Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a follow-up to my Member's statement. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, what support and resources can the Department of Health and Social Services offer to communities seeking to establish safe houses for women and children experiencing family violence? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services currently contributes about $2.55 million to family violence shelters across the Northwest Territories. In addition, we make an additional $200,000 available to help individuals who are in communities where there are no shelters with transport or to get themselves to communities where there are shelters.
In light of the Member's question, I have also taken the additional step of directing the Department of Health and Social Services to work closely with the Department of Infrastructure to explore some of the different federal infrastructure pots that have been identified and announced to see if any of those are dollars we might be able to use to support family violence shelters across the Northwest Territories moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister already answered my second question, so I'll ask the third. Mr. Speaker, if a woman needs to leave a violent partner and an unsafe home but there is no local safe house or shelter and no resident RCMP officer, what resources are available for her?
As I indicated, we do have money in our budget to actually support individuals to get to communities where there are some family violence shelters, but also recognizing that the last thing we want to do is having individuals who are fleeing family violence end up homeless. I have had a number of conversations with the Minister responsible for Homelessness about how we can incorporate this particular issue into our work on homelessness here in the Northwest Territories to see what we can do to support individuals who are fleeing family violence.
Mr. Speaker, there is currently a territorial Family Violence Shelter Network which is made up of the different family violence shelters in the Northwest Territories. I would strongly encourage the Member to talk to his community and have his community get in touch with that family Violence Network to see how they can work together to support those individuals who are fleeing family violence at a community level.
I have directed the department, and on September 18th staff from the department did meet with that network to begin the conversations of a formula funding arrangement to fund these shelters so that we can make sure to get the appropriate dollars to provide the valuable services that they do.
I think there's a good opportunity here for the community at a community level to work with that network to make sure that we're addressing the problem holistically rather than fragmented and individualized. I think there is great opportunity here, Mr. Speaker.
What kind of response can a family expect when calling for these services, especially on weekends?
As we've moved forward with the single system here in the Northwest Territories, we're focused on providing customer or client services that meet the needs of our residents. I would strongly encourage that the Member have individuals who are facing these challenges get in touch with social services who will hopefully be able to provide them with the guidance to help them get to family violence shelters around the Northwest Territories
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentioned that they are awaiting federal funding to see if there is anything that will fit these situations here. Can the Minister, in the near future, expect to have family violence shelters like a safe house in our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The first step is obviously for the Department of Health and Social Services to work with Infrastructure to review the different pots that have been made available by the federal government to see what, if anything, fits nicely that we can actually use towards this end.
Also, as I have already indicated, we are working with the NWT Housing Corporation and the Minister responsible for Homelessness to make sure that we have opportunities or places where individuals could go when fleeing family violence. We do not know what pots necessarily might be able to cover this, but as this work gets done, I will certainly share the results with the Member and committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today the honourable Member from Nahendeh talked about the fine work the Standing Committee on Social Development has done on the foundational review, and it makes me reconsider some of the Education Minister's comments from last week.
I wonder if he can answer this for me: what does he think the role of the standing committee is? From his statement, he seems to not address the fact that they are working on his timelines to provide the required advice. Further, he has gone on record saying that there was little agreement on what to do with the teacher education program and social work program. There was plenty of agreement on this side of the House: preserve the program and make it work. What is the role of the standing committee in this process, Mr. Speaker? Is it to blame it for delays, or is it to actually work with it to get results? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, there have been some delays in the correspondence back and forth, but we take all of committee's recommendations and suggestions seriously, and we do want to work with all Members in this Legislative Assembly. It is not us versus them. We should all be working together in the best interests of our residents, in the best interests of our students, and of the people that put us in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We are trying to work with the Minister on this process. Everyone on this side of the House, when we get surprises like eliminating the Aurora College board, with delaying a mandate commitment that has been a mandate commitment from day one, there is a bit of consternation on this side of the House. The mandate makes a commitment, again from day one, to have a renewed strategic plan, some sort of plan for Aurora College. Will that work be done by the end of this term?
As I mentioned, we are going to get this foundational review. We set a timeline for March 31, 2018, and from that review, we are going to create a departmental response. We are going to share it with committee, we are going to share it with all Members of this Legislative Assembly, and as I mentioned, we are going to be working on a strategic plan going forward for the next 10, 20 years.
I think the students expect more than just a plan. They want these programs to be retained, and also our own Skills 4 Success document wants these programs to be retained and effective. We need change now, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask if this contractor the Minister has hired has any experience with transforming educational institutions towards vocational skills, like taking a community college and turning it into a polytechnic or an institution of higher learning. Does this contractor have any experience with that, or are we just looking at an accounting review?
As I mentioned earlier, as a government and as a department, we do support our students, whether they decided to get their education here in the Northwest Territories or outside the Northwest Territories. We want to make sure that all our students who are taking post-secondary education have that opportunity to succeed, and we are going to continue and commit to making sure that our students have that opportunity.
As we were discussing with our contractors, we are going to be working very closely with them. They will be working very closely with the college to ensure that, when the review is done, it is going to be something that is going to be in the best interests of not only the government, but our partners that we work with and residents of the Northwest Territories, to ensure that we have the best programs and best services in place to make sure that our students succeed. After all, it is about the students. It is about our residents.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is pretty clear it is question period, not answer period, because again, the Minister is not providing answers. My final question: I am going to ask if the Minister could take responsibility for these delays personally and back off the approach he took last week of blaming the standing committee for holding up the process. Will the Minister personally take responsibility for these delays and acknowledge that this work has been delayed since day one? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is a consensus government. We all have input into this in working together. If the committee has concerns, we can sit down and we can share some of these e-mails back and forth. If the Members of committee are concerned, we can also table some of our back-and-forth discussions just to make sure that the public understands the process of how we have been going about this foundational review and the timelines that we are trying to make and set. As I mentioned, this is consensus government. We all have a role to play in the decisions that are made in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned in my Member's statement, my question is to the Minister of Lands. On the issue of a lands integrated risk-based strategy and land framework planning, advancing our progress in the Land Administration Regulatory Forum, what action plans have the department developed in preparation for engagement with all stakeholders? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government believes that regional land use plans are the primary instrument to define where certain activities can take place in a specific region or area, and the Member opposite will know that that is a commitment of this government, to attempt to advance that in collaboration with our Aboriginal governments and, in some cases, in collaboration with the federal government. We are attempting to advance land use planning. In some areas, there are defined land use plans that are legally binding. There has been progress; progress is slow, and we are still working on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That leads me to my next question on settled claim areas. Are there joint planning meetings for the settled claim areas? Let us take the Sahtu for example. We have a settlement claim there with changes or proposed changes on the land regime. Are there regional planning workshops coming up in the near future or within the next 12 months?
I know that the government has approved contribution for land use capacity in the last several years: in 2017-2018, it was $375,000; in 2016-2017, $427,000; and in 2015-2016, $459,000. There is a commitment backed up with actual financial contribution to advance regional land claims.
Now, I do know also that the Department of Lands held its third annual Land Use Planning Forum in March 2017 to share information and perspective. We are committing both personnel and finances to this important subject.
Of those resources mentioned and the time frame mentioned, could the Minister elaborate a little bit more on what is being proposed as far as having a land workshop in the Sahtu, dates and times and places?
I am uncertain as to what the next steps will be in the Sahtu region, but I can check into that and get back to the Member opposite.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is more of a comment. I look forward to that information, and if the Minister could agree with providing that before the cancellation of this session. Thank you.
I will take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week the honourable Member for Deh Cho asked the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment a series of questions about the Small Community Employment Support Program. I would like to follow up with some questions here today. Mr. Speaker, last session, the Minister said the department was reaching out to various organizations and business communities to see how the Small Community Employment Support Program could be improved. During the budget session, I made the recommendation that we use the new influx of money to do that as job creation because most of the communities I represent cannot afford the percentage points that they need to access the program. Can the Minister please tell us when the survey and study was completed and if the report has been done on the findings? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned last week, the new influx of dollars into the Small Community Employment Support Program came into effect April 1st. We are about six months into this fiscal year, and we are still looking at how we can support our communities, support our partners so that we can utilize this program. I think it is a little too early on in this fiscal year to have any of that information, but I will make sure that our departments continue to work with our partners, our communities, to make sure that these dollars are being utilized to their full capacity.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I will take his word that there is no report there, then. However, during the exchange with the Minister and the honourable Member for Deh Cho, we heard that previous funding which was allocated for small communities was not fully utilized. We made a significant increase, influx, of money to the program so that we could create employment and small programs. During the exchange, we heard the department is looking at communities such as Behchoko, Hay River, Inuvik, Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, and Norman Wells to be allocated to apply for these funds. Can the Minister advise how these communities became "small communities?"
As a government, we have a responsibility to ensure that all residents, all communities, in the Northwest Territories have an opportunity to access our programs, our services. Because of population sizes, we should not be discriminating or leaving people out. That program, back in the previous years, was not fully utilized. It was about $1.24 million. We are trying to find ways, innovative and unique ways, to ensure that our communities, our partners in our smallest communities, have that opportunity to have job creation. However, as the government, I do not think that any community, regardless of size, should not be looked at as an opportunity to create jobs in their community. That is one of our mandates, is to create employment throughout the Northwest Territories.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess my next question to the Minister is: are we going to allow Yellowknife to apply for small community employment funds?
When the new dollars came out, we made some changes within the program, itself, so that we can help all communities. As Members know, the economy has taken a downturn. In some of our regional centres, we have fewer jobs, fewer opportunities, and we want to help every community to be able to create some kind of economy, as well as create jobs in some of these communities. That is our goal. That is our focus. We are going to continue to do that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess my next question is: are we going to change this program, instead of calling it Small Community Employment Support Program, to "job creation" or "job support program for the Northwest Territories?" Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We are going to continue to stay focused on the Small Community Employment Support Program. As you know, this money came at the last budget. We are going to focus on making sure that those dollars get spent. We are going to take a review after this year on how the funding was allocated and spent this year and whether or not we fully utilized that budget, and we will make some recommendations in the next fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Members. I call Committee of the Whole to order. Mr. Beaulieu, what is the wish of committee?
Marci cho, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 41618(2), Capital Estimates, 20182019 with general comments, the Legislative Assembly, the Departments of Municipal and Community Affairs, Lands, Environment and Natural Resources, and Finance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. We will continue after a short recess. Thank you.
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