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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. In his mandate letter to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, the Premier said, "meaningful dialogue and engagement with residents of the NWT must be an ongoing priority." In fact, whether it's the expansion of junior kindergarten, the introduction of reduced instructional hours, cuts at the college or the introduction of a new ministerial directive for French language education, there has in fact been a real absence of meaningful dialogue and engagement.

The public uproar around each of these initiatives is unprecedented in the 18th Assembly. My question to the Minister is: why should he retain his portfolio? Thank you.

Masi. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned over the past few years, we have done a lot of work, have made a lot of achievements and accomplishments within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. An earlier question was what would I do differently around implementation of junior kindergarten? I did mention communication was what we heard, and we are committed to communicating with all our partners. We've built some strong relationships with our education authorities: with our NWT Superintendents Association, NWT Teachers' Association, as well with our Indigenous governments over the years. We're going to continue building those partnerships, and continue to work on improvement or communications and making communications better so that we can make more smoother transitions for future initiatives in education. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is for the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. Mr. Chairman, since day one of this Assembly, since the first day we came into this House, it seems as though there has been one challenge or another with regard to the Power Corporation. In the early days, the Minister made the sole decision to dissolve the public representative board for the purposes of saving $1 million. He assigned an internal government board. Later, we'd seen the battle with ATCO for service provisions. There was the making of guarantees, or call it "promises to lowering rates" in Hay River, while rates in Yellowknife continue to rise.

The previous president, for whatever reasons, departed, and of course now, the latest is the generator catastrophe. Mr. Chair, we need leadership for this government-owned entity. We expect it from this Minister. My question is: does the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation believe he has provided good leadership in managing this corporation? What will he do to provide principal leadership and direction going forward? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Sebert.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I do feel that I have provided leadership for the Power Corporation. I am in constant contact with the CEO. The issues that have been raised are of great concern. The Member opposite raised the issue of the board. Yes, I did replace the board. That saved $1 million, $100 per household in the Northwest Territories. There have been other issues that have come along, but it's important to remember with respect to the power rates in Hay River, that was an initiative of the Town of Hay River. They've decided to seek out alternate providers. We believe we can provide that power for less. I'm sorry; I've received a signal that my time was up. I hadn't thought I'd gone on that long. I will continue.

---Laughter

Yes, the generator issue has been a thorn in our sides. I would not classify it as a "catastrophe." When the contract was initially let, it was let to Virdi Power which did have a good reputation, had many previous similar contracts, as I understand it, with the government of the United States. As I mentioned the other day, although I was pessimistic for a long time about the contract, it does seem that there is a greater likelihood of success than previously. We do have an inspector; the generators are going through a final inspection. Unfortunately, they're not yet at the Canadian border, but I am optimistic.

Going forward, of course, there are always issues with respect to the Power Corporation. We all want to keep rates down, but with a stable or declining population, that is difficult. Ultimately, I'll be working with other Ministers to seek out new customers. That would seem to me, really, to be the only way to reduce rates. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions for Ministers. Next on my list, I have Member Beaulieu.

Marsi cho, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have questions for the Minister of Finance. This is a fairly general question, but I want to direct it to the Minister of Finance, at any event. I'm interested in the strategic spending of the GNWT. Mr. Chairman, in the House, I have talked about how there's some strategic spending that's available in the NWT. I used a couple of examples; I used the example of the guardianship program that's run in Australia where for every dollar they spend, they save $3.70 in social spending. The same group that did the work for me used the example of the Nihat'ni Dene in Lutselk'e. Their numbers were for every dollar spent; they were saving $2.50 in social spending.

I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance if there is any policy or any program or any initiative on the part of his colleagues and himself when they are spending GNWT dollars, if this money is directed – if he directs the departments to ensure that they're spending money strategically. Thank you.

Masi. Minister Robert C. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would like to think that we are spending our money strategically, and Members used a couple of examples. We used some examples over on this side, as well, if we make an investment into work projects or projects that will generate some work. There's some strategy to that, and the Member and I both know that your rent collections go up; your income support goes down. That would be part of it and as well in the health and social services field, if you're spending money on prevention, then that should be classified as strategic spending. That should have an effect on the money that you spend on health and social services.

I like to believe that anything this government does with the money we have, we spend it strategically, and we look for what the long-term results may be down the road and what effect it might have on the people of the Northwest Territories, because we fully recognize that, and Members raised it a number of times on strategic spending. He's given some good examples, and we like to think we practice that, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions for Ministers. Member O'Reilly.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It appears that no matter what our government seems to do, the use of Indigenous languages continues to decline in the Northwest Territories. I'm not saying we're not trying; I'm not saying that the work is not good that's being done in the communities but no matter what our government seems to do, we don’t seem to be making a difference. What does the Minister intend to do to reverse this trend, and what can he bring to the job to get it done? Merci, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree with the Member, and that's why we worked hard with the federal government to sign this official languages agreement, to increase the funding for Indigenous languages as well as the French. We've also released an NWT Aboriginal languages framework and action plan to address these issues. We have more funding going to Indigenous governments because they know how to spend the money. They know where the money needs to be invested, so we're actually giving them a majority of the dollars.

Our Aboriginal secretariat is doing a good job to address the issues, so we've got a lot of investment into Indigenous languages as well as the French language, and over time with these new investments, we're hoping to start to see a revitalization of Indigenous languages across the NWT with our nine Indigenous languages. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions for Ministers. Next on my list, I have Member Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I represent the largest industrial centre in the Northwest Territories out in Kam Lake, and my constituents are always bringing concerns about procurement. I want to make sure that northern procurement policies of this government keep money in the North as much as possible. I've talked to the Minister of ITI multiple times about procurement reform, procurement analysis, looking at procurement, suggesting reforms for procurement. He has rebuffed my efforts, to date. I know it's not a mandate commitment. I know he hasn't heard any complaints except for the ones that I've shared in this House, but I would like to know if he's going to help me help my constituents the remainder of this term by either coming to a constituency meeting and speaking to them directly, telling them there's no problem with our procurement system, or actually sitting down with me and working on procurement reform in a way that's fair, balanced, and ensures a maximum value for money that government dollars are going to Northerners. Thank you.

Masi. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; I have rebuffed him a number of times. I think it's three times I've rebuffed him on this question in the House, maybe four, but he shared some information with me yesterday after a question that he gave me in the House. I will have a look at some of that information, what they're doing across the country around procurement, and I will gladly sit down and have that discussion with him when I finish reading the documents that he presented to me. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions for Ministers. Next on my list, I have Member Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize, I keep calling you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Chairman. That took 40 seconds.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have a question for the Minister of NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Chairman, many times I spoke about the lack of community housing development plans in the communities of the NWT. In this housing development plan, we should be drawing out the needs of the various nuclear groups: the seniors, what the seniors' needs are, what the singles' needs are, families', and couples', and what types of housing needs they have to determine their core need level.

I will use an example: Fort Resolution has approximately 200 units. They have approximately 30 per cent core needs, so they have 60 houses that are in core need. Recognizing that public housing tenants are kept artificially out of core need with that program, I would like to ask the Minister if they have done any work towards doing a housing development plan, and if not, why not? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to start by saying that I am very, very proud of the work that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has done in a short time. In two years, we've actually changed, transformed a whole agency that used to be about just housing services, and now we're moving into a social program that provides support. So I do want to say that they've worked hard. I think that we've done a couple of things. We did the survey, and with the survey we actually have identified within every single community what their priorities are. We're working with Aboriginal and community governments, very closely, actually, to determine what their needs are and how we can best support them. We will be coming out at the next session with the core needs; I don't know the name of the document, but it's a core needs. It's about how much it would cost to actually address the core needs.

So, yes, we've worked very hard. Will I do another plan in the next two years? That, I can't really commit to, in all honesty, because I have committed to revising the programs and the policies, and that right now is my priority. If I can get through that work, and it's a huge amount of work, then I can look at more planning, but I think the days of planning need to be put aside and we need to get the work done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.