Mr. Speaker, since the implementation of the New Deal for NWT Community Governments in 2007, community governments have been in control of their own infrastructure priorities. The New Deal has changed the way they do business with Municipal and Community Affairs, and as a result, the department’s role has transformed into that of coach, advisor and supporter.
Building on the ideas and intentions of the New Deal, MACA worked with the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT to develop the Accountability Framework. It will emphasize and reinforce the goals of the New Deal initiative, and support the Assembly’s goal of a strong and independent North built on partnerships.
By providing advice and guidance to community governments, MACA’s staff have become advisors, encouraging communities to assume responsibility in implementing their own capital plans. MACA’s role is to be a strong, effective and supportive partner to community governments, acknowledging our shared responsibility in managing public funds.
The framework is designed around five core areas of responsibility: good governance, financial management, sound administration, planning and safe communities. We will continue to provide practical support to community governments in all of these areas.
In April 2011 MACA delivered a brief presentation on the project to the NWTAC board of directors and the LGANT board of directors, and has since presented its initial concepts to the NWTAC in May
2011. Following the presentation, the department reviewed feedback, refined its framework and prepared the final steps for the implementation of the framework.
We are nearing the completion of the Accountability Framework and anticipate implementation to begin this year. We will be asking communities to provide quarterly reports to ensure that the framework continues to meet their needs. This project is integral to building sustainable, vibrant, safe communities and is equally valuable for the future partnership between the Government of the Northwest Territories and community governments. Through the implementation of this framework, we will continue to strengthen our relationships with community governments and remain active, supportive partners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Early childhood development and the early years of learning in kindergarten are a priority for the department. As we are all aware, healthy childhoods are the best foundations to develop healthy, productive adults.
The departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services are revamping the 2001 Early Childhood Development Framework for Action. To assist with the work, the departments reviewed the programs and services called for in the framework. And we’ve looked at other Canadian programs, policies and literature.
As Members know, we are working to develop two of the child and family resource centres called for in the Framework for Action. A number of northern communities have programs and services that are the foundation for this kind of initiative. The GNWT recently held a successful first meeting with community stakeholders to discuss an action plan for these centres. We want to work with them to build and streamline existing programs and services for children, families and communities to link service providers and decrease the administrative burden.
Mr. Speaker, the framework review showed us that we have limited information on children’s development in the Northwest Territories. In February and March we began to measure children’s development in kindergarten with our Early Development Instrument. The results will be available in the fall. They will give us information on our children’s development and the early childhood programs and services they encounter before entering the school system. We can use this data to improve our support for healthy child development.
Although kindergarten is not mandatory in the Northwest Territories, for many children it is the transition year into the formal education system. The department developed a new curriculum to better support children’s learning and development in kindergarten. It integrates learning by harnessing children’s natural learning processes, and is culture-based and relationship-based. Eleven teachers from across the Northwest Territories are currently piloting the curriculum, which will be implemented territory-wide in the fall.
Mr. Speaker, I will keep this House informed as this work in the area of early childhood development moves ahead. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Lafferty.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the Western Premiers Conference in Edmonton, Alberta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We need to improve the quality, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of our NWT housing and building stocks through an NWT buildings act.
Right now, mandatory standards in all provinces and Yukon require new buildings to meet the EGH 80 energy efficiency standard and 25 percent better than the National Model Energy Building Code.
While the standards of the National Modern Energy Building Code are required, there are no assurances these standards are being met due to the lack of small community inspections and enforcement systems.
Project management capacity at the community level is also a concern. For example, there is no guarantee that a new community building won’t be sited on permafrost for lack of a geotechnical survey. This raises major concerns. Public safety can be put at risk. Without standards there is no assurance of operational quality, energy efficiency, durability or security of investment. Because the best expertise for northern construction resides with our northern architects, engineers and consultants, lack of standards can allow our public dollars to leak south to those unfamiliar or under-qualified with northern requirements.
We need to ensure GNWT funds transferred to communities are used to build long-lasting and efficient buildings. The NWT Association of Communities has long called for the creation of NWT-wide building and inspection capacity, and passed resolutions pointing to the need for improved construction. There is a beginning of a response from the department, as we heard this morning.
The NWT Association of Architects, a bunch of professionals, has repeatedly brought forward the need for standards and compliance. The NWT Greenhouse Gas Strategy and the new ministerial mandates call for NWT building standards to assist communities in reducing their energy costs.
An NWT buildings act would meet our responsibility for addressing these concerns, but we will also need to help our communities and citizens meet these standards by establishing an advisory and inspection capacity and by establishing systems to require professional assurances that standards have been met. We need to aim higher by ensuring our NWT standard for energy efficiency recognizes our northern conditions and exceeds southern standards. I will have questions for the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to take a moment to reflect on our incredible event that our Commissioner Tuccaro, our Premier, our sports Minister, four MLAs and, of course, you, Mr. Speaker, who attended the Sport North Federation Annual Awards Banquet this past Saturday night. What an honour it was to be amongst some of the most gifted athletes in our territory and share ideas with some of the strongest supporters of amateur sports.
Of course, we were in attendance to recognize athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers for their performance and contribution to sport in the NWT. These awards are no doubt a valuable role in supporting athletic success and recognizing the NWT’s growing talent.
I would like to take a moment to once again recognize Sport North Federation award recipients for 2012:
Youth Female Athlete: Madison Piling for speed skating;
Youth Male Athlete: Isaac Wideman for speed skating;
Coach of the Year: Shane Clarke for speed skating;
Community Contributor: Valerie Gendron;
Official of the Year: Doug Swallow.
Of course I’m going to be biased for the next one as obviously I had some dealings with coaching this individual, Junior Female Athlete: Cassey Mooney for swimming;
Junior Male Athlete: Christopher Lirette for biathlon;
Corporate Contributor: First Air;
Senior Male Athlete: Bernie Bennett;
Contributor to Sport: Shane Thompson;
Of course the members of this team are in Range Lake, Team of the Year: Team Koe for their outstanding performance at this year’s Briar.
Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, let’s once again congratulate this year’s awards recipients and praise all the hard work for the people of the Northwest Territories who dedicate their time to amateur sport and fitness.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Residential Tenancies Act of the Northwest Territories was first enacted about 25 years ago, in 1987. It was modelled on legislation that was in effect across Canada at that time. It’s been amended over the years since, but only on a piecemeal basis. There are three areas of the act in particular which require some amendments: rent increases, the lack of power in the rental officer position, and coverage in the act for residents in transitional housing. Today I want to talk about rent controls.
The Residential Tenancies Act does not currently control the amount by which a landlord may increase a tenant’s rent. It does restrict increases to one in any 12-month period and it requires the landlord to give three months’ notice in writing of any increase. Beyond that, tenants have no protection from unscrupulous landlords who can increase rents every year, year after year, and can raise rents as much as they think they can justify to a court should the increase be contested.
The issue of rent controls has been brought to this House a number of times but no action has been taken yet. The government generally considers the imposition of rent controls as a major intervention in the housing market. Every indication is that rent control as a way of dealing with excessive rental increases would be expensive to implement and administer, and the negative aspects could well outweigh the positive by a large measure.
Research in the experience of other jurisdictions suggests that rent controls could divert resources away from the provision of housing and could even contribute to existing housing problems. That may be so, but the Justice Minister needs to revisit this issue and consider potential solutions.
To quote a local lawyer, one who sees the impact of rent increases on her clients, “This supply and demand monopoly is created by the low vacancy rate, and middleclass families are sinking under the poverty line because of this.” If rent controls are not the answer, this government has to look outside the box and find something that can be the answer.
I will have questions for the Minister of Justice at the appropriate time.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Today what I’d like to talk about is the finance and how the territorial government handles financing and $1.4 billion. If we think about that amount of money, it seems like a fair amount of money and in regard to how you want to look at it, and every one house gets a certain amount of money and how it should pertain to the residents that are living there. Our territorial government works on our behalf, or if there is $1 that is spent and if we evaluate how $1 is spent, we can get a concept of the way they operate.
Health and Social Services seems to expend a lot of the money. It seems like every 25 cents of the dollar that we have goes to health and social services, and this goes to hospitals. Also, students that are going to the schools, it’s about 25 cents of the dollar that is spent on their behalf. This expense also encompasses teachers. Our language and museums also expend a bit of the money. It seems like about every 40 cents of the dollar goes to these items.
Also, in regard to Transportation, about 10 cents of the dollar goes to transportation and Justice expends about 10 cents per dollar as well. This goes to operations of the RCMP. Our territorial government, if a person were to live a good, healthy life, expends about 25 cents of the dollar. This is what I would be asking questions about.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to discuss the increasing need of our seniors. In Hay River the situation for seniors housing is reaching a critical point. Many seniors are finding it difficult to maintain their own homes and are trying to secure a place in senior public housing. As we all know, these spaces are very limited. At this time I would suggest that if we were able to assist the seniors to stay in their own homes, it would take the pressure off the government to supply more senior housing.
Currently, seniors are given some assistance for heating costs, but with the increase in our cost of living, seniors feel that they will no longer be able to afford to stay in their own homes. Something as simple as breaking down or replacement of an appliance can leave a senior unable to pay their other bills. The infrastructure of seniors housing is very high to this government and the demands are increasing. Is there a way that we could subsidize them in their monthly utilities or the maintenance of their homes so that they could continue to live in their own homes?
I feel that if we do not act on this issue quickly, we will see seniors housing demands double of what we can provide, and this will encourage seniors to sell their homes and put the government into a crisis mode, or subsequently, many seniors will have no option but to move south where seniors housing is more available.
My questions today will be for the Minister of Housing regarding helping our seniors stay in their homes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am going to talk about the long-term care room and board rate increases that occurred April 1, 2012. I am very concerned about… [English translation not provided.]…that is pretty much all of their elders’ income support… [English translation not provided.] I truly believe that it is in the treaties that our health care is provided for, so I don’t know how our government is charging our Aboriginal elders rent increases for hospitals, even for people that aren’t elders that want to go to the hospital. Their health needs are taken care of by Health Canada, so when it comes to elders, we are charging almost all of the little old age security income that they get. It is a real conundrum.
I raised it in the past. I would like to pursue it a bit further. I will be asking the Minister of Health and Social Services questions about this. Why isn’t our government pursuing it with Health Canada? Why aren’t the treaty aspects being addressed from that perspective? Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This year marks the 50th anniversary of community health representatives, a very integral part in our health and social services system.
CHRs are front-line workers in all of our communities and they do a lot of our groundwork that we ask them to do in terms of prevention and promotion. However, although we do ask them to do a lot of work in our communities, we don’t always provide the necessary resources financially for them to make sure that they do their job as efficiently as we would like them to do or as what they have brought forth to this government asking for help.
Community health reps do a lot of prevention and promotion to keep our residents healthy and they do it through education awareness programs. A lot of them go out of their way. They are counsellors, community counsellors. They are also nursing assistants, data entry clerks, as well as administrative duties that they have to do for the health centres as well as some of our public health units.
I believe that we need to support our community health reps a lot more. This is the 50th anniversary that they have been an integral part of our communities, making our communities a lot healthier and our people a lot healthier. As one of our Caucus priorities and prevention and promotion, I feel that we need to utilize our CHRs in the best way we can by providing support so they can do the best jobs that they can.
Being that this is the 50th anniversary of the CHRs, I would like to take this moment to say thank you to all the CHRs throughout the Northwest Territories for all their hard work, dedication and compassion in helping our residents live a healthy lifestyle and making our communities a better place to live.
When I finished college, my first job was a community health rep. I wanted to become a teacher in the school system, but seeing all the hard work that these individuals do in the job and how much impact it has on the communities, I stuck with that job for four and a half years and there were a lot of really good changes that we made in the communities. When I started my job as CHR, in about two years, 2000, there were a lot of people working in that area and field and they are still working in that area. They are dedicated individuals that have a compassion for the people.
I just want to say thank you to all the CHRs across the Northwest Territories and across Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement again today is on fairness. We all know that there is economic disparity between the regions of the Northwest Territories. Last week I asked the Premier if departments would ask this question: Is this a position, a program, a project or a gathering that could be located outside of the capital in order to support strong, viable regions and communities? As I said before, we can’t control the decisions of the private sector, large industries, and we can’t control where natural resources are located, but we must look for ways to maximize benefits to Northerners, individuals and companies and bring meaningful economic activity to all regions to offset the gap that currently exists.
We have energetic, innovative entrepreneurs in our private sector that could sustain and create employment in various sectors of our economy, but here’s the challenge: access to working capital is often not readily available from conventional lenders. But here’s a real opportunity for our government. We have lending limits through our government lender, the BDIC, but it’s time to review those limits again and I think, like so many other government policies, we can craft the policy to achieve specific outcomes and specific goals. We have done this through the NWT Manufacturing Policy, Business Incentive Policy, Negotiated Contracts Policy and our Tourism Development Product Initiative. We need a policy that allows the BDIC to extend credit to businesses with a proven track record, which are willing to take on expansion and risk, focused on regions that are currently experiencing an economic downturn. Within the parameters of all due diligence, this can be done.
This is an initiative that could be a real boost to our economy and cost this government, all things going well, absolutely nothing because we are offering these loans at the going interest rates. So this would be a self-sustaining increase in the amount of money that we loan at this time and we need to look at the times, we need to look at the $2 million limit, we need to expand on that and I think we need to do it in the regions outside of the capital where right now we are experiencing significant economic downturn. We need help. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories has gone from the worst to the best. In our 18 months of our transportation program, we have had zero fatalities on our roads and our trails.
---Applause
A large part of the reason is that people are getting in the habit of wearing their seatbelts in their vehicles, or in the habit of wearing their lifejackets in their boats. The Drive Alive program has challenged communities to buckle up. The Drive Alive program has a challenge and your community can win big. All of the communities that we represent can win big in this challenge program. One of the big prizes is having Leela Gilday have a concert in your community on Aboriginal Day in 2013.
Also, your fire department could win $5,000 to take on this challenge if they win. They say you can win big by promoting safety seats, buckling up and wearing lifejackets in the boat. You can win big by saving lives.
So today I challenge all of the MLAs to encourage their community to get involved. Write to your fire department, e-mail the fire department to say we want to take the challenge and buckle up and water prevention. If your community wins, the Department of Transportation, through the Drive Alive program, would support your community by allowing you to have $500 for the community or the fire department. You can win even bigger by getting $5,000 for your fire department and having Leela Gilday come to your community to play a concert.
I say this to all the people: summertime, we need to save lives. We in our communities, especially when we use our boats, that’s our highway. The communities down south of us, they use the road so that’s their highway. So I ask them to promote this in the community, promote safety on the water, promote safety on the road and that their communities can win big. Get into the Drive Alive program, get onto Transportation’s website and get your communities involved. I challenge all of the MLAs to save lives. Everybody then can be a winner. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many promises and commitments were made in the TLC some months ago about being responsive to Members. Most notably, many of the Members, and some of them sitting on the other side of the House, pleaded with their colleagues and told them how hard they’d work for them and they’d be responsive. I’ll acknowledge that sometimes forgetting things is the reality of doing a job and it does happen to all of us whether we want to admit it or not. Often it’s referred to as being human.
There is a certain exception to that. If you’re in Cabinet, you’re expected to rise above those problems and, of course, you have to work around them at the same time. Some of the biggest critics, or I should say often the harshest critics who are now sitting on the other side of the House, have been ignoring some e-mails and questions even by myself. Several Ministers, to put the point even sharper on there, I’ve e-mailed even the Premier, who has had no replies. I’ve e-mailed and even visited the Minister Robert C. McLeod, with no replies, and in one particular occasion I’ve waited three months for a response that I had to remind them the other day. I’ve got an e-mail outstanding 20 days ago that still has no reply.
When you make a commitment in the House to follow up on a particular issue such as the road salt used on Ingraham Trail, that’s been waiting 103 days for that response from the Minister of Transportation. These commitments are not just to us but to our constituents in trying to do the job. If a Minister says in this particular House they’ll follow up on those things, it’s very important. When a Premier or even a Minister decides to ignore your e-mail and chooses not to answer it, that affects our job. How do we do our jobs as MLAs without those types of responses? It makes it very challenging.
We want to work as hard as possible and certainly in a collaborative way, but the challenge before us is to do these things. Later today I’ll be asking the Deputy Premier, who is the first lieutenant of this particular ship we know as the McLeod government, what leadership he will provide at the Cabinet table to ensure that Ministers are responding to Members and their concerns. It is an important duty if they’re in that office that they respond to us, because we’re working for constituents and how do we do that in the absence of the information.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a former resident of Aklavik and Inuvik, a good friend of mine, Mr. Frank Edwards Jr., better known as Somoe. Welcome, Somoe.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize, as I have before in this House, a constituent of mine: Mr. Rocky Simpson with Concept Energy in Hay River. I’ll let my colleague recognize his constituent; I won’t take that from him.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize one of my constituents, Janet-Marie Fizer. Rocky Simpson also owns a business in my riding; so welcome, Rocky.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I, too, would like to welcome Somoe in the House. Good to see you. And Janet-Marie, we worked together years ago at Norterra, so it’s always good to see friends. I’d like to welcome all visitors in the public gallery here today. Thank you for taking an interest in today’s proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs following up on my Member’s statement and actually the Minister’s statement as well where he notes that the department has a role as a coach, advisor and supporter in terms of infrastructure. I think it’s much more than that. I think there’s also a responsibility for inspections on the safety and efficiency front.
I’ve noticed that all provinces and Yukon, our sister, have building acts to ensure these sorts of safeties are in place. In contrast, lack of comparable law here leaves us out of step with the times. Why would we not follow the established wisdom of every other Canadian jurisdiction to ensure quality construction through creation of a buildings act, or perhaps that’s already underway.
