Transcript of meeting #1 for Midterm Review Committee in the 18th Assembly. (The original version is on the Legislative Assembly's site.)

The winning word was work.

Mr. Nakimayak's Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Louis Sebert

Louis Sebert Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly the settlement of land claims is an absolute priority of this government. Of course, we have to work with the Aboriginal governments on that, obviously, and we also often have to work with the federal government. With respect to the settlement of those claims, that will give certainty to the residents and the industry in the Northwest Territories and will enhance our economic future.

With respect to my departments, in particular, the Lands Department, we are working on regional land use planning in the Northwest Territories, consulting with our Aboriginal partners, and hopefully moving ahead. Again, these plans, whether it is a land use plan or a land claim and self-government, will give certainty to the residents of the Northwest Territories and enhance our economic future. Thank you.

Mr. Nakimayak's Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Colleagues, at this time, the chair is going to call for a lunch recess, and we will back at one o'clock. Masi.

---LUNCH RECESS

Mr. Nakimayak's Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Good afternoon, Members. We left off from questions to Ministers. We’ll continue with that. I have next on my list, Member Vanthuyne.

Mr. Vanthuyne’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we all know that when we started at this Legislative Assembly, the first couple budgets, as I mentioned in an earlier question, held quite a bit of contention and consternation. We felt like we were fighting a battle rather than working together. Members, of course, clearly felt that it was their job to uphold and protect the mandate. Certainly, the government had felt that it was their responsibility to get the fiscal house in order.

We know that, Mr. Chair, as I mentioned this kind of had a massive back-and-forth effect between us. I think the biggest problem, Mr. Chair, was that we felt like we were not a part of the decision-making process and that we weren’t included in it. My question is for the Minister of Finance, Minister McLeod, I’m wondering. He had the opportunity again: would he do anything specifically to change the process again and especially as it relates to having MLAs be more inclusive in the process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Vanthuyne’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister C. McLeod.

Mr. Vanthuyne’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this was a process that this Assembly has viewed for a while. There is the business planning process that we go through where Members have an opportunity to have input into the budget. We recognize the fact that we had some mandate items that we were looking out for. Members would write back to the Finance Minister with their suggestions of the budget. Some of them were incorporated. Some of them were not. Some of the things that cabinet wanted in the budget were incorporated. Some were not on the advice of committee, so the process we used right now as far as involving committee, and we have our conversations as we spoke of earlier this morning. We have our conversations with individual Members of this assembly. The process we use, I think, is one that serves the consensus style of government that we operate under very well. We’ll continue to use that process. Again, there is opportunity for input from all Members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Vanthuyne’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to visitors in the gallery. We have with us Mr. Michael McLeod, former member of 15th, 16th Assembly. Welcome. We also have a delegation, members of House of Commons, standing committee on finance. Welcome to our Assembly.

Mr. Vanthuyne’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Questions for Ministers. Next on my list, Member Testart.

Mr. Testart’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the City of Yellowknife has recently unveiled its municipal budget and they are asking for a tax increase in order to pay for an increased amount of service demand, particularly around social services. I’d like to ask Minister Abernethy how is he going to work with the City of Yellowknife to offset those increased costs. At this point, we’re asking Yellowknife taxpayers to support what many consider to be a territorial responsibility, which is providing social services to our poorest residents many of whom come to Yellowknife to access those services. How is the Minister going to assist the City of Yellowknife so Yellowknifers don’t have to look forward to increasing amounts of taxes on a municipal level to pay for these services that again are rightfully a territorial responsibility? Thank you.

Mr. Testart’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Minister Abernethy.

Mr. Testart’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I know there is some housing money that does go to the city for their Homes First program and a number of the other things that they’re doing. That wouldn’t necessarily hit the taxpayer, but I do know that as by way of example, the city is funding the Safe Ride program. They haven’t approached at this point asking us for money, but we do hear the concern. Ms. Green did bring up that question in the House the other day. Since then, I’ve had a conversation with the Department of Health and Social Services to review some of the pots of funding that we have available to see if any of our wellness money or other money might be something that the community of Yellowknife might be able to take advantage of in order to help them not put those costs on to the taxpayers. That’s work that we’re doing right now is exploring some of those funds. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Testart’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Questions for Ministers. Next on my list, Member Green.

Ms. Green’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the government is advancing three road projects during this Assembly. This is a question for the Minister of Infrastructure. The road that’s likely to have the greatest economic impact to my view is the road to the Slave Geological Province. This road has the potential to expand and extend the economic viability of the current diamond mines and to connect prospective mining developments to markets, yet the road that is the top of the government’s list is one that stops 50 kilometres short of a potential mine that itself has only an eight-year life span. Why is the road to Whati this government’s top road priority? Mahsi.

Ms. Green’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Minister Schumann.

Ms. Green’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This Legislative Assembly has a mandate for three highway corridors. The Whati, Slave, and the Slave Geological. The Whati is not our number one priority. The situation with the Whati road, it was a P3 project. It was submitted to the federal government under that basis along with our business plan. It was selected through the federal government’s process to conditionally fund the Whati road, conditional on us getting through the Environmental Assessment Project. There’s no tier ranking on these highway systems. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Green’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Questions for Ministers. Next on my list, Member Nadli.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to all of the Ministers. Can you provide one example of an achievement you are most proud of and how you help small communities? Mahsi.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi.

Minister Sebert.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Louis Sebert

Louis Sebert Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’re particularly proud of the expansion of the legal aid outreach services. There are, of course, lawyers who are located in some of the bigger centres but there are not in the smaller communities. This program allows people to access legal services even if they are living outside of communities where there is an easy access to lawyers. We are proud of this program. It does fill that gap also of need for legal services between having a lawyer for such things as real estate and at the other end, legal aid. In such areas as wills and estates, relations with landlords, and so on, this service has been particularly helpful to the citizens and particularly the small communities. Thank you.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi.

Minister Moses.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think probably the biggest achievement is the passing of Bill 16. It allows four-year-olds to enter the junior kindergarten system in all of our communities, all 33 communities across the Northwest Territories. Not only is it giving the four-year-olds a better chance at life at an early age but Bill 16 also introduced Strengthening Teacher Instructional Practices which gives our teachers the time to prepare, collaborate, have professional development done in all our communities as well; so we'll have better quality education for our students. Not only is that a great achievement in our small communities, all 33 communities, but I also worked on building a partnership with our education authorities, the NWT Superintendents' Association, as well as the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister Robert C. McLeod.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think through the exercise that we have gone through over the last couple of years, I think we have been positioning this government very well to make investments in infrastructure that, I think, would benefit the small communities. Working with the enhancements to the Small Community Employment Fund pot of money, through working with Regular Members, we were able to enhance that pot by about $3 million. Again working with Regular Members, that pot has been specifically targeted for small community employment. I think that just realizing some of the decisions that we have had to make and we made them and what benefit that they might have to creating employment in small communities and communities across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

The Chair

The Chair Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister Abernethy.

Mr. Nadli’s Question
Members' Questions for Ministers

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, one of the areas that I am particularly proud of, and I think this entire Assembly should be, is the work that we have done to support wellness at community level through our wellness funding that we do provide to the communities that they use for things like on-the-land programs and other things that we are doing.

Building on that, I think something that is very exciting is the work that we have been doing with Indigenous partners to actually develop an evaluation framework for on-the-land programming, which is something that has never been done before. That will actually help us and help the Aboriginal governments that are delivering these programs assess those programs and make sure that they are adding value and that they are providing these supports that the communities and the individuals want.

Another thing that I am proud of, and I think the Assembly should be, is the amount of Healthy Living Fairs that we have actually been taking out to communities throughout the Northwest Territories and actually working with communities in the delivery of these programs, sharing very valuable information on healthy living, early childhood development, and healthy families. This is exciting work that is happening, and I really applaud the Aboriginal Wellness and Community Wellness Division of the Health and Social Services for being so incredibly proactive and working with the communities on a daily basis. Thank you, Mr. Chair