Mr. Speaker, when an individual is staying at one of our boarding homes, the transportation is included in the boarding home contract, so they are compensated for providing that transportation. Transportation is intended or supposed to be provided to and from the airport, but also to and from appointments. If the Member has some specific incidents he would like to raise, I would certainly like to hear those to see how often that is happening. Maybe it is something that we need to look a little bit more deeply at.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I will follow up with him with the specific concerns residents have talked to me about. Like most places, food is usually an issue for some. The concern isn’t about the quality; it is about the traditional food. How does the department ensure the boarding room has access to traditional food that can be provided to the patient? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, once again, the boarding homes are contracted to provide particular services: room, board, transportation. The boarding homes do try to have traditional food on the menu when that food is made available to them. In Yellowknife and Edmonton, by way of example, the boarding homes are run by Aboriginal beneficiary organizations, and I do know that they make an effort to provide traditional food and traditional menus. However, they are limited by budget and supplies not always there. As a result, they can’t always provide these menus on a regular basis, but I do know that they want to and they try as best they can.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. It does clear up a little bit of concerns out there so I am able to share that with my constituents. Mr. Speaker, due to appointments and flight schedules, patients sometimes miss meals. How does the department ensure that the patients are fed? Do they get a food allowance to cover this additional cost that is put onto them, because the flights are not? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, once again, if an individual is staying at a boarding home, meals are intended to be provided. However, if they are arriving late or they have experienced delays, light food is supposed to be available for them, so not a full meal but something that they can eat when they get there. This can include things like sandwiches, fruit, juice, cookies – we all like cookies – coffee, and tea, should they miss one of their regular meals. If they are in transit and they are late or they are travelling over what would be a normal meal time, they can claim up to $18 a day to offset some of the costs of buying food. If a patient experiences a delay due to circumstances such as weather, I do understand the medical travel end is willing and able to provide some reimbursement for meals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we know that earlier in September, the Minister of Finance made a commitment that he would be instructing his officials to undertake a review of the liquor regulations to make them more transparent and more relevant. This is good news; we have a huge, growing tourism-based economy that – you know, I think it is time to do this. My question to the Minister is: can the Minister provide this Assembly with an update on what he intends to do with this review? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have asked the official of the department to review the existing board processes and policies of the NWT Liquor Act regulations. In addition, the department will be reaching out to stakeholders as to how to modernize the board enforcement and decision-making processes to ensure they are transparent and fair. We plan on having the work completed for review by the next fiscal year. We do, however, plan on implementing the changes that we can make in the interim. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for the update. Mr. Speaker, I have said before that reviewing policy and changing it is a good, productive step, but often policy and regs are only as good as those who adMinister them. I wonder, can the Minister let us know what he actually hopes to accomplish with this review?
Mr. Speaker, the plan is that the review should somewhat modernize the sale and licensing of alcohol in the NWT and provide the NWT Liquor Licensing Board with the necessary tools to do their jobs in a fair and transparent manner, as well as addressing concerns raised by licensees.
That also is good news. I am happy to hear that from the Minister, and providing good tools will be welcomed. I would like to get down to something a little bit more specific, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister is aware, my constituency is home of the NWT Brewing Company. It is the only liquor manufacturer in the NWT, and they have frankly been denied the ability to deliver their product directly to licensees. This decision has made the cost of the NWT Brewing Company’s product economically unviable for local bars and restaurants to access. Can the Minister tell me what he is doing to address this issue?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we thought that the existing liquor regulations had enough leeway to allow for the sale of beer by the NWT Brewing Company directly to licensees. The board, as an independent quasi-judicial body, did not agree with that interpretation of the regulations and would not allow direct sales. To be fair, Mr. Speaker, the board can only make decisions using the existing legislation and regulations. If they are out of date and no longer relevant, it falls on us to change them. I have directed the department to draft regulations that allow for the sale of NWT Brewing products directly to licensees, without having to go through NWT liquor warehouses and paying the handling fees.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and cheers to that. This is great news, Mr. Speaker, and will be well-appreciated by many – by all, in fact. Certainly, I might find myself at the brew pub later today celebrating. Just to that, as well, if I can just get additional clarification: can the Minister inform this House when the Brewing Company can expect these regulations to be in place so that they can sell their products directly to licensees? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I expect the regulation will be in place by the end of October, and the NWT Brewing Company will be able to begin deliveries if I am in a position to sign the regulation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Laughter
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope I get as good answers as our last round of questions. The funding for the NGO Stabilization Fund has not increased in the last seven years. It is also oversubscribed by about three-quarters of $1 million. During the same time period, the NWT inflation rate has increased by an average of about 2 per cent per year. Will the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs commit to working with their Cabinet colleagues to put additional funding to support NGOs into this fund, and support NGOs in delivering services and their core functions? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a Minister, I work with all of Cabinet, actually, to put forward our needs for finances. As stated earlier by me many times, actually, is that every department and Minister sitting here would like to have more money. The reality is that we do have to live within a fiscally-responsible environment considering the economy and, therefore, I do put my concerns forward. Unfortunately, the money tree is not as deep as I wish it would be. I can only cut off so many branches before the tree dies. So I do put forward my needs as every other Minister does, but we are all trying to be fiscally responsible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for the gardening lesson but I would like to really get at this. This issue, this fund, has been called on to be supported for many years. Nothing is going on. Can the Minister comment on why this government is persistent in disregarding the concerns of the Standing Committee on government operations, and continues to fail to respond to our recommendations?
It is important to note that this, the NGO Stabilization Fund, is not the only funding available to non-profit organizations within the communities. As a non-profit administrator for many years, this was actually supplementary funding. This was not the core funding that we received, so it is supplementary funding. it is about a state of pride and stabilization funding to non-government organizations that provide a critical service for the Government of the Northwest Territories that if we didn’t have them, we would have to provide those services ourselves.
The Minister has revealed some information that I said this morning in my Member’s statement, and has failed to answer the question why the standing committee’s concerns and recommendations are not being addressed. I would like to ask the Minister how this program that is currently housed in sport and recreation is supporting volunteerism in the Northwest Territories.
This program, as stated earlier, is about helping stabilize non-government organizations that provide a critical service that the Government of the Northwest Territories would have to provide if it wasn’t in effect. It does support volunteerism in that the majority of non-government organizations are managed by volunteer boards, which is actually part of their society’s act. So it is something that does support volunteerism to the heart and to the core.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has laid out what this fund does quite well and I agree with her 100 per cent. The core funding NGOs receive from other sources are used for their core delivery of programs and services. This stuff is for other things to help stabilize their operations. They don’t have to dip into those resources, so if the Minister is not going to put more money into it; the Minister is not going to encourage it be moved out of MACA; the Minister is going to continue to ignore the recommendations to the standing committee; will she at the very least adjust the fund so it rises with inflation and keeps pace with the growing cost of living in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, this fund is not meant to provide core funding. This fund is meant to provide stabilization to non-government organizations so that they can provide critical services for the Government of the Northwest Territories. There are requirements that are application-based. I would like to say that we wish that we could give to everyone. There are requirements though, etc. such as societies that apply for this fund have to be current. Those are some of the guidelines that we have. I will adhere to those guidelines because it is important.
As stated earlier, I wish I had billions of dollars, Mr. Speaker, because if I had billions of dollars, we would not have food poverty. We would not have housing issues. We would have roads to every community. We would have schools and we would have proper health centres and legal services. The reality is that we are all living within a fiscally responsible environment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement, I talked about the alcohol impacts of small communities. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what is the department doing to address mental health and addiction issues in small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s a fairly broad question but I’ll do my best to stick to youth and younger people as the Member’s statement focused in what I thought was mostly about youth. We are coming forward. We have just tabled more recently the Youth and Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan which articulates and outlines a number of things that we need to do as a government and as an Assembly to support our youth who are struggling with either mental health issues or addictions issues.
One of the key things that we’re looking to do is providing some quality counselling supports to our youth. Traditionally, a lot of this has been done in the school system. We’re looking at a new way of doing this with community counsellors that are working in schools but also are year-round employees rather than seasonal or school-based employees. It’s pretty exciting work. I think by working together, we could really make a difference in people’s lives.
In the Member’s statement, he talked about the healthy family programs. I think it’s really important to recognize that a child’s development starts long before birth and that we need to continue to do things to help families be healthy, help families be strong in raising their children. We have healthy family programs in 17 communities in the Northwest Territories providing high-quality programming to help expectant parents be ready for their child’s birth to make sure that they’re in a strong position that they’re living healthy lives and that they’re in a position to provide supports to their children.
There are a large number of things we are doing between the action plan, the child and family committees, as well as treatment option counselling and everything else that’s available to residents. I would strongly encourage the member to encourage youth in his community, youth around the Northwest Territories to take advantage of the help lines, the Facebook pages we have to provide support, and to talk about these issues that people are facing. We need to not be silent about the challenges people are facing, whether it’s mental health or addictions. We need to be working to get the message out there. I applaud the Member for his statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
A very good answer, Mr. Speaker. Where can the people, I guess in general and I don’t expect the Minister to know specifically which place to go to in the small communities, but in general where can the individuals that are struggling with alcohol or struggling with mental health turn to when they’re trying to address their issues in the small communities?
Mr. Speaker, there are a number of places. They can go to community counsellors. The Member will point out that there isn’t a community counsellor in every community in the Northwest Territories, but we have them in most communities in the Northwest Territories. Where they don’t exist, they can be reached by telephone. Those numbers are usually available at the community level in the community health stations or other places, so please encourage your youth to look at those.
As we move forward with the new community counsellor program, I think there’s a real opportunity to enhance what’s available to our young people whether they’re in school or not in school. We can’t forget technology, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our youth are very adept, more so than some of us, at utilizing technology which is why we’ve opened up and done some work around having some Facebook pages available where there can be some group sessions, individual sessions. They can work with client leads to help them identify what programs might be available with them, both at a local, regional, and territorial level. Between that and the help lines, there are some things that young people can engage in directly right from their homes right away.
Mr. Speaker, changing gears just a bit. I’d like to ask the Minister if the department has been able to determine the cost of alcohol to the health system in the NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the years there have been some suggestions on what the cost of alcohol is on the system. I think the Member has actually shared some numbers that he had with me. I can’t remember what those numbers are at this time, but I will go back and see what we can provide as far as what those numbers are. I might have to look at Hansard because I think the Member might have actually used those numbers at a previous date and once upon a time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, early this month, the federal government committed to providing $204 million to support First Nations and Inuit communities to improve mental health services. I’d like to ask the Minister if his department is up to speed on that and if they are going to be accessing any of that money over and above what’s coming directly to the GNWT from the federal government. It seems to be a special type of an announcement aside from that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, any time the federal government announces a pot of money that’s available to support youth and mental health, addictions or frankly any pot the government identifies that might be available to the Northwest Territories, we as Cabinet, we as Members obviously look into that to figure out what is available to the Northwest Territories. I can’t speak to exactly what is available to us today or what mechanism there exists for us to actually obtain some of those funds. I do know that I think it was the year before the last the federal government did announce a $69 million pot to help combat addictions and suicide across this country. Of that amount, $2.5 million was allocated for the Northwest Territories. Half of that went to the IRC. The other half is flowing through the Government of the Northwest Territories to communities for on-the-land programming. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. The Premier, I believe, was in Ottawa yesterday and maybe even this morning. I want to welcome him back. I’d also like to use this opportunity to get an update of what was discussed and any outcomes at the first Minister’s conference. Can the premier provide us with a brief summary of the main issues discussed and any outcomes? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity to attend the swearing-in of the new Governor General of Canada and I was honoured to be invited. It was a very impressive ceremony and we have a very impressive new Governor General. I also attended a meeting of the consult of federal Premiers and attended a First Ministers' Meeting hosted by the Prime Minister of Canada with the three national Indigenous government leaders and the Premiers of all the provinces and territories. Then we moved into a First Ministers' Meeting with just the Prime Minister and the premiers. The agenda for the first Ministers is obviously set by the Prime Minister. We had briefings on by the governor of the bank of Canada on the state of the economy and also by his statistician who went into more detail. We had an update on NAFTA negotiations. We had an update on small business tax, an initiative of the federal government. We also discussed cannabis and then we had a very short period left for a round table discussion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Premier for that list of what he did in Ottawa. It was very thorough and I appreciate that very much. I guess I’m most interested in the First Ministers' conference. Can the Premier tell us as he did mention that cannabis was on the list of topics discussed. I’m wondering if carbon pricing was also discussed. Can he tell us what sort of positions were put forward and whether there was any resolution of these issues at the First Ministers’ conference.
