Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the challenges of some projects is on -- when there's federal funding and moving too quickly. That has certainly been a concern. The other problem is not having enough planning time done. So, Mr. Speaker, something folks may have noticed in the last couple of weeks is that there often are planning dollars associated to projects rather than the big dollars associated to the announcement of the project. Mr. Speaker, it doesn't look very exciting in a budget but it means that we're actually putting something out, taking the time to do the design and planning, so that when we do come to the point of saying it's time to go get federal dollars, not going too soon, but going when we know what that project's actually going to cost, because when you get the federal dollars, if a project runs over, they won't cover the extra; it comes down to us. So if we want to keep those 75/25, couldn't agree more, we must plan before we go chasing federal money and before we put our own dollars to it. So that as you will see -- as I said, is a bigger focus in the capital plan now than it was several years ago, and I'm happy to say that we'll continue that focus. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, finally, has the Minister considered establishing targets for improvements? So a certain percentage of projects not going over budget anymore, have they thought about identifying kind of a plan for addressing this issue, setting targets to shoot for, and working to meet them to ensure that we are budgeting appropriately, managing projects well, ensuring that we are keeping projects within budget? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, happy to take that as a suggestion to establish targets. I mean, really, the target is for no project to go significantly over budget, and there's an obligation on all of our project management teams across departments to work to that goal. But, Mr. Speaker, again, always looking for opportunities to continue to do better. There's been a lot of change in the procurement space and the project planning space in the last few years, and again, very happy to take it away and see what more we can do in that regard. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance.
Colleagues, I'd like to recognize a few more honoured guests here today from the Yamoga Land Corp president, Joseph Tobac; Bob Overvold; and the North Slave Metis president, Marc Whitford. Welcome to your Assembly. Thank you very much.
Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Housing NWT Minister.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister for Housing NWT has made it clear that she will work with me for the next year on arrears forgiveness. This is a great opportunity to help my community members, especially elders, stay put and age comfortably in their own homes. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister shed some light on this new process for arrears forgiveness that she is promising next year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this forgiveness arrangement has been an ongoing issue for a number of years. Housing NWT and this government's forgive hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in housing arrears over the last 20, 30 years. We have to work with the clients at this moment. And we're working with a housing forum, which includes Indigenous governments, to review our policies to make these policies workable for the people of the Northwest Territories. Right now many of these policies are almost impossible for many to accomplish, so this is work that we're doing with Housing NWT, and I hope to report this back to this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. If the Minister is willing to review the arrears for some of my constituents next year once the new policies are sorted out, right now, Mr. Speaker, the Housing NWT is still evicting members from my community in public housing. Is there a way we could get this sorted out or put a pause on this for now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member's asking some tough questions on the floor of the House. But, you know, commitments have to be made, but I -- at this point, I can't make commitments in terms of pausing evictions. Many of the evictions that are happening today are those from illegal activities in public housing units. And that will be my ministerial statement tomorrow. It'll describe some of the work that Housing NWT is doing towards illegal activities.
Much of the evictions that are slated towards rental arrears are slowed down, some are paused. I'm pressing Housing NWT to work with the clients more and have these discussions at a local level. But in terms of illegal activities, that will be a ministerial statement for tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. We have a single mother and cancer survivor who has to carry out 16 buckets of 5-gallon pail of raw sewage out of her bathtub daily. Her family showers at a neighbour's house during the winter months. Housing NWT has a budget of $193 million and $32 million in surplus this year. My question to the Minister is why can't Housing NWT provide this family with the full amount needed to repair her sewage system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, another tough question. Thank you to the Member for that. I appreciate it, Rick. But these are some of the things that we have to do, the policies that we have to amend. Talking about this situation in one of the communities, these are tough discussions we have as Housing NWT. And sometimes policies don't fit but policies are rules and guidelines, and we have to look at those and see how we could make things fit for the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, please refer to titles and communities and not names in the House. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
She can call me cousin. If the Minister cannot make exception to policies, can she at least recognize that funding provided for a home -- senior home repair programs is totally inadequate and needs to keep up with the reality of these materials and their transportation to these small communities, essentially rise year by year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize, Mr. Speaker. I won't do that again. But, again, I commit to the work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
All right, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Minister of education regarding autism supports.
Mr. Speaker, I'm aware of the inclusion program that they have within the program, an application-based program, but often I hear from working parents, Mr. Speaker, professionals, that they can no longer live here in the territory where they're struggling to take so much time off of work, whether it's for after school -- lack of after school programs, whether it's days off of school, short days, SIP days, you know, you name it. These families are reliant on the goodwill of their employers and their family, Mr. Speaker.
What can the Minister do to help support schools and families to provide further supports for families who deal with children with disabilities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by acknowledging the amount of work that families do to support their children, absolutely, of course. And children with disabilities, their parents are absolute champions and are they're biggest champions for their kids as well. So I just want to acknowledge the amount of work that parents do day in day out.
A few of the things that have been done within the school system in order to increase supports are, for example, working with education bodies to provide training within the school system to education assistants. I've spoken multiple times on the floor of the House in regards to the partnership with Douglas College in order to ensure that we're providing additional tools to the support assistants in classrooms that the Member spoke of earlier in this sitting. I do acknowledge that there is also a desire for additional supports and one of the other things that I do is sit down with the NWTTA, as well as education bodies, to learn from them what kind of additional supports that families are looking for and how we might be able to work together to afford those to the kids that need them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Working through the the program offered under ECE is called Supporting Child Inclusion and Participation, Mr. Speaker. There are rare, and I mean exceptionally rare, program spaces for summer programs for young people who are dealing with disabilities, and today we're highlighting around autism but, I mean, all disabilities deserve their fair recognition in the sense that we need to find ways to support them all, not one over the other.
Mr. Speaker, two-week slots are rare -- rarer than hen's teeth, Mr. Speaker. So if you're lucky to get one of those, it's only for two weeks out of the eight-week summer, Mr. Speaker. Is there any way to find a way to address that gap that these parents have to struggle with day after day? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, absolutely, the SCIP funding is one of the methods that the department supports families. Another funding amount that is used to support families is ECE does provide $362,000 annually to the NWT Disabilities Council to support families that do have children with complex needs. In addition, I know that even day home -- people who want to open day homes, and specifically serve children with complex needs, have reached out to me as MLA and inquired about what types of supports they would receive from the department. And so the department works closely with people who want to pursue this as a career and open up day homes and daycares. And so we do have certainly subsidies but the Department of education does not operate and own the daycares and the day homes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One parent told me that they have to find a way to help fund the support worker to allow their child to be part of a summer program. So whether you're sending your child to a soccer camp or some other type of initiative like that, parents are paying out of their pocket. Is there any way the department can take this message back -- sorry, the Minister can take the message back to the department and say maybe there's ways we can help support and fund summer jobs programs so we can help expand these opportunities to these families and desperately excitable and engaging young people who want to be part of something, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister go back and see if there's a way to expand opportunities? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am all ears when it comes to suggestions around solutions, so I appreciate the Member's suggestion and will absolutely discuss with the department. And I appreciate that. Thank you.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Very quickly, I just want to stress, parents, highly educated professionals, people who have invested their life into the Northwest Territories, see better autism or disability support just across the border. It's called southern Alberta. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to meet with these parents, if I organized a meeting, to hear about their day-to-day struggle and ways to help encourage them to stay North and continue to be great partners in our communities? And not just Yellowknife, by the way, Mr. Speaker. I hear from my good colleague from the great riding of Monfwi about many parents there are struggling there as well so I'm sure they're similar. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have not been known for turning away conversations with people. I absolutely appreciate the opportunity to speak with Northerners about how policies and government decisions impact their lives. I've had the opportunity, with the Member for Mackenzie Delta, to sit and have similar conversations with people from his riding as well. And so this is certainly something that is not a Yellowknife challenge. It is a challenge that impacts people from absolutely every community from one end to the other, and I'm absolutely all ears and willing to sit down with Northerners. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to get to a second round of questions around the climate change draft action plan. So the Minister for ECC spoke to the fact that some of the actions I'm interested in are for the Minister of Infrastructure, so I'll ask the Minister of Infrastructure now.
Specifically, I'm interested in the unfunded action items that are talking about transportation planning studies, for petroleum product storage capacity in our remote communities, and completing a climate assessment and planning study to optimize barging operations with MTS. These are all really crucial things. Can the Minister please explain how we are seeking out funding on these crucial items right now? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to transportation planning studies, we are in discussions with Transportation Canada. They are aware of the challenges of the North. We've raised the number of regulatory problems that continue to arise, which do impact costs and impacts opportunity. So we are in contact with them. Again, I can't speak for where or when Transportation Canada might opt to move forward with us, but we have certainly thus far had a good relationship. I'm hopeful that they will see the need to better understand a region of the country that is unique and distinct from a lot of our southern colleagues.
With respect, Mr. Speaker, to petroleum product storage, again, given the isolated nature of the energy grids and given the need to have ongoing fuel storage in these communities for basic electricity and basic heating, we are, again, speaking rather long term to the federal government in this regard.
There is some opportunity here, Mr. Speaker, ourselves, and it was actually in our own capital budget here, for doing some work in terms of understanding the metering and dispensing equipment in some of the small communities all around the Northwest Territories. This is really to look at the way that we're managing our fuel systems. It's not quite the same as storage but to highlight it here, Mr. Speaker, we need to get a handle on what we're doing to manage our storage capacity. And so that is an important item that is actually in this capital budget should it get approved. And, Mr. Speaker, with respect to longer term, we are looking to move money under the Disaster Mitigation Adaptation Fund with Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada because, again, if we can be preventing fuel storage issues by having better adaptation in these small communities, that could very well fall under that funding pot, and we're hopeful that they'll give us the permission to move the money around and allow those projects to continue.
Last but not least, third item on the third question, Mr. Speaker, was with respect to marine transportation services. Mr. Speaker, I don't have a line on where the money might come for work there. I can say that there's a lot happening at MTS right now to try to move themselves to a longer, more sustainable way of delivering their services, and that is, I expect, to come forward shortly as a result of the review that had been underway previously. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, the Minister talked about -- Minister responsible for the Power Corporation -- sorry, I had to remember who it was -- talked about the general rate increase of 24 percent, and she mentioned that part of this is because we're not connected to the grid. And due to our limited economic growth, we're squeezing the ratepayers of the Northwest Territories because there's no one else to charge, and because we're isolated, we're on our own. So I'd like to ask the Minister, what is the plan to solve this structural problem? If we never connect to the grid, we're never going to solve this. This is an unsustainable power system, and it's breaking the backs of Northerners at a time when they can't afford to pay a penny more. So what is the Minister -- I would say Minister of Infrastructure's plan, or maybe power corporation, to solve this challenge and connect us to the grid?
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we need to increase the transmission connections across the Northwest Territories. We need to not have 20 some individual micro grids, not have two disconnected hydro systems north and south of the lake. So, Mr. Speaker, it is certainly our hope that, again, in this capital budget, we are hoping to get to a place where we can connect the communities of Kakisa and Fort Providence into the southern hydro grid, hoping to advance work with the Tlicho government to see the Whati hydro project connected into the northern grid, and also hoping to see within this capital project advancement of the Taltson project which would connect those two grids.
Mr. Speaker, Taltson expansion also includes at phrase 3 looking to go south and to connect us into the grid, in the North American energy grid. Mr. Speaker, it is somewhere between $700,00 and $1.2 million per kilometer to send -- to construct this transmission lines. So building our lines south, given the distance we would have to cover to connect, certainly wouldn't solve the problem by itself. If we can interconnect ourselves, we would be able to use surplus energy from the southern Taltson system up to the North and to have redundancy in the North so that communities can move power between them.
And then last but not least, Mr. Speaker, fixing a lot of the power policy systems that we have which would be in concert with the public utilities board so that we can do things like increase our independent power produces in small communities so that they can be selling back, improve net metering so that individual residents can be actually relying on solar but not taking from the grid in a way that it makes it dysfunctional. A whole suite of these kinds of changes can also add to our overall resiliency and change the way that we are delivering electricity in the North. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm interested in pursuing those policy changes because we need to be able to get more renewables into these systems. We need to increase our resiliency. So the Minister spoke about a lot of nice things. We know the timeline of what's in this capital budget. What about those policy changes, when are we going to start working on those? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of those policy changes have been under development for many years. I've not been in this role a whole year yet myself, but I can say that a lot of research has been done in the Department of Infrastructure, working with colleagues across -- in -- colleagues in the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, other utilities, Indigenous governments, consultations. And Mr. Speaker, I am very much looking forward to an opportunity to start to bring some of those forward I was going to say as soon as possible. I know that people like to have more specific timelines than that but that's, right now, one of the best that I can say. But, again, those -- that effort has been done. Research has been happening. And it's a time for -- it's time to have an opportunity to bring it forward. It does need to go through the process of coming forward from a department, going through Cabinet, and going to colleagues on the other floor -- the other side of this House, but I am confident that we'll be getting there very soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, these ever-increasing rate increases are putting so much pressure on Northerners, many of them are leaving their communities. Does the Minister believe that the subsidies that are being rolled out to cushion -- cushion these rate increases are sufficient? And how does she know that? Thank you -- what went into the calculation? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the territory is in a situation right now where every resident is, I would say, feeling the pinch of increased prices and some much more than others, particularly in smaller communities and in more remote communities, communities that were already paying -- well, the entire Northwest Territories is paying the highest electricity rates anywhere in Canada, which is a message that I have carried to anyone south of the border that will listen. And small communities are paying the highest rates anywhere of those. The Sahtu is paying, as I understand it, the highest rates of anywhere in the Northwest Territories. So that, again, as I've said, the message that I'm certainly trying to get to anyone who is listening down south, including our colleagues in Ottawa.
As far as subsidies go, Mr. Speaker, we are paying significant amounts directly, as I described earlier, on the major kinds of capital projects that were overdue to get done. The Taltson facility was built in the '60s. It needed an overhaul. The Inuvik wind project was an effort to fundamentally change the delivery of electricity in Inuvik. It's doing so. It has faced some unusual cost increases and so we've stepped in as a government to not let the ratepayers be responsible for that. We're stepping in on the Taltson overhaul to not let the ratepayers be responsible for that. Again, owing to some unusual -- and I'd say really tieing back to the wildfires, some of the unusual things that occurred there.
There's a territorial porous port program, Mr. Speaker. It brings everyone down to Yellowknife's rate. Yellowknife's already paying the highest rates anywhere in Canada, Mr. Speaker, but it brings us at least down to the Yellowknife rates.
Mr. Speaker, the federal government has done things, and I'm surprised no one's asked me about it, the federal government has done things of late to try to lower prices in other jurisdictions that don't have a borrowing limit. I'm under a borrowing limit, Mr. Speaker. I can't take the low interest loan from the federal government and put it to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation because we're under a borrowing limit. It is a challenging situation, Mr. Speaker. But we know that the residents can't face a 25 percent hike. People can't handle that. So the government will continue to find solutions through different supports mechanisms, whether it's a direct contribution, whether it's a subsidy, and we're going to do those calculations and need to give the public utility board the time and the space to do their process. We're going to be watching closely, and we're well aware that residents can't handle 25 percent. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know who's not under a borrowing limit? Private companies like ATCO and other private power producers that operate in southern jurisdictions who could be willing partners in helping solve these challenges. Why are we continuing to support the public corporation that's not lowering costs, that's not transitioning us to clean energy, and is only making things more expensive for Northerners? Have we considered privatization? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if there's a private company out there that thinks they can make money selling power in the territories without a large industrial consumer, I am open to hearing about it. Right now, Naka Power obviously saw themselves chosen against in Hay River and, unfortunately, that led to ten years of litigation. But the decision by the PUB to allow that sale to go forward is what has now led to the filing of the GRA. So, again, individual communities can make their choices about distribution agents. Naka Power is a private corporation. They draw private rates. They make a profit, which is perfectly permitted for the private sector. The power corporation has one shareholder that does not draw a dividend. The GNWT does not take a dividend off of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. We are quite the opposite, trying to maintain power supply across the Northwest Territories as that shareholder. So, again, Mr. Speaker, we speak to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation a lot about what we can do to increase power consumption, including through increasing incentivising heating use or heat -- electrical heating, an EV corridor, partnerships with the mineral resources sector, anything and everything, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to have anyone come and buy the power to bring the rates down for everybody else. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Colleagues, our time is up for oral questions. Oral questions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have one written question here for the House.
My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services with respect to doctor and specialist positions, including their individual current staffing status in the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority.
Furthermore, my detailed questions are targeting the specific position type, and for guidance as an example, such as oncologist or general practitioner, where each of these positions are located, either at Stanton or elsewhere, and lastly, the expectation is to fully understand the position staffing status, whether it is filled, vacant or anticipated to be vacant specific to a date, how long it has been vacant, and why each position is vacant to the best of the department's ability.
Can the Minister provide in a table format the following information:
All doctor and specialist positions individually within the NTHSSA, noting which are Northwest Territories-based or locum;
Specifically where each position is located based on their normal working location, which hospital, clinic or otherwise;
Each position’s current staffing status, whether it is staffed, vacant, scheduled or anticipated to be vacant;
If a position is vacant, how long each position has been vacant, and why each position has not been filled; and,
For all positions, whether each position is full-time, part-time or otherwise.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Written questions. Member from the Sahtu.
