This is page numbers 3229 – 3260 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 4th 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 communities.

Topics

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. Personal responsibility and sending people out for treatment, let’s follow that thread to see where we go.

We send people out and we have contracts down south and I’m aware that they’re coming up in the new year. Let’s start with finding out first what the success rate is of the people we send out of the Northwest Territories on these treatment programs. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Again, success rate is something that’s very difficult to identify. I don’t have the information on the number of people who went out for crack cocaine addiction, came back and stayed clean. So I’m assuming that would be the success, because crack, unlike alcohol, is once you’re back into it, you’re back into it and you are no longer successful. So first we determine what success is and then we start looking at the different numbers. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

The citizens of Yellowknife feel very strongly about this, and I’m not trying to raise the ire of the Members here or certainly the public, but quite often you hear, when we call for a treatment centre here in Yellowknife, they say, well

geez, the Legislative Assembly has an anti-Yellowknife attitude. Well, some days it really feels like that, but when they closed the Nats’ejee K’eh Centre, you think that they have an anti-treatment attitude. They’ve hurt Northerners. They spent a quarter of a million as a retainer for these treatment services down south.

What is the Minister willing to invest in the Northwest Territories to open up treatment programs for the people where they need it?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. We had allocated $2.2 million to run Nats’ejee K’eh. So if there’s a treatment program in the Northwest Territories that we consider to be a treatment program that is working well for the community, a treatment program that can retain their staff and that’s attractive to the people of the North, we would put that money into that. So I guess that’s what we’re willing to spend. We’re willing to spend whatever we were spending prior to the Nats’ejee K’eh closure. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

This government, this very government had spent upwards of $10 million in fire suppression in the Northwest Territories this year and successive years and years before that. We spend a measly $2 million or $2.2 million on addictions.

Can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain to me how we’re meeting the needs when we spend five times the amount on fires than we do putting out the fires of the cancer of addictions and prescription drugs when it’s hurting real people? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Actually, we were spending $2.2 million on the treatment centre, but we have $6 million on community counselling and we have in and around $12 million coming from the federal government in the Wellness Fund. So that’s money that’s going into the wellness of people. So it’s actually not one-tenth or 20 percent of what we’re spending on fires, it’s more than that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 8, written questions. Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

1. What is the current teacher to pupil ratio in the

Deh Cho region?

2. What is the percentage of students classified as

special needs in the Deh Cho region?

3. What is the percentage of students classified as

special needs in the NWT?

4. What is the percentage of students classified as

special needs in all of the Yellowknife school system?

Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a document in relation to my oral questions today. It’s regarding Keep Seniors At Home Longer: Minister, an October 14, 2013, Yellowknifer article. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Bill 27 has had first reading.

---Carried

Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Education Act; Bill 22, Territorial Emblems and Honours Act; Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act; Committee Report 7-17(4), Report on the Review of Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act; Committee Report 8-17(4), Report on the Review of Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Education Act; Tabled Document 70-17(4), Electoral Boundaries Commission, Final Report, May 2013; and Tabled Document 107-17(4), NWT Capital Estimates 2014-2015, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have a number of matters before us today. What is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. We would like to deal with Bill 24 and Committee Report 7-17(4).

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. Is committee agreed?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. Ms. Bisaro, do we not want to deal with Tabled Document 107-17(4) as well?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. We do, if we can hear from Mr. Miltenberger.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll reconvene after a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

I would like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. Minister Miltenberger.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Madam Chair. Over the last few weeks, Members of the Legislative Assembly have been working hard on reviewing the departmental capital budgets for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

As part of their review, Members of this House have recommended amendments and other commitments to the Department of Transportation’s 2014-15 Capital Estimates.

I have considered these recommendations with my Cabinet colleagues and offer the following commitments:

1. Recommendation for chipsealing Highway No. 1

Highway No. 1 from kilometre 187 to 206 is currently a priority to be resurfaced in 2014-15. The department will commit to resurfacing this section of road next summer.

2. Recommendation for upgrading of Mackenzie

Valley Highway winter road

This winter the department will improve the strength of the crossing at 12 Mile Point by watering the snow fill to create a solid base and will cover that base with rig mats. Going forward, the department will look at a more permanent solution, such as a portable bridge, for the 2014-15 winter season.

With respect to the recommendation for multi-year funding for the Detah access road, the Financial Management Board has approved $2 million to

resume the Detah Access Road Project in the 2014-15 fiscal year.

I will also assure Members that the additional funding for the Detah access road will not be financed through reducing funding from another project.

I will follow through with this adjustment in the Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2014-2015, which will be introduced in the House next week. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Bisaro.

Committee Motion 107-17(4): Resume Consideration Of The Department Of Transportation Department Summary, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

October 29th, 2013

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee resume consideration of the Department of Transportation department summary on page 9-2.