Thank you, Member. Minister.
Madam Chair, I'm not sure if it's offered in all communities. Let me see if I can get a number that will perhaps break that down a little bit further as to what communities that is being offered in. Madam Chair, beginning in 2020-2021, there is support that is expected to be available in 15 communities. This is meant to provide the community training for five communities in the first two years and then to go from there, reducing over time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake, did you have any further questions? Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Madam Chair. The Member for Kam Lake already asked some of the questions I had for the mental health, so thank you for that. I do know that, for mental health and wellness, it's so important for these monies to be allocated the way they are. We still have lots of people who are suffering. We have kids helpline. We have residential helplines and stuff. I'm just wondering right now how this is going to be allocated in terms of are there going to be helplines? Is this going to go towards helplines in the North?
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I assume we're still talking about the $280,000. With respect to that particular item, I don't have any information that helplines, in particular, have been targeted for funding through this program. Rather, again, that it is meant to support the meeting costs within certain 15 communities as well as some community training so that they can be better placed to provide those group meeting settings. I don't have any information about any helpline funding specifically. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
[Microphone turned off] …Madam Chair. For me, like I said, this kind of hits home for me. I've lost a couple of uncles to suicide and stuff like that. I wish we had these back then, but we didn't. We do now, which is really good. It's good to see some of these proactive measures taking place. I'd just like to know how much overlap would be, say, with residential healing. They have a lot of helplines and monies being allocated through Health Canada. I know that's being put in place. I'm just wondering how much funding is being put into these programs from the federal government and how much help are we getting from the government for these programs?
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
Madam Chair, this $280,000 specifically is entirely GNWT funded. That certainly isn't to say that there is not funding that is already existing within the Health and Social Services system for mental health that is from the federal government. I don't know that I would have all of that here available in front of me, but I can certainly convey to the Minister of Health and Social Services that we might want a bit more information on that exact issue. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Did you have more questions? No? Member for Kam Lake, since you didn't use up all your time.
Thank you for letting me double dip, Madam Chair. I'm wondering if the Minister can please provide just an outline of what recommendations they plan to be able to implement from the healthy families program for the $600,000? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The intended actions that would flow from this money are expected to include the development of a Healthy Family Program framework and implementation plan, which will include a made-in-the-North curriculum, so Northwest Territories focused quite specifically. As well, Madam Chair, expanding the Healthy Family Program and Early Childhood Intervention Program so that there are five additional communities who will now benefit from that program. That will hopefully be happening over the next four years, including three regional coordinator positions. Finally, that the new curriculum, of course, we'll need to provide training. Once that new curriculum is in place this will also support establishing training for staff who are working with child and families in those communities. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake, anything further?
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Just one final question, I promise. The Minister mentioned that there would be now be five additional communities that this would be expanded to. What is the total number of communities that this is present in? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
Madam Chair, we were just conferring on this side, and we think it may actually only be in Yellowknife at the present moment. If I'm wrong, Madam Chair, I will correct myself in due course. I think right now it's actually still just only in Yellowknife or possibly Inuvik, too.
Thank you. All right, do we have any further questions, comments under this section? Health and social programs, not previously authorized, $8,413,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
[Microphone turned off] …we started with quorum, we still have quorum. [Microphone turned off] …as long as we start with quorum. Long term and continuing care services, $7,391,000, not previously authorized. Questions? comments? No questions, comments. Long term and continuing care services, not previously authorized, $7,391,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Total department, $16,209,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now turn to page 9. We are now considering the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditures, and will proceed to the detail on this page. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2020-2021, Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditures, activity, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorised, $450,000. Questions? Comments? Seeing none. Economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized, $450,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Minerals and petroleum resources, not previously authorized, $360,000. Questions? Comments? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Can I just get a little bit of an explanation of what the $360,000 is going to be used for here? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is being utilized to help develop the comprehensive regulations that are required under the new Mineral Resources Act that received assent right at the tail end of the 18th Legislative Assembly. The regulations are fairly extensive and complex, and this is meant to support having individuals and staffing available to complete that work over at ITI. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I agree with the Minister that there's a lot of work that needs to be done here, and there are a lot of matters of public interest, including royalties and so on. I'm just kind of curious, though, why ITI gets to go back to the well, and other departments that dealt with post-devo legislation like ENR, there's a new Protected Areas Act, Environmental Rights Act. They're still working on a Forest Act, minutes of the Environmental Protection Act, the Waters Act. Why that department, in particular -- and even the Department of Lands, they've got the Public Lands Act. It's going to require a lot of work to develop regulations. Why are we not seeing anything in the supplementary appropriation for these other departments doing this work? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to pull back the veil a little bit on the process. Departments are expected to look internally and to determine whether or not they can utilize their existing resources, both in terms of actual structural resources and staffing resources before coming forward to seek additional funding, or seek the creation of additional positions. In this case, if they do come forward, then certainly an analysis is done by the Management Board Secretariat to confirm whether or not, in fact, what is being requested is really what is required. In this particular instance, ENR, Lands were able to look internally and establish that their staffing was a sufficient complement to achieve the work that they have to do on their side. Industry, Tourism and Investment did not have that ability within, so they are seeking some additional funding in order to undertake their portion of the work. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I lived through the development of a number of these bills in the last Assembly. Some of my colleagues in this House survived that as well, and I don't want to go back to that where a bunch of bills or regulations come on us all at the same time without sufficient resources to the public. I'm already aware that there's a number of NGOs, Indigenous governments, as well, that have, in the past, talked about the need for more resources to engage in these sorts of co-drafting processes. I see ITI coming to the well, that's great. I'm glad ITI's doing that, but I'm concerned about the capacity of the other departments. The Minister is sitting here and listening to this. I don't want to have to go through that again. Indigenous governments shouldn't have to go through that again, nor should the public in terms of ensuring that everybody has the resources to get the job done. I want to encourage the other Ministers that have responsibility around post-devolution legislative development and development of regulations to get the resources to get the job done and do it right. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance, did you have any? Any further questions, comments, under minerals and petroleum resources? Minerals and petroleum resources, not previously authorized, $360,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Total department, not previously authorized, $810,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will move onto page 10. We will now consider the Department of Justice, operations expenditures, with the detail on this page. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2020-2021, Justice, operations expenditures, services to government, not previously authorized, a reduction of $339,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just get an explanation of what this reduction is? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There is the project underway right now for unauthorized and rights-based occupancy proceeding through the Department of Lands. In order to support that work, Department of Justice had put forward that they estimated requiring three additional legal counsel. After further discussion, it was agreed that, perhaps, a phased approach to the unauthorized occupancy and rights-based occupancy initiative is more appropriate. As such, we'll start off with one legal counsel, and see how the needs may evolve. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Any further questions? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm always happy to see two less lawyers in the world. I have a little caution here to using lawyers on a rights-based occupancy dealing with unauthorized uses. We're essentially dealing with squatters. I know that we have to do a lot of work, and I'm very excited to see the Department of Lands make some progress on this. I would just offer some caution to the Minister of Justice and the Department of Lands that, perhaps, lawyers and the court process are not always the best way to go about doing this, and I think some mediation, some alternative dispute resolution. There's probably some processes that we could design, and I would encourage this one position to look into some alternative dispute resolution processes as we go through the process of catching up on about 40 years of squatting. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
Madam Chair, I'll pass that onto the Minister of Justice. Thank you.
