Thank you, Member. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, and thank you to the Member too. This is such an important question as well too when we're working with people with disabilities and trying to provide adequate services. The snow removal, according to the last update that I was given, has been completed. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I do appreciate the Minister's office responding quite quickly and having that done so that the student can return to school this week.
Can the Minister speak to we are going to have a greater snowfall this year. That has been predicted and such. And it just does seem to happen that we're getting these greater and greater sort of weather events. Can the Minister speak to how this is going to go moving forward? I do understand that it is the owner of the property's responsibility to clear and keep the accesses and entrances clear of snow and ice; however, there is an obligation from the Housing NWT to do this as well. So can the Minister speak to how she's going to ensure that the snow removal continues through this winter? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, as well. And just putting on my workers' safety and compensation hat as well too, that this is a priority within our government in Housing facilities. I will follow up with the department to making sure that we have adequate safe entrances in our buildings that we either lease or that we either own. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'm going to segue a little bit on the housing minister. And could she provide us with an update on what's happening with the Inuvik shelter and whether or not a contractor has been found there? Thank you.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Presently through the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, we require every single municipality to have an asset management plan. This essentially lists every single asset and piece of infrastructure they own, its operation and maintenance, and then a life cycle replacement cost. And obviously we would require this to be public because we don't let municipalities do things incamera. But the GNWT, as far as I know, doesn't have any asset management plan. The closest thing we have is a 20year capital needs assessment which lists the assets we own and what we could relatively expect to replace over 20 years. This is not I must admit I haven't seen a recent version of this, and it's not a public document. So my question for the Minister of Finance is whether that is something she would be willing to publish? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I think this question actually came up, or a version of it, during Committee of the Whole. And the Members were assured there is an asset management plan, and there is a very thorough process by which we are keeping track of all of the assets of the government and the capital needs and any, you know, needs for maintenance, etcetera, through all the departments, particularly the Department of Infrastructure.
Now with respect to where the question actually got to, which is whether or not we'll be publishing a 20year capital or the 20year capital needs assessment, Madam Speaker, again as I think I said earlier in COW this session, that's a snapshot in time. It's not a detailed document. Actually, we did do a bit of a scan because this conversation does come up every session, did do a bit of a jurisdictional scan and we were sitting quite nicely in the middle of the pack. Most of the other jurisdictions we looked at provide similarly highlevel documents. Member gave me a heads up on Alberta, for example. Not a single dollar figure is in that, Madam Speaker. It's really just meant to be a snapshot. And in appendix B of the capital plan, you can actually look there and see exactly how we developed that capital plan and the priorities therein. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
I think I'll have to ask Infrastructure whether they have an asset management plan and will make it public. I'll put them on notice there.
Okay, so my understanding is then we have a fiveyear needs assessment as well which is a bit less of a snapshot in time and that it perhaps some financial thinking has actually gone into it, and if you've made it into the fiveyear needs assessment, probably much more likely to actually be funded. Is this document something the Minister is willing to publish?
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, Members of the House do receive the fiveyear plan. Again, consensus government's a little bit different. This isn't necessarily how it would happen in a lot of governments elsewhere in Canada. But we do have that opportunity here to do things a bit differently. So Members do receive that. The public doesn't get a copy of the fiveyear plan, and the real and simple reason for that is the concern around ensuring fairness in the procurement process. If a total budget is put forward on a project, then there is a live concern amongst procurement that, in fact, every bid's going to bid to the project price rather than ensuring a competitive process in tendering. So that's the reason the plan doesn't get published, Madam Speaker. We have tried to put some more information out this year. There was a graphic included, for example, in the capital plan that was provided. So, you know, again trying to get a bit more information out and make it more user friendly. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Speaker. The other document which I would like to see, which I'm actually not sure exists I know we have a fiveyear needs assessment showing what we need. But whether we have a multiyear capital plan? I note I can go to the infrastructure acquisition plan and it shows we are currently planning to spend $1.4 billion in the future years. But there's certainly nothing that shows what we've already spent, the listing projects, whether things are on time, whether things are completed, if something gets completed well, we don't ever actually know that and we certainly never see a final cost of any project publicly listed anywhere. So I think some sort of planning document would be very helpful. Is the Minister willing to create a multiyear capital plan? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I'm going to take a bit from my colleague down the way here and the Minister of Infrastructure. The Department of Infrastructure really does have the lead for a large portion of the capital projects that go through, and that department, in response to concerns like this, is actually developing a dashboard. It will be a public dashboard and will be providing exactly the kind of synopsis that the Member's describing. And I can certainly commit to keep him updated as to the progress on that dashboard, or I'm sure my colleague will. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Find supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Speaker. Yeah, and I'd be very interested to know whether Infrastructure is going to include the projects that don't fall under it. You know, I know we're building quite a number of longterm care facilities under Health and Social Services that not under Infrastructure, as an example.
And lastly, in our capital plan, we get one sentence description of projects, and then what happens is Members kind of ask, you know, what's going on with this playground fencing? Or we just ask these tedious questions that takes us hours and hours of review to get any information out there publicly. But I know that the departments have some sort of brief description more than one sentence. And I'm just wondering if those descriptions would be something the Minister would be willing to publish with future capital plans. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So, again, Madam Speaker, that unusual consensus government process is that Members who would be on these sort of, quote unquote, "other side of the House" do get what are called substantiation sheets. That does give a fair bit of detail about upcoming projects. And it does include the budgetary detail that, again, right now most governments would consider to be not part of good procurement practice to be sharing publicly. So that's why those don't go out. But the point of the dashboard a part of the dashboard, the purpose of the dashboard I was just describing, is exactly that, to give that snapshot of where projects are at and what has been spent on them. So, again, looking forward to having that out in public so that hopefully there will come a year where we don't have to have this conversation during the capital session. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for integrated service delivery, the Minister of Justice. The GNWT committed to integrated service delivery as a wholeofgovernment approach at the onset of the government. Is shifting the entire system of the GNWT, the wholeofgovernment integrated service delivery, still within the short or longterm focus of the government? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Yes, it is. I would have liked to see more progress on this during the life of this government, but we had quite an ambitious mandate. We dealt with COVID. And we weren't able to put the time into working on integrating services the way I would have liked to see. But it is definitely still a priority for us and for me personally. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I completely agree with the Minister that it needs to be a priority and that it stands to not only better serve Northerners, but it stands to actually save the government quite a bit of money on their bottom line every year.
Earlier this year, the Minister spoke about the challenges associated with privacy laws when trying to provide residents with a multidepartmental approach to service delivery. How is the GNWT addressing this and on what timeline? Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Recently there was a report done that looked at our attempts to integrate services and some of the barriers. And out of that report there were things identified such as these privacy issues. And so from that steps have been taken. Departments are working on addressing those issues. So that work is happening, and it is ongoing. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, Recommendation No. 9 of the Report of the Review of the 2022 Audit of Addictions, Prevention and Recovery Services that was tabled by the Standing Committee on Government Operations recommended that the Department of Health and Social Services and the health and social services authorities set up a distinct method for frontline staff to identify barriers to care and cultural safety or propose better practices and policies on an ongoing basis and provide a timeline for implementation.
So will the Minister responsible for integrated service delivery ensure that a similar frontline feedback loop exists for all frontline staff within the government? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I wish I could commit to that. You know, I've spoken about that for years. But that's another area that we are working on. And I wish I had better answers. This is a work in progress. When you have something that includes all of government, it is it's a big project. You have a number of departments. Everyone needs to be on the same page. Everyone needs to be on the same timelines. Everyone needs to be available for the same meetings and there's only so many people to go around. So we are plugging away at it, and we are taking steps in that direction. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I must admit that I do find this very frustrating. It's something that we as Members have been talking about on both sides of the House for the life of this Assembly, but it doesn't seem to be something that really we can move the bar on. And it's very frustrating given how reliant our constituents are on more than one service in order to be able to address their basic needs of life.
So in March of this year, Madam Speaker, the Minister indicated that before income assistance and Housing NWT could provide integrated service delivery that they needed to first agree on principles and standards of practice. Can the Minister confirm if these principles and standards of practice have been agreed on and when integrated service delivery between housing and income assistance will be visible for residents? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'll have to get back to the Member on that. But as we are doing reviews of different programs, for example in ECE, we are taking steps to try and adjust the programs so that we can move towards something like this so that, you know, whether you are an ECE representative or, you know, you worked in the housing frontline, you will have perhaps we're trying to free up time, streamline processes, so that departments can work more closely together. But for the Member's specific question, I will get back to her. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
A question for the Minister of Housing. Madam Speaker, increasingly the federal government is providing housing funding directly to Indigenous government. It is critical for Housing NWT to develop relationships with Indigenous government and support the capacity of Indigenous government to deliver housing to NWT residents. What services or support is Housing NWT providing to Indigenous government? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, and thank you to the Member for the question. Developing these relationships with the Indigenous government, for me, is crucial. I myself come from a smaller community. I come from a settled land claim area and also with selfgovernment within my riding as well too. And I feel that these partnerships are crucial. This is the way that we need to be addressing housing together. In the Member's riding, we do have an established working group with Indigenous governments as well. We do have an active community housing plan throughout her riding as well. And with Whati being the first community housing plan to be completed, this plan identifies crucial housing needs coming right from the grassroots level. I would like to see this document as a lobbying document to the federal government. And with the Member's success in her riding that her Indigenous government received a significant amount through the distinctionbased funding that was distributed throughout the Northwest Territories. And I continue to be working with those positive working relationships and developing them with the Indigenous governments throughout the Northwest Territories. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. What capacity building initiatives are being developed by Housing NWT to support Indigenous government? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I just wanted to apologize to the interpreters that, you know, I'm quite passionate about the portfolio and I was speaking probably a little bit too quickly.
So with the renewal, we are looking at the policy reviews throughout the Northwest Territories. And right now, we are looking at 42 of them that have been submitted to the council of leaders housing working group where each of the Indigenous governments throughout the Northwest Territories have the opportunity to challenge us on how we do business throughout the territory, whether it's working or not. In the Member's riding as well too, the close working relationship that Housing has with the Tlicho government, they do meet periodically as well. There are a number of visits that Housing has done within the Member's riding as well and to address housing crucial housing concerns at the community level. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Many Indigenous governments want to directly operate and manage their own rental properties but lack territorial or federal funding to subsidize these units so they are affordable to NWT residents. To increase housing options and support affordable housing, can Housing NWT commit to subsidizing Indigenous government owned rental properties as a part of their service provisions with Indigenous government? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I just want to comment on the distinctionbased funding that the Member's riding had received. It was announced that they did receive $42 million. I think it's over a consecutive seven years. And they're coming forward with different plans of what it is that they want to address within their communities as well too. I just want to say that looking at subsidizing housing in the Member's riding, we already do have public housing units within her communities as well that are significantly subsidized already. We are in the process now of lobbying the federal government for operation and maintenance funding for our own units. But we do continue to work very strategically with the Tlicho government as well. It's a partnership that I'm very proud of. We just recently signed an MOU as well which really brings us to the table to be working collaboratively when it comes to addressing housing issues within the Member's riding. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
Well, I want to say something else, but I'll just I'll go and talk to her after because I don't think she really answered my questions, but. So if not, can Housing NWT commit to asking the federal government for additional funding to subsidize Indigenous governmentowned rental properties? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Member's riding is a settled land claim area and is a selfgovernment area land claim area as well too. I'm not a part of those federal conversations that they have directly with the federal government. And looking at the housing allocation and the funding that they had for housing and infrastructure funding, I feel that we can meet together; we can work together. But the reality is, is that this is a settled land claim area and whether they want us at the table, they will invite us. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. These questions are for the Minister of MACA. Madam Speaker, this government has to empower youth. To do that, we need to hear their voices; we need their support; and we need their guidance to determine their needs and wants. Madam Speaker, we talk about engaging youth. Will the Minister responsible for MACA commit to a departmental increase in funding for all sports, recreation, and youth programs that will specifically target those youth that are identified as being at risk? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the value and benefits of sport and recreation of youth opportunities sits really deeply with me. When I was 12 years old, my mother got me involved to become a volunteer and I've been volunteering ever since. I also spent 28 years in the field of sport,rbc recreation and youth. And some of the programs that we developed are still here today. And it's been very beneficial. However and I can commit that MACA is continuing to work closely with organizations who work with youth to help develop broad programming including cultural program so that we have positive opportunities. But in regards to what the Member has asked, I can commit to work with the department and committee during the main review to consider future funding because, again, this hasn't been done in a long time. So we need to look at this and see how we collaboratively can work together. And this addresses some of the challenges that I've heard on the floor here this past session. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the Children and Youth Resiliency Program is a meaningful program but it's severely underfunded. Will the Minister commit to look at the current funding allocation and potentially increase it to an acceptable level? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, this program continues to support children, primarily from the age of 0 to 5, for program opportunities to support physical literacy, an important part of development in long you know, lifelong active lifestyles. As I said previous in the other question, I can commit to work with the department and committee during the main review to consider future funding for this program. It is very important. It does some really good benefits. It starts at a young age and the work that's done in the community. So, yes, I will work with committee to review this program as well. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. You know, Madam Speaker, we talk about NGOs and all the good work that they do throughout the years year after year. So, Madam Speaker, as with most NGOs year to year funding is an issue when what is needed is multiyear funding that allows for stability.
Madam Speaker, will the Minister commit to establishing multiyear funding through the NGO Stabilization Fund for organizations such as the Hay River Ski Club? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Wow, I think he's just trying to go on a run here. I don't know if I can keep on saying yes because it's starting to hurt me here.
Madam Speaker, I understand that NGOs are seeking multiyear agreements for their organizations. I recognize these agreements support longterm planning and provide security that organizations require to hire and maintain staff. The NGO Stabilization Fund, however, has never provided core funding. It exists solely to provide shortterm support to organizations who require assistance to stabilize management or operations or address extraordinary costs. Contributions are intended only to address the stabilization or extraordinary needs rather than core longterm funding. I know that previously that EIAs working on some stuff on this, and as a Cabinet we're looking at this. So with the stabilization fund, it's, again, shortterm, but I think we are looking as a wholeofgovernment on that very issue. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
