This is page numbers 2617 - 2654 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 work.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 15, notices of motion. Mr. Nadli.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, March 18, 2013, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that the potential role of an NWT ombudsmen, whether stand-alone or combined with another statutory office, and options for implementing such an office, be referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for research, review and analysis, and that the committee report its findings back to the House at the earliest opportunity;

And further, that the Standing Committee on Government Operations shall be provided, through appropriations of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, with the necessary financial support to carry out its assigned responsibilities as they relate to this review.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be seeking unanimous consent to deal with this motion today.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Colleagues, I'm going to call a 15-minute break.

---SHORT RECESS

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Item 17, motions. Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Mr. Speaker, I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on March 14, 2013, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, May 29, 2013;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to May 29, 2013, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business as it has been duly adjourned to that time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Question has been called.

---Carried

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Mr. Nadli.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mr. Speaker, WHEREAS Northwest Territories highways are remote and communities are not equipped to respond to emergencies on our highway system;

AND WHEREAS communities must apply for reimbursement when they respond to accidents outside of their municipal boundaries;

AND WHEREAS there have been an average of 130 collisions per year on Northwest Territories highways over the last three years, and the volume of traffic on the Mackenzie Highway between the 60th parallel and Yellowknife will likely increase with the opening of the Deh Cho Bridge that now allows uninterrupted travel year round, 24 hours a day;

AND WHEREAS increased traffic increases the risk of fires, injuries and fatalities on the Northwest Territories highway system;

AND WHEREAS the Government of the Northwest Territories has engaged a working group to advance the provision of ground ambulance and highway rescue services;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that the Government of the Northwest Territories enhance its work in the area of ground ambulance and highway rescue by emphasizing training and preparing for emergencies outside of municipal boundaries;

AND FURTHER, that the government bring forward legislation within the next 12 months to update the Fire Prevention Act and to make any other amendments required to make provisions for ground ambulance and highway rescue services;

AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Nadli.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my colleague from Range Lake for seconding this motion. Essentially this motion asks for the establishment of ambulances and, at the same time, highway rescue services to deal with people that are in distress either in communities or on the highway.

Of course, it also calls for the enhancement of first responder training, training for fire departments, as well, and likely the establishment of protocols for dealing with emergency situations both inside and outside of communities. I understand there has been an interdepartmental exercise in terms of trying to add some focus in terms of the discussions of looking to establish some solutions on this initiative. In that instance, I think three departments have been working on this for some time.

Initial comments include that there's a lack of trained personnel. There's a lack of equipment, lack of money, plus a matter of liability is a major concern. Our conscience will be our liability if we do not act immediately on this matter and put in place adequate services for transporting medically distressed people or assisting vehicles, accidents or fires on our highway system. At this point there's a lack of will to establish the vital, basic service for the well-being of all Northerners, and this motion addresses that.

With the bridge opening, we should have anticipated that it's going to necessitate the need for increased services on the highway in terms of trying to be able to respond to accidents that could happen. At this point we have our volunteer fire departments in communities that need to be properly trained. One example is just in terms of putting them into a capacity so they do know how to deal with defensive fire techniques, and at the same time, first responders need to have adequate training so they're confident and, when the call of duty comes, they don't hesitate on a moment's notice. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion, I'll allow the seconder to make comments. Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've risen in this House a number of times during this session to speak about ambulance, first responders, as well as emergency services on our highways.

Mr. Speaker, recently we suffered a dangerous tragic accident on our highways and those are always - and hopefully and thank God - rare on our highways. But the statistics show that we have had 130 vehicle accidents on our highways in the last three years, and if you add the numbers, that's almost one accident every eight days somewhere on our highways. They may seem small compared to the roadways in Alberta or our southern counterparts, but indeed it's something that is gravely concerning to many of us here.

It has been brought up in this House a number of times, as I said, during this session, where I've had concern where we're at with respect to our emergency services or highway emergency services and our first responder protocols.

I've had the chance to speak to both Municipal and Community Affairs and the Department of Health and Social Services, as well as the Department of Transportation to find out where we're at with respect to our highway protocols and our highway services. It appears that we actually did not get very far on those questions. In fact, it did probably shed more light on the fact that we had more gaping holes in our program than we did have in terms of process. So we're hoping, by virtue of today's motion and those Members who are speaking in favour of it and with Cabinet listening, that we, indeed, can make some progress and some milestones towards the safety of Northerners across the Northwest Territories.

We've known for years now that the three departments in question that I mentioned have been working on programs and services to develop emergency training management programs, but years have passed and yet we still have no solutions in site. In fact, we've asked whether or not there could be interim solutions or temporary solutions to these problematic issues. We've heard that there will be none forthcoming.

I applaud the Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli, who has brought forward this motion. I think it speaks loud and clear the needs of our citizens, and it speaks loud and clear the needs of this government to finally get to a point in question where we have the right services and safety for the people on our highways. I will be voting in favour of this motion. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion. Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be supporting this motion given that at least several communities in my riding don't have an ambulance, or even the training and the support services to support an ambulance service. I think that our government has to start taking a look at this. I know that we had a nice ambulance committee, joint committee on the government side at the deputy level. I'd like to see that reactivated, look at the issues and certainly provide for the safety of all those travelling our highway systems. Mahsi cho.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion is overdue. Action on this front is overdue. I thank my colleagues for bringing this forward. Highways in the Northwest Territories are a part of GNWT infrastructure and, as such, we are the responsible party. Communities are clearly willing, if properly resourced with equipment and training, to fill in here, but they need proper support. The horror of having severe injuries and being left to suffer with nobody responsible to respond and/or no one with capacity to do so by those who are willing is completely untenable. I will be supporting this motion, as I said, and I thank my colleagues Mr. Nadli and Mr. Dolynny. I urge all to support this motion and get it done.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be supporting this motion. Our NWT highway system, in some cases, is very long distances between communities and if somebody should get into an accident, it could be hours before anybody could get to them. That's very critical to the safety and life of an individual. I do applaud Mr. Nadli for continuing to address this issue in committee, and bringing it to the forefront and to the House today in terms of a motion. As I said, I will be supporting the motion.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise in support of this motion. I would like to thank the mover and seconder of the motion for bringing it forward. I feel that we have long needed an improvement in the provisions across the NWT for emergency services on our highways. We have been making do and we've been doing things a bit piecemeal. We have provided a small amount of money but it's not nearly enough, and it's time we look seriously at what is required and put in place a system that is going to provide the services that are required.

I've advocated in this House many times since I've been here, on behalf of my community, for increased funding to cover the costs of the Yellowknife fire department, who regularly acts in response to an emergency outside of the city limits. It may be down the highway, it may be out on the Ingraham Trail, but they are very often called out to fires or traffic emergencies. There are also emergencies that happen in the wintertime with ice and people falling through ice on lakes and so on. It's definitely a need within my community, and I recognize that all the other communities that are on the highway system feel a responsibility to respond to an emergency that is outside their municipal boundaries but is on a highway that goes through their community.

As our territory grows we are going to add more and more highways to our system. As we do that, we as a government have to consider the safety of our residents. We're going to have more people on highways. We're going to have more people at risk in the remote areas, as people have already mentioned. As a government, I think we have to recognize that need for increased emergency services and we have to seriously look at what we have and don't have, and that there is a need for us to provide greater emergency services.

Some investigative work was done a number of years ago. The departments of Health and Social Services and MACA got together and they looked at providing an emergency service program across the NWT. That work was stopped pretty quickly when they ran up against a fairly large bill in terms of setting this in place and funding. I think it's important that we have to start that work again. The cost may seem to be prohibitive, but there are ways of doing it. We can start minimally and work our way up. I think the government must investigate, as this motion requests. The government must look at the funding that is required, and that we, as a government, have to find a way, government and Regular Members have to find a way to find that funding and put the services in place that are required. I urge all my colleagues to vote in support of this motion. It is something we need.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Mr. Bouchard.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Along with my colleagues, I will be supporting this motion. I know this is an issue for Hay River. We are in the centre of three highways and we do respond quite a bit to rescue outside of the community. We have issue with this and we think this motion moves us in the right direction.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. To the motion. Mrs. Groenewegen.