Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister of human resources tell us if her department is ensuring that the Affirmative Action Policy is being evenly applied within all departments of the government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Every department is responsible for their own hiring. What they would do, then, is bring in the Department of Finance and human resources. We are there to, indeed, support that process and to work with them to make sure that, in fact, the Affirmative Action Policy is being properly applied. I certainly am confident that that does happen. Every time these questions come through my office, we are able to review and to look at and to ensure that the policy is being applied. The short answer, Mr. Speaker, is yes. Thank you.
Can the Minister tell us if the affirmative action strategy applies to all departments of the Government of the Northwest Territories?
It certainly does.
Some people believe that direct appointments are beneficial for Indigenous P1 individuals. Can the Minister tell us if she agrees with that statement?
The direct appointment process is one that is quite carefully used. There are specific rationales, and only under those specific rationales can a department request a direct appointment. Then the rationale needs to be, of course, reviewed by the Minister before supporting the request for direct appointment. It is most often used, Mr. Speaker, for situations where a competition has been held and a position can't be filled. It's been used to make use of the tools and techniques, such as Indigenous Gateway and internship programs, and to try to support those individuals here in the Northwest Territories who are advancing through these avenues that we have.
For example, the numbers I have this year for the 19th Assembly are, indeed, that direct appointments do tend to, far and away, favour affirmative action candidates. Based on that information, it is a system. It's one tool. It's not the only tool, but it is one tool by which we are trying to ensure that the Government of the Northwest Territories can be responsive and flexible towards its goal of having a representative work force.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to bringing my concerns about the direct appointment process to Cabinet to determine ways to improve direct appointments to ensure greater transparency and accountability? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, absolutely. Early on in the process of becoming a Minister, this is a policy that I wanted to have reviewed to understand better, and I agree. It is, as I said, a tool that can be utilized. It should be utilized towards the goal of being a representative work force, and if it's going to be a tool, then it should be better understood. I would certainly commit to bringing the concerns forward, but what's more, I will commit to looking for a way that we can make its use more transparent so that it is more understood how it actually works. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Just in light of my Member's statement on Friday about service gaps for emergency services, the Minister of Health and Social Services gave me a little bit of direction of where to go with this. I have some questions for the Minister of MACA. I live in a small community, and I wanted to take first aid training or first responder training. Where would I go? Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This was a question that I did bring back to my department, and I wanted to know because, when governments are established, industry, whatever, we are supposed to have a safety arm to every organization, making sure that we do offer those services. Bringing that back to the School of Community Government, I asked about the fire safety training that we do have and the first aid, looking at the procedures that we do have to encourage work safety. Within the School of Community Government, we do offer first aid, and we do offer safety training, as well, also looking at the fire safety, as well, and looking at the training that we provide significantly to making sure that we do provide safety when fighting fires.
There was also training that was supported in terms of the automated external defibrillator, training in response to a motion of the Legislative Assembly in 2014. MACA tapped into some federal funding and supported the purchase and implementation of the automated external defibrillator to mass-assembly buildings. We also supported training to the use of the defibrillator. This was done through a partnership with the NWTAC, NWT Fire Chiefs Association, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. As part of this project, it was recommended that all communities note the location of the automated external defibrillator training in their emergency plan when they are looking at submitting for their capital plan. I brought this back to my department to make sure that safety is taken very seriously, and we have acknowledged the need in the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Before we move on, colleagues, please just take your time. Our interpreters are having a little difficulty keeping up, so just be mindful. Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that very thorough response. This training is so important. I spoke with one of my constituents who works with the volunteer fire department for Fort Resolution, and she said it runs out. It's very important that we keep our training updated. Even through times of COVID, life still has to go on, so I just thought I would speak to that. I commend all of the volunteer fire fighters and first responders in our communities. It's a tough job and very, very necessary, very needed. My next question for the Minister: does MACA track the number of people trained in first aid training and first responder training in the Northwest Territories?
Since the training is an opportunity that is offered through the School of Community Government, MACA does keep a list of people who we have trained. However, if they have received training outside of Municipal and Community Affairs, the School of Community Government, we do not keep track of those numbers if it's provided privately.
Again, thank you for that. Going back again, I heard AEDs mentioned, so does MACA keep track of how many AEDs we have in our smaller communities?
That information, I do not have on hand, but I will follow up with the Member.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Like I said, I am going to keep pressing for this, like I said, a very glaring service gap. I am going to keep on pressing, make sure that we get some real responses. That is something so undignified, so maybe I will leave it at that. Marsi cho.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Would the Minister like to respond? I will take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Earlier today, I spoke of the legislative lethargy of our Cabinet. We are about a third of the way through our term, and no bills of any substance have been proposed by Cabinet. Changes have been promised to the Education Act, to implement UNDRIP, to bring our resource management into this century, and more. Can the Premier explain whether there is any substantive legislation planned for the current sitting? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to defer that question to the Government House Leader, who is responsible for legislative initiative, Minister Simpson. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Government House Leader.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the beginning of every sitting, I provide the Regular Members of this House with a list of the legislation that is likely to be introduced. This sitting, there was no legislation planned to be introduced. That said, we are hoping to get a couple of bills introduced at some point in this sitting. However, those have to go through Cabinet, so I cannot say whether or not they will happen. Whether or not they are "substantive" according to the Member's definition, I am not sure, but we hope to have some work for them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Government House Leader for that answer. Maybe we will get a couple of bills. However, I spoke about how this is supposed to be the Legislative Assembly, not a debating club. Can the Government House Leader tell us when any significant legislation is going to be introduced to put our committees to work?
I hope the committees are busy working right now. There is a lot of work to do outside of legislation, despite being the Legislative Assembly by name. Again, any bill that is introduced is subject to Cabinet approval, so I cannot say that a bill will be introduced by this time. However, any member of the public can go and look at the four-year business plans put out by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Every single department lists their legislative initiatives with their proposed dates when they want to introduce the bills. Now, has there been some slippage? Yes, there has, but we were dealing with something for the past year that took a lot of our energy. Some of the departments with the heaviest legislative loads for this term were some of the hardest hit and most affected and were busy with other things. Despite that, we have still had twice as much legislation as the previous Assembly by this point.
I want to thank my colleague, the Government House Leader, but who could forget the legislative landslide in the last eight months of the last Assembly? I personally spent most of the summer away from home, in committee travel, meetings, and a final sitting of the House in August where one clause-by-clause review of a bill stretched on for four-and-a-half hours, until past midnight. Who could forget that, Mr. Speaker? What is Cabinet doing to prevent a repeat performance?
I, for one, will not forget that, and I remember all of the Member's amendments that made it stretch out until past midnight. However, we did learn from the last Assembly. We have asked departments to give us more realistic timelines for legislation and to be brutally honest and look at themselves in the mirror and say, "Can we get this done at this point?" Right off the bat, we had a more realistic list. We are also using technology to ensure that we can track our legislation better. We are one of the first divisions in the government to start using the APEX Database, which is something that is going to be rolling out. It is taking some time because we are the first to use it and there are some technical challenges. That is going to help, as well, and we will all have access to the legislation. I also want to point out that, yes, in the last Assembly, there was a lot of legislation at the very end and that some of the departments that put forward that legislation now have regulations to work on for this entire term and are not putting forward legislation. There is another component to it, as well. It's not all acts; there are also regulations.
Thank you, Government House Leader. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Government House Leader for giving me credit on the clause-by-clause review of that faulty legislation in the last Assembly. Of course, we are looking forward to getting some regulations, as well. While I can understand that COVID may have delayed some of our legislative work, I am more than happy to ensure that departments and the government as a whole have the resources to start legislation flowing. Can the Government House Leader confirm whether there are the human resources and capacity necessary to begin to turn the legislative taps on? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
It's always a challenge to develop legislation. In addition to the people to just sit down and write the legislation, there are some bills that need a lot of consultation before they are ever bills. People have to fly into communities to talk to communities. There is a lot of work and a lot of hours that go into developing these. That being said, we do have the capacity. It's a matter of prioritizing, and so I would just ask that the Member keep down the number of additional requests he is making of the government so that we can prioritize that legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Government House Leader. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just hearing that debate, you have to remember we work for the people of the Northwest Territories, and we have to respect everybody in the House in regard to working together. Today, Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of housing. We have seasonal workers in the communities who are coming home from work. When are they eligible to get the reassessment done on their rent? How quickly can we get that done? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister of Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The local housing authorities have been given the direction to follow through with the rent assessments, moving month-to-month. I have recognized the seasonal workers, as well, and looked at the increased rent that they could be paying over the duration of their current employment at that time. We have also looked at the rent assessments and the CRA reports to try to work on lowering our rent requirements throughout the year. I just instructed the LHOs and LHAs throughout the Northwest Territories to make sure that they fulfil those requirements for our tenants in the public housing units and make sure that they look at the rent assessments and make sure that we consider the tenants who are not permanent employees, indeterminate employees, who have been working seasonally, make sure that their rents are calculated month by month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for that. When the seasonal worker goes in to get a reassessment in the LHOs, local housing authorities, are they able to do that right then and there when they are asked, or do they get told to come back another day? That's the problem we've been having. Is the LHO able to do that assessment that day?
I'm not too sure about the paperwork and the details that have to be submitted when completing a rent assessment, but the current information that I do have is that these assessments can be done at the local community level, with the support of the district offices and with the support of headquarters.
Could the Minister commit to me today that she will talk to the LHOs in the Delta, in my riding, to make sure, when somebody is going in to get an assessment, that they work together with them to get that assessment done? Because the cost of living is a lot more than it is here in Yellowknife, and anything helps, like I always say, for the constituents that we represent. If the Minister could just commit to working with our local LHOs in the Delta for that?
Yes, I will commit to that. I will have the district office just remind the LHO offices in the Beaufort-Delta, in Nunakput, and throughout the Northwest Territories that rent assessment should be done month-to-month, if we have seasonal workers occupying our public housing units, and they should be done without any complications.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I spoke about the pilot project in the Beaufort-Delta where they were going to be mailing out the FIT kits. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services advise me or this House if the pandemic delayed this pilot project rollout as planned? If not, have the rates increased in screening in our region? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Health and Social Services.
