Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Minister for that. So there is a problem, then, in that the regulations say that the length of term for CSFTNO is tied to the district education authorities, and now we've got one. We will have, if this bill passes, a length of term of office for the Hay River ones, for possibly Hay River commissionaires versus the Yellowknife commissionaires for CSFTNO. So how's this issue going to be fixed? And I'm curious to know why it wasn't discovered earlier. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I've spoken with the chair of the CSFTNO and informed him that there exists this issue and that we will reach out as soon as this bill is passed and begin work on amending those regulations. And I've been assured that from the time that those consultations with the CSFTNO are complete, and really the consultation is 'do you want to remain with your threeyear term limit or do you want a fouryear term limit?' Once we're done with that, within two weeks we can have new regulations drafted and likely enforced.
And the reason this wasn't discovered, well, I can take that one; that's on me. It is the Department of ECE and the Department of Justice's job to ensure that when we're putting forward regulations like or changes to acts like this that we fully consider every aspect, and this was overlooked. But and perhaps that if this was not discovered, it would have been overlooked for all eternity and elections would have gone forward as normal because it literally took the legendary tenacity of the Member along with a team of lawyers to really discover this. So it was it was something that we did overlook, and I take full responsibility. And I thank the Member for his contribution. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Well, I'm happy to take compliments. You know look, my objective here is not to embarrass or point fingers at anybody but given the how shall I put this? Litigious relationship in the past between CSFTNO and this government and the extraordinary efforts I recognize that the current Minister has undertaken to build a better working relationship with CSFTNO, my objective here is to make sure that we continue to build that relationship and that when we do these kinds of changes, it doesn't adversely affect the Francophone first language community rights holders and so on. And that's why I guess I'm tenacious about this, is I don't want this to end up in court again and I you know, look, full disclosure. Our kids went to Ecole Alain St. Cyr. I'm a quarterFrench Canadian, my wife is a Francophone, and they're a vibrant part of our community and we just want to make sure that their rights under the Constitution are recognized and implemented fully. So I accept what the Minister said. I will hold his feet to the fire, though, in terms of getting this resolved quickly because CSFTNO does have elections scheduled this fall, and they would like to proceed with them.
And as the Minister said, basically the way they conduct their elections is a ballot box in the foyer of the schools. And the parents who are right holders under the Constitution can come in and cast their ballots right in the school. So it's different than what the school boards or the city, how they carry out their elections. But it's still democratic and all the rest so I think we want to make sure we work with them to get the solution that they want. I hear that from the Minister. And I'll hold his feet to the fire. Thanks, Madam Chair. I think that's all I've got to say. And I do support our school boards in Yellowknife getting their elections back in sync and in no way do I want this bill to be delayed. We owe it to them as well to fix this problem. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister, did you want to respond?
Thank you. I appreciate the Member's comments.
Anything further? Questions? Comments? Does the committee agree that there are no further general comments? We can proceed to a clause by clause review of the bill. Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page1 of the bill.
Clause 1, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Clause 2, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 3, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act, is now really for third reading. Does the committee agree that this concludes the consideration of Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister, and thanks to our witnesses. SergeantatArms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber?
Committee, we have agreed to consider tabled document 41219(2) Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) Number 1, 20212022. Does the Minister of Finance have an opening remarks?
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No, 1, 20212022. These supplementary estimates propose a total increase of $36.6 million comprised of the following major items:
First, $4.3 million for investments committed to as part of the 202122 main estimates process, including $600,000 to advance the Northwest Territories midwifery program into phase 2 of its implementation;
$1.4 million to support aftercare and communitybased addictions programs and services, comprised of $750,000 for a communitybased addictions and aftercare fund;
$150,000 to fund the senior advisor to support Indigenous knowledge and wellness coordination and $500,000 for additional community development activities;
$935,000 to support efforts towards reducing poverty in the Northwest Territories. This includes $750,000 to the antipoverty fund, $110,000 to increase funding for the roundtable advisory council, and $75,000 to increase core funding to the Hay River shelter;
$743,000 to pilot a new approach to assisting with improving cultural safety and patient experience; supporting Indigenous patients in having their concerns, complaints, and questions resolved, and bridging cultural and language barriers;
$500,000 to increase the childcare infrastructure fund;
$100,000 to increase the Child and Family Services contribution.
These investments will be offset by a reduction of $4.03 million to departmental travel budgets.
Second: $14.8 million to support the Northwest Territories aviation sector. This funding request is partially offset by $12.5 million in revenues from the federal government.
Third: $5.7 million to provide shortterm relief to the Northwest Territories tourism operators and accommodation providers, two sectors that have been significantly impacted by the economic disruptions resulting due to the COVID19 pandemic.
Fourth: $5 million to support community governments, small businesses and NWT residents for costs incurred due to the 2021 flooding. And consistent with the Disaster Assistance Policy and previous practice, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has established the Disaster Assistance Committee. This committee will establish a list of recoverable costs and the coordination of the recovery process. We do recognize that that process will take some time and in the interim the Departments of Finance and Municipal and Community Affairs will be working together on a process to ensure that there is advancement of some financial relief to residents.
That concludes my opening remarks, Madam Chair, and I would be happy to answer any questions that the Members might have.
Thank you, Minister. Do you wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes, please.
Thank you. SergeantatArms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.
Madam Chair, on the right is Jamie Koe. He is ADM at the Department of Finance. And on the left is Terence Courtoreille. He is director at the Management Board Secretariat.
Thank you, and welcome back. I will now open the floor for general comments. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair; sometimes we all look alike. I want to start by thanking the Finance Minister for carrying through with a number of commitments she made as part of our budget negotiations on the main estimates back in the last sitting. So there's a number of new spending items in here to carry through with those commitments and that those are much appreciated, and I think they were mutually achieved by both sides of the House to on behalf of all the residents of the NWT.
One of the other areas, though, that they agreed upon was changes or reductions in travel expenditures. And I just want to confirm with the Minister that these reductions are to travel outside of the Northwest Territories for nonessential purposes. So if the Minister can maybe just talk a little bit about how the travel expenditures have been reduced across all departments, that would be helpful for, I think, the public to understand that. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do appreciate the commitments that were made, I want to echo that, you know, that really was a consensus government approach was a very positive one for the people of the Northwest Territories. So I think the appreciation really does flow in both directions on all of those commitments.
Madam Chair, with respect to the travel reductions, this was not a simple process and it was not a simple calculation. It was done in a way where the departments came forward, did an analysis of all of their travel spending in order to understand what of the various travel budgets is in the category of discretionary as opposed to nondiscretionary. And, certainly, all of the travel that takes place takes place for the purposes of advancing the initiatives and efforts in programs and services of various departments. Some of that, though, of course, is to has transitioned to being more in line. Some of that is not going to be occurring because of various restrictions well, outside of the territories as well as in the territories over travel. And so what they looked as was to determine, indeed, what type of travel is critically and critically required, and generally that would, of course, be in the Northwest Territories as opposed to the discretionary and certainly nonNorthwest Territories travel. So it wasn't a blanket 20 percent across all. It was 20 percent in the total budget but applied differently to different departments depending on the needs.
So there's some departments, for example Health and Social Services, their travel budgets might be not impacted the same way as, say ITI, because just of the nature of the travel that gets undertaken in the course of the year. But it was done, again, the focus was on ensuring that Northwest Territories travel and essential travel for the delivery of programs and services was maintained. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for FrameLake
No, thanks, Madam Chair. That's good to hear, and I think important for the public to understand that. And it's one of the reasons why we couldn't make the reductions in the main estimates themselves, because we wanted to make sure that this was done carefully and thoughtfully. So I think it's fair to say that there's going to be a some concerns or questions around some of the other items in the supplementary appropriation and we'll get to those items a little later this afternoon. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Are there any further general comments? Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think once we start opening up and going back to somewhat normal, you know, I do not want to discourage travel. I think that face to face and some of these contacts that could have been made during these past two years with our new Cabinet and Premier must take place, and along with the MLAs on this side. It's extremely important that contact is of great value to any government, and I don't want to lose sight of that when you start deducting all travel, okay. Because, I mean, there has to be some travel. You know, there's things that we expect the ITI Minister to go to. We expect the Education Minister to expand his horizons. If we're going to be doing these kind of things, we can't limit everything, okay. It's at the discretion of how the travel is going to be done. And I just want to make that comment because I'm not one to tie hands and do all these things because I'm one about vision, improving government face to face. You don't get the same thing on Zoom. I don't care how many times you go on Zoom, you don't get it. Just a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Finance.
Yes, Madam Chair. I'm certainly somewhat Zoomed out myself. And I can say, you know, I do think, Madam Chair, that every department does still have a travel budget, and I appreciate the comments. There will be some business, I suspect FPTs, for example, the federal-provincial-territorial meetings that we often attend, where those may be slower to open up because there are so many different travel restrictions across Canada, whereas perhaps other areas of travel will be soon faster to open up. And I I can certainly say that I think every I think can probably safely speak for every colleague here that there's no replacing of face to face and if we need a reminder, the Zoom experience has probably taught us all that. But at the same time, there's more that can happen online as well. So we're going to be spending the next year, no doubt, seeing how that balance unfolds and then probably over the coming years as well. So there's still travel money in every department; it's just that it wasn't all it wasn't necessarily a blanket 20 percent. There really was effort to look at what is spent where and by and for what purpose. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Finance.
Madam Chair, there are department staff watching these proceedings, and I think the comments will be well taken. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's always, like, interesting to be on this side and see how things function and one of the new things to me was, I think I mentioned last time, the negotiation that happens between Cabinet and the Regular Members. So I, too, want to thank the Minister for participating in that and actually I believe it went fairly smoothly from what I heard feedback on. And also just in that, I want to say 'thank you' to her specifically for the antipoverty funding money. Instead of bringing it up when we get to that section, I'll just speak to her right now.
It's really important to me that we see more money going into the hands of our NGOs. They are filling the gaps and services that we aren't able to provide as COVID changes our landscape. So for me, I think that it's always important because NGOs will always stretch their money more. And I know I'm saying things that, I see the Premier nodding and such, because this is their area, but, yeah, they'll always do more with their money than, I believe, the government will. So for me, I just really wanted to specifically speak and say thank you for the money for the antipoverty fund and so now we just have to work on the making sure that money gets out the door easily with as little red tape as possible. So, thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister, did you have any comments?
For sure. That it is actually a good example of where I think numbers identify an area of issue and an area of concern. We're able to come up with some faith and trust in the department to look at and say what can we do to address your concern, and then there was this discussion. So these are all good examples of how that process can and should work. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Any further questions, comments? I see no further general comments. Seeing no further general comments, we will review the supplementary estimates by department. The committee has agreed to forego general comments on each department. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document? Committee has agreed to begin the review with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Does committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Okay, we will begin with Department of Education, Culture and Employment on page 4.
Supplementary Estimates (Operating Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Culture Heritage and Language, not previously authorized, $27,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, early learning and childcare, not previously authorized, $451,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll try and keep my comments brief considering we already agreed to this. I'm very happy to see the child care infrastructure fund. This is much needed money. I believe, though, we need something like $20 million to make up our infrastructure deficit to get to the requiredto place where all our communities have child care. And I know the previous fund was oversubscribed. And I'm hoping we can get this money out the door very quickly, and I know the department will do that. I guess I'm just looking for I know some of the previous applications didn't quite meet the criteria or didn't necessarily get funding, and there's a very large demand in this area. I'm just looking for a commitment that we will reach out to those people who had previously applied for this fund and, you know, work with them to continue applications for the topup here. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
Madam Chair, I think that's a question for the Minister of Education.
Minister of EC and E.
