This is page numbers 1899 – 1936 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

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I want to follow up on my statement about 911 service. At the time that the city completed the feasibility study, along with a number of other partners, the recommendation was that it be started in seven communities – that’s the majority of the residents within the NWT. About 75 percent of our residents live in those seven communities. About 50 percent of our residents live in the City of Yellowknife. The start-up costs, at that point, were estimated to be about a million dollars, which was, unfortunately, beyond the possibility of the city alone.

I’d like to ask the Minister, now that we are well along our way to getting cell service in every community, whether or not he would entertain a proposal from the City of Yellowknife for partnering with them to implement 911 service.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I believe we also partnered with the city when they were doing the report. The Member is correct; there have been a number of things that have improved since then. What I said at the time was that we do provide a lot of infrastructure money to the municipalities, and if they wanted to use that for implementation of 911, then that would be a decision that they would make. However, looking at the overall picture, maybe there is an opportunity now to sit down and review a proposal that the city may want to put together. Short answer the long way was yes, we will be glad to look at a proposal from the city.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Mr. McLeod seems to have a particular skill at taking the long way around to come to a yes. I thank you, Minister, for the yes. I’m smiling when I say that.

I appreciate that the Minister referenced gas tax money and, absolutely, there’s gas tax money, but I think the Minister also knows that community infrastructure needs are huge. I think Yellowknife’s alone – and I don’t have the exact figure – is millions and millions of dollars. I appreciate that he’s willing to entertain a proposal. I will certainly pass that information on to the city.

I know that this year’s budget is done, but I would like to know from the Minister if there’s any possibility of funds being included in the 2014-2015 budget. That would be the end of the two-year period when all the cell upgrades are done. Is it feasible that we could start now to look at earmarking some money for the 2014-2015 budget for 911 implementation?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs

Planning now is already underway for the 2014-2015 budget. We will be glad to look at a proposal. There is opportunity for an investment from this government and something that we would have to look at. We’d work very closely with committee and we’d work very closely with communities to see if there are opportunities for them to use some of the infrastructure money they get.

The Members in this House are well aware that MACA really doesn’t have very much money, where 78 percent of our money goes out to the communities in the forms of infrastructure and O and M. There are opportunities there. Planning is underway for the next budget cycle, and if there are opportunities, I believe we’ll have to explore those.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for his response. I had a couple more questions where I was going to ask him to help us out, so I’ve already got a positive answer, so I’m a little stuck here. The Minister mentioned that MACA doesn’t have money and I appreciate that. I recognize that MACA in itself doesn’t have funds that it can give to communities for infrastructure needs. However, the government does have that kind of money, and I think if the Minister were to represent communities and make the pitch, I guess, to Cabinet to put that money in there, I think it’s possible that out of the grand picture of our $1.6 billion we could put some money in.

I’d like to know from the Minister if he will, as a champion of municipalities – which I think he is and I hope he will continue to be – do that on behalf of, at this point, the City of Yellowknife.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs

I do champion the needs of the communities within the Cabinet table as well as my colleagues championing the needs of the communities that they represent. I have to tell the Member, if there is a proposal that comes forward, we have to seriously have a look at it, understanding that technology is changing. Again, we have to work very closely with the communities, because this is not going to be a system that would apply to all 33 communities that we represent.

If the city wants to come forward or any other jurisdiction wants to come forward with a proposal, we will have a look at it and see if it fits within our budget, see if it affects the infrastructure money that we give to the communities, because there’s $28 million that we distribute to all 33 communities. There are opportunities there and I do commit to the Member that we will explore all avenues and go forward from there.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I, too, have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod. Recently the towns of Norman Wells and Behchoko narrowly escaped disasters with their town losing gas supply and power, respectively. I do applaud the hard work of all those who came to the table to restore these services in these communities. As is also known to Members of the House here, I have actually spoken many times about our community emergency action plans as well as our emergency preparedness for our communities.

With this in mind, I would like to ask my first question to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. What was the formal synopsis or recap with the efficiencies and effectiveness of

these two emergency action plans for both Norman Wells and Behchoko?

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have to commend the leadership of Norman Wells. They acted very swiftly when the situation arose there. I have to commend them for that. They had a plan in place. I believe they were probably a couple of hours from evacuation, but they mobilized very quickly with the help of the municipal government and our folks on the ground there. That situation was handled very well. They had an emergency plan. They implemented it and it went very well. It went a long ways to preventing further disaster there. As far as the Behchoko situation goes, I think the lesson that came out of that situation was we need better work to do with the folks in Behchoko. I think there was a bit of miscommunication not knowing who the contact person was in charge. I think we learned a valuable lesson from that, and it’s a lesson that we plan on taking forward and preventing something like this from happening again.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I, too, want to earmark the fact that a lot of people were involved with the communities and they should be commended for getting these communities back on line here. The Minister mentioned opportunities and that’s where I want to focus the remainder of some of my questions here. What did we learn from these opportunities? The Minister indicated communication. Maybe the Minister could elaborate a little bit more with respect to communication. Was there a proper communication plan for the Behchoko situation and, if so, what did we learn from that or what opportunities did we learn from that?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs

I think we learned a very valuable lesson in the Behchoko situation. First of all, there should be a central contact number, central contact point. There was a bit of confusion there. That’s one of the reasons that we encourage our communities to come up with an emergency action plan. Most of our communities, I have to admit, have an emergency plan and a lot of them, from past experience, have learned some lessons and made some changes. This is one, again, that we will take some valuable information away from and to ensure that hopefully doesn’t happen. But if another situation like this arises, they are well prepared to deal with it. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I want to definitely say the Minister was very forthright during at least the Norman Wells situation. He did actually come to the Members’ offices to share information, which I do applaud and appreciate those actions. However,

throughout the course of the day, communication was probably scarce at best, and I did have to rely a lot on news and social networking, the tweeting that was going on. One CBC reporter was doing an incredible job.

Are there opportunities within these communication plans to help improve the communication of these types of disasters with the general community as well as elected leadership. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs

Madam Speaker, in situations like this with the situation in Norman Wells, we informed the appropriate Member from that constituency. If communication skills like we need to get information to all committee members, maybe it’s something we’ll have to do in the future. As far as the Behchoko situation, the protocol, we contacted the appropriate Member for that riding and informed him as to the situation there. Again, there are opportunities that we could share the information with all Members. I’d have to find out exactly what the protocol is, if we share the information with all Members or if it would be the appropriate Member’s responsibility to share with all Members. I’ll find that out and I will communicate that to the Member. Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Again, I do appreciate the genuine offer from the Minister and I will definitely take him up on that offer.

Very simply, I know I’ve brought up in the House, a number of times, the number of communities that are prepared in the event of an emergency, what our plans are. Can the Minister maybe give us a brief update as to which communities may still be not on the list of having a proper plan in place or a number that may be still out there for opportunity so we can get all our communities in a safe environment? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs

I know we do work with a number of the communities to update their emergency plans. For the actual number and which communities, I don’t have that information right now. However, I will commit to the Members that I’ll compile a list of communities that don’t have emergency plans, but I don’t think there are very many. I think they all understand the importance of having emergency plans, and they’re working on those and updating ones that haven’t been updated for a while. But I’ll get the numbers and I will share them with the Members. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and it’s with regard to the e-learning pilot project that’s happening in the Beaufort-Delta right now. As I mentioned earlier, to make any travel to the communities is very expensive. What the Beaufort-Delta Education Council is doing is very innovative and unique in getting the education courses out to the communities very promptly and very efficiently.

I want to ask the Minister of Education Culture and Employment, what are the department’s plans for the future of this project when it concludes after the next fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I’d like to commend BDEC for the excellent work they’re doing with e-learning. This is an area that we are exploring with other communities as well. As you know, we service 33 communities. With this particular work, we’ve dealt with Alberta Distance Learning at the beginning of the initiative in 2010. Since 2010 we have continued on with the district education authority taking on the initiative on their own.

It’s been very successful to date. There have been approximately 136 students that have taken the program and 110 were successful. That’s just a capture of the success.

We provide funding to work towards this important initiative of $100,000 in 2011-2012, with possible renewal over a two-year period. So we’re at that stage. We feel that we need to continue with this e-learning, along with other communities, to deliver those academic programs that may not be delivered in small communities. So we’ll continue to make those initiatives into the communities. Mahsi.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Madam Speaker, the Minister did mention that there’s a possible renewal and he did mention the success rates of how many students go through this program and actually proceed.

In the small communities we have one teacher that might be instructing three different levels of education: Grade 10 level, Grade 11 and Grade 12 level. The e-learning program would bring students at the advanced learning into programs specific with a teacher in Inuvik or a teacher in Fort McPherson that might be teaching and other communities could come on.

What I’m asking for the Minister today, after this program – he stated just earlier that it is a very successful program – would he commit to ongoing funding for this program that would cut costs down

of providing teachers into the communities, sending teachers into the communities, providing housing and all the travel that goes on in the Beaufort-Delta. Would he commit ongoing funding for this e-learning program so that we could get more communities on base with the e-learning program in the Beaufort-Delta region so that students can learn in the comfort of the communities that they grew up in?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Madam Speaker, as I stated, the funding is in the process of renewal up to 2013. Beyond that we need to deal with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council and how we can move forward.

As I stated, I’m very interested in having the continuity of e-learning. Again, we have to service all 33 communities, so we’re currently dealing with the school boards at this point. If we’re going to commit the funds, then those are the discussions that we need to have at that level, then it will be brought back to the standing committee as part of the business planning cycle as we move forward. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.