Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise at the earliest opportunity after reviewing unedited Hansard from yesterday to raise a point of order against Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Miltenberger said to me in my proposed amendment to a motion, and I quote from yesterday’s unedited Hansard, page 50: “…if it’s not outright duplicitous, it’s friggin’ double standard. And I withdraw the friggin’.”
Mr. Speaker, House Rule 23 states it’s against orders of the House, under (i), to impute false or hidden motives to another Member; under (j), charges another Member with uttering a deliberate falsehood; and, finally, (k), uses abusive or insulting language of a nature likely to create disorder, which, Mr. Speaker, speaks for itself.
I am not on the warpath here and this is not about the use of the word “friggin’,” which the Member is known to use and then apologize for at the same time, something that’s apparently an acceptable practice in this House. It’s about the word “duplicitous.” The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines duplicitous as “deceptive in words or actions.” It provides the synonyms including “bent, crooked, deceptive, double dealing, dishonest, fast, fraudulent, guileful, rogue, shady, sharp, shifty, underhand and underhanded.” Rule 23(h) applies here.
Double standard is defined as: “a situation in which two people, groups, et cetera, are treated very differently from each other in a way that is unfair to one of them.” My amendment, which I had proposed to the motion and speaking to it, was accommodating to different views perhaps, but showing a double standard? I don’t think so, Mr. Speaker, and Rule 23(i) would apply here.
During debate, several Members, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Moses, for example, possibly others, suggested that the current planned date of the election was something we should stick to. Others wanted the longer period of change, but recognized the value of flexibility within the month of October 2015 to coordinate the NWT election with other elections planned for October 2015.
My intent was clearly honourable and meant to be an accommodating compromise between these two views, no matter how satirical or ironic a person might be listening to it. To call it duplicitous and a double standard is wrong.
I ask the Speaker to seek correction of this injustice for the dignity of the House and the people of Weledeh. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve looked at the Hansard and I, as well, looked up the definition of duplicitous and it says, “deliberately deceptive.” I do say that if it’s not outright duplicitous, it’s a friggin’ double standard. I withdrew the “friggin’” and I apologize for that once again.
I will give the Member the benefit of the doubt, even though methinks he doth protest too much, that it wasn’t deliberately duplicitous and I will withdraw that comment, that phrase. However, I do think the use of the term “double standard” is entirely within the acceptable bounds of parliamentary language. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley, do you accept the apology?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to accept that. As I said, I’m not on a warpath here and I’m not going to worry about the colours the Minister wants to put on it. He can couch it as he wants, but I think he knows he was in error. We’re talking about the dignity of the House and I accept the apology. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to provide the House with an update on the success of the Department of Transportation’s on-line driver and motor vehicle services.
As you’ll recall from my statement earlier this session, residents can now register to receive e-mail reminders to renew a driver’s licence, general identification card, vehicle registration, driver’s medical, appointments, and commercial vehicle inspection notifications. They can also renew their vehicle registration anytime on-line. This is already making our government an industry leader; other jurisdictions have contacted us to find out more about how they could implement similar systems.
Mr. Speaker, our service centres are now able to deliver client services better than ever, while remote communities can now connect to services where none were previously available. The department has also provided training to community government service officers so they may effectively help elders and other clients gain access to the services on-line.
In the first month, Mr. Speaker, residents from 27 communities have already taken advantage of our on-line services. Over a thousand clients have subscribed to the e-notification system and half of all registrations are already being done on-line. That has resulted in 2,500 e-mail notifications and over 3,000 on-line registrations in the first month.
This is a significant reduction in red tape. Residents are getting the service they need, when they need it.
We are already working on additional improvements like the ability to schedule appointments and obtain drivers’ abstracts on-line.
Mr. Speaker, on-line service delivery is part of the GNWT’s Service Innovation Strategy, which supports effective and efficient government.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Colleagues, before we go on, there was no point of order after the apology. We’re just moving on now.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I continue to be concerned about our Aboriginal people and employees who are not getting jobs and advancement opportunities in our government.
Earlier in this sitting, I spoke about how the new shared services department made it difficult for employees to advance but treated long-service employees like new hires. We have to take pride, Mr. Speaker, as we say we do, to support our Aboriginal employees as they advance in our government.
I also have many Aboriginal employees who have been trying to be hired by our GNWT, without success. They are upset because they are qualified, experienced and ready to work, yet consistently they get screened out because there were no suitable candidates. That is very frustrating.
Potential new employees are also subject to screening tests each and every opportunity they apply for. They somehow fail and when they get screened, they have no opportunity to review the test or to see it or have ownership of it. It’s all behind the manager’s desk and saying you failed because of this or this. They never actually get to see it. They know they have the experience, training and skills for the job they are applying for.
I believe that we have to apply every effort to assure we have Aboriginal managers and executives in our government. We also must ensure that our representative workforce exceeds the 30 percent we have been at for the past 10 years, Mr. Speaker.
Later on I will have questions for the Minister of Human Resources. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Constituents are saying their home heating and power bills are higher than they’ve ever been. Just last week I tabled a petition from residents of the NWT calling for more action on climate change.
Government expense is increasing with increasing damage to infrastructure. We all know that oil is just going to get more expensive and that climate change is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It is our dependence on fossil fuels that is creating this crisis.
The Chinese character for crisis is a combination of the symbols for danger and opportunities. Today I’d like to stress the opportunities we have.
In a January newspaper I read, Superior Propane was introducing micro-combined heat and power units. These systems provide both heat and power at 90 percent efficiency instead of the usual 28 percent efficiency that most community diesel generators run at. This great idea is something that a few Northerners like the Snowshoe Inn in Fort Providence and Gruben’s Camp in Tuktoyaktuk have been doing for years. With new quieter technology we can see micro-combined heat and power use throughout the territory. If the Power Corporation got onto this, they would have a new source of revenue, selling both power and heat to large buildings like schools, northern stores, arenas and so on.
The Public Utilities Board has just made a decision to implement net metering, or close to it. Net metering, or the sale of home-generated renewable electricity into community grids, has great potential for reducing power bills. Northern businesses are gaining experience in installing these solar panel systems, recognizing a business opportunity here too.
Homeowners have been seeing the top savings of wood pellet heat for years now. A recent study by the Arctic Energy Alliance showed that we could use 20-foot shipping containers to bring affordable pellets into all communities with barge access right to Tuk, in fact.
Lentil farmers in Saskatchewan use containers to ship their lentils overseas and we can use the same methods to ship wood pellets.
Combined with the plans for a wood pellet plant in Enterprise, this could make Hay River the bio-energy hub of the whole Western Arctic.
All of the opportunities I’ve just mentioned make financial sense right now, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got local businesses stepping up and taking the lead and we need to support them.
We know the price of oil is not going to be coming down.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi
---Unanimous consent granted
We know the price of oil is not going to be coming down. We know that President Obama will soon put a price on carbon emissions and Canada will follow. The only question is when, not if. Many in our business community are responding to these opportunities and so are many home and building owners.
To reduce the cost of living, we need to find ways to support the rapid rollout of these opportunities to everyone in the North. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When serious accidents happen, urgent rescue is required. In the field of medical triage they say, “time is tissue.” In some cases minutes, let alone hours count and lives do hang in the balance. People in the Northwest Territories still don’t have 911, but they do have a reasonable expectation that if they or their loved ones are hurt, they will be transported with haste to the nearest suitable medical facility.
Unfortunately, we are hearing of too many instances where medevacs are not being provided in a timely manner, and with disastrous results. Just last week we heard from Mr. Yakeleya and he spoke of a heartbreak of one of his constituents by the failure of a local health centre to make the right call in transporting a constituent who had been seriously injured in a skidoo accident.
Last year Member Menicoche spoke about two serious accidents in Trout Lake affected by delayed medevac services. The first, a boating collision where an elder died before the arrival of a medevac plane, which took almost six hours to get to the scene.
A Trout Lake resident who rendered assistance to the victims of this boating accident happened to find himself at an unfortunate scene of another accident. This time it was his wife who injured herself with a skill saw. When staff at the health centre told him they would need to seek approval to medevac his injured wife, this gentleman, knowing full well how critical a delay could be, called for air transportation himself, rather than risk the wait. He was then struck with the worry that he would be billed for a flight that should have been paid by the GNWT.
Another accident took place in 2013 near Fort Providence, leaving two dead and another seriously injured. This highlighted the problems resulting from the lack of a clear policy on emergency highway extraction. In this case, a waiting helicopter crew was told to stand down while the severely injured truck driver was driven to Fort Providence before being flown by medevac to Yellowknife and then finally on to Edmonton.
Clearly, there are many problems with medevac services. Decision-makers are not always clear about who has the authority to make the call on a medevac. Too often, decisions are being made by staff without the appropriate credentials. It also appears that the cost is being factored into decision-making when the severity of a patient’s condition should be the only consideration.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
The Minister of Health and Social Services has advised this House that his department is moving forward with Med-Response, a program that will give all the health centres and all the communities direct access to a physician to coordinate expediting of medevacs, which is going forward, as we were told, on April 1st of this year.
Clearly, the sick and injured in the Northwest Territories deserve better service than they are getting.
At the appropriate time, I will be asking the Minister of Health and Social Services questions about the status of this proposal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Transportation talked about on-line services today. I appreciate the department’s hard work in that area.
One of the areas that I see this being a benefit…and I think I’ve talked about the trucking industry in the Northwest Territories before and some of the issues plaguing them. One of the issues that have come up recently is the on-line 24-hour service for permitting wide loads and heavy loads currently being done by a southern company. I don’t quite understand why we have a southern company doing some of this service, but I’ll be asking the Minister about some of the on-line services that we can provide for that trucking industry.
As well, some of the issues that I’ve had in the past have been to deal with the commercial vehicles and light commercial pick-ups towing a trailer that are over the 4,500 kilograms, something that came up from the bridge tolls, but that are now requiring a Class 3 licence that has always been there but was stirred up from the bridge process. This is very difficult for companies that are looking for southern employees that are basically low-skilled but yet can be helpful to them. But if they’re towing a trailer, then they need a Class 3. Now those individuals that don’t have the skills and don’t have a Class 3 are not employable by those companies. This is a difficulty in the industry; it’s a difficulty for people who are trying to find work in our area, so I think the department needs to work on this.
The other issue with the permitting is also bridge tolls. Can we do bridge tolls on-line along with this 24-hour service?
Later on I’ll have questions for the Minister of Transportation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
MEMBER’S STATEMENT ON
BEAUFORT-DELTA EDUCATION COUNCIL
E-LEARNING PROGRAM
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today the Department of Education, Culture and Employment did do a news release in regard to the Beaufort-Delta Education Council’s program, the e-learning program that they have within the Beaufort-Delta region and it is one-time funding to explore e-learning in more of the communities across the Northwest Territories.
I’d just like to speak to this again. This method of course delivery helps the Beaufort-Delta Education Council, and hopefully the Department of Education address many of the challenges that our schools face, such as high teacher turnover, limited course offerings, small senior high class sizes, which prevent the allocation of a full-time teacher to many of the specialized courses, decreasing the gap in academic achievement between our smaller and rural schools and the more populated centres. As well, it has the potential to increase the need for students to leave their home communities in search of various course offerings.
The Beaufort-Delta Education Council over the last five years has been developing these on-line courses to provide better learning opportunities for all their students. These on-line academic courses are for students and teachers to meet the objectives through activities, videos, on-line work and assessment. I know a few of the Members here have firsthand experience working with this program and it is very successful.
Today I’d just like to thank the Minister and the staff in his department for working with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council to provide this one-time funding to the Beaufort-Delta Education Council to get more of these academic courses into our smaller communities. I’d also like to thank the Beaufort-Delta Education Council for being so innovative, thinking outside of the box, looking at different ways to keep our students at home in the small communities while getting the education that they deserve. I’d also like to thank all Members that support this initiative moving forward. I think that will show some very strong, positive impacts for education in the Northwest Territories in the years to come. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There’s no dispute obesity is a serious health issue with adverse impacts on people’s quality of life, longevity and public health care. Obesity used to be a personal issue, but with the increasing burden on our taxpayers, it’s turning into everybody’s problem. This government can take action by introducing a tax on junk food. It will help raise revenues and guide consumers toward healthy choices. It’s already a very popular idea.
A coalition of health and education experts has called on the Quebec government to introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks and energy drinks. Ontario’s doctors want higher taxes and graphic warning labels on junk food, to combat obesity. The taxation and warnings on cigarettes have led to a decline in smoking. Other groups in North America want taxes on fast foods that contain more than the recommended daily intake of sugar, salt and calories, such as potato chips, chocolate bars, French fries, burgers and pizza.
Our current tax code already distinguishes between foods that are good and bad for you. Basic grocery items are untaxed and junk food like candy is taxed. The structure isn’t perfect, but the intent of the law is clear: junk food should be taxed more heavily than basic groceries. The Nutrition North Program, for example, only subsidizes healthy choices. Taxing junk food could help promote equality between our communities.
Some people argue that raising taxes will hurt people with modest incomes who tend to eat more fast food because it means they have less money to spend on general groceries and so they won’t buy as many fruits and vegetables that are already expensive in the North.
Healthy people making better choices results in greater cost savings overall. The reduced costs to health care could eventually help reduce the cost of living. People need help making a conscious choice to change their eating habits and lifestyles. We can all do that by teaching our people, especially young parents, about healthy eating. We can restrict marketing fatty and sugary foods to children and support national initiatives to label foods in ways that help consumers choose more wisely.
Finally, we can tax unhealthy foods so that we’re less likely to choose them as often. It’s like putting the cookie jar out of reach. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk about the issue of repatriation. That is, northern residents in southern placements. Over the years we have spoken of this often. We have often calculated how many northern residents are in southern institutions. We call them southern placements for a variety and a number of reasons with different types of challenges.
I think that from time to time we need to review that list and that expense for many reasons. For one thing, if we can have Northerners in the North, that’s a good thing. If Northerners in the North need to be looked after, having other Northerners look after them, that’s a good thing. It brings Northerners closer to their families where there is a different type of support. It possibly creates employment in the Northwest Territories, and there are just a whole lot of reasons why it is best, if we can, to have these folks in the Northwest Territories.
I recognize and realize that there are sometimes very specialized needs that residents have that there is no solution other than a southern placement in order to most effectively address the needs of a client, but I think that this is something that we need to constantly be monitoring and watching, because I think that when front-line workers run into situations where they need help and support, and perhaps accommodation for an individual sometimes if it’s not readily available in the North, the quickest thing is to refer that client to a southern institution, and once they’re in that southern institution, I would hate to think that out of sight is out of mind and that perhaps it’s easy to put that cheque in the mail every month to that institution where that person is being cared for.
I would like to explore today in question period a little with the Minister of Health and Social Services what types of services that are being procured for our residents in the South that might be possibilities for repatriating to the Northwest Territories with a longer view than just the immediate need of the client and to a bigger picture kind of view.
I’ll have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services later today.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the past eight years and hopefully this summer, in July, people will tell us to take a hike, and I say I’m glad to. I hike along the Canol Heritage Trail. I hike with the young people. We’ve been doing it for the last eight years. Why take the hike? Why go with them? I look at this and I say, well, what’s the experience? From this experience, what will help the youth today? We go out to the Canol Trail, someplace, maybe at Mile 15, maybe at Mile 70, maybe at Mile 222, but we take one of these locations and we go out with the youth and we give them the opportunity once every year, maybe once in a lifetime, to come out and experience life on the land of the yesterdays and see how this experience will help them. They need help in all kinds of ways today because of such an enormous amount of challenges facing them.
This experience helps them with the value of teamwork and learning how to work together, how to survive on the land, what areas to look for to camp, how to gather wood in the rain, to make fire in the rain, how to cook for themselves, even to wash dishes, what kind of wood to get, and know that the sticks are not going to get off the ground and make their way to the fire. They have to get up and get the sticks to put them on the fire because there’s nobody there to do it for them, or to get water, but the values they learn as young people are enormous, and their potential.
You know what? After the hike, these young people are so beautiful. They’re so rich and so strong, and all they need is guidance from older people. I’m looking forward to the ninth annual hike to learn more with them, to learn with them, and having some of my colleagues that hopefully will be on the trip with me to hike this year. This will be the ninth annual leadership hike with the youth in the Sahtu, and I’m hoping that, again, we’ll have some more youth coming out with us to experience life and that this experience will do them wonders in life.
So, Mr. Speaker, certainly this summer I will take a hike.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We heard from some of my colleagues last week that negotiations between the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the Hay River DEA to swap schools in Hay River have broken down. Not only has the Hay River District Education Authority withdrawn but so has the Commission scolaire francophone.
The solution proposed by the GNWT, while workable, just did not provide for a good learning environment for either Ecole Boreale or Harry Camsell School students in Hay River.
The situation in Yellowknife is no better. Negotiations are on hold while Education District No. 1 consults with their parents and other stakeholders. There will obviously not be any resolution in Yellowknife prior to the upcoming court date, noted by the Minister last week.
It has been almost two years since the NWT Supreme Court ordered the Government of the Northwest Territories to provide the necessary expansions to both Ecole Allain St-Cyr and Ecole Boreale. Since June 2012 the commission has been unable to take any actions to upgrade or expand their two schools in Yellowknife and Hay River. The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to appeal court decisions time and time again. It’s a costly venture for both the commission and the GNWT, and it does not allow for any advancement. Who loses out? The students, Mr. Speaker.
It is time for this government to bite the bullet, to accept the decision and accommodation ordered by the court and start planning for two capital projects: expansion of Ecole Boreale and expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr. In the grand scheme of our budget, the $28 million cost to expand these two schools is not a lot of money. The Commission scolaire and their students and parents should not have to wait any longer. Members know how long the capital planning process takes. It has been two years already. If planning for additions to these schools starts now for the 2015-16 capital year, it will be at least another two years before the construction is complete, if at all even started.
The government has to give up on the court appeals and start to implement the court-ordered decision. All groups involved in this problem have tried to find solutions. It has been a lot of hard work on the part of many people. But the government has to realize now that their plan, the swapping of schools, is not going to come to fruition. They have to realize that they must move on to plan B or plan C before we have another two years of inaction.
I will have questions for the Minister later on. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to support my colleague Mr. Menicoche in this little micro theme day statement here.
Often I hear from people who are trying to apply for jobs and they’re screened out for various reasons, some that make sense and some that just want you to bang your head against the wall. In some cases, we hear they’re screened out and they only get the news long after the job has been awarded and the appeal period is long past. At this point, of course, they have no rights to appeal because they weren’t screened in, and often these people are screened out. Why? Because they didn’t have the official university degree or college diploma it boldly says right on the top, but sometimes it also says on the bottom that if you have experience, demonstrate that.
The calls I get always say it seems to matter little. They show that they have 10, 15, 20 and even 25 years of hardworking experience, but to them it appears that if you don’t have the academics, don’t even bother.
This is frustrating, because I know, and everybody in this building knows, skills, training, education, experience are absolutely critical. No doubt about that. No one is trying to sell it for any less. But no one is suggesting that we take a first aid attendant and give him a shot at being a doctor. What we’re trying to do is giving meaningful people a meaningful opportunity, but oftentimes we hear, oh no, you don’t have a certificate; you need not apply.
A lot of good people fall through the system because it’s almost like the door is shut before they even get a chance to open it. So rather than use that as a distraction, let us finally realize that there are many paths to the same destination. We could work with people who have great, dedicated, northern experience. I believe strongly, and Member Menicoche believes strongly, we have to get our people working. That’s our focus. I know that’s my focus and that’s his focus; it would be nice to see it be the government’s focus.
In the end, I often hear stories like this. I got a call a little while ago about an Aboriginal woman who had some difficult choices early in her life, but she got a break and her break led her to a job. She has got 20 years of experience. She applies for a job, but no advancing. Why? Because in some ways, in her eyes, she’s being punished by 20 years ago a choice she had to make, a choice I wouldn’t want to be forced to make, one she had to make on her own. But how do we help her move forward? Not this system. What system then?
Myself and Mr. Menicoche believe really strongly that we’ve got to provide all Northerners, Aboriginal, women and everyone, a fair shot. Just because they don’t have the technical credibility of a university certificate doesn’t mean 20 years of experience is a waste of time. We can do better; let’s start doing it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Mrs. Patricia Modeste from Deline, who was chosen for the 2014 Wise Woman Award for the Sahtu.
Mrs. Modest is known for her kind heart and dedication towards helping our community. She is a well-known lady who likes to laugh and get things done when needed. She deserves this award, as do the other recipients.
On behalf of the Sahtu region, I congratulate Patricia and her family in Deline and to keep up the great work you’re doing for your community and people and remember to rest too. Mahsi cho.
---Applause
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’m aware that the Minister and his department have been doing some very good work on reviewing a lot of files within their mandate and I’d like to ask the Minister if he could put in some context either the number of clients or the kind of money that we spend as a territorial government to support clients that require southern placement at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
