This is page numbers 4847 – 4890 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th 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 housing.

Topics

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. We have had a lot of back and forth with the community of Tsiigehtchic on trying to identify accommodations. There have been some difficulties in that. We are hopeful that we can rectify those problems and we can have members overnight in the community of Tsiigehtchic, and I hope to see that happen sooner rather than later. This is something that I will make sure happens. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Speaker, I know the policy is one of the issues, that we cannot have one person put in a community, like a small community like Tsiigehtchic.

So I would like to ask the Minister, will the Minister adopt the policy from Alaska which allows community officers in small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I recently was at an FPT meeting in Banff where Ministers from around the country were discussing Aboriginal and First Nations policing and the fact that the federal government hasn’t been forthcoming with more funding to see community constables put into small Aboriginal communities across the country.

It’s not only an issue here in the Northwest Territories but it’s something other jurisdictions are struggling with as well. I believe I was the fifth Justice Minister from the Northwest Territories to sit around that table and let the federal government know that we’re not happy with the amount of funding that we’re getting. We want to see more funding. We want to see an opportunity to have Aboriginal people back in the communities doing police service, and that’s something we believe strongly in. We have four positions that are legacy positions we received funding for in the Northwest Territories, but we certainly need more funding to deliver First Nations policing and have communities work with communities to have a better policing service.

We have made great strides in working with communities and the leadership in communities on developing community policing plans and community safety plans, and that’s been a real benefit to providing that service in communities as well.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Will the Minister continue to rely on our bylaw and my constituents to do citizen’s arrests, or with the Minister solve our problems and approve a detachment for our community of Tsiigehtchic?

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

It’s our intent to continue to work with the leadership in the community of Tsiigehtchic and other communities around the Northwest Territories to ensure that they have the best policing service possible. In terms of a detachment, a stand-alone detachment, it could cost somewhere between $10 million and $15 million, and of course, we don’t have the capital today to see us do that. We are moving forward with plans to repair and bring up to speed a couple of other larger detachments in the Northwest Territories, including Inuvik and Behchoko, at this time.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Historically, environmental remediation costs have been handled as a post-year and supplementary appropriation by this government. Given our new-found post-devolution powers as stewards of the land and environmental cleanup, this current practice of seeing an appropriation for the annual accrual for such liability is a direct violation of current public accounting standards of practice. According to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, these new accounting standards require these remediation costs to be done up front.

Can the Minister of Finance confirm that the Office of the Auditor General of Canada assist the departments responsible for remediating sites under devolution, and did the OAG fully explain to these departments this is now the norm in accounting standards?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are taking all the steps necessary along with all the other departments post-devolution to make sure that we comply with all the appropriate statutes, requirements, regulations and guidelines.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

We haven’t had confirmation if the OAG staff did confirm that they did meet with

these departments, but can the Minister of Finance explain why his department is still currently in direct violation to these public accounting standards of practice today?

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

We just had a successful audit. We are going to be tabling the public accounts in the next little bit, and we fully expect to be compliant as required.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

We still hear that the department here is compliant. We haven’t seen the final results yet, but I can tell you that the standards of practice are in violation, so to be fair I will ask this one more time and offer to the Minister of Finance to clearly articulate why his department refuses to deal with environmental remediation costs properly.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

We fully engage ourselves in complying with all the necessary regulations and requirements that govern us, or if we have any other kind of involvement with the senior government like the federal government, we will, of course, work to comply in those areas as well. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s difficult to continue with these types of questions when we continue to hear a paid public announcement here by the Minister. Clearly, the Minister and department are keen in ignoring these standards of public accounting.

So in preparation for the upcoming public accounts, can the Minister maybe enlighten us as to how many other breaches of accounting standards the Department of Finance intends to violate this year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

As we sit through the political bavardage of my colleague, we can clearly see he’s on a fishing expedition. We, of course, pride ourselves on complying and having good audits, Aa1 credit rating, budgets passed unanimously in this House, public accounts that meet the test, and we are going to continue to hit those standards. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just following up on my Member’s statement, a direction was given to the government to create a policy in terms of providing funding to non-government organizations for their infrastructure needs. I will ask the Deputy Premier – who also is the Minister of Education whom this came to, so he’s well

versed in this policy that we’re talking about today – has the government undertaken this work to create such a policy that we can fund non-government organizations for the infrastructure they need who do good work on behalf of government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Deputy Premier

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Executive and also Finance are working on a draft policy on publicly funding privately owned infrastructure. Once there’s an approval for referral, it will be presented to a standing committee for their review and also for their comments. The plan is to have the policy rated for review by next session. So that is the overall plan, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

There is a concern because I know there were a lot of non-government organizations who were looking at this House when we actually approved a non-government organization for the infrastructure needs. It’s taken over two years to get this policy in place.

Is there any opportunity to speed up the process so it comes to committee… Or can I ask the Minister, with the draft policy that he’s working on, can that policy be given to committee to give any input right now to speed up the process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Deputy Premier

Part of the plan was to introduce that in the next session, but I can commit to the Member I will find out the status of where the actual draft policy is at. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As I mentioned, we do have a lot of NGOs out in the territory who do great work on behalf of the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned earlier, the NWT SPCA who takes wild, I won’t say wild, but stray dogs from the communities and putting them into their compound but it’s getting filled up, also shelters who are sheltering homeless and people who are battling addictions. In the meantime, while we are creating this policy – obviously there’s a policy coming – can any NGOs apply for funding for infrastructure needs from now until when we see this policy come into the next session? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Deputy Premier

The NGOs, obviously, can apply for programming we have within GNWT. This particular focus is on having a policy in place to deal with private funding for public infrastructure. That is in a draft format and will be ready for next session, but I will get the status on that.

With respect to accessing other programs or infrastructure funds, there is a venue for that, as well, within GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.