Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm going to switch topics slightly. I do not consider this to be resolved and this okay, two issues: Who's going to help people fill out this form? The two navigators are floating around in the communities. They're there for a couple of days, then they're going on down the valley. Those navigators are not going to be there helping people fill out these forms. Who's going to help them people, elders who may not speak any English fill out these forms? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The navigators are the first point of contact but they're not the last point of contact. Madam Chair, there are government staff and government employees in all of these communities. There are senior members from various departments who have been on the front lines from day one, and they will continue to be there. And if direction simply needs to be given to them to say, you know, you will acting outside of your specific department, I fully expect that, in fact, they've already been doing that as part of their role within the disaster assistance policy and its enactment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I just don't consider this to be resolved. I would like to know whether the Minister is prepared to ensure that there's monthly reporting of the expenditures of this $5 million similar to what's happening for the COVID Secretariat. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd be happy to make that commitment.
Thank you. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that work's been done through income assistance to get some funding in to people's pockets. Is that a onetime payment, or is that going to continue on a monthly basis as long as people need it? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Minister of ECE, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Under the income assistance regulations, the director has discretion to allocate an emergency allowance in situations that are deemed an emergency. So this onetime emergency allowance has been allocated to income assistance clients in Fort Simpson, in Fort Good Hope, and or rather in zones 1, 2, 3, to Fort Good Hope and other affected residents. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I'm just this is, again, sort of not maybe necessarily about the numbers but while I've got some somebody here to answer a little bit more about this flooding.
So my understanding is that the assessors and the assessor group or company will be in the communities; they're going to be looking at damage. Will the assessors be the determinant or the people making the determination of the award amount? Are they sort of the judicial panel, so to speak, for the relief funding? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My understanding of the system is that it's the disaster assistance committee that has the ability to make the final decisions on that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah okay, that's good I guess; there's at least two sort of arm's lengths there.
Can the Minister speak a little bit to well, I've got a few things here, I guess. Will the is there a dispute mechanism built in to the process? If there's only one sort of small group making a determination of assessment of value, I'm concerned that, you know, there may not be a process for people, or a timely process, for people to appeal that decision. As well, too, will local knowledge be incorporated into that decision making process? I think people situated within the communities are probably better assessors or judgers judgment of maybe what a property was like prior than, say, a senior bureaucrat sitting in Yellowknife who doesn't know Fort Simpson. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the disaster assistance committee is made up both of ADMs, who are largely based in Yellowknife, as well as regional presentation from all of the affected communities and regions. So although I do certainly appreciate the comment, and I recognize that.
With respect to whether or not there's an appeal community, or an appeal process, Madam Chair, I am not certain about that although there typically with a system of this nature, when it's at an ADM or director level, it does have some final appeal to a Minister. I expect this is the same here. If I'm wrong, I will bring that response and that correction back to the House tomorrow.
Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just going to ask that the Minister commit that she do everything she can to make that appeal process as timely as possible. And if perhaps we have oneoffs that we have to come to her or her colleague and ask for that, that we would get responded to in a timely manner. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have some concerns around, as the Minister had mentioned, the navigator positions. It's my understanding that those are two senior management employees. While I do recognize that people can go to others and other senior managers and people in different departments, which I do appreciate and I think that always happens in our small communities anyway, I'm sure we'll also be helpful to people helping out forms over here, and I hope and I know that the Northwest Territories will step up.
I did ask, in House and I don't believe I got an answer from the Minister of MACA, about whether there was a commitment to potentially hire a local individual in each community to help facilitate this process, and this would then go further to my colleague's questions around helping elders in those communities. I think this is a great opportunity to hire a local person for a shortterm contract in order to help them facilitate. I don't imagine that amount of money is going to be that large, given the amount of time that they would save bureaucrats in having to answer all these questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So Madam Chair, at this point there's not an intention to use the funds that are within this five million to hire a local position for the communities. Certainly, you know, Madam Chair, as the assessment process gets underway and concludes, if in fact it's determined that there needs to be something further, you know, again, Madam Chair, you know, I anticipate that there's going to be some flexibility in the existing appropriations for that to happen and if not, we'll be back in front of the committee back in the fall. But, again, for the moment, that's not anticipated. And for the moment, it's not anticipated to be needed. I hear the concerns of the Member. Obviously, having someone on the ground is better. That's why there's two people that have been sent in immediately. They are both, you know yeah, at this point, that's not determined to be any advice for and I should keep it at that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I respectfully disagree with the Minister. I think what I heard my colleagues and myself I actually didn't ask it but my colleagues did ask in public briefing that it be local people who know the people on the ground in the communities and who are trusted and the people in the communities are comfortable with those people. I can guarantee you sending in senior bureaucrats from Yellowknife to small communities who are not filling a navigator position, you're just creating another level of governmental official coming in. So I do strongly suggest and I would never want it to come out of this $5 million, I suggest you find that money elsewhere. That's all, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll that a comment, and we'll continue on. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to start off with the navigators. You know, having navigators go in to support the people and the victims filling out forms is, you know, a great first step. And what I would look at, though and my thoughts as well was to use local people for it. And when I was looking at the number of student hires, summer student hires, there seems to be a number of positions that could still be available. And that might be an area where we could utilize some local local people to go in and, you know, knock on the doors of the people that are actually impacted and, you know, provide some jobs for a couple of three months. So, you know so that, to me, I guess is kind of an easy fix for a short term, anyway. And I'm wondering if the department would consider something like that to solve that issue. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I let me just give that one sort of a strong maybe in the sense that I think there's probably a number of the departments that have a presence in the affected communities who may well still be in a position to hire summer students. Obviously, I don't have that in front of me here. But, certainly, as the Minister for Finance with HR under it, we are still very much wanting to recruit summer students, so. And as we've said, we don't want to take that money out of this five million. So let me commit certainly to follow up with all of my colleagues to see if we can't support that idea. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the other you know, we're talking $5 million here. And I haven't heard any numbers on the number of people that have been impacted in each community or the number of businesses that actually have been impacted in each community. If the Minister may have that information, I'm not sure, but I'd appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Madam Chair, I do have some numbers here in front of me. My concern, though, is that I've also heard, literally just this afternoon, that some of the numbers are still changing and some of the estimates are still changing, and I don't know that it does anyone any good for me to give numbers here if they are still changing and not accurate. So, yes, the assessors are in the communities, the navigators are in the communities and I think the situation, as I understand in the north in the BeauDel is still unfolding. So, you know, I'll commit that we'll it may not be tomorrow and I know session's over tomorrow, but that the information as soon as it can be more verified can go out to the Members. Perhaps it will go out with the variance that we put out monthly. Hopefully before that, though, is that I would think that those numbers will be shared sooner than that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess one issue I had with the forms is that, you know, it's fine that the navigators may help the persons fill out the victims fill out the forms but if neither have the experience or qualifications I guess of assessing, you know, maybe damage to the building, which I'm sure will be in those forms, then it's kind of a lost cause. So it seems to me that you know, I know the assessor's going in there to assess the damage but that's different than assessing the building for what needs to be done to the building. Is the government going to have somebody in there to assist the victims and the navigators with ensuring that the right information is placed on the forms? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that is partly the work of the disaster systems committee once its set up, or sorry that they are coming up with lists of eligibility of what types of damage and what property losses are going to be eligible for compensation and at what level. So that is indeed exactly part of the work that they would be undertaking. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, and looking at the disaster relief, I guess is that, you know, the reality is that it's not going to put anybody back to where they were 100 percent before they started, before this happened, and I'm hoping that, you know, that's relayed to the people so there's no false hope out there. It's very important that we do that. And I guess I just want to go to what the Member for Frame Lake was talking about and that was the you know, putting money in the pockets of individuals. And I guess when I look at that and I've been pushing that, and I've talked to the Minister of MACA about that, the Minister of ECE as well. And you know, it's just that when something like this happens, you know, people are displaced. And when you're displaced, I don't care if government's paying the footing the bill for the accommodation, meals, you're always out. You're always going to be out money. You might be paying for your own gas. You might be whatever it might be. And so there's always those extra costs and, you know, a lot of people, you know, they live paycheque to paycheque. They don't have a lot of funds saved up. So I think it's important that we take that into consideration. That's kinds of why I wanted the number of how many people are impacted, because I guess that when I look at what happened with the CERB, I think that's kinds of what that was, to put money in the pockets of the people right away. And I think that's what we're saying on this side is the same thing. You know, what can we do? I'm hoping it's not going to be, you know, a year down the road and we're still talking about putting money in people's pockets. I'm hoping that this situation gets sorted out fairly quickly and people get back in their houses and we solve this. So I think that's what we're looking for, and I guess ECE has already did provided some money, but we're looking for is a little more support than that to make sure that the money goes into their pocket and having the five million go towards the other, I've got no problem with that as long as there's money separate pot for people. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Madam Chair, I can give you an estimate. I think we're looking at somewhere between, you know, I think 60 to 80 households right now. So at least there's a sense of the scale of what we're dealing with. And Madam Chair, again, the commitment that I'm making, I realize that it is not as specific as people want but it's an understanding now that the disaster system's committee process, while it exists, while it's a policy and it's a process and it has a way of unfolding, is going to take some time. That is why I'm making the commitment that Finance and MACA are going to work together to make sure that we get ahead of that committee process and get some money moving faster than what that process by itself will take. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, I just you know, we have victims out there and I just want to see this dealt with quickly. We need solutions and, you know, and the solutions have to come from all of us and, you know, we always say money's tight but at the same time, you know, we've got to help we've got to put the money where the help is actually really needed, and we know where it is in this instance so, you know, instead of you know, instead of us, you know, sitting here and arguing about stuff, you know, if you have a solution, put it out there and hopefully, you know, the department can use it and help the victims. So thank you. And that is all.
