Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last weekend in Colville Lake a family’s house burned straight to the ground. The chief, Alvin Orlias, and his predecessor and I have been asking for a fire truck for over six years. Yes, Colville Lake has no fire truck and no fire department.

Last weekend residents were forced to watch helplessly as that house turned into coals. The outcome might have been different if a fire truck had reached their home in time.

However, there’s more. For example, why in 2014 is the trapping capital of the Northwest Territories, Colville Lake, a have-not community? Yes, it is one of our smaller communities with a population of 157 people, but don’t they deserve basic emergency services like the rest of our vast territory? The community has no help in delivering health infrastructure, no permanent nurse. Residents must either travel to the Fort Good Hope Health Centre or wait for a doctor or nurse on monthly visits. Colville Lake has no RCMP detachment. I’ve spoken time and time again about the need for better policing service, but our government doesn’t have the cash.

Another matter is the employment rate, which hovers around 40 percent in Colville Lake

compared to the 80 percent here in Yellowknife. Housing is another have-not indicator. Seventy-seven percent of Colville Lake homes are in core need. That means over three-quarters of the community meet the low-income threshold and live in a dwelling that fails in one or more of these categories: suitability, adequacy and affordability. The community has no cell service. It has a single grocery store, which serves limited options for buying healthy foods and other household needs.

Of course, Colville Lake isn’t the only have-not community in the Northwest Territories. My colleagues Mr. Blake and Mr. Menicoche have communities in their ridings, like Kakisa, Tsiigehtchic, Jean Marie and Nahanni Butte, whose residents face many challenges the same as here.

Anyone with eyes can see we live in a double standard, or a two-tiered society. When will our government at this level and the federal level quit having double standards and help ensure equality and dignity for all?

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been almost two years now since we’ve had a commitment in this House to have a full-time licenced practical nurse in Tsiigehtchic. The fall and breakup season are the only times of year that we in Tsiigehtchic have a full-time nurse in our community. Many times they count the days until freeze-up and breakup just to have that resource in our community, a little more income into the community, whether it’s rent or the companies there.

Our people need to feel safe. The only time that our people feel safe is during the freeze-up months and also breakup. So I have questions for the Minister later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With WSCC safe advantage penalties well over three-quarters of a million dollars with claims growth mounting through the roof, the GNWT announced, a year ago, a promise, a promise of a new culture of safety with a renewed comprehensive Occupational Health and Safety Training Program for all GNWT employees.

Sadly, this was too good to be true. We must ask ourselves, what has changed in the past year to our culture of safety? Did we adhere to the safety promise? Did we in fact provide the required leadership and management for this higher obligation of safety? Were we accountable to our own safety laws? Or did the GNWT and its senior management ignore all the warning signs and disregard their legal obligation to provide the implementation and administration of their own occupational health and safety policy?

I believe the courts have answered these questions for us loud and clear. Recently, in a Territorial Court, where the GNWT was a defendant in a health and safety case, presiding judge Garth Malakoe ruled on action 2013-000272, “The ultimate goal of workers’ safety legislation is to create a culture of safety within the organization. Those organizations which incorporate such a culture will avoid breeches of such legislation and the accompanying monetary penalty.”

Now, to be clear, the GNWT pleaded guilty at a relatively early stage of this case and was fined heavily. However, not before Judge Malakoe reminded us again, “The GNWT has a responsibility to all the workers in the Northwest Territories. Part of this responsibility is to ensure that lawmakers pass laws that protect the workers. The other part of this responsibility is to ensure that the operational departments of the GNWT obey these laws.”

Judge Malakoe further went on to say, “The GNWT has a heightened responsibility compared to that of the private corporation.” So, in essence, the GNWT must be held to a higher standard than the industry, and if we don’t respect our own laws, how then can industry be expected to obey the same laws? Clearly, we owe no less than that to the industry and workers we represent.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Which brings me back to my original question today: With a working industry of over 5,000 employees, the GNWT, led by our senior management, appears to consider safety as an optional program with little or no regard for respecting or obeying our own laws.

The reality is, the GNWT should pay very careful attention to the courts, as the law applies as equally to deputy heads as it applies to the GNWT as a whole. With a number more cases pending in the courts, I fear these lessons of ignorance will become a more transparent reminder of each potential guilty verdict.

Mr. Speaker, being irresponsible and ignoring the law is no excuse for failing to abide, providing the proper resources for a safety culture. We need to

stop placing roadblocks of resistance and set the proper course of correction, of change, change that hopefully brings us on the right path to safety for all Northerners. Thank you.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to congratulate the Ministers of Justice and Health and Social Services on the implementation this fall of the long-awaited and brand new Territorial Wellness Court. This alternative court will reroute people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, cognitive challenges, mental health issues and addictions away from the conventional court system into situations where their underlying issues can be addressed in a healthy way. It is appropriate for these people that are not being well-served in jail and are better served through treatment programs and community-based services.

I appreciated a visit this summer from Judge Ruddy of the Yukon Community Wellness Court, who shared their relevant experience with their similar court. Yukon Wellness Court results have been stellar. The Yukon recidivism rate of 90 percent dropped for those completing the community wellness court programs to an astounding 11 percent. Equivalent reduction to 30 percent was achieved for people who partially completed the program. What a difference. It is my hope that our program will be just as successful and that continued improvements will be made.

For many years, offenders in need of treatment were warehoused with high-risk and violent offenders in correctional facilities, with predictable results. People who needed programs were put into a situation that nearly guaranteed that they would be put back into society, possibly with greater criminal skills rather than with the skills needed to cope as a responsible member of society.

The Wellness Court gives people who need our help to navigate our modern society, the tools to get to a place where they feel they belong and are valued. Less recidivism makes society a safer place, makes our jails less full and keeps families together and able to support each other. It’s also much more cost effective and humane, as opposed to a policy of one-size-fits-all incarceration.

To date, many of our people have rotated back into our jails as soon as they got out, often due to mental health issues or addictions. Hopefully, the Wellness Court will break this vicious cycle. However, to be successful, we need to ensure that required medical resources are in place and that

monitoring systems and statistics are collected to ensure evaluation and adjustments as needed.

My kudos, once again, to all who have contributed to the start-up of the Territorial Wellness Court. I will have questions. Mahsi.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Opportunities are everywhere, but unfortunately, when opportunity knocks, it doesn’t always wait for Northerners to get up and grab it. That’s why we must look very closely at what has happened over the last summer.

As Northerners have passed this recent tragic situation of many, many forest fires, and as we will be paying for them for years to come, we must look towards the opportunities that will be bountiful across our territory. As my colleague for the Deh Cho had said, the mushroom opportunities will be there.

We all know that the opportunities of accessibility and renewable foods such as mushrooms and the morel industry will bring Northerners, but when I look and hear and talk to people in these communities, they see the opportunities as their only chance. When you have an employment rate that is struggling to get up to 50 percent, they need every chance they get. When I talk to families in Fort Smith, Fort Providence and even Hay River, they’re really looking forward to this chance. If this government doesn’t realize what this chance is, I’ll certainly remind them. It’s called a job.

In small communities it’s tough to find opportunities, but don’t let this one slip by. As the government sits by and does nothing, may I compliment them on their ability to do nothing. I’m calling upon them to get some action and get some fire in their bellies again. It’s time to create some territorial legislation that does set up a network that creates picking opportunities for the morel industry that allows Northerners to be working and benefit first, because we all know when those southern pickers show up, they are known as a very nomadic group. When those nomadic groups show up in large communities, as the group, that is, we know that they tend not to spend a lot of money on the local economy. This is a tragic circumstance that they’re self-contained. The question is, when it gets to that $1.5 million of harvest last year, how much has entered the hands of Northerners.

Other governments have found a way. I encourage this government to find the wisdom of Saskatchewan and even BC. The Nisga’a tribe is known for having great regulations to ensure that

their people benefit from this opportunity. It’s time to develop regulations that make sense and further protect local economies that are trying to get on their feet. Let this government not watch the situation roll on by, by southern pickers who show up and invest nothing in the North and leave us with no opportunity.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address my questions today to the Minister of the Department of Justice in regard to the chief coroner’s office and recommendations that do come out of her reports.

I’d just like to ask the Minister, what is his department doing to address the recommendations in this year’s report that was tabled last week but also previous reports that give good recommendations to this House, and what is the department doing to address these?