Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have some follow-up questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. My first question is: what is the next action plan that is coming out of the Mental Health and Addictions Strategy Framework? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are to be three different action plans coming out of the framework. The first one, the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, is out, and we are already moving forward with that. The next two action plans are the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, and the next one would be the Addictions Recovery Plan. We are working on both of those now. We hope to have them out in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, preferably in time to help inform the next round of business planning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for that answer. In this House today and during the budget, we have heard about the Departments of Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment are partnered together to create this new position called Child and Youth Career Counselling. Where are these positions going to be located during the school year and non-school year?
We are going forward with two regions this year. One of the regions that we happen to be going forward with is the Deh Cho, and what we are looking for in the Deh Cho is to establish three new counsellor positions, as well as one new clinical supervisor. The three counselling positions, one is going to be located in Fort Liard, one is going to be in Fort Simpson, and the other one is going to be in Fort Providence. The clinical supervisor is going to be in Fort Simpson.
I think I may have given the wrong question here, and I will have to clarify it. I know there are three positions that are going into Fort Liard, Fort Providence, and Fort Simpson. Are they going to be in the schools year-round, or are they just in the schools during the school year, or is there going to be combination of these positions being placed?
What we heard clearly from the residents of the Northwest Territories, in particular the youth that we engaged during our planning for this action plan, is that youth wanted access year-round to counsellors, not just during the academic year, but they still wanted access to the counsellors through the schools. We will be working with the DEAs in the schools to set up some sort of agreements to articulate how much time these individuals will be spending in the schools. It is our expectation that, during the school year, the majority of their time will be spent in the schools. Outside the school year, the majority or all of their life will be spent out of the Health and Social Services offices that exist. There may be time for them to come out of the school during the school year, because one of the other things we heard is that some of the youth who are struggling the most aren't attending school. We want to make sure that we don't miss those youth as well.
During the school year, the majority of the time will be in the schools. The rest of the time, out of the health centres.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I think it's a very positive step. How will the youth from the smaller communities be able to address their concerns? How are we going to be able to address that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We did have a public meeting with the committee, and the information on how we determined where the counsellors were going was included in that presentation, including the indication that, for some of the smaller communities where the school sizes are much smaller, we wouldn't be putting a counsellor in those communities.
Having said that, one of the reasons that we have gone with the clinical supervisor is not only to provide clinical direction and support to the counsellors, but also to help coordinate the outreach to the smaller communities. Our counsellors will be setting up relationships with the youth in those smaller communities. We have also got the travelling counselling support team that exists through Education, Culture and Employment that are going to be reaching out to the communities as well.
There are a number of ways that we are intending to reach out to the kids in small communities, including person-to-person contact and follow-up by phones and other media that exist. We can use other things like teleconferencing or telehealth or even Skype, if it's appropriate, depending on the situation, but we are definitely planning to have outreach to youth in all of the smaller communities as well as the communities where the positions are located. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the concerns that have been raised by the Information and Privacy Commissioner in her 2016-2017 annual report in regard to the ability of the Department of Health and Social Services to meet its statutory requirements under the Health Information Act with its existing information technology systems, I have questions for the Minister responsible:
Please provide a comprehensive list of all proprietary and non-proprietary information systems currently used by the health authorities, including descriptions of each system and the developers of any proprietary systems;
Please indicate which health information systems are used to manage healthcare patient information, including details of what information is contained in those systems;
Please provide details on any work that is being done by the Department of Health and Social Services to modify existing information systems to be compliant with the Health Information Act; and
Please provide a cost estimate of any modification to existing healthcare information systems to be compliant with the Health Information Act.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to present its Report on the Review of the 2017 Report of the Auditor General on Climate Change in the Northwest Territories.
The Auditor General's report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on October 18, 2017. The Standing Committee on Government Operations held its public review of this performance audit report on January 17, 2018.
Committee members thank the Auditor General and officials from his office for preparing the report, for travelling to Yellowknife when the report was tabled and again when it was reviewed, and for assisting the committee during the public review.
The committee also thanks the deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources, the deputy minister of Infrastructure, and officials from their respective departments, for their appearances before the committee.
Mr. Speaker, although the government is a small emitter of greenhouse gases, the Northwest Territories is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change which threaten the livelihood of our residents and their way of life, particularly in remote, Indigenous NWT communities. The impacts wrought by climate change include warming, increased variation in precipitation, and extreme weather events.
For these reasons, the Auditor General's report points out that responding to the impacts of climate change is a shared responsibility, requiring partnerships within and across governments and with non-governmental organizations, industry and the public.
The Role of the Departments
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is the lead department for climate change for the Northwest Territories, with the responsibility to:
Lead the development of strategies to address greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change impacts;
Lead the sharing of climate change information to support government departments and the public in their adaptation efforts;
Promote the use of scientific research, traditional knowledge, and public education to understand climate change in the Northwest Territories; and
Represent the territorial government in national climate change initiatives.
The department is also responsible to maintain, conserve, and protect the condition, quality, diversity, and abundance of the environment, including water, air, wildlife, habitat, and forests in the Northwest Territories.
The Department of Infrastructure is responsible for promoting energy efficiency in the management of GNWT assets and adapting them to the impacts of climate change. It is also responsible for adapting the Northwest Territories' transportation infrastructure to the impacts of climate change.
Audit Findings
Overall, the Auditor General found that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources did not:
Fulfill its leadership role and meet its commitments on climate change;
Address long-standing deficiencies affecting its leadership on climate change; or
Asses what authorities and resources it required to fulfill its leadership role.
For example, the department committed to put a climate change network in place in 2007, to share information and promote climate change action and collaboration. The Auditor General found that "the department did not establish this network, despite two attempts, and was unable to explain why."
The audit further found that the department did not identify the risks to the Northwest Territories posed by climate change, or provide departments and communities with easy access to the information needed to take action on climate change. Despite a commitment to do so almost ten years ago, the department failed to establish a territorial strategy to adapt to climate change.
This lack of leadership led to a piecemeal approach, as departments and communities pursued their own adaptation efforts. This left ENR without the ability to know what the NWT was doing to adapt to climate change, whether it was doing enough to mitigate the greatest risks, or whether individual adaptation actions negatively affected one another.
Additionally, the audit found that, while ENR focused its climate change efforts on developing greenhouse gas strategies, it did not set meaningful emission targets or focus on the greatest emitters. As a result, the 2011-2015 territorial greenhouse gas strategy did not have a significant impact on reducing emissions levels.
Finally, with respect to adapting to climate change impacts, the audit found that while the department did set out protections for some vulnerable wildlife species, it had no overall adaptation plan to better protect wildlife and ensure that areas of greatest risk were being addressed.
Department of Infrastructure
With respect to adapting to climate change impacts, the audit found that the Department of Infrastructure identified specific adaptation actions to protect public roads and buildings from the risks posed by climate change, but these were only routinely carried out for roads.
The department assessed the climate change risks for public buildings, such as health centres and hospitals, and determined the two greatest risks to be permafrost degradation affecting foundations, and snow loads affecting roof stability. The audit found that the department did not develop a formal climate change adaptation plan for public buildings, and often did not follow its own practices for the operations and maintenance of public buildings. For example, 63 per cent of the buildings reviewed by the Auditor General did not undergo required annual roof inspections, and snow removal occurred on only 50 per cent of the buildings examined.
The audit found that the Department of Infrastructure developed a climate change plan for transportation infrastructure in 2013. This plan identified all-weather and winter roads as the greatest areas of risk and committed to a range of adaptive actions to manage these risks, including:
Testing and using new technologies to manage the impacts of permafrost degradation and changing ice conditions;
Conducting research on the viability of winter roads; and
Changing operations and maintenance practices to better protect roads from impacts such as melting ice.
The audit found that the department did not regularly conduct required inspections of all-weather roads, to identify necessary maintenance and rehabilitation. While the department inspected 90 per cent of large culverts, approximately 50 per cent of the small culverts the department should have inspected were not inspected.
Despite these issues, the Auditor General found that Infrastructure did take some positive steps to manage the impacts of climate change. The audit found that the department worked with various partners to undertake research and test new technologies for climate change adaptation.
The committee takes this opportunity to acknowledge the Department of Infrastructure for this work.
Audit Recommendations
The report of the Auditor General contains a total of eight recommendations. For Department of Environment and Natural Resources, five recommendations are related to its leadership role for climate change and one is related to wildlife management actions to adequately adapt to climate change. The final two recommendations of the Auditor General are directed toward the Department of Infrastructure's work relating to adapting to climate change impacts.
The standing committee endorses all of the recommendations made by the Office of the Auditor General and recommends that the departments ensure these are implemented in a timely manner.
Committee Observations and Recommendations
Although compliance audits are backwards-looking, the value of such an exercise lies in assessing past performance shortfalls with a view to improving future performance. In this vein, the standing committee's observations and recommendations are intended to provide the departments with additional insight to assist them in implementing actions that will ultimately help fulfill the recommendations made by the Auditor General.
The Auditor General's key finding in the 2017 Report on Climate Change in the Northwest Territories is that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources failed, in a very fundamental way, and over an extended period of time, to fulfill the leadership role that is necessary for the Northwest Territories to plan for, mitigate, and adapt to climate change and the dramatic consequences it holds for the Northwest Territories. This is a very concerning finding that should be met with serious consideration.
The committee notes that, of the five recommendations of the Office of the Auditor General related to the department's failure to show leadership, all five responses point to the department's Climate Change Strategic Framework as the answer to this failure. This suggests to the committee that the department, on a very foundational level, fails to appreciate the gravity of the Auditor General's finding. ENR also does not recognize that improvement will take a concerted effort, on a number of fronts, and will not be achieved solely through the delivery of a strategic framework, something that the department has repeatedly failed to do in the past decade.
The committee has heard both the deputy minister, during the public hearing, and the Minister, in this Legislative Assembly, make the point that the audit period did not address the department's work on the Climate Change Strategic Framework, with the inference being that the utility of the audit was, therefore, limited.
The committee is disappointed with this dismissive response, which attempts to minimize the Auditor General's findings. The committee would have preferred to hear some acknowledgement that the audit findings point to deep-rooted, systemic problems that have persisted over a decade or more. For these problems to be adequately addressed, they must first be acknowledged.
The committee encourages the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, his Cabinet colleagues, and the department's senior management to do some soul-searching, reflect on past mistakes and ensure those mistakes are not repeated.
The committee takes this opportunity to recognize, with sincerity, the effort, dedication and hard work of the employees of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The committee's observations should not be construed, in any way, as criticism of the department's hard-working public servants, but rather as a critique of poor management decisions which resulted in the department's hard work being less effective than it might have been.
Conclusion
According to the Auditor General, the measures taken by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Infrastructure were not adequate to fulfill the government's climate change commitments to reduce territorial greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change impacts in the Northwest Territories.
While the committee is encouraged that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources accepted the Auditor General's recommendations, the responses to some of these recommendations were so vague as to leave the standing committee with little assurance that appropriate steps will be taken by the department to meet the challenge of fulfilling its leadership role.
The standing committee makes the following eleven recommendations. Further detail specific to each recommendation is contained in the body of the report. As previously noted, these recommendations are largely designed to help the departments meet the recommendations made by the Auditor General and to assist the department to address the deficiencies found by the audit.
Recommendation 1
Recommendation 2
The Standing Committee on Government Operations again recommends that, in future, any GNWT department being audited provide the Standing Committee on Government Operations with a copy of its action or implementation plan at the earliest possible opportunity and no later than three business days prior to the public review on the Auditor General's Report, consistent with the Process Convention on Communications between Cabinet Ministers, Standing Committees and Regular Members.
Recommendation 3
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that, in future, any GNWT department selected for an audit provide the Standing Committee on Government Operations with a copy of its action or implementation plan in draft format and, further, that the document not be finalized until the department has had an opportunity to consider the recommendations made as a result of the standing committee's review.
Recommendation 4
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources acknowledge and reference the Auditor General's Report and recommendations in the Climate Change Strategic Framework.
Recommendation 5
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources bring forward a draft Climate Change Strategic Framework Action Plan for the consideration of the standing committee, no later than May 11, 2018, which identifies specific activities to be undertaken by the department in support of the Climate Change Strategic Framework and in response to the recommendations of the Auditor General.
Recommendation 6
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources bring forward a draft Knowledge Agenda Action Plan for the consideration of the standing committee, no later than May 11, 2018, which identifies specific activities to be undertaken by the department in support of the Climate Change Strategic Framework and in response to the recommendations of the Auditor General.
Recommendation 7
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources report annually on progress being made to meet the greenhouse gas emissions targets, established in the Climate Change Strategic Framework, and remain open to the possibility of making target adjustments, as required, to meet the overall emissions reduction target by 2030.
Recommendation 8
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, with Cabinet endorsement and participation, hold a Ministerial round table on climate change in the Northwest Territories as a method for seeking industry input into the Climate Change Strategic Framework and to secure commitments, at the political level, that industry will work to meet the targets set in the CCSF.
Recommendation 9
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources give consideration to the development of the following procedural authoritative instruments:
A territorial Climate Change Act;
A formal GNWT Climate Change Policy;
Memoranda of understanding identifying ministerial and departmental responsibilities for climate change initiatives; and
An assessment exercise designed to identify and provide the department with sufficient capacity to fulfill its leadership role.
The standing committee further recommends that ENR report back to the Committee on its consideration of these recommendations, identifying those procedural authoritative instruments it will adopt, together with reasons for any decision to not proceed with these instruments.
Recommendation 10
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources identify, in its Climate Change Strategic Framework Action Plan, specific measures that will be undertaken, with associated timelines, to fulfill the wildlife management actions recommended by the Auditor General, including the development of an inventory of commitments already identified as important to addressing climate change impacts on wildlife, with a view to ensuring those commitments are met.
Recommendation 11
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this report within 120 days.
I will conclude, Mr. Speaker, by noting that the standing committee will be monitoring the departments' progress on this work and looks forward to receiving substantive progress reports. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I now move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that committee report 6-18(3) be deemed read and printed in Hansard in its entirety. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2018-2019"; and "Inter-activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1 to September 30, 2017)." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Government House Leader.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my Cabinet colleagues, I wish to table the following three documents entitled "Correspondence with Prime Minister Trudeau Regarding NWT Legislative Assembly Motion – Apology and Compensation to the Yellowknives Dene First Nation Relating to Damages from the Giant Mine"; "Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission Annual Report 2016 Northwest Territories and Nunavut"; and "Workers' Advisor Office for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Annual Report 2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Consolidated Annual Financial Reports for all Northwest Territories District Education Authorities and Divisional Education Councils, June 30, 2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 122-18(3): Procurement Policies and Impacts on Non-Governmental Organizations." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table the following three documents. The first is a 1984 release for Prairie Creek Mine Site. The second is a 1987 surface lease for Prairie Creek Mine Site. The third document is a 2003 surface lease for Prairie Creek Mine Site. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 8, Emergency Management Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 8 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 10, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2017-2018, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 10 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 11, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2017-2018, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
