Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Each sitting, I ask the Minister about progress on creating an adult day program in Yellowknife, a program for elders to assist them with social inclusion needs and to provide respite for their families. I realize the Minister has looked at various options, but the fact is there is still nothing in place. I note that the department is surveying seniors about their social activities. Can the Minister tell us more about the survey and what its purpose is? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the department is currently conducting a survey of potential stakeholders, potential clients, individuals who have an interest in this area, so that we can get a sense of what type of program the people and the seniors of Yellowknife really want with respect to an adult day program. That survey has gone out. We are shutting that survey down at the end of the month. I expect to have some results forwarded to me and shared with me by the department, at which point we will be able to give some direction on how to move forward.
Timing-wise, we will provide direction in this Assembly, but ultimately, it will be the next Assembly where this rolls out, but we will get that information by the end of the month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. What is the Minister expecting for a response rate? What would be, in his view, a statistically valid response?
We have encouraged as many people as possible to fill out the survey. We are getting decent numbers at this point, but we need to see what we get by the end of the month. At this time, I would certainly like to take the opportunity to encourage everybody who hasn't to please get out and fill out that survey to help us design programs that will meet the needs of the residents of Yellowknife.
Can the Minister confirm that there is money available to implement a solution for the adult day program without having to wait for the next budget process?
Yes, there are dollars allocated for this program. We had, obviously, hoped that we would be able to deliver this program almost two years ago, but we have had difficulty getting interest in delivery, but yes, there is money in the budget for this service.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister. Is there any chance of action on solutions before this Minister leaves office? Mahsi.
I have been following this file closely. As I indicated, this survey will be completed by the end of this month. I have asked the department to have a summary ready for me to look at. That will probably be in September, at which point we can provide direction on how to move forward. I hope to do that in the life of this Assembly, but at the end of the day, the rollout will be in the next Assembly. Hopefully, there will be a program that meets their needs, meets the needs of this Assembly, meets the needs of the residents, early, very early, in the life of the next government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my questions are for the Minister of Finance. Earlier I spoke about P3 contracts and how these are becoming maybe a bit of a new norm here in the Northwest Territories, but right now they don't necessarily include northern benefit policies, such as BIP, to be applied to them or similar types of aspects of, let's say, negotiated contracts. I would like to ask the Minister: is there anything built into the negotiated process when you are negotiating with a proponent with P3s that brings northern benefit to the NWT in terms of employment or having to use local contractors and suppliers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member pointed out in his Member's statement before, P3 projects have allowed the government to allow their dollars to go further and make further investments in infrastructure, which is a benefit to the people of the Northwest Territories.
When a project is undertaken as a P3, a specific part of the agreement is negotiated with respect to local and northern content. A good example of this is our latest P3 project that we just completed where there was $71 million of that particular amount that was spent on northern businesses. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister's reply. I guess one of the other aspects that I would like to ask the Minister is that we have another opportunity where we have to negotiate contracts sometimes where we don't go out for a public offering per se. That negotiated process allows for some added-value northern benefits to be had for training, for potential apprenticeships, for hiring, and that sort of thing. Is there any kind of requirement that we can build into our P3 negotiating process that would for sure ensure that we have northern benefits such as those that we see when we do negotiated contracts in the Northwest Territories?
It is always our priority in the Legislative Assembly to try to make as many benefits available to Northerners as possible, and we do try to build that into a number of the projects that we have. An example of this would be the upcoming P3 project we have, the Tlicho All-Season Road. There were specific thresholds established for the private partner to meet northern and Tlicho business for construction costs, labour requirements, and local business operation requirements. As we go forward, I think that those will be built into many of the projects that the Government of the Northwest Territories would implement.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. I am wondering, when we award P3 contracts, is there any opportunity thereafter where we can expect that the proponent or the operator would have a requirement that they have to put out, say, a public offering or a public tender to local and northern suppliers and contractors so that we are not just letting these operators use their previously southern contacts, and that we're ensuring at least the opportunity for northern companies and suppliers to bid on work that these operators. In the instance of the hospital, I used an example earlier about coffee supply. Can we find a way to make sure that northern companies, northern suppliers, are going to be ensured the opportunity to bid on this type of work?
As I said before, we will work with the proponents to try to build some of these requirements into the contract. Again, it would be up to the proponent where they will get their supplies from, but if we were able to come to sort of agreement that would benefit, the proponents obviously want to do things fairly quickly and use people that they are familiar with. Having said that, though, we need to build some of these requirements in. One of the benefits of the P3 projects, and we have seen that, I think, with the Stanton Territorial Hospital, is that they come in on time and on budget. That is a benefit of the P3 process.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for the reply. I guess that, lastly, I would be looking towards opportunities where we could solidify and ensure a little bit more as it relates to local hiring and local training. Is there a way in which we could add a feature into negotiating P3 contracts that would ensure that we are going to hire locally and that have the opportunity for those operators to train people locally for the jobs that are coming forward after a P3 has been awarded? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I said earlier, we do want a lot of the benefits from these projects to go to Northerners, be it training, business opportunities, job opportunities, and it is expected in our negotiations with the proponents that these are built in so that Northerners will benefit from the money that the government spends on a lot of these infrastructure projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister responsible for ECE. As I mentioned, there is no childcare in Fort McPherson at this time. I would like to ask the Minister: how much funding is available for childcare, for setup and operations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is funding available, and we are trying to get people to know that, so I am glad to actually answer that on the floor. We have start-up funding, and it goes up to, I believe, about $25,000 just for starting their business up, and then we have health and safety funding on top of that. That is up to $10,000, and that is for making sure that you have the proper things, fire extinguishers, et cetera, that you need to actually provide services in a daycare.
We will work with any daycare provider that wants to be licensed. We need more, and we will provide whatever services that we can to support licensed family homes or centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister answered a part of this, but I will ask it anyway: is the department willing to work with a provider in the community to start a daycare before the school year begins?
Absolutely, yes. We want daycare providers in every community. Fort McPherson does have the Aboriginal Head Start currently, but it is only a couple of hours every day and it's not enough. One of the big things we need to do, though, in every community, because every community is different, is find out how many children might be interested. That's the critical question. Does it make sense to open up a centre if you've only got two or three kids in a community who might want daycare, or does it make sense to promote a licensed family home? We are more than willing to go in to work with their community to figure what would be best for the situation.
There is a big demand for childcare in Fort McPherson. A lot of people want to get back into the workforce. We are always trying encourage, especially women, to come back to the work force. I would like to ask the Minister: can someone start off out of a private home if there is no space available?
Yes. As a mother, even as a social worker, I think I would advocate to maintain that as it is. There are a lot of people. We do want people licensed. The ideal world would have licensed family care homes. We have grandmothers, and we have mothers, and we have like people, our sisters and stuff who are providing really good care. That means to me, as a mother and as a woman, that we need to be flexible in how we do that, so we don't penalize people for being unlicensed, but we do have additional support and financial support for people that are licensed. Anyone out there who is not licensed and figures that they could use the additional financial support, contact ECE. We would love to help you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, monsieur le President. In my statement earlier today I noted that the publicly available end-of-life obligations for Cameron Hills fields seems to be over $12 million. Even if the Minister did not provide that information when I asked back in June, can the Minister tell us who provided that information on the end-of-life obligations for Cameron Hills, as found in the creditor protection proceeding, and how it was calculated? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can tell you that no GNWT department provided any input into the figure provided in the list of creditors. I am therefore unable to provide any information about what this figure includes or how it was calculated.
I want to thank the Minister for that information. I'm not sure how I can find out, but yesterday this House rolled back provisions for mandatory financial security in the Public Land Act. Now, I'm here to talk about what seems to be a shortfall in financial security for Cameron Hills. Can the Minister explain whether this apparent shortfall in financial security for Cameron Hills is going to leave taxpayers on the hook, as the owner is in creditor protection?
I am unable to speculate on the outcome of the creditor protection process as the matter is the subject to the proceedings under the Companies' Creditor Arrangements Act. I can confirm that Strategic Oil & Gas is required to submit a revised closure and reclamation plan to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board today for review and approval. During the review of that plan and upon its approval, financial security will be assessed to ensure that security held by the Government of the Northwest Territories is sufficient to cover the work required to remediate.
I want to thank the Minister for that. That is exactly what I said in the House earlier today. Unfortunately, it comes a little bit late, as the company is now in creditor protection. This happened again under our watch. Can the Minister tell us, though, whether there is any way we can turn the liabilities from Cameron Hills field back to the federal government under the Devolution Agreement?
Under the Devolution Agreement, the Government of the Northwest Territories released the federal government from historic liabilities for sites that met criteria set out in the agreement. Factors considered were whether the site went through a modern regulatory process, compromising environment assessment regulatory and decision-making, including decisions around securities and in material compliance with the authorities. Prior to devolution, the Government of the Northwest Territories conducted due diligence on Canada's listing the sites, and could find no evidence that the Cameron Hills operation did not meet the criteria. Therefore, the site was listed as a release site. The Cameron Hills site met the criteria, and is therefore considered a release site. Therefore, under the terms of the Devolution Agreement, meaning the Government of the Northwest Territories does not appear to be able to turn the liabilities back to the federal government.
The Government of the Northwest Territories has written to the federal government outlining the situation at Cameron Hills, and the Government of Northwest Territories actions in relation to protecting taxpayers from liabilities in event that there is another mechanism to have Canada take on some responsibility.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. It sounds like we are clearly on the hook now, and this happened post-devolution. I don't know, Mr. Speaker. Our government really doesn't have a very good track record in terms of managing resources in the post-devolution world. In an unprecedented move, a Minister turned back a decision on a water licence, and then, following a request by a diamond company, unilateral changes were made to measures arising from an environmental assessment of the Tlicho all-season road. There are financial security gaps for Canton, Prairie Creek, and now Cameron Hills. Can the Minister tell the House how this government can possibly convince the federal government to turn over the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act in light of this poor resource management track record? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
The MVRMA system provides a transparent process to review closure plans for sites and updates securities as required, and as such, a process is under way for the Cameron Hills site. The Government of the Northwest Territories has confidence in the modern system as it was envisioned in the claim and implemented through the MVRMA and institutions of public government, and we'll use all tools at its disposal to protect the public interest.
Our technical experts will continue to participate in the ongoing process by the Land and Water Board to review the closure plan and associated securities for this site. The Devolution Agreement provides for the review of the transitional provisions related to the MVRMA following the [microphone off]. Pursuant to the Devolution Agreement, the review will be conducted by the parties to the agreement, and this review is expected to commence early in the life of the next government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral question. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this sitting the Minister of Justice spoke about the transition of SMCC, the correction centre there, to a therapeutic model based loosely on, or rather inspired, I guess, by the Guthrie House model in Victoria. I think this is one of the most exciting things that is happening right now in corrections, if not in the entire government of the NWT.
We realize that we can't just send people into jails and expect them to come out fully rehabilitated and ready to integrate into society, and so this is an attempt to address some of those issues. It's a short time frame that people are in correctional facilities in the territories, so that is one of the challenges. I just want to get some information from the Minister about how they are addressing that challenge.
I would like to know what type of education is going to be provided to inmates attending the therapeutic model in terms of getting them ready for work, because a lot of people, they just need basic work skills. They need to know that they have to get up on time to get to work. They need to know how to punch a time clock, and that kind of stuff. Can the Minister please explain, or give us some details about, the type of education that is going to be provided in the therapeutic model? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are certain steps that have to be developed in the therapeutic community at SMCC and, of course, these are being worked on. There are such things as developing a classification criteria for residents, inclusion in the program, contingency planning, and off-grounds activities, developing lesson plans for orientation and pre-treatment healing, and also developing a structure for educational and locational programming. That is part of the therapeutic program. However, I do not have more details than that, but we do recognize this is an important part of the program.
I understand that things work slowly in government, so hopefully the next Member to ask that question can get a little more detail. Part of the therapeutic model or, rather, the Guthrie House model requires that inmates, once they leave, they have some sort of job, that they have somewhere to go and work. Because a lot of people have gone through that model, a lot of the former, I guess, "residents" they are called, have their own businesses and they employ a lot of the people who are released from the program. We do not have that in the territory yet, but we do have a lot of businesses willing to work with people who are fresh out of corrections, so what sort of relationships and maybe agreements with the private sector has the department pursued?
