Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to wish one of the most respected elders in the Mackenzie Delta a very happy 99th birthday.
Gwich’in elder Mrs. Mary Kendi, from Aklavik, is to be commended for reaching a milestone on living a healthy lifestyle. Mary has singlehandedly raised her children and provided a safe home for them.
Mary, in her life, has hunted, trapped and even owned her own dog team. In her 99 years of living, I wish to acknowledge Mary for promoting the Gwich’in culture and for speaking the Gwich’in language to many of us who know her.
Mary Kendi has a huge extended family who is celebrating with her today. Friends and family are gathering in Inuvik to have dinner and wish her well. Mrs. Kendi’s livelihood, act of living and positive outlook on life and family has given her the opportunity today to spend precious time with her family at 99 years young.
Mr. Speaker and Members of the Assembly, please join me in celebrating Mrs. Mary Kendi on her birthday today. I will also be celebrating on Saturday with the community as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Best wishes go out to the Kendi family and Mary on her birthday.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope I live to be 99 years old.
Within the next 30 days, the Northwest Territories takes on the responsibility for land and resource management. We have never had a better opportunity or a greater need to cut the amount of red tape related to doing business in the North.
Every year the Canadian Federation of Independent Business grades provinces and territories on their efforts to reduce red tape through political leadership, public measurement and constraints on regulators, legislative commitment, and progress on action to reduce regulatory burdens. The Northwest Territories, unfortunately, was on the bottom of the list. We even dropped a grade from when the federation conducted its evaluation last year.
Places that scored the lowest lacked leadership on action to create a better environment for doing business in their environment or territory and forward momentum on policy initiatives aimed at decreasing the amount of permitting, licensing, taxes, bylaws, registrations, regulations, penalties and wait times for private enterprise.
BC scored the highest, surpassing the federal government and all other jurisdictions for its proactive approach for lifting the regulatory load and limiting in the future. The province has successfully reduced its regulatory requirement for business by 42 percent since 2001. Any proposed new regulation must be evaluated through a small business lens.
Other jurisdictions that earned top marks demonstrated commitment to regulatory accountability and public reporting, engaging all departments and agencies in finding ways to reduce red tape, implementing a one-window approach and on-line service delivery and moving forward on initiatives to streamline systems and increase efficiencies.
Failing grades should be taken as a warning. As the government prepares to take on responsibility for our land and resources, the time has never been better to improve our score. Successful regulatory reform is about public accountability. It needs our commitment, as legislators, to make the Northwest Territories a better place to live and do business.
I am very confident going forward with our new proposed, assumed responsibilities that this score will be much better the next time it’s reported. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Residents of Fort Liard would like consistent mental health service delivery. Fort Liard has long been asking for help with the mental health and addictions of the residents. Having a full-time dedicated mental health worker would help. People need to build trust and it’s hard to do that when there’s always someone new to see.
Residents of Fort Liard care about their relatives and friends who have addictions as this not only affects the families but the community as a whole. We want this government to build a stronger and steadier northern workforce and there is no greater urgency than the area of long-term mental health and addictions professionals.
I’ll have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today’s youth face difficult choices, enormous peer pressure and more readily available and potential mind-altering drugs than any other time in history.
I’m very proud to say that in my previous careers that I’ve had, I had the opportunity to work with a group called the Odd Squad. The Odd Squad is a group out of Vancouver who does a lot of trips throughout the Northwest Territories and to other Aboriginal communities across Canada to educate the public about devastating effects of high risk behaviour and the impact it has on members of our communities.
This is a group that’s out of Vancouver and may partner here with the Tree of Peace and other organizations, in some cases oil companies and diamond mines, to educate the youth about the drugs coming up to the Northwest Territories. Some Members here might be familiar with some of the work and productions they’ve done such as the video called Through a Blue Lens, as well as Tears for April and more up to date is a TV show called The Beat, where they walk the streets of Vancouver and they educate people about drugs and introduce you to people who have had a hard time battling their addictions.
Today we still continue to see that problem in the Northwest Territories of all these mind-altering and very potent drugs that take people’s lives, that ruin families and ruin communities.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank the Odd Squad for the hard work and effort they do coming to the Northwest Territories and educating our youth, educating our people and, more importantly, educating our leaders that we need to support all these educational components to stop these kinds of addictions happening in our communities.
I’d just like to thank the Odd Squad and all their partners for helping educate, stop crime, as well as help people not partake in drug use in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have spoken on more than one occasion about this government’s loophole policy with its manual self-reporting remittance portion of the GNWT tobacco tax. As I have stated clearly, this government’s open-door reporting process, which has the potential for exploitation by out-of-province wholesalers and local retailers, begs to put into doubt this government’s ability for accountability and public trust.
So, why once again does this Member feel the need to bring this issue before the House? One only needs to look at the recently tabled public accounts for 2012-2013 to clearly see we continue to have a serious concern on this tax collection. On page 34, section 2 of the non-consolidated schedule of revenues by source, it indicates the actual tobacco tax collection for 2012 to be $17.1 million and that we were forecasted for a slight increase in 2013 Main Estimates for $17.3 million. Without prejudice, the actual tobacco tax came in lower than expected. In fact, it was off by 11.2 percent at $15.5 million.
So, to the question: Why the approximate $2 million loss in tobacco tax revenues? Did we have 11.2 percent fewer smokers that year? Did the daily smoking rate decrease by the same percentage proportionally? We really don’t know.
What we do know, according to the recently tabled Department of Health Annual Report 2012-2013, smokers made up 37.3 percent of the population and it indicated, even with a marked improvement in the percent of smokers in the NWT, we were still higher when compared to the 2012 Canadian rate at 20.7 percent. So, okay, this has to be accurate, so why wouldn’t we accept this information as being truthful, right?
However, what is mindboggling is when you look up Statistics Canada for the percentage of residents who smoke in the NWT, in 2011 it says 34.9 percent, and in 2012 a slight increase at 35.8 percent. So do we assume that our Health department’s recently tabled 37.3 percent of our population who smoke to be an increase from 2012 or is this an error? We’re not quite sure. But what we are sure, and reminded by the Minister of Finance, is that we have fewer smokers year after year.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
These statistics don’t match, and clearly, the tobacco tax revenue shortfall makes even less sense.
Let’s take a moment to summarize all this information today. First of all, when it comes to the data of smoking, Stats Canada reports different numbers than the GNWT. Why? Our Department of Health reports very little data on smoking and so much is left to the imagination. Why? Our actual tobacco tax collection, according to public accounts, is way off in the 2013 Main Estimates. Why? Finally, the smoking gun question I ask every session: Why does our Finance Minister continue to ignore the issue of the tobacco tax self-reporting loophole, especially from southern wholesale distributors?
The only one who can shine light on this mystery is our Minister of Finance, and I’ll have questions for him later today. Mr. Speaker, I will be tabling supporting documents as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was said by our Premier that land is life and it is so true in the Northwest Territories. Because of our issues in the Sahtu, land is life and certainly our elderly people know that this is so true. From the land we get power, a way of life, we put food on our tables and we build our homes. Everything comes from the land. When we think about it and listen to our elders, even when we go outside to do our work, they always tell us to make it protocol to go out there and thank the land and the water. Before you do anything, remember where you come from.
It’s so ingrained in us that it’s a struggle sometimes with today’s economy and the way of life we have, but we need to come together and talk about the changes that are happening in our lives today.
We have a controversial issue, such as the economic development that’s happening in the Sahtu region. People are wondering what type of mechanisms, what type of assurances we’ll have to protect our land and our water and our air and our animals. Yet at the same time, we know changes are happening as we speak today and people are also wondering: what are the older people, the elders, saying about this? We should be able to get together with our elders and talk about our land and our water and our air with the young people and see how we can work things out in the North, up in the Sahtu region, and look at what land is going to be doing for us.
I will have questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources on the land and water in the North. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government has committed to eradicating poverty and I fully support that statement. Looking at the Anti-Poverty Strategy and action plan, they contain many good ideas that will tweak the system and gently increase overall wellness in our communities, but tweaking the system is not going to eliminate poverty.
Our northern cultures put a high value on helping each other get through difficult times and making sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to get ahead. Our efforts to eliminate poverty should reflect those values. Despite our best intentions, however, the maze of government-funded programs has created poverty traps rather than a social safety net.
I get a lot of calls from constituents who are struggling to get out of the poverty traps that our system creates. The ones that really get to me are from those who have children. Over the next few days I’ll describe what life is like for people under our current system and suggest some solutions.
Let’s start with Charles, a single father looking after two young kids with a third in Grade 4. He lost his job last year and he has a hard time finding work because he has to look after the kids and daycare is too expensive. Unemployment insurance ran out a while ago. Even though he did not want to, he went to see income support. Income support was a humiliating experience for Charles. To qualify for income support you need to prove that you have nothing left, so Charles had to sell his truck. The paperwork was more complicated than filling out his taxes and he had to do it every month. He was shocked at how many bureaucrats it took to make sure he was actually in need of help and he felt like he was being accused of trying to take advantage of the system. Refusing to help people until they have reached absolute rock bottom and then effectively forcing them to beg for help every month has a profound psychological effect. It creates a self-fulfilling story.
We have many programs that transfer money to people that need it. Every time we all fill out taxes, we all get assessed for northern living allowances, GST tax credits, child tax credits, cost of living tax credits and so on. We all get assessed. We are all expected to fill out our taxes honestly and we all know we may get audited. Millions of dollars are transferred to all Northerners using the tax system and it does not cost us much to do it.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi.
---Unanimous consent granted
I cannot think of a single reason why Charles could not get the help he needs through a similar system. There is no difference between the cost of living tax credit and an income support payment. It all comes from the same pot. So let’s treat everyone with the same respect and help people get back on their feet instead of psychologically trapping them in poverty.
I will have questions and I will have more on this tomorrow. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Most of us tend to think that the natural environment is good for us, but it is not always true. Our elders and experienced hunters know that the land feeds us and nurtures, but it can also be dangerous. Knowledge of dangerous areas is passed on from generation to generation. Of course, our elders have no experience with radon gas, which is invisible and has no taste or smell, and it has never bothered them. We know that radon is found at low levels almost everywhere and it’s not dangerous that way, but in high concentrations over time radon can cause lung cancer.
Radon comes from the natural decay of uranium, so it is radioactive. It is very diluted in outside air but it can build up where there’s little or no airflow. That includes buildings with basements and closed-in crawlspaces.
The good news is homes and buildings in the NWT and Nunavut have had the lowest concentrations of radon gas in Canada. One reason may be permafrost, which is a good barrier against radon. On top of that, most homes built by our housing corporations have vented foundations so the danger of radon exposure in them is very low, so low in fact that the NWT Housing Corporation doesn’t bother to test for radon or monitor radon levels.
We all know temperatures have slowly risen in the NWT over the past few decades and some permafrost is melting. It might be prudent to make sure that radon levels are still very low, especially where some homes and buildings have enclosed foundations. Testing is no big deal and it’s cheap to do. Test kits only cost about $50. It might be a good idea for the NWT Housing Corporation to make them available or do some spot checks around the territory. I think public awareness could be much improved.
Precautions to control our radon are also easily taken. For example, allow more air to flow through enclosed foundations and seal cracks and openings around pipes and drains.
To sum up, we have enough people getting cancer as it is without radon being a factor. It doesn’t take much to make sure radon stays out of the picture, so let’s do it.
I’ll have a few questions for the Housing Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We spend huge dollars on our Education department, almost 25 percent of our total $1.6 billion budget, and of the money appropriated for Education, Culture and Employment, $26.6 million is allocated to ensure our schools follow the ECE Inclusive Schooling Directive.
All classrooms are not created equal. Some have one or more special needs children who require a personal classroom assistant in addition to the classroom teacher for them to be able to be included in a regular classroom. That extra staffing requirement is funded by ECE through funds allocated to the authorities by a formula. NWT education authorities have recognized the unfairness of the current funding formula for inclusive schooling programs, and for years superintendents and board chairs have been asking ECE to revise the formula to make it better, to provide adequate funding to the boards that need it, but we have yet to see that happen.
The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment has promised several times that the department would look at an evaluation of the inclusive schooling funding formula. I believe an informal one was even done a few years ago, but nothing has changed. Neither MLAs nor school boards have seen any report. The latest comfort, I believe, we were given by the Minister of ECE around the issue of inclusive schooling funding was that it would be part of the Education Renewal and Innovation Initiative. The ERI Strategy is completed and public now and the action plan is currently being developed. Again, we have yet to see a report on the inclusive schooling funding formula.
Some education authorities are providing classroom assistants for their identified special needs students and funding them internally, tapping into their operating surplus to ensure these special needs students have adequate support in their classrooms. It must be recognized that our larger communities, because they have more services and programs than our smaller ones, attract families with special needs children who need that extra support both in and outside of school and that puts an extra financial burden on those education authorities. This financial burden is not currently acknowledged by the department, evidenced by the way it funds the education authorities at the moment, and these education authorities are being penalized for reaching out and trying to provide equitability for all the students in their regions.
I have to ask, when will we see revisions to the inclusive schooling funding formula that makes it fair for all authorities in the NWT?
I will have this question and others for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few days ago I went back to my office and on my desk there was a Snickers bar sitting there, and all of us here know what that represents. Well, I certainly don’t care who dropped that off, and as a matter of fact, they could drop a truckload of those Snicker bars off and it still won’t change my resolve to the concern about job opportunities unfairly being denied to Northerners.
It’s simply this: This McLeod government continues to fail its people by not providing those job opportunities Northerners need. Over this past month, many Members were shocked to know that this government had 1,150 vacancies, and since we’ve heard from the Finance Minister, they are actively pursuing 571 of those vacancies. I, like many Members, found this very interesting.
When I immediately visited the government’s website, like many people in the public, we found that there were just over 100 job opportunities posted there, why so few? How does anyone actively pursue 571 vacancies when you can find just merely 100?
We, as Members, continually hear about the lack of availability of much needed jobs in every one of these communities. Whether you live in a big community or a small community, jobs are important. But the government says they’re actively pursuing them – those are their words, not mine – so, many Members are concerned about this.
People need these jobs; they don’t need excuses. Can anyone imagine in this modern day that our government tells everybody that, oh, don’t worry, jobs are out there, but when they look, they’re not there. This is a difficult challenge to grapple with.
Again I went to the government website this morning, my goodness sakes, and there are only 71 jobs there. Where are the other 500? Mr. Speaker, what is this government’s definition of actively pursuing?
The average person will tell you it’s energetic, it’s engaged, it’s striving to gain and maybe even to obtain. Unlikely as those words would be, they do not match the definition of actively pursuing.
This government has a 20 percent absentee on their workforce. They say they are pursing 571 jobs, but are they really?
The public and I agree: these jobs need to be listed; these are opportunities that are being denied. At the end of the day, who knows where the money is going? Are these jobs really being pursued to be filled, or is the money being earmarked for projects by… Well, we already know who. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
I would like to welcome you here today in the public gallery and thank you for taking the time.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up from my Member’s statement earlier today with questions for the Minister of ECE. I would like to know why we treat people differently, depending on how much money they make. Recognizing that the Minister is working hard on this issue, could the Minister explain what is the underlying philosophy as to why the system his department operates inherently treats people who are living in poverty with less respect than other people? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Within the income support division, we treat everybody equally and respectfully and there is a reporting mechanism that is in place. We have to work closely with the office of the Auditor General that did the overall, intensive and comprehensive review of our income support division. Based on the feedback that we received from the office of the Auditor General, there’s a guideline we have to follow. The regulations have been established. The reporting mechanism is a key front of the discussion that we have with clientele. They have to report, whether it be income classification, the documentation that needs to be submitted. Those are some of the questions that the client service officers ask to those individuals, but the individuals aren’t treated differently. We have to treat everybody equally, as much as we can, throughout the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. I know that the Minister is working hard on this. Unfortunately, it’s an inherent thing that I think even enters the policy-maker’s view of things and ends up with these policies that create poverty traps.
The Minister recently provided information in a response to a written question on the cost of running our income security programs. Income support spent $3.5 million to distribute $16 million. In comparison, Student Financial Assistance costs $660,000 to distribute $16 million while the cost of living tax distributed $21.5 million and did not cost us anything. Why does the Income Support Program cost millions more to run when it distributes less money to fewer people? Mahsi.
Mahsi. When we talk about the income support division, it does consist of various programs and part of it is the seniors’ home heating subsidy, income assistance in general to support those individuals and providing assistance to residents 19 years of age and over for basic food necessities, shelter and clothing expenses and we have to attend to those most vulnerable individuals in the communities, the clientele. So, these are just some of the areas: NWT territorial workers supplement, NWT child tax, senior citizens supplementary benefits, SFA. All of these fall under income support. So, yes, the number the Member highlights, $3.5 million to distribute $16 million, obviously our target is to get people off income support. That’s why we’re focusing on a Labour Market Agreement with the federal government to allocate this towards the readiness for work and we’re doing what we can as a department to alleviate that, but this is what we have to date with the policies that are driven. So, we’ll continue to stress that with the constituencies and also with the federal government for job readiness. Mahsi.
The Minister and I have the same goals and what I’m saying is, after decades of failure, keeping people in poverty, recognizing this government’s commitment to get out of poverty, help people get out of poverty, let’s do some changes here and I’m suggesting some.
The Minister recently announced a clearly sensible policy that recipients of Student Financial Assistance will only have to report every three months instead of monthly. We are all aware that we have to fill out our annual tax returns pretty soon.
Why does the department continue to require that income support paperwork be completed month after month after month? Mahsi.
Again, I will have to reflect back on the office of the Auditor General. As you know, they are here this week as part of the review process for Health and Social Services, as we did last year. It’s a very comprehensive review that they’re going through and we must follow the guidelines and they strictly highlight the reporting mechanism, not only that but the monthly reporting mechanism, how we should be working with the clientele. So, all the documents are in place.
Those are just some of the guidelines we have to follow, the regulations that are before us and through the legislation that has been through this House is part of the process that we have to go through. Again, with the policies, policies can also go through changes. We made some changes in 2007, drastic changes, and every year we go through the review process of the policies. Those are just some of the options that we’ll consider. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister doesn’t know that we make those policies, we make those guidelines, we make those regulations, we have the power. When an elder becomes eligible for a pension, no one asks them if they have spent every penny and sold their vehicle before they are eligible. When a business owner goes bankrupt they are allowed to keep their registered retirement savings. So why does the income support system require a single parent who cannot work because they are looking after their children to use up all their assets before they are eligible for income support and thus create this poverty trap?
Again, we’re following the guidelines of what has been passed in this House. Yes, we changed those policies, we changed that legislation, the regulations in this House. At the same time, we have to follow the office of the Auditor General. Simply, there are strict guidelines for us to follow. Obviously, we don’t want to break those policies, those programs, those regulations that are in place. At this point there’s a reason for it. At the same time, the reporting mechanism is in place for various reasons. There are individuals who may be going through certain stages. We need to identify if there has been some deposits into their bank accounts, and there are times where there is no reason given why there is a substantial amount of funds in their account. Those are just simplistic reasons why we need to know, because income support is a basic necessity for those individuals that are struggling. Again, it is policy driven. We can make those recommended changes and we will definitely consider those as we move forward.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about a consistent full-time mental health worker in Fort Liard. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services a question. I did raise this issue last fall. I’d just like to ask once again, when will the department be hiring a full-time mental health worker in the community of Fort Liard?
