Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I feel more comfortable with the schedule outlined by the Minister than what I read here. So, yeah, I think the objective is shared to do a good job, not a quick job.
I guess and I don't want to prejudge in any way what might come out of this strategy, but it might seem reasonable to expect that a number of the initiatives identified in this section could be wrapped up and be part of the strategy. Is that kind of a safe assumption? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Yes, thank you. Yes, I believe, Mr. Chair, that that is a safe assumption. One of one of the purposes of the senior strategy is to do a gap analysis and to come up with solutions to those gaps. So many of the priorities that are listed in this section of enabling seniors to age in place with dignity do represent gaps. So I would expect to see some version of them in the senior strategy when it's complete. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response. And maybe the last line I have here is about there's supposed to be some sort of a new program that's outlined on page 52, the second from the bottom row, some new income assistance program that's tailored to seniors and persons living with disabilities and it's supposed to be launched in 2023.
I've heard about this now several times. So is there any progress that's being made here, and what sort of program are we talking about? Is this going to be through the tax system? Is it going to be a some sort of means tested or income tested, you know, payments or direct deposits, or what is this going to be all about? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister Simpson.
Thank you, and the Member is correct. He has heard about this many times before. This is in our original mandate, and I have been bringing it up time and time again.
This is separating people who are essentially out of the workforce, people who don't expect to go back into the workforce, from people who are, you know, in and out of the workforce. So income assistance has different types of clients. Some of those clients are ablebody people who are in between jobs who have fallen on hard times and who just need some assistance, and they will be on income support for a short amount of time and then off income support. And others are people who we don't expect to get back into the workforce. They've aged out of the workforce. They have situations that prevent them from working and there's no need to treat those different groups of people alike. We expect that there would be, you know, less reporting requirements, different reporting requirements, and we would look at different different things that perhaps would be funded in different ways. So we really are looking at what are the needs of seniors and how do we better serve them through an income assistance program. You know, we don't expect them to have income from a job that they're going to have to report on a regular basis so why bother making them come in every month to report. So that's one example there.
We also have a number of programs tailored for seniors such as the senior citizens supplementary benefit, seniors home heating subsidy, and so on. And we're looking at ways to tie all of those in together. And what I would really like to do is, you know, create this stream and separate it from income assistance in the sense that, you know, it is there to assist people with their income but it's not what people might consider to be welfare, which is really the negative connotation that the income assistance program has. And we don't want seniors to feel like that. We don't want them to be discouraged from accessing this programming. So those are some of my current thoughts on it and progress is moving along nicely, and we fully expect this to be implemented April 2023. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Okay, thanks. I appreciate the further detail there. Will we get some concrete options or proposals sometime soon to provide some feedback on and, you know, good to talk to the MLAs, but I think probably some sort of a discussion paper or options paper or something needs to be made available to the public. Is there more of a schedule or steps or communications plan or something that's available? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there was a discussion paper. It was sent out. And this was on the income assistance program of which this would be you know, we were trying to extract a certain segment of that program and design a different program for them. So that was public. There was online surveys that could be done. There were paper surveys. We've reached out to a number of current and former income assistance clients as well as NGOs, Indigenous governments. So that has happened. There is a summary, "what we heard" report in the works, and I expect that to be coming out in the near future. And I'm happy to keep the Members apprised of progress through briefings and letters. I do my best to communicate when there is something worthy of communication. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Are there any further questions?
Seeing none, Committee, we'll move to pages 54 to 55, increase food security through locally produced, harvested, and affordable food. Questions? Ms. Nokleby.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm just looking at the item around the construction of the fish plant in Hay River, and it does say that the timeline originally is fall 2023, and then it says will be completed in November of 2022. I just want to make sure that that is correct and it's not an error. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Premier.
Chair, to Minister Wawzonek, ITI.
Thank you. Minister Wawzonek.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, Mr. Chair, the construction is as I believe, Mr. Chair, would all be underway, is underway, and is expected, indeed, to be completed by the fall of this year. Thank you.
Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm sure that makes the chair of this committee quite happy right now. I think that's excellent.
I note that there are a lot of within the progress to date comments around supportive development of the food industry, that recommendations are being reviewed currently by the department for a variety of things like the meat regulatory framework as well as just the developing the food production businesses.
Can the Premier or the Minister speak to when we could start to expect to see some of this work start commencing? For example, the last time there, the review and amend the northern food development program has a date of spring 2021 for the greenhouses and community gardens support. So I'm just wondering if we're going to actually see implementation this year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chair, this is the area of food of the food security does is supported by quite a number of different departments. ITI's primary responsibilities certainly are the food are the fish plants, sorry, and then some support on some of the other programs.
Now, with respect to I believe it was I was just trying to find it. I do have it in my notes, but it's actually not I don't think ITI that's the lead on some of this, the Northern Food Development Program. Here sorry, Mr. Chair, I just want to make sure I'm getting the right date. I may have to get back to the Member on it in terms of the date as to where that's going to get us to.
Yeah, that might be the best, Mr. Chair, rather than me trying to look for it while everyone's waiting. Thanks.
Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, that is totally fine if the Minister wants to come back to me. I guess I'm just wondering when committee will start to see some of the recommendations and where the department is going with them.
My next question is around the working with Canada to increase the flexibility of the Nutrition North Program to better serve NWT residents.
I note that the recommendations were provided to Canada. However, it looks like the result has been more about just adding communities to the program, not actually looking to evaluate the program and see what changes need to be made. It is my understanding, or there is a perception, that the money that's being spent here is actually just going into the pockets of the sellers versus, you know, actually bringing the cost of food down and the cost of nutritious food down for Northerners.
So could the Premier or the Minister speak about where that's at about the actual changes to the program and not just the addition of new communities. Thank you.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do think that that having more communities added to it was was something that we can't put aside as not important. It was one of the biggest issues. When I went to Tsiigehtchic actually, it was brought up in that community that that was one of the biggest issues. And so I was a strong advocate, and we did get Tsiigehtchic and other communities as well included into it.
It is a federal program. What I can do is I will try, recognizing that I'm only one Member, but I will try to see if I can get it on to the Council of Leaders agenda, and if they don't want to deal with it there, then maybe I'll just send out a questionnaire to the Indigenous governments and ask if there's other parts of the program that they would like changed. That I can do because I work with the Indigenous groups and told them that we're all one when we go to the federal government, and I will carry their needs. So it's not a stretch for me to do that for them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms.
I think that I would be surprised if you didn't get support from Indigenous governments to look at this program and do some real evaluation. I do understand that a lot of these programs and such are the feds, and they have their their restrictions or their ideas. But yet again, it is our our government's responsibility, Cabinet's responsibility to tell the feds why their programs don't work just like, you know, constituents come to us to tell you why your programs don't work. So I think this is one where we really need to take back to the federal government that what they're doing is really just making people in places that are not the North rich. It is my understanding the address for some of the the larger grocers is in Winnipeg, or is in Manitoba. So it always struck me as interesting that they've made it on to BIP registries, etcetera, but then that brings up Walmart. That's another whole story.
Anyway, just more of a comment that I really think this is a broken program that needs to be we need to push harder than just, you know, waiting for the feds to dictate the conversation. Thank you.
Thank you. Premier.
I agree, Minister Mr. Chair. Like I said, though, when I did do trips to the northern communities, most of them are northern communities communities that are off the grid don't have access or are eligible for it. What I heard was was the communities wanting access to it versus complaining about it, so. But I can take it one more step further and ask that question because I've also heard the complaint that you've said as well. I just haven't heard it from the communities themselves. But I'll ask. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Nokleby.
Yeah, well, if you're in a community that doesn't have it, of course they're going to want to opt into it. But are you asking the question in the communities that have it about how the satisfaction is. So to me, I wasn't presenting that as an either/or situation. Of course we want to have as many communities getting funding and subsidy from the federal government that we can however that doesn't mean we can't work to improve the program and to really advocate for our communities. Also too, we shouldn't be relying on the communities to tell us necessarily that this isn't working. I think that it's upon us to ensure that our people have affordable fresh food. So more of a comment. Thank you. I'm done.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, that is a federal program. I'm willing to take feedback on it. But, you know, we have problems with our own programs. So a lot of times when we go in, we don't ask them everything. We I ask them general, you know, what are your concerns, what do you want me to address, what do you want me to talk about, and then they bring those to me. I could spend the whole four years just asking about our own programs. So this one is about food security. It's something I care in my heart about, and so I will I've made a commitment that I'll ask about a federal program to the communities. But like I said, it's not our program, so. I am willing to do it, though. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Nokleby.
With respect, it's a mandate item. So to say that I just find that to be a little bit sort of shunting the responsibility here. Again, if you've put it in the mandate, then you have an obligation to connect with communities and get feedback on that item. Thank you.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely, like you said, the mandate says that it is about recommendations for improvements in Nutrition North. When we went and we talked, it was communities asking to get on to it. I've already made the commitment that I'll go further with that, Mr. Chair. So I'm not sure what more the Member wants of me. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.
Just clarifying, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. Ms. Cleveland.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I guess just to carry on where my colleague from Great Slave left off there, I am happy that Nutrition North is part of our priorities and made it into a mandate commitment because it is such a key pillar program of food security in the Northwest Territories because food security really, at the end of the day, is about affordability of food. It's a question of income, and it's a question of ensuring that there is affordability in every household for healthy nutritious foods to make it on to the table. And so this conversation about Nutrition North is really a key part of this mandate item of increasing food security.
And while I appreciate, you know, that the whole first page is about developing food industry in the Northwest Territories, and that is certainly very important longterm and about creating, you know, some selfresiliency there, but right now it's about affording food and the way that lot of our communities are trying to do that is relying on that Nutrition North Program through the federal government.
And I have a lot of concerns in regards to how the program was working before a lot of our cost of living increases, and my concern has only heightened with the increase to the cost of fuel, the cost of supply chains, and then also the impacts of climate change on food supplies from the south.
For example, the flooding that happened in BC had a huge impact on where fresh fruits and vegetables, especially vegetables, came from. And then now with the war in the Ukraine, a substantial amount of the global supply of wheat comes from the Ukraine and Russia. And so all of these, even those these are events that are happening outside of our borders, have an impact on not only of the availability but also the cost of these items to northern communities. And so I think even banding together with Indigenous governments to be able to have these conversations at federal tables is so important right now and probably now more than ever. And so I guess I just want a commitment from Cabinet that these conversations are going to happen because the affordability of food is, even here in Yellowknife, is definitely increasing, not decreasing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, so the food security is a concern for everyone in the North, no matter what your income is. It's one of the highest things that we spend our money on; it's just the reality of being here. And so when you're low income, it's even more dire. So I agree with that. There's different components. The Nutrition North Program is about getting food. It's a federal government program. It's about getting food into the communities that don't have access to highway systems 24/7. And so that is federal government, and that I took on, and I when I asked, I mean, we got more communities on. That was a priority. And the first time in years that that's happened. So that's a bonus in itself.
We also have other food security programs that happen. I know Minister Wawzonek with ITI is working on the Northern Food Development Program which is again in priority or with the federal government, the Canadian agricultural partnership with ITI and Agriculture and Agrofoods Canada. So they tried to get that to align with legislative priorities and industry needs. Small scale foods programs being rebranded, and it's food security. We have ENR that works with the Minister Thompson working with getting traditional harvester support programs, the Harvester Mentorship Program. There's a variety of programs that we're doing to be able to get food into people and of all kinds. The Nutrition North is about foods in grocery stores, and maybe it's not the right way I can ask about that. However, we're also looking at different departments and looking at traditional foods as well. So it's as comprehensive as we can get it. And, you know, we're trying our best to be able to meet the needs of people in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Cleveland.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate that, you know, variety is the spice of life and especially when it comes to being able to put together kind of a robust fleet I guess of programs that support food security. And like I said, agriculture programs are important as well longterm, and I fully, fully support those, and I think there's a lot of really, really strong business ideas that have come out of some that funding and that are being developed right now across the North. But when we speak about food security, one we're not necessarily looking at all of those agriculture programs. When we talk or right away. When we talk about somebody affording to put, you know, milk on the table and somebody purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables, well, the odds of us seeing, you know, a citrus farm in the territory or a fruit farm in the territory are quite low, and I know that we've had a dairy farm before but the idea of a dairy farm is quite low. And so we we know that we're reliant on grocery stores and that this is a key part of food security and people being affording being able to afford to purchase food from grocery stores is important just as much as being able to also source country foods is also important across the territory. And so given the equal importance between the two, is the Premier willing to have a very specific conversation about the strength of the Nutrition North Program at the federal tables along with Cabinet colleagues? Thank you.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So to deal with the Nutrition North, I don't believe it has to be at the federal table with the with all of Cabinet. I think it's something that ENI can EIA can take on. It's something, like I said, I took on when I went to the communities and asked people about it. That's how we got the other communities on. I've already made the commitment I will go further with that work and ask them, you know, that of issues that they have with the program and carry that back to the federal government. So I'll follow through with my commitment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Cleveland.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, along the same vein as far as affordability of food being a key component of food security across the territory, I'm wondering if the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, specifically income assistance like, I've noticed that that they are not in this mandate or this list of mandate items under this priority, and really the participation of income security is huge as far as being able to afford to put food on the table. And so given the increase to food costs, is income assistance looking at increasing their own amount that goes towards calculating income assistance to ensure that food security and inflation is part of that and is inflation automatically calculated year after year as far as income assistance is concerned? Thank you.
Thank you. Premier.
