Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. This issue is between many departments, and I think that it's time that we put all of our resources under one department. My constituents want to know why we can't have long-term care facilities in our smaller communities like we did in Aklavik at the old Joe Greenland Centre. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hear the Member's concerns, and I hear those concerns from his constituents. I have heard them across the Northwest Territories. It's been asked several times. The answer is still the same. When it comes to long-term care, we are looking at level 3, 4, 5 acuity, individuals who actually have some high, complex needs, and, when we build long-term care facilities, we need to build them in close proximity where a greater range of services are available, things like doctors and other professionals who can provide support to those high-need patients. When it comes to levels 1 and 2, those are the types of things that the Housing Corporation has already moved forward with in building independent living units for seniors across the Northwest Territories. We have worked really closely with the Housing Corporation on that, and they have actually created space in these new independent living units where we, Health and Social Services, can offer programming out of to make sure that elders and seniors throughout the community can benefit from those facilities, not just the individuals living there.
Once again, I hear the Member's frustration. I hear the Member's concerns from constituents across the territories, but, when it comes to levels 3 and 4, we must provide safe services. They have to have a certain level of care able to be provided, and that can be provided in regional centres, where there are doctors and a greater range of services, as opposed to smaller communities, where in fact we could be putting people at greater degrees of risk with those facilities.
Will the Minister work with the housing Minister to hire staff to work in our elders' homes as a start?
We do have homecare workers throughout the Northwest Territories. In his riding, I believe we have three or four, I will confirm the numbers, who are providing supports to individuals who are staying in their communities and who want to age in place. Those home-support workers can go into those independent living units, where they exist, and I know there is one in Aklavik. I know that, hopefully soon, we will have one done in Fort McPherson, as well. We already are working with the Housing Corporation and, more importantly, we are working with the residents who are referred to these services to make sure that they get the services when they can.
That's good news. We are also looking forward to the opening of the elders' home in Fort McPherson, but we need a commitment. Will the Minister cost share with both ECE and Housing to ensure that we have a level of care on a daily basis in our elders' homes?
I do hear the Member. We do not provide homecare just because an individual is old. All homecare needs to be referred based on needs of an individual, and there is a range of services that we can provide through our home support, which does include activities of daily living support as well as some food preparation. So there is a wide range of services, but they do need to be referred out, so I would not be prepared to commit to providing home-support workers to the independent living units because some of those individuals might be independent enough and not actually want or need those services. However, I am committed to working with the Member. I am committed to working with all Members. We are doing a homecare review right now. It will help us articulate the actual amount of resources we need to provide this service well in the Northwest Territories. We are exploring the paid community family caregivers. We are about to roll out some pilots on that. When those things are done, we will be in a really good place to develop a business case to seek additional resources to provide the support that I hear Members and residents across this territory saying they want. We need to make sure that we do it in an evidence-based, logical way.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment regarding the next steps in the development of an NWT polytechnic university. Any future development of the university must be carried out in close cooperation with stakeholders, particularly municipal governments. Can the Minister tell us what formal and informal mechanisms the department has established on this specific file to ensure close collaboration with municipal governments? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I try to learn from my mistakes, so I am not going to try to pronounce a big word, but we don't have a formal MOU with any of the cities. In fairness, what we have been saying all along is three strong communities, three strong campuses, and 21 strong community learning centres. We can't ensure that we have three strong communities if we don't work closely with community governments.
I have met twice with each of the three communities while we were doing the review. When we were doing the government response, I went into all three of the communities myself. I have met formally twice with each community government during those meetings. I have also met with Indigenous governments during those meetings, as well. My commitment to them has been that we need to work together. To make the polytechnic university a success, it cannot be made in isolation by the Government of the Northwest Territories. We need the community governments along with us to make this successful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Minister for those remarks. I participated in one of the events that she held here in Yellowknife, so I will vouch for what she says. The Minister has probably by now had a chance to review the City of Yellowknife's University Feasibility and Benefits Study. Can the Minister say how this report will be taken into account in future work toward the establishment of a polytechnic university for the Northwest Territories?
In all honesty, as soon as the City of Yellowknife's University Feasibility and Benefits Study was produced, I wanted it right away. I wanted to see what it said so that I could be defended if I needed to. I was really, actually, quite happy to read it. It backed up a lot of what we had found in the review. Not only did it back it up, it actually expanded on some of the areas in justifying why we need to move into a polytechnic university. Yes, I have looked at the feasibility study. I know that the City of Yellowknife took that initiative. I am not telling other communities what to do, but it would be wonderful if the other communities actually did it, as well, because there are strengths that are unique to not only all three communities, but all regions within the Northwest Territories. Having that paper that identifies the strengths is a bonus for the City of Yellowknife, and we need to be cognitive as we move forward that we also look at the strengths and benefits that other communities have, as well.
I want to thank the Minister for that. She has probably opened the door for the towns of Fort Smith and Inuvik to come and knock on her door for some funding to help with their own work, but I think it is a great idea. In both the government's response to the Aurora College Foundational Review and the city's report and presentation to the standing committee, the need for a vision for post-secondary education was loud and clear. Can the Minister tell us how the visioning for post-secondary education renewal is being pursued, including a mandate for the new associate deputy minister, and how the stakeholders, including municipal governments, are going to be involved in setting that vision?
Our visioning exercise is happening now. I just want to put that out to the whole public. I am supporting for every individual within the Northwest Territories to take the time out to answer the survey. It is available on our Education, Culture and Employment website. You can go into an Education, Culture and Employment service centre in your communities or a government service office, or you can access it online through our website at ECE. It is important that all voices be heard, so I am again urging everyone to do that.
Within that survey, there is a spot where people can also put their feedback in as an organization. Not only the municipalities, but also organizations, such as Chamber of Commerce might want to; the Chamber of Mines might want to; the arts community might want to. There might be a lot of organizations. We are hearing that, as well, but again, you have the opportunity. You can put it forward as an organization, or you can put it forward as an individual. I believe that, the more people who fill out that survey, the better it will come. How does that relate? Once that survey is done, all of that information will be assessed, looking at the strengths of where we should be focusing our post-secondary education in the Northwest Territories. From that work, once we develop our territory-wide vision statement, then the polytechnic university will take that piece and develop a visioning exercise for the polytechnic university itself.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Certainly it is exciting times here in the North for post-secondary education. I know that the Minister is also setting up a series of seven talks in various communities, and I want to commend her for that, because there are some really interesting topics. Unfortunately, we are stuck here for some of them, but I know that I have been working with her office to get some public broadcasting of that done, as well.
I want to get back this issue of how the Minister sees herself and the department working more formally with municipal governments. What kind of mechanisms has she started to think about in that regard, about how the department should work with municipal governments? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
As stated publicly, in this House, behind closed doors, I have constantly said throughout this that it is important that we work with the community governments to make this right. I do want to commend the Member for actually saying that we have made a lot of progress on our polytechnic university. We have been talking about this for 15, 20 years. I am really honoured, as the Minister, to be able to, as one older politician told me, "get 'er done." It is time that we move forward with this, and it is not only time that we move forward in isolation with the Government of the Northwest Territories; we need to work with the communities.
Communities have a stake. Students do not just stay on campus. They expand throughout all of the community when they are accessing training or services education. We need to work closely with them. We have a commitment to meet regularly. We sit on the City of Yellowknife's education committee; I am not sure what it is called. We have committed to including them when we develop the strategic plan, the implementation plan. All three communities will be involved in that work.
It is important, whether I am in this chair next Assembly or not, that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment work very closely with all three communities to make sure that we get this right, so that the best services within the campus and in the communities as a whole are provided to students of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement I talked about the Transboundary Water Agreements. I would like to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources questions. My first question is: I know that the GNWT has signed bilateral agreements with all affected jurisdictions, with the exception of Saskatchewan. Can the Minister provide us with a timeline of when this bilateral agreement may be signed? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Negotiations towards the establishment of a bilateral water agreement currently are under way with Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is conducting a legal review of the intention document, and that review is ongoing. Negotiations will continue once that review is complete. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Under the master agreement, environment Ministers from their respective jurisdictions are not obligated to present reports from the Mackenzie River Basin Board. My question is: would our Minister commit to providing this House regular updates as the work is done within the board?
The work of the board is to provide a state of aquatic environment report every five years, and they get the funding to do that work. My understanding is that the next version of the report is coming out in 2020. I would have to follow up to see if there are yearly reports that are put out. I was on the board's website to see if there was an opportunity to find a yearly update, but I can look at that. The report is due in 2020.
Considering the master agreement has not received any funding increase since it was created in 1997, would the Minister commit to advocating for a funding increase?
I believe that there is adequate funding for the Mackenzie River Basin Board, and I think Members would expect me to say nothing less. They have $280,000 in annual contributions from all parties, $40,000 from the jurisdictions, and $8,000 from Canada. If they feel that there is a need for more resources, I am sure they will approach the appropriate ministers in the jurisdictions to make a case for more funding. Again, that is another one that I would have to follow up on, and I have not seen any requests from board representatives for our department to increase the funding.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if there are monitoring requirements. I am referring to maybe something a little technical, the monitoring requirements of the water within the Mackenzie River basin.
I believe we are always monitoring the quality of the water, especially with some of the projects that are going on in the southern jurisdictions. We have the Mackenzie data stream project, and I believe we have monitoring stations in almost 22 communities, as far as the work of the Northwest Territories. I would encourage Members to go on I believe there is a website, the Mackenzie data stream website. We have a lot of monitoring stations on the Mackenzie, down the valley. As they propose to do some work in the southern jurisdictions, I think the importance of the water monitoring on our part of the border is critically important so that we can see if there is any effect of some of the projects that they are doing in the southern jurisdiction. If we feel there is, then we need to raise those with the appropriate ministers in the southern jurisdictions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about some of the concerns I have been hearing regarding the Business Development and Investment Corporation. It seems like this corporation is not living up to its full potential and is not serving the residents of the Northwest Territories or the businesses of the Northwest Territories in the way that it was intended to. It performs bank-like lending functions, but, from what I hear, it does not do much else. I have heard that it's even hard to get anyone on the phone over there, even though reviews have noted that they have an exceptionally large staff for the scope of their work.
Mr. Speaker, according to section 4 of the BDIC Act, the Minister of ITI may establish written directives for the corporation, including directives relating to the economic objectives of the Government of the Northwest Territories. The priorities of this Assembly and the mandate of the GNWT have made clear that we prioritize economic diversification and workforce development, both areas that BDIC could assist in. I would like to ask the Minister: have there been any ministerial directives established by this government relating to these or any other issues pursuant to the BDIC Act? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, there have not.
We are three years in. Why not?
The act actually has a requirement to have a review done every five years, and that process is under way right now. The draft is coming shortly to my desk, then will be coming to Cabinet and will be going back to committee.
I took a look at the last two reports that were done, the last two reviews, and they were scathing. There were a lot of improvements that were needed, and it does not seem that many of those improvements have been implemented. Given that we have another report coming, what is the Minister going to do to make sure that the results of this report are implemented and that we are going to see improvements come out of this?
There are probably three things that we are going to concentrate on, for sure, when we look at this review, and one of them is: how well did BDIC achieve its objectives in the last five years? That is one thing we are going to be very critical of. We have also done an environmental scan and had a look at other jurisdictions and what's going on. We are also looking seriously at the future challenges we have as a territory, the market conditions that are out there, as the economy is always changing, and considering what services and programs BDIC should have in place in the future. At the same time, we need to have another look at our legislation if changes need to be made based on the assessment that we are getting from them. I want to reassure Members of this House that I am very active on this file, and I want to have a serious look on how we are going to develop BDIC going into the future, to help the economic opportunities for the residents.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and that is good to hear. I just want to make sure that the committee gets their say, too, because we represent a lot of people and we talk about these issues with a lot of business owners throughout the territory. So I want to make sure that this review report comes to the committee and that the Minister solicits feedback, and that any sort of ministerial directives that might come out of this, that we also get some consultation with committee. Can I get that commitment?
I have worked very closely with committee on this. The first thing we did was share our terms of reference with them, in July of this year, on this. We have had the contractor reach out to all Members of this Assembly to interview them and get their input on this. Once we get this review back into my hands after Cabinet has it, I would certainly like to sit down with committee and have a discussion, so that we are all on the same page on this thing going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Government Operations has reviewed Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, and that Bill 30 is now ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 572-18(3), Safety Issues on the Dempster Highway." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Kam Lake.
