This is page numbers 4927 - 4952 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 work.

Topics

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Could the Premier tell me how often, by committee, each of these committees meet and when was the last time each met? Thank you.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Mr. Speaker, the strategic initiatives committees meet on a regular basis and, in fact, I believe last week every one of those initiatives committees had a meeting to discuss plans for the upcoming year. Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I’d like to thank the Premier for that. I’m happy to hear the committees still exist and I’m happy to hear that they meet. Where my frustration lies is that the silos obviously continue to exist. I gave an example earlier, but I’d be happy to sit down with the Premier and give him a number of examples that I’ve received over the last couple of months. What is the Premier doing with respect with these committees to help break down some of these silos? I mean, what we want is an efficient government and I acknowledge that the committees have done an awful lot of good work, but these silos

continue to exist. So what is the Premier doing to help break down these silos? Thank you.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Mr. Speaker, not only do the strategic initiatives committees meet on a regular basis to discuss… And those strategic initiatives committees will be going towards more policy orientation as we fine tune the work they do. But we also have deputy minister committees who meet on a regular basis throughout the government. Those have been in place for some time. Of course, our challenge has always been and the reason we got these strategic initiatives committees in place was to break down those silos. I must say that at times it is a slow process. It’s frustrating at times. And I must say that some of the debate that happens around those strategic initiatives committees in this Assembly just helps slow things down because nobody wants to move if we’re not all happy with the direction we’re all paddling, even if it’s in a circle. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Getting back to my Member’s statement, I have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, who happens to be the Minister responsible for consumer protection.

It’s come to my attention from a constituent about calling cards which are sold in the Northwest Territories that do not allow the same level of service for a similar card, an exact same card sold in southern Canada. In fact, there’s a 25 cent surcharge tacked on to the minutes for using these cards. I’d like to ask the Minister if he knows why calling cards in the Northwest Territories sold at retail outlets around the Territory are subject to this surcharge of 25 cents a minute. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Consumer Affairs has received a few complaints regarding some of the telephone services across the Northwest Territories and they were told that they had no regulatory role in this area. However, we will follow up on that and maybe communicate to the CRTC our concern with how the phone cards and the charges are made. Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I think if there’s one company charging a 25 cent surcharge on any call originating in the Northwest Territories, to me that’s called a monopoly. I don’t know what other word to use. Doesn’t our government have an obligation to go to bat for our residents when it comes to one company

charging 25 cents a minute for people to call their loved ones overseas? I’d like to ask the Minister -- I know he said his officials are looking into this -- when might we be able to hear back from consumer protection on what the government’s next move might be? Thank you.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, I will follow up with the department immediately and I’ll look to have some kind of response back to the Member and Members by the end of session. Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, I’ve got no reason to believe that this isn’t happening. I’ve used these cards myself and there is a discrepancy between the minutes you get in the Northwest Territories when you dial the supposed toll-free number and what you get when you’re in southern Canada. I’d like to ask the Minister if the government, I guess it would depend on the findings of consumer protection, but would the government or can the government write a letter to the CRTC suggesting that the CRTC have a look at the ongoing issue with the surcharge to calling cards here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, as a government we would be willing to communicate to the CRTC our concerns with how the charges are made against the people of the Northwest Territories. So I’ll commit to the Member that we will follow through with that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Some years ago, Volunteer NWT was established. It’s, unfortunately, an organization which is now defunct. When the federal funding which we received to establish the organization went the way of the dodo birds, so, unfortunately, did the organization because GNWT did not follow through and replace the funding.

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs held a Volunteer Summit last March and published a report in September of 2009. The intent of that report apparently was to gather input for use in revising the Volunteer Support Initiative Action Plan. We received correspondence in September of 2009 that indicated that a revised action plan would be out for consultation in the winter of 2010. Well, I believe, Mr. Speaker, that winter is over and I would like to ask the Minister when we can expect a revised volunteer support initiative action plan. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; we were out consulting on a new initiative. I can assure the Member that the new Volunteer Support Initiative will be completed by this fall. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for that information. I guess better late than never. I feel, and I think many Members on this side of the House agree, that volunteers are the backbone of our communities and, in our view, the government should be providing strong support, both moral support and financial support, to enable our volunteers. In the last couple of years that I have been here, we have talked about multi-year funding for NGOs, non-government organizations, to ensure better treatment with them, better communications and operations between government and NGOs. I know a program manager guide has been done, but I know there was also another document that was presumably being worked on that wasn’t just for GNWT employees but was for NGOs to put some parameters in place. I would like to ask the Minister how close to a usable workable document are we, one that is comprehensive and guides the dealings of NGOs with government and government with NGOs. Thank you.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, I will consult with the appropriate department and get a timeline as to the concerns that the Member is raising and communicate those back to her. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I will look forward to that. I would ask the Minister to copy other Members because I believe that everybody is interested in this document which is presumably coming.

The Minister talked about a report being available in the fall. I know in May of this year we received another letter from the Minister which talked about Volunteer Support Initiative consultations which apparently are going to be ongoing in the next couple of months, I guess. The letter talked about some of the focus of the questions for these consultations as being promotion of volunteers, recognition of volunteers. I found the questions quite superficial. I don’t feel that they are going to get to the real needs of our volunteers and the support that they need. I would like to know if the Minister can advise in terms of these consultations. We are supposed to have a revised plan, but what is the focus? What is the goal of these consultations coming up? Thank you.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, we are hoping to develop an updated NWT Volunteer Support Initiative and use this as an opportunity to

listen to the organizations out there and see what is the best way that we can support our volunteer sector. We do provide some support right now to some of the volunteer groups, but we are hoping to enhance or expand on this program through questions there. We are looking at this as an opportunity as we did with the Volunteer Summit using that as an opportunity to listen to those that are most affected by this. We took some of that information and took the next step. We are hoping to use this as a document to expand on the funding if the need is there, which I think we all believe the need is there, so that is our plan. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am really glad to hear the Minister say that we are going to expand the funding. That is great. I take that commitment. I look forward to that in the 2011-12 Business Plans. In order to effect any real change, I think that we have to go beyond sort of the questions that are out in this round of consultations. We have to get deeper into sort of the meat of the matter. I would like to know from the Minister whether or not there will be consideration within the government to reorganize it so that all the volunteer initiatives, all the volunteer programs fall under one department; preferably, in my view, the Executive. Thank you.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, we will have that discussion with the Executive. If Members and the public feel that this is the proper place to have the volunteer initiative, then that is a discussion that we will have to have. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in regards to my Member’s statement, but also this issue I have raised in the last setting of this Legislature but it looks like nothing has been done with it. Again, these contracts that are being let in our communities are not being taken advantage of by local contractors. If anything, it is benefitting the regional contractors who have an opportunity because the way the contracts are being let, which are basically supply, ship and erect contracts, are an advantage to the larger regional contractors in regards to having to bid in multiple contracts versus the local contractors in most cases bid only at the local level.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Housing in regards to the tendering process. I gave

the Minister a copy of the e-mail that I am talking about and he is aware of the issue. There are other avenues to be able to meet the same objective by way of invitational tenders in affected communities where those contracts are going to be let, have a negotiating contracting policy and also consider labour-only contracts which was the practice in the past which was helpful to communities. I would like to ask the Minister, why has this government not changed the practice that is being used today and knowing that this was raised in the House previously and that committee members have raised and have looked at those other options that would benefit small communities?