This is page numbers 6965 - 7000 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 6th 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 assembly.

Topics

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. As we’re talking about 2012 and beyond in the 17th Assembly after it actually goes through

the phase of becoming familiar with what’s on the deck and looking at the initial plans of departments and making recommendations, the work that has been done, we’re going to ensure that the recommendations and the work we’ve done jointly -- because government staff have been involved and part of the team -- will carry forward those recommendations to see what could be adopted. That’s the best I can do at this late stage of our government. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Premier. It’s in regard to my Member’s statement and the importance of dealing with poverty in the North, but more importantly, getting the government to move on an Anti-Poverty Strategy and implementing the strategy and not just look at doing another study.

I’d like to ask the Premier, as the transitional process takes fold, where in the list of items being transferred to the new government and part of the transitional document is the poverty situation in the Northwest Territories. I think it has to be on top of the list. So I’d like to ask the Premier where is the government on the Anti-Poverty Strategy.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Anti-Poverty Strategy, the work that’s done and reported to standing committee will be included in that transition process. Thank you.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you. I think it’s more important to find a way to implement our strategy than simply doing strategies, and I think it’s important that we do emphasise the importance of this work, and more importantly, implement it, put it into action and find ways to pull people out of poverty and turn the Northwest Territories economy around. So I’d like to ask the Premier are there any types of investments that are also going to be suggested on where we can find resources to either implement or give the new government an idea of things that they can do to implement this strategy.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. Again, the work that’s been done to date is forwarded to committee for a response and carry on, and carried forward to the 17th Assembly. We’re not in a

position to direct the next government to what areas they should be investing in, what areas of priority.

I know many times we, as a government and the many departments that were involved in this work, continue to do this work through existing programs. But for the strategy itself, the work that’s been done and tabled with Members, hopefully early in the life of the 17th Assembly they’ll be able to review those

and decide what they can carry forward. Thank you.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you. Again, I’d like to thank the Premier for that. I know that we can’t sort of impose on the new government, but I think we can strongly suggest or recommend that they seriously consider this as being one of their priorities. So I’d like to ask the Premier, is that something that the government can suggest that they seriously consider this as a top priority of this government to the next government.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. Part of our transition planning and work will incorporate quite a number of initiatives that we have started and we’ll be handing off. As the Member is very familiar with, we’ve been through this cycle four times prior, that the new Members will look at their initiatives, their priorities, and I’m sure there will be a number of Members returning and will carry forward with the work that’s been done to date and raise that level of importance at that stage. But it will be a part of the

package. It will have to be up to the 17th Assembly

to decide what their priorities will be. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier today, and I’m just wondering if the Premier was able to get word out to the Dene chiefs and Aboriginal leaders across the Northwest Territories about the Prime Minister’s visit this morning and the opportunity for them to attend. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that the communications team, both from the federal government and from our side, we weren’t aware of a list of invites and so on, but we were able to get the news and the invites out, I believe it was late yesterday. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you. I appreciate that information and I’ll pass that along to my constituents who are interested. I guess, following up on the Prime Minister’s visit, is there anything the Premier can report back to us on the discussions? I realize his visit was very short this morning, but I wonder if the Premier had an opportunity to visit and whether we might hear what we should be hearing about. Thank you.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. The meeting was short. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to have a one-on-one with the Prime Minister, but the three Premiers from the territories did have a meeting with the Prime Minister and we laid out a number of pan-territorial issues; housing, for example, as well as infrastructure.

I raised with Minister Aglukkaq the issue that was raised in the House here the other day around the Green Fund initiatives and our support for the city’s application.

Also, I had a chance to discuss where the pipeline initiative may be sitting and I expected the answer I got, that it’s in the proponent’s hands to make a decision on that, and talked about, for example, fibre optics is one of those avenues we could be looking at here in the Northwest Territories through support.

The Prime Minister asked me about this government’s move on the Inuvik-Tuk road, if we’ve met our side of the equation, and at that point raised that as our departments are getting together, they need to work out the actual arrangements and figure out this 75/25 percent share arrangement and what that would all incorporate. So there were those things that we were able to touch on.

Of course, with other Premiers there, they were bringing up their issues from their constituencies as well.

So I had a quick opportunity to raise some of those areas going forward. One of those things that we discussed was this continuation of the THSSI program and the fact that now we’re on the same page as all the other jurisdictions across Canada when it comes to the accord, Canada Health Accord. The Prime Minister at that point said we will need to get together as a country and really look at our ability to deliver a sustainable program, and I know that will be the challenge for the next governments as they prepare to deal with that accord. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I very much appreciate all that information. It’s very good to get that out. It sounds like a lot of subjects were covered in a very short period of time, and I’m sure there was strong commonality amongst our Premiers.

I’m wondering, just following up on the discussions we had yesterday and the day before, I know the water monitoring stations are being shut down across the North, both transboundary and 21 out of 23 in the Northwest Territories, completely devastating our Water Quality Monitoring Program. Did the Premier have a chance to raise that with the Prime Minister? Mahsi.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. I did have an opportunity to talk about devolution and the impacts of some of the decisions being made would have on a final package that we would look specifically on the water station, the monitoring issue. I did raise that with Minister Duncan as he was a part of the meeting on that scenario. Although it’s not in his shop specifically, it does affect the overall deal we’re talking about when it comes to the environment and the agreement-in-principle and just how that work needs to be done in honouring the commitment we had on paper, at least, I see through the agreement-in-principle. He’s taken that information. I was hoping to have another side discussion with the Prime Minister but, unfortunately, the time ran out and I wasn’t able to connect directly on that subject.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of MACA. As indicated in my Member’s statement, Sport North is in an incredibly difficult situation due to the

confusion and apparent inconsistencies in the application process. Specifically, some organizations are getting multi-year funding while others aren’t, and programs like Sport for Life and coaching and the CSOP were declined with no or limited resources or alternatives being provided by the SRC. Sport North had no choice but to appeal this SRC decision. They have been waiting for months and have gone through their cash reserves. In 30 days they’ll be out of money and unable to meet payroll.

Could the Minister please tell us, by signing their contribution agreement which would allow the approved $1.683 million minus the $149,000, which they’ve already received, to flow to them, which will allow them to meet their payroll and provide continued support to the territorial sports organizations, would Sport North in fact be forfeiting or undermining their appeal which is currently underway? Specifically, will it stop the appeal process?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. 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. Sport North is actually encouraged to sign the contribution agreement for the $1.6 million. This is more money than they received last year. By signing this particular agreement, they’re not going to be giving up their right to obtain any additional funding related to other projects that might be available. It also would not affect the appeal process that they have submitted.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

That is good news. Six areas in the Sport North application were denied funding. Three of these areas are critical programs; specifically, the coaching programs, the Canadian Sport for Life, and the Community Support Opportunity Program. Sport North are concerned that these programs were never completely assessed through the application process and don’t feel that they were provided comprehensive information on why they were rejected or what changes were needed to help the applications meet the SRC’s application criteria. Could the Minister please direct the SRC to provide detailed explanations to Sport North on why these different programs failed to receive funding, and what items or changes would be required so that these programs could in fact receive funding in the future?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The Sport and Recreation Council’s general manager met with all the partner executive directors between June 16th and 24th to provide verbal and written feedback on

each of their applications. Then the general manager also met with the Sport North executive director and finance manager on June 16th . We can

ask the SRC to review the unfunded applications one more time.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I’m sure that Sport North would appreciate that opportunity. I believe that there is still some money in the SRC budget, approximately $400, from what I understand. I also understand that the SRC puts some money aside for areas such as the Canadian Sport for Life, recognizing the importance of this program. Can Sport North resubmit applications for these programs to the SRC for funding, or is there no further opportunity for submissions during the 2011-2012 fiscal year?