Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to provide Members with details on the Active After School Program which is part of the GNWT’s Healthy Choices Framework.
As you know, the Healthy Choices Framework is an interdepartmental initiative that includes the departments of Health and Social Services; Education, Culture and Employment; Justice; Transportation; and MACA.
The government is raising awareness of the direct link between good health and positive lifestyle choices, through the collaboration and the integration of healthy choices programs across these departments.
Through the Healthy Choices Framework and the Active After School Program, the GNWT is working to build our future by promoting healthy and active living among children and youth. Improving the physical and mental well-being of our youth will create healthy, educated Northerners as envisioned in the 16th Assembly’s vision of Northerners Working Together.
Mr. Speaker, in 2009, Active Healthy Kids Canada reported that 87 percent of children and youth in Canada, including the Northwest Territories, do not meet Canada’s Physical Activity Guide recommendations for daily physical activity and that 90 percent of Canadian children and youth are spending far too much time in front of television, computer and video screens. It has also been found that the most inactive time for youth is the “after school period,“ which is 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
The benefits of physical activity are widely known. Individuals who are physically active are less likely to be affected by chronic heart diseases, osteoporosis, diabetes and some types of cancer. It is also clear that physical activity programs can positively affect the ability of a student to learn and keep young people occupied during times when they might find other, less desirable activities to be involved in.
Mr. Speaker, the Active After School Program is a collaborative effort between MACA and the NWT Sport and Recreation Council that will provide funding support for 18 after school physical activity pilot programs across the Northwest Territories this winter. The projects will stretch across the Territory and incorporate a broad range of activities, including cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, Nordic walking, hip hop, floor hockey and badminton.
In some cases, funding is being provided for much needed equipment such as soccer balls and basketballs, or to set up fitness centres with cardio and weight machines, or to provide students with a healthy snack to fuel their play.
Although the programs vary in the types of activities they offer, they all have two key things in common. First, they are trying new ways to encourage more youth to be physically active, particularly those who may not be attracted to our more traditional sport and recreation activities. Second, they are providing physical activity programming for youth in that key after school time period when they might just as easily sit down in front of a TV, video game, or computer screen before their parents are home at the end of their day.
Through the leadership of the NWT Sport and Recreation Council, each of these pilot initiatives will be evaluated to determine their effectiveness and to see if they made a real difference in encouraging our youth to be physically active.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to providing Members with an update on these important projects later in the year.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
MINISTER’S STATEMENT 68-16(4):
Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be absent from the House today to attend promotional events related to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as we heard from several Members in this House regarding electrical rate reviews, I think it’s important to realize that the high cost associated with anyone’s billing, regardless if you are a homeowner, a resident, a business operator or even a community government, is the high cost of energy in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that this government is going in the right direction with regard to electrical rate review and we have to find a way of bringing down those high electrical bills, especially in our smaller communities where we are paying in excess of $2.38 per kilowatt in Colville Lake and in Nahanni Butte I believe it’s $1.60 per kilowatt.
Mr. Speaker, we also have to realize that we have some 30 rate rider systems in place. We have 38 applications that we have to go through every time there’s a rate review. Mr. Speaker, that is a major cost to not only the Government of the Northwest Territories but to the residents of the Northwest Territories who have to pay the cost of those reviews. I believe we have to find a way to reduce those high cost expenditures in small communities. I believe that we should seriously review this in this House, hopefully sooner than later, and find a solution to the high energy costs in our communities and find a system that’s fair to all communities in the Northwest Territories, to ensure that we are able to show that we really care as a government for the communities that are not on hydro and are dependent on diesel transported into their communities and stored in fuel tanks and used to heat their homes.
We don’t have apartments in our communities. We have, in most cases, single dwellings where people have to operate a housing unit, which costs a lot more than in large urban centres where there are apartment blocks with 70 or 80 residents who share the cost to operate the facility. I think it’s appropriate we, as the people responsible for the Legislature, seriously realize the implication that power has, the consumption of power, and the cost to sustain the residences in the small communities.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement
---Unanimous consent granted.
We do have to realize the high cost of energy in our communities and the effect it has on our residents, especially in our small communities. It is right now unaffordable; we have to make it affordable.
As a government we have an obligation to all people in the Northwest Territories to bring down the high cost of energy and also share in that pain throughout the whole Northwest Territories. I look forward to the rate review before this House sooner rather than later. I will be asking questions to the Minister responsible for the review.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Almost one year ago today several Members’ statements were dedicated to the high cost of foods in small, remote communities across the Territory. In Nunakput the highest cost of food then was the highest cost of food in the NWT. Earlier this week my colleagues were very passionately describing the seriousness of the situation in their communities.
This government calculates northern living allowance based on the location and the cost of living compared to the central communities such as Yellowknife. In addition, they fund various offices and programs based also on comparison. This results in the government paying people more in the Nunakput communities where they cannot afford the standard of living they deserve.
It’s impossible for an average family in Nunakput and the Beaufort-Delta, based on the average income, to practice healthy eating for themselves and their family. I cannot understand why the GNWT can explain two jobs in Yellowknife and one small, remote community doing the exact same thing, requiring the same level of education, and the same income with a difference of only a few thousand dollars.
My region in Nunakput is by far the most expensive region when it comes to eating healthy. The situation being equal, dollar for dollar more people almost have to live in poverty conditions than other regions in the Northwest Territories. This has got to change.
During my travels through Nunakput I see people in the airports putting food they purchased in their bags at the airport in Inuvik, paying $5.77 per kilogram. This means a carton of milk that was purchased in Inuvik for $4.00 becomes well over $10.00 and is still a huge savings. That is wrong.
I think it’s a great shame that many of our elders in our Nunakput communities choose between having to buy food or pay various bills because they get so little. I see a growing trend of empty cupboards and refrigerators for elders with the luxuries that they have. There are no food banks in most of the Nunakput communities.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement
---Unanimous consent granted.
What I found unfair in this government is not considering is that the Nunakput cost of living is 81 percent higher than it is in Yellowknife. Having our residents access healthy food must be the highest priority for this government and anything less is unacceptable.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister for the Housing Corporation spoke yesterday on the release of the 2009 Housing Needs Survey results. I’d like to draw attention to the realities of buying or renting shelter in Yellowknife, and how the City of Yellowknife is working to make housing more affordable.
Our government doesn’t collect housing market data, so we have to rely on CMHC’s 2009 housing report for Yellowknife. If you want to buy an average house in Yellowknife it will cost you $314,000. Only 12 percent of homes go for less than $200,000 and one in five sells for more than $400,000.
The news isn’t much better for renters. An average two-bedroom apartment in Yellowknife cost $1,450 a month last year, with vacancy rates of less than 1 percent. The result: nearly 20 percent of moderate income families -- the households making $40,000 to $100,000 per year -- are overspending on shelter, according to the 30 percent rule for housing costs as a proportion of income. That’s 405 households.
People with household incomes of $100,000 a year in Yellowknife can’t afford to buy a home. Two people making minimum wage would spend more than half their combined income for an average apartment, if they can find one.
The City of Yellowknife is taking ambitious steps to ease this problem through development of an Affordable Housing Strategy. Initial work on the strategy has brought forward the growing concept of non-market housing, a market segment between the public and private markets. The development of non-market housing is an innovative new approach that could break the price bottleneck holding people back from their first homes. Improving the affordability of first homes will take pressure off the tight and expensive rental market.
The city needs all the support this government can provide. There has already been tremendous support from CMHC and the NWT Housing Corporation to develop the strategy, but we have to follow right on through to implementation. The Housing Corp could continue to help by being a part of the affordable housing committee the city will be creating soon. What we’ll need most of all is the Housing Corporation’s commitment to working with CMHC and the city for the development of non-market housing units.
The 2009 Housing Needs Survey shows we have to use every tool available to improve availability and quality of shelter. When one of our partner governments acts boldly to bring new solutions forward, this government must be there with action and commitment. Mr. Speaker, let’s show up at the table. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak today about a situation that has arisen with a constituent in his efforts to get schooling to fulfill his apprenticeship program. He is currently attending NAIT to finish his second year electrical apprenticeship. He has set himself up with accommodation, transportation and other logistics in Edmonton to conduct his schooling. An opportunity has come for him to start his third year schooling almost immediately upon the completion of his second year. He is comfortable being there and familiar with his surroundings, which is conducive to him ultimately being successful at his schooling, training and in life. It would make perfect sense, Mr. Speaker, considering he has the required hours to let him stay at NAIT and conclude his third year.
The problem is, Mr. Speaker, common sense and the ability to be flexible is often thrown out the window by idiotic government policy. The government’s answer to this young man is to finish your time at NAIT, move yourself back to Yellowknife, we have a seat for you waiting in Fort Smith in April. This would impact him in a negative way, Mr. Speaker. He would obviously earn less at work in the time that it takes for him to get back here and before he goes to Fort Smith. It will cost him more to get back to Yellowknife and then to Fort Smith. And, in fact, by the time the course starts in Fort Smith he would have already been done his third year schooling and making more money working here back home in Yellowknife.
I find the response to his request to stay at NAIT is totally and completely unacceptable. A stated goal of this government is to train and develop a northern workforce. Why then would we put roadblocks in the way of anyone pursuing an apprenticeship? Is there not any flexibility in the policy and why, Mr. Speaker, are people who pursue the trades and apprenticeships treated differently than those going to college or university? Why do we force them to go to Fort Smith? We should encourage them to go to Fort Smith, not force them to go. We don’t force college students who are attending Mount Royal College or Red Deer College in the South to stay in the Northwest Territories because the program is offered here. Why are apprentices any different, Mr. Speaker?
The government should never, ever be an impediment to someone’s pursuit of training and a career. Why are we not fully supporting this young man and others like him who find themselves in similar circumstances, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk about something today but I am going to wait until tomorrow to speak of it. Mr. Speaker, that is the Deh Cho Bridge. I cannot give the detail because the Minister of Transportation has kindly shared information with us, as Members, behind closed doors and had asked us to hold our fire until he has a chance to get out ahead of us with the press release.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to hold my fire, but I am going to give a heads up to this government that tomorrow, after that press release has been issued, I am going to stand up here in this House in a reply to the opening address and I am going to lay bare all the facts of this project which at this juncture, and from the most current information we have, potentially has the ability to impact this government more than anything else that has ever come across my desk in the 15 years that I have been an MLA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned by the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on Tuesday, this is Heritage Week and yesterday was Heritage Day. Here in the city of Yellowknife, we are lucky to have an active and effective Heritage Committee. This group of volunteers and city councillors work to preserve this young city’s heritage, to publicize the history of the city and to educate Yellowknifers about the city’s heritage. Over the years, the Yellowknife Heritage Committee has managed to save some of Yellowknife’s original buildings from demolition. They have put in place a successful plaque program to recognize and publicize the sites of heritage buildings which did suffer demolition and are no longer around to be seen. They have documented hundreds of original buildings and sites built when the city was a small mining town. Last but not least, the committee organizes a week of activity to celebrate Heritage Week and recognizes a resident who has made significant contributions to this city’s heritage through an annual heritage award.
Heritage has a sense of origin, Mr. Speaker. It is something that is passed down from preceding generations. It is our tradition and knowledge and it is the legacy we leave behind for the next generation. There is an old cliché which says, “you can’t know where you are going until you know where you have been.” To know and understand our history, our heritage and our culture, allows us to understand and respect ourselves, to understand and respect our family traditions, to understand and respect our community’s reason for being, and knowing and understanding our community connects us to where we live and gives us a sense of place. Every one of us as residents of the NWT must play a part in preserving our heritage, our own personal heritage through knowledge of our ancestors, our community heritage through maintaining buildings, special sites and trails and our territorial heritage through documentation of people and places.
I congratulate the City of Yellowknife for recognizing the importance of heritage. I also specifically congratulate Ms. Yvonne Quick, who is the city’s Heritage Award winner for 2010. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today on the MRSA or the drug resistant bacteria or the super bug cases that have been announced in a press release in the Tlicho region. I am concerned about how Health and Social Services will manage this not only in this region but all of them, Mr. Speaker.
I have had constituents impacted in the past and typically Health and Social Services has indicated that occurrences are no more than other jurisdictions. Now we find that we have a region that is severely impacted. Overcrowding and poverty is listed as a cause of contributing to this. In my riding, Mr. Speaker, I have the very same conditions and would like to ask what is being done to have a publicity campaign or monitor my communities to observe any increases of this bacteria.
I am glad that NWT health authorities have had a press release with this information. This super bug has gone up by 50 percent in each of the past three years, with 99 in last year alone and 18 cases in the NWT since January 1, 2010. I would like to see a public campaign that is active in all our regions. Health and public safety is a thrust of our government, and we must continue to do our best to advise all residents of such a major increase in health risks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use my Member’s statement today to talk about a number of medical support programs that have been failing our people. I’ve taken these to the Minister’s office lately and I’m noticing a serious trend: our medical travel process is not supporting the people, in my view, the way it should be.
First off, medical travel, in my view, seems to have this overriding control over what doctors would request as required treatment. Now, of course, the Minister will shamefully defend the denials by saying the process does not ensure these identified things, even though doctors say they are necessary treatment. I say shame on that Minister for being insensitive.
But what am I really talking about? I’m talking about people who require specialized back pain clinic that you can only get in Edmonton, specialized weight clinics that doctors have recommended that they can only get in Edmonton, and specialized diabetes treatment that they need in Edmonton. They cannot receive these treatments here. So what does medical travel do? Stop them. I say that’s a real shame. There’s been no transition of people who have already been going to these clinics for these specialized services and one day they go to process their medical travel form and are told sorry; sorry about your luck.
I think this Minister needs to intervene immediately and say anybody who has been receiving these services can have a transition plan until they are established here in the North. If it makes sense to have these here in the North, then it makes sense that if we can establish them here why we would send them south. But we don’t have these programs up and running here, so what do we do? We make these people, who have doctors’ orders to go get treatment, sit and wait until it comes.
I think the Department of Health and Social Services tends to forget about the psychological cost that is now put on these particular people who require these services. They pull the carpet out from underneath them and they’re sitting there kind of lost, wondering if they will ever get help and if their government cares about them. I start to wonder if that’s actually true.
I think the Minister can show true compassion to this problem today by saying that she’ll look into this problem and say anybody who was receiving these types of treatments who were previously being sent out for specialized services should be able to continue until we establish good programs here in the North to do this. But to tell a patient that you have to sit and wait until we develop a program and no treatment for you until then is the wrong approach.
Let’s grandfather these people. Let’s stop this shameful approach. I think we can do something and we can do something now.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I talked about the importance of a well-run daycare and the great job that the dedicated staff and parents are doing in daycares in Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. Today I’d like to talk about the infrastructure needs for these daycares.
Last spring the community of Lutselk’e came up with a community education plan and called for a coordinated effort for the school and community to work towards an integrated education system and identified a suitable location in the community. The plan calls for an education-type complex to have a new Aurora College, a daycare, and a preschool connected to the existing school. Today there is no space for the daycare in the school, and grades 10, 11 and possibly 12 are held in the old library.
In Fort Resolution the daycare operates out of an old building. To meet code requirements the building has to be renovated and has been renovated numerous times over the years. The building is still cold and is plagued with furnace and plumbing problems, and there are no heating vents on one side of the building and no ventilation fans anywhere in the building.
As you can see, both communities in Tu Nedhe are desperate for the need of immediate support to meet its daycare infrastructure needs. I speak of this today because the GNWT has a responsibility to ensure communities have adequate early childhood development programs. As a matter of fact, in the department’s 2006-2007 Early Childhood Development Report, the vision states the Northwest Territories will be a place where children are born healthy and raised in safe and respectful families and communities.
If this is a vision of the early childhood development, then why does Lutselk’e have no facility to house a daycare program? Why do children in Fort Resolution have to go to a daycare that is cold and always has mechanical problems? Something needs to be done as soon as possible.
Under the NWT Child Care Act standards and regulations the GNWT has the responsibility to ensure compliance with the act and regulations to ensure daycare facilities provide a safe, nurturing environment and this includes compliance with fire and safety codes in these daycares. Again, I will ask for the daycare staff in Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution, something is not working there.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its report on the review of the 2008-2009 Human Rights Commission Annual Report and commends it to the House.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations reviewed the 2008-2009 Annual Report of the Human Rights Commission. The committee would like to thank Ms. Mary Pat Short, chair of the Human Rights Commission, and Ms. Therese Boullard, director of human rights, for their appearance before the committee.
Now I will pass the floor over to my colleague Mr. Hawkins to continue with the report.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The 2008-2009 annual report was the fifth report of the Human Rights Commission. The committee recognizes the effort and accomplishments of the commission.
The commission used a variety of methods to provide information on human rights to communities. An essay contest was held for students in grades 7 to 12. Students were asked to describe a role model who exemplifies the human rights principles of inclusivity, diversity, peace, and respect. Awards were given to both essay winners and role models. As well, 10 presentations and workshops were held in five communities. Two were offered at the NWT Teachers’ Association/Education, Culture and Employment conference. The conference had 925 educators in attendance.
The committee is pleased with the commission’s plans for the next year, which include offering workshops on workforce human rights issues and continuing outreach to schools. However, there appears to be very limited contact with residents who live in remote communities. The committee encourages the commission to use its excess revenue from 2008-2009 to send commission and/or staff members to more regional events and more communities.
The commission staff responded to 259 inquiries, of which 33 were considered complaints. After reviewing the investigation, four complaints were referred to hearing by the adjudication panel. In the future the committee requests the commission provide detail on the region of origin of inquiries and the location of the hearings.
The rate of honorarium for commission members was reduced as of April 1st, 2009. The Board of Management adjusted the honorarium rates to bring them in line with government policy. The Human Rights Commission chairperson noted that the reduction has led to less willingness on the part of some members to attend meetings. In some cases if members must take time off work they lose money, as the honorarium does not cover their salary. The Standing Committee on Government Operations recognizes the need for participation of commission members on ongoing leadership within the commission activities.
I’d like to now pass back the report to my colleague and chair of the committee, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank Mr. Hawkins.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories include the Human Rights Commission in its Human Resources Manual, section 8(10), civic leave, thus making board members who are GNWT employees eligible for civic leave with pay to attend meetings.
The committee commends the commission work and achievements to date. We look forward to seeing more outreach to communities and look forward to monitoring the continued advancement of human rights in the Northwest Territories.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days.
That concludes the report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations on the review of the 2008-2009 Human Rights Commission Annual Report.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I am very pleased to welcome the Leishman family from Kakisa here. We had a good meeting today and they are down to visit and support one of their family members that’s in the hospital here at Stanton. I want to start off by recognizing Chris Leishman. Chris is down, along with his wife, Kathy, and Savannah and Christian. They drove up from B.C. Mr. Speaker, we also have Ian Leishman and his son Cameron. Ian is a captain on one of our ferries, the Merv Hardie. I’d like to welcome him and also their mother, Margaret Leishman. I’d like to say hello and welcome to them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Weledeh constituent Dana Britton. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome the Leishman family, particularly Chris, who I haven’t seen for a number of years, and Ian. Welcome to the House. It always brings back memories of my childhood when I run into those guys. Nice seeing you guys.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you. Similar to Mr. Ramsay, I’d like to recognize the Leishman family as well. I remember Chris quite well from my Akaitcho Hall days, and I certainly remember Ian quite well when we used to play hockey together. Of course, I played net and stopped all his shots on goal but… In all seriousness, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to welcome the whole family here today. Thank you.
