Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, when I say treatment centres don't work, I'm talking about attendance at the treatment centres. Since we established the contracts with the southern treatment centres, the number of people going to treatment has increased significantly. And this is information that the Member asked for last week, which was sent to her today. She will notice that there is a dropoff in the years that COVID has been active but since 2014, 2015, a total of 1,446 people have been to treatment. Thank you.
Thank you. Will the department and health authorities consider that a change in their own approach may be necessary to make treatment facilities successful rather than assume treatment centres definitively will not work in NWT? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. We did a comprehensive addictions survey about a year and a half ago, and that collected a lot of valuable feedback about what people experienced in treatment and what they wanted for aftercare. One of the requests there was to have treatment closer to home, and that's something that we are having conversations with the Indigenous governments about. I want to note that when it was time to set the priorities for this Legislative Assembly, nobody asked for a treatment centre. Thank you.
With the contract between GNWT and Poundmaker's Lodge now terminated, replacing Poundmaker's with another suitable facility based on Indigenous treatment centre is an urgent matter. What is the department doing to fast track its process in securing new options, and what do those timelines look like? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the department has developed an RFP that will go out before the end of the year asking Indigenousfocused treatment centres to submit proposals for serving NWT residents. And our hope is that that contract will be in place for the new fiscal year, April 1st. And if the Member has any particular recommendations or contacts in Indigenous treatment circles that we should pursue, we would be happy to hear about them. Thank you.
Well, like I said before, she can work with Tlicho government on this approach.
In the spirit of wanting to provide a range of suitable options for NWT residents, will the Minister commit to learning more about client preferences and contracting a greater number of southern facilities that meet our needs for addiction treatment? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the six facilities, now five, that we contracted was the result of an RFP process. What we were looking for was variety in the possibilities that we could offer. And I believe those contracts were for three years, so they have about a year and a half to go. So this is a process that is renewed from time to time. And we can certainly test any options that the Member might want to bring to our attention at that time. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. As I stated earlier today that this government's financial position is in dire straits. Without new revenues, austerity measures are a likely outcome for the future years. As mentioned earlier, simple math. I believe it's time to be honest with our residents about this reality here in the Northwest Territories today.
Madam Speaker, one of my question would be to the finance minister. Is this government planning to implement austerity measures, including cuts to services and jobs within the remainder of its term? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I conducted the budget dialogues this past spring and summer. When I did so, I presented to any member of the public who was interested the state of our funding, funds, the state of our fiscal situation, including operating surpluses, operating and capital expenses. I've put those informations before the public and received feedback on how people would like to see us moving forward in this government, whether it's through trying to increase revenues, whether it's through trying to decrease expenses or, frankly, a little bit of both. So I do want to quite sternly combat the notion that we are somehow not being honest with the public about the state of public finances. I take issue with that. I don't take the Member to be suggesting that is me or that is, you know, anything other than a desire to have more information. That's how I'm going to take this question. So, Madam Speaker, with that in mind, I am not suggesting that there's likely to be significant reductions to the public service or to programs or services at this point or in the near future. There certainly is a business planning process, and Members do have opportunity to go through the business plans with their Ministers, relevant Ministers late in the summer as part of our annual budgeting cycle. But, again, similarly, that is why we do budget dialogues in the summer so that people are aware of what the financial situation of the government is throughout the fiscal year. Similarly, during this particular session and as we go into the capital planning, this year I introduced the opportunity to have a bit of a media scrum in advance of tabling the capital budgets so that, again, I could speak openly to the media about the state of our fiscal situation and what we are doing to keep it on track. There are a number of things we're doing. This is not time for a Minister's statement but there's a number of things that are keeping us on track so that in the medium term we are not facing quite the dire straits that is being suggested here. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Speaker. And thank you, Minister. If no such austerity measures are planned, how will the government manage its considerable fiscal challenges without clear resources/future revenues to offset spending deficits? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. That works out quite well, because I get to now continue what I wasn't going to say earlier. But let me give a few of the comments that I have on that one.
Well, with respect to the notion that we are about to hit the fiscal or the debt ceiling, Madam Speaker, that has been a spectre over many a fine government. That is no longer the spectre because of the changes we've introduced to the capital planning process. By reducing the size of the capital plan to be more right sized, we are not running up against our debt ceiling. We've not had to take on as great a borrowing plan as we would have had to otherwise and as such, we will not be running up into that debt ceiling the way that we were forecast to prior to making these changes.
With respect more generally to our operations, Madam Speaker, we are, again, although this particular fiscal year we did lose some revenues because of the changes to fiscal, we didn't get capital transfers as those projects do move forward later in later years, particularly with the federal government, we still have obligations, those funds will come in. They're just coming in in later years. And similarly, territorial formula financing does catch up. We have had some revenue shocks, including the shocks of COVID, which were only last year, territorial formula financing will catch up, provincial spending went up over the last two years, territorial formula financing catches us up. So we actually are expecting our revenues to go up over the next couple of years. And that's in addition to the fact that there's a number of things, government renewal is underway, the procurement review is underway, you know, changes to the public service is underway, and the public sector, of course, remains a huge contributor to our economy. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Thank you, Minister. Madam Speaker, eventually cuts to services and programs will be required to manage spending without a miracle windfall well outside the government ability to plan. Based on current financial projects, can the Minister tell me when these cuts to programs and jobs will come? Will it be in 2023? 2024? Or 2025? When will cuts be required, Madam Speaker?
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there's no planned cuts. I have no announcement to make here. There's not a moment of, you know, I get to say here's what's coming next. The plans that are in front of the public, the plans that I put forward, whether it's in budget dialogues, whether it's with this capital plan, there's no cuts to announce. I can't predict the future. I couldn't predict a $100 million flood any more than I could predict COVID. But what I can say, again, is we are trying to do what we can from within to manage our fiscal situation, to try to maintain the strong public sector presence that we have in the economy. And then with that, Madam Speaker, I put my Minister of ITI hat on and say what are we doing to try to grow the economy because that then in turn will keep the fiscal situation more stable for the business sector, for the public, and of course, certainly impacting on the draws on our programs and also on the benefits that we do see from our limited own source revenues. So, Madam Speaker, that continues to be my focus, is what can we do to avoid the cuts by using all the other levers available to us. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'm concerned that this government is looking at kicking this can down the road to future governments instead of adjusting these financial realities head on. Can the Minister tell us if this government's setting up the next Assembly to make unpopular financial decisions to avoid making them in an election year? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, that's certainly not my intention. It may happen to be an election year coming up but at the present time that's still quite far away. And the way that the budget cycle works, the budget that we're preparing now is based on main estimates process where based on a business planning process that started back in June. Again, this is sort of full circle. The reason we do budget dialogues in the spring and summer is because that's when departments are actually preparing their materials going into the next year. And while I certainly have said in the context of why we have government renewal going on, that doing incremental budgeting has its downsides, it has an upside. And it has an upside which is there's stability within departments that is not tied to the political whims of any particular administration. Departments do need to continue to provide for fundamental programs and services to all of the residents of the Northwest Territories and the businesses of the Northwest Territories, and that is one of the upsides of incremental budgeting, is it provides that stability. So, Madam Speaker, I do not believe there's any political pressure on us to do or not do anything. Quite on the contrary. I think we are moving forward with quite a number of things. In fact, some of them that are going to only really see their fruits bear in the next Assembly, for example, government renewal. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, in my Member's statement I referenced the letter I tabled last Thursday from the NWT Seniors Society to the Minister of Housing NWT. Their letter mentions the Minister had missed a meeting with them last month on October the 4th. Can the Minister tell us why she missed that meeting and if she has rescheduled a new meeting with the NWT Seniors Society? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Housing.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. That day that I was scheduled to be meet with the seniors society I was ill. I came down with a cold, and I had to cancel. I did inform the seniors society that I wouldn't be in the attendance. But I am willing to reschedule that appointment and hear the concerns from the seniors society. But once again, I was not feeling very well. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, in the letter from the seniors society, they mention receiving reports of people being subject to ridicule, intimidation, harassment, disrespect, and threats of eviction from Housing NWT. They also state that people must not live in fear and insecurity or be threatened with becoming homeless. Does the Minister agree with that? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. As a Minister, I take these concerns very seriously and as with the portfolio that, you know, we try to change the way that we are doing business and being more clientfocused as well. Through our renewal and through our mission, our vision, our values, we strive towards to be more clientfocused. And I look for more improvements within the way that we work with the general public. I'm looking for fairness, respect, and compassionate client service working with the people throughout the Northwest Territories. We've also looked at the client service training that will be conducted throughout the portfolio and throughout this time to support the frontline service workers. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, in the letter from the seniors society, they proposed two actions that Housing NWT could begin immediately. One, comparing the maintenance and repair funding allocations to all communities with the actual spending and the number of units repaired. The other is to start a pilot project to address repairs and other needs in a timely manner. Will the Minister commit to look at these proposals and consider them for Housing NWT? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And Housing has responded to the letter. They are working with the seniors society on the request of these proposals. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, will the Minister commit to work with the NWT Seniors Society to address all the concerns outlined in that letter dated October the 22nd, 2022? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And thank you to the Member as well. I do value all of the feedback that she is providing, the letter that has been received. And, yes, I would like to work with the seniors society and try to come up with solutions for the issues that they've addressed. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question for the Minister of Justice is will the Minister be getting rid of the time change once and for all? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish. Unfortunately, there's likely going to be at least one or two or three more time changes. Of course, we've recently engaged with the public. There was a sixweek engagement session. Within the first couple days, there were thousands of responses, and 3,500 about 3,500 responses to the question of "do you want to get rid of seasonal time change?" And 87 percent, so over 3,000 of those 3,500 people, wanted to get rid of seasonal time change.
When it comes to sticking with daylight savings, or standard time, the territory's a bit more split. Just over half wanted to go with daylight savings time permanently and while the rest wanted to stick with standard time.
And so that is just the beginning of the conversation. The Yukon recently changed got rid of seasonal time change, and there's a lot of lessons learned from there. It is not a simple task. It might sound simple but it is by no means simple. There are, you know, hundreds, if not thousands of actions that need to be taken in a specific order in order to ensure that it is done correctly. And it's not only government who has to be involved. Every individual has to be involved. The government isn't going to come and change your alarm clock. You know, satellite companies, railroads, airlines, you know, Microsoft, Apple, all of these companies need to be engaged. And so the Department of Justice, you know, myself, we can't do it alone so we are reaching out to the rest of government and trying to figure out is this something we can do. I know that personally I would like to see it happen but is it worth the cost to government and the cost of the public and potential cost to the residents of the territory? So we have to do that work now that we've received this information from residents, that they do want to get rid of time change, and we have to figure out how we might be able to do that, if we can, going forward. Thank you. And I will just say there will be a What We Heard report summarizing all of this information released in the next couple weeks. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the Minister answered all of my subsequent questions there. So thank you for that. I look forward to the report.
Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is for the Minister of ECE, Education, Culture and Employment. I wanted to thank the Minister of ECE for his response from yesterday. He responded to my question with short sentences, and I need clarification.
Yesterday the Minister mentioned that he is discussing MOUs with Indigenous government in the context of the Education Act modernization. Can the Minister explain when he started working on the MOUs with the Indigenous partners? Will these MOUs include phase 1 of the Education Act modernization, or are they about phase 2 only? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So we don't have the capacity to engage in, you know, the very intensive process of developing MOUs while we are also working on phase 1. So once this phase 1 work is completed sometime in the new year, we will begin working on the MOUs for phase 2. Thank you.
Thank you. Are these MOUs between ECE and the Indigenous government or between Executive and Indigenous Affairs and the Indigenous governments? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So as I've said, we haven't started on those so I can't answer the question. These MOUs don't currently exist. At some point in the new year, in 2023, I will have an answer. Thank you.
Thank you. Well, he did mention it so that's why I thought I'd ask about that.
So Madam Speaker, I wanted to ensure that I am clear, and that our people and students in the small communities are clear, about what is coming to them. How would the Minister explain to students in our small communities, how will their school prepare them to access secondary education? How does he work with their Indigenous government to prepare them for secondary education? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So it sounds like we're on a new line of questioning here about how the GNWT is working with Indigenous governments for education.
So obviously the Education Act modernization is going to be one of the center pieces of that engagement. I've had a number of meetings with Indigenous governments, as Cabinet where the issue of education is discussed, many meetings where education is the sole issue being discussed. We're of course working with the Tlicho government on Chief Jimmy Bruneau School, working with Colville Lake on their school. There's locally developed courses where Indigenous governments and education bodies work together to develop classes for schools. So there's a number of ways that we are engaging. There is the curriculum renewal. We're, of course, adapting British Columbia's curriculum. And we are we've reached out to Indigenous governments and asked them to identify some representatives that can work with us on ensuring that's adapted properly so it reflects local Indigenous cultures. And I could go on, but I will stop. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
How can they participate the students, how can they participate in decisions to change the Education Act, not phase 2? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So when we went out and engaged on the Education Act, we did reach out to everyone. Students were encouraged to participate. If anyone wants to each out to me directly, any students want to write emails, even have meetings, I'm happy to do that. I'm also we're also creating the Minister's Student Advisory Council. And so I'll have engagement through that. But if any students want to provide input on education, the education system, curriculum, anything, I would be happy to hear it. I would be more than happy to hear it; I encourage it. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
