Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I was back home during our break here, I ran into a number of constituents and they were asking about the Employment and Family Assistance Program, and asking for clarification on how it worked. I tried to explain as best I could, but can I get the Minister to please provide us with a brief explanation of how the program works? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Employment and Family Assistance Program is a confidential, voluntary-based counselling and referral service available to all GNWT employees and their dependents, to assist with a wide range of personal and work-related issues. The Employment and Family Assistance Program offers a wide range of services, including a variety of mental health services, and can be accessed 24 hours a day. The service allows people to discuss personal problems and concerns in an understanding and professional environment, away from the workplace. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I apologize for not directing my question to the Finance Minister. Thank you for that. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for his answer; however, when I am talking to these people and we're talking about the treatment and that, they've informed me that they have to take sick leave to attend counselling and stuff like that, and this is now an added stress on to people who do not have the sick leave available to them. Can the Minister confirm if this is the process, and if it is, why?
My understanding is sick leave is used specifically for these purposes. That's why they accumulate sick leave that way, if they have to go out for some type of treatment. If they're away for treatment for a medical condition, sick leave can be advanced if no credits are available, up to 15 days and, if needed, employees can also ask for a payout of annual leave, experiencing financial hardship with being on sick leave without pay.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess it disappoints me that we as a government, and we're doing some really good things with our programs and providing these treatments and trying to help our staff people, but unfortunately, now you have to take your annual and sick leave to deal with it. That's disappointing. Can the Minister please advise this House how supervisors are educating and training on working with staff who are going through a counselling process?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I think I need to point out that this government cares very much about the well-being of its employees, and takes every opportunity to work with them to try and improve their conditions or whatever it is that they may be going through. The collective agreement has a number of provisions in there for different types of leave, so we work with those.
As far as the supervisors trained on working with staff, the accommodation process involves cooperation between the GNWT unions and employees to identify safe, timely, and reasonable measures to accommodate employees. The goal of the accommodation is to have employees remain in the workforce or, if absent, integrated back into the workforce as soon as reasonably and safely possible.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I totally agree that the Government of the Northwest Territories is trying to do what's best for their staff, and at no point in time am I saying they're not. However, I guess my concern is, in listening to the constituents out there, there's a variety of challenges that people are dealing with and they're getting counselling out there, so they're not getting the needed support out there. Can the Minister please advise the process if the staff feels that their supervisor is not treating or understanding their challenges properly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Duty-to-accommodate training is provided to managers and supervisors who provide them with the guidance and tools to manage and support employees in the workplace who are dealing with any type of medical condition. Advice and guidance is also provided to managers by the duty-to-accommodate advisors, and managers also have access to training sessions on managing and supporting employees dealing with medical conditions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs' plan to close the funding gap that we've learned about through the municipal funding review? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are in the process of developing a long-term plan to address the funding gap for municipalities. That is a commitment. Currently what we are doing is every year, there has been an increase in some of the areas from the territorial governments, and we are leveraging with the federal government's monies to access more infrastructure money.
Communities that are at a surplus currently have been kind of topped, or are staying at that level, and then we are focusing on the communities that have a deficit with the new monies that we are bringing in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Is the Minister committed to tabling that strategy in the fall at some point? This is the last day of our sitting. Is the Minister going to table that strategy today?
No, I am sorry, we are still working on the finalization of the long-term plan, so I do apologize if I made a commitment that I would table it in the fall. I wish I would have said that we will be completing it in the fall, and not mentioning when I would table it.
Mr. Speaker, the longer the government waits to figure this out, the more pressure is going to be put on our communities who are in those deficit positions. The residents of Yellowknife are short-changed by $1 million in funding from this government, and the taxpayers have to foot the bill with the most recent City of Yellowknife budget increasing taxes because there is not enough money to pay for these essential programs the city is working on. Does the Minister think that is fair?
As stated earlier, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has actually been working quite diligently with the federal government to leverage the infrastructure monies that are coming. Communities such as the City of Yellowknife are actually getting a substantial amount of the federal infrastructure monies, whereas other communities who have a surplus are not getting that amount, so I am not a hundred per cent convinced that any tax increases to the residents of Yellowknife are only because of the $1-million shortfall.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not the federal government's responsibility to fund our communities. It is this government's responsibility. The city's budgets are done on a calendar year. Can the Minister commit to getting this work done before the end of the calendar year so the city can have certainty about what their fiscal room is going to look like?
No, I cannot. I would have to actually talk with the department and see. I want a complete plan, not a plan that is rushed to meet political viewpoints, so I will make sure that the plan is done properly before we release that plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, earlier today the Premier said that the Cabinet had heard clearly from Members about their frustrations and concerns. Mr. Speaker, I have brought up a legitimate, fact-based problem with the speed of legislation being introduced in this Legislative Assembly. What I got in return was a denial that there is a problem and no offer to take up my offer to discuss this with the other Members of this House, so I want to ask the Premier again: will he work with Caucus to look at convening a short sitting in December so that additional bills can be introduced for review prior to the budget session? Mahsi.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my response, I made sure that all options were open, and I said that I would review the legislative agenda and we would take whatever actions would be required to make sure that we fulfilled our agenda, our very ambitious agenda. That did not preclude meeting with Caucus to review. We all know the process. The only one who can call or reconvene the Legislative Assembly would be the call of the Speaker.
I am aware of the process, but it would start with the Caucus. So how is the Premier going to consult with Regular Members on the issue of speeding up the process of introducing new legislation?
First of all, I would review our legislative agenda. I would review every proposal. I would review every timeline, and I would review the resources that we have available, and we would review that with Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, the next Caucus meeting is February 7, 2018, so at what point will this review involve the Regular Members?
We would undertake a government review, and, as soon as that is completed, we are, MLAs are, meeting on a regular basis, so we would try to fit into that agenda and timetable.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Could the Premier tell us when the results of this review will be available and whether he will make them available to Regular Members?
As soon as our government and our officials have been able to review the legislative agenda and as soon as we can determine the timelines and the proposed schedules, we would develop a critical path. I expect that we will be able to meet with Caucus at that point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to visitors in the gallery. We have with us Language Commissioner Shannon Gullberg. Welcome to our Assembly. Also with us we have council members with a chief here today, Paul Betsina and Bobby Drygeese. Masi for joining us. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is our last sitting day, so I would like to get some more information out to the public on the progress on the Commercial Fisheries Revitalization Strategy. I will go back to the fish plant. We have got the money in the budget now. The Minister said that Infrastructure is taking the lead on this, so when can we expect the ground to break on this project? Even better, when can we expect this to be operational, this new fish plant? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, we are in the planning stage right now, figuring this out. The department is the lead. Hopefully, we will be able to break ground in the spring.
As I said, I think we have some property identified moving forward and working with the Town of Hay River. I suspect construction will probably take at least a year for a facility that size.
So it looks like it will be operational summer 2019, from what the Minister has stated. Will we be able to do both primary and secondary processing in the new fish plant?
Mr. Speaker, as we move forward working with the fishing federation, primarily right now we will be doing exactly what Freshwater did, was to be able to do the primary sourcing of fish, cutting up round, and filleting. As far as doing secondary processing, that is going to be entirely up to what Freshwater wants to do moving forward.
I hope the Minister did not mean it when he said we are going to do exactly what Freshwater was doing. Another element of the revitalization strategy is the training program.
I know there have been talks with different organizations about training, not just for fishermen, but for people in the marine industry, as well, so where are we in terms of creating a training program to revitalize the fishery?
We are working with a number of people on moving this forward. The first part of it is what do we need to have the existing fishermen trained up to participate in fishing on the lake and have all the qualifications needed to do that.
We are also looking at a second part of how do we bring new, younger fishermen into the process, what type of training they need to be able to access the lake and do it in a safe manner. We are looking at a different approach, as well, with a number of other proponents about how we can bring training to the fishing industry in the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Still just a lot of looking at things, it sounds like, so, while the department is looking at things, I know the fishermen have been fishing, so can the Minister give us an update about how much production has been on the lake, what percentage of the quota or how many pounds have been taken off the lake this year?
I don't think we have the full details on the catch, but from everything I have heard to date, it sounds like it is very similar to last year's quota. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
