Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, we will read the Protected Areas Act for the third time. Should this bill pass, it will undoubtedly be a huge step towards creating a conservation economy unlike anything we have seen before.
The federal government over the last several years has budgeted large amounts of money for the conservation economy across Canada. This decision by the federal government demonstrates a desire to expand the amount of protected areas in our country. In fact, the federal government hopes to protect at least 17 percent of all lands and waters in Canada over the next few years. Our Protected Areas Act will give the NWT the ability to substantially participate in this initiative.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to see all communities in the riding of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh develop plans for protection of traditional and culturally significant areas. Lutselk'e has Thaidene Nene, YK Dene may want to protect the shoreline from Detah to Francois Bay, and Fort Resolution may want to protect the lower Taltson River and the lower Slave River. Furthermore, each community should have an option to employ their own people as guardians of the land and water. For example, in Lutselk'e, there already exists an established group of guardians called Ni hat'ni Dene, which means "watchers of the land." These guardians are out on the land and ready to engage environmental organizations and industry alike.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to the environmental benefits of protecting land and water, the protection of land and water will provide many social benefits that come along with protecting those lands. This includes employment for local people, and I have said many times in the House there are plenty of good socio-economic impacts that come with employing people. I will say it again. For every dollar spent on employing guardians of the land, you will see returns of $2.50 in social spending reductions.
Mr. Speaker, people who are employed are better equipped to support their school-age children both financially and as positive role models for giving them a better chance in life and a more employable future. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Mr. Speaker, in our small communities, our graduation rates are low. There are too many youth unemployed and uneducated. We need to employ more youth, and the Protected Areas Act has the potential to provide more opportunities in the area of a conservation economy.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the day of seeing our guardians protecting our cultural and traditional areas in all communities of the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Members' statements. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to congratulate my constituent Brenda Johnson who was indicated into the 2019 Education Hall of Fame yesterday morning. Brenda spent 31 years working at Mildred Hall School as a program support teacher, eventually moving into coaching roles at Range Lake North as well as NJ McPherson schools. She is currently the curriculum coordinator at the district level and continues to be a role model for others on how to work with diverse groups and students.
Her priority has always been building an inclusive environment for students. She develops and supports teaching practices that create an optimal environment for success for all of her students, but most importantly, Mr. Speaker, for those with diverse learning needs. Brenda is an extraordinary teacher, an excellent mentor, and a curriculum and assessment expert. Her true passion is making a difference not only in the learning experiences of the students she teaches, but in their lives, as well.
Brenda's education career demonstrates integrity, compassion, enthusiasm, and commitment. The only thing that surpasses her education philosophy is her passion for all the students and staff who she loves to work with. Thousands of children and youth have benefitted from her work over the years, and she is well-known throughout the city of Yellowknife, having taught many people as well as their children, even their grandchildren.
Congratulations, Brenda. We all value your hard work and dedication. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Members' statements. Member for Hay River South.
[Microphone turned off] to speak today about Sheila Cook, who got inducted into the Education Hall of Fame yesterday. Sheila Cook was born in the nursing station on the K'atlodeeche First Nation outside Hay River. She attended the Hay River Federal Day School, followed by Sir John Franklin High School for grades 10 and 11, and then completed her high school diploma at Victoria Composite in Edmonton.
She realized that she wanted to become a teacher when she was working as a tutorial assistant for speech and language therapy with children and working as a classroom assistant. She began her studies in Fort Smith in the teacher education program, with two children and her husband at home. She graduated in 1985, while expecting her third child. Teaching young students at Princess Alexandra and Harry Camsell schools became the focus for Sheila, focusing on providing a safe and caring learning environment for all her students every day. After 10 years of teaching, she headed to Saskatoon, where she graduated with distinction with her Bachelor of Education degree. Her northern values continued to mould and shape her teaching for two more decades until she retired in 2010.
Sheila continues serving others through her volunteer work preserving Hay River's rich history as a director at the Hay River Museum, where she continues to promote and educate visitors on the northern heritage and culture in the Hay River area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Testart on March, 11, 2019, regarding the Northwest Territories Power Corporation generator procurement cost.
NTPC recognized that Members have been interested in this project. The corporation is pleased to report that the project is nearing completion, with final commissioning under way for the last two generators. It was necessary to switch vendors for the final two units because the original vendor was unable to meet the required delivery schedule, even after multiple renegotiations. This vendor's bid was originally selected because it provided the lowest cost overall and met all other project requirements. The cancelled contract resulted in approximately $750,000 in additional costs. Included in this total are additional costs to mobilize contractors, install the units from a new vendor, interest associated with the schedule delays, as well as some additional designing and engineering. By changing vendors, the corporation was able to install larger units with better insulation and saving $170,000 of depreciation, partially offsetting these costs.
As a result of the challenges associated with this project, NTPC has strengthened its project management practices and procedures to be more industry standard, including adjustments to procurement practices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today in the Great Hall, volunteers with St. John Ambulance in Yellowknife were recognized for their volunteer contributions with first aid training and the therapy dog program. In the gallery today, we have Phillip Clarke from Nova Scotia, the past chancellor of St. John Ambulance Canada; Brent Fowler, the CEO of St. John Ambulance NWT and Nunavut; and Teresa Toutant, the Director of Community Services for St. John Ambulance NWT and Nunavut. I would like to welcome them all to the House. Thank you.
Recognition of the visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize this hardy bunch of young fellows up here who are sitting here today and look a little haggard. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize in the House today a group of men who have biked 10 days, 200,200 kilometres, from Whistler, British Columbia, to Yellowknife, in an effort to raise money to help support the Yellowknife Mountain Bike Park.
I would like to recognize Alex Conlon, Jamie Blades, Mark Taylor, Matt Tirrell, Will Cadham, Quinn Lanzon, Huw Thomas, Dave Kenworthy, and Braedyn Kozman, and congratulations to all of you on your amazing accomplishment. I know how tough that is, because I have tried to do 200 clicks in two days, and ooh!
---Laughter
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Recognition of the visitors in the gallery. Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day I recognized the Pages from Range Lake, but I hear we have a new Page from Range Lake. I want to recognize Lacey Lewis. Congratulations for being here, and I also recognize all of the Pages. Thank you for your work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you very much to the Pages. I know that they have had at least one late night this week. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for recognizing me a second time. I neglected to introduce Mark Heyck, former mayor of Yellowknife Centre, and Ms. Amy Lee. They are residents of Yellowknife Centre, and they are here to support their sons, Alex and Sam Heyck, who have been Pages in this House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have heard the barge scheduled to go to the Kitikmeot last year was cancelled in May. Can the Minister explain the rationale for the barge being cancelled? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought he was going to ask me about May of this year, but nothing has been cancelled, of course. I have explained the cancellation last year of the barge delivery to the Kitikmeot a number of times in this House. I have done a briefing on it. The public information is out there. It is clearly laid out, and it was due to environmental weather conditions that were out of our control. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As part of the MTS business plan 2008, did MTS take on more private contractors than they did in 2017?
MTS's objective right from day one was to grow this business, and we continue to do that. We will continue to satisfy all customers that we have in the system.
With the challenges that we saw last year, can the Minister advise us what MTS is doing to ensure that this doesn't happen in the future and whether MTS has a risk management plan in place?
As I have updated the House here recently on what was going on around the fuel haul, we are managing our risk accordingly. We are working with the fuel supplier, particularly for this particular season because of the fires in Alberta. We are working with our partners, as I have said before, with Transport Canada and the Coast Guard, and particularly to have icebreaker access up in the Beaufort when we are ready to go. We are currently loading our first sets of barges. As I said the other day, even with the rail line out, we are trucking fuel to Hay River, and we will continue to monitor the water and ice conditions throughout this season and adjust our plans as we see accordingly.
Thank you. Final oral question. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his clarification, and I agree that this has been asked a lot, but these are questions that people keep on asking, so we need to get this information out better, or more, I guess.
With the MTS having to store materials last year that did not make it to the Kitikmeot, will MTS be taking responsibility for any damaged material that occurred over these winter months? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Customers ship goods at their own expense and their own risk. MTS offers and encourages customers to take out insurance on their shipments, and we encourage that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I would like to repeat my congratulations for getting the action plan done on mental health and addictions. I am curious about a couple of things that the plan is not doing. There is nothing in the plan about providing plain language material to people who are considering going south for treatment. My question to the Minister is: is the Minister planning to address this need? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I answer the question, I just want to correct an unintended oversight from my Minister's statement yesterday. I acknowledged all of the people who have done incredible work to help us with our action plan, but I failed to acknowledge the important work that has been done by the Standing Committee on Social Development. They did their tour of the treatment facilities. They provided a report. We had debate in this House on the report. We agreed with the recommendations. We drafted our draft action plan. Committee did point out to us that it was a little lacking, that we didn't hit it square on the head. They made a number of recommendations for us for improvement. We took their recommendations and their thoughtful input to develop the plan that is before you today, and it is a better plan as a result of that interaction.
With respect to the Member's questions about how we are trying to ensure that our residents know of the different programs that are out there, we didn't include that in the action plan, because essentially we believed that that was already part of the job that we should be doing, and it was work that actually should have been done. We had relied on our professionals to get that information out there, but we realize that the information wasn't getting out there.
Recently, we updated our website to outline all of the different facilities and supports that we provide, including the different treatment facilities, but we are working more closely with our providers. That is not just staff within the Government of the Northwest Territories counsellors, but it is also counsellors in other organizations, like the Tree of Peace and other organizations, to make sure that they are aware of the different facilities and the strengths and the weaknesses of each of those facilities depending on your particular addiction. We are also trying to make sure that they are aware of all of the application processes, the ability to expedite referral, all of those things, so that they can share that information with those individuals who are coming to us. That is all on top of us doing the updates on our website. We are going to keep looking at these. We have put together some advisory groups to help us as we move forward.
If we keep hearing that we need to find other ways, we are certainly willing to explore that, but I didn't see that as an action item requirement. I saw that as a requirement of doing business, and after meeting with the MLAs and taking their recommendations, we did provide that direction to the department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. I will just remind everyone that we do have a lot of Members to get through today. Member for Yellowknife Centre. Oral questions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the recognition from the Minister in his answer to my question, so this is an area that will be revisited. My next question is about housing. Having a place to live after leaving treatment is a basic need, as the report acknowledges, but the report has no specific actions about how to address this need. Can the Minister confirm that this issue needs to be a priority not just for study but for action and say how he intends to work with his colleague, the housing Minister, to address this need?
There are a number of things that we are doing in the plan that tie together. The Member has had an opportunity to read it. Within the plan, we do talk about a seamless care pathway, which is from beginning to end and includes coming back to the communities. There is no question the Member is absolutely right. We do have some transition issues bringing some of these individuals who were homeless before they went for treatment back into homeless situations. We are not just studying, Mr. Speaker. As part of this plan, we have already reached out to the Housing Corporation and engaged in discussions about how we can do better on transition housing and things we can do to support different organizations within communities, Aboriginal governments, and other bodies to help us put in some supports or support organizations that wanted support to help us address the transitional housing issues that some of our residents may experience when they return from addictions treatment.
I do want to put out there, though, Mr. Speaker, not all residents who are returning from different treatment facilities or treatment options are homeless, but there are certainly some. As the Member said, if there is one, that is too many, so we are reaching out to our partners to start exploring solutions, not just another study.
I appreciate the Minister's answer that he is looking for solutions, that he acknowledges the issue. That is very constructive. My concern is, though, that it is discussion, it is not action. Is there any timing he can offer about when solutions might be identified and then implemented, something that moves us further down the road toward meeting this need?
Fortunately, in the Northwest Territories there are a lot of passionate individuals who are working outside of government to find solutions in these areas, and we are certainly willing and interested in working with them to provide transitional housing options. Recently, the Social Envelope Committee-of-Cabinet had some in-depth conversations about how we can work together as partner departments to support different initiatives that exist not just in Yellowknife but in communities throughout the Northwest Territories. We have more to learn on what these different organizations are proposing and how they would like to work with us or partner with us, but we are reaching out to them. I cannot tell you when a solution will be finalized, but we are doing the work and developing those relationships that I believe will give us the options we need to support our returning residents who have no housing options previously.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake. That was three? I apologize. It's been a long few weeks here. Oral questions. Final oral question, Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I note that the Minister's plan is going to measure a suite of outputs such as wait times, staff training, and hospitalizations, but I do not see anything on the measure of outcomes, such as how many people completed treatment, accessed aftercare, or maintained their sobriety over a period of time. Can the Minister assure me that outcomes will be measured, as well?
Yes, absolutely. To help us with that, we are actually putting in a new information system. The price tag on that is $1.55 million. It's the community counselling information system. That is going to help us track that information. Until that is fully in place, we will be doing our best to collect that data because we, like the Member, like all Members, we want to make evidence-based decisions in this area, so we will be tracking that information, as well.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Last week, this Assembly passed the historic changes to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act that had been in the works since 2012. The Minister worked well with standing committee, and we now have very good legislation. The next step is to follow through on some of the other changes recommended during the public consultation as documented in the "what we heard" report. Can the Minister of Justice explain what the next steps are in following up on the November 2016 "what we heard" report from public consultations and flowing from the changes we made to the Access to Information Protection of Privacy Act? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Justice.
