Good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to the Chamber. Colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to the visitor’s gallery to the presence of our Clerk, Mr. Tim Mercer, and his lovely little daughter Mira visiting today.
---Applause
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to provide Members with an update on the Public Service Capacity Initiative, which Municipal and Community Affairs is jointly implementing with the Department of Human Resources, the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the Northwest Territories.
The program was introduced in 2009 and has been developed around a series of actions that are aimed at enhancing community government public service capacity. Building public service capacity in both the GNWT and community governments is part of the Refocusing Government Initiative that contributes to the Assembly’s goal of effective and efficient government.
One of the larger programs, the Advancing Local Government Administrators Program, has three objectives. The first is to assist community governments with recruitment, development and retention of NWT residents into local government administrator positions. The second objective is to provide meaningful and practical training and development opportunities to individuals currently employed as or interested in becoming a local government administrator. The final objective is to develop a stable pool of qualified local government administrators in the Northwest Territories.
To date, funding has been provided to 10 community governments to access support for these objectives. The community governments are: Fort Good Hope, Fort Liard, Fort Resolution, the Hay River Reserve, Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok, Wekweetì, Whati, Norman Wells and Fort Providence.
Another element of the Public Service Capacity Initiative is the Community Government Mentorship Program which is designed to link new or less experienced local government administrators with experienced local government mentors. The program is being introduced this year and will assist five to 10 local government administrators annually with mentors.
I would also like to highlight some of the initiatives that the Local Government Administrators of the NWT are leading. These include a marketing campaign, recruitment initiatives, the development of a pool of professionals who can provide short-term support to local governments, and training events including professional development at their annual general meeting. In addition to the initiatives being led by the Local Government Administrators of the NWT we are also working with the NWT Association of Communities. This organization is our main partner in delivering good governance workshops, which to date have been accessed by over 500 councillors from 28 community governments.
As community governments take on greater responsibilities for the delivery of programs and services to residents, it is important that the Government of the Northwest Territories and our partners, the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT, continue to provide ongoing support and assistance. I will be pleased to continue to provide my colleagues with updates on the Public Service Capacity Initiative as we continue work on this important program to recruit, retain and develop our local government administrators and to assist community governments with governance initiatives.
This is an important initiative that will help us achieve our vision for sustainable, safe and vibrant communities.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s always a pleasure to recognize the achievements of our young people and that is what I am going to do today. I’m speaking of Siobhan Quigg, a grade 11 student in Norman Wells. She is the only student from the Northwest Territories chosen to attend a French for Future Youth Forum in Quebec City later this week. The conference is to promote bilingualism. There were 125 applicants from across Canada and only 30 young people were chosen.
This is a real honour and a real testament to Miss Quigg’s proficiency in the French language, especially since there is not a lot of French spoken in Norman Wells. Siobhan took a shine to the language when she was in kindergarten and was inspired by a French-speaking teacher. She’s been taking French classes since grade 1. Her success speaks to her enthusiasm and hard work in learning French, but also to the great support she had from her teachers and parents. I’m sure they are very proud of her.
Miss Quigg’s trip to Quebec City will no doubt be an exciting one. It will be the first time in her life that she had to speak another language the whole time. It will be a real opportunity for one of our students to enjoy French food, music and culture with her counterparts across Canada.
I’m positive Siobhan will share our Northwest Territories culture with her new-found friends in Quebec and that she will be a wonderful ambassador on our behalf. I heartily congratulate Siobhan and her teachers. I’m sure her fellow students in Norman Wells will benefit from all that she learns during her week in Quebec. Merci, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]
Mr. Speaker, the establishment and expansion of French first language schooling in the NWT is a success story. It shows what people can accomplish if they have passion and tenacity.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
On the occasion of Education Week, I would like to salute the Commission Scolaire Francophone on their achievements, and I have to highlight and salute Ecole Allain St-Cyr, which sits in the riding of Frame Lake and provides excellent francophone education to the residents of Yellowknife. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Homeowners in my riding need preventative maintenance assistance to replace wooden pilings and aging fuel tanks. The Housing Corporation’s Contributing Assistance for Repairs and Enhancement, the CARE program, is available for some homeowners but needs to increase to fit the needs of people in my riding.
Wooden pilings underneath the homes in communities are rotting. They are deteriorating in the sunlight. They’re directly affected by melting permafrost and soil erosion. Some of the pilings are decayed so much that you could punch a screwdriver through the wood. A house in Inuvik just last year, Mr. Speaker, collapsed. Replacing a house, especially in my riding, is more expensive than replacing old pilings.
As we know, leaking fuel tanks are a big problem. It is every homeowner’s responsibility to make sure that their oil tanks are in good condition. However, if they live in Nunakput they probably pay $1,700 for a tank of heating fuel every six weeks, Mr. Speaker. Your power bill is about $900. That’s the cost of a fuel tank every six weeks. Age, sand rub and corrosion are affecting fuel tanks in my riding. Again, cleanup is more expensive, other than prevention. Offering a subsidy or replacing a fuel tank will go a long way in preventing spills and reducing costs overall.
Mr. Speaker, we need to invest more preventative maintenance to keep homes from failing and disappearing, or even collapsing. This will reduce the number of households in core need. We need to educate our people on their responsibilities to give them support that they need to take care of their homes. Mr. Speaker, we need to enhance programming to remote communities where there aren’t many options. When people need to make repairs in our houses, we will make suitable, adequate and affordable homes an achievable goal. Mr. Speaker, we have to help our private homeowners in the small communities.
Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the NWT’s limited economy, tourism is one of the best opportunities to bring in new money to our North. One way being proposed to build upon that is being put forward by the Hotel Association. They support the creation of a territorial 1 percent hotel tax. Now, at first glance, that may seem counter-intuitive, Mr. Speaker, especially coming from business where they are saying we need a new tax, but that 1 percent hotel tax would add up on average as $1.50 per room each day, Mr. Speaker.
What they believe strongly in is this money would be new money generated to be able to be focused in on tourism opportunities in the Northwest Territories. On average, a 1 percent hotel tax is less than the cost of buying a pop in a hotel vending machine.
As it currently stands, hotel tax is a common function across Canada and used internationally. Mr. Speaker, 10 of our provinces have hotel taxes and they range from a variable to up to about 3 percent. A 1 percent hotel tax, I am suggesting, is not very large but is being called upon by the Hotel Association to do good things.
According to the Yellowknife Hotel Association, if a 1 percent levy had existed in Yellowknife in 2008, it would have generated approximately $208,000 and in 2009 when the global recession was hitting Canada as well as the world, Mr. Speaker, that still would have generated approximately $200,000 new dollars for our North. This money could be invested directly back into tourism marketing, specifically towards maybe someday a hotel convention bureau.
Most of our conference meeting planners want to come north but we don’t have an organized function to help target that. New money generated by a 1 percent hotel tax put forward by the Hotel Association says this may be the way to do this.
Mr. Speaker, we need to encourage the Finance Minister to consider this, especially because it is being strongly advocated by the Hotel Association. Mr. Speaker, these are the people that would help organize it. These are the people who are the backbone of our economy. There is a bread and butter of getting things done. Mr. Speaker, this is an echo held and shouted out loud by industry. Would the government finally listen?
Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Finance later today to ask him what his resistance is to considering a hotel tax in the Northwest Territories directly focused in on tourism benefits. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today about the future of health care in our Territory. Mr. Speaker, I spoke many times about the lack of planning and foresight by this government when it comes to future needs of a resident’s health care. First off, Mr. Speaker, is the system itself. We have some of the best health care professionals and providers in this country working for us today. I have had personal experience in the past year with my own health and I have to say that the doctors and nurses and front-line health care staff that we have here in the Northwest Territories are second to none and do a great job for us.
The problem, Mr. Speaker, is our inability to govern, fund and plan for the future. The Minister suggests that the Foundation for Change will address system-wide problems, deal with funding, reallocate money and provide a base for this system to be efficient and effective. I do hope that this is the beginning of the end of talk, because, Mr. Speaker, as the saying goes, talk is cheap. What we need to do, Mr. Speaker, is take action.
I am in favour of the government making health care much more of a priority and billing than it currently gets. We need to fix the issues that can be identified, Mr. Speaker. Many of these issues are nothing new to this government. They have been around for a number of years. Mr. Speaker, we also have to start planning for the future. What will be needed is a complete capital retrofit of Stanton Territorial Hospital, the flagship of our health care system.
Mr. Speaker, this is going to have to take place in a time when government is going to be looking at cutting back the available capital dollars for infrastructure projects around the Territory and, in my mind, Mr. Speaker, this project is probably going to come in with a price tag of upwards of $200 million. We have to start putting money aside, we have to start planning for that capital retrofit of that hospital, and the sooner the better, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last couple of weeks I and a few of my colleagues have raised concerns about the current public consultation process that has taken place between November 24, 2010, and January 31, 2011, on the new NWT Wildlife Act. Although the Minister continues to suggest that all due process has taken place and that the public consultation process has been conducted appropriately, many throughout the Northwest Territories remain concerned. Mr. Speaker, I’m one of them.
Mr. Speaker, the public consultation process on the proposed Wildlife Act began on November 24th when the public draft, plain language document and consultation schedule were released publicly. Essentially when these items were released it was the first time that the public had an opportunity to see the department’s proposal firsthand. The first opportunity interest groups throughout the Northwest Territories had an opportunity to dig into the details to ensure that the proposal truly is in the best interest of all people of the Northwest Territories.
Originally, all public meetings were scheduled to run from November 24th until December 25th, which is 22 days, Mr. Speaker. The dates were ultimately extended until the end of January as a number of important stakeholders were missed in the initial round. So excluding Christmas break when all GNWT offices are closed, the total days available for input, based on the distributed draft and plain language document, was 47 days, Mr. Speaker, and that includes weekends. Forty-seven days, Mr. Speaker. Forty-seven days for interested stakeholders to conduct in-depth analysis on a 70-page, incredibly complex act. Forty-seven days without any support from the government in any way, shape or form.
Mr. Speaker, this seems ridiculous and hardly provides me or many stakeholders with confidence that the Minister was or is truly interested in hearing anything that these groups have to say.
Further, the Aboriginal groups that participated in the drafting of the legislation were financially compensated for their involvement and participation. They had dollars available to do their legal reviews and attend the meetings. Other stakeholders did not have this support or opportunity from the government.
Mr. Speaker, this particular public consultation is suspect. More of a real transparent consultation is required. Mr. Speaker, and this is important, it’s more important to get this act right than to get it right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today is V-Day, a day when we focus on the tragic violence against women and girls in the North. You can’t get through a newspaper without reading of these horrors across the NWT. Our non-government organizations are our public record and our own Assembly Members place this issue at the top of the public agenda. Despite GNWT program action, the numbers and suffering mount.
We all know the facts and we must act. Here are some priorities for action, priorities that I’ve collected directly from the YWCA Yellowknife and the Centre for Northern Families.
First, the government must commit to maintain its current funding level of $500,000 for phase III of the Coalition Against Family Violence Action Plan. Women cannot be safe until we have an RCMP presence in all our communities. Without enforcement, emergency protection orders mean nothing. We must have these police. The Trauma Recovery Program for women and children who have experienced violence needs to be reinstated. Community-based programs that support both men and women in transition must be established. Enhancement funding for shelters outside Yellowknife, in Tuk, Inuvik, Fort Smith and Hay River, are desperately needed. Our non-government organizations look forward to implementation of the new program for people who violently abuse, and to support the recommendations of the five-year review of the Protection Against Family Violence Act.
The Y and Centre for Northern Families stress that addressing violence against women shouldn’t be just all about intervention. Shelters, prisons, victims services, RCMP, courts, et cetera, are needed but, Mr. Speaker, we must place greater focus on prevention.
The Coalition Against Family Violence had an all-day meeting yesterday to plan for the next phase of the action plan. I look forward to a prompt briefing on the meeting results and confirmation that funds will be allocated. I know these measures are costly and the money is short, but people are suffering and dying. We must put our resources to our priorities. Mr. Speaker, we have to do a better job. Mahsi.
Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the gallery and to the presence of Mr. Myles Kirvan, deputy minister of Justice Canada from Ottawa. Accompanying him is Ms. Karan Shaner, assistant deputy minister/Attorney General, Department of Justice, Government of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Kirvan is here in Yellowknife this week to take part in a Justice Canada symposium entitled Justice Under the Northern Lights. Welcome to the Assembly.
The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to welcome Mr. Kirvan and Ms. Shaner.
I’d also like to recognize Karen McMaster, acting executive director of the NWT Wildlife Federation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to ask some questions regarding the Homelessness Assistance Fund.
From what I know of this fund, it is a fund that is used as a program of last resort when people have lost their home or are in between homes and need some assistance to make sure that they don’t go homeless. I’d like to ask the Minister at this point if she could explain to me what, in her mind, is a definition of a program of last resort in terms of the time frame that she expects people to be able to have to apply for this assistance and maybe get it.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The time frame for those who apply for this funding varies and is dependent on the specific situation. I’ve seen a turnaround of 24 hours or days.
I’d like to give the Minister a bit of a scenario which, unfortunately, occurred. A family was offered an apartment with Yellowknife Housing Authority. They ended the lease in their current place. Then a policy intervened and three weeks before the end of their current lease they were advised that, no, they had arrears and they had to pay the arrears before they could move into their new place. The response basically from Health and Social Services was that policy did not allow them to go into this place.
I’d like to ask the Minister, if this is a program of last resort, should staff members not be working to accommodate these people who are in a difficult situation between one home and the next as opposed to simply refusing them?
Without knowing the details and facts of the situation, it’s difficult for me to comment, but I think it should be noted that when we say a program is one of last resort it does not equal to saying that anybody who applies for it will get it. They would have to meet the guidelines and policies of those programs. Without knowing the facts, I could not give full answers to exactly what happened in this situation. If the Member wants to bring the details to me, I’d be happy to look into that.
To the Minister, this is not a current situation. It was solved. It was not solved through any assistance through government, unfortunately. It was solved through the assistance of the community. I’d like to ask the Minister, when a person is desperate for homeownership assistance, or for home assistance I should say, so that they do not become homeless, what is it that the staff do? What do they look at to see whether or not an application should be accepted or denied?
This pot of money for $125,000 was allocated to help those in most need. They sometimes don’t fall into other programs that are available in the government. I am aware of lots of specific situations where we have helped them. We have, in fact, spent every penny in that program over the last year. It does work to fill the gaps and fill the holes and to be a safety net for those who come forward. A Member has a situation of one case that didn’t work out perhaps, and I’m glad to hear that it was resolved, but by and large this program serves the purpose for which it was intended.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this case I don’t think it did work. The family had three weeks’ notice to try and pay off a $700 debt, give or take. It simply was not possible. The father was in school, the mother was on income support. I really need to ask the Minister, when an application comes forward, do the staff not look to find solutions as opposed to finding a way to deny the application?
I can say in confidence that our staff looks to find solutions. We do not look at the application to look for a way to deny them. In fact, we have spent $62,000 more on this budget than what was allocated. I can demonstrate to you that we have spent 50 percent more than what was allocated. We look for ways to find solutions. I can give for her one example that she has 10 examples of how we have helped our residents to go back to their communities and pay off their debt. I’m saying that if in this situation the person was denied, they would have been faxed, I would have supported that, and I need the Member to tell me what the situation is.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. What support exists for homeowners in remote communities who need to replace oil tanks and wood pilings underneath their homes?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those that find they need to replace their fuel tanks or pilings would be able to, if they qualify, access money through CARE, the home repair program.
What’s being done to educate the public about proper maintenance of oil tanks and wood pilings?
It’s obvious that there has been some concern with the fuel tanks and, more specifically, the wood pilings. As far as public education, I would have to follow up and see what’s out there. This has been a longstanding issue, the pilings in particular, so folks out there are well aware of some of the challenges they face. The fuel tank issue is just a new one that’s been out for a bit here. There’s still a process that has to go on where we need to educate the public and make them aware of some of the challenges they face with the fuel tanks.
Does the NWT Housing Corporation plan to address the pilings that are beginning to decay for private homeownership? I think the cost for one to repair is about $1,500. I mean, some people are barely eligible to stay in those units that are being given under the programs that they fall under through the Housing Corporation. Can the Minister elaborate a little bit more on the process and what the department can do to help enhance the program to get these pilings done for the private homeownership?
