Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Jackson Lafferty will be absent from the House today, tomorrow and Wednesday to attend the federal/provincial/territorial Education Ministers meeting in Toronto. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you know, this week is NWT Education Week here in the Northwest Territories. It’s a great opportunity for us to recognize and highlight all the hard work that is being done by teachers, mentors and volunteers in the support of our children throughout the Northwest Territories. To that end, I’d like to talk a little bit about the recent Yellowknife and territorial learning fairs that have been held throughout the Northwest Territories over the last couple of months.
On February 11, 2011, I had the honour of judging at the Yellowknife Learning Fair which was held here at Mildred Hall School. I was blown away at the high quality of projects being presented, both from an historical and a science perspective. There were historical projects on a wide range of topics including Francois Paulette and Richard Van Camp, historical events such as The Lost Patrol and Vimy
Ridge, historical places such as The Wildlife Cafe and the CANOL Trail.
In addition, there was also a wide variety of science experiments ranging from the lifecycles of icebergs to the effects of oil spills on animals and birds. All of the projects were exceptional, Mr. Speaker.
This past weekend the award winning presentations at the community level came together in Yellowknife for the territorial competition. Although not a judge, I did go see a number of presentations and had an opportunity to talk to a lot of students. Once again, the projects were all excellent. Everyone I talked to about the projects and the event were thrilled by the experience. Students participating in these events should be very, very proud of all of their hard work and accomplishments. Their hard work does not go unnoticed, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, children are our future. Events like these help them build knowledge, skills and abilities that help them succeed throughout their lives. I would like to take this opportunity to applaud all of the teachers, mentors and volunteers who have helped make events like the local and territorial learning fairs possible. Their dedication and contributions are key to the success of these types of events and to our students and the development of children throughout the Northwest Territories.
So thank you very much to each and every one of you. Your contributions are appreciated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
MEMBER’S STATEMENT ON
TERRITORIAL ENERGY-EFFICIENT
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We need to establish territory-wide building standards to meet the cost and climate changes of today. Currently, this government builds to a standard 25 percent better than the national model building codes. The GNWT’s Good Building Practices for Northern Facilities 2009 guidebook establishes this standard as a condition of RFP for all territorial government construction.
Under its municipal authority, the City of Yellowknife has set similar high energy-efficiency standards. That’s the extent of mandatory energy efficiency standards in the NWT. Outside Yellowknife, all private construction and municipal facilities built with territorial money must meet only the lower national standard, a lot lower. There is no legal requirement to do better.
We could wait for each municipality to expensively enact their own local legislation, or this government could establish a single territorial standard under which all will benefit. That’s what they’ve done in the Yukon. Under that territory’s 2002 Building Standards Act, government has the authority to replace or modify the requirements of the National Building Code and require higher standards more suited to our northern realities.
Governments can lead change with a mixture of incentives and requirements. We missed the opportunity to do this under the New Deal when every community was provided with infrastructure dollars and gas tax funds and had to develop energy plans but no standards were required. With regulation and the right support, it is in the public interest to reduce costs and climate impacts while helping protect citizens and communities from oil’s inevitable price climb.
We’ve put our own house in order, now it’s time to make sure all NWT buildings follow our lead. At a minimum this must be a proposed and evaluated tool in our Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy. The Minister of MACA has repeatedly been on record as being willing to let communities and private enterprises continue to build low-efficiency infrastructure and have the public bear the costs.
I will be asking the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources what actions his department has taken to assess and move to adopt this common-sense tool in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy being developed.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be speaking today on the devolution agreement-in-principle, specifically on the way in which it was signed by the Premier and the INAC Minister. I raised this at the start of this session.
Although the Premier points out that the AIP has been years in the making, from the perspective of the Dehcho leadership, the signing of the AIP was still done too quickly and without adequate consultation. The Dehcho and other Dene leaders feel it is the great big giveaway by the feds and a great big land grab by the GNWT.
Leaderships do not feel that their concerns were heard or acted upon. “With or without you” is the message that the Dene people are getting from the Premier and the INAC Minister. This is not a good message to send when supposedly building partnerships.
As a Regular Member I am frustrated because I am outside the process. I’ve never had the opportunity to vote on the AIP itself or publicly debate it. The Premier needed Cabinet’s approval to sign the AIP but did not need the approval of this Assembly or Regular Members. In fact, this Assembly will not be asked to vote on devolution until implementation legislation comes forward and that will be years from now, when the deal is essentially done.
It is a shame we are not in position today to celebrate together a milestone of transferring powers to the North and to focus our energies on the details of the AIP and our mandates for negotiating the final agreement, because there is a lot in there that we should be paying attention to. Instead, because of the Premier’s and INAC Minister’s actions and high-handedness in dealing with Dene leaders, the debate we have to focus on today is about the process in which the AIP was signed and how we can possibly work together with the broken trust and bad feelings that have been created.
National Chief of the Dene Nation Bill Erasmus said in today’s News/North: “The GNWT and Canada must engage the Dene in a process that promises to build relationships, instead of creating tension and distrust.”
We owe it to all Northerners to work hard in creating a North with all Northerners. There must be a solution other than using the stick-and-carrot approach.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tamerlane Ventures Inc. is an exploration and development mining company with advanced base metal development projects in Canada and Peru. The company is working towards bringing the world-class lead-zinc Pine Point property back into production in the Northwest Territories.
The company’s primary focus is the Pine Point project consisting of the Pine Point mine, which was the largest and most profitable base metal mine in Canadian history. The Pine Point project hosts over five billion pounds of lead and zinc in the ground and Tamerlane Ventures believes it will once again become one of Canada’s great mines.
Mr. Speaker, as with any project like this, there are many issues around timing and prices of commodities, and Tamerlane believes at this time the things are aligned, these different necessities are aligned and it is time to move on with this project. Just recently Tamerlane said that they have had some good news in their search for financing for their project and are in the process of signing proposals at this time and there will be further details coming about this in the next few weeks.
Mr. Speaker, for Hay River, this is good news. Tamerlane believes that with the effective implementation of the company’s HR management program and the assistance of government agencies, this project could generate a considerable number of employment and training opportunities for residents in the South Slave region. During the construction phase, up to 65 positions will be available. During the mining operation of the company, up to 227 positions will be available. Some of the specific training and employment opportunities would be construction equipment operation and maintenance, mining equipment operation and maintenance, administration positions, safety systems workers, first aid and emergency response teams and many other related jobs.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, there are always hurdles and obstacles for a project of this nature. One that has been discussed and we’ve heard some about is the cost of power in the Northwest Territories to operate their facility. I believe that there has been discussion that has gone on between the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and Tamerlane on the issue of the cost of power.
Mr. Speaker, I’m here today to sound the alarm. Hay River needs something and we need something soon. If there’s any way that this government can do something to help see this project come to fruition and support it in a similar way they did for diamond secondary processing for Yellowknife, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]
Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about the public housing rent scale. Mr. Speaker, the current rent scale used by the NWT Housing Corporation in the administration of public housing does not work for the tenants in smaller communities. Mr. Speaker, as I’ve said many times in the past, communities in Tu Nedhe have employment rates well below 40 percent and nothing should serve as a deterrent to work. As it stands now, the rent scale is a major deterrent for people who wish to work.
Mr. Speaker, if a person in public housing gets a job, up to 30 percent of their gross income can be charged as rent. Therefore, a working person sees very little benefit from the work. Income tax takes 25 percent and in some cases child care expenses could be as much as $50 a day, but even at $30 a day it would cost the working person $300 biweekly. Mr. Speaker, depending on the nature of the job, there could be employment related costs such as specialized clothing.
Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation must establish a maximum rent in small, non-market communities that have employment rates with percentages in the thirties and forties. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation can establish maximum rents in Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution of around $600 or $700 and this will ensure that people remain at work. Mr. Speaker, if the rent maxes out at $600 or $700 instead of $1,800, more people will remain at work and pay $600 or $700; versus being charged $1,800, they quit their jobs and go back to paying $32 a month and drawing income support.
Mr. Speaker, if this works for 10 percent of the public housing tenants, it will bring about $1.5 million into the administration of the public housing and it will save around $2.5 million in income support payments. Mr. Speaker, if the Housing Corporation puts this policy in place, it will improve the government’s overall fiscal position by about $4 million per year.
Mr. Speaker, this type of policy change is needed to accommodate any sort of policy designed to increase employment in smaller communities.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Without this policy, people in public housing cannot afford to work. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Housing today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Similar to my other colleagues in the House today, I think we have to realize that our economies are not the same with larger centres and regional centres, more importantly, looking at the social and economic situation we find ourselves especially in a lot of our rural communities where unemployment is surpassing 40 percent and almost 45 percent in some cases. But, Mr. Speaker, this government has to realistically look at its preferential policies, procedures and do whatever we can to stimulate our local economies such as the contracts for housing or government service contracts with Public Works and Services, more importantly ensuring that we try to sustain a local economy by providing those programs and services and stimulating by government policies and procedures especially in areas such as sole source or negotiating contracts with local tenders for local contractors to be tendered locally. I just saw in the paper in regards to an enterprise in Hay River where the contractor positions for government employees are within a 50-kilometre radius for those jobs that are being offered. That is the type of stuff we have to look at to ensure that the capital expenditures in our communities remain in our communities and stimulate the local economies.
Mr. Speaker, we have a major downturn in the economic area regardless if it is oil and gas, tourism or, in most cases, not really seeing the benefit of the large projects we see in the larger centres which we depend on these seasonal economies to stimulate the economies of a lot of our communities in which people depend on that work as part of their livelihood instead of income support where we are bringing in some $500 a month to a tune of $7,000 a year. Mr. Speaker, but that is reality. Our people in our communities are having to depend on income support as the means of sustaining themselves.
Mr. Speaker, I will be asking questions to the Minister of the Housing Corporation why it is that he has not supported any negotiated contracts in the Mackenzie Delta since he has become Minister. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about gender-based analysis. Promoting the equality of men and women in our society and government is a good thing. Our current Premier has promised policy action on this particular matter. A number of my constituents were initially very excited about the news that this government was going to do something, but yet actions seem to have fizzled.
We all know that the GNWT policy Equality of Men and Women in the NWT is 23 years old, Mr. Speaker. Recommendations to update it were promised by this Premier back in 2009 and 2010 budget fiscal years. The Premier promised a position paper by the end of 2009 on using gender-based analysis in this particular government. To my knowledge, as of today we still have not seen that commitment fulfilled.
I fast forward to today, Mr. Speaker, more than a year and a half later. As I understand it, Cabinet has apparently received recommendations for updating the equality policy, but Members and the public have yet to see some of these recommendations. I will say I am glad to hear the government has started training for particular employees on gender-based analysis. However, have we required management to take this particular training? Has the government done any work to identify key staff and key positions who will be proficient and certainly need the training of gender-based analysis?
Mr. Speaker, I wonder if we are using tools on gender-based analysis to improve policy, programs and services we offer through our government. As I understand it, very few men are taking gender analysis training, Mr. Speaker. For a fact, from my research, three out of 44 were men so far, including, of course, the advanced course that is offered here in March. Mr. Speaker, what is interesting about this is that is less than 7 percent of the participants that are taking gender-based analysis training.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that everyone can learn a lot from this particular program. Interest may be waning, I wonder, by the government on this particular case. Six courses were offered in 2010 and one was cancelled. Mr. Speaker, again, this is causing me to raise some concern on this specific training that I believe is needed. Sadly, in 2011, four courses were offered in January and February and all were cancelled due to low enrolment. Mr. Speaker, I am just worried that the government may be losing its enthusiasm and this policy may be quietly leaving the back door of the Assembly. I want to make sure that this is highlighted properly and I want to be clear: is the government committed to this policy and how are they making sure it works?
Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Premier later today on what he is doing to make sure that this policy doesn’t get swept under the carpet and we are promoting it further. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you’ve already heard, today is the beginning of Education Week so I’m going to tell an education story. For two years in a row now I’ve been privileged to be a judge at the Yellowknife Regional Learning Fair. Two Fridays ago I was at Mildred Hall School hard at work doing just that. The Yellowknife Regional Learning Fair was a gathering of students ranging from grade 4 to grade 8. Each of the students at the regional fair was a winner in their own right from the learning fair competition held at their own school, and now they were competing for the regional title in either science or heritage.
It was an invigorating, exciting and fun day for me. I was thoroughly impressed by all the projects and especially those I was privileged to judge. The students represented all of Yellowknife Education District No. 1 K to 8 schools and Weledeh School from the Yellowknife Catholic Schools district. The kids were excited, they were nervous, they were proud. Their enthusiasm for the project that they had produced was evident and it was infectious. We have extremely smart kids in our schools, Mr. Speaker. They are articulate and knowledgeable, and pleasant and courteous to boot.
The Yellowknife Regional Historical Fair winners competed again this past week in the first ever Pan-Territorial Historical Fair. That competition had 30 students from across the NWT and, for the first time, 10 students from each of the Yukon and Nunavut presenting their projects for judging.
I want to congratulate everyone involved in all the learning fairs, and there’s many to mention. Organizing and producing a fair at any level is a big project and it takes a lot of work. My thanks and congratulations go to the teachers at each student’s school, they’re the ones who get the kids started; to each school’s learning fair organizing team, they make sure that each school has their own competition. Thanks also to the school which hosted the regional competition, in this case Mildred Hall School, which put up with the disruption of students, parents and judges coming and going all day long, and to the team of educators who organized the territorial competition. It was held at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre and they put on a great show. Last, but not least, thanks to the parents of the participants for the assistance and guidance they provided to the students as the project progressed from an idea to a finished product.
Mr. Speaker, did I forget the students? I did. Congratulations must go to each and every student who participated in a learning fair, no matter what level it was. You all did a marvellous job.
Mr. Speaker, to everyone involved in education in the NWT, I want to quote the NWT Teachers’ Association slogan, “Thank you for making a difference.”
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Clean, fresh water is the Northwest Territories most precious resource. It supports all of life. We have lots of water, Mr. Speaker, and it’s the defining future of the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, we must protect our water from the upstream pollution and the polluters. Mr. Speaker, the operations in the Alberta tar sands are poisoning our water. In the last four years the amount of arsenic, mercury, lead and other toxins have increased by 26 percent in the tailings ponds that are located in our watershed. The tar sands also create air pollution that poisons the earth through rain and snow.
Mr. Speaker, we are in great danger. For example, the people in the North have noticed changes in the fish. Their flesh is soft and their livers are black. Mr. Speaker, there is something wrong with the water. We cannot wait and sit idle.
Mr. Speaker, a member of the new panel at the Alberta government appointed to monitor the environmental effects of the tar sands has resigned because she felt there was a lack of integrity. There was not enough Aboriginal or scientific representation on the panel. Mr. Speaker, the 16th Legislative Assembly is spending close to $6 million to protect our territorial waters. We need aggressive transboundary negotiations. We need cumulative impact monitoring and water monitoring throughout the Northwest Territories. We need to make sure our own industry isn’t further destroying the environment.
Mr. Speaker, long ago people built fortresses to protect their territory. They patrolled their land and sharpened their weapons. Mr. Speaker, the world doesn’t work like that anymore. Instead we make laws and negotiate agreements. Our Water Strategy needs to be our fortress.
We need water monitoring to patrol our land. We need tough laws and tough negotiators. We need to stand up and say “no more” to dumping garbage into our waters. We need to protect our waters and we need to do it now.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I spoke of the public housing rent scale in non-market communities acting as a bit of a deterrent for people working. I have some questions for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. Does the Minister agree that public housing rent scale is different between market communities and non-market communities?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is obviously a difference and we all realize that between all the communities in the Northwest Territories as to how the rent is calculated. Having said that, I do agree with the Member that there is a difference in the amount of the rent scale.
Just to add a little to that, I was looking for more of an amount. Not a specific amount, but does the Minister agree that the average public housing paid, average rent paid for public housing in market communities is higher than the non-market communities?
There are many things taken into consideration when they calculate the rent scale and a lot of things are factored into coming up with the amount of rent that the folks pay in the communities. I do know that there is a bit of a discrepancy at the regional level. That’s one of the reasons the Housing Corporation is entertaining the idea of going to a regional rent scale. That would benefit some of the smaller communities that are maybe a few minutes away from some of the larger communities and the rent calculated in those communities is quite different.
I’d like to ask the Minister if there’s a policy that prevents the Minister from establishing maximum rents and replacing economic rents with maximum rents in non-market communities.
That’s one of the things we are looking at doing, is a rent scale review. We’ve tied it in with the Shelter Policy review because we feel that this is one that will be a way forward document for the NWT Housing Corporation.
We’ve heard many suggestions from Members, we’ve heard many suggestions from members of the public and all the general assemblies that we go to as to how we should calculate rent. I can assure the Member and all Members that we’ll look at any way possible to try and be fair and just be sure that all tenants from across the Northwest Territories are treated the same and treated fairly.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s good news. Will the Minister direct his staff to look at this very specific point, and that very specific point is that non-market communities use economic rents? Economic rents are established to recover costs. People never pay that, because there’s no work. Will the Minister direct his staff to look at the feasibility of establishing a maximum rent for all non-market communities?
We are in the process of reviewing the way we deliver public housing and the way we calculate rents and that. I can assure the Member that this is one that we will continue to have a look at.
When we talk about the maximum rent, there is a maximum rent. There is the economic rent and very few people in the Northwest Territories pay the full economic rent, as the Member points out, because of the lack of work. Even those that are working, very few pay maximum rent. I think we have maybe 12 across the Northwest Territories out of 2,400 units that we deliver. I think that’s a pretty good percentage. We do what we can to ensure that all tenants of the NWT Housing Corporation and public housing portfolio are treated the same.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about gender-based analysis and highlighted that there is some training going on there, but I’m still looking to see some policy update, as are a number of my constituents and the public waiting to see that. My question to the Premier would be: when can Members of this House and the public see the updates to the 1998 equity policy in the form of the gender-based analysis?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work that we’ve done around the gender basis issue has been one that, as the Member has pointed out, doing some workshops and training amongst our staff within the Government of the Northwest Territories to make everyone more aware as we look at the work we do and how it influences decision-making.
When can Members see a copy of that particular policy and initiative that I’ve referred to, which is the gender-based analysis? When can the public get a chance to have a look at it and see it implemented into government policy?
Again, the work that we’ve done has been more about the training, getting it through to our staff with the help of other departments like the Department of Human Resources to help us in the training and getting the knowledge out there. I’d have to get back to the department to see if in fact I will be able to have a policy to bring back to the Members.
