Thank you, Madam Chair. I look forward to watching the development of this mentorship program. I think that mentorship is a huge opportunity in the North, especially for people who do want to get into business, but I think that business ownership is far more than being very skilled at a trade. There is an element of being fiscally responsible that is very important, especially when we are supporting people through business development, through SEED money, or anything like that. I think it would be prudent that we make sure that we are setting people up to the best of their ability. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We would make sure that we cover the full spectrum, because the Member is right. You're not going to just take any business. A lot of businesses fail very quickly, but we also have other programs, business development, incorporation, et cetera, that do specialize in that, so they'll be working hand in hand. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Are there any other questions? I will go to Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am wondering what the metric we are measuring this against is. If you actually look at the labour market forecast, we are going to lose far more than 125 jobs in the next four years in the small communities. That's just the economic reality that we are facing. When we see "increase by 125," do we mean that we're actually, despite the projected loss of jobs, going to increase 125, or are we just talking about ITI going out and creating programs that then offsets the projected loss by 125? What are we pegging this against? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We have a small community fund, actually, that we provide to communities to start their own jobs or skill development. I think that I have said already in this House, when I was the Minister, my difficulty was -- and I have said that vocally, and I will keep saying that -- we tend to throw out money. It's like, "Here's $5 million; spend it," and then people would get two weeks here and two weeks there, and so I have been saying for the last year or so, when I started to realize that this wasn't a good idea, I have been talking to communities and saying, "Instead of hiring that truck driver to haul gravel into your community for two weeks, why don't you buy the truck, so that you can hire the truck driver that always has?"
We're trying to move into a more sustainable model of small communities using the money that we have, instead of just saying, "Here's the money, spend it, and make sure you give me a report on who you hired for every two weeks," because that model is not working. We're not seeing the benefits of that, other than short-term employment, and that should not be where we're looking at. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yes, thank you. This just, once again, goes back to that accountability piece. It is going to be very easy for us to, you know, create 125 new jobs if we create some programming and then claim those new jobs that emerge, but my question is, you know, is this taking into fact the labour market forecast, the needs assessment, which says we're going to be losing jobs over the next four years? Is this a net increase of 125, or is this just 125 that can be directly correlated to GNWT projects and programs? If there's not an answer to this right now, I am glad to have ITI or someone come back to committee. I just need to know: are we expecting to outpace the labour market forecast in all of the projections we have right now? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Our commitment is to getting 125 jobs in small communities. This is not talking about Yellowknife or bigger regions. We can't control the market and who's going to move and come, but what I can say is that there is a lot less mobility going south, people, residents, leaving from small communities than there are from Yellowknife or larger centres. This goal is specifically for small communities. There is less migration out of small communities outside of the territories. They tend to come to Yellowknife or Inuvik. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think the Minister wants to say something.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to comment on the increase of employment in smaller communities. Coming from a smaller community, there is a limited amount of employment that is existing. Looking at this initiative, I was looking at the partnerships that could be created. Being the Minister of Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and putting houses on the ground, we are looking at employment and training and creating employment for the residents in the smaller communities that way.
Also, looking at partnerships, speaking to my colleague for Minister of Lands and identifying that we do have protected area strategies that are under way as we speak now, and they do have program development where we end up entering into partnerships with the GNWT and the smaller communities. Looking at forecasted projects that are coming forward, I wanted to just comment on the Tulita bridge that is under way. We do have environmental assessments and planning going forward, and that is going to create employment in the smaller communities area for the Sahtu region. I just wanted to be clear on that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Madam Premier, did you have something to add?
HON. CAROLINE COCHRANE: Thank you. Just a quick note, Madam Chair, if you look at the second thing, it says, "support
Thank you, Madam Premier. We'll go on to Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess when it comes to employment in small communities, that's something I guess I want to see. I want to see opportunities there for the people who are living there. When we look at that, it's more than just saying that we're going to create jobs. We have to look at the programs that we currently have in place and the institutions. We have the BIP. We have to use that properly. We have ITI programs, SEED, et cetera. We have the BDIC. We have community futures. We have the NWT Metis Development Corporation, which isn't part of the government. There are federal programs. There's Education, Culture and Employment with respect to training. We have Infrastructure, which does have projects and supplies available work.
In the small communities, though, I see arts and crafts is a big thing. For years, they've been talking about a tanning facility in Fort Providence; never seen anything happen with it. We have tourism. In small communities, there may be opportunities for private housing maintainers and that type of thing. We have requirement for trades, and in Fort McPherson, we have Tent and Canvas, and whether it makes money or not, I don't know. It would be nice if it made money. It may not make money, but it provides jobs. It helps maybe with education. It gives people, I guess, some hope, and it allows them to, you know, show their kids and that that there are opportunities out there, no matter where you are.
I think, when we look at this, it's a bigger picture than just creating jobs. We have to look at everything else that we have in place, and it's housing. You know, people have to have a place to live as well. I think, when we look at this, I think that it's really important that we tie all this in together, but I don't want to be looking at it for four years either. Timelines are good. Try and get something done. It's just easy to go out there and do a few little things and get them going. I am optimistic that something is going to happen, and again, when it comes to business and employment, that's going to be my area where I want to push, and you'll hear lots from me about that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.
Thank you, and thank you, Member, for giving the examples. You're absolutely right. One thing that I would like to say, within our definition of how we would do it, we do talk about Makerspaces. There are a lot of artists in our smaller communities. That will help them as well.
The other thing is that a lot of times these mandates overlap. We talk about increasing childcare spaces. In that way, we're talking about our income support and housing policies that say you can't operate childcare in your house. Those will bring employment in. If we need to deal with the lack of childcare in some of these small communities, we open up the housing policies that say now you can provide licensed childcare provision in your home. Those are small community jobs that will stay there; they're sustainable. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to say that I was really pleased about the amending of the policy to the NWT Housing Corporation to allow appropriate home business opportunities with their units. I mentioned during our roundtable before we were assigned our portfolios that we have to help those single parents out there. This is a perfect one. I talked a little bit about humanizing our policies. This is it here. This made me really happy. I am glad that we are moving in that direction, and hopefully we see more of that from the department of housing and the department of health, but that's another battle.
When I look at this, I try to visualize a struggling single parent in their home. The kids are asleep, and they're on the computer, and they're trying to work out their next big thing. I look at these business opportunities for people within their units, and who knows? The next Amazon, the next Apple, the next big idea could be happening in one of those living rooms, and this is an opportunity that made me happy. That's the idealist coming out of me. This is a good start. I want to say I am very happy about that.
My question is to the Premier. I want to talk a bit about the distributions of 125 jobs. We have a breakdown of our KPI, our key performance indicators, from the fall 2020 to fall 2023, but there really isn't a breakdown by region. I know each of us in our own regions, especially for us in the small communities, you know, we could still be jobs alone in our communities, so that's something I think that should be addressed a little more. I will ask the Premier: how is do you project this is going to look by region?
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is pretty conservative. Again, I realize that some people are going to be judging us in two years on the mandate to see if it's accomplished or changed, and other people are going to be judging us and trying to take us out of our seats, so I purposely have done that. I know that; that's fair.
There is no way, actually, to say that we will have ten jobs in this one and ten jobs in that one. Once we open up just the public housing alone, it might just flood. We've got people, I know, that are making slippers. I'm going to be careful here, because I buy my wood from Behchoko, and I hide every time the wood is delivered. Once we make these legal, who knows what's going to come out? I think it would be inappropriate to actually give it a number and say this much per region. I want to see as much as possible. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier.
Madam Chair, I think the Minister might have an answer. Do you have an answer? Okay, she's going to give you an answer of how many per community.
Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to elaborate on the question, because I went and started to look at this, kind of, like, in the same way that you've seen it, and I want to emphasize on the government and infrastructure projects that we do have throughout the Northwest Territories, where those numbers will increase, where I would like to see a lot of emphasis on the government programs that we have for small businesses to take advantage of.
I just wanted to share a short little story with you. In the Sahtu, we had this lady who went ahead and received some money from ITI, purchased a food truck. She ended up with a $5-million contract from Imperial Oil, and right now, she is a business owner, sole business owner. Looking at projects like this throughout the Northwest Territories, trying to measure them, depends on what activity is happening within those regions, but also emphasizing on the programs that we have, the funding programs that people can actually apply for, and educating them enough to become successful and to have more successful stories like that throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister Chinna. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for the responses. I just have one more quick question on this policy. I mentioned earlier about home business. This might be more a question for the Minister for ECE, but are we going to give home business better public units, some grace period to not have their rents just sky-rocket because they are making a little bit of income or have their income assistance be cut off because they are just starting off; they have a start-up business? Are we going to allow for a little bit of space for them to breathe, to get them started? Mahsi cho.
Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the question was about income assistance and whether or not there will a bit of a grace period when someone starts making money. Right now, if you start making money, you get a full-time job and you make too much for income assistance, that means income assistance no longer pays your rent, they do not pay your heating, they do not pay your electricity, you might not have healthcare, and so the Member is pointing out that perhaps that's keeping people from getting and maintaining meaningful employment. Those are discussions I have had with my department. Those are discussions that I have had with the Members, and those are discussions that I am going to have to have with Cabinet, as well, because we have been doing the same thing for a while, and we see that there are improvements that could be made, so I am open to having those conversations. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECE. All right, so are there any further questions on “increase employment to the small communities?” Seeing none, I will call upon Mr. Norn.
I would like to rise and report progress.
There is a motion on the floor to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress.
Thank you. May I have the report of Committee of the Whole? Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 12-19(2), 2019-2023 Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories, and would like to report progress, and, Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member for Hay River North. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Item 22, third reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Bill 1:
Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2019-2020
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 1, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2019-2020 be read for the third time, and, Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The Member has requested a recorded vote. All those in favour, please rise.
Recorded Vote
The Member for Yellowknife South, the Member for Sahtu, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Hay River North, the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, the Member for Frame Lake, the Member for Kam Lake, the Member for Deh Cho, the Member for Yellowknife North, the Member for Nahendeh.
Orders of the day for Thursday, February 13, 2020, 1:30 p.m.:
Prayer
Ministers' Statements
Members' Statements
Returns to Oral Questions
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Acknowledgements
Oral Questions
Written Questions
Returns to Written Questions
Replies to the Commissioner's Address
Petitions
Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills
Reports of Standing and Special Committees
Tabling of Documents
Notices of Motion
Motions
Motion 3-19(2), Extended Adjournment of the House to February 25, 2020
Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills
First Reading of Bills
Second Reading of Bills
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Tabled Document 12-19(2), 2019-2023 Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories
Tabled Document 17-19(2), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2019-2020
Report of Committee of the Whole
Third Reading of Bills
Orders of the day
Thank you. This House stands adjourned until Thursday, February 13, 2020, at 1:30 p.m.
---ADJOURNMENT
The House adjourned at 8:09 p.m.
