Good afternoon. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to establishing a public service that is inclusive and representative of the population it serves. Today I am pleased to provide my colleagues with an update on initiatives currently underway to achieve this important goal.

Established in March 2010, the GNWT Advisory Committee on Employability provides advice on how government can promote, support and increase the participation of persons with disabilities. Working closely with this committee, the Department of Human Resources has developed a draft framework to guide efforts to promote the territorial public service as a place that welcomes people with disabilities and ensures that our workplace remains inclusive and accessible.

To support this work, the Department of Human Resources recently surveyed government employees on issues and attitudes related to employees with disabilities. The survey results are currently being tabulated and we expect to receive them by the end of June. The results of the survey will provide us with more accurate baseline statistics and correct a long-standing gap in our data.

Ten disability awareness training sessions for employees were held throughout the Northwest Territories this spring, including five in regional centres. Ninety participants took part in these sessions and the feedback has been very positive. The department may offer more sessions in the

future if employees continue to indicate a need for this training.

The Department of Human Resources is also rolling out a poster campaign to be displayed in government workplaces across the territory to promote disability awareness and inclusion. The posters highlight information on various types of disability, challenging people with the slogans “See the Abilities,” and “Look Beyond Disability.” These posters also provide information about the GNWT Advisory Committee on Employability and highlight the message that the GNWT is an inclusive workplace open to all people, providing choices and opportunities to people from all communities.

The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to facilitating an equitable and inclusive hiring process. Applicants with disabilities are encouraged to identify any accommodations they need to eliminate barriers in a job competition. A diversity officer is available to provide support and advice to prospective employees throughout this process.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to close by referencing the powerful statement delivered by Mr. Cornelius Van Dyke during the last Elders Parliament. Mr. Van Dyke spoke about a barrier-free and inclusive society, the challenges faced by persons with disabilities and the measures that government can take to eliminate systemic barriers. In the words of Mr. Van Dyke, “when one of us is diminished, it diminishes all of us.”

The Government of the Northwest Territories shares Mr. Van Dyke’s vision. We remain committed to eliminating systemic barriers to employment and ensuring that our territorial public service is an inclusive employer open to all and representative of the population we serve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, wildlife is valued by all people in the NWT and contributes to our well-being and

economy. A new Wildlife Act is needed to effectively manage wildlife in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has prepared a draft of the proposed new Wildlife Act for public review and comment. This draft was developed with extensive input from Aboriginal organizations, wildlife renewable resource boards, residents, industry and other stakeholders.

To ensure everyone has the opportunity to provide additional input into the proposed new Wildlife Act, ENR is continuing a robust public engagement and consultation process. To date, the following steps have been initiated:• Community and regional public events and

open houses are being hosted across the territory to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to get information on the proposed act, ask questions and provide comments.• A meeting with Aboriginal government leaders

has been set for June 19, 2012.• Public information materials, including a plain

language version of the draft Wildlife Act, fact sheets, posters and frequently asked questions have been widely distributed and posted on the Internet.• A dedicated website, nwtwildlifeact.ca, has

been created to ensure that all public information materials and event schedules are easily accessible on-line.• A Stakeholder’s Wildlife Act Advisory Group

has been established with representatives from industry, tourism, outfitters and resident hunters to allow these stakeholders an opportunity to review the proposed act in detail and provide recommendations.

To help shape the final version of the act, we strongly encourage the public to make their views on the proposed Wildlife Act known.

Mr. Speaker, with this feedback, it is hoped we can introduce a new Wildlife Act during the upcoming fall session.

A new Wildlife Act with broad understanding and support will ensure wildlife is conserved for the benefit of all people in the NWT. I look forward to ongoing collaboration and cooperation between everyone involved.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about the Department of Transportation’s efforts to adapt to climate change.

Wherever you look in the Northwest Territories, you will see impacts of climate change on the transportation system. The Dempster Highway is settling more as permafrost thaws. We are getting more freezing rain in the South Slave, so we need to put more sand and gravel on our highways. The opening of the Tlicho winter road has been delayed due to warmer weather. More flights have been cancelled in Inuvik due to frost buildup and the loss of friction on the runway. Airlines are using more glycol in Yellowknife to de-ice aircraft. Water levels are increasingly unpredictable, making it more difficult to maintain ferry landings. Coastal community resupply is hampered by changing ice conditions and sustained high winds.

We are active on many fronts to adapt to climate change. We continue to build bridges on the Mackenzie Valley winter road to extend the operating season and offer greater access to the communities. We have introduced ice spray technology to build ice faster and open river crossings earlier. We use ground-penetrating radar to determine ice thickness when we are choosing the routes of winter roads. We built an expanded glycol retention area at the Yellowknife Airport and changed highway maintenance shifts to ensure more efficient coverage and improved highway safety with better response time during inclement weather.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation is doing research to better understand what the future impacts of climate change may be and to develop strategies to adapt. It is our business to know how climate affects our infrastructure and operations. It pervades all our efforts, be it planning, design, construction or maintenance. However, climate change adds a new level of uncertainty. What happened in the past is no longer necessarily the case in the future, and there are gaps in our knowledge.

The best way to gain knowledge and improve our ability to adapt to climate change is through partnerships and collaboration with other GNWT departments, other levels of government, scientists, the private sector and other stakeholders. Under the federal government’s Building Canada Plan, we have allocated $1.85 million for research and development. With this funding we have carried out a climate change risk assessment for the transportation system. We have assessed the vulnerability of Highway No. 3 between Behchoko and Yellowknife. We have developed a protocol for assessing the vulnerability of airports. And we are currently working on a Climate Change Adaptation Plan that will be completed this summer. It will inform how the department will manage the key short- and long-term risks to the transportation system resulting from climate change and how to take advantage of the opportunities.

Also this summer, the department will evaluate rehabilitation techniques for roads constructed on warm, ice-rich permafrost at four test sections on Highway No. 3 between Behchoko and Yellowknife. In the fall we are organizing a workshop on how to keep our winter roads sustainable as our climate changes. The department will also consider how to optimize our maintenance operations across the highway system, including Highways No. 6 and No. 7, to deal with climate change impacts.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation sits on two Transport Canada sponsored networks of expertise, one on permafrost and the other on Arctic waters. Their objective is to foster northern expertise and conduct research necessary to provide Canada and the three territories with the capacity to manage transportation infrastructure in the context of a changing climate. Over the next four years, we will be conducting a number of additional studies to expand our knowledge base.

We are also sharing our knowledge and experience through the development of best practices guides that other governments can apply. Through the Transportation Association of Canada and the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety, the department has collaborated on a Best Practices Guide for the Construction, Maintenance and Operation of Winter Roads, and a Best Practices Guide for the Construction of Transportation Infrastructure on Permafrost.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, it is important that I acknowledge the efforts of our front-line staff. It is operators and maintainers that are responsible for ensuring the safety of the traveling public and maintaining levels of service while contending with and adapting to the impacts of weather and climate change on a daily basis.

Mr. Speaker, the challenges of adapting to climate change are daunting. We will continue to promote research and development, cultivate partnerships, incorporate climate change in all decisions, improve communications and share best practices to meet these challenges ahead. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up in my Member’s statement today from my colleague from Hay River North’s statement the other day on the commercial fishery, something that’s also very dear to my heart.

Mr. Speaker, the strength of our economy is diversity, and as a government we have no trouble responding with lots of resources to big-ticket industries like oil, gas and diamonds. Today I want to talk about a resource that has too long been virtually ignored.

On our doorstep, literally, we have a world-class product and potential for an amazing commercial fishery. Its renewable, it’s sustainable and its harvest has virtually no negative environmental impacts, but the industry continues to shrink. There’s a quota for almost two million pounds of fish and we only harvest about 200,000 pounds per year. The market mechanism which we seem married to indefinitely is dysfunctional and detrimental to the well-being of those participating in the industry. I hope the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation is listening.

So, Mr. Speaker, I have an idea to revitalize our commercial fishing industry. A few months ago I heard a fisherman being interviewed in Twillingate, Newfoundland, who had been involved in the commercial fishery down there in ocean waters, but the cod stocks had dwindled to the point that he could no longer participate in that. If we can’t find people locally and in the Northwest Territories to do this – it’s hard work, not everybody wants to go out and do this – but people who already know this industry, we should have a campaign to advertise, or to go down to Newfoundland where people have been involved in a commercial fishery their whole lives and then invite them to come back here.

When we didn’t have diamond cutters, we went to Armenia to get diamond cutters over here so we could keep our secondary diamond processing industry going here in the Northwest Territories. Surely we could figure out a way to attract some commercial fishermen to fish our Great Slave Lake out here to create some industry.

It could be an industry that’s worth $10 million to our economy here in the Northwest Territories, but we can’t figure it out. We keep looking to a handful – and God bless them – of aging and getting-more-tired commercial fishermen that are out on this lake. There’s a handful of them. Do you want to be part of the marketing corporation? Don’t you? They take votes.

Hey, let’s think outside the box here. Let’s look at the industry as it sits there and let’s find a creative way to revitalize it, and if that means going to Newfoundland and recruiting some people, let’s do it. Let’s get ‘er done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Spring is now over. The ice is gone from our rivers and now we’re starting to see more activity around the Hay River industry around the water.

Hay River is a natural transportation hub. It is the starting point for barges and tugs that go down the Mackenzie and supply goods throughout the Northwest Territories. The harbour is important to the commercial vessels, commercial fishing and recreation users. As well, we have a Coast Guard based there.

The federal government once dredged the harbour clear of silt that comes down the Hay River. In 1994 the federal government stopped dredging in the Hay River harbour. Growing sandbars now obstruct the mouth of the river, making it difficult to navigate the waters for large ships and commercial fishermen. The lower water basin also contributes to the potential flooding each spring in Hay River.

Industry is also interested in dock maintenance as well as dredging. Industry and fishermen are having difficulties getting their ships docked. Residents of Hay River are seriously concerned about the impacts of the sandbars. Without good access to the harbour, industry in Hay River is being limited and residents are at risk. We need to resolve this issue sooner than later.

I have to repeat: Dredging is needed in the Hay River. It helps maintain our valuable harbour space. It ensures open passage for commercial vessels. There is new proven equipment, technologies and expertise available out there. A dredging program would also bring opportunity to build community capacity and use local contractors.

The federal government still has jurisdiction over NWT waters. The Government of the Northwest Territories must pressure its federal counterparts to own up to their responsibilities. The Government of the Northwest Territories needs to consider the Hay River harbour when it plans to spend money in Hay River.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up today on a statement I made earlier this week regarding changes to the Residential Tenancies Act. The powers of the NWT rental officer as outlined in the act are sadly lacking. Amendment to the legislation to improve on those powers is needed.

The rental officer’s job is to help landlords and tenants with disputes, and most problems can be

worked out privately. The rental officer will encourage you to do that wherever possible. In some cases, though, agreement cannot be reached and the rental officer must make a unilateral decision regarding a dispute. It’s something that he does very well.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation website describes the NWT rental officer this way: The rental officer is given many of the powers formerly held only by the courts. The rental officer provides information, mediates, and acts as a judge as circumstances warrant. In cases where parties cannot reach agreement through mediation, the rental officer must hold a hearing. At this point in the process the rental officer begins to act like a judge.

Unlike a judge, the rental officer’s decisions are not binding on either party in the dispute and can be ignored by either party. The only recourse for a complainant is to take the matter to court. As I’ve said often before, the courts are not a viable option for many of our residents. In the minds of many of our residents, it’s not a cost-effective avenue for dispute resolution.

A recent editorial in News/North commenting on a landlord/tenant dispute stated, “That a Supreme Court judge needs to be asked to ponder the validity of a rental officer’s order seems like a terrible waste of time and money. We can understand why there is an appeal process, but as it stands now, the advantage is with large landlords with deep pockets to hire lawyers so they can fight complaints.” It goes on to say, “A mechanism should be there for the order to be enforced. If that means the territorial government hands the rental officer the power to summon a sheriff after a month of non-compliance passes by, then so be it.”

That recent refusal of a landlord to comply with the rental officer’s decision raises many questions. Who foots the bill for court time? Who pays for the judge? Should a minor matter as a fence dispute have to go to court? Should it cost those involved so much time, money and distress? Who is being served by this protracted process and how are they being served?

It wouldn’t take much to make the necessary amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act to provide the rental officer with the power to make his decisions binding and to provide justice without going to court for tenants and landlords who have won hard-fought battles. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use my statement much in the same manner as MLA Bisaro has just done. I’m going to use it to paint a bit of a narrative, a story, because we have a situation here where cars appear to be more important than people. Cars appear to be more important than safe access that’s lawfully written into the law. It’s a story about cars and where safety of women is certainly being overlooked. Cars seem to be more important.

This ongoing dispute between the UNW and its tenants seems a bit of a shame. You’ve seen the widely spread media reports, some of course very interesting, others very scary. The fact is, what we’re seeing is nothing happen other than frustration by the tenants who even in one case actually had to take the law in their own lands, who may become a victim of the law not being enforced.

We have a situation here where powers cannot be enforced. They’re being fettered by process, process without follow-up and enforcement. We have tenants who have safety concerns. We all knew the UNW has long since been a champion and has a productive legacy for fighting for the rights of others, for what is good, what is fair. I cannot understand myself why are they putting all that great history and legacy behind without building a partnership with their tenants over what really lies down to is safe access. Yet again, cars are being chosen over people.

The whole purpose, as my colleague has just said, of the rental office is about keeping disputes out of the courts. It’s about a productive way to work between tenants and landlords. It’s about ways that we can make things simple. The rental office and, certainly, their act really comes down to no teeth. I’m not saying they couldn’t write an enforcement order. It’s more an issue, in my view, that they can’t enforce it, and that’s a bit of the problem. We see going back and forth; we agree, we disagree, we agree, we disagree, and yet the landlord flirts with compliance but yet stalls even further.

How much longer will cars continue to be more important than the safety of women? I don’t stand for what they stand for, thinking that cars are better than women. I think we should be fighting for the rights of safe access for these tenants and ask ourselves what is missing here in this Rental Tenancies Act. Quite simply, it’s about the authority of ensuring that enforcement compliance does happen.

Later today I will be asking the Minister questions in this regard and asking him where does he stand. Does he support safe cars or safe people? Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure in speaking about the three Nahendeh residents from Fort Simpson who received Sport North awards for their contribution to sport, recreation and performance, not only to Fort Simpson but throughout the NWT. This was detailed in the Deh Cho Drum today about… The two of them are actually a mother and daughter team, and they are recognized in different fields.

The first is Mr. Shane Thompson, who received the Sport North award for the Ruth Inch Memorial Contributor to Sport. The other is Ms. Val Gendron, who received the Delma Kisoun Memorial Community Contributor Award. It gives me great pleasure, once again, to congratulate them both for this important territorial award and recognition for their tireless efforts in advancing sport and recreation in Fort Simpson and throughout the NWT communities. Thank you for taking the time for volunteering throughout all this.

I have seen how hard they have worked and travelled to make life more fun and exciting for our young adults and children in Fort Simpson and throughout the North. They took the time to share their lifelong skills with them and to show them different positive experience. This alone, I have seen, has made an impact on their lives, for their future growth and their characters.

Also, a lady from Fort Simpson, Ms. Madison Piling won the Youth Female Athlete of the Year. I am proud to congratulate her on this important award in recognition of her effort and dedication in the speed skating field. She has shown the calibre of athleticism from our community and represented our NWT with distinction over the past few years.

I just wanted to make note that we have many youth in the gallery here, and I just wanted to say that you too can achieve any goal you want by having a dream and working hard towards it. Once again, congratulations to my constituents for this significant achievement, recognition and milestone in their life. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aklavik is one of 10 communities in the NWT that have only seasonal access to a gravel source. Aklavik gets

about 23 tonnes of gravel per year from Willow River, which is 18 kilometres from town, or 27 kilometres if you take the Peel River channel. Every year the community builds an ice road to reach the gravel source. It can cost as much as $3,000 per kilometre, plus maintenance. Gravel is stockpiled in the community during the winter months so it can be used the rest of the year. Pit operations, ice thickness and safety have to be carefully planned to successfully operate this road. Stockpiling isn’t practical.

Sadly, global warming is limiting our winter road season, as mentioned by the Minister of Transportation earlier today. It seems that it will get worse in the future. Aklavik needs all-weather access to its gravel source. The gravel at Willow River is high quality.

Not only do we need it in Aklavik, we need good gravel to build the Inuvik-Tuk highway, and lots of it. That project would provide great opportunities to Aklavik, where the employment rate is close to half the NWT average. In the last 20 years it has rarely been above 40 percent. There are simply more people than jobs. An all-weather road would offer great opportunities for quarry operators, maintenance and servicing the community. There are no plans in this year’s budget to start work on an all-weather road to Willow River gravel source.

In the last Assembly the GNWT was able to complete an all-weather road to Tuktoyaktuk’s gravel source. This was a successful project that will bring lasting benefits to the community. If a project like this can be done in Tuktoyaktuk, it can be done in Aklavik. We need to get the Willow River gravel source into our plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday we brought in a motion on early childhood development to show our concern that we want this government, our government, to focus on building a strong foundation for our future, whether it’s training, funding or structures.

We are, indeed, challenged with a fiscal responsibility of keeping afloat in the waters of economic uncertainty. However, we have set our goals in the 17

th and we must, by all means, do our

best to get there. We are approaching the critical mass of which infrastructure projects will see the light of day within this government. So much, yet so little.

Today I bring to this floor in this House the wishes of the people of Colville Lake. The people of Colville Lake, their vision is to have a decent,

proper school. Let me tell you what all 54 children have to go through day in and day out these past years to get a decent education, and yet we expect our children to have this good education. All we need to do is see the Alberta Achievement Test results of how well our children are doing in our small communities.

In Colville Lake there are two buildings. There’s a portable building and a log structure. That’s their school. It’s open in the building; there are no walls. In the kindergarten classes there are four grades in one room. It’s difficult to teach children, I was told by the teachers, due to the noise and other activities going on in the same room.

There are FASD children who require different learning, teaching, and need a room just for themselves. There’s no gymnasium in their school. Students have to carry their recreation equipment across town just to get into a gymnasium, and that’s a small one.

Winter gets really cold, Mr. Speaker. The lack of space, the recreational equipment and school supplies are stored in sheds outside. Every space in the school is stuffed and there’s no room. There are no planning facilities for the teachers to do their planning.

Children are expanding each year. As I said, there are 54 children, with six more coming next year. More issues are more important, but these are critical.

We are truly grateful to the government for putting in proper washrooms and facilities with running water. It’s taken about eight years, ever since I became an MLA, to get this done. I’m asking for a new school. I was wondering, if it took eight years…

Mr. Yakeleya, your time for Member’s statement is expired.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

It took eight years to get proper washroom facilities in our school. Could this be a measurement on how long a new school may be coming to Colville Lake? I want this government to examine clearly the benefits of building this school against the other projects when the time comes to determine which infrastructure projects we can take on in this government.