Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to recognize Mayor Mark Heyck. I had the pleasure and honour to serve with him on city council on my last term and, I believe, his first, so there was some overlap. I want to thank him for his years of service to people in this community. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't want to be one of the only Yellowknife Members who does not recognize His Worship, Mayor Mark Heyck. I would like to thank him for his service, as well. He has made an incredible contribution to our community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sorry about that. I would like to inform the house that John and Sharon Herring received the Senate Sesquicentennial Medal on Sunday, April 8th, from former Senator Nick Sibbeston. It is a very proud moment when residents of the NWT are recognized for outstanding work. The medal is awarded to residents actively involved in their communities who, through generosity, dedication, volunteerism, and hard work, make their community a better place to live. Without a doubt, these two encompass all of those qualities. Their accomplishments are appreciated and are important to the continued growth of Fort Simpson. It is an honour and a privilege to recognize them here today.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure, and it's on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway. Mr. Speaker, recently the department closed the road due to soft and rutted areas that could be a risk to the travelling public and to prevent further damage to the highway. Mr. Speaker, my first question to the Minister is: why did the Department of Infrastructure open an unfinished road? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway was deemed substantially completed on the 15th of November of last year, and over the winter we experienced an average daily traffic count of 60 to 70 vehicles per day throughout the whole season without any issues. The work that is being performed and carried out on the highway this summer and fall is the contract work that has to be completed under the terms and conditions of the contract to correct all deficiencies noted during the final inspection of the highway. That was when we did that, last year, so this work is expected to be completed by the fall of this year.
I understand, you know, construction of a gravel road on permafrost sometimes requires some time to settle before it dries up, and I appreciate the response from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, my question is: how many days of additional road access did the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk gain with the opening of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway?
Based on a 20-year average of opening and closing of the Inuvik winter road, we gained 45 days of access to the community of Tuktoyaktuk this year, with the winter road opening in November of last year to May 12th of this year. As all Members know, this has been a concern in the media lately, but one thing that people have to know is that this road is still under construction and we are working on it. The other thing that I always like to make very prevalent about this whole thing is that this highway was constructed in one of the harshest environments in Canada, and our contractors did a heck of a job in building this road, and we believe it will open to the general public here very soon.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, I am just going to get right to it here. My next question for the Minister is: what are we doing to make sure this does not happen next year?
As I said, the contractors have some deficiencies and some works to finish up on the terms of their contract going forward. We have some gravel to lay down, some packing to be completed; there are a number of things to be done around bridges, rip-wrap and painting and such, so these things are going to be completed this year, as I said, in the fall of this year.
There are some lessons learned already to be taken from the season that we just had it open. With the different amounts of snow where it has accumulated along the embankments, we have already recognized the fact that we need to put up some snow fencing in certain areas of the highway to help mitigate that. I think one of the other concerns that we want to address in the next coming season is certain sections of the highway where the accumulation is so big that grading is not going to be sufficient, and we have to look at snow-blowing this stuff further away, similar to what we do on the Dempster. We will be looking at different additives, as well, I think, to help with the gravel and how to shed water off the highway, and we will continue to look at improvements to make sure we keep this thing open as long as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is good for the general public to know, and I appreciate the work the department is doing. I know how challenging it is, as being an employee of that maybe five years, four years ago.
Mr. Speaker, my final question to the Minister: what work remains, and will there be further closures? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I've said, there is a full layer of gravel and it needs to be laid down on some sections, and compacting that needs to be done this year. Some of this work wasn't done in the fall of last year due to the early cold temperatures, when that type of work can't be performed. There will be additional signage that needs to be installed around there, shaping of embankments in different places along the highway system, and deficiencies and final inspection, and like I said, some work around the bridges and culverts that needs to be finished up.
People have to realize that this is a new highway. We are working very hard to get this thing open. As the other Member from the BeauDel has mentioned, you know, this is going to be important to tourism going forward, and the department is working very hard along with our contractors to make sure we get this thing in shape and that it's safe to the open public to use. We'll continue to work on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke in my statement earlier about the need for a youth advisory council to give young people in the Northwest Territories a voice in the government decision-making and to advise government of policy issues. I have brought this issue before the House before, but today I would like to ask the Premier, as most of these youth councils are creations of First Ministers, if the Premier has made any progress with his government on developing a youth advisory council for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to redirect the question to the Minister responsible for Youth. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for Youth.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree that the Youth Parliament is an exciting opportunity for young people to become engaged and involved in politics. I think we had a really good opportunity to see that during the most recent Youth Parliament.
Beyond the Youth Parliament, I don't think that there has been any action taken to establish a year-round youth council in this government or previous governments. As the Minister responsible for Youth, I will be happy to receive any recommendations from the Member, or committee, or any Member of the Legislative Assembly on how we can address getting something like this started up. I do know that, in the past, for youth portfolios, we have provided support for such things as youth conferences, youth events. Through MACA, we have the Youth Corps program as well as youth ambassador training programs, but currently there is really nothing in terms of work that has been done around a youth council, but I'm more than willing to take recommendations and suggestions from Members of this Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'll ask this Minister if he recalls when he made a commitment on the floor of the House to look into this issue and work on a proposal or some sort of policy development for establishing a youth council. That is a commitment he made on the floor. Does he recall that and is he working on that?
Yes, I do recall making that commitment. Work to date, there hasn't been much work done on it. I will have to bring it to the Committees at Cabinet to look forward, but any other suggestions that the Member or standing committee can provide us in terms of what we should be doing, we would really appreciate that. We are obviously all working together to address some of these issues. I welcome any suggestions from the Members moving forward. I will bring that to Committee of Cabinet to look at how we can move forward on that.
Can the Minister responsible for Youth advise on why there have been delays in moving this along? He made a commitment in the last sitting of the House, which was several months ago. What are the factors that have contributed to the delay of developing a policy proposal for establishing a youth council in the Northwest Territories?
As the Member notes, we do have a very big mandate to address and work on and we have made that commitment as the government to get those mandate commitments done. I know that the Government of Canada has worked on a youth council, and that's something new that they have addressed this year. We are working on a mandate commitments as well as the general business of government, so it's when we are giving new direction on something like a youth council or policy. I mean, our priorities are making sure that we focus on our mandate commitments that we made at the beginning of this 18th Assembly.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister asked for suggestions. I mean, I'm not sure I have much more to suggest other than a youth advisory council. You know, Youth Parliament is a model parliament. It's not an advisory body. Youth Corps, all these volunteer activities, they're about engagement and getting people involved. Can the Minister commit to directing his staff to working with the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, which he is, to direct his staff, now that he's got them, in his department to prioritize this work? Because my understanding is there are three full-time people in his department who work on youth issues. Can they start putting something together? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
First and foremost, I just want to thank my staff within MACA for the work that they do. They do have a very extensive work to do with all of our communities throughout the Northwest Territories, as well as youth and volunteers who we do work with. You know, I don't want to say that we are not fully resourced, but I want to make sure that the work that we set out in our mandate and the work that we do with our community governments and hamlets, that work gets done, because those are essential services that we provide to residents of the Northwest Territories. To take them away from that kind of work around essential services and some of our youth programs and development programs to start focusing on a youth council, I think we need to look at our priorities when it does come to essential services throughout the Northwest Territories. I will be working and chatting with them and continuing to support the youth programs that we currently have in place. As I mentioned, I want to make sure that my staff focus on the work that is needed for the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I spoke of the core needs for housing for the Northwest Territories. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation if there will be a plan to reduce core need presented to the Assembly in the near future. Thank you.
Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, in 2017 the NWT Housing Corporation did seek feedback from the residents and our stakeholders through our housing engagement survey. We did hear from our residents on what is needed in all of our communities. Further, specific actions to address core needs were detailed in the Towards Level Ground publication, which also includes costs by initiative. This government is committed to decreasing core need by 250 households per year, and each initiative developed under the Strategic Renewal of the NWT Housing Corporation is intended to address the core need.
Some of these initiatives do include seniors aging in place retrofits, our rental supplement program that we have with non-government organizations, community housing support initiatives, a housing support worker pilot, developing community plans with all of our 33 communities across the Northwest Territories, as well as new home ownership programs that we are working on. We are working with our Indigenous governments, with partners to address the core housing need in our communities, and I think that is something that has really taken off during this government, and working with our Indigenous governments and community governments to address this. I will be willing to give more of an update to standing committee and Members and some more detailed programs as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to thank the Minister for that response. We are not seeing the actual work on the ground. Unfortunately, that's lot of good planning, but no action.
Mr. Speaker, when is the NWT Housing Corporation planning to update a comprehensive needs survey? From 2017 to 2018, in the Northwest Territories, there were 1,200 jobs lost, so I'm assuming that that has some impact on the affordability of housing in the Northwest Territories, so I think it's urgent that we do something instead of staying with the 2014 needs survey, that we do something that is current today. So I'd like to ask the Minister when that is going to happen.
I do look forward to working with committee, as well as our stakeholders, on addressing the core housing needs throughout the Northwest Territory. The next NWT community survey will commence in January 2019, and as I mentioned, if the Member does have any specific communities or is saying that work is not being done in some of the communities, if he can let me know a little bit more of the specifics, we can look at addressing it. Like I said, I will give a more detailed presentation to committee, or to Members if they would like, upon their request.
I can provide that information that the Minister is asking for. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister what the target is for core need? Across the country, the core needs levels are at about 12 per cent. We in the Northwest Territories always sit at about 20 per cent, so after years and years of putting $100 million a year into housing, we're still at 20 per cent across the territory, and we haven't moved from there. I don't know, maybe we've gone up, maybe we've gone down, I don't know what has happened since 2014; there is no new survey to indicate that. So I'd like to ask the Minister: assuming that we're working off the 2014 numbers, of 19.8 per cent core need across the territory, what is the target for when you reduce core need by 250 units per year? What is the new target number after that work is done?
As I mentioned earlier, we are committed, this government is committed to decreasing core need by 250 households per year. We have various initiatives that we are doing to address the core needs, whether it's home ownership repairs, new unit constructions, looking at seniors' housing, we're doing a senior housing study as well, but it really takes a really strong partnership with some of our stakeholders, as well as some of our community governments, Indigenous governments, to address this, and also work that we've been doing with the federal government.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to hear the Minister speak about work with the community governments. I'd like to ask the Minister if there is a plan to directly fund the Aboriginal governments, or community governments, in order to address core need housing in the communities? Thank you.
As I mentioned, one of the ways we're doing this is through the community housing support initiatives. We do have some really good partnerships with some of our Indigenous governments currently, and we're going to continue to work with them, but we're open to working with community governments as well as Indigenous governments, to see how we can work together to address some of the housing needs that we see in our communities. We are committed, we are willing to meet with our Indigenous governments moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on March 22nd I got a Christmas present, a little early or it might have been a little bit late, from the Department of Lands. This is a press secretary release saying that there was going to be a media announcement about the leases in there, so this has been a gift that's been given to me ever since then, and I keep on getting questions from my leadership and members in the communities. So this is my question to the Minister of Lands: can the Minister please advise why the media offer was offered to them after our winter session, and not during the winter session? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The new leases' amounts, of course, came into effect on April 1st, and the media was briefed on the changes we were making the week prior to that. These changes had been discussed in the business plans during the winter session, and the media announcement went forward as part of a formal notification to the residents of the Northwest Territories of the changes. Letters were also sent out to each of the lessees on March 19, 2018. The press, the media had been aware of these changes; I see a story as long ago as February 2017, when these very changes were discussed. So really it was an update to that information. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I understand, you know, he made a commitment and talked about us in standing committee in 2017, but why wasn't this information given to us saying this was going to happen April 1st? We didn't hear anything about it, and I attended a number of the meetings. I may have missed the meeting, so why weren't we informed of this happening? Because, again, it's a Christmas gift. Not one I wanted, but it's a Christmas gift from the Minister. So will he please explain why it took him until after we had the session?
