This is page numbers 99 - 130 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 1st 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 need.

Topics

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’re not talking about minor repairs here for a facility. We’re talking about a major midlife retrofit for this facility. That has to go through the capital planning process and that’s what we’re proposing to do. We’re waiting for a response and would like to move forward on it. Until then, all we can do is the minor repairs as they are identified. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know a little bit about building maintenance and let me tell you, some of the pictures in the review there, there is a penetration through the wall in the boiler room where pipes and where holes are that haven’t been filled and there’s nothing in the hole anymore. It’s just a breach of the firewall in the boiler room. Surely for the price of drywall and something to seal around a pipe we could do a little preventative maintenance, fill that in, so if there was a fire in the boiler room it wouldn’t spread to the whole school and burn it down. Those are the kind of things I’m talking about. Those are not expensive items. Those are basic…

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Question, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

…abandoned light fixtures. Let’s take them down. That is not big ticket stuff. Can we maintain the school, at least?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you. I would beg to differ that that stuff is not being done. I would also commit to having our staff going and looking at what the minor repairs that may be being neglected, as the Member has

indicated. If there is anything that is minor repair that we can do through Public Works, we will do it. However, the major retrofit has to go through the capital plan and that’s what this facility needs, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Mr. Speaker, my point is that if we take care of the minor things, the major retrofit will be less of a challenge. Would the Minister of Public Works and Services commit to forming a working group between perhaps the MLAs, the local school authority, somebody from Education, to take a look at this facility and see what kinds of things that we could identify that we could do now while we’re waiting to get a major retrofit done? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’d be glad to look at the facility and see what could be done. If there’s other people that want to work with us on it, if the Member can identify who they are. The retrofit is still in the works. We’re not sure how far down the road it is and we’d be glad to sit down with whoever is interested in talking about doing some of the minor repair and how to do it. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. As I discussed in my Member’s statement, Education, Culture and Employment is providing grants through the NWT Arts Council to northern artists. When people go out and provide their product or finish their CDs or do their paintings or whatnot, what is done by ECE is basically an e-mail saying congratulations, this has been done, we’ve gave the person a grant, it’s great, whoo-hoo. It seems to end there. This is sad. There’s an opportunity for ITI to work closely with ECE to get this information and learn about these artists and promote these artists. I’d like to hear from the Minister of industry and tourism today that they will work closely with Education, Culture and Employment. They will get these names, they will get copies of these products, and they will include them in their tourism and marketing campaigns as a way to promote and enhance the Arts Society and create a reason for people, another reason for people to come to the Northwest Territories. So I’m looking for that commitment from the Minister today. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m sure the Member will be pleased to hear that the Department of ITI and ECE have been working together very closely over the past several years. Both departments funded the development of an Arts Strategy in 2004. We have also funded a follow-up action plan two in 2007. I have listened very closely to what the Member is saying. I fully agree. I think it is a very good idea to support performing artists, especially if they record their work. I know that, in visiting other provinces and territories, other provinces and territories do that, as well. I will be working with my colleague from Education to update our action plan so that we can continue to support our performing artists. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod.

Supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of the document that you are talking about. To me, it didn’t address the artists that are out there being supported from the Arts Council. Like I said, there are a lot of musicians out there that have received money and are out there struggling to get their name known. It wouldn’t take very much for us to give them a little bit of a nudge through some of our marketing campaign to get their name out there and to utilize them, to ask them along when we are going out on tradeshows and whatnot as representatives of the North to say this is the type of music that is being produced. It is amazing the types of music that are out there. My question is obviously specifically related to those people that are getting the grants. Will you work with the Minister of Education to get those names, to get the product and to include the product in your marketing campaigns?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our department has been doing that to a certain extent. You may recall that last year at the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse, we had a large cultural component and we also had an NWT House where we featured performing artists from the Northwest Territories. We are planning to do something similar at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. We also have been successful in utilizing performers in our various tradeshows over the years. You might recall with Team Canada when we went to Dallas and Russia and Berlin, we used performing artists. So this is something that we would really like to continue to support. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod.

Supplementary, Mr. Abernethy. Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs who well knows that we do not have a 911 service anywhere in the Northwest Territories. The Minister also knows that the chief coroner of the NWT, as early as 2001, has made recommendations that the GNWT should consider implementing a 911 service in our territory. The need is an issue of public safety and access to emergency services. Mr. Speaker, it is well known that a 911 service saves lives and the response time to accidents and tragic events is much shorter where a 911 service exists.

In May of 2007, the NWT Association of Communities passed a resolution at their annual general meeting that the GNWT formulate an implementation plan to provide 911 dispatch service to all households in the NWT. The Minister is aware that the City of Yellowknife has been working to get a 911 service off the ground for many years now, but it is hampered by a lack of GNWT support. Just this week, Mr. Speaker, the deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs made the following statements, and I quote, "The government is preparing to undertake some research. There has been a lot of interest from the coroner’s office, obviously from the City of Yellowknife and most recently through a resolution from the NWT Association of Communities in saying discussions on how we might get some kind of emergency services advanced." My question to the Minister is this: What research is the department about to undertake and when will it get started?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of things we would have to look at in order to start putting the plan on how to deliver 911 services to the Northwest Territories and also to even deliver it to one of the communities is probably closer to being ready than the rest, and that is the city of Yellowknife. Of course, that is looking at the technical challenges that are in front of us. NorthwesTel has been communicating with us. We can’t identify a system right now to support delivery to all of the communities. There are also a number of logistical challenges that we need to identify how we would deal with the system in our communities where they don’t have street addresses, and, of course, the biggest factor and the biggest challenge of all is the cost. We have agreed to work with the City of Yellowknife. We have put together a stakeholder committee. We are part of it. We will be working along with them to look at the different options and a plan to deliver 911 to the city of Yellowknife. We will continue to work on what it would take to apply that to the rest of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod.

Supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to hear the Minister say that they are ready to support the

City of Yellowknife to get 911 implemented, if that is what I heard. I think that is wonderful. The Minister spoke also about the absence of infrastructure in all the communities in the NWT. That is absolutely accurate. Most of our communities can’t handle 911 service at this point in time due to technical problems with their telephone service, but I know there is at least one community that is ready for 911. In the absence of necessary infrastructure in every community, will the Minister commit to providing support to the implementation of 911 in at least the one community or more who are ready for the implementation of 911? Thank you.