Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As I said in my statement, the closure of the Elders Circle adult day program is clearly not temporary. The service provider has no plans to restart it because they cannot afford to do so. My question is: what is the Minister going to do to get an adult day program up and running in Yellowknife? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity to meet with the board of Avens earlier in September, and it was clear to me at that meeting that they are very passionate about the programs and services that they provide. There is certainly an interest in doing a day program, but at this point in time, they indicated that they want to focus on the delivery of core services that they are providing so that they can continue to provide an incredibly high level of services to their residents. Right now, given some of the financial pressures, they had to make some hard choices, and they are focused on their clients.
They have indicated to me that at some point, obviously, they would like to move forward with a day program, but their first priority has to be their core services. They have indicated to me that when they do explore the possibility of establishing a day program, they are certainly going to use the report that was done in cooperation between the Department of Health and Social Services and Avens at the foundation for moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister had his official study the Elders Circle program at Avens' request, and I believe that a report was produced by territorial staff and shared with Avens in the summer. When is the Minister going to make this report available to the Standing Committee on Social Development and to the public?
The Member has described the process. She did not get it exactly right. In fact, the Department of Health and Social Services collaborated with the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services authority and Avens staff to conduct a review of the previous day program; so it is a joint report that was prepared.
We did provide that final copy to the board, who has had an opportunity to review it, and they have indicated that they are comfortable with us sharing this document. It is a shared document. I was not comfortable releasing it without their support. They have indicated their support, and I will be sharing it with Members this week.
I appreciate the Minister's willingness to share that report. The report, I gather, sets out what is required for a quality and safe program for elders in Yellowknife. My question is: how is the Minister going to provide that? Does it all depend on Avens, or is he going to put out an RFP so that other non-profits can bid on it?
Our first priority is to work with Avens because they have been a highquality provider of services in the past, and in many ways, they still are. They are providing highquality core services to their residents. When Avens does consider re-establishing the program once their finances are in order, they were hoping to use or they, rather, intend to use the report that was provided and will be shared to help them design a safe, effective, and responsive day program. Our first priority is to work with them to see if we could find a way to get to that place. If we cannot, obviously, we will have to look at alternatives, but in the meantime, to start, we are working with Avens.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Avens was very clear that they have no plans to restart this day program. I do not understand what the delay is in the Minister finding a new service provider or a collection of service providers, how about Yellowknife Seniors and Yellowknife Day Care, to provide this day program. We cannot be held hostage. Our elders cannot be held hostage because Avens is experiencing its own financial issues. The Minister needs to be proactive in providing a day program. When is that going to happen? Mahsi.
To be clear, Avens indicated that they are not planning to reinitiate the day program at this time, but there is certainly consideration for doing it at some point. Because they have been such a valuable partner in the provision of services to seniors in Yellowknife, we are hoping to continue that relationship, but I have acknowledged that, should we not be able to do that, we will certainly look at other alternatives. Immediately, our first priority needs to be working with Avens to make sure that they are delivering and continue to deliver the highquality core programs they do, which would hopefully lead to a position where they can support day programs. They never said, Mr. Speaker, that they are never going to deliver a day program. They said at this time their priority has to be core services. That is what we are helping them do, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my Member's statement with questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Speaker, since the community initiated the evacuation to Ford Liard, does the department cover the costs incurred by the community of Nahanni Butte? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Municipal governments are actually responsible for evacuation plans. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs works with them to develop their emergency evacuation plans and also to review them. If the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs asked residents to leave because we have deemed a need for an evacuation, then we will cover the costs. If the community takes it upon themselves to ask people to leave, then it is up to the community to deal with those costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for that answer. During this situation where they evacuated, halfway through, all of a sudden the EMO committee was activated, and they actually encouraged the residents to stay in Ford Liard. With that extra day of costs, will the department be covering those costs?
Absolutely. On the second day of evacuation, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs decided that it would be better to keep the residents out of the community for an extra day. Those costs would be covered, and we have just got the municipality collecting those at this time.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I think the community will be happy to at least get some of their costs back, and I greatly appreciate it. In normal situations, Fort Simpson is the location where people get located to. Unfortunately the community, with the ferry and that, decided to go to Fort Liard. Fort Liard did a great job, but will the department be looking at getting the community of Fort Liard better prepared for future situations so that they can actually evacuate to Fort Liard instead of Fort Simpson, which has to rely on a ferry system?
Yes, after any kind of an emergency or an evacuation within a community, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does do a review of the situation to see if there are issues that we could make better. I do want to put a call out to the community of Nahanni Butte. They did an awesome job of the evacuation. It was without incident. They did a really great job. There were some things, like I say, transferring to Fort Liard when they should have gone to Fort Simpson. Those are issues that we are looking at to see if we can make their plan better for the next time - hopefully not next time.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with you. I hope it never has to happen again. Unfortunately, in my 23 years, I have seen a number of evacuations. I am hoping that you are going to be working with the Hamlet of Fort Liard so they can be better prepared. My last question is about the communication system. Unfortunately, the community used Facebook as their way of getting information out about how to evacuate, and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs used emergency bulletins and web pages to get that information. However, when the community evacuates, they are on the other side of the river. They do not have access to this information, or they cannot get this information. Will the Minister or the Department be looking at a better way of communicating so that the people can continue to do a better job at evacuating?
Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Yes, as stated earlier, any time that there is a major disaster, in this case, an evacuation, we do review all the techniques that were used, the tactics, and see if we can make them better. Some communities, I hate to say that are in better situation than others. I know market communities, they will put them on public service announcements. They have webpages. They have radio announcements
Smaller communities unfortunately do not often have that service, so sometimes it is a matter of communities actually having to go door-to-door to get people evacuated. Nahanni Butte did have cell service so that helped them. When we were bringing people back and asking them to stay longer, we actually coordinated that with the band manager who did a really great job in this case of actually communicating to the residents of Nahanni Butte, but it is something that we need to look at, and to see if there are ways that we can improve communications for residents, especially in the smaller communities where they do not have the services that market communities do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry who is leading the Resource and Energy Development and Information campaign or REDI. Can the Minister explain how REDI is supposed to build public confidence in our ability to develop resources in a responsible way? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Based on the Member's statement today and from when he was in committee last week, I think there is a disconnect from how his vision of REDI is and what our vision of REDI is. REDI is a fact-based information based on risks and potential of resource and energy development in the Northwest Territories, and that is how we are taking part in engaging the public in the NWT.
Thanks to the Minister for that response, and I guess we can agree to disagree, but somehow, I would hope that he would agree that building public confidence in our ability to manage resource development is something that we should be working towards. The REDI campaign, though, seems to be partially in response to the attempt to regulate fracking during the 17th Assembly. I could locate only two handouts or five pages on fracking and REDI materials, and there is not much discussion in there about impacts or tradeoffs.
In many other jurisdictions in Canada, they have done examinations of this issue through expert panels, independent panels, and that includes the Yukon. While we have time, would the Minister commit to an independent panel to examine and report on the issues of whether we should allow fracking in the NWT, and under what terms and conditions?
The short answer is, no. The government is going to be carrying out our Petroleum and Resource Act on oil and gas operations in the very near future. This is going to give residents of the Northwest Territories an opportunity to discuss what level of transparency they want to see in hydraulic fracturing. We will bring that forward at the time. There will probably be a number of questions around hydraulic fracturing, I believe, when we go out with this, as it was a big subject on the last Assembly. They are going to know what kind of fluids are used, or additives, and these sort of things, and transparency and confidentiality provisions, these sorts of things that are in that act, and we will be bringing those forward when we go forward, as I said, with the Petroleum Resource and Oil and Gas Act.
I look forward to that process of building confidence and trust as we move forward, but one of the biggest obstacles to ensure public confidence in our resource development decisions and to ensure timely and informed decisions is a lack of any participant or intervener funding programs. Canadians south of 60 degrees north have a right to participant funding in federal environmental assessments while we do not. Why is participant funding not part of the REDI campaign?
The Member brought this up when we were in the briefing on REDI. At that point, if I said, that these are all worthy considerations that can be considered by Members of Cabinet, and I recommended at that time that he can bring them forward in a letter to us, and we can be able to look at those initiatives moving forward, but REDI initiative is not the place to have these discussions.
Thanks again to the Minister, but I am not sure how REDI is going to make us anymore ready for resource development. As I said, REDI is clearly focused on promoting resource development, and that is a good thing, and it is something that ITI does very well. No question about that. I mentioned a number of other initiatives that would help build public confidence in our resource management decisions including: a science advisor to Cabinet; re-establishment of a round table on the environment and economy; completion of land use plans; completion of our protected areas. Why are these initiatives not part of the REDI campaign?
As I have said, I think we can agree to disagree. REDI is about a public information initiative to bring a whole government approach to all the things that relate to resource development. It is not about promoting resource development. It is about informing the general public of what concerns they can have, and have one-on-one conversations with geologists, land inspectors, water inspectors, regulators, regulatory bodies, and that is what the initiative is, to help inform the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my question is directed to the Minister of DOI, acknowledging the statements made earlier. My first question is directed to the Marine Transportation Services department. How has MTS addressed the environmental issues within the properties purchased? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have addressed environmental issues in the short time that we have had this. Moving forward, we have identified and secured a number of habits that are just waste on our property, particularly in Hay River, and we are in the process of moving that from the shipyard. We are developing a plan to get rid of the scrap metal in the coming years. As many people know, the amount of derelict ships and boats that are in the Hay River shipyard that will have to be cut up, and removed, and abated. We are also in the process of doing our environment assessments on all our properties that came with the purchase of MTS.
Thanks to the Minister for that question of clarity on the disposal action plan. My next question is, did MTS generate any revenue other than through the community resupply?
Yes, we did. We had some contract work this year with a number of our vessels, and we went out and did that. We also did some maintenance work at the shipyard on the Canadian coast guard vessels that were stationed out of Hay River, and got them under way for their sailing season. We also did some work on some third party vessels in the Hay River shipyard.
Considering the third party revenues that came into this newly acquired division, did we make any money?
At the appropriate time, we will be bringing forward the business plan for the past sailing season, the lessons learned. Once the sailing season is totally concluded and wrapped up, we will be able to bring that information forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is more of a comment. I look forward to the upcoming business plans you are scheduled for November so I will reserve that fourth question at that time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I talked a bit about aging in place and some of the numbers around that. I would like to ask the Minister if she would commit to completing planning for aging in place prior to winter roads so that the process of allowing seniors to age in place can begin this summer. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
