Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister advise whether he can incorporate a divestment plan, community by community, in these community development plans? Thank you.
We did make a commitment that we would look at trying to demolish and sell units, about 50 a year, and we are reaching and going over those targets. As we develop these community plans with leadership and people in the community, that is something that we are going to have to address. We don't want to be the ones who tell communities what they need and what they want. It has to be a responsibility between leadership from the communities and us, working together, as I mentioned, to address the housing priorities; and yes, we will be making that a priority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Member's statement, as of April 1st, the prices of beer for licensees in the City of Yellowknife increased dramatically: for draft brewers, around 10 to 18 percent; bottled beer, 20 percent; and wine, 6 percent. These are significant costs to their businesses and their ability to maintain a viable business without passing on too many costs to the consumer. These are far ahead of what was advertised by the NWT Liquor Commission, who said the prices would be modest. Can the Minister responsible for the Commission respond to what caused these price increases, clearly, on the public record? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to see the Member advocating for, even though he said he is not, lower prices for alcohol in the Northwest Territories, knowing the effect that alcohol has on the people of the Northwest Territories. Terminating the contract with the liquor warehouse did result in lower costs to consumer at the liquor stores and, as an unintended consequence of levelling the cost structure for liquor stores and licensees, there was a significant increase to licensees in Yellowknife. We missed that, and as Minister, I take responsibility for that.
It has been addressed. The Member is well aware of how it has been addressed, because we communicated that to him, through a discount program, and that discount program is throughout the Northwest Territories, not just Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am a bit confused. The Minister mentioned that the goal here is not to lower the price of alcohol, and yet it seems like that is what was achieved, while the price, as an unintended consequence, went up. Can the Minister clarify: what was the price decrease for consumers as a result of this change?
Well, there was a price decrease to consumers because, through the discount program, the licensees were actually paying a lesser price than they were able to then pass along those savings to the consumers. I have the numbers here. I could look at possibly putting these on the website so that they know exactly what the prices went down to. It is right in my briefing book. The licence holders paid 8.3 percent less for spirits, 6.1 percent less for wine, and then they did pay a bit more for canned and bottled beer, because I think it is costed on a volume basis.
We have taken steps to ensure that the licensees didn't feel the brunt of it as much as they may have, which was unintended, but through this particular initiative, in not renewing the contract, I believe that we reduced about $1.2 million in inventory that was held at the warehouse.
I think that this information is important for the public to know. It has yet to be fully explained. Can the Minister commit to publicizing the full extent of this information, the total pricing traces, the total price decreases after the subsidy program, and how the subsidy program is going to work to benefit the hospitality industry in Yellowknife and throughout the Northwest Territories?
I will look at possibly doing this, if I am able, to make that public to the 1 percent who are quite interested in it. The other 99 percent are wondering why we are lowering the price, knowing the effect that it is having on people in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that the Minister has made this choice when his personal feelings are quite different, but our hospitality industry is not about liquor. It's about jobs. It's about business opportunities in the capital and throughout the Northwest Territories. If we are going to support tourism and other opportunities, we need to support it, as well.
There have been calls to reform Canada's antiquated liquor systems. Ontario is moving towards a major reform of policy. There seems to be interest on the ground from, at least, my constituents and the people I have spoken to. Will the Minister, in undertaking the price evaluation, look to consulting with folks on how we can modernize our liquor system and make sure that it is fair, competitive, and offers consumers more choice? Thank you.
Personal feelings aside, I think that the department has done a good job in trying to mitigate the impact that it was going to have on licensees. I think that we have done that. I have asked the department to do a whole briefing policy review, and there are a number of other things that we may need to do.
I fully understand and I fully respect the impact that it might have on business in the Northwest Territories. I am not blind to that fact. We try to do what we can to have a balance here between the needs of business and the Northwest Territories, and I think we have addressed that. If I am able to, I will make some of the information that we have provided along public so that people will know that we have taken steps to ensure that the licensees are protected in this, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My statement earlier today outlined the sequence of providing airline passengers with crucial information regarding flight check-in times at the Yellowknife Airport. I have given the Minister advance warning of questions today, so I wonder if he could first tell me: how far in advance did the Yellowknife managers know about the renovations in the baggage area, and how long were they told the renovations would take to complete? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have the notes here. Thank you to the Member for giving us the heads-up on this. I am going to take the opportunity to actually let the public know what we are actually doing out there. These renovations are part of a larger project. The whole baggage-screening recapitalization, which is funded by CATSA, which is the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, the funding was approved in December of 2018. The contract for the building modifications included the renovations to the oversized screening area, to level 2 and level 3 screening areas. For those of you who do not know, that is located behind the check-in counters. Currently, the contractor is working to complete the first phase. This required temporary shutdown of baggage-handling systems to check baggage for flights. The public communication about the impact to the travelling public began prior to the project starting, and it was communicated that the public should arrive 90 minutes in advance for a few weeks until the end of May. We have been working closely with the contractor to have this first phase finished as soon as possible, and we are on target to have it completed by the end of May.
I want to thank the Minister for that. The funding came through in December, and the news release from the department went out on May the 10th, 10 days after the work was already started. I think the Minister would agree that it's a pretty big deal missing your flight because you arrived too late at the airport, and I understand the Minister has some personal experience with this, so I hope that we would all agree that a comprehensive multimedia awareness campaign alerting the public to these facts is very important to convey to air travellers in Yellowknife. Can the Minister explain why there was no comprehensive communications campaign about the need to come to the airport at least 30 minutes in advance of the 60-minute check-in time?
I think the House will be very surprised with what we have done here. There were several communications tactics used to notify the public in advance, and I will be very specific: radio ads ran from April 24th to May 10th, that is radio ads; there were two newspaper ads, April 24th and May 3rd; posters were distributed to local businesses within the community, alerting the traveling public about the situation; several tweets were issued in the days leading up to the start of construction; and a public announcement was issued later to confirm the status and estimated completion dates.
I want to thank the Minister for that detailed information. I guess I missed the ad on April 24th, but the news release from the department, not everybody tweets, not everybody has access to the Internet. The news release only went out on May 10th, 10 days after the work was already started. Can the Minister tell us when this work is going to be completed at the airport and how many people have missed their flights as a result of this work?
As I said, currently, phase 1 is scheduled to be completed by end of May. That is phase 1, and we will be notifying the public when we are doing the other stuff. Neither the Yellowknife airport nor the Department of Infrastructure has received any complaints on this matter. We are not aware of any flights being delayed or any passengers who have missed their flights. Travellers have cooperated and have been arriving early to avoid congestion. We have been monitoring the passenger flow, and the interim system has been functioning well.
Thank you. Final oral question. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that information. I mentioned that there is no notice of the extra time for check-in on the Yellowknife Airport Authority website, and there does not seem to be much collaboration with airline partners as there is no information that I can find on their websites about the need for an early check-in. Can the Minister tell us how the department would improve its communications next time around regarding planned construction delays at the Yellowknife airport?
As I have said, this is only the first stage of a larger CATSA project. We can take some lessons learned from this. Even the email that I sent out to all Members stating what was going on there, we will make sure that that gets out there before we start these things. I have to double check, though, for the Member, but I think, when you actually book your ticket, they actually notify you, the airlines notify you what's going on at the airport. I will have to check into that, but I have been informed, I think, that is the possibility of what's going on when you book your ticket.
You know, communications has always been an issue in this Legislative Assembly, and we have continued to strive to make things better. We realize not everybody is on Twitter or on Facebook or reads the newspaper, which makes things difficult, but we will try to do our best to communicate well in advance of what we can do coming up with the next CATSA projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my questions here, this is directed to the Minister of Infrastructure. As mentioned in my statement, the Department of Infrastructure and the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated achieved a signing of the Memorandum of Understanding to undertake jointly the environmental assessment and, in the process, the establishment of a working group. My first question to the Minister: would the Minister support a youth appointment to the working group? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The MoU that was signed between SSI and ourselves, the Sahtu Secretariat, was intended to formalize the working relationship between parties on the advancement of the Mackenzie Valley Highway through the environmental and regulatory reviews. The MoU provides for the creation of a working group with members of working group to be appointed by the SSI and the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Infrastructure. Each party to the MoU is responsible for selecting its own members to the working group. SSI is responsible for appointing its own members to the working group, which could include a youth member if they wish, but, in addition, under the MoU, the SSI may also designate other Sahtu organizations to work with Infrastructure to complete the required work on specific topics such as socio-economic studies. The SSI could consider youth issues and youth involvement in selecting these designated organizations and members.
I am glad for that reply. It seems to be going in the direction of transferring knowledge through experience, and it would be just, I would say, a huge experience if a youth could actually participate with feet on the ground here with the working group to engage community sessions during the environmental assessment. My next question, then, Mr. Speaker: would the Minister undertake working costs options with the Minister responsible for Youth for this position?
As the Minister responsible, I would be working with all of my Cabinet colleagues to strive to advance the Mackenzie Valley Highway environmental assessment, but, as part of that, the Government of the Northwest Territories' internal efforts to organize itself and move this project forward, the GNWT working groups will be created and led by Infrastructure to address specific issues. These working groups will consist of our government staff from various departments, of course, and agencies, and it is expected that youth issues will be addressed by the appropriate working groups.
Would the Minister send me an email of the options that are available in both of my previous questions?
Certainly, I can follow up with that. I would like to add one more comment, I guess. It's up to the SSI if they want to have youth involvement. Myself, I can reach out to the SSI leadership and have these discussions on possibilities of having youth involvement in this, and I would encourage the Member and all Members to encourage the SSI leadership maybe to include future leadership people or youth people who want to be involved in this thing going forward.
Thank you, Minister. Final oral question, Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is really not a question, but a note for the Minister to collaborate in future actions. I think it would be very promising on behalf of this government, as the proponent and the applicant to that section of infrastructure down the corridor, to actually send the message to the communities on engagement that we do have a youth at the table. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Comment from the Member. Let's try to keep question period to questions. Next, I have the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few more questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. I was interested to hear him tell my colleague, Mr. Beaulieu, that the Housing Corporation had divested of 183 units in the last three years. Could the Minister tell us, even in general terms, how many of those units were sold to homeowners and how many of them were demolished? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to get back to the Member on the detail. I did mention that, since April 1, 2016, there have been 183 units that we have demolished or sold. The detail that I can give the Member at this moment is that, during 2018-2019, we did sell 20 units and we demolished 20 more.
We are still continuing to work with communities and working with our residents in terms of findings ways that we can get them into a home ownership program or a lease-to-own program. I can get that detail from the Housing Corporation, and I will share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the detail that the Minister was able to provide. I think that he would agree with the statement that, with a waiting list of over 900 households, bringing more 20 more units into circulation, while is some progress, is clearly not enough progress.
Consistently, there has been a low uptake on housing for several reasons. A new one that I learned about at the Housing Summit is the high cost of insurance. Apparently, insurance companies are reluctant to insure homes in communities without fire departments and/or hydrants. My question for the Minister, then: is there anything that the Housing Corporation can do to help potential homeowners with the cost of insurance?
As I mentioned, I was really appreciative that standing committee was able to attend the Housing Summit in Inuvik and listen to some of the concerns that were brought up, whether it was by industry, whether it was by leadership, or whether it was by non-government organizations. We do know that accessing home insurance can be challenging and very costly in some of our communities. However, I would just like Members, residents, and our groups to know that insurance costs are established by insurance providers, and we do not have the ability to adjust those rates, Mr. Speaker.
However, as noted in Inuvik, we will do some thorough research and look at the options that might be available to us and the resulting financial costs moving forward.
I recognize that insurance rates are set by the insurance industry, but one possibility that I would like to bring to the Minister's attention is a self-insurance scheme, where the insurance is provided by the Government of the Northwest Territories to the homeowners so that it is more affordable to them and it meets the goal of moving people who can afford to get out of public housing out of public housing.
As I mentioned in the last answer, we are going to look at and do some research on the options that would be available. Once we look at those options and do the research, we would share it with standing committee, and we would share it with Members.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I hope that the research will include a self-insurance option. Could the Minister tell us when we could see the results of this research? When does he plan to have that completed? Thank you.
At this time, I don't have a timeline. Coming out of the Housing Summit, we are developing a report that we are going to share with our leadership, that we are going to share with our stakeholders, and that we are going to work with people who came to the Housing Summit. That is a priority, everything that came out of the Housing Summit, where we had leaders from 24 of our communities across the Northwest Territories. We want to make sure that we know what the next steps are. At this moment, we don't have a timeline, but we will look into that research. That is something that we are committed to, but our staff also needs to work on developing the programs and promote the programs.
As I mentioned, we had six community housing plans as a goal, and now we have 10 communities that we are working with. After the summit, I am sure that we are going to be expecting more communities come and reach out to the Housing Corporation to do more work. Once we get that information, we will share it with standing committee and Members, but right now, I don't have a timeline. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
