Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess $4.7 million is on taxpayers who actually play lottery, so I appreciate that's where the money is coming from. So can the Minister actually give us a breakdown of the $3.6 million, where this money is actually spent and allocated? Is it in salaries? Is it programs? Or what variety of programs is this money accounted for? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To divide down the actual monies from what we spend on actually supporting of youth and taking part in sports activities, and from what we pay staff, is a process that would take some time. If the Member would like, he can either present a written question or he can come to my office and I can provide him that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Again, I'd just like to remind Members to refrain from asking questions when the bill is before standing committee. Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. As I have asked before, will the Minister advise the House on the progress that has been made on the 10 units that have had land tenure? When will these homes be available for occupancy? Mahsi.
Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the properties, the 10 units that we're talking about, three of them are occupied and seven need repairs. We have actually met with Chief Fabian, January 19th, actually, when my department went down to talk to him, and there are a couple of things we're doing with it. It's really exciting. Like I stated many times in this House, each community has different needs when it comes to housing, so we're looking at my community housing plans. Part of that was working with Chief Fabian, so with the 10 public housing units that are on reserve land, there have always been some issue with land tenure. We've got that straightened out, but what we're also doing is we're moving forward. We're actually working with the chief to actually look at how we can provide employment in his community. He's going to be providing us with a proposal to do a training program so he can train residents on the reserve to do the renovations, and a proposal so that he can maintain the public housing units. That will meet not only the housing needs of the community, but also address some of the employment concerns and the economic development that they have in that community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I really have to commend the Minister for taking some extraordinary and constructive steps in ensuring that, ultimately, at some point, more housing will be made available to the residents. So I thank her for taking those steps. The Minister indicated that three houses of the 10 units will be occupied and seven need repairs. What is the current status of work to secure the remaining seven homes?
For clarification, three of the units are currently occupied. They are not looking at it, so, out of those seven units that are looking at needing renovations, we are working with Chief Fabian. Because of capital plans, we have to make sure that we spread the wealth throughout all communities, all 33 communities, so, in this fiscal year we are looking at them working in partnership with the chief, with the band, to actually develop five units. Five of the remaining seven will be renovated. Like I said, we are hoping that the chief will come forward and provide us a proposal so that we are training community members to provide services in their community.
The next question I wanted to ask is just the next steps: how will the Minister prioritize this work in the months ahead? She has indicated five of the seven units will be renovated.
Like I had stated earlier, prioritizing, we have already met with the chief. We are waiting for him to come back with a proposal to us on how he will provide the work. I should also state that there are six other homes on the reserve that have sat empty for over a decade. It is a sin, Mr. Speaker.
The reason they have sat empty is because of land tenure. It has always been an issue that the land belonged to the federal government and so we could not get it. These buildings were new, sitting empty, with people needing homes, so not only are we looking at the public housing. We are also looking at these homes, as well. Land tenure on those is still an issue, so we are looking at: can we change that into a home ownership? They are on the reserve. That land will not disappear, so can we do like we did with the Salt Lake River Reserve, and can we actually look at turning those units into home ownership units so that people again will actually have more housing.
Is it a priority? Definitely, Mr. Speaker. Every single community and their housing needs are a priority, and we will continue to work hard with every single community to address their housing needs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, once again I commend the Minister for taking those extraordinary steps in working with First Nations leaders in our small communities. She has highlighted the model that likely could be templated and used as an example across Canada. Would the Minister be willing to consider the idea of in the future to invite her federal colleagues to visit the Hay River Reserve and see for themselves just the housing issues that people have to contend with? Mahsi.
As a resident of the Northwest Territories myself, I have always felt that often people who are living in the South do not really recognize the needs of the Northwest Territories. We are often fit into models that "one size fits all." I do not believe in that model. I do not believe that one size fits all. I believe that every community, every territory, every province, has distinct needs and distinct strengths.
Within that philosophy, my own philosophy: every time I go down to meet with any federal Minister, I not only invite them, I almost beg them to come to the Northwest Territories to see our reality; to see, like I stated, our strengths and our weaknesses so that they can understand and so that we will not be put into a box that says "one size fits all," because it does not fit for us. So, yes, I will commit to continuing to advocate that all federal Ministers come up to the Northwest Territories to visit us and to see our realities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke of student success in the dimensions of western and cultural education, and my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is: how does the Department of Education, Culture and Employment support education authorities as well as individual schools when they want to develop unique cultural programming for their students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, we do fund all of the education authorities on an annual basis throughout the Northwest Territories. One of our goals is ensuring that all students are grounded in the reach and diverse history, cultures, language, and heritage of our peoples. As we fund our education authorities, they are encouraged to develop local and regional courses and resources that do focus on culture, heritage, and languages, and we continue to support them.
One other way that we do that is through Elders in Schools. Not only our students, but our teachers, as well: teachers have the opportunity to develop and participate in cultural orientation days. Further to our support for our teachers who work with our students throughout the Northwest Territories, they go through an orientation during our New to the North conference on a yearly basis as well as the work that we do with the NWT Teachers' Association around professional development.
That is a good piece of information. Mr. Speaker, I understand the department is working on revisions to the Aboriginal Language and Culture Based Education Directive. I would like to get a status from the Minister on that.
In the 18th Assembly mandate, the GNWT did commit to implementing a renewed directive to strengthen the role of schools in supporting Indigenous language development and cultural programming as well as the TRC's call to actions that address supporting the development of culturally appropriate curricula and the protection of the rights of Indigenous languages, including the teaching of Indigenous languages. We are well into that. As an update for this directive that we are working on, called the NWT JK to Grade 12 Indigenous Languages and Education Policies and Procedures, that will begin being phased into all schools beginning in the 2018-2019 academic year.
I appreciate the status from the Minister. The Northwest Territories uses an Alberta curriculum. Can the Minister describe what kind of alterations and allowances are made to ensure that northern students are able to see themselves and their cultures reflected in their school experiences?
Yes. As I mentioned earlier, we are very big on supporting culture, heritage, languages in our schools and support our education authorities to deliver these programs. We have made some improvements, such as Elders in Schools, and that has been working very well. We continue to work with Alberta, as you mentioned. As I mentioned in the House, we have really great partnerships with the Minster of Education from Alberta. We are currently participating in working groups on the renewal of the Alberta curriculum that will help them promote culture and Indigenous languages in their schools, but promote how we learn here as Northerners in the Northwest Territories. We have Northern Studies 10, which is reflective of our way of life in the Northwest Territories, as well as Northern Studies 20, which we are currently developing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my last set of questions: I asked the Minister for a toe, and I did not get that. Mr. Speaker, we talked about culture exchanges between territories and provinces, and, Mr. Speaker, I believe it is important to learn from each other in prospective communities across the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is: does the department support the cultural exchange between students in the communities across the territory? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Our education authorities or education bodies currently receive about $9 million from ECE to promote cultural activities, heritage activities, as well as things such as drumming, sewing, beading, traditional classes in traditional practices that we have had over the years. The elders in the schools provide a big opportunity to help teach the traditions, not only traditions and skills, but the values of our ancestors in the schools today as well as working on revitalizing our Indigenous languages. We continue to work with all of our education bodies and support our schools in promoting those programs, on-the-land programs, as well as, as I mentioned, teaching those values that we have lived so long by and will continue to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I made my statement earlier, I was a little fired up, but I'm here to represent the people, Mr. Speaker, and the people are sick and tired of being ignored. They're exasperated, and so am I. The GNWT has failed to adequately use government procurement to grow and diversify our economy, build capacity, and employ Northerners. These are all priorities for this Assembly. They can be found in the mandate that we all agreed to, even the Minister. I'm not sure if our statements today convinced the Minister that there are issues with the practices of his department, but admitting you have a problem is the first step in fixing it. So will the Minister admit that the concerns we've raised are valid and that there are problems with infrastructures procurement practices? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any concerns that are brought forward to me by any Members of this Legislative Assembly or members of the public are valid, and we sit and listen to them, and my door is always open. As to the comment about having procurement issues in the GNWT and that our policies and procedures are wrong, I totally disagree with the Member. Our department is here to adhere to the policies that are in this Legislative Assembly; it's here to support businesses and, at the same time, protect the GNWT's investment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
People always say to me, "We voted for change. What happened?" I'm tired of saying, "We're working on it." I'm starting to say, "Let's wait another year and a half," because answers like this are ridiculous. Mr. Speaker, I mention the disrespect shown to small businesses by the government. I've seen some of the correspondence sent by the representatives of the GNWT to businesses regarding procurement, and I've heard stories from business owners. Businesses are treated like children and subordinates. The government acts like business exists to serve them, not the other way around. So will this Minister commit to providing ongoing customer service training to all infrastructure employees involved with procurement, the same way the Minister of Housing has done?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad he's asked this question, or has mentioned it, because Infrastructure routinely offers procurement training workshops to Government of the Northwest Territories employees. I will update this House, as of now, the Department of Human Resources does this training calendar, and workshops are held to design NWT procurement process for all procurements regardless of value, and focus on supporting Northwest Territories businesses and manufacturers, wherever possible. Up to date, this year, since April 1st of 2017, the department has delivered 48 procurement training workshops, with over 450 GNWT employees who participated in this, and that's not even counting the workshops that are within our department alone.
My questions are focused on solutions, but it looks like I'm not going to get any. Having procurement training workshops, teaching these same tactics that are the problem, is not going to solve anything. The question was about customer service, not about more of the same. Will the Minister commit to reviewing the practices of his department regarding procurement to identify and fix the areas that are currently restricting small businesses from effectively competing on RFPs?
As I've said, the department is very supportive of northern businesses, and we have to adhere to the policies that are here, and we are here to support and protect the northern purse as well. At the same time, the department has also come out with a community engagement process for RFPs. This is to engage the proponent, the criteria around used to credit available, around the community engagement process, along with the BIP process, to have policies for local and northern labour and material and goods purchases in the Northwest Territories. Under this community engagement criteria, this is what we use to help demonstrate that we are supporting the local economy in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to do so.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm just going to forgo the rest of my questions. I know the Minister can't offer opinions, but, you know what, it's the government, maybe there's a policy about it. What would it take for the department to realize that there is a problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I've said in this House many times, and I will say it to everyone across the room here, and I don't have a problem saying it, last time I sat in this House, we had two or three people who came to me directly about complaints about the procurement system. Since I've last stood in this House and said the exact same thing, I may have had one person come to me. I do not have a problem with the procurement system within the Government of the Northwest Territories, and I will not review the policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, my honourable friend the Member from Hay River North, talked about the GNWT. I have less of an issue with the policies that our public service has to follow; I'm more with the government. So I want to ask the Premier today if he will direct his Cabinet to do a comprehensive reform of procurement on all of the government approach? Will the Premier commit to doing that? Thank you.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've been in government a long time. I've probably been through about six reviews of the Business Incentive Policy, and every time we've brought it forward, there have been no changes because everybody sees that the Business Incentive Policy is the best government policy ever written. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My next question, again, is for the best Premier ever: will he commit to amending the Minister of Infrastructure's mandate letter to include a review of the procurement policies in the GNWT?
I've had many meetings with the NWT Chamber of Commerce and almost in every instance, when we raise concerns about procurement, it's because of a difference in understanding. Certainly, if the Members can provide me with a list of the problems, as they see them, then we can determine whether there is actually a need for a review of it. And, as I said, the last time I met with the Chamber of Commerce, which was about four months ago, we asked them to tell us what they see as the problem or what concerns they have, and then we can act on it. Certainly, if we have a whole host of problems where it's warranted to do a review, we will certainly look as doing so.
This government has just done a lengthy public engagement process on manufacturing, and in some of those sessions, concerns were raised. I find it hard to believe that there are no concerns that are coming out of these meetings. Maybe the Premier is not talking to the right people, or maybe the Premier needs to listen to this side of the House. So will the Premier commit to look at the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment that recommended procurement reform or an evaluation of procurement policies? Will he look at that recommendation, accept it, and make it part of this government?
I'd be pleased to do so if somebody would tell me what the problem was. Is it a service problem? It's been suggested that our employees are not providing the necessary service to businesses. If that's the problem, then we can look at educating our employees further, which we seem to be doing a lot of. If it's the policy problem, well, tell us what the problems are, then we can determine. I mean, working for the government, I like doing reviews, but I want to have a reason for doing it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know how many more Member's statements that I need to make or that my honourable friends need to make before the Premier will listen to what we're saying and address those issues. So to the issue of progress payments, will the Premier direct his Minister to fix that problem, to ensure progress payments don't require bonds, and that they can move forward to support small businesses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
