Thanks to the Minister for that. To help him with his homework, I am going to table the document a little bit later today. That trusty mandate tracker website shows that the knowledge agenda action plan was supposed to be released in the fourth quarter of 2018. Can the Minister tell us why it has been delayed and when the public can expect to see it, hopefully in draft form?
The work on the knowledge economy continues to progress appropriately. ITI, from my understanding, is working on the background research to support the development of the draft framework for the advancement of the knowledge economy, and we are hoping to have this work done by the winter of 2019 for review by the next government. That goes towards the Member's question.
It was supposed to be a mandate item in this particular government. However, there is still some work that we need to be doing. As I said in my Minister's statement before, some of the work that we are doing on the on-the-land program is, starting this month, we will be holding some open houses with communities across the territories to get input on the on-the-land unit and some of the initiatives that we are working on. For this particular issue that the Member is raising, my understanding is that we are hoping to have the work done for review by the next government.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to thank the Minister for that. I was hoping that we were going to get to the work on the knowledge economy a lot sooner. It was something that we added to the mandate at mid-term. There may be a chance to talk about this again tomorrow. Again, that trusty mandate tracker shows that there is supposed to be a proposal developed for a northern centre for sustainability and community resilience. Can the Minister provide a status report on the development of this proposal, including how much funding has been secured? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
The Departments of ENR and Education, Culture and Employment are preparing to undertake a feasibility study in 2019-2020 for the northern centre of excellence. In light of the recent Aurora College foundational review, it was determined that the scope of the feasibility study would be revised to consider the outcomes of the Aurora research review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I was asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about upgrading, and stuff like that. I need to follow up with a couple more questions for the Minister. We have set up a meeting to go into the communities. Can the Minister make a commitment to be prepared and to have her staff prepared to discuss upgrading and the challenges they are facing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going into the Nahendeh riding for a constituency tour, as long as the plans all follow through and we can get a double-engine plane. Anyone I hear at those meetings, I am willing to talk to. I am willing to listen to all of the concerns of the people, of whoever I meet with. That has just been my style. However, for me to make any commitments around how we are going to deal with upgrading or the community learning centres at that time would be inappropriate, because that is a process that has to be done within our polytechnic university as we move towards that. Yes, I will hear it, but no, I probably won't commit to anything at that time, unless they are easy commitments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am not asking her for a commitment, but I am asking her to make sure that she has her staff there, the superintendent of schools, ECE, and a couple of other people there, to hear the concerns from people about the upgrading needed. Can she commit to having at least a couple of those people available to be part of the tour?
I can commit to having staff available from Education, Culture and Employment. I will check with the superintendent. I am not sure of his availability, so I can't stand here today and commit to a superintendent when I don't even know if he will be available.
The Minister talked about distance learning and the program that the department is using, and it is a great program. However, it is very much a peer setting. It is the top level, to get people into college or to university. Can the Minister advise: is the department looking at adding additional courses to the distance learning opportunity?
When I first took over Education, I was shocked that we didn't even offer the upper-level courses in all of the small communities. I was naive and made an assumption that education was accessible to all. I have since learned that that is not so.
At this point, we are just trying to get the Northern Distance Learning into all of the small communities. With the adding of the four that are coming up now, that will bring it up to 15. Those are for the upper level. Those are the grades that people cannot access right now, currently, in their communities, although we still have issues with other ones. At this point, until we can get that Northern Distance Learning into every small community to address those top levels, I am not willing to look at it. After that is done, I think it should be something that an MLA should question the Minister on.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. Unfortunately, I'm asking the questions today, so I am not going to wait until tomorrow or until the future. I am asking about other courses, the expanding of the program right now that exists. Have you looked at that opportunity? Could you make a commitment to get the department to look, at least, that opportunity for expanding it to other courses, just not the peer courses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Like I said now, with the adding of four new schools this coming year, that's only bringing us up to 15 schools, and then, next year, we'll be bringing it up to another five, so we can actually have 20 schools. I will put the offer out there to the department and ask them to consider it. I will not make it a full-blown research project with a "what we heard" document, an action plan, and a framework because I don't think we're at that stage yet, Mr. Speaker. I think we're still trying to implement the beginning intent of the programs before expanding it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Housing about the Housing Corporation's future plans in Hay River. I'm aware that there's a seniors' planning study that was undertaken, and so, that's probably going to be fed into what becomes a broad plan for the town. Instead of asking about what's the big plan, I'll ask about some specifics. The Hay River high-rise has been an issue for years. It's been ongoing, and I've asked the Ministers questions about this before. There are many units in that building rented out to people on income assistance who are waiting for social housing to become available. If you just look at the news over the past couple of years, there are ongoing issues with the fire marshal, different structural aspects of the building, and there are concerns that this building may be shut down at some point. Every time I bring this up, I get the answer that we're working on it. We have a team that's looking at things. This team has been together for years, now. What is the plan in case the Hay River high-rise has to shut down and evict all of its residents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right. Currently, there are no public housing units in the high-rise. It is on our agenda to take a look at, obviously, if something should happen in terms of if the building should be condemned. We need to have a plan. We are working with the leadership in Hay River to address that. Obviously, under the National Housing Co-Investment Fund that I've made statements in this House about, that provides an opportunity for partners to collaborate and work together to develop possibly a new rental construction.
We do know that that is an issue in Hay River. Like I said, it is on our agenda. The Member did make comments that we do have the seniors' planning study, is another concern that we do have in Hay River, and we are willing to continue work with our stakeholders to see how we can address this. As the Member knows, we have sat down with the new leadership in Hay River to look at how we can move forward in terms of addressing whether it's the market rental units, or even public housing in Hay River. As I've said in this House, our community housing plans are going to help us create priorities, hopefully for all our communities across the Northwest Territories, and we are looking forward to working with the Town of Hay River to address these needs. Thank you.
I, too, hope for the best, but I think we need to prepare for the worst, and it doesn't sound like there's actually a concrete plan to deal with the possibility of a lot of these people being essentially homeless if the high-rise is forced to shut down.
Another issue is the Riverview Lodge in Hay River. It's a seniors' home. It's about 40 years old, and I've heard rumours that it might be replaced. It might be demolished. I'd like the Minister to speak about what are the plans for the Riverview Lodge in Hay River?
Yes, we are going to be looking at a replacement within the next five years for that building. The Housing Corporation plans to construct the replacement seniors' complex on existing NWT Housing Corporation's own land, avoiding the need to displace the current senior tenants. We do have a plan in place moving forward. I can get more details for the Member, but there is a plan in place. As I mentioned, we're looking at a replacement within the next five years. Obviously, we don't want to displace our seniors. We want to make sure that they are in an existing infrastructure, and we will keep the Member updated on that plan.
I appreciate that answer. I'm also asking because the employees of the housing authority need to know what's going on, as well, because they're the ones who really have to work on the front line and answer these questions. The Minister mentioned that the Riverview Lodge will be built on existing housing-owned land in Hay River. There's a lot of land owned by the Housing Corporation in Hay River. There are the 26 lots all clumped together that were formerly known as Disneyland. Can the Minister give us an update on what the plans are for those lots of land in Hay River that the housing authority owns but are not being used?
The Housing Corporation currently owns six vacant lots in Hay River. Four of these lots comprise, as the Member said, the Disneyland property, which is earmarked for the replacement of the Riverview Lodge. At present, this land is required to support the NWT Housing Corporation's capital planning needs, and we'll continue to focus on that. Should any land or property be identified as surplus at a later date, the property will be disposed of in accordance with the NWT Housing Corporation's disposal policy.
Masi. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's very interesting, that they're planning on relocating the Riverview Lodge there. I didn't know that. Every week I look in the Hay River Hub, our newspaper, and I see ads from the Housing Corporation imploring residents to sell them land. You know, if private individuals have land, the Housing Corporation wants to buy it. What is the plan with all of this land the Housing Corporation is trying to buy up? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In short, we're always looking for land that will support our future capital planning and the projects that we are looking at developing. Obviously, in short, we are just looking for land that we can look at developing. As I said, the community housing plans that we are going to be working on, working with the leadership and stakeholders in the Town of Hay River, will help address the priorities that are needed. Yes, just in short, we're just looking for land that is going to help support our capital plans for the Town of Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 613-18(3): Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission Rate Structure." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table to the following three documents entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 590-18(3): Policing Services in Tsiigehtchic." It's actually one document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize.
Masi. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do have three documents I'd like to table. The first one is a letter from Ms. Catholique-Valpy in regard to her daughters' names spelled in traditional for identification. The second one is "Transactions of the Canadian Institute, Volume IV, 1892-93" and "The South Nahanni River Region, NWT (1820-1972): Patterns of Socio-Economic Transition in the Canadian North." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to table the following document, "Developing a Sustainable Knowledge Economy in the Northwest Territories: A Hotii t'seeda Discussion Paper." Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Thursday, March 7, 2019, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Tabled Document 237-18(3): 2018 Review of Members' Compensation and Benefits Report, be referred to the Committee of the Whole for consideration. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Thursday, March 7, 2019, I will move that Bill 42, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
