This is page numbers 3003 - 3034 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was work.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Going from my Member’s statement today with my elders facility in Ulukhaktok and how important it is to the community. For the Minister of Housing. Will this government place the substandard living conditions for seniors as the highest priority or are they going to continue stripping benefits and services like they have been during this session? Will the government commit to develop and work with me for a seniors facility in Ulukhaktok or are we going to this legacy of neglect?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Mr. Speaker, I’m just trying to figure out what the Member is referring to in terms of stripping benefits and services from the Housing Corporation to the seniors. I don’t believe any of that has happened. In fact, the last couple of years we’ve expanded our programs to accommodate seniors and remove the cap that limited the assistance that was provided to seniors historically. Now our seniors can access the same programs and services as anyone else.

The Member also asked a second question as part of this as to providing facilities for seniors. We do look at and analyze requirements for seniors in all our communities as part of our consideration. However, we do not provide seniors facilities that are considered to be institutions. Certainly we can have a discussion with the Department of Health. The facilities that we provide are usually in the area of existing upgrades or replacement units and the focus is on independent seniors, seniors that can look after themselves.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Would the Minister, you know, since he brought it up about existing units, everything’s been given to the bigger communities. Nothing’s been ever given to the smaller communities such as in my riding of Nunakput. So how could he say that in the first place? Everything’s in the South Slave. Or in your riding. Sorry. All I’m asking for is if this government could try. It doesn’t have to be a full-fledged elders facility; it could be a four-plex for elders.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

I would have to undertake to put a list together for the investment that’s been made in the Member’s riding to show that there has been no intention or no neglect of investment in his communities. We certainly will, and could, and, as was requested, follow up and look at seniors facilities. We in the Housing Corporation cannot put a seniors facility that is a higher level than independent. That would have to

be done through the Department of Health and I can convey his request to her. But I can assure the Member that we have additional dollars that are being negotiated right now. We are putting a list together of needs. We’ve heard from his communities. We have seen petitions from the Member and members of his community. We’re taking that into consideration. Until that’s finally signed off with the federal government, it’s difficult to provide him an actual listing. He will have an opportunity to review it and see what the investment will be in those communities that he represents.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Minister. I look forward to seeing this $50 million in new dollars from the federal government’s stimulus package for housing. Could the Minister commit to working with me in the future in regard to getting that structure built as soon as possible?

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Absolutely, we’d be pleased to work with the Member. We make a commitment to share the information of investment that’s going to be made as a result of the new agreements with the federal government on the Northern Housing Trust. There are certainly conditions that we would have to keep in mind. Of course, first of all, as I mentioned before, we need to ensure that these houses are independent units; houses for seniors that can look after themselves. We also are not in a position to add to our public housing stock, so we do not have any operating dollars as of yet. That’s our next political challenge, to have those discussions with the federal government. I would be pleased to work with the Member and I’ve already committed I’ll share the information to him and the rest of our colleagues across the way here to ensure that they’re completely aware of the dollars that are being spent in their riding and their communities.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Minister, for that answer. I look forward to seeing your design. We could work together in going over them. All I want to bring up today, we want our elders to stay home. We don’t want to send them out of the community. We want them to stay home and live a happy life and not send them out to Inuvik and the stressful environment where they never get to see family. That’s all we’re asking. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. I didn’t hear a question there.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

It was a good point.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I heard a good expression on the radio this morning. They used to say that government should be leaner and meaner. Now they’re saying leaner and greener. I think that’s a great phrase: leaner and greener. I appreciate the initiatives that have been announced and undertaken by this government to look at alternate sources of energy. We heard about the biomass, about the pellet boilers. We’ve heard about electric heat from the hydro surplus in Fort Smith. I have been contacting the Minister and will be asking him again today, what has the government done to examine the potential for geothermal heat in the Northwest Territories. I have a constituent who is a third generation business owner in Hay River that would very much like to get involved in the installation of geothermal heat technology and equipment and so on in Hay River, but in order to do that he needs a building, a public building that he can use as a prototype. There are very large sums of federal money available for such a conversion and I would like to ask the Minister of ENR what work has been done on geothermal.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Geothermal is one of the alternative forms of energy that is being considered. There is money in the budget to advance some of the groundwork. We are looking initially particularly in Yellowknife where they have done a lot of work already and trying to make sure that we can assist, if possible, as they look at all the mine shafts and the potential to capture some of that heat. As well, over in Nahendeh and around Simpson, in that area, Liard, it seemed to be a high potential for geothermal as well. If the Member’s constituent is interested, we have staff that are listening to this, if I can get the name later from the Member I’ll make sure we have a follow-up with this individual as well.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

My constituent is assembling the equipment and the necessary infrastructure that he needs to begin these installations. I believe that Hay River is also a community that would be a good candidate for geothermal. Is there a public building in Hay River

owned by the GNWT that we could do a test pilot project on? Let me suggest the courthouse.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

We are going to be investing a significant amount of money on biomass in Hay River over the next year or so. She has posed the question that she’s kindly answered for me. We’ll see where that fits. I don’t know what kind of process or cost is entailed. I know the federal government is putting together a, has a Green Fund of a billion dollars that is project based, application based. We’re waiting to see what the criteria is, to see if we could possibly access some of that money as well. I will just restate the commitment that the staff will track down the name. I’ll get the name from the Member and we’ll follow up to see what’s possible.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

I’ll be happy to provide that name and I would like to ask the Minister if he or officials in his department would be willing to meet with my constituent to discuss this. I think that between some small contribution by the territorial government and a rather large contribution by the federal government we could do a prototype. The issue is that in order to do the prototype it has to be a publicly owned building. It cannot be a privately owned building. So that’s why we need some buildings that would be candidates to give this a try. Would the Minister agree to have his officials or himself meet directly with my constituent to see if a building could be identified?

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

We’re looking at a number of innovative technologies. For example, an air-to-air heat exchanger that appears to be working well and has great potential applicability in the Northwest Territories, especially maybe in the southern part. I will confirm once again that I’ll have officials follow up with the Member’s constituent to get a better sense of what is being proposed, potential costs, look at something in writing so that we can do a proper kind of assessment and see what kind of support may be possible.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I clearly outlined that we have a serious problem in the Sahtu in regard to our runway length in Fort Good Hope and Deline. We’ve been working closely with the Department of Transportation to see how we can address this. There has been much correspondence with the department and the communities of Deline and Fort Good Hope and their major partner in the airline,

North-Wright Aviation. I would ask the Minister if he would continue working with the communities of Fort Good Hope and Deline to find solutions that would address the runway extension that we’re asking for in Fort Good Hope and Deline.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m assuming when he says solutions, he’s talking about new investment in the runways to extend them. That’s the challenge at this point. There are a couple of things that we haven’t formally been able to analyze that is the actual cost and how we would find the resources to invest in the capital portion of extending the runway. We also need to clarify what it would entail in terms of additional resources or additional operations and maintenance dollars for a runway that exceeds 4,000 feet. That is something that we’re compiling right now and we’d be glad to share it with communities.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

The Minister is correct in terms of the things that need to get done to ensure that these runways in the Sahtu, specifically Fort Good Hope and Deline, receive the additional, if they could get the additional 500 feet of extension on their runways. I would ask the Minister in terms of working with the Sahtu beneficiaries own airlines in regard to looking at this issue here. Would the Minister address this problem by giving some serious consideration to include the extension in the 2010-2011 capital plan?