This is page numbers 6849 - 6882 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 safety.

Topics

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like the Minister and I are on the same page. We ultimately want to avoid having any of these incidents occur, and when they do unfortunately occur, we want to be able to help the people transition back into the workforce as quickly as possible.

In developing this plan, and I’m very, very pleased that this plan has been developed and that it will be introduced hopefully soon so that others can see it. I think in order to be effective and develop it appropriately, we need to have a sense within the Government of the Northwest Territories of where the majority of these incidents occur. I don’t know if the department actually has a breakdown by department or by worksite or work type where these incidences are occurring. If we do, I would ask the Minister provide it to Members so we have a bit of a sense as to where these things are going so that we can focus in as an Assembly on solving these problems, and if the Minister doesn’t have that in HR, it must exist in the WSCC because they’re able to break down to the penny what our penalties are, which means or suggests to me that they have a pretty thorough listing of where all these things are occurring. So can the Minister commit to providing the Members with a bit of a breakdown as to where these incidents or the majority of these incidents are occurring, so that we can have a better understanding and work to solve this problem in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I can provide the following information: The top three natures of injury were: sprains, strains, and tears, 15 percent; bruises and contusions, 13 percent; cuts and lacerations, 9 percent; and the top three locations of injury were Yellowknife, 51 percent; Fort Smith, 16 percent; Inuvik, 10 percent. The majority of the incidents are

in facilities that operate 24/7, 365 days a year, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the youth, and programs and infrastructure that are needed for the youth in the communities. I have questions for the Minister of youth. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister what this government is going to do to ensure that some of the much needed infrastructure that was built for the youth is going to continue on to the other communities that don’t have that infrastructure yet. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for youth, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The communities have done a really good job at identifying projects for the youth and they’ve been identifying dollars. They’ve actually been putting money towards it, and that’s been encouraging. I think one of the legacies of the 16

Legislative Assembly could be the amount of money that this Assembly has put into youth. Never has any Assembly before us put as much money into youth as we have, and it’s through the work of all Members of this Assembly identifying that youth are a priority, not only identifying that they’re a priority but actually putting money towards it to the tune of almost $4 million. So I think that’s been a significant investment in youth by the 16

Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

That’s a good response; I appreciate that. The infrastructure that I referred to, again, is there has been a good response from the government. But again, not all the communities have the much needed infrastructure. So I guess recognizing the fact that the communities have the capital dollars in their possession to do with as they please, spending it in their community. However, I’m wondering if the department, MACA, in response with the youth, has provided some sort of support to the communities to ensure that this start of the infrastructure, this $4 million in infrastructure that has come will continue to the communities even if the money has to be found from outside the GNWT. Thank you.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The communities themselves are getting their capital dollars and they’ve put a lot of money into youth infrastructure. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been able to attend the opening of the youth centre in Paulatuk, and community centres, and in Fort Resolution they’re

doing a youth centre there and a lot of it is a decision that’s made by the community. What our role is, is we continue to support them through the Youth Centre Initiative, which the money in the Youth Centre Initiative has almost doubled and the uptake in it has gone from 17 to about 34 community youth centres taken. So that’s where we see our role.

We continue to work with the communities. They identify their five-year capital plans and, again, I’ve been quite encouraged by the amount of money that they’ve identified and put towards youth infrastructure in their community. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Does this government plan on moving forward with any transitional document to try to provide support for the communities to hire qualified youth workers? I think that if we have some program dollars, or we have some infrastructure, the one piece of the puzzle that seems to be missing is qualified youth workers who work with the youth so that they have programs that are viable at the community level.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Each community will usually have a recreation coordinator and they’ll hire their own youth workers as their budget allows.

What we’ve been able to do through the work of this Assembly is put more money into regional youth officers to work with the communities. We’ve also made the multi-sport games and the Youth Ambassador Program permanent line items in the budget. That assures us that those items are going to stay as part of the Legislative Assembly’s way of doing business.

The youth centre, the youth sports event through the work of the Rural and Remote Communities Committee have put almost $400,000 into multi-sport or regional sport games so the youth have an opportunity. We’ll continue to work with the communities.

The Member also makes a good point that we need to ensure this is all part of a transition document so that the 17

Legislative Assembly can carry on

some of the work that was started in the 16

.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I see that the government has supported community-built infrastructure and supported communities for some programming money. The one piece of the puzzle that is actually missing is our actual youth workers at the community level. I think they have recreation workers. The money is flowing to the communities. In trying to make the government understand, I think that’s probably the most essential. Providing qualified youth workers working at the community level I think will gain the greatest results for the success of the youth. I’d like to ask the Minister again if that is something that his department could

look at to see the benefits of having actual qualified youth workers at the community level.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I can assure the Member that is something that we can have a look at. Whether we’re able to do it financially is another question, and decisions such as that would have to be something that the 17

Legislative Assembly

would have to take into consideration. We could also make our thoughts and recommendations to them in the form of transition documents. I can assure the Member that we will have a look at it.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked in my Member’s statement about the Financial Administration Act and I took a look at the opportunity before us that is potentially to be reviewed. Right now we’re in the coming days that will enter into the new government. I highlighted the importance of value for money audits, which are also referred to as performance audits. If the review of the FAA is actually being considered at this time, it would be probably wise for the government to consider a comprehensive opportunity like this to include performance audits on our corporations to ensure that they’re done on a regular basis to ensure that we’re getting the best value for these corporations.

My question will be directed to the Premier today and my question specifically will be: if the FAA is being updated at this particular time with an eye to the future, would the Premier be willing to put down as part of the development opportunity of the FAA, to put in performance audits as a fundamental element on our corporations to be done, say, every five years, as it is done federally?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On top of the process that we have in place where our corporations table their annual reports and business plans in this Assembly, that’s one method where Members have access and can measure how our corporations have done business. As for the ongoing work around the Financial Administration Act, I will have to speak to the Minister on that work and see what’s been incorporated and the timelines for that.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I appreciate the Premier’s answer about the corporations tabling their annual reports, but, quite frankly, most Members I would be surprised have an auditing or accounting

background. Therefore we read them for what they are, to ensure that the ledger sheets are balanced.

Performance audits, as cited by the Auditor General of Canada, really look at assets, safeguards, controls, human, physical, and financial resource management, and ensure that operations are carried out efficiently. That’s not addressed in the table of the annual reports. That’s really what I’m getting down to. That type of work needs to be done on a regular basis, as cited by the Auditor General of Canada that she does do. I should say the former Auditor General of Canada. Can the Premier cite any occasion that he’s aware of where the Business Development Corporation, the NWT Power Corporation, or the Business Development Corporation have had performance audits of this nature that I have been referring to?

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

One of the things we’ve done in the life of this government is looking at how departments have been performing with budgets, and look at the growing demand for more resources, and have an internal look at it that way as we do the work around refocusing our government. The additional work of these types of audits has been done in the past on a number of our corporations. That is as the Auditor General of Canada’s office makes that request, we co-operate and they do that review. The other way is Members of this Assembly can call on that and we wait for a response from the Auditor General. That is one of the methods that we do use, and a number of our corporations have been called into this review process.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I appreciate the answer from the Premier. As the former Auditor General has clearly stated, they do not have the mandate to perform these performance audits on territorial corporations unless, of course, the House passes a direct motion that issues that request. At the same time, the former Auditor General has put into writing that they would be more than willing to do those types of audits if granted the authority to do that. In essence, if the FAA is up for debate and review, this would be a good opportunity to invoke that offer. As well, all Members know that there is little or no cost to the territorial government if the Auditor General of Canada actually does them. That’s the question I’m really asking the Premier, is would he encourage the Minister of Finance to look at this particular issue, seize the opportunity before us, whereas we can have the Auditor General ensure our corporations are running as efficiently as possible by doing regular performance audits.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

That’s one of the wonderful things about our consensus style of government: Members are fully aware of the work that’s going on. The Minister updates the committee and he would be able to inform them as to what level of work is going on, and the future Assembly

could also make recommendations as this work will have to continue on into the 17

Assembly.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I gave the Premier credit for the first three answers but certainly not the last one, because I’m still working and I think this Assembly should still be working on these particular issues. That’s why I’m thinking it’s quite important, if not critical, that we continue to work on these issues going forward, because we still have a mandate. Although technically it may end shortly, it’s still active. That’s why I’m asking for this.

Would the Premier inquire with the Finance Minister at the appropriate time to see if they could incorporate this opportunity again while the FAA is being reviewed? There is no better time to take these types of issues for consideration. We will let it be weighed, measured, and treated accordingly, if it’s seen to fit the business of the government going forward.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

As I tried to respond to the Member earlier about the fact that the Minister brings that work, the review to committee for their input as to how that work is going, and their response and advice to our Ministers helps us guide in that work.

As we’re having this discussion here in this Assembly, I’m sure he will be able to pick up on it. I will speak to him on the work that is ongoing. Clearly, that work will not be completed in the life of this government and that’s why I say as that work continues and the 17

Assembly will have to make

final discussions and give final direction as to the depth of that work that’s ongoing within the Financial Administration Act work.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The time for question period has expired. Before going to the next item on the orders of the day, I’d like to acknowledge the presence of Chief Clifford Daniels, who has joined us in the House.

Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.