Mr. Speaker, during the capital budgeting process, the Minister of Finance did indicate that we would be working together to see if there are any opportunities to provide some funding in this area, especially if the federal government was going to come to the table in support of family violence shelters. We are going to work together to see what opportunities exist and, as we have more information, we are happy to share that with Members.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Lands, who has some responsibility for mining financial security. There are some positions shown on the organizational charts for the Securities and Project Assessment Division of the Department of Lands. Can the Minister give us a brief overview of the work under way within this division to develop a new closure and reclamation regime for mining in the Northwest Territories, including financial securities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Securities and Project Assessment Division is providing input to the Department of Lands as we go forward with our updates to the Territorial Lands Act and the Commissioner's Land Act. The department will begin reviewing regulations relating to securities and other matters within the next few months. Apart from that, I can advise that the government and resource management boards who share responsibility for many aspects in this area, particularly financial securities, are working together to develop a guideline for closure and reclamation cost estimates for mines. I understand that document is expected to be released as a joint GNWT Lands and Water Board document in early 2018. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Minister for that response. I think it doesn't really quite jibe with what he said on October 5th when he said, "We know the present system is working quite well." Earlier in my statement, I described the financial security mess involving a promissory note created against the closure and reclamation costs of the Mactung and Cantung properties. Can the Minister update us on the costs at work to property reclaim of Mactung and Cantung?
Canada accepted responsibility for the Cantung site in November of 2015. Care and maintenance at the site continues to be monitored by the court-appointed receiver, for the North American Tungsten. The Government of Canada is bearing the costs of that work. The GNWT no longer exercises delegated authorities at the site under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. This means that it is Canada, not the GNWT, who is responsible for the decisions and water licences and inspections of any water licences or land use permits.
The final step to be completed in this exercise is the relinquishment of the site to Canada, and most parties are working closely to complete the legal steps necessary to transfer the land back to Canada, as it is their responsibility. With respect to the Mactung ITI is the department lead on that project and they are working closely to ENR to remove and dispose of debris from the site.
I appreciate the answer from the Minister. It is clear he did his homework and I gave him a heads up, so I appreciate the detailed response. As part of our mandate, we agreed to "develop an integrated comprehensive approach to the management of contaminated sites including prioritizing, sharing of responsibility in collaboration with other governments, monitoring, and a sound financial security system to prevent public liabilities."
This item was not changed during the recent revisions. What lessons have we learned from the Mactung and Cantung messes and how will this government apply them to achieve the mandate commitment and prevent further public liabilities?
I do appreciate the heads up the Member opposite gave me on this fairly complex issue. He referenced my statement of October 5th. Obviously, we can still improve and do need to improve. I do acknowledge that.
We have learned lessons through the exercise of our post-devolution responsibilities. There have been problems with the type of security that we have accepted in the past. I believe there was an unsecured promissory note that is not worth the paper it's written on, so we have learned that we should take more real security. Clearly, you must have real security. An unsecured promissory note is worth very little. We are taking a whole-government approach, if I can put it that way, to resolve this matter and provide the type of security we do need for these projects.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Again, thanks to the Minister. I'm glad to hear him say that promissory notes are not good. What he should be looking at is something called an irrevocable letter of credit from a charter bank. That's what you want. I'm helping him out with his homework here, but public consultations are under way on a new Mineral Resources Act. The words "financial security" are nowhere to be found in the discussion paper and the word "abandonment" appears once in the table.
The discussion on rehabilitation closure takes up three paragraphs and four questions with no analysis or options presented. Was the Lands Department involved in putting the Mineral Resources Act discussion paper together? If so, how did it attempt to ensure that the mandate commitment on prevention of future public liabilities is achieved through the Mineral Resources Act? Masi, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Clearly an irrevocable letter of credit is far better than a promissory note. The promissory note was actually inherited though from the federal government. That was not something of our doing.
ITI, of course, is leading the development on the proposed Mineral Resources Act. We are in the middle of a public engagement until December of 2017. We will be working with ITI on any topics that might arise as a result of this public engagement. As well, Lands will work with ITI on the process as the current mining regulations are held within the Northwest Territories Lands Act. We are working with other departments in this important area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement I talked about mental illness and suicides in my region. My questions are to follow up to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Has there been any outreach to education institutions specializing in Health and Social Services programs for recommendations or potential training for healthcare professionals and residents of the GNWT aside from what we do presently? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, we do have a relationship with Aurora College and they do provide important training, things like resident care aid training and nursing, but I think the Member is asking about some of the other things that we are exploring. I did have an opportunity to meet with the Dean of Effective Medicine at the University of Alberta to talk about potential opportunities for us to work together in bringing physicians up for residency placements, but also the possibility of having some dental hygienists come up for some practicum placements. We are looking to having those types of relationships with institutions to see what opportunities exist and to see how we can benefit our residents here in the Northwest Territories.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess my concern is regarding the mental health and mental wellness of our individuals, and I have to applaud the department and the staff who are there helping us. However, is the department looking at mental health resources like telepsychology and looking into for remote, small communities? Right now we do not have staff in there, so are we able to be looking at some of these options?
Mr. Speaker, the use of telepsychiatry is already in place in the Northwest Territories. The telehealth support unit may be able to provide those types of services directly to individuals or indirectly to communities based on supports and resources that are required to support individual people. However, I do want to caution that often that would be for follow-up appointments and those types of things. Initial appointments, I believe, and I think many people believe that some of that needs to be done person-to-person, psychiatrist or counsellor with an individual, so that they can start to develop a rapport and a relationship, so there still is a requirement to try to facilitate some face-to-face, but, as follow-up appointments, we do have the ability to use our telehealth and other tools that are available.
I again thank the Minister for his answer. I guess my concern is small communities that do not have staffing there, and that is something that we need to look into. Mr. Speaker, having a database upon which ministry program outcomes could be monitored would give us a better idea of what kind of programs are working for our residents. Does the Department of Health and Social Services currently have one in place? If it does not, does the department intend to look into implementing one?
The department is continuously enhancing and looking for ways to enhance efforts to ensure that we have administrative databases that allow us to monitor program outcomes. We do have the electronic medical records as well as the new Child and Family Services information system that went live last week. With electronic medical records, we have not got it into every community yet, but we are rolling it out, and we are intending to have that done shortly. Those tools will help us collect data that will help this Assembly as well as the department make evidence-based decisions about what is actually happening out there. We also have 32 indicators that we track on a regular basis and compile data on so that we can monitor the effects and the results of the services that are being provided, so there are a lot of things that we are using to collect data at this point.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Quyanainni, Mr. Speaker, and I again thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, what measures are being taken to ensure that programs delivered by Health and Social Services in all communities are done correctly and adhere to all policies and procedures?
Mr. Speaker, the department publicly reports on outcomes through our public performance measurement report which comes out annually. Public reporting of performance indicators and results basically allows for an open and transparent assessment of the effectiveness of the health and social services system as well as our programs. Both in 2015 as well as in 2016, the public performance measurement report included over two dozen indicators covering a wide range of topics related to health and wellness. These are the types of things that we are going to continue to report on so that we can show progress or lack thereof in the different areas of the system here, in the Northwest Territories, to help us make evidence-based decisions. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I talked about how important it is to support small businesses. The federal government has cut the small business tax rate by 1.5 per cent, and I would like to ask the Minister of Finance if he is prepared to bring forward a tax plan to reduce taxes on small business as we have committed to in the mandate of the 18th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the federal proposal I believe is costing the federal treasury about $3 billion. A similar proposal would cost us about $750,000, so it is not something that we are contemplating at this moment.
It is true that any cut to the tax rate is going to decrease revenues, but increased productivity and prosperity in our business community, that is, 98 per cent of the economy, will help create jobs and give businesses more resources to invest back into the economy. The Government of Yukon has cut their small business tax rates, so the Northwest Territories seems to be standing still. Is the Minister willing to revisit this issue at any time in this term?
Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the contribution of small businesses across the Northwest Territories. That is why we believe we have many other programs that are in place to help the businesses grow. I think we have demonstrated that just recently with working with one of the local manufacturing companies to come up with a benefit that would be beneficial to them, and not only to them, to the consumers, so we believe we have programs in place. I take the Member's point about it being a part of the mandate, but the mandate is for four years, so we still have two years left.
So we have got two years left to implement this tax cut. Is it going to get done? I did not hear a clear answer. If not, can the Minister at least stand up and say it is a broken promise?
Mr. Speaker, we have two years left in this mandate. It was not a promise that I made, so it is not going to be a broken promise. I understand that it was part of the mandate, but again, the mandate was for four years, not two.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not want to question the Minister's math, but we have had two years to cut the tax. We have not done it. We have got two years left to cut the tax. That is what we are talking about here. Mr. Speaker, the reason why a tax proposal like this is good is because it affects everyone equally. It is not a program that is going to be oversubscribed or underfunded. This is something that every business can benefit from, so, if we are not going to cut taxes, then are we going to roll out some tax credits? Especially as the new carbon tax comes out, are we going to roll out some tax credits for businesses that can take advantage of some of that carbon tax revenue and put that revenue back in their businesses? Are we going to roll out tax credits for these businesses that work so hard to support our communities?
Mr. Speaker, I recognize the fact that these small businesses, they work hard, and they provide a service to consumers, and they keep people employed. As I said before, we believe that we have a system in place that helps to try to grow their business. If there are other ways we can look at it, the carbon tax the Member speaks about and the carbon credit, I mean, that is something that, as I said, I think in this House that we are still looking at. We are trying to mitigate the impacts as much as we can on businesses and people in the Northwest Territories, so it is something we continue to look at. At the end of the day, our goal is to try to grow the economy. As I said before, $750,000, you know, there are ways that we could put that into businesses across the territory to help grow their business as part of our full suite of programs we offer, then it is something that we will consider. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is to the Minister of Health and Social Services in the spirit of oversight on the Sahtu Regional Health Centre building to say that we are open for business. I first ask: when is the Department of Health and Social Services taking ownership of the building? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are expecting that substantial completion of the facility will be either late November or early December, at which point the government will take possession of the building. It does require that the Department of Infrastructure go in there and do some testing on some of the functional components of the building to make sure that it is all running properly. Once that has been verified, then the Department of Health and Social Services would take over the responsibility of the building. We would then go in there and start doing our assessments on some of the medical equipment and medical tools that are in that building before we start moving in. We are hoping to be fully operational in that building late spring, early summer at the very latest.
Thanks to the Minister for that reply on scheduling. In preparation for the open for business concept on the issue of staffing and accommodations, what preparation plans are in those two areas?
The job descriptions for the new facility have been written. We have experienced some delays getting them through job evaluation, but most of that is completed at this point. We are doing some anticipatory hiring. Advertisements have been posted for resident care aides, which was one of the new positions that is coming to the region. We are starting to roll out some of our staffing actions now in anticipation of opening that facility.
Thanks to the Minister for that deadline, open for business here and filling these positions that are incoming, as well as looking at the accommodations so that the people out there know what opportunities are available to apply for.
My third question is: when can the long-term clients be expected to be relocated to the new building, specifically clients who are residents of the Sahtu who are living elsewhere?
After the building opens.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that shorter reply. My last question is: will the Minister keep monthly scheduling postings to our office here or the Members on this side of the transition?
I will certainly commit to keeping the Member up to date on where we are with progress on moving into that building. With respect to the last question, all placements in the Northwest Territories are determined through the Territorial Admission Committee. Residents of the Sahtu who are now living in other communities, whether it's in the Beaufort Delta or Yellowknife or Hay River or Fort Simpson, if they are interested in returning back to Norman Wells when the new facility opens, they should be getting in touch with the staff of the facilities they are in and looking to apply through Territorial Admission to express a desire to move back to the region. We are hoping that we will have people moved back to the region, as well as people who live in the region utilizing those facilities. Please have your residents review or follow up with the TAC, Territorial Admission Committee.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
