This is page numbers 5179 – 5220 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 services.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too want to thank the mover and the seconder for bringing this motion to the floor. It’s something which has been spoken a great deal about in the media, not just today but over the last number of months. It’s an issue that is very complex but it’s also a very long-standing issue, and I’m glad that we, as an Assembly, are looking to add our voice to the other calls that are out there for some action.

I am somewhat conflicted on the motion, on the contents of the motion. When Mr. Hawkins initially indicated he was going to bring this motion forward, I sent him a few remarks and explained to him that I am not totally convinced that an inquiry is what we

need. I do believe that a roundtable is certainly a good move. An inquiry will cost us up to millions of dollars I’m sure. Certainly previous inquiries that we’ve had on other subjects have cost the taxpayers millions and millions, and I think my rationale for not spending it on an inquiry is that if we took those millions and we put them into providing better homes, better services for all Aboriginals, but particularly Aboriginal women and girls, I think we would be providing a better solution to the problem.

That said, most of the motion talks about a roundtable, and I do believe that a roundtable is an excellent starting point. I think the money that will be invested in a roundtable will look at the root causes of this problem. This is not something that is going to be easily solved, and it’s going to take some very hard thinking, it’s going to take some people who are going to dedicate a great deal of time and energy and effort to this problem, and I think a roundtable is a very good first step.

With that, I am in support of the motion, and I encourage all my colleagues to do the same, to vote in favour.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to join my colleagues in thanking the Members who have put together this motion and brought it forward. I would also like to thank Premier McLeod on the leadership role that he is taking across this nation.

I think the data and the trends are clear on this issue and, sadly, they have been for a long time. There can be little doubt, obviously, here in the Northwest Territories where it has been noted we know many of the women and girls or their families who have suffered from these tragic circumstances or are sometimes even related. This is sort of a no- brainer for us, we’re so close to it.

Fundamentally, I think we’re ashamed at the unresolved injustices, a lack of action, the lack of success and commitment when it’s plain as the egg on our face that we should have been on this a long time ago. That just makes me more appreciative of those, and I know we’ve got people in the House today, we’ve got organizations across the Northwest Territories and Native Women’s Associations across Canada who have been struggling to raise this issue, and I am very appreciative of the ears at the political level now, at all levels of government that are hearing these voices, and I appreciate the voices very much.

As has been said, I think things are overdue. It is time now, but please, let all this talk that we are seeking in this motion result in real on-the-ground action.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I certainly will be voting in favour of this motion. This may have been said, but in May of 2014 the RCMP released the national review on missing and murdered Aboriginal children. The most comprehensive account in Canada to date and the most glaring fact was Aboriginal women, or 4.3 percent of the total population, yet 16 percent of all female homicides are Aboriginal. This is why, when women are missing, there is fear in our communities, fear with the families and fear with everybody.

What this motion means to me, and us as MLAs, and us as a government, is that we support our women, support our Aboriginal communities when they say this overrepresentation has to stop. We must find the root cause. I believe that a national inquiry would do that. I am not too sure about the roundtable, but I think that the Premier has heard us. A roundtable, yes, it’s significant, but it has got to have teeth. It has got to find out the important things that a national inquiry can have to find out the root causes, and the investigations into our missing and murdered women throughout Canada have to be investigated thoroughly, and I think that’s what the Aboriginal groups, all Aboriginal groups want from Canada. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I find the motion very confusing. “Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member…that the 17th Legislative Assembly supports the national

Aboriginal organizations’ call for a national inquiry and a national roundtable into missing and murdered Aboriginal women.” So I don’t know; which is it? Every person that has stood up has said they support a roundtable but not an inquiry, they support an inquiry and a roundtable. The motion is very confusing.

I can’t support the motion because I am absolutely opposed to a national inquiry. I would totally support a roundtable on this subject, and I believe there have already been roundtables taking place. I believe that when the Premiers got together that was a roundtable, but now they want to step it up to a higher profile, they want to invite the Prime Minister into it and they want to have those discussions.

Every jurisdiction in Canada has statistics and social indicators which is a very clear picture of what we need to address. Spending the money that we should be spending on addressing those challenges and those issues and those social conditions on a national inquiry is not an acceptable response. I think that a national inquiry… Well, I have seen many national inquiries over the years,

and many of them come out with recommendations that are never acted upon. Who benefits from a national inquiry? All you want to do is quantify the problem. I think the problems and the challenges and the social issues are well quantified.

What we need to do is put more money towards the restoration and towards the reconciliation and toward supporting people who are affected by this statistic and this demographic. That’s what I am in favour of.

So, like I said, I find the motion confusing and for that reason and I cannot support it because I will not support a national inquiry into this topic.

I do appreciate the work that is done at the Native Women’s Association, at the Status of Women, of all organizations that try to be a support to those who are in need and who are, unfortunately, the victims that represent these statistics. That’s where I want to see the money go. If we have extra money for an issue like this, let’s not spend it on a national inquiry. Let’s spend it on the front line with people who are effecting change, who are out there in the trenches every day. We need safe homes; we need shelters; we need mentorship programs; we need so many things within that social network of supports and help to people who are at risk and that’s where I support the money going.

Because this is complicated and I don’t want to be looking like I support a national inquiry, I will not be supporting the motion. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I get into my question here, I would like to read an excerpt from an article in a paper that I recently read.

“An Aboriginal girl born in Canada today will die up to 10 years earlier than the national average. She is more likely to live in a crowded home without access to clean running water. She is more likely to be sexually or physically abused and stands a far greater chance of becoming addicted to tobacco, alcohol and drugs. She is more prone to host a life- threatening ailment like diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and worse yet, as a recent RCMP report showed, she is five times more likely than her non- Aboriginal counterpart to meet a violent end at the hands of another.”

I would like to thank Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Yakeleya for bringing this motion forward. It is a motion that touches everybody here in this Great Hall, in this Chamber, in this House. It’s a motion that touches everybody across the Northwest Territories.

Members here today have spoken very compassionately on why they are going to be supporting the motion and why we need to take action and step up to the plate and also encourage

our other national counterparts to do the same, our other jurisdictions across Canada.

Mr. Speaker, you know this, every Member in this House knows this, when something happens in the Northwest Territories, whether it’s somebody missing, Aboriginal or non, we have such a small population and when somebody does die, that we do, in fact, it affects everybody. Everybody talks about it the next day. Everybody feels sorry for the family. Everybody sends condolences and we make statements in the House regarding that.

You heard Mr. Hawkins give out some statistics about why this is important. The Native Women’s Association of Canada, in a recent report, out of 582 cases, 60-some percent, two-thirds, were murder cases. Sometimes the person that did this heinous crime was known to the victim. Twenty percent of these cases are categorized as missing; 4 percent are suspicious death; 9 percent unknown.

When something like this has happened, it’s the family and the children that are also impacted by the disappearance or a murder that has happened. So when we talk about this, we are also talking about the families, we are talking about the kids who don’t have a mother.

Over the course of this session, you have heard me speak to many, many issues that can really impact this without going to a national inquiry, without doing the national roundtable, which I do support.

I have made recommendations. I have talked in this House about the coroner’s reports and recommendations. This is a national issue, but it also happens in our backyard. I know the recommendations out of the coroner’s reports aren’t binding; however, there are some really good things in there that could have possibly prevented something else from happening further. Yet we take those recommendations and sometimes we don’t act on them.

I have also spoken about victim coordinator support. In some domestic violence cases, the victim is too afraid to go to the RCMP or too afraid to go through with pressing the charges. Sometimes that victim actually relies on that individual, her partner, or it could be another family member, by providing the necessities of life – food, shelter – and they continue to go like that. So when that person goes to jail, they can’t go ahead with it. However, we do have some amazing victim coordinators in the Northwest Territories that will work with victims, get them to the courts, help them make the impact statements, get them into the RCMP stations and help them every step along the way so that this stops.

I have also reviewed, over this last little while, domestic violence review committees, something that I know our coroner is in strong support of and something that we need here in the Northwest

Territories. Jurisdictions such as Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and BC all have very good terms of reference. The mission in most of them is just to conduct a comprehensive review of all domestic violence deaths and make recommendations that will help prevent deaths as well as reduce and eliminate domestic violence in whatever jurisdiction it is. That’s what we need here in the Northwest Territories.

These review committees would help to identify the presence or absence, in a lot of cases, of systematic issues within the system, within the government system, problems, gaps or shortcomings of each case to facilitate appropriate recommendations for prevention, and that’s what we need.

Like I said, I’d like to thank Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Yakeleya for bringing this motion forward and I’d like to thank all Members who spoke very compassionately about it and in some cases talked of personal experiences. But I’d also like to thank all stakeholders, all groups, not only in the Northwest Territories but across Canada, who are speaking on this issue, who see the importance of this issue and who know that we’ve got to start doing something right now so that this doesn’t continue to exist within our nation, even within our territory.

So with that said, I’d just like to thank all Members who are going to be in support of this motion, as I will be supporting the motion. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Premier

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Research and reports confirm that nationally Aboriginal girls and women face greater and more deadly violence at a rate of four times the average for all Canadian women and go missing at a rate of three times the national average. We need to recognize the causes of violence are complex and that we must work together to address the many factors that contribute to violence against Aboriginal women and girls so we can find solutions. This includes current conditions such as poverty, access to education opportunities, systemic responses and intergenerational impacts of historical trauma suffered in residential schools.

Some of the factors contributing to the high rate of violence against Aboriginal women and girls include attitudes and stereotyping. These attitudes need to change if we are to make a difference. I believe that with the national attention on this issue, attitudes are changing and good work is being done across many jurisdictions.

Through Canada’s Premiers, the Government of the Northwest Territories supports the national Aboriginal organizations’ leaders’ call on the federal government to host a national public inquiry into

missing and murdered Aboriginal women. The Government of the Northwest Territories further supports the proposed roundtable and is encouraged by the federal government’s willingness to participate. The proposed roundtable is being led by the national Aboriginal organizations, and the Government of the Northwest Territories is supporting the development of the roundtable at the request of the national Aboriginal organizations.

With a two-year chairmanship of the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, the Government of the Northwest Territories is well placed to provide focus and coordination on this important issue. Across a number of national tables, including the Status of Women, Ministers of Justice and the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, Mr. Speaker, Cabinet will be supporting this motion.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. I’ll allow the Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start off by thanking the mover and the seconder for the motion that we’re debating today. I also want to highlight the efforts of our Premier of the Northwest Territories, the Honourable Bob McLeod, in his leadership role that he’s taken on in helping the national Aboriginal organizations facilitate the development of a national roundtable.

We know that the RCMP complete extensive and exhaustive investigational efforts at the start of each missing and murdered person’s case and that investigation effort continues on. We also know from released statistics that Aboriginal women are overrepresented amongst Canada’s murdered and missing women. We support a coordinated approach across Canada as violence against Aboriginal women and girls is a concern in every jurisdiction across this country.

I believe that a national roundtable on this serious issue will allow all the good work that has been done to date be presented and understood in a coordinated fashion. It will allow us to build on that work and have the ability to share best practices to better coordinate to stop violence from occurring.

Our departments cannot work in isolation on this issue. That is why during the recent FPT Ministers responsible for Justice meeting this was on our agenda. In the Premiers’ meetings, Status of Women’s meeting and Health and Social Services’ meetings, we have each spoken to ways that we can contribute to the prevention of violence.

We are moving in the right direction. By bringing these types of topics to the forefront, conversations are happening around kitchen tables, around the territory, at leadership meetings with organizations throughout the North, and that is happening in all three northern territories. This roundtable will be one step closer to giving us the support to move

these important conversations forward, increase awareness of the issues and assist us as we work together with community members from, again, stopping violence from happening in the first place.

Mr. Speaker, I will be, as the Premier mentioned, supporting this motion today. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. To the motion. Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I feel I’m compelled just to speak about some of the missing and murdered women in Tu Nedhe. In each of the two small communities I represent there have been women from those communities who have been murdered, one recently that was in the news. It affected the whole community. Both times it happened it’s affected the whole community. In the missing young ladies, each of those people that are missing, it’s still fresh in people’s minds when someone goes missing. It is unlike knowing that the individual has passed away, but that the individual is just missing and nobody really knows what has happened. So it remains fresh in people’s minds at all times. I still have young ladies that were the age of the young lady that’s featured on the poster from Lutselk’e who come up to me and they’re adults now and they were friends and it’s like they’re speaking about something that occurred a couple of weeks ago or last week and said, I was going to go on the plane with her that day, but she didn’t show up so I returned to Lutselk’e on my own. People that speak of her, and her father speaks of her, as this being something that remains fresh in their mind. So it’s very devastating to the community when people are murdered and when ladies go missing. I know that the children of one of the ladies that were murdered have never been the same. So it was something that continues to impact them into their adulthood and I’m sure it will impact them for their entire lives.

So I felt I should stand up and acknowledge the people of Tu Nedhe that have gone missing and have been murdered. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. I’ll allow the mover of the motion to have closing remarks. Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to give a sincere thanks to everyone who spoke here today. I’m very thankful for the passion in their words and I also am very thankful for their honesty.

This is a difficult motion in that we’ve all seen and we’ve heard people who have seen there are multi sides to this problem. It’s not an easy one.

I also wish to sincerely thank Member Yakeleya, the Member for Sahtu. With his help we were able to collaborate something that I think is meaningful and I certainly think that with his help it’s much stronger. I enjoy every occasion I get to work with

Member Yakeleya and this was definitely one of the best experiences to get this issue forward.

I look forward to seeing our collective strength send a message forward to others. Hopefully other Legislatures will be able to consider similar action.

I understand the difference between the roundtable and the inquiry. The roundtable is proceeding forward with the strength and vision of our Premier and I’m grateful he’s there leading this. I think the Northwest Territories citizens, women and children, and Aboriginal women and children will be well served with his experience, knowledge and certainly his ability.

An inquiry in its own way is a challenging endeavor and it’s for that we are asking for the federal government to lead on that. I personally believe it’s best suited with the federal government and developed through a vision through the roundtable on their work, but that is yet to be developed.

Families deserve answers. I am no fool; this is a very complex issue, but I boil this down to respect, honesty and dignity. This is very important. This motion is about closure and it’s about forward thinking. It’s about making sure we can all collectively do better. We could not do better without the strength of the Sisters in Spirit, the Native Women’s Association, the NWT Status of Women, and certainly, for every one of those people in this Assembly and those who provided us words of wisdom and support outside of it.

I want you to know I believe this is something important, but I want to know that we are doing everything we can. I think that our collective rise here to support our Premier, to support this motion will do much. We must be relentless in any way to stop violence. There is just no two ways about it. Violence is a terrible thing and people do not deserve it. The numbers tell the true story, and I am hopeful that the next chapter can be written with all of us trying to find a solution.

In closing, I want to say again, thank you to all of those, and I appreciate their perspectives and certainly their support. I will be asking for a recorded vote on this particular issue. Thank you very much, and thank you to everyone.

Recorded Vote
Motions

November 3rd, 2014

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member has requested a recorded vote. All those in favour, please rise.

Tim Mercer Clerk Of The House

Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Moses, Mr. Bromley, Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Menicoche, Mr. Blake, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Miltenberger, Mr. McLeod – Yellowknife South, Mr. Lafferty, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. McLeod – Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Nadli.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

All those opposed, please rise. All those abstaining, please rise.

Tim Mercer Clerk Of The House

Mrs. Groenewegen.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. The results of the recorded vote: in favour, 17; opposed, zero; abstentions, one. The motion is carried.

---Carried

---Applause

Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 36, Health and Social Services Professions Act, be read for the second time.

This bill provides for the regulation of designated health and social services professions in the Northwest Territories. It authorizes the designation of health and social services professions by the Commissioner in Executive Council and sets out the process for doing so.

This bill sets out requirements for registration as a member of a designated profession and provides for application procedures.

This bill also establishes a process for the review and conduct of registered members, including a complaints mechanism, an option for alternative dispute resolution, where necessary, investigation into hearing process for an inquiry panel, and an appeal to the Supreme Court for the decision of an inquiry panel.

The bill contains a number of administrative provisions such as the appointment of officials, offense provisions, a limitation period for offences and the authority to seek injunctions to stop contraventions.

Finally, the bill contains broad regulation-making powers to regulate the practice of designated professions.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.