This is page numbers 127 - 154 of the Hansard for the 12th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was housing.

Topics

Members Present

Mr. Allooloo, Mr. Antoine, Hon. Silas Arngna'naaq, Mr. Ballantyne, Hon. Nellie Cournoyea, Mr. Dent, Mr. Gargan, Hon. Stephen Kakfwi, Mr. Koe, Mr. Lewis, Hon. Jeannie Marie-Jewell, Hon. Rebecca Mike, Hon. Don Morin, Hon. Richard Nerysoo, Mr. Ng, Mr. Ningark, Mr. Patterson, Hon. John Pollard, Mr. Pudlat, Mr. Pudluk, Hon. John Todd, Mr. Whitford, Mr. Zoe

---Prayer

Item 1: Prayer
Item 1: Prayer

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The Speaker

Thank you. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Keewatin Central, Mr. Todd.

John Todd Keewatin Central

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Since I have become Minister responsible for Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, I have become much more impressed with the potential of our non-renewable resources, particularly minerals, to our economic future. I've also become very concerned about how poorly positioned we are as a government to take advantage of these resources for the long term benefit of our residents. This government has no ability to legislate in respect to oil and gas and minerals, or to obtain revenues from their development.

Mineral exploration activity in the NWT is booming, not just for diamonds but also for gold and base metals. Over the next ten years, we will probably see at least six new mines open in the NWT, bringing thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars worth of new investments. The mineral industry is here for the long term. It provides us with one of the best opportunities we have to increase our economic self-reliance. But we cannot realize this potential under the current arrangements.

Without the legislative tools to manage these industries and without access to resource revenues, this government will continue to have minimal control over non-renewable resource development, and will realize no fiscal benefits from mining and oil and gas activity.

Madam Speaker, this is why I intend to pursue devolution of responsibilities for oil and gas and minerals from the Government of Canada as a matter of my highest priority.

As long as we receive a reasonable share of revenues, a reasonable transfer of financial resources to operate the programs, and a clean transfer of legislative powers then we should be in a position to proceed with a devolution agreement for oil and gas and minerals which leaves us much better off than we are today.

Madam Speaker, in the coming weeks I intend to meet with aboriginal organizations and federal Ministers to move this initiative forward and I intend to keep the Assembly informed of any and all developments. Thank you.

---Applause

The Speaker

Thank you. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Kakfwi.

Stephen Kakfwi

Stephen Kakfwi Sahtu

Madam Speaker, I'm pleased to report that agreement has been reached with the federal government which represents significant progress in the development of new arrangements towards more community control of policing.

Two pilot projects in Fort Good Hope and Coral Harbour will allow for the introduction of a community constable program. Six people from each community were sent to Regina on February 7 to commence three weeks of training at the RCMP academy.

After completing their initial training period, the community constables will be working between 15 and 35 hours a month under the supervision of the RCMP in their respective communities.

In developing these pilot projects with the RCMP, it was considered desirable that there be representation from both Dene and Inuit communities. RCMP members at the detachments of Fort Good Hope and Coral Harbour, and the members of these communities had a special interest in conducting this program. The two communities also offered experience in both one-person and two-person detachments. Accordingly, the RCMP recommended that the communities of Fort Good Hope and Coral Harbour be considered as pilot communities.

The initiation of these projects represent encouraging cooperation between the communities, the RCMP, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government.

The period of these projects is three years. The experience gained will be helpful as the communities of the north and this government search for the optimum ways to provide for community policing. Thank you.

---Applause.

The Speaker

Thank you. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Amittuq, Mr. Allooloo.

Nunavut Leaders' Summit In Rankin Inlet
Item 3: Members' Statements

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Titus Allooloo Amittuq

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to conclude my Member's statement from yesterday with regard to the Nunavut leaders' summit that was held in Rankin Inlet.

Madam Speaker, with regard to the leaders' conference, I am sure that the Members of this Legislative Assembly will meet with interest after I have tabled the following document. However, I will commit that there was a declaration approved by delegates which committed those present to the annual meeting of this nature until 1999. Regular contact and discussions between leaders of organizations within Nunavut was encouraged, as well, Madam Speaker, with all we have to do between now and 1999.

It is essential that we work together to ensure that duplication of efforts will not occur. We, in the Nunavut Caucus, are committed to this initiative and are looking forward to future meetings with other Nunavut leaders. There were three accompanying statements, Madam Speaker, that were approved by the delegates. They deal with items that were discussed at the meeting that were of major concern to the delegates. Those are statements regarding cooperation and commitment to education in Nunavut, the statement supporting the devolution of non-renewable resources from the federal government to the Government of the Northwest Territories, and a statement concerning the adoption of a code of conduct by organizations in Nunavut. I guess that the Members will find these statements interesting and I believe that they are indicative of the commitment and hard work that lies ahead for all of us in the Northwest Territories as we work towards division.

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the Members of the Nunavut Caucus, the Nunavut Tunngavik executive, the members of the Nunavut Implementation Commission, the regional organizations and all other delegates who attended the meeting, for their hard work during the three days, as well. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

---Applause.

Nunavut Leaders' Summit In Rankin Inlet
Item 3: Members' Statements

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The Speaker

Thank you. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Iqaluit, Mr. Patterson.

Housing Shortage In Baffin Island
Item 3: Members' Statements

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Dennis Patterson Iqaluit

Madam Speaker, mindful of your admonition on Friday that Members should try to stay within the time limit, I have to confess that my Member's statement, for some reason -- it must have been the typist -- came out longer than two and a half minutes. So I'm going to probably go over, and I should confess that at the beginning, not at the end. But it's good stuff, Madam Speaker, so I'm going to start.

Madam Speaker, the government's staff housing strategy looks great, in principle. I'm sure that all Members agree with helping government employees who want to become home owners to do so. There are many in my riding. However, once again, just as with the rent increases, serious problems have arisen in implementing the strategy.

The main problem that I see -- and I'm not only speaking for Iqaluit -- is that quite apart from the sale of staff housing, whether staff housing is sold to employees or not, this strategy, unfortunately, will not deal with the fundamental problem of a huge and growing shortage of staff housing in the entire region, and I suspect in other regions, as well.

The reason is, Madam Speaker, that since the government has been talking about getting out of staff housing, mainly by selling units off but also by raising rents to encourage home ownership, hardly any new staff houses have been built or leased in Baffin Island. That's for at least the last ten years unless, that is, they burned down.

At the recent Baffin leaders' summit, for example, we heard from the Department of Social Services that they cannot hire a social worker in Broughton Island or in Hall Beach. Why? No staff housing.

I know that the 1994-95 budget of the Department of Justice contains funds to hire a community justice worker to support the elders' group which is very active in justice in Pond Inlet. Great news. Yet, our government is busy selling off existing staff houses, even a duplex, even to a term employee I've heard, although there are already no surplus staff housing units in Pond Inlet. Will Pond Inlet get its new community justice worker? Where will that person live?

In Iqaluit, a long awaited alcohol and drug treatment centre is near completion.

Housing Shortage In Baffin Island
Item 3: Members' Statements

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The Speaker

Mr. Patterson, your allotted time has lapsed for Members' statements. I think if you didn't waste 15 seconds explaining you would be over, you probably would have had more time. However, you require...

---Applause

Mr. Patterson, go ahead.

Housing Shortage In Baffin Island
Item 3: Members' Statements

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Dennis Patterson Iqaluit

May I seek unanimous consent, Madam Speaker, humbly. Thank you.

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The Speaker

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to continue. Are there any nays? There are no nays, Mr. Patterson, continue.

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Dennis Patterson Iqaluit

I feel fortunate today, Madam Speaker. Thank you.

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The Speaker

Order. I asked for nays. I didn't hear any nays. I asked twice and I didn't hear any so, Mr. Patterson, proceed.

Housing Shortage In Baffin Island
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Dennis Patterson Iqaluit

Thank you, Madam Speaker and Members. In Iqaluit, a long awaited alcohol and drug treatment centre is near completion. This is also great news. But there is no housing for the new treatment centre staff. Where will they live without housing? Will they be willing to apply for those critical new jobs?

It seems like our government believes that merely by getting out of staff housing, staff housing needs will look after themselves. Maybe that approach worked just fine in Yellowknife, Fort Smith and Hay River, places with a developed private housing market. But Baffin Island is not like Yellowknife. People applying for government jobs, even local people in communities, many of whom are probably already living in overcrowded public housing, and certainly not people coming up from the south or elsewhere in the NWT, will accept jobs in places like Hall Beach or Broughton Island on the basis they find accommodation once they get the jobs.

Our population in Baffin is growing, some communities by up to three per cent a year. Demands on government programs such as education and social services are growing because of the growing population. Apart from NWT Housing Corporation home ownership units and public housing, hardly any new houses have been built for years in these level II and III communities.

We have many new person years in this budget which was laid before us yesterday. I will be very concerned to find out whether the GNWT has a plan to provide housing for each new position in each community. Personnel and Public Works must have a strategy in place to meet staff housing for new staff needs at the same time as they implement in a careful manner, community by community, their program to sell staff housing to existing employees. If the Government of the Northwest Territories continues to pretend that selling off staff housing in level II and III communities, or waiting for the private sector to fill the gap, will somehow take care of staff housing requirements for our rapidly growing population, we'll have an even greater staff housing shortfall to catch up with each year.

Madam Speaker -- and I know the Minister of Economic Development will listen to this part of my statement with great attention -- there are development corporations and private companies willing to build housing units in these communities. I acknowledge that. And they are probably willing to sell them later on to government employees who want to buy them. But the reality, Madam Speaker, is that the private sector, these private companies, will not build on Baffin Island without government guaranteed leases. Why? They will not build, even on speculation, simply because no bank will finance such construction.

So, Madam Speaker, I say to Madam Premier and the Minister of Personnel, without exaggeration, I hope, in Baffin Island you have a staff housing crisis on your hands. For the sake of being able -- well, I'm only speaking...I know Baffin best, it may be true in other regions -- to deliver critical government programs, please deal with it. Thank you.

---Applause

Housing Shortage In Baffin Island
Item 3: Members' Statements

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The Speaker

Thank you. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Kitikmeot, Mr. Ng.

Absence From The House
Item 3: Members' Statements

February 14th, 1994

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Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot

Thank you, Madam Speaker. As a courtesy to you and to this House, I wish to advise you that I will be absent all day tomorrow to attend a Kitikmeot Inuit Association annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay.

---Applause

Absence From The House
Item 3: Members' Statements

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The Speaker

Thank you. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Inadequate Legislation In Dental Mechanics Act
Item 3: Members' Statements

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Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Here is another reality, Madam Speaker. I want to rise today to speak on the denturist presently attempting to run a business in Yellowknife.

Madam Speaker, the source of all this gentleman's problems is in inadequate pieces of legislation that ensure all powers remain with the dentists operating in the Northwest Territories. Why are the dentists so reluctant to give up their control of the Dental Mechanics Act in the Northwest Territories? It may be that the dentists have a new list of concerns about the professionalism of dental mechanics operating in the Northwest Territories if the dentist must have control to ensure the safety of NWT dental patients. I suggest to you, Madam Speaker, that their objection to the denturist operating has more to do with financial concerns than any amount of concerns on their part for the well-being of the Northwest Territories dental patients.

What I mean by this, Madam Speaker, is that I've heard from a reliable source that it costs the dentist approximately $200 to send a referral to the dental lab in Edmonton or Winnipeg. However, Madam Speaker, under the uninsured health benefits of the Indian Health Act, these dentists are billing the government $800 to $1,000.

In most cases, when it is known that the referral is an aboriginal individual, the dental lab uses the cheapest material and processes to do the work. The end result, Madam Speaker, is dentures that don't fit or are painful to use. In either case, it means that the patient does not use the dentures. Madam Speaker, as the honourable Member for Yellowknife South mentioned before Christmas, there have been cases of people using carving knives to effect the necessary repair on dentures instead of having to wait the three to six months it takes the dental labs down south to do the job.

Madam Speaker, I'm one of those people who require partial plates. I would prefer to have a local denturist who I would go to at any time...

Inadequate Legislation In Dental Mechanics Act
Item 3: Members' Statements

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The Speaker

Mr. Gargan, your time has lapsed for your Member's statement. Mr. Gargan.

Inadequate Legislation In Dental Mechanics Act
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Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Madam Speaker, I request unanimous consent to continue my statement.

Inadequate Legislation In Dental Mechanics Act
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The Speaker

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to continue with his Member's statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Continue, Mr. Gargan.

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Item 3: Members' Statements

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Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker and honourable Members. Recently, Madam Speaker, my younger brother, Frank, invited the resident denturist to Fort Providence to work on those people's dentures who require adjustment. Madam Speaker, the denturist would have been pleased to travel to Fort Providence to do this work, but had to decline due to the threat of criminal prosecution that hangs over his head, that he sought business without referrals from the dentist.

Madam Speaker, there are elders who have lived on a traditional diet all of their lives, who are now forced to live on a diet of tea and toast because of the continual problems they have with their dentures. As you can imagine, Madam Speaker, this contributes to the elders' physical and mental deterioration.

Madam Speaker, many of us in this Assembly can remember when medical services in the Northwest Territories were few and far between. Why doesn't this government support the establishment of a dental lab in Yellowknife for the benefit of the residents? We, as a government, must encourage new businesses and industry to locate in the Northwest Territories. If we have to change an inadequate piece of legislation to accomplish this, we must do so.

Madam Speaker, it is my understanding that the dentists have no problem with a dental lab in the Northwest Territories. The only thing they want is their right to make referrals. Madam Speaker, the denturist has received only five referrals since he started shop six months ago. I suggest the government move quickly on this issue before the problem becomes redundant by virtue of the denturist moving south to make a living. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

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The Speaker

Thank you. Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Morin.