This is page numbers 1661 - 1682 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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Likely you would find a policy that indicates the decision for who goes on the medevac is made by a medical practitioner. I’m sure that it would describe any sort of discretionary decisions inside the policy, but I’m assuming that if it says that individual will make that medical call, then it’s not a political decision or an administrative decision. It would be a medical decision.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services, and they are in regard to foster parenting and foster families.

We have a lot of compassionate families out there who are willing to take kids in and give them a good upbringing, a good lifestyle. Sometimes in these cases, some of the youth and children that are taken in to foster may have some type of behavioural challenge or attitude challenge that does really affect the home and the support in the home, and the home structure and the family structure.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what specific programs are in place right now in the Northwest Territories that can assist these foster families, whether it’s counselling or some type of program to create that family structure and home structure that is right now kind of being affected by some of these children that might be taken into foster care.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Health and Social Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has a program called PRIDE. It’s the Parent Resources for Information Development and Education. That is a program that the foster parents are under in order to be trained as foster parents.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Just to clarify, I’m not asking for what programs to train these parents to become foster parents. I’m asking what programs are in place to help the foster families whose homes are being affected by the youth that they’re taking in, whether it’s because they’re being overburdened, a lot of stress, and it’s affecting their home life and their work. I want to know what programs are in place right now in the Northwest Territories for these families to get help and build that foundation in the home.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Health and Social Services

The Department of Health and Social Services provides funding to the NWT Foster Families Coalition. The Foster Families Coalition supports the foster children or foster parents across the Northwest Territories. They are sort of like a network organization that provides the foster care assistance to everyone that is a foster parent across the Northwest Territories. I think that is really the key way that we assist foster parents as the support is necessary for them to continue to be foster parents.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

In terms of this program, do all communities in the Northwest Territories have access to this program and how often does this coalition go out to the communities that really need

the support? I’ve been working with a family most recently who had to leave their community and head out of territory for a lot of work, and I’d like to ask the Minister if this coalition goes into the communities to do some outreach work or do foster parents have to go to the coalition to seek that help.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Health and Social Services

I don’t have any indication here that the Foster Parents Coalition travels; however, they do work with the various authorities at the regional levels to provide support, proper ways to retain foster children, and they provide some training. They also advocate for the foster parents. This is a group that does support foster parents right across the entire territory.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As many of us know, there is a shortage of foster parents and foster families in the Northwest Territories. When we have a challenge where a family needs help, and they’re travelling out of territory where services need to be provided, I find that very discouraging. We need to get more work and more programs to help these families out and look into it further.

I’d just like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services specifically what his strategy is to increase and recruit more foster families in the Northwest Territories.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Health and Social Services

The top recruiters for foster parents are other foster parents. Through this coalition and just the foster parents within the communities, some of the communities have groups that are head of the various foster parent organizations in the larger communities. They are helping the social workers and the child protection workers in the communities to recruit. Generally our recruiting is through foster parents and through child protection staff.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask questions about the recent report of the Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development on Financial Insurances for Environmental Concerns. The commissioner reviewed Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Development Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, and others, and reviewed their protection of public finances. Unfortunately, they found major shortcomings. Costs have now accelerated to over $8 billion of public liability. That’s taxpayer dollars.

The number one factor was intra-northern resource development projects. We’re standing to inherit this

very soon. The NWT alone likely has almost a billion dollars in liabilities right now that the federal government is working on.

Given the modest, I think it’s about $64 million for operations that have been negotiated for a land and environmental management regime, the clear shortcomings of the federal government as identified by the commissioner, and the likely unaffordability of the GNWT in light of such costs – I mean, those are 10 times what we expect to have for operations, 10 to 15 years’ worth of the net fiscal benefit we’re expecting – how is this being addressed in devolution negotiations?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Premier

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report was just released yesterday. From the accounts that I’ve read, most of the references were to other provinces or territories. The commissioner referred to mines in Nunavut and Labrador.

I should point out that we’re still negotiating the terms of devolution arrangements. Those considerations will be taken into account as we finalize the agreement.

The Northwest Territories is showing the way in terms of environmental protection with our mines. The three diamond mines have modern environmental agreements which had to put up the highest amount and levels of security for cleanup of the mines once they shut down. Certainly the Member is correct, as a smaller jurisdiction, when we achieve devolution, we’re going to pay a lot more attention to the inspections of mines because we have to make sure that we protect our interests.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

The Premier is actually incorrect there. In fact, the report refers to the Northwest Territories extensively. We, of course, have some of the most globally featured dire environmental disasters from our mines currently ongoing. The report says that in 2011, 70 percent of site inspections required under operating permits were not done in the Northwest Territories, in fact. This is obviously of great concern and leaves these projects that are developing disasters that we know nothing about as we stand to inherit them. Uninspected and unregulated, we have no idea if these current operations aren’t contaminated sites in the making.

Will this government require that the federal government put that house in order, do its inspections, update the security amounts, and ensure security is trustworthy – all of which were identified as concerns by the commissioner – before we accept the transfer of responsibility for abandoned and operating sites?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Premier

If the Member wants to point fingers, I’d say he’s incorrect with regard to

inspections of the diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. All three of the mines have environmental monitoring agencies that are tasked specifically to make sure the mines are operated in an environmental way so that all the environment is protected. Those environmental monitoring arrangements have been in place for over 10 years.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

The Premier again avoided the question and did not answer the question. The facts are clear that 70 percent of the inspections in the Northwest Territories, the commissioner has said, were not done in 2011 when our diamond mines were operating. All I can do is quote the commissioner.

My last question is: Additional issues were identified such as security shortfalls, lack of good and timely environmental information to our management boards and our First Nations who have responsibilities for environmental review process, concerned about impacts on fisheries and oceans offshore and so on, at the same time we’re disassembling the environmental protection regime, so failure of the Government of Canada to address regulatory issues that have been identified repeatedly in reviews, including reviews that they’ve done. What is our strategy, and how will we protect our people financially and environmentally in taking over this faulty and diminished protection system?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Premier

As the Prime Minister indicated, the commissioner’s report is a useful piece of advice that will help guide future decision-making. That will follow through to the Northwest Territories once it’s devolved. The question becomes are we better off now than we are in the future. I’m saying that, with devolution, our government will have to pay much closer attention to all of these environmental requirements because we are a smaller jurisdiction and we have to make sure that our interests are protected.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke in this House about my concern with the Department of ITI and its Minister for not sharing a current roadmap of our outdated secondary diamond manufacturing strategy. Recently the Minister took to the world stage to drum up business for the North. Now, as noble as this may sound, the concern of many is what map or compass was he using.

The following questions for the Minister of ITI are to help understand what our course is in the diamond manufacturing area, what is its direction, have we cleaned up the mess from the first go around, and

are we ready to proceed on this international stage with this second opportunity.

My first question has to do with the apparent secrecy of the recent signing of Deepak International Ltd. as an approved diamond manufacturer. Now, we are all aware that the Minister has the authority to designate this approved status of NWT diamond producers, but why did the Minister take it upon himself not to consult the Standing Committee of EDI, nor the Member for Range Lake where the manufacturing is taking place, prior to signing this agreement?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Travelling with me on the diamond and pipeline tour we had the deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure. As to the Member’s belief that we negotiated this in secrecy and we didn’t let anybody know, on numerous occasions as I appeared before the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, when asked about the secondary diamond industry and what we were doing, I made it very clear that we were seeking investment.

When it comes to proprietary and confidential trade agreements with companies, that is something that has to be held in the strictest of confidence until such a time as it can be announced, and I would hope that the Member would appreciate that.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I do appreciate the Minister’s response to that, and I do concur that sometimes things need to be negotiated behind closed doors. However, imminent signing of agreements has customarily been shared with all Members, whether it was the diamond sector or oil producing sector. We just ask that the same courtesy be done with all Members on this side of the House.

We would all agree that our first attempt at the secondary diamond industry was a costly mess for taxpayers. That said, has the Department of ITI and its Minister seen to it that all related links to previous Government Certified Retailer’s Club of polar bear and polar ice diamonds be removed from public and industry stakeholders?