Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that we have received recommendations from the Information and Privacy Commissioner to implement the ATIP policy into municipalities and, in all honesty, I agree with it. It is important that consumers, that residents, actually, of the Northwest Territories have protection of their information and that they can access that information and that officials are held accountable. These are all good things.
I think that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is working very closely with the Department of Justice to look at all of the issues, the needs, and the concerns, to ensure that municipalities have the training, have the capacity to be able to implement the Privacy Act into their practices. We are still working on that.
We are looking at options, though, and because training and capacity is going to be an issue, we are looking at options like: can we do a shared service agreement that we can actually help them with so that there will be capacity? We are still in the stages of assessing the needs and the issues and potential solutions, after which time we will be meeting back with municipalities and getting their feedback on it.
I would like to thank the Minister for that response. It is good that we are aware of the issue. Have there been any timelines attached to this capacity-building exercise, or do those have to come after the ATIP legislation is rolled out?
As stated earlier, we are still looking at some of the issues and possible solutions. We are pushing forward. The ATIP Act will be amended because it is the right thing to do. We are looking at the training needs, and so, like I said earlier, perhaps a shared agreement might be an interim solution until we can provide the training and support to build the capacity of municipalities to take it on on their own.
You know I like timelines, but that is fine. We will let the department do its work. There is a significant public education piece here that the Information and Privacy Commissioner does take on their own initiative. However, given that this is a significant shift, and not just in legislation, but in culture as well, is the department going to work with municipalities on a public information campaign so everyone can access their requirements? If yes, well, we will leave it at that. I have another question, though.
The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is all about community development. It would be inappropriate for us to impose this upon municipalities without giving them the tools and the training to be able to enact this regulation. Yes, we will be supporting them and providing the supports that they need to be able to implement this act.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be clear, I am well aware of the mandate of the department, and I think the capacity-building piece is there, but this information piece is very important, and it might not be contemplated by the current work.
My final question is: if we do a communication project like that, will the department be working with EC to ensure we have all 11 official languages covered and the information is accessible to communities through their local governments in local languages? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At this point, I cannot state if we would be looking at implementing it all into all of the 11 languages. We are still looking at the phase to look at: what are the issues? What are the solutions? We have not talked with the municipalities after that to see what their needs are. At this time, no, I will not commit to making sure that the information is successful in all of the 11 languages. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke in support of subsistence harvesters in Nunakput, and my questions are for the Minister of ITI. Mr. Speaker, my first question is: has ITI investigated the viability of a tannery in the Beaufort Delta recently, and when was the last time this idea was explored? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have the exact year when the department looked into this initiative, but I know that they have looked into it, and with this initiative moving forward, they figured that the reasons that they could not proceed with it was the high capital cost of equipment, the facilities, high utility costs in the region, and waste management concerns, as there is a lot of processing that needs to take place. I think the other issue at the time was also the existing procurement of hides that would be available to make this a viable operation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my second question for the Minister is: will ITI look at the idea of home tanning kits for Nunakput and remote communities in the Northwest Territories?
Yes, we can have a look at it. I know that the department does community-based tannery workshops, and we will continue to do that across the Northwest Territories, but if the Member has any ideas around some home tanning kits ideas, I would gladly sit down and discuss it with them.
I look forward to that. Mr. Speaker, my final question to the Minister is: what is the department doing to assist harvesters who want access to tanning options?
With the development of the Mackenzie Valley Genuine Valley Fur Program, the fur procurement programs by ITI, fewer harvesters are looking at owning tanning operations, or doing their own tanning operations.
I can speak to the department of the region in the South Slave actually looking at the exact same thing, I believe, that was proposed in the Beaufort Delta, a viable option of doing a tannery in the South Slave. When we get these results back, I would gladly share them with the Member.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I understand the issue of physical limitations; however, planning is fundamental. My question is: what, if any, work plan progress has been done under the Voices on Housing Survey? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Voices on Housing Survey was a phenomenal success, with 1,500 responses throughout the territories. Every community actually provided responses to it, which shows the need for housing. I take this issue very seriously. Housing is a basic need.
It is one of the critical things that we need before people can move forward and do other things for self-development and wellness. I focused the whole summer, actually, on meeting with the Housing Corporation every two weeks, and we hashed out policies constantly. We have quite a few policies that are coming forward based on this survey.
I will be doing a Minister's statement on that, specifically on the housing survey and the policies that we have made, but I can say that some of the policies that we will be rolling out and we will be announced in my Minister's statement. As soon as the Minister's statement is done, it will begin implementation of things such as a senior's retrofit program that can be bundled onto other services so that they can actually get more renovations to their homes. We are going to be having a fuel tank initiative to help homeowners, which will help with some of the insurance issues that communities are facing and environmental concerns. We are going to be having a new rent supplement program that is more accessible to people.
We are going to be working with some of the NGOs to support them with the rent supplement program so that they can actually provide services within a Housing First model. Policies are coming in to change so that students and people on medical travel, or medical needs, will have more access, better services to public housing.
We have a lot of policies that have been worked on. We have more to come. It is a passion of mine, and I have been working diligently, and it is really exciting to be able to provide the Minister's statement towards the end of this session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks for that response on what we can expect as we move forward. My next question: as mentioned within the survey, can we expect consultation at the regional level after the development of action plans?
I do believe in being inclusive, and so within that, when we were doing the developmental policies, it did not just come from headquarters. Within the policy developments, we have the regional departments that are actually part of that policy development team. In fact, we have LHOs, local housing organizations that were part of that policy development team, so we have tried to be as inclusive as possible.
We heard the comments from residents who were working with the service providers that are on the ground, the local housing organizations. Yes, we have been trying to be as inclusive as possible to develop these policies. We got amazing feedback from staff, from the regional departments, and from the local housing organizations on how excited they are that we are moving towards this new initiative.
Thanks for the response, Minister. As we all know, there are federal engagements, federal announcements made on the infrastructure dollars on the National Housing Strategy. Is the department working towards securing resources from that national strategy initiative?
To address the needs of housing is not only a Government of the Northwest Territories issue. It is not only a homeowner or a residents issue. It is a bigger issue. It belongs that all governments, including municipalities, including the federal government need to have help within this to be able to deal with that, so, yes, we have been actively engaging with the federal government to access housing supports. In fact, we have secured a deal with the federal government that we would have a Northern Territory strategy that would provide assistance only to the Territories. That has already been released.
There was a $300 million subsidy to two of the three territories, specifically to address our needs. We have been advocating more when the National Housing Strategy will be released, we are hoping in November, and once it is released you will see that there have been more supports provided to the northern territories. So, yes, we have been actively lobbying the federal government for supports for housing in the Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On the issue of the access to that capital as mentioned, will the Minister seriously look at entertaining a proposal submitted by the community of Tulita to construct a seniors' complex? There is no seniors' complex within that community, and I've received numerous phone calls. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Until the details of the National Housing Program are released by the federal government, I can't actually say exactly what funding is coming within that strategy. However, what I can say is that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation does see a huge need for seniors' accommodations, and so we will be focusing within the next fiscal year on doing a total research project on how many seniors are out there in need of public housing, what specifically are their needs, and within that we will be developing a seniors programs that specifically are tailored towards meeting the needs of seniors and elders within the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Since the middle of June the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre has been closed. The numbers tell the client service story: 725 visitors served in July of this year versus 3,018 the previous year. The City of Yellowknife is stepping in on a temporary basis until March 2018, but what's the plan for a vigorous interim arrangement that will carry us through until a new permanent visitors' centre can be opened? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; the City of Yellowknife has stepped up and is going to have a look at doing this until the end of the aurora season this year. We are in discussions with them on moving this plan forward. Talks are going well. We want to be able to develop something and establish an appropriate model that's sustainable for the long-term delivery of visitor services in Yellowknife, and we will continue to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's great to hear that, but I'm actually learning more about what's going on through the newspaper than the regular updates from the Minister. Can he explain what support, if any, is being given to the city to temporarily deliver visitor services to March 2018 and how that compares to support that was provided to the Northern Frontier Visitors' Association?
I can tell the Member that we are continuing with the support that we gave the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre. The same allocation is going to the City of Yellowknife in the interim moving forward, so whatever funding was not used up by the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre in this fiscal year, the remaining amount will be going to the City of Yellowknife.
Thanks to the Minister for that. No increase, but I guess status quo in terms of supporting this booming industry here in Yellowknife.
We've known for at least six months that the visitors' centre was likely going to close; the museum desk was a stopgap measure, but what is the long-term solution here? I would like to hear from the Minister on what that long-term solution to support tourism in Yellowknife is from his perspective.
Like I said, we're working with the City of Yellowknife and their officials to have an appropriate sustainable model for the long-term tourism delivery services in the City of Yellowknife. These discussions will be ongoing, and we will continue to review this process going forward, as well as the fiscal capacity that we have. We have spent millions of dollars on tourism in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to do so right across the territory.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for the commitment of millions of dollars across the Northwest Territories. I pointed out that there are three visitors' centres elsewhere that were created with our funds, GNWT funds, including work like leasehold improvements in Dawson City, $1.8 million in construction costs, but what's being done here in Yellowknife?
Doesn't Yellowknife deserve at least equal treatment for a year-round operation? Will the Minister begin work now to commit a proportionally equivalent amount of money to the construction of a permanent visitors' information centre here in Yellowknife? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
This isn't about just cutting up the pie to make it equal for everybody in the Northwest Territories. Tourism is a growing market in the Northwest Territories; we're using it as one of the main factors of diversifying our economy.
We have spent money all over the place trying to support the industry, not just in Yellowknife, which gets a significant amount of visitors. We are trying to spread it out across the territory to make our great land more accessible and more enjoyable for all tourism participants who come to the NWT.
We have community tourism coordinators, Aboriginal tourism, a championship program, community tourism infrastructure contribution programs, and we have the tourism diversification and marketing program. This money is spent right across the territory.
In conjunction, we work very closely with NWT Tourism on how to support this industry across the NWT. We will continue to work with the City of Yellowknife on this approach that will make it the best possible approach at the City of Yellowknife as they try to develop their tourism and develop their marketing program moving forward, and we will work closely with them and we will continue to inform the house on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to my Member's statement, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister: has the Minister been aware of the service and transportation needs of patients and clients of the Tsiigehtchic Health Centre or similar needs at health centres in other smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I would like to thank the Member for bringing this particular issue to my attention.
I agree with the Member's statement and his concerns around liability of staff using their own vehicles, and the need for staff to have the resources they need in order to provide the high-quality services that the staff in Tsiigehtchic currently provide.
When we're done here today, Mr. Speaker, I am going to have a conversation with the department and get them to work with the NWT Health and Social Services Authority to review the need for a vehicle in the community of Tsiigehtchic in light of issues raised such as liability and other concerns. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That took care of my next two questions so I'll just ask my last one here: will the Minister ensure that the community gets a vehicle to continue providing these essential services in Tsiigehtchic?
I believe there is a policy that dictates when a vehicle might be appropriate, but in light of the current concerns raised by the Member, specifically around liability of them using their own vehicles, this is something we do need to look at. For purchasing vehicles, we do have to go through a capital process, so we would have to build a business case and it would have to compete against all other capital asks.
I am going to take a look at it. I am going to have the department work with the authority to see what if anything could be done to make sure that our staff in Tsiigehtchic can continue to provide the high quality services without taking any additional liability risk or any other risks.
Can the Minister ensure that the department could look through their surplus vehicles, possibly in Inuvik? I'm sure they have a number of vehicles available that they can bring to the community of Tsiigehtchic to bridge this gap.
