Good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to the Chamber. Orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to update Members and NWT residents on our Territory’s economic outlook and what it means for our government’s fiscal planning. Although it has only been two months since this Assembly passed the 2009-10 budget and departments have begun to implement its initiatives, we need now to start our planning for 2010-11 and beyond.

This will mark the third year of implementation of our plan to address our priorities of the 16th Assembly as outlined in our vision: Northerners Working Together. Earlier this week I met with my federal, provincial and territorial Finance colleagues to review the state of the global and national economies and the prospects for the next few years.

We are in the midst of the deepest global recession since World War II and this has had a significant impact on Canada’s economy. However, to date, Canada’s economy has been affected the least of the major world economies. Furthermore, there are some signs of stabilization that lead some forecasters to predict that the recovery, although a muted one, could begin by the end of 2009.

The fiscal stimulus measures planned by the federal, provincial and territorial governments are amongst the strongest in the world and are expected to provide an important source of economic support for this country in the short term. Despite this, the economy is weaker than was expected last fall and winter when we put our 2009-10 budget together. We estimate the diamond mine production in 2009 will be at least 25 percent lower than last year’s levels as a result of shutdowns and planned reductions in activity.

Mineral exploration activity is expected to fall by 80 percent from last year and indications are that total capital investments in the NWT will decline over 30 percent from 2008.

Our government’s revenues are being affected by the economic slowdown. The size of the impact will depend on how deep and how prolonged the slowdown is. Although our transfers from Canada will remain stable, we expect our corporate income tax revenues to be significantly lower than in previous years. Based on recent forecasts of corporate profits Canada-wide, we can see our 2009-2010 corporate income tax revenues decline by $40 million from the amount we planned for in our budget. If the NWT’s resource-based corporations are hit harder than the national average, GNWT revenues could fall even more.

We don’t know the actual impact on our tax revenues until later this fall, but we are planning based on the assumption that we will have fewer resources to meet the many needs we face.

There are some key questions that we will need to answer as we develop our plans. First, should we be changing our course to respond to reduced revenues as a result of the economic downturn? In the immediate term my answer would be no. The 2009-2010 budget we just approved was a sound response to a slowing economy. We kept the growth in O and M spending to only 2 percent. We introduced some modest new revenue measures.

However, in recognition of the NWT’s large infrastructure deficit and the need for our government to act as a counterbalance in the economy to offset the decline in private sector investment, we’ve put in place plans to invest in a record amount of capital infrastructure this year. Furthermore, we are proposing a supplementary appropriation bill this session which, after considering both capital carry-overs from the previous fiscal year and the investment related to the accelerated federal stimulus plan, will bring our 2009-2010 capital investment to $425 million.

For the medium and longer term, we need to consider how deep and how long the recession will last. A sharp, short drop and quick recovery would have different implications than a prolonged downturn and slow recovery. For example, we may be able to keep our infrastructure investment levels

high in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, but if our revenues may not recover for some time we need to ask ourselves how much debt the government can afford to take on going into an economic downturn.

Our plans for 2009-2010 assumed we would have to borrow approximately $80 million by the end of the fiscal year on a short-term basis. Our higher capital investment plans this year will not likely require significantly more borrowing since they will be financed in part through capital carry-overs from 2008-2009 and in part through cash advanced by Canada under the Building Canada Plan. If our corporate tax revenues are lower than forecast, we may need to borrow more than planned.

The second key question we need to consider is whether this government should plan to borrow on a longer-term basis. Borrowing can make sense in the short term, but we need to understand how much we can afford and have a plan both for paying the interest and for paying back the debt. As a government we are constrained on what we can borrow, not only by the federal debt limit of $500 million, of which $156 million is spoken for, but also by what we can afford.

We also can’t ignore the fact that our population is continuing to decline. The numbers released last January showed that the NWT population fell by over 1 percent. That’s more than 475 people or almost $12 million when fully factored into our territorial formula funding payments. We won’t see the impact of this in 2009 because of the lag in our TFF, but this will hit us in the next few years unless we can turn the trend around. We need to understand what this means for our Territory and talk about how we should respond to this problem.

Borrowing an affordable amount to get us through this economic slowdown is an appropriate response. While not our plan, continuing to borrow until we hit the debt wall will ultimately mean cutting future programs and services and increasing taxes to pay our debt obligations.

The final key question is, how do we manage our expenditures as we enter the recovery? This means putting tougher controls on ongoing spending growth, limiting investments in strategic change, and reducing the level of new capital investments once the current budget has passed. Reductions and reallocations of spending need to be a regular part of the planning process as opposed to being implemented on a crisis basis. We also need to take a longer-term approach to revenue growth.

The global economy is in a state of change and uncertainty. Worldwide economists and policymakers are struggling to understand the causes and develop solutions. As a Territory we are not sheltered from the effects of this downturn. But we need to remember that we enter this period of

economic slowdown in relatively good fiscal shape with a plan for long-term fiscal sustainability.

The challenges of the economic downturn are greater than we first forecast when we first came into office, but we are in a good position to face those challenges. We have reduced our expenditures, we have begun to plan for aggressive infrastructure investments, and we have the resources to make significant investments in education and training of our residents. We are continuing to invest in our people, our environment, and our economy. We plan to closely monitor economic events. We plan to review our fiscal assumptions and priorities before we put specific plans together for the next fiscal year and beyond. I look forward to hearing from the Members on these critical issues as we begin our business planning for 2010-2011.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to update this House on the ongoing work and achievements of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment as we progress towards the vision of the 16th Assembly -- Northerners Working Together -- particularly the goals of healthy, educated people and diverse economies that provide all communities and regions with opportunities and choices.

ECE’s 10-year strategic plan predates this Assembly’s vision, but the direction this Assembly has laid out has allowed us or enabled us to enhance improved plans and become more effective for the people of the Northwest Territories. The department has a very broad mandate and the work we undertake spans all five strategic initiative committees: Managing This Land, Refocusing Government, Building Our Future, Maximizing Opportunities, and Reducing the Cost of Living. Most of our work falls within Building Our Future, Maximizing Opportunities, and Reducing the Cost of Living.

Today I would like to provide some information about the work in which the department is currently engaged in. One of our most fundamental roles is to enable the provision of kindergarten to Grade 12 education. We are fortunate to work with some very progressive, engaged school boards whose commitment and dedication serve to improve our education system and contribute to the ongoing success of our students. Our student graduation rates have never been higher and, while we always look to improve them, I want to commend the students who have worked so hard to invest in their

futures and the teachers who have guided them. Part of the curriculum is Northern Studies, where our children can learn about the North, its culture, and its history. As well, aboriginal languages are studied in our schools as part of the broad plan to encourage and revitalize languages. I will discuss this plan more later on.

We are very pleased by how many students are encouraging elders into the classroom, to share their knowledge and wisdom with the students and bring together those just starting out in life and those who have experienced it to its fullest. It takes a community to educate a child. We are currently undertaking an Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative to bridge the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students in which industry and many other partners are playing a part. This project is just starting out, but so far it is receiving the support and participation of many stakeholders, such as Dene Nation, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Metis Association, school superintendants, and the Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association, businesses and other GNWT departments. Their work is the result of consultation advice from our partners, from MLAs and from concerns we have heard from the public. As a result of this initiative, in the near future we hope to be able to report that attendance has increased and that aboriginal students are more engaged in the classroom than ever before.

Our capital plan continues to support a healthy learning environment, with three new schools currently being built and three existing schools being renovated in the plan. We continually receive more capital requests than we can fulfill, but with the support and guidance of Members of this House we are confident we can meet those requirements in a measured and equitable way that addresses our most compelling need.

Literacy is a critical part of the ECE plan. Guided by our strategy towards literacy, we focus on literacy across the lifespan in all official languages, with an increased emphasis on youth and the importance literacy plays in their lives. We support the development of libraries, virtual libraries and the borrow-by-mail system to enhance any services that may not be available in the communities.

Mr. Speaker, the work that Education, Culture and Employment is undertaking with its partners to improve adult education and career and employment development specifically in the area of apprenticeship and occupation certification has been very successful. Since the review of the Apprenticeship Program we have increased investment for the trades and are seeing an increase in the number of apprentices enrolled in our programs across the Northwest Territories. Our partnership with the Mine Training Society has had a tremendous impact on Northerners. Coupled with

the Mining Workforce Initiative, we can report that in a relatively small amount of time Northerners have been provided with access to on-the-ground mine training and improved community access to mine opportunities.

Mr. Speaker, as well, since Aurora College took delivery of mine simulators, their policy of mine training has improved and, as a result, Northerners are entering mining careers with improved technical and safety skills. As well, Aurora College and many partners added a mobile trades training unit in the Beaufort-Delta region and are expecting significantly more students to be able to take advantage of this type of training where they can access it in their own community.

ECE also has a new Teacher Education Program Strategy where increased investments are being made to allow Aurora College to expand into the community delivery of the Teacher Education Program and also Aboriginal Language and Culture Instructors Program. We have seen much success in the community delivery of the Behchoko program and will continue to use this model in other regions throughout the Northwest Territories.

Aurora College is also delivering a Masters in Nursing Program for the first time. Mr. Speaker, these programs will support the recruitment and retention of professionals in the Northwest Territories.

This session I will be providing Members with more details on the NWT Nominee Program which we have successfully negotiated with the Government of Canada. This has been a long time coming. Members have been lobbying for the program for some time now. We are pleased to say that we will begin the implementation of this program in July and I will offer Members more details later this session.

As well, we are pleased to announce that in addition to expanding our agreements with the federal government for the Labour Market Development Agreement and the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers, Education, Culture and Employment has also been successful in negotiating a labour market agreement with the Government of Canada that will provide more opportunities for NWT residents to participate in career and employment development opportunities in the labour market and provide a healthy future for themselves and their families. Again, I will offer Members more detail about this later in the session.

Mr. Speaker, the arts and culture are really important to our residents and the Members of this House. We often hear that we should invest more money in these areas. I am pleased to say that ECE has increased its investments in the arts. We are supporting the participation of our artists in the 2010 Olympics. Artists will have the unprecedented opportunity to showcase their unique talent and sell

the fruits of their labour to a waiting world. We are currently in the process of selecting a cross-section of artists who represent the Northwest Territories and we will be reporting to the Members on the success this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will certainly bring.

As well, NWT museums continue to headline the most important tourist “must-sees” in our Territory. The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Museum is unrivalled for its northern comprehensive archives and diverse exhibits and strives to be better, bolder and more exciting with every new presentation.

Mr. Speaker, one of the most important services ECE provides is that of income security. At the tail end of the 15th Assembly, we completed a

comprehensive review of the Income Security Program that resulted in an overhaul in the way we deliver services that is much more tailored to the needs of our residents. ECE has expanded ECE service centres to more remote communities and now provides information, increased access to a combination of income security programs and other developmental programs that together help residents achieve individual goals of self-reliance.

Mr. Speaker, we are currently planning a review of the Public Housing Rental Subsidy Program. We have sought the advice of Members into what should go into this review. In the coming months we hope to review the findings of our consultations with Members and seek guidance on the best path to take as we move forward.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to end by talking about our work on official languages. Recently, Members of this House went through a thoughtful and detailed piece of work on the review of the Official Languages Act, and I thank them for their commitment to this important project. We have much work to do in this area but we are pleased to report some meaningful progress. The French language service window has been up and running for some months now and has been very successful. As well, we are undertaking a review of the aboriginal languages to understand where to direct our resources according to the needs of our aboriginal residents. We have increased funding to language nests that allow young children and adults to develop language skills together.

Mr. Speaker, we see this as a very important component to the healthy development of our languages. Unless languages are used in the home, they will continue to be at risk. I know many elders advocate strongly for their languages, not the least of which is our newly appointed Languages Commissioner, Ms. Sarah Jerome, who we congratulate on her appointment and are very much looking forward to working with on this important and rewarding challenge.

Mr. Speaker, as you can see, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is working

hard for the people of the Northwest Territories to fulfill the goals of this Assembly. I would like to thank all the staff for their hard work and commitment. We appreciate you all. Mr. Speaker, we also appreciate the guidance, the wisdom and support of the Members of this House. Your input and experience is invaluable as we move forward to make the Northwest Territories a better place to live and work. We can all be proud of our past and work hard today for a promising future that we can all build together. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s my pleasure today to use my Member’s statement to welcome Grade 6 students from Hay River to the Legislative Assembly.

---Applause

With the support of their teachers and their principal, this has turned into an annual event for the past number of years. The visit to Yellowknife includes things such as a trip to the Prince of Wales Museum and a presentation by Jamie Bastedo, trip to the Pizza Hut, a trip to the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool, and they have the use of the Ski Club for a place to stay. And, of course, it includes a tour of the Legislative Assembly, photos in the Chamber, lunch in the Great Hall and an opportunity to view the proceedings of the Assembly before they get on their bus to go back home.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to name the visitors we have with us today and recognize them. I think it might be okay to just give a wave so that people can know who they are. Our teachers and chaperones from the Princess Alexandra School in Hay River are: Jennifer Tweedie, Rita Moizis, Glenn May, Doug Bryshun, Poul Osted, Donna Dean, Dorothy Lirette, Louise Schumann. School principal, Jeff Buerger -- Mr. Buerger, I guess, in front of the students. Bus driver, Steve Blakely. That bus is sponsored by the Hay River Elks, which is much appreciated. And the Grade 6 students themselves: Jordan Bryshun, Dylan Carter, Evan Smith, Amanda Roach, Elycia Nimegeers, Roland Lamalice, Jessica Conroy, Jacob Wiedemann, Kendra McKay, Morgan Giroux, Kyla Milne, Jessy Hearn, Chantelle Lafleur, Joel Demarcke, Devinne Charlton, Jesse Morfitt, Bryden Patenaude, Devon Courtourielle, Ryan Dragon, Connor May, Kali Ward, Jasmine Minoza, Harley Beaulieu, Michelle Buckley, Caitlin Chambers, Skyler Constant, Kjel

Crook, Jonelle Fabian-Bjornson, Calvin King, Travis Laviolette, Andrew Lirette, Rayleen McKay, Aaron Moizis, Madison Montgomery, Kaitlyn Moses, Michael Osted, Taylor Price, Sandra Roloson, Allyshia Rymer, Levon Schumann, Jared Smith, Elizabeth Sperry.

Mrs. Groenewegen, your time for Member’s statement has expired. Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I also would like to welcome the entire group to Yellowknife and wish them safe travels on their way home. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to hear that the Minister of ECE reaffirmed our goal to build our future. On a recent tour to Trout Lake, I heard once again that the priority for the chief and council and the residents is that they need a new school. The current school is a one room school, the likes of which has not been seen since the early 1900s. The department has always referred to the Charles Tetcho School. However, I have learned that it is now derelict and laying in ruins and for some time has been abandoned. Classes are now held in the community recreation centre.

Trout Lake is a growing and vibrant place. People are coming back to the community bringing their children with them and staying in the community. The Louie Norwegian School in Jean Marie River is a good example of a school that Trout Lake is asking for.

Learning starts in the home community and when children are young, they need a healthy, safe and enjoyable environment. They need the necessary space to play and work together and learn together in groups. Trout Lake has students of both primary and middle age. The community needs a building with classrooms where there can be some separation of grade levels to allow for different activities to be going on at once. To be poised for future growth, the community needs a new standalone school, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am talking about a respected Fort Resolution elder who passed away on April 23, 2009. Mr. Edward McKay Sr. was born in Fort Resolution on August 23, 1918. He was a trapper, hunter, fisherman and

worked in the sawmill in Fort Resolution and also in the Pine Point mine.

He spent all of his life in the South Slave region, living in Rocher River, Jean River, Hay River, Pine Point and Fort Resolution. He lived a very traditional lifestyle all his life and I was told he was still looking forward to boating and doing some repairs to his cabin this summer.

Edward was always looking forward, not backwards. He was not formally educated, but due to his ingenuity and hard work ethic, he raised and provided for a family of 15 children. Many will remember Edward McKay for his radiant smile and his love of and talent in jigging moves in his moccasins. He floated like a feather and won every trophy imaginable.

I have known Edward since I was a young man. Even today as an adult, whenever I saw Edward, he would always greet me with a smile and treated me with respect.

Edward was always full of life. Recently, on April 14th , he celebrated his 57th wedding anniversary

with his second wife. Edward is survived by his wife, Denise, his children, Henry, Christine, Joann, Ronald, Linda, Bess-Ann, Frank, Andy, Janet, Dean, Lorraine, Eddie and Shawn. As a tribute to Edward, CBC North hosted a very special show and recognized and honoured the life and times of Edward, particularly his participation in many jigging and talent shows across the Northwest Territories.

Please join me in honouring this much respected elder and to convey our condolences and prayers to his wife, many children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of Mr. Edward McKay Sr. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a concern from the communities in the Sahtu about the local summer hiring of local students in the Sahtu communities. Mr. Speaker, changes need to happen in terms of this program to be successful in our small communities.

There is an EI requirement on local summer students that we want to hire through the service contract with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The GNWT provides us with $5 per hour and the agencies cover the request for regional pay for summer students. We are aware the GNWT may change the summer student program. It really doesn’t fit our communities in this time we need here. We have been working on this issue for a number of years and we seem to be hitting a brick wall on this issue. The response is that this is the GNWT’s requirement and it is a final

decision. There seems to be very little flexibility in terms of moving on this issue here. It has been quite a frustrating time for some of our agencies who want to hire summer students. A simple question for the government is: Why is there an EI requirement for local summer hire students here? It is a GNWT program. It is a Government of Canada program. Regardless of which government, more effort should be put in resolving this program’s problems for us in our communities.

Some of the organizations hired summer students last summer. Most of them buy clothes and some of them help out with some of the families that are in desperate need for helping out with the household needs. These students here help out with the families in the communities as some of the parents are unemployed. Again, Mr. Speaker, they have high unemployment in our communities and we need to help the GNWT to help with this local summer hire student requirement.

Mr. Speaker, the organizations in our communities are looking forward for this government to see if they would work with the federal government in terms of making the requirement for summer local hire students, especially with the restrictions on EI restrictions only are allowed to apply for these types of programs. It doesn’t make any sense for our summer students to be applying for it as they won’t be eligible. I will be having questions for the Minister on this issue.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I wish to devote my Member’s statement to the graduates of 2009 in my riding of Nunakput. The names I must go through today is long, but for that I am truly proud. At graduation time, communities do gather to celebrate accomplishments of our most important resource, our youth. They are our future. This year in Mangilaluk School: Ms. Tamara Elias, Kayla Felix, Ashley Jacobson, Shaylene

Lundrigan, Jocelyn Noksana, Brian Raddi, Ashley Teddy, Margaret Thrasher and Ryan Walker. Mr. Speaker, this young graduate student Ryan Walker never missed a day from K to 12 in the school.

---Applause

Just for me, going to school is a big thing but this young man is truly a really devoted student.

At Helen Kalvak School, this past last weekend I attended the graduation of Margaret Akoakhion, Patrick Akhiaktak, Violet Kimiksana, Steven Kuptana, Tyler Inuktalik and hello to Patrick Joss if you are watching, Patrick.

At Samuel Hearne, students this year are: Shayne Cockney from Tuk, Christine Esau from Sachs Harbour, Amber-Joy Gruben from Tuk and my daughter Chelsey Jacobson. I only have eight more kids in my house to push through school before they all graduate.

I also wish to add my admiration and appreciation for all the DEAs and education staff in the Beaufort-Delta and the Nunakput communities and the DEAs. Our graduation numbers are an example of that hard work, dedication and devotion of all these people in the communities is working. We all recognize increasing importance of education in ensuring the future of our people, our region and our Territory in this ever changing world. I am proud to be their MLA and I am proud to honour them today, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Before I go to the next order on the Order Paper, I would like to recognize in the visitor’s gallery the presence of the Official Languages Commissioner. Ms. Sarah Jerome is with us today.

---Applause

Item 4, reports of standing and special committees. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Executive Summary

Introduction

Mr. Speaker, your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its Final Report on the Review of the Official Languages Act 2008-2009: Reality Check: Securing the Future for the Official Languages in the Northwest Territories and commends it to the House.

Section 35 of the Official Languages Act requires the Legislative Assembly or a special committee of the Assembly to conduct a review of the act “at the next session following December 31, 2007, and subsequently at the next session following each successive fifth anniversary of that date.” In accordance with this statutory requirement, the 16th Legislative Assembly adopted a motion on February 11, 2008, referring the review of the provisions and operation of the Official Languages

Act to the Standing Committee of Government Operations (the committee).

Background

The 14th Legislative Assembly initiated the Special

Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act (SCROLA) in 2001. SCROLA tabled its comprehensive final report in 2003. The reports identified 65 recommendations and suggested implementation and investment schedules for these recommendations. The GNWT tabled a response to this report in 2003.

Amendments to the Official Languages Act were made during the last session of the 14th Legislative

Assembly. These changes introduced an Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board, an Official Languages Board, and new roles for the Languages Commissioner and the Minister. The act requires a review after five years.

The SCROLA review was comprehensive and provided much background research into the socio-linguistic field of language preservation and revitalization. The findings of the Special Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act are still valid and usable, allowing the scope of the this five-year review to focus specifically on the requirements as set out in the act itself.

The 2008-2009 review examined

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whether progress has been made since the changes to the Official Language Act in 2003;

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whether the government implements and

administers the act effectively and efficiently;

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whether the objectives and goals of the

preamble are being met;

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whether the changed roles and responsibilities of the Minister responsible for Official Languages improved the administration and implementation of the act;

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whether the changed role of the Languages Commissioner as an ombudsperson improved the implementation of the act;

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whether the new Official Languages Board has met its mandate to review the rights, status and use of official languages;

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whether the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board has fulfilled its mandate to promote, maintain and revitalize aboriginal languages.

As a first step, the committee reviewed government reports, languages regimes of other Canadian and international jurisdictions and publications related to language endangerment and protection. This step was followed by extensive consultations with the public and stakeholders including aboriginal languages frontline workers and professionals and community language groups. The committee

provided further opportunities for public input including a questionnaire that was posted on the Assembly’s website and written submissions.

The committee scheduled witnesses for hearings during public committee meetings and invited the Minister responsible for Official Languages, the Languages Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board and the Official Languages Board, the NWT Bureau of Statistics, the Federation Franco TeNOise and the NWT Literacy Council.

The committee tabled its “Interim Report on the Review of the Official Languages Act 2008-2009” in accordance with section 35(1) of the Official Languages Act to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories on October 16, 2009.

Mr. Speaker, I ask Mr. Hawkins, my deputy chair, to continue with the executive summary. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

What Committee Heard From The Public, Stakeholders, And Witnesses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Chairman Menicoche. People are concerned about the dire situation of the aboriginal languages in the Northwest Territories. They worry about the survival of their languages and how they can be kept alive as languages of everyday use. There is a great awareness of the connection between language and cultural identity and that language loss has non-reversible impacts on the culture and identity of aboriginal peoples of the Northwest Territories.

The intergenerational gap of language and traditional knowledge is growing to an extent never seen before. Elders describe this gap as a total communication breakdown because their grandchildren no longer speak the same language. People are also disillusioned and frustrated with the lack of accountability for implementing government commitments relating to official languages.

The lack of interpreter/translators in the health and justice systems, the lack of adequate training for these interpreters and the need for ongoing terminology development and standardization in an ever changing modern environment was brought to the standing committee’s attention in every community.

Participants also identified short-comings within the education and school system, for example:

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aboriginal languages curriculum development and implementation is slow and under-resourced;

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providing 30 minutes of language instruction per day is insufficient, particularly when all other subjects are taught in English;

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language instruction often does not extend

beyond elementary school grades;

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lack of accountability to ensure language

funding for schools is used for language activities; and

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insufficient support, resources and training for aboriginal language and cultural instructors.

This being said, people also acknowledged that some progress has been made, for example in the development of aboriginal language curricula and the start of some language nest programs. At the same time, participants repeatedly expressed that if government is serious about its role in aboriginal language revitalization, then the implementation of such programs needs to be accelerated and resourced adequately in order to counteract the language decline particularly among children and younger adults.

The messages the standing committee received with regard to community language funding were unified, loud and clear:

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The major obstacle of the community language funding is that minimal and insufficient amounts do not match the needs for essential resources and programs that could contribute to the survival of the aboriginal languages.

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There is no funding consistency.

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There are too many interruptions in the

programs due to lack of funding.

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Insufficient funding also prevents program

expansions for adult language and literacy learners and preschool programs. Such programs would be crucial for the revitalization of the aboriginal languages.

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The allocation by regions and by language

groups does not consider needs.

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Existing community language funding does not allow for year-round programming. The proposal-based year-to-year funding forces staff and community volunteers to spend their time on proposal writing in search of funding sources instead of on program delivery.

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Information is difficult to find about funding

sources, criteria, and application processes. Participants stressed that this is of particular concern considering the expectations put on the communities by the Official Languages Act assigning them an essential role for language revitalization.

People are also disillusioned and frustrated with the lack of accountability for implementing government commitments relating to official languages.

Generally they found that the government is not fulfilling its obligations for aboriginal languages as prescribed by the Official Languages Act. There is no plan in place that supports central, regional or community government offices and agencies to provide services in the aboriginal languages. People also found that there is no accountability or reporting mechanism in place that assesses how the government provides these services.

Many aboriginal people said their languages are not treated equally with French and perceive this as a form of injustice towards First Nations. Other participants reminded the members of the committee that it was government policies of the past that contributed largely to the language loss experienced today. They believe that out of this past injustice comes a responsibility of today’s governments to fund and support the language communities to reverse this language shift.

Many participants were aware of the multitude of challenges the government is facing. What they are asking for is an honest commitment, a willingness to work collaboratively with community language stakeholders and sufficient resources to implement a comprehensive action plan. Several participants expressed the view that committing to such measures will determine in the near future if the aboriginal languages will have a chance to survive.

While some people had heard of the Official Languages Board and the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board, most did not understand their roles and mandates or why two language boards exist. Participants also did not know who the board representatives were and were generally critical about the boards’ capacity to develop ongoing relationships and communication with the community language groups, frontline workers and advocates. In addition, the appointment process for the boards, their dependent relationship with the Minister’s office, and the lack of powers and resources were questioned frequently. Participants also found the absence of any reporting mechanism or any publicly available information relating to the activities of the boards inconsistent with their mandate and intended purpose.

During the witness hearings, the Federation Franco-TeNOise representatives explained that they withdrew from the Official Languages Board as they deemed it ineffective for dealing with the needs and realities of the francophone community. Instead they suggest a “cooperation committee” between their organization and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to deal directly and exclusively with issues relating to the francophone community. The Federation Franco-TeNOise also commented that government services offered in French are insufficient, that bilingual positions are not publicly identified. Generally the organizations agreed with the spirit

and intent of the act, but found that it has not been properly implemented.

There was a general concern about the role and functions of the Languages Commissioner: People did not know who the incumbent is or what the Languages Commissioner does. They did not know the role and responsibilities of the Commissioner had changed. Participants stated repeatedly that they had not seen the Commissioner in their communities nor did they know whether annual reports were published.

Several participants doubted that the Minister, who is also responsible for the government-wide implementation of the act, could effectively promote aboriginal languages. The language stakeholders also felt that the Minister did not connect with communities and is not seen to provide support for the language communities to achieve their goals of language preservation and revitalization.

In several communities the standing committee was also reminded of its role to hold government accountable for its commitments to language activities and its responsibilities under the act. Those participants who were aware of the 2003 SCROLA recommendations remarked on the lack of implementation and lack of transparency related to government commitments and activities. People asked the members of the standing committee to play a more active oversight and accountability role; for example, insisting on detailed implementation and progress reports.

Many participants in the public hearings expressed their disappointment and distrust in the effectiveness of the Official Languages Act. Some participants believed that since the last review and the amendments to the act in 2003, the situation for aboriginal languages has worsened; that the status of aboriginal languages as Official Languages of the NWT has become more and more meaningless. People have also lost faith in the review process.

Many participants expressed their disagreement with the status of French being equal to English in the official languages legislation of the NWT. It is perceived by many who participated in the review process that because aboriginal languages have less protection and rights, there has been unfair treatment. The main concern was that this translates directly into less funding for programs, services, and support for the communities. Several participants suggested that the official status for aboriginal languages should be no less than that for French.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I would now like to pass the reading of the report on to my colleague, Mr. Glen Abernethy, MLA for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Research And Analysis

Implementation Of The SCROLA Recommendations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The committee looked at what progress has been made since the Special Committee on the Official Languages Act review (SCROLA). One of SCROLA’s intentions was to develop a Northwest Territories’ language revitalization framework. With this in mind, SCROLA’s recommendations were structured to support such a framework. The recommendations address legislation and policy, management, financing, service delivery, human resource development, language research and development, education, promotion, and media and technology. The Government of the Northwest Territories tabled its response at the dawn of the 14th Legislative Assembly in 2003. Bear with me, I

am losing my voice.

The following section provides an overview of the recommendations, and highlights the committee’s most important findings on the progress of their implementation.

Strengthening Legislation And Policy (Section A Of The Recommendations)

•

The Official Languages Act was amended

following the SCROLA recommendations. Amendments included the recognition of collective aboriginal language rights in the preamble, the important role of language communities in preserving and developing their own languages, and the changed roles of the Minister and Languages Commissioner.

•

Government institution regulations were

established to clarify which government boards, agencies, corporations and so forth are bound by the provisions of the Official Languages Act.

•

Contrary to the SCROLA recommendation to establish one Aboriginal Languages Board, the GNWT introduced the Official Languages Board and the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board (the languages boards). The GNWT established regulations to create the two languages boards. These regulations only address the appointment process and the terms of the appointments, and not the terms of reference or consultation functions of the boards.

Improvement of Management and Accountability (Section B Of The Recommendations)

•

SCROLA had hoped that an empowered

Official Languages Secretariat directly

reporting to the Minister would create and monitor a government-wide implementation plan and evaluation framework. The secretariat was to support the development of official languages regulations and policies, to provide operational support for the languages boards. In addition to its managerial and administrative functions related to various contribution agreements, and intergovernmental relations concerning languages.

•

The GNWT restructured the official languages division within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, creating a direct reporting relationship to the deputy minister. The government did not add any resources to the division to address its expanded mandate.

•

To date, no implementation plan for the act, no evaluation framework, and no regulations or new policies addressing language services have been developed.

Effective and Adequate Financing (Section C Of The Recommendations)

•

SCROLA recommended that the GNWT

ensure all language funding to schools is actually used for language activities, that funding for the language initiatives indentified in the recommendations be put in place, and that maximized federal participation through the NWT-Canada contribution agreement be negotiated.

•

Very little progress has been made in this area. While some areas have seen funding increases, no comprehensive funding approach that would match the suggested initiatives has been created. This may be linked to the non-existence of an implementation plan.

•

Community language initiatives and even

departmental official languages funding continues to be provided on a year-to-year basis, increasing the difficulty for these organizations and institutions to make long-term plans and allowing continuity of their activities.

Enhance Service Delivery (Section D Of The Recommendations)

•

Little has been done to address these

SCROLA recommendations or the GNWT’s commitments in its response to these recommendations. There are no regulations or policies addressing “active offer”; nor are there any government-wide procedures and measures for tracking demand and service delivery in official languages.

•

Some progress has been made on addressing improvements for French service delivery: a single-window service centre pilot project for

French opened in Yellowknife in June 2008; and Education, Culture and Employment is working on a plan to improve French language services generally.

•

The GNWT has preliminary plans to phase in the establishment of a single-window service centre for aboriginal languages.

•

No public registry of interpreters/translators

has been made available. Instead, the official languages division continues to compile a contact list for interpreters/translators that is shared with government departments and institutions.

•

A certification process for aboriginal

interpreters/translators has still not been established. The GNWT actually put this renewal initiative on hold when it was discovered that there was a lack of qualified aboriginal evaluators. The GNWT hopes that it can revisit this initiative when more interpreters and translators have been trained. Excuse me.

Build Human Resources Capacity (Section E Of The Recommendations)

•

Progress on the reinstallation of interpreter/translator training is very slow. The Akaitcho language groups are presently offering a regional community-based training program. The GNWT supports this initiative through a pilot project that it hopes will be adaptable for other language groups.

•

Progress has been made on the Aboriginal

Culture and Languages Instructor Program (ACLIP): the part-time one-year certificate program delivered has been expanded to a two-year diploma program delivered full time. This new diploma program is currently being delivered for the first time in the Taicho region.

•

The committee found that the GNWT does not lend sufficient support to build the human resources capacity for professions related to official languages. This is a concern, as the success of revitalization efforts will also depend on the availability of qualified language professionals like teachers, instructors and interpreter/translators.

Support Research And Development For Official Languages (Section F

Of The

Recommendations)

•

The committee is particularly concerned that the GNWT has not addressed the SCROLA’s recommendations relating to terminology development. The urgent need for terminology development was identified by all stakeholders in all regions and languages. These needs, along with proposed actions and solutions, have repeatedly been brought to the government’s attention. Its inaction has

contributed to the frustration expressed by language stakeholders to the committee during the consultation process.

•

Furthermore, the importance of terminology

development for language survival and revitalization has been well documented. Failure to support and advance terminology development has devastating consequences for languages already under threat.

•

It should be noted that in its response to the SCROLA recommendations, the GNWT suggested that much of this work should be conducted by the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board. The committee questions whether the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board is sufficiently resourced and adequately supported for this undertaking.

•

Similarly, the GNWT did not address a

recommendation to establish a coordinated cataloguing and distribution process for aboriginal language resource materials.

Increase And Improve Aboriginal Languages Education (Section G Of The Recommendations)

•

The Minister of Education, Culture and

Employment issued a directive to the divisional education councils and the divisional education authorities in 2004, setting minimal standards for aboriginal language instruction (30 minutes per day and 90 hours per school year) outlining funding and reporting requirements. While this has led to some improvements of aboriginal language programming in the school system, there are still concerns that the funding is not always used for language activities, and that 30 minutes of language instruction is insufficient to impact language revitalization in any meaningful way.

•

The committee was glad to find that support for language nest programs improved. Presently the GNWT provides funding to 18 registered early childhood facilities for language nest programs. However, the committee was concerned that in recent years this funding has been reduced.

•

The committee also saw the improvements to the regional delivery of the Teacher Education Program and the Aboriginal Language and Cultural Instructor Program as steps in the right direction.

•

There is no overall strategic aboriginal

languages education plan that would link the different activities and allow for the measurement of successes and overall progress.

Promote Official Languages (Section H Of The Recommendations)

•

The GNWT did not issue a progress report on the implementation of its commitments for action to the SCROLA recommendations.

•

The GNWT provides ongoing support to the French language community for their cultural activities supporting French.

•

The government and the Minister responsible for Official Languages have not addressed any of the recommendations concerning the promotion of aboriginal languages

•

The committee questions whether this inaction means that the responsibilities for language promotion are not a good fit with the Minister’s role and mandate.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to pass on the continued reading of the executive summary to Mr. Jacobson. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Language Indicators And Trends

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The committee examined the state of the official languages in the Northwest Territories using statistical data, language indicators and trends.

The availability of language data is important for the assessment of the health of a language. Measuring the number of speakers over time indicates if a language is losing or gaining vitality.

The following data on language speakers is typically collected to provide information on language trends:

•

“>Mother tongue” refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual.

•

“Home language” refers to the language spoken most often at home.

•

“Ability to speak“ means that a person is able to carry out a conversation in that language.

•

“Language shift” is an important tool for

assessing the vitality of a language. Language shift measures the number of speakers a language gains or loses over time. It measures the ratio of home language to mother tongue speakers.

If language shift shows a declining trend over time, it is fair to say that language loss is occurring and the languages may become endangered. In a situation of declining language shift, more and more children will no longer learn the language of their parents as their first language. This means that the intergenerational transmission of the language is interrupted and a generational gap between the speakers of a language takes place. On the other hand, if language shift moves upward, that means

that more people use the language at home that did not learn the language as their mother tongue.

The information presented demonstrates that all aboriginal languages are suffering from languages loss to various degrees. Some of the aboriginal languages (Gwich’in and Cree for example) can be described as severely endangered because they only have a small number of older, fluent speakers left. Even languages like Tlicho and North Slavey, that were considered strong and healthy, are showing severe language shift mostly because English is increasingly becoming the home language, particularly in households with young parents.

The 2006 Census shows that 1,030 NWT residents indicated that French was their mother tongue. Of those, only 440 persons indicated that they use French as their home language. However, there is a unique upward trend for those identifying that they are able to converse in French. In 2006, 9.1 percent of the NWT population, or 3,720 persons, indicated that they are able to converse in French.

The increased use of English as a home language and the fact that 99 percent of the NWT population that indicated in the 2006 Census that they are able to carry on a conversation in English is another indicator that aboriginal languages are losing ground.

The assessment of the vitality and endangerment of languages is an important step towards planning language revitalization. A comprehensive long-term revitalization plan would need to include indicators to evaluate its implementation and success over time.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Krutko will continue the executive summary. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Language Vitality, Protection And Revitalization

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a third analytical step, the committee looked at established approaches to language revitalization. This might be helpful for the creation of a comprehensive aboriginal languages revitalization regime in the Northwest Territories. We have used a framework that was developed by a UNESCO expert group to create decision tools for the development of language policy, identifying issues and safeguards as they relate to language revitalization.

When examining the factors identified in this framework in combination with the language trends and indicators discussed earlier, it quickly becomes evident that all aboriginal languages in the NWT require some degree of revitalization. French as a minority language in the Northwest Territories requires maintenance measures in order to

maintain it as the language of everyday use by the francophone community.

The committee suggests that the following criteria need to be considered for successful aboriginal languages revitalization in the NWT:

•

The circumstances of each language

community have to be examined to decide on an appropriate plan.

•

Long-term multifaceted programs with a range of resources and much personal dedication of community members are essential.

•

Government policies affecting language use in public and the connection that people make between language use and economic well-being for their family are determining factors.

•

This being said, the most important success factor is people wanting to speak their language.

•

Outsiders can provide expertise, funding and moral support, but community members need to “construct the revitalization program which suits their ambitions, needs, and resources.”

•

Before decisions are made, each language

must be assessed for its degree of vitality/endangerment. Those tools can also be applied over time to measure success of initiatives.

•

Language domains expand due to modernization, globalization, and economic and technological developments. If a community language is not used in these new domains, it is losing vitality. This is of grave concern for all our aboriginal languages in the NWT. How much language is actually used in a particular domain plays an important role as well.

•

Because education is a critical domain for

language use, it is also a logical place to start. True revitalization, however, can only happen when all subjects are taught in the endangered language. Education in our school system is strongly related to literacy, which leads to the point that education in all subject areas needs to include the availability of written materials.

•

Language attitudes can make or break the

success of revitalization programs; for example:

o Government attitudes are influenced by

the majority population and are reflected in language and education policies and funding allocation.

o Canadian residential school policies, for

example, led to forced assimilation and prohibition of aboriginal languages, resulting in an interruption of intergenerational transmission. This history has lasting effects on the vitality of many aboriginal languages and decreases the chances of successful revitalization.

o Community attitudes are critical for the

success of language revitalization.

The concerns brought forward to the committee by the language communities, language advocates, stakeholders and witnesses are very serious. Language indicators show that the aboriginal languages are in a state of emergency. The Government of the Northwest Territories has no implementation plan for the Official Languages Act or a coordinated approach to support the communities’ revitalization efforts.

Mr. Speaker, I will pass this back on to the deputy chair of the committee, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Conclusions

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Krutko. 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of

the Official Languages Act, which should be cause to celebrate the linguistic diversity of the Northwest Territories. The committee findings, regretfully, give little cause to celebrate.

The administration and implementation of the act have proven a challenge since the establishment of the Official Languages Act. The committee found that little progress has been made in implementing the act since it was last amended in 2003.

The consequences of having neither regulations nor an implementation plan for the act have led to a lack of standards for the provision of services in official languages and inconsistencies between government departments and institutions. It is difficult for the public to find out what services are offered, where they are provided and how to access them. The government has not coordinated a standardized approach on how its different departments and agencies offer language services to the public or communicate with the public.

The preamble was changed with the last amendments to the act, in 2003. It expresses an ambitious vision and speaks to future achievements. However, stakeholders are becoming more critical towards the achievability of this vision.

The committee heard many concerns from aboriginal people about the inequality of aboriginal language rights versus French language rights as manifested in the act. Many aboriginal language stakeholders perceived existing language rights as not reflective of the demographic realities of the NWT and the political reality of the NWT with its emerging aboriginal self-governments. They also questioned whether government institutions have the capacity to provide equal services.

More and more stakeholders asked if the rapid decline of the aboriginal languages, in times when the use of French as a second language is “booming”, can be seen as a consequence of this

inequality in law. They perceived the government’s commitment as “lip-service” and questioned if the recognition of aboriginal languages was more a political “good-will” statement than a de facto granting of rights.

Official recognition of languages can also have a powerful, symbolic effect. However, if the language rights are intended to extend to communication and services, mere recognition is not enough. The committee concluded that if the intent is to be “committed to the preservation, development and enhancement of the aboriginal languages” government actions have to be recognized as supporting this commitment. If languages are addressed in policies and legislation but their use is not required or there are insufficient financial resources, it is more difficult to promote language use.

The desire to “establish English and French as official languages of the Northwest Territories having equality of status and equal rights and privileges as official languages, ” as stated in the preamble, has proved difficult to implement in the context of the Northwest Territories.

While the act recognizes aboriginal languages as official languages of the Northwest Territories, the provisions that speak to how these rights can be exercised are weak and do not provide sufficient clarity for either the rights holder or the government institutions offering the services. This concerns sections 8 and 11 of the Official Languages Act in particular. The act provides for the establishment of regulations that could then provide clarity and details on the provision of services and communication with the public in aboriginal languages.

Since no regulations providing such clarification have been established, the committee must conclude that the provisions of the act have not been effective in providing for the use of aboriginal languages.

The preamble also addresses the role of language communities in preserving and enhancing the official languages. The committee’s consultation process indicates that there was little sense of ownership for this shared responsibility between language communities, the Legislative Assembly, and the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The establishment of the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board and the Official Languages Board was intended to create a link between government and the community languages groups. The intent was to give communities input in government policy and language planning, while recognizing them as key players involved in the continued use of languages and responsible for bringing forward their community language priorities. Regretfully, the provisions of the act, which should have helped achieve these goals,

have failed. There was agreement between all stakeholders and witnesses that these sections of the act need revision.

The Minister responsible for Official Languages has the overall responsibility for the act and is responsible for the general direction and coordination of government policies and programs related to official languages. The Minister has not initiated long-term comprehensive planning for official languages services delivery or aboriginal languages revitalization as recommended by SCROLA. This lack of policy direction has meant little advancement of the objectives stated in the preamble.

The committee acknowledges that some progress has been made in the promotion of official languages education in schools and post-secondary institutions. Examples are the introduction of language nest programs, the implementation of Dene Kede, and the progress in teacher training and education. French language education in schools has also seen positive developments with the opening of a second French school in Hay River and the expansion of French immersion programs in schools around the Territories.

While the committee was glad to see these positive developments in language education, the question remains as to whether these advancements are more to the credit of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment or the Minister responsible for Official Languages. The committee found that the Minister responsible for Official Languages has no powers over other departments and government institutions to ensure compliance and implementation of the act.

The latest amendments to the act, in 2003, moved the promotional role for official languages from the Languages Commissioner to the Minister responsible for Official Languages. Apart from funding support for cultural activities of the French language community, none of the government commitments to the SCROLA recommendation relating to the promotion of official languages have been addressed.

The committee made the following conclusions regarding the roles and effectiveness of the Official Languages Board and the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board:

•

Neither the Official Languages Board nor the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board has the capacity, power, funding and support to fulfill their mandates.

•

The two-year term of the boards does not allow for continuity.

•

Recruitment of board members should be

improved by broadening the list of bodies that are able to nominate candidates.

•

The mandates for both boards state that they may review and evaluate the provisions, operation and effectiveness of the act. This caused many questions regarding the duplication of roles between the boards themselves, and with the Languages Commissioner.

•

The board regulations did not include terms of reference for the boards that could have clarified the broad mandates as described in the act. This slowed down the operation of the boards.

•

The operational support for the boards was provided by the official languages division, the same division that supports the Minister in overall responsibility for the act causing questions about the independence of the office. Can the same division that is responsible for leading the government-wide implementation of the act also support the boards that are mandated to review and evaluate how the act is working?

•

In many aboriginal communities the

stakeholders did not know who their board representatives were. They felt uninformed about the boards’ activities and recommendations to the Minister and they did not understand the different mandates of the two boards. There was no consistent approach for communication between the board members, their language communities and nominating bodies.

•

The francophone community organization

withdrew their participation on the Official Languages Board as they felt their community’s needs were not addressed in the mainly aboriginal structure that was focused on issues surrounding the survival of their languages. English as the dominant language of the Northwest Territories does not need representation on the Official Languages Board.

Therefore, the committee must conclude that under the circumstances described above the languages boards were not able to fulfill their respective mandates. The Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board did not contribute to the overall objective of revitalizing and maintaining aboriginal languages. The Official Languages Board does not contribute to ensuring compliance with and implementation of the act.

The Languages Commissioner’s mandate can be summarized as ensuring that the rights, status and privileges of all official languages are recognized, that the government institutions comply with the spirit and intent of the act, to investigate complaints from the public that government is not following the act, and to investigate language issues on his or her own initiative.

The committee found during the review process, that in most communities the Languages Commissioner (the Commissioner) was not known. People reported that they did not know that the NWT currently has a Languages Commissioner, who the incumbent was, or anything about the activities of the Commissioner.

During the witness hearings the Languages Commissioner expressed concerns that recommendations issued in the annual reports of the Office of the Languages Commissioner were not acted upon. The Languages Commissioner asked that the scope of powers for the Commissioner be reconsidered.

The committee findings show that section 22 of the act dealing with processes following investigations has not been used by the Commissioner. The committee, therefore, concludes that it would be premature to expand the scope of powers for the Commissioner. The investigative powers provided for under the existing act may prove quite effective if used.

The committee recognizes that the Languages Commissioner had difficulties in fulfilling her role as an ombudsperson and in ensuring compliance with the act. However, the committee is not convinced that this is due to weakness of the act or the lack of promotion of the Office of the Language Commissioner including a lack of outreach to the population and language communities of the Northwest Territories.

The committee also looked at other Canadian jurisdictions to compare compliance with official languages regimes. New Brunswick (the only bilingual province of Canada), Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Canada itself have a Languages Commissioner. In the remaining jurisdictions, processes are established that make the Ministers or Official Languages Secretariats responsible for dealing with complaints and ensuring compliance with existing languages regimes.

The committee recommendations are based on the findings and analysis described above.

Mr. Speaker, I would now like to pass the next section of the report on to Member, Mr. Glen Abernethy of Great Slave. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Recommendations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The terms of reference allow the committee to make recommendations for amendment to the act that it considers desirable. Based on its findings and conclusions, the Standing

Committee on Government Operations makes the following recommendations to create:

•

a new “Official Languages Services Act” with a focus on service delivery, and

•

a new aboriginal languages protection regime that focuses on protection and revitalization of aboriginal languages.

The committee is aware of the breadth of its recommendations and that their meaningful implementation will take some time. As a first step, thorough strategic planning must take place, including an analysis of the fiscal requirements for the implementation of these plans.

The committee did not see its task as developing strategic or implementation plans on behalf of the government. Instead we have provided a foundation for what must be addressed in those plans. We recognize that the government also needs to address challenges related to human and fiscal capacity and resources during this planning process. The committee has left room in its recommendations allowing the government to be diligent on this matter.

The committee recognizes that interim measures will be necessary to address the most urgent needs of the aboriginal language communities and the most obvious shortcomings of the existing Official Languages Act. A section entitled “Transitional Provisions” gives recommendations on what interim measures should be taken immediately.

Provisions To Be Considered For An Official Languages Services Act

1. Rewrite the OLA to get away from the federal

model of legislation that does not match the demographic, socio-geographic, and political realities of the NWT.

2. Lobby the federal government to allow the

GNWT to create its own and more appropriate official languages legislation/regime.

3. Create a service orientated official languages

regime for the GNWT and commit to a regime aimed at saving the aboriginal languages of the NWT.

4. Acknowledge the different situations and needs

of the aboriginal languages and French in terms of legal recognition and protection by Canada, speaker base and available resources (financial, human, linguistic and capacity).

5. Recognize aboriginal languages and French as

official languages of the NWT, including rights granted in reference to legal proceedings and proceedings in the Legislative Assembly.

6. Government retains the obligation to provide

services and communication with the public in official languages, with the following qualifiers: 6.1.

Determine service delivery priorities through consultations with the different language communities while recognizing

the government’s capacity and resource limitations.

6.2. Address government capacity issues

through comprehensive long-term planning (language service plans for each language) while acknowledging language community priorities.

6.3. Create designated areas for aboriginal

languages in the communities where aboriginal languages are indigenous (see Nunavut OLA, s.3 (3)) and add further provisions similar to the wording in the Active Offer Policy of the Francophone Affairs Secretariat in Manitoba; i.e.,

A region is recognized as a designated area for [name of the language] by the Government of the Northwest Territories due to the concentration of aboriginal language speakers or the validity of the region’s aboriginal community, as demonstrated by the use of the aboriginal language in local schools, cultural organization, community groups, et cetera.

Apart from acknowledging regions where

aboriginal languages are indigenous, this provides for recognizing facts and trends of our modern NWT society, including mobility and urbanization.

6.4. Create designated areas for French; i.e.,

“A region is recognized … by the government … due to the concentration of francophones or the validity of the region’s francophone community, as demonstrated by the use of French in local schools, cultural organization, community groups, et cetera.”

7. Establish an Official Languages Secretariat

(OLS) and place it with the Department of the Executive as a central agency that has the authority to implement the Official Languages Services Act government wide. Such an organizational structure could improve accountability and oversight of the implementation of the “Official Languages Services Act” as well as increase focus on language community consultations and relationship building. The reporting relationship of the Official Languages Secretariat should be directly to the deputy minister.

8. The government’s Official Languages

Secretariat shall be sufficiently resourced, supported and empowered to fulfill the following mandate by: 8.1. Developing government services in the

aboriginal languages and French. Determine service delivery priorities

through consultations with the different language communities while recognizing the government’s capacity and resource limitations (see “Minister responsible” for details regarding this plan and the reporting on the progress of the plan).

8.2. Addressing government capacity issues

through comprehensive long-term planning (language service plans for each language) while recognizing language community priorities.

8.3.

Addressing matters of aboriginal languages services in general.

8.4. Addressing matters of French language

services in general.

8.5. Addressing complaints from the public

about aboriginal and French language services.

8.6.

Facilitating, guiding and monitoring departments and agencies on their aboriginal languages and French service activities.

8.7.

Liaising with aboriginal language communities, organizations and their political bodies, and francophone community organizations.

8.8. Coordination of agreements and funding

from Canada.

8.9.

Coordination of funding and other supports to the francophone language communities.

9. Acknowledge that in order to grant equal rights

to the aboriginal languages, a comprehensive language protection regime addressing protection, revitalization and modernization of the aboriginal languages has to be implemented first.

Provisions To Be Considered For An Aboriginal Languages Protection Regime

10. Acknowledge continuous aboriginal language

loss, endangerment resulting in a need for protection and revitalization.

11.

Government commits to an aboriginal languages protection regime through: 11.1.

Acknowledging the different situations and needs between the aboriginal languages of the NWT in terms of speaker base/vitality, capacity, endangerment, need for protection, maintenance, revitalization and modernization.

11.2.

A realistic long-term strategic revitalization plan (10 to 20-year range) must be developed in consultation with each language community highlighting priorities to address needs and actions for protection, revitalization, maintenance and modernization for each aboriginal language. This plan must include measures, monitoring and evaluation

criteria. Measures must distinguish between government and language communities responsibilities

11.3. Annual action plans for each language

that relate to the long-term strategic plan outlining responsibilities and activities by the government, its agencies and the language communities, including timelines and measures for progress towards established goals and objectives.

11.4. The establishment of an Aboriginal

Languages Authority (ALA) in charge of the development and implementation of this plan, being the liaison to the language communities, with sufficient resources and powers to fulfill this mandate and to provide ongoing support and capacity building to the aboriginal languages communities and their organizations.

12. Include statutory requirements to have a

committee of the Legislative Assembly review the Annual Report on Official Language Services and Aboriginal Language Protection and report back within 180 days.

Aboriginal Languages Authority And Aboriginal Languages Advisory Committee

13.

The Aboriginal Languages Authority is responsible for the development and implementation of a long-term strategic revitalization plan, annual action plans, and being the liaison to the language communities, with sufficient resources and powers to fulfill this mandate and to provide ongoing support and capacity building to the aboriginal languages communities and their organizations. 13.1.

The Aboriginal Languages Authority is obligated to consult with the language communities (set minimum requirements for consultation).

13.2.

The Aboriginal Languages Authority is responsible for stable and sustainable funding arrangements with language communities.

13.3. The Aboriginal Languages Authority must

have a close working relationship and take advice from the Aboriginal Languages Advisory Committee (see below).

13.4. The Aboriginal Language Authority of the

GNWT needs to liaise with the Aboriginal Language Centre (see below) to ensure a continuous work relationship is established.

14. The Aboriginal Languages Authority would

work with an advisory committee represented by delegates of the aboriginal language communities. The establishment of this Aboriginal Languages Advisory Committee in

combination with prescribed consultation requirements would ensure concerns of the languages communities are being heard and their advice being taken under consideration. 14.1.

The Aboriginal Language Advisory Committee would replace the existing Official Languages Board and the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board.

14.2. Mandate, competencies, meeting and

consultation requirements of this working group shall be clearly established in policy.

14.3.

The obligations of the Aboriginal Language Authority towards this advisory body shall be clearly established in policy.

14.4.

The Aboriginal Languages Advisory Committee is composed by representatives of all aboriginal languages.

14.5. The mandate of this advisory body shall

be to participate in the development of the long-term strategic revitalization plan and the annual action plans concerning language revitalization

14.6. This body shall be linking the community

needs with the planning and policy activities of the government in regards to aboriginal languages revitalization

Aboriginal Languages Centre

While the Aboriginal Languages Authority and the Aboriginal Languages Advisory Committee would be concerned with strategic planning and policy development relating to the revitalization of aboriginal languages, the Aboriginal Languages Centre would be tasked with language activities and program delivery aspects of a comprehensive revitalization regime.

15. Support and fund an Aboriginal Language

Centre (ALC) outside of government tasked with: 15.1. providing central resources and supports

necessary for language protection, revitalization, maintenance and modernization (for example linguists, community development/capacity building, collaboration with existing programs)

15.2.

functioning as a clearing house for resources developed by language groups and with funding from the GNWT

15.3.

developing an aboriginal languages resource website

15.4. accelerating the development of Unicode

Dene fonts

15.5.

coordinating the development and offering of interpreter/translator training and standards (can be in collaboration with other agencies; for example, the

existing pilot project through the Akaitcho Government).

15.6. developing adult language training and

other initiatives to increase the day-to-day use of aboriginal languages that can be adapted and used by the different language communities

15.7.

other activities as identified and supported by the language communities

15.8. maintain an ongoing working relationship

with the language communities and the Aboriginal Languages Authority

15.9.

providing an annual report to the Aboriginal Languages Authority

Note: There is nothing that shall prevent the installation of an Aboriginal Languages Centre within any existing language society. Language community groups and organizations shall be consulted before the structure of the Aboriginal Languages Centre is decided on.

Mandate Of The Languages Commissioner Devolved

16. The implementation of our recommendations to

create an Official Languages Secretariat and to strengthen government’s commitment to service oriented legislation makes the position of the Languages Commissioner no longer necessary. Similar to the setup of most other Canadian jurisdictions, the Official Languages Secretariat, if provided with adequate powers, could address and resolve complaints regarding government services, while the Aboriginal Language Authority could ensure the progress of the aboriginal language protection regime.

17. If the term of the Languages Commissioner

appointed under the exiting Official Languages Act has not expired when the new official languages services regime comes into force, then the Languages Commissioner shall be repositioned in the Official Languages Secretariat to ensure continuity during the transitional period until the Commissioner’s term of office has expired.

Minister Responsible For Official Languages Services And The Protection Of Aboriginal Languages

18. Designate a Minister responsible for Official

Languages Services and the Protection of Aboriginal Languages and place the Official Languages Secretariat and the Aboriginal Languages Authority with the Department of the Executive to ensure accountability for the government-wide implementation of the Official Languages Services Act and the aboriginal languages protection regime is in place.

19. Make the creation of a government-wide long-

term strategic/implementation plan for official languages services and the strategic plan for aboriginal language protection a responsibility of the Minister and establish these responsibilities in legislation and policy.

20. Make the creation of departmental/institutional

official languages services implementation plan with annual reporting on measures a responsibility of each government institution.

21. Strategic and implementation plans must

include financial needs assessments that would allow the Minister to bring budget requests forward during the established business planning cycle.

22. Make strategic and implementation plans for

official languages services and aboriginal languages protection publicly available.

23. Include annual updates on the implementation

of these plans including activities of the Official Language Secretariat, the Aboriginal Languages Authority and government institutions part of the reporting requirements of the Minister’s Annual Report on Official Language Services and Aboriginal Language Protection.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to pass off the continued reading of the executive summary to Mr. Menicoche. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Language Communities

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much, Mr. Abernethy.

24. Affirm relevance of the languages communities

for the use, maintenance, revitalization, protection and modernization of their respective languages.

25. Confirm government’s responsibility to support

the language communities in using, maintaining, revitalizing, protecting and modernizing their respective languages.

26.

Confirm aboriginal language communities’ responsibility to work with their people and political leadership at a community, regional and self-government level to increase daily usage, thus contributing to the recovery and maintenance of aboriginal languages.

27. The proposed Aboriginal Languages Centre

would provide increased support, development and sharing opportunities, avoiding duplication and increasing the capacity, programming and resource development for each language community group. Ideally this would lead to a close and ongoing working relationship between community language organizations and the centre.

28. The proposed Aboriginal Languages Advisory

Committee would provide opportunities for the

communities to provide input in setting government policy direction.

29. The role of the language communities would

be strengthened through mandatory consultation requirements of the Aboriginal Languages Authority and the Official Languages Secretariat.

Implementation

30. Make negotiations with Canada on changes to

the Northwest Territories official languages regime a priority.

31. Bring a legislative proposal forward during the

life of the 16th Legislative Assembly.

32.

Create an implementation plan for the introduction of the proposed Official Languages Services Act and aboriginal languages protection regimes in the life of the 16th Legislative Assembly (including fiscal, human resources and capacity building needs).

33. Conduct government-wide human resources

planning for the service delivery model to address official languages services obligations of the GNWT.

34. Use the Corporate Human Resources Strategic

Plan, currently under development by the Department of Human Resources, to determine the GNWT’s capacity to deliver services in the official languages.

35. Negotiate funding agreements for official

languages services and aboriginal languages protection with Canada.

36. Provide language communities with adequate

support and resources to implement their work plan/language plans on a continuous and developing basis.

37. Conduct an education campaign for all GNWT

staff on official language services and aboriginal language protection.

38. Provide an official languages service delivery

and communication manual for all staff, setting out minimum standards including for an “active offer”.

39. Extend the services offered at single-window

service centres (example: Manitoba).

40. Future NWT community surveys shall include

information on mother tongue and home language to allow for improved tracking of language shift, in particular for the aboriginal languages of the NWT. The tracking of language shift every two to three years could be an important indicator to evaluate if the revitalization measures put in place are successful.

41. Ensure that the NWT Bureau of Statistics

works closely with Statistics Canada to include all aboriginal official languages of the Northwest Territories when collecting and reporting language information during the census.

Transitional Provisions

The Standing Committee on Government Operations recognizes that a meaningful implementation of these recommendations will take some time. Therefore, the committee recommends that in the meantime the following transitional measures be acted upon without delay:

42. Improve service delivery in official languages. 43. Provide increased financial and capacity

supports to community language groups, including multi-year funding agreements.

44. Improve communication and consultation with

the community language groups and their organization.

45.

Conduct aboriginal language community consultations to prepare for the establishment of the Aboriginal Language Centre in the fiscal year 2010-2011.

46. In the interim, make the following amendments

to the existing Official Languages Act: 46.1. Languages Commissioner

46.1.1. Include NWT residency as

statutory requirement.

46.1.2. Include minimum requirements

for community outreach to promote official language rights and the act itself.

46.1.3. Review whether the existing

Official Languages Act sections on investigations by the Commissioner’s on his/her own initiative need to be clarified or strengthened.

46.1.4. Review

whether

additional

powers for the Languages Commissioner to audit government agencies for their implementation of OLA would strengthen the ombudsperson function of the statutory officer.

46.2. Official Languages Board and Aboriginal

Languages Revitalization Board

46.2.1. Amalgamate the two languages

boards into one Aboriginal Languages Board (ALB) that will provide the link between the aboriginal language communities and the Minister responsible for Official Languages.

46.2.2. Change the appointment process

by broadening the list of organizations who nominate representatives of their language communities. The intent is to involve a more diverse group of language stakeholders in the nomination process.

46.2.3. Clarify the Aboriginal Languages

Board’s mandate, powers and its relationship with the Minister in the act.

46.2.4. Include a description of the roles,

responsibilities, competency requirements and compensation/per diem schedule in the regulations establishing the Aboriginal Languages Board.

46.2.5. Include requirement for board

members to consult with their communities and stakeholders.

47. The Minister responsible for Official Languages

shall include a detailed progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Government Operations contained in its Final Report on the Review of the Official Languages Act 2008-2009 in his annual report on official languages.

48. The GNWT shall communicate with the

committee on the progress of the development of the proposed official languages services regime and the aboriginal languages protection regime.

Mr. Speaker, that concludes the executive summary of the Final Report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations on the Review of the Official Languages Act, 2008-2009: Reality Check: Securing the Future for the Official Languages of the Northwest Territories.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Committee Report 6-16(3) be received by the Assembly and moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration.

---Carried

The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker, I also seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 93(4) and have Committee Report 6-16(3) moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration today.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Item 5, returns to oral questions. Item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize some of the community language specialists that are kind enough to join us here for the release of the report on the Official Languages Act. I’d like to recognize Ms. Jane Modeste from Deline, Ms. Lucy Lafferty from Behchoko, Ms. Dorothy Minoza from Fort Providence, Ms. Mary Rose Sundberg from Dettah, Ms. Cathy Cockney from Inuvik. I’d also like to

recognize once again Ms. Sarah Jerome, the Official Languages Commissioner.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

At this time I’d like to recognize Ms. Deb Simpson in the gallery, a constituent, friend, a lot of things in Yellowknife. A mentor, as well.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

[English translation not provided.]

I just want to say welcome to the Legislative Assembly, Lucy Lafferty, director of TTSA Education, here with us. Also Sarah Jerome, as I alluded to earlier, the commissioner of language. Appreciate you being here. And also those that are involved with our language. I’m glad they’re here with us celebrating. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

I’d like to recognize in the gallery a young man from my constituency of Range Lake who will be shaving his head for the second year in a row to raise money for cancer and to take part in the Relay for Life: Mr. Tim Riviere and his mother, Heather.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Great pleasure to recognize elder Michel Paper from Dettah. He’s a very respected elder in my constituency. Also elder Therese Sangris, and, of course, Bertha Drygeese, Mary Rose Sundberg, Mary Rose from Goyatiko Languages Society. Lots of work on the languages act. And Mathilda Charlo, Alfred Baillargeon was here earlier. Also Roy Dahl and we also have a young Zachary Dahl here.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Premier Roland.

It is a rare opportunity to introduce people from the constituency of Inuvik in the gallery. I’d like to recognize Cathy Cockney, the director of Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre, and as well the Commissioner of the Official Languages Act, Sarah Jerome.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

It’s a pleasure to recognize the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, Sarah Jerome, from the home community of Fort McPherson. You make us all proud with your

appointment. I wish you all the best and look forward to working with you. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

I also would like to welcome constituents from the Sahtu. Jane Modeste-Goulet from Deline and Betty Modeste from Deline. Also, Crystal and Savannah Vandermere from Deline. Also like to recognize an old classmate from Samuel Hearne High School, Cathy Cockney.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the House. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. Always a pleasure to have an audience in here. With that, colleagues, the chair is going to call a short break and invite everybody out to the Great Hall for a reception.

---SHORT RECESS

We’ll return to orders of the day. Item 7, acknowledgements. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to acknowledge the recent and untimely death of one my constituents, Mr. Gerry Pye. Mr. Pye was a born and bred Newfoundlander who moved north in 1984. He was an active and giving resident of Yellowknife for 25 years, an accomplished musician who entertained residents at the Salvation Army, the Baker Centre, Avon Manor and he was a collector of classic cars. I extend my condolences and the condolences of this House to the many members of Mr. Pye’s family.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 3 on the Order Paper. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted.

We will return to item 3. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today about the government’s effort to promote the Northwest Territories in attracting both people and investment. I have been very

encouraged that the government has been making an effort at self-promotion. I believe that the Minister of ITI, Minister Bob McLeod, fully understands the importance of promoting our Territory.

I want to thank him for his clever speech at the recent Meet the North conference in Edmonton. I was unable to be there in person, but have had the chance to read the speech and subsequent press release that detailed the top 10 reasons to live in the Northwest Territories.

Here in the Northwest Territories we are blessed with natural wonders like the Nahanni National Park, Great Bear and Great Slave lakes, the mighty Mackenzie River, the pingos and Aurora Borealis. Our resource potential is immense. The NWT still is the land of opportunity and is available to those who are seeking out that opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, our greatest and most valuable resource continues to be our people. The people of the Northwest Territories are what makes living in this Territory so unique and such a pleasurable experience. The sense of community is something you just don’t get in southern Canada. The Northwest Territories is full of unique residents all with their own story.

If we, as a government, are going to be successful at attracting new residents here, we need to come up with a marketing strategy that includes our residents and their stories. We need to take advantage of the exposure of shows like Ice Road Truckers has given us. Testimonials from our residents will resonate with persons in the South who are contemplating relocation.

The economic hardship currently being faced by residents in southern Canada should be seen by our government as an opportunity for us to showcase our people, our Territory and our opportunities to those folks.

My family moved north from New Brunswick when I was a young boy and for our family it was the best move my parents could have ever made. And if you ask anyone who has moved away -- and many do move back -- what they miss the most about the North is the people.

So going forward we need to showcase our people, our greatest resource. I believe we need to get moving on a national marketing campaign, especially in hard-hit provinces like Ontario and Alberta, that will show people in southern Canada that opportunities are present here.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Now is the time to get to work at attracting people here. The Minister of Finance spoke earlier today of the importance of keeping

people here. That was clearly stated in his financial update. People mean money, in terms of our formula financing payments from Ottawa. With revenues trending downward I couldn’t agree with Mr. Miltenberger more, that we had better start looking at opportunities and ways to address this issue.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today to a concern expressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services last month by several of my constituents. At least two families in my riding have recently used the services of Yellowknife’s one and only midwife. While they were very pleased with both the birthing options available to them and the services provided by the midwife, they are extremely concerned for the long-term survival and sustainability of this program in this the NWT’s largest community.

In October 2005 the GNWT provided funds to Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority to begin midwifery services in Yellowknife. When announcing the new program in 2005 the Health Minister promised funding to expand the program from one to two midwives. Four years later the program still operates with just one midwife and it has created a lack of access to midwifery services in this community.

In just the last year, 25 women were refused service due to the workload constraints of the solitary Yellowknife midwife. Due to the nature of midwifery work, a midwife program must provide 24-hour, seven-day-a-week on-call services for their clients. It’s unreasonable to think that such a program can operate with only one staff member and not cause staff burn out. In Fort Smith the midwifery program has been a successful operation for some time now, but in contrast to the Yellowknife program Fort Smith has two midwives, not one.

The Department of Health and Social Services must recognize that the Yellowknife midwifery program needs more staff in order to keep operating. The NWT program is highly regarded by other medical personnel, by the local Health and Social Services authorities and by the clients who use it. The NWT is currently at the forefront of midwife services in Canada. Is this government prepared to take steps to keep us there?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Despite commitments to the contrary, we are wasting the residual heat produced by our diesel power generating stations. Eleven years ago the GNWT and the NWT Power Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding on the development of a residual heat distribution system. The news release issued to announce the MOU made some remarkable claims. They said that Public Works and Services and NTPC have been working since 1997 to develop concepts and systems to capture the residual heat from generating stations and use it to heat buildings. It said that benefits from the work could include new revenues for the Power Corporation and that, as a result of the work, customers could save as much as 30 percent in heating costs in as many as 30 communities. That was a brave new world in 1998.

Also at that time, a Gwich’in Development Corporation and NTPC venture had already started this kind of operation using so-called waste heat to heat six buildings, including the school, arena and water treatment plant. Since the release, Whati has become the second and presumably only other NWT community to use the heat that other plants filter away.

They don’t call it waste heat for nothing. In the Nordic countries we just visited in search of renewable energy opportunities, it is against the law to waste the heat produced by power generation. Every winter day I go by the Jackfish Lake diesel plant I see a hockey rink sized hole melted from the ice. This same waste of energy is happening every day across the NWT while our businesses and residents suffer with rising heat and power costs.

These substantial and potential savings have been officially waiting for at least 11 years. While European countries have made it illegal to throw away heat, we import oil from Korea and pump about half of its energy out of our NWT diesel plants into the air, wasted.

With the current review of electricity regulation, rates and subsidies now underway, I ask what mandatory measures and deadlines can be implemented to stop this waste before yet another decade goes by. Neither we nor our residents can afford to throw away any more heat or money, and until we can get off diesel we should at least exact the highest price from our production of greenhouse gases. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In most communities, I heard the discussion yesterday in the House in regard to 911 service in the communities of Yellowknife and six other communities. But I would also like to state that the communities in the Northwest Territories are still waiting for cell phone service.

The Yukon government made a political decision to ensure cell phone services to every community in the Yukon a couple of years ago, in conjunction with a private sector proposal that they received from NorthwesTel and a joint venture company.

I know that the 15th Assembly put out a request for

proposal to look at a similar arrangement in the Northwest Territories, but to date we haven’t seen any progress. I believe that communications in our communities, around our communities, and on the land can be accessed through cell phone service, especially on our highway systems where, more importantly, we don’t have any services it’s critical that we have that communication link wherever possible.

I think it’s very important that this government takes another look at the request for proposals, say exactly what the solicitors provided and, more importantly, act on that recommendation. If the Yukon can do it, can provide cell phone services to the community of Old Crow, I don’t see why this government cannot provide the same service to the other 23 communities throughout the Northwest Territories so we also can have cell phone services like most of the regional centres.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the greatest extent possible, families deserve equal and shared parenting rights after divorce and family arrangements that do not create undue trauma or hardship. Ultimately it’s the children who suffer most from a broken home, court battles, and bitterness surrounding separation and divorce. There’s a well-known adage that a father is a boy’s first hero and the first man a girl loves. Fathers are prime components in a family’s life. We must remember that a parent’s attitude and behaviour are the greatest influence in children’s lives.

Today I’d like to draw your attention to a new organization in the Northwest Territories. The Dads North Association was formed in December 2008 to empower individuals to establish and maintain healthy domestic lifestyles by providing guidance and understanding in a safe, unprejudiced

environment to help people who are experiencing emotional trauma and financial hardship following divorce. Although mainly focused toward men, the association is not biased against women, but, rather, seeks to promote true equality in society.

One of the functions of the Dads North Association is to fill the gap left by the Dads after Divorce and Separation Program, now that it is no longer offered in the community-at-large. The Dads Program addresses problem solving, family relationships, lifestyle balance, and emotional issues; areas which are key to fostering positive home lives and health.

The Dads North Association meets once a week at the John Howard Society. It presently receives no funding apart from donations made by its members. The Dads North Association vision is to realize a preferred future for all children and adults identified by what gives us long-term fulfillment.

Raising a family is a long-term investment. Healthy families are at the core of a healthy society and positive relationships are well worth the effort. The Dads North Association is a new organization that addresses the old and all-too-familiar problem. I would like to take this opportunity to applaud their effort and the contribution that the association wants to make to the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories must do everything it can to recruit and retain qualified employees. Mr. Speaker, I’d say, in many cases, we do just that, which the Department of Human Resources needs to be applauded for. I think that the quality of human resource management contributes to a productive employee and, of course, a government that stays in touch and understands our employees’ needs.

With that, Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to talk about that system and how it works with our employees in relation to payroll, benefits, pension, leave and attendance. Needless to say, with an employee receiving their proper pay and benefits, it’s always something on one’s high priority list. In recent years, the Department of Human Resources has made significant strides in improving their service delivery to their clients such as our public service employees. Employees are now able to post their leave requirements, overtime, sick leave, as well as many other things through this system. Mr. Speaker, this is a system that works well. Employees are able to check their overtime, benefits, leave, and this makes many people

happy. As well, they often get help dealing with superannuation.

However, Mr. Speaker, like in all systems, there are sometimes small glitches. I’ve heard of such cases where files sometimes get stuck in a glitch and they don’t move for three months, six months or sometimes even further. These are often referred to as difficult files. Although it’s not necessarily a question of who’s at fault; the problem is the file meets a dead wall.

Mr. Speaker, it has been my experience so far that quite often the person who’s blamed, of course, is the human resource officer in our HR department. But that’s not always the case, Mr. Speaker. Sometimes it’s two people thinking that someone else is doing a job and sometimes they assume the other person is doing it or should be doing it.

Mr. Speaker, it’s my opinion, as well as many other people I’ve talked to, that the Department of Human Resources should come up with a clear and simple policy that all difficult files have a three-month policy where they review them and double check through a phone call to communicate is there something we need to be doing together, is there something you should be doing or we should be doing. Mr. Speaker, this is simply about communication and working together to make sure these difficult files go through every step needed to make sure that they get off the desks and get out to where they’re supposed to go.

Mr. Speaker, the issue really is about communication and this would put a little more human back into the human resource title and go a long way to make a great and happy workforce work hard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 8, oral questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, referring back to my Member’s statement, I’ll have questions directed to the Minister of Human Resources, the Honourable Bob McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve had a chance to talk to our honourable Minister a couple of times about this subject, referring specifically to things like difficult files. Would he, as Minister, be willing to discuss with his department about the possibility of implementing a policy that all difficult files, if they’re not moving off desks, do a little review every three months to make sure that these difficult files are not lost and forgotten by new files as they continue to stack up and get ignored. Would he be willing to

consider a policy like that to make sure that these things move forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are a service delivery department, so whatever ways we can find to improve our service, we are always willing to look at it. Currently, if somebody retires, we usually follow up one month after their retirement and then again eight months later. Generally we find that sufficient but if the Member feels that we should be following up more actively, we are prepared to look at that.

For clarity on the record, of course, is that a commitment that the Minister will go back and look at and see if they’ll implement that? And if so, when does he think he could proceed with that process...(inaudible)...for me if that was the direction they were going. Thank you.

As the Member may know, when somebody retires they have up to one year to make a final determination of how they want their pension to be handled, whether they would receive monthly payments or receive a lump sum transfer value. In the past we found that if we follow up too often with retiring employees, they feel that we’re being a nuisance. So we can actually deal with that by interacting with the individuals that retire.

Mr. Speaker, I can certainly appreciate and respect the point of view that the Minister just brought, but I’ve got a recent case where, of course, once superannuation is involved to transfer of pensions, et cetera, all of a sudden there’s nothing but a headache and, of course, back to that finger pointing. They assume Human Resources is at fault. Human Resources assumes the client is supposed to do something and, of course, the communication between superann officially is almost a difficult process on its own.

Mr. Speaker, it’s back to the communication. Would the Minister maybe look at updating the policy and be willing to at least do that to make sure that there’s clear and regular contact with difficult files? Thank you.

Of course we want everybody that retires to have everything worked out so that they can enjoy their retirement years. I should point out that the superannuation is moving away to handling all of their own affairs. Generally, once they get the paperwork they don’t normally want our HR people to be intervening directly with the employee. But we’re quite prepared to look at it and to work very actively with retiring employees of the government.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is directed at the Premier, in light of my Member’s statement. The Yukon government made a political decision a number of years ago to provide cell phone services to all its communities. I believe it was a $2 million investment that they made. I’d like to ask the Premier: As the government, are we considering such a policy in the Northwest Territories and seriously considering making such an investment for the rest of the communities in the Northwest Territories? I believe there are some 22 communities without cell phone service. I’d like to ask the Premier: Can the Executive Council consider looking at that option?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this area has indeed been looked at from a number of areas. We are aware of what the Yukon government has done. Of course, their geographic area and ability to get into communities is much easier than ourselves, beside the one community that’s off their highway system. But we’ve been working through a number of fronts: One, to go through an exercise to look at cell phone service. In fact, on the specific area of broadband initiative which would help us with potentially increasing cell phone service, the CIO’s office is reviewing some information that may help us in this category, and that’s within the Department of Finance. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, I believe it’s an essential component of improving our telecommunications programs and services in our communities by good communication, being able to have people out in the field that you can basically communicate with and, more importantly, improve our systems in all our communities in the Northwest Territories regardless if it’s high-speed Internet. But, more importantly, I think the cost in regard to cell phone service is a lot cheaper. In most cases, people are packing cell phones around. You take it back to the community and you’ve got to shove it into your desk because you can’t use it.

I think it’s important that this government seriously considers looking at that. I’d like to ask the Minister, in regard to the request for proposal, is this government re-soliciting for such a proposal by the private sector to provide that service?

Mr. Speaker, before we go out for any further work, we would have to establish that in our business plans to identify actual dollars that we would have available for an investment if we were to do an RFP. Meanwhile, through the broadband initiative, which there are a number of phases and the department has been

working on this since 2005 with a couple of companies in trying to provide the high-speed Internet in communities and spin-off cell phone services, is one of those things that would be looked at. So there has been ongoing work. It is ongoing now. There’s a phase two kicking in that’s managing the Broadband Program and that’s currently under some discussions and negotiations with Infrastructure Canada in that area. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in regard to the solicitation for 911 service, I believe the Minister of MACA said in the House yesterday that they are willing to take a look at it. All I am asking the Premier is, can he also consider looking at cell phone services for those communities that don’t have the service at the present time?

Mr. Speaker, what the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs responded to was a report that was done much like any other report that gets done. If we were to accept that as a government on the recommendations that would come along with that, we would have to build it into the business plan and look at options of how we could implement such recommendations if we were to accept it as an Assembly and put that as one of our priorities.

With this area, we have heard the concern around 911. We also know that there is a concern of hooking up throughout the Territory and making services available. So there are a number of things we have to look at around the connectivity, around the cell phone services, around 911.

We are going to have to take a number of departments here, put them together and highlight each of the areas that there are concerns, to see where we can actually make them change and implement a plan of how long that plan would take to put in place, whether it is one year, two years or 10 years. But that is something we have to look at and take a look at it across departmental initiatives between 911, emergency services, cell phone service and so on before we make any direct decisions that we would be able to go forward on our business plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the downturn of our economy, I believe NorthwesTel is probably struggling like the rest of them. This is the possibility for an opportunity to offer them some investment by way of this government. I would like to ask the Premier in regard to the wish list that we keep sending down to Ottawa, is there a possibility of putting $2 million into that wish list, get some infrastructure funding for all of our communities in the Northwest Territories and have cell phone service in 33 communities in the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, I said it earlier and I will try to do it a little clearer this time, since 2005, the office of the Chief Information Officer has been working on the initiative, working with a number of departments, working with contractors in the North. In fact Falcon Communications and SSI Micro have been involved since 2005 working through the Infrastructure Canada funding through phase one. They are now starting into phase two, a process that would see further broadband capacity which then would allow us to look at another initiative across the Territory. There are over $14 million in that pot that we are trying to access and negotiate with Infrastructure Canada. We will get the departments together to provide information to the Members so that we know where the initiatives are. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to follow up on my statement about the midwife program in Yellowknife. I know the Minister is aware of circumstances of Yellowknife’s only midwife. I would like to ask the Minister whether or not she thinks that the expectations that are put on this person are reasonable and what she could tell me are acceptable circumstances for a single midwife working in this situation. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right that we have one funded position for a midwife in Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority. She is responsible for those services. The Member is also right that since 2005, when the policy was implemented, there has not been the kind of funding that would allow for any more midwifery positions in the system. In fact, the positions that we are funding in Yellowknife were originally allocated for Hay River but was not...(inaudible)...at this time. If we are to spend the midwifery services in Yellowknife or in any other community, which we hope to do, it will require additional funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Does the Minister think that the situation in Yellowknife is acceptable for one midwife to be handling the number of clients that she does to have to turn away 25 clients in any one year? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important for us to know that for the expecting mothers in Yellowknife, they have services of

doctors who could help her with that process, which is not the case for many expecting mothers in many of our communities. We have communities without nurses even, so there is no question that there is a lot of need for human resources in our health system. For Yellowknife, I understand that midwifery service may be or is the preferred option for many expecting mothers, but those mothers who don’t have access to a midwife because there is one midwife that has a full workload, those expecting mothers have the option and services of a physician. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I guess I agree to disagree, because I think that while we have options whether midwife services or doctoral services for pregnant women here in Yellowknife, I think the Minister probably should recognize that there are some efficiencies in the midwife program. It keeps many patients out of the hospital, which we know is a very expensive proposition. I think that were it looked at, we would probably find that there are some efficiencies and some cost savings.

I asked a question in my statement whether or not the government is prepared to take steps to keep us at the forefront of midwife services in Canada, which is where I think we are. Knowing the number of clients that have been denied, knowing that there is a need, I would like to ask the Minister if there are any concrete plans, if there are any steps to meet the commitment that was made in 2005 and add another staff person to this program. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have to correct the Member that midwifery services does not eliminate the need for physicians. They have to work together. Midwives have to practice their profession along with physicians in a supervisory role. That is what happens in Fort Smith as well. Mr. Speaker, it is my desire and hope that we can expand the services especially, and this is more suitable in regional centres like Fort Smith, Hay River, Fort Simpson and the Sahtu where the reliable physician services are not as readily in place. The plan is for me to go forward during the business plan process to see if we could expand those services, but I think, in making decisions on our physical priorities, it is important to note that for those mothers in Yellowknife who prefer to have midwifery service, they still have a lot more services than many mothers in our communities who do not have those services. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t mean to suggest that women who use the services of a midwife do not also use a doctor. I just think that there are more and more women who are able through a midwife to have their babies at home and that saves an awful lot of cost in the hospital.

The Minister is suggesting that there might be an addition of a midwife not in Yellowknife and I have to find some fault with that. I would like to know whether or not there is some possibility of at least a half a PY administration support for the only midwife that we have here. It is my understanding that administration support would greatly ease the load of this person’s workload. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am well aware of the environment in which the sole midwife is operating in the Yellowknife Health and Social Services. The authority makes sure that she doesn’t have a workload that is too much for one person to handle. She gets breaks. The doctors take over her duties. I believe that she gets the support she needs from the authority. When I say that I would like to see the expansion of this program, I am just trying to tell the Members of this House that we need to look at this as an NWT-wide program and that the need for midwifery services is even more acute in our communities and regional centres where we really are having a hard time even finding a permanent doctor, not to mention having an option of midwifery as a nicer and more alternative choice that mothers would like. We need to make sure that we look at our system across the board and make decisions accordingly when we are looking at priority. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got some questions today for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and it gets back to my Member’s statement. Interestingly enough, we heard from the Finance Minister earlier today talking about the fact that we can’t ignore the fact that our population is shrinking. That is a well-known fact that I think we’ve heard the Premier state the government needs to do something about. The Finance Minister, and I know more recently at the Meet the North conference in Edmonton, our Minister ITI was extolling the virtues of living in the Northwest Territories. We’re saying some of the right things but I really want to know what the government is going to do in terms of coming up with some kind of strategy or marketing plan on trying to attract people to live in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker.

The first question I have to the Minister is: What concrete steps is the government taking to try to attract people to live in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board, Mr. Bob McLeod.