Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in the sitting, my honourable friend from Yellowknife North asked the Minister responsible for Infrastructure some questions surrounding security delays of the YZF Airport. At that time, the Minister identified that the Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority staffing was the biggest problem and the cause of these delays. A recent CBC article, on February 20th, had a response from CATSA on these delays, and they said that an additional security line was never part of the airport renovation plan that they submitted to the agency, and if the government wants additional screening lines, it needs to present a business case that would include staffing and those extra levels of resourcing. I would like to ask the Minister: has CATSA been engaged and been asked for the things that they are saying they were never asked for? Is their information correct? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The CATSA system, they set their own levels of service, Mr. Speaker. As I said in the House the other day, we are tracking the number of people who are going through the line-ups. I have said that the reduced wait time is down by 30 percent. We engage CATSA regularly, because we have to engage them on when we did the expansion for the space for them and put in the new CATSA Plus system, so those discussions are ongoing.
I am sure the Member is going to have a number of questions, but when we talk about CATSA Plus setting their own service levels, our understanding, based on the information that we have right now, the rating that we have is 1.2 lines for the CATSA Plus system. For us to get to two lines, there is going to have to be a significant more amount of traffic that has to take place for us to work with them to make a decision to install an extra line. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That is a bit more clear, that there is some policy behind it. Is that what CATSA is saying? Has the proposal been brought forward to the Crown corporation for an additional line? Because that is what the people want, and I don't know if the Minister has done it.
I am not sure if the Member is listening to what I am saying. I am saying CATSA Plus sets their own service levels. Right now, there is a 1.2 rating for the lines. To go to two lines, there is going to have to be a significant increase of traffic. As I said in the House the other day, we are monitoring the amount of traffic that is going there, the wait times. We are doing it manually. We are going to put in an automated system to be able to collect this data to be able to say, you know, CATSA, it clearly states that we need to have two lines in the Yellowknife Airport. Until we get that documentation, how can I just say I am going to put in an extra line and request for this information? It is no different than us answering questions on that side of the House. We have to have data, and I have to have data for CATSA Plus.
If the Minister doesn't have the data, then how does he know that security lines have been reduced by 30 percent? His officials are telling the City of Yellowknife it is going to be 60 percent. He is telling this House it is 30 percent, and now he is telling this House he doesn't have the numbers to justify additional expansions of security time. How is the Minister getting his information?
As I said, clearly the Member is not listening to what I am saying. We are collecting data out there. Our data has clearly told us that the reduction of wait times is down by 30 percent. We are doing it manually. We have a person sitting there collecting that data. We will get this information more clearly when we put in an automated system. We are at 1.2 lines right now. There have to be two lines to have more significant more traffic at the Yellowknife Airport for them to make a decision to install two lines.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am listening to the Minister. I don't know if he is listening to my questions. He is providing some answers, but I'd like to know if he can produce this information. Will he table the numbers he has so far so the public can clearly understand exactly what the issues are and why we can't get this enhanced system that, again, people are asking for? Thank you.
I don't have a problem tabling any of this information. Clearly the Member is playing on words, here. We are doing our due diligence to try to improve the system. We are working with CATSA Plus. I want to get even more information out there for the general public, and I want them to know this. When we work with CATSA's system, we have to supply the space for free. We have to supply the electricity for free. We have to supply the heat for free. It's not like this is just some ad hoc thing we're doing. We are trying to improve times at the airport for the general public.
As I said, there is a lot of pressure on the system. I said yesterday in the House that we are working with CATSA Plus. There is definitely a deficiency around the number of people who are employed out there. We work with them closely. I mentioned the type of signage and stuff, and that we have worked with CATSA Plus to improve wait times and try to get people through the line-ups faster. Some of these people who are travelling through our airport are definitely not savvy travellers. They're not on an airplane every week, like some people are, and we are working with them closely to improve these things. It's not just something where I can snap my fingers and ask the federal government and put another line in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, the Standing Committee on Social Development received a presentation from the NWT Housing Corporation about the senior planning study. I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of the work done by the corporation. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why the corporation's primary focus is on the communities of Hay River and Yellowknife when, if you look at the projected seniors population of 2028, we have four communities that will see seniors' populations increase over 90 percent? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank and welcome the Member's comments about the public presentation that we had with committee yesterday. As Members know, seniors are one of the fastest-growing populations not only in the Northwest Territories, but right across Canada. In terms of the question that was asked, in terms of Yellowknife and Hay River, they are the two largest seniors' populations in the Northwest Territories, and we do know that there is existing seniors' infrastructure that will require replacement. I have said that in the House before. I just want to remind all Members that we have also invested over the last few years in building seniors' complexes in the communities of Aklavik, Fort Liard, Whati, Fort Good Hope, and Fort McPherson. As I mentioned in a statement that I addressed last week and in answering questions this week, we are going to be developing community housing plans, and looking at the priorities of the communities and getting their input into where we need to invest our dollars. I'm looking forward to that, meeting with our leadership and community members, and I do appreciate that the Member is concerned with the results of the study. We look forward to using that study to look at how we are going to invest dollars going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand that we are going out and doing community housing plans, and that's really good, but there are 33 communities, and some of the communities are seeing elders' populations grow, increase drastically, here. I spoke in this House about elders in the Nahendeh riding who want to stay in their home communities and prefer their own homes. However, O and M costs may be difficult for them, and they would like to maybe stay in a housing unit. Will the Minister be willing to look at adding fourplex units for communities in the NWT Housing Corporation's plan, should communities show a demand for this type of infrastructure before the housing plans are done?
During yesterday's public presentation, we did get some discussions back and forth about the respect for our elders. I think all 19 of us, and anybody in this House, do respect our elders and want to promote and work with them to live as long as they can in their units. Yes, obviously, we would be looking at fourplexes in the communities, should the communities want to pursue that. It would be energy efficient over the existing designs that we have had in the past, and also it would reduce the cost of construction. So as we work with communities and leaders developing these community plans, I would be more than open to looking at these fourplexes. As I mentioned, we want to keep our elders living in their units as long as we can, and also providing those units in the five communities that I mentioned previously, and having respect for our elders, their knowledge and what they can continue to provide to our youth and our communities.
I couldn't agree more with the Minister. Elders are very important, and they are our foundation. I am greatly happy to hear that the Minister and the corporation are looking at that, and they will look into it maybe even before community plans are done, if the communities come forward. My next question is: in some of the smaller communities, we do not have contractors or tradespeople. In other regional centres, contractors do not find the projects big enough that are happening in these small communities to bid on, so we can see projects delayed or not done at all. Can the Minister advise if the corporation has looked at this challenge and thought about a possible solution, such as using the local housing authorities' staff to help deal with these types of concerns?
Yes, we have looked at that. We know that there is a concern in some of our smaller communities that don't have contractors or anyone who can do a housing maintainer program or do repairs for some of our homeowners, and even our elders. We do provide support through our care prevention maintenance programs, as well as seniors' aging in place programs, as well as other resources that we can bring to the table. As we discussed yesterday and as I have said in the House, we are going to be looking at a northern housing summit, and in the public meeting yesterday I did say, once that is all settled and confirmed, we will be putting out an invitation to committee to come and listen to that, but it's something that we are looking at and will be addressing and providing those services to the communities. I thank the Member for bringing that up, because that is something that we have seen and we are going to be looking at addressing.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Minister for all his answers to this point, and I think it's great to see that the corporation is looking at this and trying to help our elders in the smaller communities, so that's a very positive step. During the presentation, and now on the Floor, the Minister spoke about a northern housing summit. I found this to be very exciting when we were at the presentation and here on the Floor. Can the Minister please tell the House where the summit will be held, when will it be happening, and who will be invited to the summit besides the Standing Committee on Social Development? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Once the dates are finalized; we're just going through a draft agenda right now. All of our staff and our stakeholders are pretty excited about the summit. It's going to be the first one that has ever been held in the Northwest Territories. We have been providing that information to Indigenous governments. We also have met with the Seniors' Society and the NWT Disabilities Council to have them come and do a presentation. Right now, we are looking at having the summit up in Inuvik, mainly because, as I have said in this House, we have had a very strong partnership with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. They have worked on partnering with us in our capital planning and the work that we've done, and we want to showcase the work that they've done for the NWT Housing Corporation. So we are looking at Inuvik. Once the dates are finalized, I will share them with committee. Once again, we did do an open invitation to committee, and we can actually open it up to all Members, but we are working with the stakeholders that have an interest in our housing needs across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I talk about the possibility of a winter road to Lutselk'e on Great Slave Lake. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister would do an internal look at the possibility of constructing a winter road on the Great Slave Lake to Lutselk'e. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The answer would be no. The reason it would be no is because the Member has already asked a couple times about us having a look at putting an ice crossing in to Lutselk'e, and there are significant challenges around that, around safety and construction and maintenance. We believe that this will outweigh the possible benefits of putting something like that in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I believe that they have constructed a winter road in to Lutselk'e in the past. It could be an opportunity to look at it again. I would like to ask the Minister if he would at least take a look at it and maybe have some of the officials who do their ice profiling and whatnot to look at something and have a discussion with the opportunities with such a road with the community.
I can certainly get my staff to give me a quick update on it. From what I know about ice roads being in this portfolio now for the last three-and-a-half years is: we have significant challenges, even with the Great Bear Lake Deline crossing. It has given us a lot of grief over the last couple of years. Even on that one, with the very short ice crossing that is there, it has very similar challenges that we have on Great Slave Lake, with pressure ridges and stuff, as the Member has clearly stated in his Member's statement. We are planning to look at rerouting the overland route for that in the future.
With that said, you know, these challenges that we have on Great Slave Lake are probably even bigger than what we are having on Great Bear Lake. We have an ice platform that is especially large and easily shifts. There are great concerns about safety around that, and safety is our number one priority.
The reason I am asking the Minister if he will discuss with the local people is that what I am told by the people in Lutselk'e is there is a short window, a small window, maybe, or a short time frame in which the road would be okay. It could be as short as two weeks, like I indicated, and it could be as long as a month before the pressure ridges start to come.
Again, I am asking the Minister: he said he could get the staff to look at it again. I am asking if there is at all a possibility that maybe it would not be an ice road that would be constructed for regular traffic, but maybe something that would be done to haul in, say, the health centre, should that be ready to receive materials for the community. I would like to ask the Minister if he would look at the possibility of looking at this from a special type of situation where there would be a short time frame versus a regular, full ice road that is usually constructed to the other communities that need ice roads?
As I said, I can have a quick conversation with our staff. Everything that I have talked about previously on this particular type of project, and particularly on Great Slave Lake, as I said, the safety standards and pressure ridges and unpredictable situations that could happen on Great Slave Lake, the department clearly told me that they do not think that it would meet our current safety standards. I can have that conversation internally with our department and get back to the Member on what the possibility would be. At this point, it clearly shows that this would not be possible.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can understand the liability insurance and everything that the government has to do, realize, or have in place when they are building ice roads. Would the Minister consider supporting maybe a local group out of Lutselk'e to be able to construct an ice road that could be used for the community as a test to see how long the ice road would last? I mean, it changes season to season. I realize that. Would the Minister be willing to, again, maybe have his department discuss a possibility of supporting a group in Lutselk'e to construct an ice road from here to Lutselk'e? Thank you.
As I said, there are some serious concerns of safety around this, as I said. As a Minister, I am not quite prepared to look at it. If we were to even discuss having someone in Lutselk'e have a look at this thing, it is going to cost some money. That would have to go through the budgetary process. That is a discussion that I can have with the Member going forward. That is going to be up to the 19th Legislative Assembly, if we were to look at budgeting for something like that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I spoke in my statement earlier today about the ongoing administrative review of the income security programs. My understanding is that the review is to be completed and changes implemented for the end of the Assembly. Can the Minister give us an update on the work? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we have done so far with the Income Support Program: I know that our department regularly reviews the Income Support Programs to make sure that they are updated regularly, but I have taken it a step further. I have actually met with all of the NGOs, as many as possible that I could, recognizing that time was not on my side in this endeavour. I met with the NGOs. Every NGO was invited to bring one person who is accessing income support at this time so that we can have a voice from them. "Nothing about us without us" is my philosophy.
Since we compiled that information, we have provided a "what we heard" report. We have sent out a request to MLAs and to Indigenous governments to ask them for feedback on our Income Support Program. As soon as we get that feedback and as soon as this session is finished, it is one of my major priorities to get tackling. Again, we don't have a lot of time left in this Assembly. We will be looking at short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. I am going to start knocking off those short-term goals. People know me for doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. It is all good news. I do sincerely appreciate her work on this area. I have repeatedly mentioned the need to index our Income Security Programs. Of course, those include income assistance, student financial assistance, seniors, and benefits to people with disabilities. We need to index those to the cost of living. Is the indexing of income security payments an element of the current review, and will recommendations be made to introduce indexing?
At the current time, right now, we don't do the indexing, but we have made a number of enhancements to the programs just in the last few years. We have increased our senior citizen supplementary benefit. We have increased the NWT child benefit. We have improved our senior home heating subsidy. We have extended our rental allowances for single applicants. Then, of course, in our proposed mains for 2019-2020, we proposed an increase for disabled and age allowance for people. I am looking forward to the results of all of the MLAs and Indigenous governments. If that is a concern, then I am looking forward to seeing it in the surveys from the MLAs.
Thanks to the Minister for that. I will certainly be recommending indexing, and the Minister knows this. I have also mentioned problems where income assistance recipients find themselves where they don't actually have any money to live on because of windfalls or wages from previous benefit periods, recalculations, and so on. Is there any consideration being given to repayment plans, much like rental arrears plans, to reduce the hardship of drastic benefit reductions?
I am actually quite disappointed to actually hear that question, because it is a major concern for me. People cannot afford to just get penalized if they are on income support. They are some of our most marginalized populations. We need to work with them. It is not okay to just cut them off. I inquired with the department, and my understanding is that we try to work with them so that there is not a financial hardship. The minimum repayment is $25 a month. One of the critiques that I did hear from the NGOs, and I am thinking that is part of our problem, is that we are not good at communicating, and I think that goes across a lot of departments. Right now, we are looking at our communication.
I want people in the public to know that, if you have to pay income support back, come to us. We want to support you and make a repayment plan. We will try to make it within your financial means. The lowest amount will be $25 a month. I am hoping that that is affordable for people. We should not be penalizing the most marginalized in our population.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister for that. I have discussed with her constituent issues and raised this issue with her. We have clear cases that we have discussed together. I have constituents who get cut off, and they have nothing to live with. We have to fix this, and I hear the commitment from the Minister to work on this. I expect all of my colleagues to give her suggestions on how to improve the system, because we shouldn't be cutting people off.
I have supported the Minister in this administrative review, and I hope it includes indexing, but we need a more systematic approach, Mr. Speaker, one that is around a basic income guarantee. I am wondering: can the Minister tell us whether she has considered a basic income guarantee pilot project here in the Northwest Territories, and when is she prepared to see that happen? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I think yesterday I talked a little bit about things I've been called, and not being called easy and not being called lazy. One thing I have been called is, and I don't even know where it comes from, but I have been called a little bit of a socialist, and within that system, the guaranteed basic income would fit very well.
I do adhere to it. I had asked the department about it, and my understanding from the department was that there wasn't a lot of research on it that showed it work. I am not accepting that answer, Mr. Speaker, so I have asked the department to go back and look at that research again and show it to me.
My worry is that I believe in it. I think it may be the right way to go, but I am also concerned about the time that we have left in this Assembly. I am doing the research now. If my findings prove that it is viable, then it will be in my recommendations for the next Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
