This is page numbers 4863 - 4888 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was plate.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline, I just want to make sure that our government is taking the proper steps in pushing forward this project so the people of the Territories... This is probably going to be the biggest project ever for us in Canada. Everybody wants to do it right. We have to find some stimulus

to get people working up in the delta. Just want to make sure there are timelines and we have to stick to them.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We are working very diligently to make sure that all of the timelines are met and that when the report comes out in September 2010 we’ll be able to deal with the recommendations.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t want to belabour this licence plate issue, but I am not understanding why the Department of Transportation wants to dispose of the old licence plates. There are non-profit organizations, youth groups, sports associations, all kinds of people that if you won’t trade a new plate for an old plate, understood, but people can turn their old plate in to the Department of Transportation. You could in turn, instead of disposing of them, give that to some organization. They’re light as a feather, you can mail them out to people, and somebody could make money off these things. I need to understand why you wouldn’t give them to your brother’s department there.

I don’t know what he was going to do with them, but I think they have value and I don’t want to see them going into a landfill. Tell me again, if the Minister could, please, why we could not recycle these plates and earn money from them for some good cause. People would probably even bring them and trade them in and drop them off and pay for their new one if they thought the money was going to a good cause.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are two reasons, I guess, that we are reluctant to try to recycle these plates. Our preference would be to collect all the plates. We know that’s not realistic. People want to keep their plates as souvenirs. Some have personalized plates or numbers that they want to hang on to. Some want to keep it because the plate is not going to be in production any further. So we’ve made allowance for that. People can keep their licence plates. Organizations can do a drive to pick up licence plates. However, we have a concern about disposal of plates that are out on the market. These plates have a toxic dip that was required to prevent corrosion. We also would like to have all the licence plates off the market by December 2011 so that we

can try to alleviate some of the concern of having unregistered vehicles out there with plates so that all vehicles will have new plates by then. We’ll also eliminate the temptation to put the old plates on the front of a vehicle, which is also illegal. There are a number of things that require us to move forward in keeping the plate off the market. Those are the reasons.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

People put all kinds of things on the front of their vehicles. I didn’t know it was illegal to put a valid driver’s licence on the front of the vehicle. That’s news to me. I’ll have to make sure I don’t ever do that.

So the Department of Transportation is not willing to be the receiver of these plates to be recycled for any organization. So I guess it’s just, I think the whole idea of them being dipped in something is a bit of a red herring. I don’t think that’s going to stop people from collecting or reselling or doing anything. I guess all we can do is throw it out there that if somebody wants to mobilize or organize, that there could be some other way of collecting these and reusing these. I thought a good way would be to trade an old one in for a new one, but I guess the Minister doesn’t really have any appetite for that.

Just to be clear now, this chemical that these plates are dipped into to prevent or retard erosion, how worried should we be about that, handling these plates? Have they always been like that? I mean, let’s quantify that problem. Thank you.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Member shouldn’t be driving with decorative plates on the front of the vehicle with any kind of numbering or any indication that it’s a legal plate. The plate is required to be on the back of the vehicle.

The disposal of the plates is not a red herring. It’s something that we have to do due diligence on. As the plates are turned over to us, we have to ensure proper disposal. We can’t afford to let 30,000 plates go into the landfill. That would collectively be of concern. So that’s what we have to do. The opportunity is still there for people to keep their plates. The opportunity is still there for organizations to collect them, if they so wish. It’s just that if they come into our hands, we want to make sure the disposal is done properly. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during my Member’s statement I talked about the difficulties that people face when they have members of their family that are sick or

members of their family who have passed away. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions on some of the policies that these people have to deal with. Would the Minister direct her staff to develop a policy on accommodation support for family members that are supporting the sick when they are outside of their home community? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct in his concern that we do not have a policy or program funding to accommodate a family of our people when they are dying or when they are sick for any length of time. The only thing we have is a medical escort to medical travel. It’s limited to one person and usually for a very specific period of time. If the Member is interested in working as a committee chair to pursue this further, we could analyze that and see what the cost implications are and what the scope and breadth of that program might be. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister then re-examine the Medical Travel Policy so that common sense decisions can be made quickly by the government to support individuals when the elderly or when the sick are involved and medical travel is required for family members? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

I believe the challenges and the problems that families have to go through has to do with the fact that we do not have a separate pot of money or program to accommodate families who want to be near those who are in care. All of the health authorities try to do their own way to accommodate them. Sometimes they get help from local bands or they look at every bit of money they have to do this, because we do not have a program and funding for that. So if the Member and the committee are interested in pursuing this, I’d be willing to… The Member knows that any changes to policy or establishing of a new program goes through working with the committees. So I will commit to working with the committee on those. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, also, in situations leading up to when an individual passes away in the community, there’s always the issue of providing a casket. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, the individuals and communities like to pull together to support families who have lost loved ones. Would the Minister review that policy of providing a casket -- I think it’s mostly for indigent people that they are providing -- so that there is some certainty when family members have a loss, some certainty to family in these trying times when they don’t have to deal with complex issues? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

The program we have now for providing for a casket is for the indigent only, which means people on income support. There is a very specific amount of money that is allocated for that. The problem is when the families want to go with something more costly, because they want to, as the Member said, do the best for their families. We currently do not have a program that would do that. Lots of back and forth that goes on is that staff are clear about what they are able to purchase. It’s the people who want to do more and we do not have programs for that. If the Member wants to pursue that and work with committee, I will be prepared to look at that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Your final question, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps there’s a requirement for an expansion of the policy outside of just purely indigent people, as well, considering the cost of living in the communities, even with individuals that have jobs. The cost of travel, especially if several family members have to go to Edmonton, even Yellowknife or even Hay River, for that matter, but especially when many members of the family have to travel to Edmonton, and then on top of that the cost of the casket adds to the expenses and a lot of the people can’t afford that. Like I said, communities do pull together, but I’d like to know if the Minister would also look at the policy again. I recognize what it’s for. Look at the policy again and maybe consider expansion of the policy to reach other constituents that may need that assistance. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

The policy is there now. Any expansion of the policy would require additional money and that would have to be the decision of the Legislature as a whole and the government as a whole.

Mr. Speaker, we spend lots of time talking about the sustainability and affordability of our health care and health care related costs. Obviously if we want to expand that and try to find new money, it would have to be done as a partnership between this side of the House and that side. Certainly, I’m willing to explore that, but at the end of the day, it would have to be a decision of the entire Assembly. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions will be to the Minister of Education today and it will be a follow-up to my Member’s statement regarding the potential of a pan-territorial university, perhaps an aurora

university, that could be either based out of the Northwest Territories or in certainly some partnership with our two other sister territories. Mr. Speaker, my question is: has the Minister of Education given any consideration to the creation of a northern university? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we have to keep in mind that we are delivering university courses right now. We currently deliver degree programs and masters programs at current stages right now, but we are exploring further to delivering more of university-type programs to our schools, into our institutions, the three main campuses that we have. I just recently met with my colleagues in Nunavut, in the Yukon, on exploring options and how it’s going to look, a university of the Arctic. We realize that more work needs to take place.

At the same time, I just recently met with Minister Strahl as well. It is under his jurisdiction. We talked about the vision of the North and the three main campuses and also the three territories as a united approach. We did agree that we need to expand on our campuses. We are exploring those options right now, Mr. Speaker. We will continue to update the Members as we move forward. Mahsi.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, if I understand it, our college presently offers university courses, but it is not necessarily university based. It works in partnership with other universities. I will let the Minister correct in the record if that is not quite accurate. Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear what the progress milestones are that we could achieve. Are there any types of roadblocks stopping the potential of an Arctic university emerging here in the Northwest Territories? As I said in my Member’s statement, education is the best gift we can offer any future generation. Certainly, I would like to see us plant the seeds on a project like this. Again, Mr. Speaker, what progress to date really has been made? Are there any substantial roadblocks bowing this evolution down towards a northern university? Thank you.