This is page numbers 5107 – 5142 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 public.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask a question following up on the Premier’s statement on Junior Kindergarten made yesterday in the House.

Yesterday the Premier committed to “reach out to all other education authorities, Aboriginal Head Start, licenced daycare and home operators” in their consultation regarding Junior Kindergarten.

I am sure the department of ECE would say they have already done this, but what will be different this time around? Will the Aboriginal Head Start and the other leading, successful phase four program operators be taking a lead role in the communities where they are active and ensure their significant… How will we ensure their significant input in JK? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that as part of their review we will be meeting with the Aboriginal Head Start people to determine how best to move forward. At the request of the Members, we will be approaching each of the

communities. My expectation is that those 10 communities that have Aboriginal Head Start, even though they are federal programs and federal money that is slated to expire in 2016, that for those communities that have Head Start and don’t want a junior kindergarten, we will accommodate them. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Premier. I have become aware of several complaints from teachers and parents regarding areas of concern, as have other Members: one teacher in a classroom with 23 pre-Grade 1 students, tension between existing programs, lack of appropriate supervision for four-year-olds, and some of these are actually three-year-olds until Christmas. These are happening now and these concerns have been brought to the attention of headquarters in ECE; however, the response has been to pass the issue on to the local school, yet this is a territorial program. JK is a territorial program delivered locally.

Will the Premier ensure that this situation is looked at immediately and that the process is in place to deal with these complaints effectively and report back to the House before session ends next Thursday? Mahsi.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

As we committed to, this will be part of the review. I have offered each of the MLAs some of our senior management to meet individually with each of the MLAs so that we can hear more details about the concerns. We will be working with the DECs in every region and we have said that for those communities that want to opt out right away, we will accommodate them. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Because this is so important, I am going to repeat. I think the Premier was busy when I made this question. What I’m saying is these are very serious complaints out there right now. Unsupervised three and four-year-olds. Very serious to communities, very serious to parents and so on.

Will the Premier ensure that there is a process in place to deal with those complaints effectively? Also, will he deal with them and get back to this House by next Thursday on what’s being done about this situation? Mahsi.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We are always watching out for the best interests of our children. We take these concerns, complaints, very seriously and we will be looking into them on an immediate basis. It would be helpful if the Member could share some of his very specific concerns with us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier for that. The addition of a school year to the existing staff who are not trained in the

specialty of early care and education is unfair to both teachers and young children.

Will the Premier commit to ensuring a plan and implementation to develop a team of dedicated early care and education personnel with the specialized skills required to properly deliver the early childhood programs they need? Mahsi.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Having trained educators or trained people working with these children is very important to us and we have been taking steps in that regard already. Through the review, we will further work to improve in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about the youth addictions and on-the-land pilot program that was held just outside of Fort Simpson at Six Mile. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services who actually participated in the first graduation there in Fort Simpson and a little bit more about his plans for developing the program further. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Member for that question. I did have an opportunity to attend the first graduation. I spent about 10 or 15 minutes talking to each of the kids about their experience and what they got out of the experience.

The department is currently evaluating the lessons learned from that pilot program, which is actually going to help us articulate and identify how we can move forward with similar youth-based online programs in the future. So we’re in the middle of that assessment now. When that information is compiled, I’d be happy to have further discussions with committee.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

I too spoke with the provider of the course. Shakes the Dust Hope Consulting provided it, and members of the community, too, saw growth in those young students that participated.

As part of the assessment, will he be rolling this out in other regions as well? Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

It might be a little early to say for sure. That would ultimately be our goal, but until we actually do the assessment and do the analysis, I’m not sure exactly how we intend to roll that out. But it is something that we’re interested in doing. We’re doing the analysis, and when that analysis is done I’d certainly be happy to sit down

with committee and have some more discussions about how we could move forward with this in the Northwest Territories in different communities in different regions. Thank you.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Certainly, we want to build on that experience as well.

Will part of the assessment also be using the facilities that were created at Fort Simpson and continuing the program for the Deh Cho region? Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

The department has actually donated the tents that were used for this youth on-the-land healing program to the Liidlii Kue First Nations to support the community in doing other programs that they’d like to deliver at this site. We’ve also helped them clear the site and set it up so that it could be used for future functions. Now, it is their site, it is their location, they do have the tents, so they can use that location, and I actually expect that they will use that location for many different healing opportunities.

We do have an agreement with them that if we wish to run a healing type program or partner with the healing type program in the area, that we can use those tents that we have donated to them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 489-17(5): Home Buyer Protection
Oral Questions

October 30th, 2014

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Common law for residential real estate requires that a seller disclose latent or hidden defects that he or she is aware of and that could not be seen in an ordinary inspection. Most real estate purchase contracts obligate sellers to disclose certain information, especially with respect to compliance with municipal regulations and appliances. While generally not legally mandated in Canada, seller property disclosure statements, also called property condition statements or seller property information statements, afford some protection to both buyers and sellers.

My questions today are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. The Member for Yellowknife Centre also raised this concern in the recent past.

Could the Minister inform the House, what is our government doing to raise awareness of a home seller’s legal duty to disclose hidden defects and serious issues to potential buyers?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve done some research, and our

research indicated that territories and provinces feel voluntary disclosure statements don’t provide meaningful consumer protection because they ask many types of questions to the homeowner. Here in the Northwest Territories, being a smaller jurisdiction, we rely, and people should rely, on the honesty and the integrity of the people that are selling the home. However, I mean, this is an issue that has been raised before. I can assure the Member that MACA is still doing some research into this particular subject.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

If the Minister can inform the House, we know very well that other provinces do have measures to protect home buyers, and the voluntary disclosure statements are just one form. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement today, we do have other techniques or tools such as the requirement for realtors to require error and omission.

Can the Minister indicate to the House where are we on maybe providing certain measures to protect the home buyer and seller?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The sheer volume of home sales in some of the larger jurisdictions down south required it almost be mandatory for them to have this type of protection. However, here in the Northwest Territories we deal with this on a much smaller scale. However, we hear the concerns.

One thing we are planning on doing is our whole communications strategy, our consumer affairs website. We’re trying to enhance our content on that website to provide all different types of advice on different types of consumer protection, so any input we receive on how we can enhance that even further would be much appreciated.