Minister responsible for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, I don't have numbers in front of me. As I mentioned in the last set of questions, under section 107 of the Workers' Compensation Act, the Minister responsible does have the authority to appoint a workers' advisor. A decision was made, finalized, and like I mentioned earlier, I am proud to have a long-time Northerner in that position working on behalf of our employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The position is for the public, not for our employees, and certainly not for the Minister. What criteria did the Minister use to select the candidate? Just being a long-time Northerner, a long-time personal staff member of the Minister? Or were there other selection criteria?
I am not going to go into the details of somebody's resume, but I can tell the Member and the Members should know that this individual is very well-qualified, has done a lot of work at the local, regional, territorial, even national level, and that I have full confidence that they can continue to do the work moving forward.
The Minister has spoken about the urgency around this appointment. How much time did the previous workers' advisor give notice when they resigned from the position? How much time did the Minister have to fill this position?
I will have to get the details for the Member. I can inform the Member, though, that the previous workers' advisor did do some crossover work with the current workers' advisor, just for the continuity, as well as working to make sure that the there was a good transition moving into the position. I can get that information for the Member and share it with him.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is it was three months. The Minister had three months to fill this position. The Minister can't tell me if there is more than one person. I would like to know what process is in place to ensure that Cabinet and political appointments conform to the standards of transparency and fairness that Northerners have come to expect from their government? Thank you.
The Member knows that people in our positions, whether it is an MLA or an administrator, in this case with the workers' advisor, as I mentioned, it is legislated under section 107 of the Workers' Compensation Act that we have that opportunity to appoint a workers' advisor. Under 107(5), we also have the opportunity to appoint them from the public service. As I have mentioned, a decision was made. I stand by that decision. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. My question is about the seniors' heating subsidy. When the Minister talked about those changes to the program, did the department ask for more money to the department, or did they actually use the existing money to make these changes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to get back to the MLA on that and actually get the actual facts on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister is going to get to me with that there because, again, we have made a change. There should have been new money to make this change if we got 100, and if there isn't, that means seniors or elders were getting the short end of it who were actually accessing the program. The Minister actually talked about elders going out and cutting wood and that to help, you know, pay for that. That is great, but did they look at actually allocating the money that was litres as money instead of just coming out with monetary value?
What I do know is that not all seniors actually got less money. It is that some of the regions, the higher zones, zone 3, actually, had an increase because their cost of living was substantially higher than, I'm going to say, it is a lot higher cost of living in Tuktoyaktuk than it is in Yellowknife or in Hay River. I hate to say that, but that is the reality we face.
This program actually extended it so more seniors can actually access the program. Not all seniors, but it was based on looking at comparable communities to see what their cost of living factors were, market baskets, and defining what their subsidies should be. Remembering that this is a subsidy program. It is not meant to take care of every single cost of seniors, and so it was determined that it was more equitable to give a cash payment versus a litre payment because of the fact that many seniors in our smallest communities are still using wood heat and are not getting the full allocation because of that.
Again, I thank the Minister. She talked about wood heat. In my riding, small communities use wood heat. They use that and they use fuel subsidy. These elders are in, you know, older ages. Again, when we did these changes, why weren't the communities, like we talk about the seniors, but why weren't the political bodies asked then question? Like DFN and those political bodies.
I am trying to remember back if that was actually because, again, I was allocated this portfolio in April, and so I am trying to remember and I will have to get back to the Member on whether that was just before I took over or just after I took over, but it was fairly soon that it came up. I do know that they work closely with the Seniors' Society. I don't know who the other stakeholders were, but I will find out that. Again, stating that we are doing a full review of this program in the summer after this one year is finished.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I appreciate the Minister saying that the department is going to look at it, review that, and I greatly appreciate she is going to get back to me with that information. The Minister spoke about, when I asked her questions earlier, she talked about income support and having to look at it. Can the Minister advise, if seniors apply for this seniors' subsidy, do the department staff actually encourage the seniors to apply for income support, as well?
Education, Culture and Employment is supposed to be actually providing as much, the best, customer service as possible. I cannot say that every single person is always doing that, but the direction is that they should be very consumer focused, and they should be, actually, if there are seniors who are struggling financially, they should be talking about all of the options. So, if they are accessing this program and their income is low and they are still in need, then my hope, and I will look into that, is that they should actually be referring people and saying, "Would you consider income support?" Recognizing again that many seniors are very stubborn and very proud and very proud in their ways, so sometimes asking for help is not always easy for that population. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. They concern the discovery of the health records in the Fort Simpson dump, a discovery that caught the attention of my constituents, as well. I am aware that there is work going on behind the scenes to investigate how they got there, but let's turn to the people whose information has been compromised. Has the department been able to contact everyone whose file was found there? Thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the breach was incredibly troubling. We take it very seriously. We have been working very closely with the Information and Privacy Commissioner, who actually has possession of those files that were found. We have attempted to reach out to all of the clients, but the records are quite old and some of the contact information on those records is not current, so we are trying to track down some individuals. As of February 21st, 69 individuals have been notified by the authority, by mail. As I said, the documents, some of them, are very old, so we have not been able to get contact information from everybody. We will keep reaching out until we have reached everybody.
I appreciate the files are old, but I am interested in knowing what efforts specifically the department is making to reach out to the other half of that group whose records were found.
Some of the individuals no longer reside in the Northwest Territories. Some have passed away. We are trying to reach out to family where appropriate. We are also reviewing our own records to see if we could find current locations, current addresses, for those individuals. We will take all mechanisms, all means, to try to find current location, current contact information. We are still at it. We have not stopped. We will keep going until we have reached everybody.
I appreciate the detail the Minister was able to provide. I understand that the department appointed two people to investigate, and the investigate is ongoing. Are there any early results that the department is going to act on immediately?
We are always looking for opportunities to strengthen our response to these types of breaches, to make sure that they do not happen again. This one is very complex. There is lots of information out there, lots of conflicting information, and I think it's too early to presume we know what the findings are going to be. We are working closely with the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The Information and Privacy Commissioner, will likely be making a report on this, as well, and I look forward to discussing those findings with the Information and Privacy Commissioner, with committee, to make sure that we find ways to ensure this does not happen again.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The analogy here is that sometimes the transportation safety board will issue an early report on an accident because the findings are of such importance that they cannot wait for the year that it takes to do a full review. My final question is: when will the public learn why this data breach happened and how another can be avoided?
We are certainly not waiting a year. We are anticipating we will get a report back by the end of March, barring any unforeseen circumstances or other challenges. We will need to get that report, review it, have discussions with committee and other stakeholders, and then we will be releasing what we can. Some of the information we may not be able to release as a result of privacy concerns, but, where possible, we need to be able to discuss what happened, how it happened, and what we are planning to do to make sure it does not happen again. We want to do that as soon as possible, but we have got to get the report first. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents entitled "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 564-18(3): Expanding Legal Aid Outreach"; "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 569-18(3): Sexual Assault Reporting"' and "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 571-18(3): Impact of Alcohol Spectrum Disorder on the Justice System." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board.
Tabled Document 347-18(3):
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "2018 Annual Report, Public Utilities Board of the Northwest Territories." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table the following five documents entitled "Yukon Quartz Mining Land Use Approval LQ00253b for Mactung Property dated February 4, 2016"; "Application for Class 4 Quartz Mining Land Use Approval by GNWT for Mactung Advanced Exploration dated December 20, 2018"; "Mactung Advanced Exploration – Project Proposal, by Terra Tech Canada Inc. dated December 2018"; "Responses to Information Requests dated February 6 and February 13, 2019"; and lastly, a CBC News story, "Federal and N.W.T. governments team up to sell Cantung Mine and Mactung Deposit, CBC News dated February 14, 2019." Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Monday, February 25, 2019, I will move that Bill 38, Protected Areas Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
