This is page numbers 2389 – 2428 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 community.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Mr. Speaker, I’ve heard that the Take A Kid Trapping program is drawing dollars from the Growing Forward Fund. That obviously would be inappropriate use of those dollars. Can the Minister confirm whether that is the situation? What is the justification for that if it is? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

Mr. Speaker, I wasn’t aware of that. It is something that I certainly would look into. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up from my Member’s statement, I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation a question. The cost estimate of the Inuvik-Tuk highway is about $300 million. How much of that is expected to stay in the Northwest Territories economy through businesses and job opportunities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Transportation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Decisions haven’t been made on procurement but certainly my belief – and I’ve said it in the House before and I will say it again today – is that the vast majority of that close to $300 million should stay in the Northwest Territories, should put equipment that’s here in the Northwest Territories to work and people to work here in the Northwest Territories. We don’t want to see that money leave the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister describe the economic benefits of the Inuvik-Tuk highway once it is built? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Transportation

Mr. Speaker, the economic benefits will be great for all of the communities in the Beaufort-Delta for visiting family

and connecting the communities of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. It will lower the cost of living in Tuktoyaktuk. We won’t have to build the ice road to Tuktoyaktuk in the winter months any longer. Long term, this road will have tremendous impact on the exploration and development of oil and gas in the region and lead to many more jobs and opportunities for residents in the Beaufort-Delta.

Also, I should mention tourism. Currently, in the summer months, when tourists drive the Dempster Highway into Inuvik, they have to take a plane into Tuktoyaktuk if they want to dip their toe in the Arctic Ocean. That will be a thing of the past. Tourists will be able to drive all the way to the Arctic Coast and dip their toe in the Arctic Ocean and also visit a pingo or two while they are in Tuktoyaktuk. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Speaker, if the project does get approval, what will this government do to ensure that Gwich’in contractors get a fair share of the work building the Inuvik-Tuk highway? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Transportation

Mr. Speaker, again, no decision has been made on procurement on the highway, but our expectation is that people in the Beaufort-Delta and companies in the Beaufort-Delta will be able to work together. There is going to be a lot of work.

On a project of close to $300 million, there is going to be a lot of equipment that is going to be required. It is expected to be somewhere near 200 jobs in Tuktoyaktuk, 200 jobs in Inuvik. There will be opportunities. Our hope is that those opportunities will accrue to as many people as possible in the Beaufort-Delta.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was talking about the Addictions Forum work and certainly trying to compare it to the work that’s already been done to date and tying it equally together with some of the issues I’ve raised, as well as many other Members have raised here in the Assembly today. It’s no surprise to the Minister and I’ve repeated it many times. I believe we need a treatment centre here in Yellowknife and that we need treatment facilities that are appropriate, of course.

My question to the Minister of Health and Social Services today is: Speaking to the Addictions Forum – and I’ll be tying all those three subjects together – what have their interim findings been when they’re out knocking on the doors of the territory’s citizens, and what type of advice and

direction are they getting to challenge addictions in a manner that all the previous reports and studies and experts have not provided us? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The forum was not required to provide an interim report or a verbal report back to the department. They’re working with departmental staff. What we’re hearing unofficially is that they are hearing many good recommendations from the communities, and one of the forum members spoke to me in an unofficial capacity and indicated to me that he thought that they had accumulated at least 10 good recommendations from the communities so far. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. I think today is a great opportunity if this Minister of Health and Social Services would like to avail himself to it, which is what are many of those good recommendations? I think he said there may be upwards of 10 recommendations. So what are those good recommendations they’ve been hearing from the communities so we can get a sense of what’s actually happening out there? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I don’t know what the recommendations are. The recommendations that the guy mentioned, as he was indicating to me that they had these recommendations, was he did indicate that the communities thought there should be some treatment on the land, that there should be some sort of detoxification in the system, and then also that they should be able to utilize the treatment centre in a way that would be a good piece to the overall treatment of addictions, sort of people in the Northwest Territories. Those are generally the only things that I recall, off the top of my head. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. There have been piles and piles of reports by experts, advice in these particular areas. The government could field a library on its own on how much it’s studied over these particular initiatives.

I’m tying this point to expert advice and expertise on the panel. Maybe the Minister can speak to the expertise this panel brings to this discussion on the Addictions Forum, and maybe he could use this occasion to highlight what expertise and experience they have around this to ensure we’ve got the right people in this process. It seems like one that was kicked off quietly then set out to find some facts, and we won’t hear from them until after it’s done. So there seems to be some gaps as to what experience, strengths and expertise they bring to the table and what they will be bringing to the table for policy advice. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. We have heard lots from outside experts, there’s no question about that. This forum has given us an opportunity to hear from the people, from extended families, friends, neighbours, people who live with addictions every day. These are a group of people who have lived a life of addictions, some of them have lived lives of addictions, some of them are involved with the treatment centres, some of them are involved with counselling at their own community level.

The bottom line is, these are a group of people who we felt would be a good group of people to extract a lot of the solutions from the communities as they travel around. So I guess their expertise is really the life they’ve lived. The group of people that have come together, some of the individuals are very good at organizing the forums, and travelling with the forums, and doing documentation as well as documentation with our staff. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. By all means I’m sure that these are good people. I just would have thought we would have heard more about their expertise than the life they’ve lived.

My next question, of course, is the last one, which is: Has the Minister been getting any feedback about two particular areas that I am very passionate about, which is youth treatment options and certainly a treatment centre here for Yellowknife for dealing with addictions? Those are two very important recommendations that I hope are coming forward on how to deal with youth on a youth treatment level, and certainly, as I’d said earlier, a treatment centre possibly for Yellowknife, being one of the largest regions and certainly a catchment area for a lot of problems. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Yes, thank you. I haven’t heard from the forum that there was any specific indication from the communities that they met, that they felt there should be a treatment centre located in Yellowknife. I’ve heard that earlier, somebody had indicated that somewhere, but specifically, officially from the forum, I haven’t heard that.

As far as youth treatment goes, I think that initially one of the forum members that we put on there had discussed a lot of youth treatment options with the department previously. So we thought putting her on the forum would bring that to the forefront, but again, officially, no, we haven’t heard about any treatment for youth that would be recommended through the forum. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, we did have a meeting today with Skills Canada and I have some questions here for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I wanted to ask the Minister how is his department working with Skills Canada and industry together, to get some of our youth that are taking these trades into some of these jobs that we need in industry. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.