Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, in 1997 the governments of Canada, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan signed the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement. When we signed, our governments agreed on the principles for co-managing the Mackenzie River Basin’s water ecosystems. We also made plans for signing bilateral agreements between each of our provinces and territories.

It took us longer than we’d planned, but we are making progress on the bilateral agreements. This follows the work that happened in the 16th Assembly to develop a Water Stewardship Strategy with Aboriginal governments, communities and the federal government. Following the direction of this Assembly, we are working with our partners to ensure responsible stewardship of our territorial waters. This agreement will help us to manage an environment that will sustain present and future generations.

In 2007 the NWT and Alberta signed the Bilateral Water Management Agreement Negotiations Memorandum of Understanding that outlines the process, schedule, principles and information required to negotiate the bilateral agreement. Negotiations are following a three-phased process: information gathering and sharing, negotiating and writing, and agreement finalization.

Our territory is represented by the GNWT, Aboriginal governments and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. To date, three meetings have been held with the Government of

Alberta. At the most recent meeting with Alberta in April, we brought together information to share as a basis for negotiations, and talked about our interests and how to achieve them in the new agreement. As with all negotiations, we started with our shared interests.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada are working together to implement an Aboriginal and public engagement process for the negotiations with Alberta. We are engaging with Aboriginal leadership to seek input on negotiation principles and interests. We’ll also gather public input and we’ll meet to talk about how to achieve our shared interests before we finalize the agreement.

Though the GNWT is not a primary regulator of water use in the NWT, we do take on lead roles and partnerships to protect our water resources. The NWT Water Stewardship Strategy Action Plan will serve as a foundation as we continue negotiations on a bilateral transboundary water agreement with Alberta. The action plan identifies a number of key components, including transboundary water agreement negotiations, community-based water monitoring and a collaborative partnership approach.

Our department continues to work collectively with our partners to gather and compile information needed for negotiations with Alberta.

Mr. Speaker, the next bilateral meeting with Alberta is planned for late June. This meeting will allow each jurisdiction to explore options to achieve their respective interests in the bilateral agreement. We are hopeful that we can conclude this bilateral agreement in early 2013. After that, we will begin discussions with British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Yukon. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

The strategic framework Building for the Future: Northern Solutions for Northern Housing, released on April 16, 2012, outlines the direction that the Housing Corporation will be taking in delivering housing programs and services to NWT residents.

Our new strategic framework has refocused the GNWT’s approach to housing delivery based on what we learned from the shelter policy review. Building for the Future capitalizes on the successes of existing housing programs and services, provides improvements where there are gaps in support, and makes changes to programs to better suit the needs of territorial residents.

Building for the Future identifies eight strategic priorities and related actions that will, over the long term, address the spectrum of need from homelessness to home ownership. These eight strategic priorities are:

• strengthening public housing;

• improving home ownership supports;

• increasing housing options in non-market

communities;

• improving housing services;

• strengthening the approach to homelessness

and transitional housing;

• addressing housing challenges for the working

poor;

• developing infrastructure solutions based on

individual and community needs; and

• addressing the declining federal funding.

Mr. Speaker, I spoke last week of the changes in the public housing rent scale, but today I want to highlight other actions contained in Building for the Future.

As part of our priority to improve home ownership supports, the Housing Corporation will be expanding the availability and targeting of repair programs. We’re introducing a new emergency repair program called SAFE for situations like freeze-ups and furnace failures. The program will target low- and modest-income homeowners, including seniors on fixed incomes, and will be available any time during the year. There will be a streamlined application and approval process, and arrears and land tenure will not be considered as part of eligibility. This program will be of significant benefit to low- and modest-income households to address emergency problems before they cause even greater issues in their home.

The working poor face unique housing challenges. The challenges are partly addressed through the changes in the public housing rent scales but also by the new Transitional Rent Supplement Program announced as part of the budget. This new program will support low- and modest-income residents that are unable to get into public housing but are in core need because of high market rents. This program will help students, lone-parent families and those ready to move from transition housing to market rentals.

Mr. Speaker, each year the federal funding for operating social housing is declining. This is a major challenge facing our government and by 2037-38 the remaining $17 million in annual federal funding will be eliminated. We continue to work on this priority with the federal government, but we can’t wait for Canada to change its approach. We have made investments to address the declines so far but we have to do more. Our costs to operate public housing keep going up while federal funding declines. We need a sustainable rent scale and a public housing program that operates as efficiently as possible. We have to consider reducing our public housing stock and continue to concentrate on arrears and rent collection.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation is implementing many of the strategic priorities and actions set out in Building for the Future during 2012-13 but are also working on the additional actions. I will continue to keep the Assembly and the committee updated on the implementation of our strategic framework. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, we want a territory where a strong, diversified economy provides opportunities and choices to all our residents. Socially responsible and environmentally sustainable development of our resources will be one of the keys to achieving that goal. The Northwest Territories is resource-rich and brimming with potential. Today I would like to speak about some exciting developments in the oil and gas sector and of the significant opportunities the development of resources can bring to our residents.

The Sahtu region is a prime example of potential in the petroleum industry. A 2011 call for bids resulted in the commitment by industry to invest $534 million to test 11 parcels of land in the Canol shale formation for their petroleum potential. Industry experts believe that there is potentially one to two

billion barrels in this area just sitting there waiting to be tapped.

Work on these parcels began this past winter and we saw unprecedented levels of activity in the Sahtu. Major players in the international oil industry, including ConocoPhillips, Husky Oil Operations Limited, and Explor Geophysical, have signed access and benefit agreements with various local land corporations. These agreements result in jobs for residents as well as direct and indirect investment in the local community.

For example, in Norman Wells the increased petroleum activity translated to full occupancy of four hotels in the community for six months, a 100 percent increase in sales at grocery stores and vehicle rentals, and a tripling of aircraft takeoffs and landings. This is real on-the-ground-activity, and it is exciting.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is taking action to ensure that residents of the Sahtu make the most of the economic opportunities that this activity represents. The department has been working with the National Energy Board, the Northwest Territories Geoscience Office and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada – and supporting local initiatives such as assisting land corporations understand hydraulic fracturing – to ensure that communities have good information for making decisions about development.

Through our regional office, we are also supporting the Tulita and K’asho Go’tine districts in their efforts to obtain a rights issuance on their own settlement lands. Production of oil on settlement lands would result in employment and business opportunities, and royalties from production on their private lands would go directly to these beneficiary organizations.

The renewed interest in oil and gas exploration and development only strengthens the need to develop our transportation infrastructure. Permanent highways could bring down the cost of living in some NWT communities and help develop the region’s oil and gas industry, not to mention the long-term jobs it will bring in road construction and maintenance.

Mr. Speaker, these are only examples of what is happening today. This activity will continue for the next few years and potentially for decades to come. Beyond that, the next frontier is offshore, beneath the waters of the Beaufort Sea. Within our territorial waters, the Northwest Territories has resources in the Beaufort Sea that extend to the North Pole and, according to the United States Geological Survey and our own advisors, oil potential to rival the Gulf of Mexico.

We are now seeing new activity in this area with Chevron gathering seismic data this summer and

Exxon making plans for exploration drilling in the next few years.

Also, the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada issued two calls for bids this year. The first call for bids is for the two parcels in the central Mackenzie Valley, and the second call for bids consists of six parcels in the Beaufort Sea Mackenzie Delta.

Our challenge as a government is to ensure these resources are developed in a manner that brings economic benefits to our residents while ensuring the protection of our environment. We continue to pursue the authority to regulate development in the Northwest Territories through devolution. Once in place, Northerners will finally be able to make the decisions about how we develop our resources and protect our environment. Acquiring this authority, and the resource royalties that we would start collecting, will be our best opportunity for ensuring our residents benefit from development in the Northwest Territories.

In the meantime, the Government of the Northwest Territories continues to work with existing regulators to ensure northern interests are understood and respected. The National Energy Board recently completed an Arctic review to help us learn how best to regulate our offshore activity.

The GNWT participated fully in this review and we are pleased with the extensive engagement with Northerners that took place during this process. The Arctic offshore drilling review gave us insight about the challenges of Arctic exploration and development. It will help the National Energy Board ensure the correct safety and environment protection requirements are in place when considering future applications by companies who want to drill in the Arctic offshore.

Mr. Speaker, we are confident that with our continued efforts, as well as those of our industry partners, we will be able to ensure safe, sustainable development of this territory’s resources and maximum benefits for our residents for years to come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Tom Beaulieu will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the Council of the Federation Health Care Innovation Work Group in Victoria, British Columbia. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sometimes we do interviews with the media and then we turn on the radio or open the newspapers and we are completely shocked to see what it was they decided to highlight from the conversation.

Mr. Speaker, I was sent a series of questions by the local Hub reporter about the new health centre. I said, well, send them in writing and I’ll answer them all in writing. It was a whole gamut of questions, everything about will this attract new doctors to what services will be there. It was a very good list of questions, but she asked me what did I think of the new hospital location, to which I said I’ve never supported the current location of the new facility. I’ve had doubts about the readiness from a drainage perspective, I have concerns about the traintracks if the use of the train surface increases from economic activity, but the Town of Hay River really wanted the hospital development to be there as the anchor development that would bring services to that area, to which they are hoping to attract more development.

The Department of Health and Social Services was respectful of the Town of Hay River’s desire to locate it at the plan site, and with the competition for so many capital infrastructure needs to drag out the location question any longer would have risked the commitment of the funding for the new facility, for a key piece of infrastructure such as this that would be around and serve us for so many years to come. I would have preferred the ENR forestry site on the east side of the highway, but that’s not relevant now. But the headline still said that’s all the article was about, was how I didn’t like the location.

So what I wanted to do today to set the record straight is later I will table the questions and answers. I will table the article. What I want to say is we had due process on location. We had meetings with Public Works and Services. We did geotechnical on a number of sites. As a result, from the town’s input, the MLAs’ input, the current location where the new health centre is going to be built was decided up and agreed to, and my little, minority concerns were not going to be a deciding factor. Certainly, from my opinion, I didn’t want them to delay the start of the project, and the funding has been committed.

Mr. Speaker, for the record today, I wanted to clarify that and I guess I’ll have to figure out how to be more clear with the media in the future.

I thank the department, I thank the government on proceeding on this very important project to the people of Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Early childhood development is an important aspect for Regular Members and if you don’t think so, stay tuned for later today.

We are hoping that this sends a very strong and meaningful signal to the department that proper funding and planning and full collaboration with all northern stakeholders needs to be more than just the flavour of the month.

Recently, I had the honour of co-chairing with my colleagues Minister Lafferty and Minister Beaulieu with many participants from around the NWT as an advisor leading on the child and family resource centre issues.

This was fundamentally the first step towards improving early childhood development programming in the Northwest Territories. Together, it was very clear that we could not put too much emphasis on ensuring that our children are properly nurtured, encouraged and protected, especially during those early years, zero to three years of age, which serves as a critical foundation for lifelong development and success.

It was very evident that the stakeholder meeting did set the stage for asking the fundamental question are we, the government, doing this right. Before I answer such a question, it is imperative that the primary responsibility for raising children is with the family and that the government should only need to play a supportive role. However, the answer to my earlier question is no, we’re not doing it right.

The current Early Childhood Development Framework is over 10 years old and we require the modernization of its content to reflect what Northerners need to succeed. We need new money for this to occur, but unfortunately we’re seeing a current budget and a government that’s not walking the talk. It’s not, as the government has pointed out, as easy as delivering it differently, it’s not only about collaboration or coordination or communication, it’s about infrastructure. A better one, at that, for one-stop facilities. It’s about having better tools. It’s about engagement of our communities. More importantly, it’s about best modern-day practices.

The Regular Members here are not experts but it’s clear from Regular Members that northern society will continue to suffer from health problems, social issues such as homelessness, addictions, violence and especially lower levels of education. Knowing this, unless we provide all our children with the

support they need to develop potential and early childhood, we will lose this battle.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment in its 2012-2013 budget has a number of new initiatives, two of which are a new kindergarten curriculum and measuring children’s development in kindergarten. Those are good, but it’s not all of what is needed. If we wait to start early intervention until preschool or kindergarten, we’ve missed a huge opportunity to address any health or learning issues at an age when intervention can really make a difference.

As my colleague Mr. Bromley has often told us, brain development begins in the womb and continues at a rapid rate for the first three years of life. Research proves that early intervention from birth to three years can have huge, positive impacts on an individual’s success in life. The evidence is compelling and overwhelming.

Well-funded, integrated child development and parenting programs improve the cognitive and social functioning of all children, especially when started early: at birth. The research also indicates that children attending high-quality early childhood programs have greater success in school. That’s what we want for NWT students: success in school and in life. Isn’t that the goal of the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative?

Quality early learning programs are not only good for children and families, they’re good for the bottom line. The report for an Ontario study done in 2010 states that focused public spending on young children provides returns that outstrip any other type of human capital investment. Pay a little early, gain a lot later.

The NWT Early Childhood Development Framework needs to reflect this research. It needs to include programs which begin at birth and before birth at the prenatal level. One of the identified goals in the 17th Assembly is to ensure a fair and

sustainable health care system by investing in prevention, education and awareness, and early childhood development. We should listen to ourselves.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be speaking on the good merits and reasons why we should be doing more in early childhood education. Early childhood education is a term which refers to the education programs and strategies geared towards children from birth to the age of eight. This time period is widely considered the most vulnerable and certainly the most crucial stages of a young person’s life.

A child’s readiness to begin formal schooling is much more than just academic readiness. It’s a matter of targeting the whole needs of the child. Quite typically you’ll see that a lot of programs target children between the ages of three, four and five to help them get a good footing, a good start on their future. I can’t imagine building a house without a solid foundation, so why would we treat our children any less without giving them a good foundation to their future.

A variety of childhood education programs exist. We have often heard them referred to as nursery schools, daycare centres, preschools, Head Start programs, pre-kindergarten, junior kindergarten and even kindergarten. I am telling you that there are many forms that early childhood education comes in.

There are five dimensions often referred to as early childhood learning and what they do is they target certain areas. You have physical well-being and motor skill development, social and emotional development, approaches towards learning, language development and cognition, and general learning. Each of these dimensions play such a critical role to a young person’s beginnings as they prepare for school, they prepare for the future. This is the foundation of our commitment. Why aren’t we throwing all resources to it?

Often these dimensions are also referred to as pillars of developmental learning. These five pillars are referred to quickly as social, physical, intellectual, creative and emotional. Equally important on every stage. The fact is we shouldn’t be missing out on every opportunity to make sure our young people are ready for the future.

Now, school readiness is important, but it doesn’t just apply there. It also applies to the communities, families and our environment that we surround. This message is more for the McLeod government, that they need to act. Not just because MLAs say it’s important, not just because our early educators who are the experts in this field say it’s so important, because our constituents out there demand that we give our young people the rightful head start that they deserve. Mr. Speaker, it’s time we invest in this initiative with full force and readiness. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We know how important the first three years are in a child’s life. That is when they build the foundation for their future learning and growth. Responsibility for early childhood development is shared between two GNWT departments and Health Canada. In fact, Health Canada is the main funder of one of the best early childhood programs in this territory. I refer to the Open Door Society in my home community. It was founded 17 years ago and is supported by a very dedicated volunteer board. The Open Door has five staff who run programs for children up to age 12, from nine in the morning until eight o’clock at night, all at no cost to the parents.

The Busy Bee program is for three year olds, focusing on social skills and large motor activity. There is a preschool program for four year olds and a playgroup. There is a toy lending library. The society runs the annual Easter egg hunt and many other activities for the children of the community.

The bad news, Mr. Speaker, is that Open Door runs on a shoestring budget. It is amazing what they do with so little. They can’t afford employee benefits. Money for training is also hard to come by, but it’s even harder to find well-trained staff. These are areas where our government could do better.

In addition, Open Door has to apply for money pretty well every year. The society does get supportive funding from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and a room at the Bompas School at a low cost. I should mention that in our government, ECE shares responsibility for early childhood development with Health and Social Services. That department is finally expanding the Healthy Family Program into Nahendeh this year and I am pleased that it is happening.

But support for early childhood programs is insufficient and too fragmented, especially for small communities that may want to start something like the Open Door Society. I would like to see that problem addressed. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a lot of my colleagues have mentioned, the importance of early childhood in the ages zero to three. If we don’t

put our services and our investments into this initiative, we’re going to be failing our students as they progress in life, as they get into middle school, elementary school and as seniors. We don’t have to look too far to see our graduation rates of the NWT as well as the money that we’re going to be putting into inclusive schooling here.

I want to speak to a specific issue. We know that programs are needed just as much as space facilities for our children and our youth and our children. To have access to these programs, space is needed. In Inuvik we have a situation where both our schools are going to be closing in the fall and our new school is going to open. With the closing of the schools, two-thirds of our children that are currently accessing early childhood development programs are not going to have that opportunity to continue on in their lives.

We have a great committee in Inuvik that is working very hard fundraising, volunteering, getting in-kind contributions and donations to make sure this building is going to be available, the Inuvik Children’s Development Centre is going to be available in the fall so that two-thirds of these children are not going to be left without these programs.

More importantly, in an economy where there’s a downturn do to the high cost of living in our communities, double-income families – which is also essential just to make it by – are going to have to rely on single-income families if one parent has to stay home and take care of the child. This is not just a problem or an issue that is facing Inuvik but it is an issue that is facing all of the communities in the Northwest Territories. In order to achieve success within our youth and our economy and our families, we need to invest in infrastructure and have these spaces readily available so that our children can succeed and participate in these developmental programs.

We have to invest in our early childhood development for future benefits of this government, future benefits of our communities and the future benefits of our families so that every child has an opportunity to succeed in their life, and it starts in this House. It starts with the commitments, the programs and the funding to move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our belief in the critical need for action on early childhood development has become well known to

this Assembly. It is good to see things getting underway, but we need to start off right.

The basis of ECD is brain and body development which begins before birth and is most critical through to the age of about six to eight. There are two stages. From prenatal to age three, the focus needs to be on establishment of physical and mental health and resilience through development of secure and consistent relationships with caring adults. Programs to support that development such as nutrition, healthy baby and family, recreation and play, parenting skills and parental understanding of the importance of ECD are shown to produce the greatest positive results. Once a solid foundation is laid in the early years, transition to an educational focus begins, again accompanied by continuing family and community support for the physical and mental health of the child.

Healthy development in the early years, especially birth to age three, depends on healthy relationships. All children from birth need at least one continuous caring relationship with an adult who will respond when the child is distressed and provide the security a child needs to explore her environment. It is critical to understand this connection between healthy relationships and healthy development, and to make sure policies and programs give families the support they need to provide children with stable, nurturing relationships in the first years of life.

In order to raise healthy children, we must help parents and caregivers to be healthy and free from undue stress. These need to fall within the services of our Health and Social Services department and with the family support side of ECE. From the very beginning of this work, we need to ensure a shared and cooperative approach across our Education and Health departments, with the leads at different stages clearly identified. We can’t disconnect the zero to three years programming from the efforts starting at age four or leave school staff designing programs for the early years of childhood development.

We are blessed with the wealth of public expertise and the NGO sector with such experts as the NWT Literacy Council and at the community level where family support centres such as in Hay River, Tulita and Yellowknife and child centres such as in Tulita are already delivering an array of early years ECD services. Based on the experience of now so many other jurisdictions, opportunities are huge and exciting. Let’s get all our best minds, government and public, to the table and begin cooperative work. Mahsi.

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