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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. When the department finally addresses some of these concerns, what is the department doing to ensure that students who need these extra resources and that need this help and these services are not provided in the Northwest Territories for the students that need it? In fact, these services aren’t even provided for for adults that need it, and students are very critical. They’re learning and they’re developing, and yet we’re still waiting to find out what they need. But when he does find out, how is he going to assure that they get the services when we don’t even have them in the Northwest Territories? What’s his action plan to get these services and resources for the students that need it in our communities so that they can grow, develop, learn, become educated and become part of society? What is he doing and where is he looking to send these students that need the help that they do need? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. Some of the actions would be some of the mental health first aid, some of the actions where we’re trying to improve efficiency of services is as simple as having discussions. Just to be able to allow the students to talk about mental health, that is within our action plan. This is a fairly complex issue coupled with fairly complex processes that involve a couple of departments for us, as a department, working through our authorities to enter into the schools with mental health counsellors, we have to first do some evaluations of students. Students, in order to be evaluated, it has to be agreed by the parent that this student has a mental health issue and needs to be evaluated. So there are things that we need to do. We need to put things in place and we’re forging ahead to do that. Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Yes, Madam Speaker, I’m going to continue to ask questions on this topic because it’s a very important topic. We’re letting people slip through the cracks, as we like to say it, and it’s not fair to the parents, it’s not fair to the teachers and it’s not fair to the students. Somebody has to take charge here. I’m talking about intervention and integrated services. I talked all last week about how

departments need to work together to provide services to be more effective and to providing these services and programs for the residents of the Northwest Territories.

Would the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to working with the Department of Justice or the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and somebody take the lead to create a team to go into the schools and intervene at an early age, or in the junior high setting so that we can get these kids early on so they can be successful and get an education and, like I said, become part of society?

I’m going to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services specifically, but I’d like to see one of these Ministers step up to the plate, create the team, find the resources and go out to the communities and start addressing this issue that’s an issue to the parents, to the community and to the teachers, our staff, the ones that we are supposed to be supporting? Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will commit to having the discussion. I think we’re a ways down the road with this, but again, there are certainly pieces of the puzzle that have to be put together in this whole area. I will commit to discussing this with the Minister of Education, Minister of Justice and also to, I guess, present this possibly as a supplementary or a budget item that will be presented to the committees in the Legislative Assembly.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister making that comment of possibly coming back to the House with a supplementary appropriation. Just to offer a little bit more information in terms of whom we’d like to see at this table, seeing as I have some time here and there’s no other questions, we need nurses, we need social workers, we need teachers, probation officers, the RCMP officers, community counsellors.

Would the Minister take the lead, create this team, create a budget and possibly do an outreach program? Would he commit to doing an outreach program or look at a pilot project where there’s an outreach program to the communities in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

That would be quite a team alright. We would be able to work with that, I believe. What I will do is, again, take it back to Cabinet colleagues. We do have a Cabinet committee in the social envelope. So we can take it back to the chair of that committee with the Department of Justice and, hopefully, as we move along, we will also keep the Standing Committee on

Social Programs informed as we move forward. Thank you.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. We always say it takes a community to raise a child, and the Minister’s reference, that is quite a team. I don’t know he took that in reference, but that’s all the communities when I worked with the Interagency Committee, when I worked with the Department of Health and Social Services, when I worked at the regional level, we all talked about creating this team and that was over 10 or 12 years ago. Yet we’re still looking at trying to create that team. That team needs to be developed, either regional-based or territorial-based, and money needs to go into that now. When I go home for the weekend and the majority of my concerns are around education, around health and social services, mental health and addictions, then I have to bring it to the floor and get it addressed. Would the Minister not only look at a territorial aspect but also maybe a regional aspect? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. We can begin the work on this. It would probably be outside of this current budget process that we’re engaged in, but we can begin the work. Like I indicated, we can begin the work through the Minister that’s responsible for the social envelope, the Minister of Justice, and then at the end, I guess, also present it to the Regular Members to ensure that it’s in line with what they see as a good solution to addressing these issues. Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s almost been two weeks since I raised the issue of gas prices here in Yellowknife and the requirement possibly of legislation, or I should say regulation on this particular issue, the only way to get to the bottom of it. The day after I raised the issue, I had a couple of Ministers – they must have been lost – on our end of the hallway for some reason or another, but a couple of Ministers had asked, did my comments in the House change the price of gas and I’ll have to tell you no, it did not, because I filled up my vehicle the other day and I noticed it’s still stuck solid at $1.38.9, or I should say frozen at that price.

My question of the Minister of MACA is he said two weeks to even consider this particular issue. Has he done anything other than just wait for industry to respond? Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the Department of Public Works has done some work on this. I had thought that the price was going to go down with some public pressure and being raised here. Apparently that didn’t happen. I will talk to my colleague over at the Department of Public Works and see what the plan is going forward. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

In the interim, at the suggestion of my colleagues Ms. Bisaro and Mr. Dolynny, they suggested setting up a petition. As such, I have done that on the Legislative Assembly website. Of course, don’t worry, a press release will be on its way very soon.

That said, what is the government going to do about public engagement on this particular issue to raise awareness and also seek the appetite of the public? Do they want regulations on this issue or should we allow industry to enjoy the price setting as it is now?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I think through the petition that the Member has started, we’ll probably get a lot of concerns about the price of gas not only from Yellowknife. I’m sure there are residents across the Northwest Territories, Inuvik for example. I think we’re very low today. I think it might be $1.87. That’s not too bad. I’m sure they will have some concerns with that too. So it’s an issue that affects residents all across the Northwest Territories. I know some would love to pay the price they pay in some of the larger centres but, unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. I’m sure through the petition, that will be the public voice and we’d have to listen to that. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

People in Yellowknife would like to pay the price the expert down in…(inaudible)…had suggested, which was about $1.14 or so, in that range in Yellowknife. A couple of weeks ago when I raised this particular issue – and this is not a point of criticism, but I’m going to ask what the Minister has done since then. This is the area of consumer protection. This issue was a new area for him and he wasn’t familiar with it. He has been Minister for some time in this particular department. In the last two weeks, what has he done to educate himself in these particular areas as to his authority about taking action on this issue that is critical for people of the Northwest Territories?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I educated myself by checking on the gas prices here in Yellowknife. I educated myself by checking on the gas prices in Inuvik and all the other communities across the Northwest Territories to see what they’re paying. I had a brief conversation with our consumer affairs person to see if they’d been getting a lot of complaints and a lot of concerns. He said there wasn’t very much at the moment, but he was sure it was going to pick up. I had assumed, that’s why I

spoke to the Member afterwards and I asked him to give me an update, because he was going to check on the prices of gas in the city to see if they had gone down. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. So we’ll have to decide if there are any next steps we take from here. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Minister help me and help the House by allowing himself to go get educated in his area of authority on this particular issue? Thank you.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The Minister is very well aware of his authority on this issue and he continues to try to monitor, tries to protect the consumers out there. I think it’s something we as MLAs, not only Ministers, have to do. We have to make them aware, we have to make industry aware, we have to do our due diligence, do our homework to see if they are being charged fair market value. So the Minister is well aware of the authority he has not only in this portfolio but his other portfolios and we will exercise it when we have to. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I had an exchange earlier with the Minister of Transportation that the only one element that I think was left out of this particular issue was timeliness of his response to complying with my request. The issue is that this bridge contract has been tendered. If you read the details, it looks like it’s been awarded, but has the contract been signed? So timeliness of his response to my office is significantly critical on this issue to ensure a contract isn’t dotted. If we find out that the contract did not fully fulfil its original intent and it’s already been signed, it may be too late.

Madam Speaker, would the Minister commit to have that information I requested before the end of the week to ensure we haven’t missed the timing window? Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. When DOT awards a contract, obviously they are going to go back to the company that won the contract and do a technical review of the information that was provided in the tender documents to ensure the due diligence is done to ensure the work can be performed as stated in the tender, and in the case of the electrical contract for the bridge, that was done. We haven’t had Can-

Traffic do work for us before, so we were extra diligent on trying to find out and get the references, and do that technical review before that contract was awarded. Madam Speaker, any information the Member requires, we will do our best to get that information to him.

Also, I am aware that Can-Traffic did indeed provide Appendix B as part of their bid package to the Department of Transportation. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

What I’m asking is, will this information all be sent to my office. It can be blacked out hiding proprietary information. I understand that. But there needs to be proof that they complied with the requirement as stated out in the tender, which is to demonstrate that they have northern content. That is the critical issue, to make sure that information is conveyed before the final contract has been signed. Thank you.