Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, we've got Crown corporations; we've got the Housing NWT; we've got the Northwest Territories Power Corporation; we've got NTech. We've got all these Crown corporations that our money is flowing through to, you know, and if we're not following one policy that can flow through all of our public dollars that we all have to apply to, then what are we doing? We need to follow one procurement policy within our government, within our Crown corporations, and so we can't be saying well, in this department we do this and in this department we do this.
So, Mr. Speaker, you know, what I want to do is if the NWT Housing Corporation Minister will be looking at her policy to ensure that it aligns with our new procurement policy and that it aligns with BIP policy so that we are doing what we are saying what we are going to do for the people of the Northwest Territories, the residents, the locals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for the question as well too. And Housing does follow the GNWT procurement policy as well. And like I had mentioned, I take this very seriously. I want to bring this back to the department and provide a further response to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Education explain what the distinction is, if any, about the term "administrative centre" versus "university headquarters" in reference to the Thebacha Campus for the future polytechnic university? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And of course I don't speak for the college. This House passed changes to amendments to the Aurora College Act which has significantly changed my role in relation to the college.
So the college has adopted the term "administrative centre" to acknowledge that the staff who support corporate administrative functions of the college are in Fort Smith. So that is why they're using that term. It's a term that's commonly used in postsecondary environments. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, just for clarity, it's one staff member that's doing that, okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, does the Minister agree with the statement that the term "headquarters" in reference to the university campus is solely a government term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not going to single out any individual staff member. That's inappropriate, it's against the rules of this House, so I'm going to leave it at that. That's the term Aurora College uses. That's the term the institution uses. The idea of a university headquarters is something that is it's not really used in postsecondary institutions. Colleges and universities don't distinguish one campus from another by calling one a headquarters and one, you know, a subservient. Each campus has difference roles. Sometimes they have different colleges as part of the same university. So every campus has its own role. I can leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, clarity on a term is not singling out one person, for the record. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister agree and support the notion that Fort Smith is the education capital of the NWT as proclaimed by the former Commissioner in 1967? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not aware that that would be an official designation. But I think that given the number of jobs in Fort Smith that are education related, the amount of money that the GNWT flows to the community in terms of education, probably more per capita than anywhere else in the territory, I think in that sense, yes, Fort Smith is the education capital. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the Minister for acknowledging that. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister once again, assure me and the constituents of Thebacha that the primary campus for the future polytechnic university will be in Fort Smith? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated, each campus serves a purpose. In Fort Smith, that's where the administration of the college takes place, and there's no intention to change that. The other campuses each have their roles as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister can let us know how the GNWT sets the per diems, hotel subsidy, and copay amounts for medical travel? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question.
I want to start with that access to healthcare while it's determined by whether someone is Indigenous, Metis, on a private healthcare plan, or a public healthcare plan, access is the same. That is guaranteed under the Canada Health Act. How you get to that medical treatment I think is what the Member wants to hear about.
So the medical travel program is in place not to reimburse residents for everything that they spend but rather to reduce the financial barrier of travelling for a service that's not provided here. So the benefit program is provided by GNWT on par with NIHB and the Metis Health Benefit Plan. The situation is that if a person has an income of under $80,000 a year, they're eligible to stay at a boarding home which provides both accommodation and food. If they have a higher income or they choose not to stay at the boarding room, then the per diem is $68 per day, and that's been the case since 2003. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the costs have gone up substantially, especially over the last couple of years here, and I'm wondering if Health and Social Services intends to increase the per diems and hotel subsidy that they offer to make it more in line with the costs that residents are actually incurring when they travel south? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the question. The medical travel program has a number of reviews ongoing in this fiscal year, and that includes the per diem rate, which we've been referencing here, and mileage rates, as well as the exceptions policy, the escort criteria, a number of formal definitions such as "nearest centre" and the air ambulance transportation policy. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I spoke about the GNWT benefit program for medical travel really being the gold standard in the Northwest Territories and one that I think all residents would like the opportunity to have access to. So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to what the cost would be to provide medical travel benefits to all residents equal to that received of GNWT employees? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT medical travel program is for people who don't have private means to travel through their employer benefits, for example, whether those are public employers like the GNWT, or they are private employers, the medical travel program fills that gap.
In terms of who gets these benefits in the GNWT, the medical travel benefits are part of the compensation package for staff, and so they have them on that basis through their collective agreement.
In the last fiscal year, the medical travel program spent $43 million for approximately 15,000 cases. So with 45,000 people in the territory, let's triple that and say it's $150 million to provide even the level of benefits we have now to everyone. So there is no cost estimate. I can just say that it is going to be tens of millions of dollars over what we spend today. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to look at a policy change as well that would allow travel to Calgary for medical travel patients? Right now what patients are saying, or what constituents are saying, is that there's additional wait times in order for waiting for appointments available in Edmonton and that medical travel won't cover the travel to get to Calgary for appointments of the same nature but that are available much sooner. And so I'm wondering if this change can be made at a policy level. This would save on administrative burdens associated with appeals and would also provide timelier healthcare service to NWT residents. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that question. The way that the referrals work now is that we have an agreement with Alberta Health Services to provide, as a first response, care and services in Edmonton and the associated support services, such as the Larga Boarding Home and medical travel contracts and so on, all support that Edmonton location. I don't have any information about the relative waiting lists of Edmonton versus Calgary, which would be an important dimension to consider here. And also another thing to consider would be whether Alberta Health Services would provide the same care in Calgary as they do in Edmonton. So those are some interesting things to take up.
What I need to say about that as well is that if someone is referred to specialized care in Calgary, the medical travel will pay for them to have that specialized care in Calgary versus Edmonton. If people are accessing care themselves without being referred by the NWT healthcare system, then the cost of medical travel is on them as is the cost if they are using a private clinic. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I ask my question, I just want to state that I do not I have a lot of empathy for the people that had to execute the orders of the Department of ENR, and it is not them that I am criticizing in this.
So my questions are for the Minister of ENR. When did the department reach out to Chief Marlowe to request a facetoface meeting to discuss the incident? And when the Minister does have that meeting, could we please have a copy of it and minutes from the meeting. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a few questions in there so I'm just going to answer the first one. As soon as the search warrant issue was addressed, we then sent out the letter because it was in the courts, we sent the letter to Chief Marlowe, and he has received it and we confirmed it with his staff today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that letter is dated as of yesterday, after getting questions in this House, and it's my understanding it went to the wrong address for the Chief and not the SAO. My question, though, is, however, yesterday the Minister said with respect to the raid that it, quote, "hasn't been proven it was unlawful." However, the search warrant was thrown out by the courts. So is it not logical then that that search was unlawful? Is this really just not a game of semantics. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we followed this process. It's not semantics. We follow the process. We got a search warrant, and we did the they executed a search warrant, not a raid. It was an execution of a search warrant. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, why didn't the Minister consider reaching out ahead of time in order to mitigate the situation with the LKDFN? This is what we've been talking about since we took office, was doing things properly and respectfully with the First Nations. Given that the warrant was thrown out, I think that there could have been a lot of things done here to not have had this happen, to traumatize women and children and foreign dignitaries. Therefore, can the Minister answer whether or not he thought about mitigating this and contacting the Chief ahead of time? Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was an investigation. I don't get involved in the investigation. We have reached out to Chief Marlowe. We've set up a time, and we are working with that. We are trying to resolve this and move forward. But I need to stress that the investigation is still ongoing, so I don't know all the matters into that. And I don't want to have any political interference on this. Same as what we did with illegal hunts in the mobile zone, officers do their work and then it's brought to my attention after they do their work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So what I hear is the Minister doesn't know what's going on in his department and he's not interested in mitigating this with the First Nations in a respectful manner. Will the Minister apologize to the LKDFN for this inappropriate raid on their people and their wellness camp, elders and children? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Member from Tu NedheWiilideh, the Member in that riding, asked the same thing. As I said yesterday, and I'll said it here today, I've reached out to Chief Marlowe to have a meeting in their community to have this conversation in how we move forward. That's what I've promised, and that's what I will continue to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's no coherent reporting of how much we spend on leasing and how much that and who it goes to. You can go into the contracts, but the problem is we inherited quite a few of these leases from the federal government upon devolution, and some of these leases are 20 years old and they just seem to be renewed every time they come up. So I'm hoping the Minister can provide me some updated figures on how much we paid Northview since this Assembly started. I suspect it's a number that just continually climbs every year, but I can't actually confirm that with public information, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not able to divulge proprietary information specific to a single landlord. Infrastructure continues to follow leasing of approved real estate policy which includes obtaining leases through the public procurement unless directed by the Executive Council, which is made up of the Premier and the Ministers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure that is proprietary information. I can go to the contracts reports and filter out who wins leases and who we're paying money to. It's not all there because I said many of these leases are well over 20 years old. And I think that lines up with what the Minister said, that our current leases of approved real property policy is well over 20 years old. I'm not remotely convinced that we are in compliance with it. It does require us to be doing continuous value for money analysis, and it does require us to continue to analyze whether it is cheaper to own buildings versus leasing them. But all that being said, it's a 20yearold policy that has not been updated. Is the Minister willing to update our current leasing of approved real property policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm sure the Member is aware that the GNWT is currently going through a procurement review. Once the procurement review has concluded, the Department of Infrastructure has committed to work with the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, and other stakeholder departments, to bring forward proposed amendments to the leasing of real property policy. It's important that any amendments to this policy are aligned with the outcomes of this procurement review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that, and maybe I'll have some questions about when we can finally wrap up this procurement review.
My next question is, you know, we're talking about multiple office towers here. I recognize we're not going to empty a 10storey commercial office building overnight. I think it's going to take probably a decade or two of concerted of effort to actually adjust this percentage that grows every single year to one company. But I think a first step would be reviewing when we put leases out whether they could be in smaller chunks, whether we could work with departments that, you know, perhaps they don't all need to be on eight floors of one building and we could break that up into some smaller more feasible things to get local ownership, especially here in Yellowknife where it is such a monopoly. I'm wondering if the Minister will apply that lens to when we go out on further leases. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, reviewing space needs in that way is an approach we use regularly when developing RFPs. It is a consideration when we are approached by departments to obtain/renew space for a program. How much of this space needs to be grouped together and what can be split into smaller spaces, recognizing that this may create opportunities for smaller local landlords. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad the Minister that the department is already doing that, but I think it needs a little bit of a review because, clearly, it's not working if the end goal is local ownership. It's clear, if you look at the city of Yellowknife skyline, we don't have local ownership. Almost every single building is owned by some multi-billion-dollar REIT. So my question is, you know, I think actually a number of companies, perhaps Indigenous development corps, if you gave them enough notice three, five years out that you were looking to renew a very large lease and you were perhaps willing to make it a little longer term, they would actually build us a building, Mr. Speaker. I think a lot of different groups have been looking at this as a possibility, including some of our housing leases. So I'm just wondering if the Minister is willing to look and work with some local potential development corporations or landlords, give them some notice, and see if we can enter into a negotiated contract if someone will actually build us some leasing space. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
