This is page numbers 3683 – 3722 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.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Moving on with general comments, I have Mr. Blake.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments to the opening remarks and the budget for housing as a whole.

I’m glad to see they’re planning to actually replace some new stock in the communities. This year I

believe there 19 older public units that are going to be replaced. I hope that one of those units is Bennett Apartments in Aklavik. I believe that is older than I am. I recall in the ‘80s when I went there for the Northern Games, that building was there and I believe it is time to make changes to that.

Also, as I’ve explained, there are a lot of people moving back in the riding that I represent. I’m not too familiar with other ridings, but in Tsiigehtchic, Aklavik and McPherson there’s a big waiting list of people that are trying to get units, and I believe that there is a need for market rental units, and I hope that those communities are put on the list when the time comes.

I’m actually glad to see that the Joe Greenland Centre is in the books for this year. I’m glad to see the department is actually putting something into the community rather than taking stuff out like other departments. Also, the community would really like to see these kinds of projects actually taken on by the residents of the community just to provide more jobs. One thing that we’ve noticed when outside contractors get the work is that they bring in workers from out of town but the people in the communities just would rather not have that. They’d like a lot of that funding to stay within the community and boost the economy of the community.

Also, one thing that was mentioned through our tour, as you recall, is some questions towards a shelter. Some funds that were allocated through there that the community wanted to access to provide meals for the residents that are having troubles. I think that’s very important to work with the community on.

The other thing was one thing that is working really well, working with the Arctic Energy Alliance for homeowners, was the wood stove program. We’re hoping that more units, you know, as we try to cut down on the consumption of fuel, that we work with a lot of the homeowners to ensure that they have wood stoves or pellets put into the homes just to… It’s also good to have a backup, say, if the power goes out, especially in the smaller communities and even the larger centres. It’s good to have a wood stove in your house, because you go three or four hours without heat in your home and the pipes start freezing up and we’ve seen that in a lot of the communities. A few years back in Fort McPherson, we had the whole power plant burn down and that was a big strain on the community, but the community did pull together and they recovered. It’s always good to plan for those sorts of situations.

As I mentioned, a lot of good programs that are coming within this fiscal year, and as I mentioned, I hope to see a lot more homes. I’d like to commend the department, as I did last year on the job that has been done in one of the communities, Aklavik.

All the units there have been completed and people there are very happy with those new homes that they’re now living in. As I mentioned, there’s a big waiting list there and we hope to increase that amount of availability.

With that, I’d just like to thank the chair and thank the department.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister McLeod.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We appreciate the Member’s comments on the work that the NWT Housing Corporation is doing and we look forward to getting this project in Aklavik done. We are pleased that the community had chosen the same spot as the previous one, and having been there just recently, I see that one is down. I think we’re doing the work on the tender documents now and we’re hoping to have those out and have the contract awarded.

You talk about local employment in some of the smaller communities. A lot of the M and I work that the community does is an opportunity for employment, as far as some of the contracts go. Most of the contractors in the smaller communities now have proven that they do have the capacity to bid on a public tender and, in most cases, win it, because being from the community they have an advantage. I hear your concerns, though, about contractors coming from out of town, but at the same time, we want to make sure that we get a good price on our product and make sure we get our product on the ground in a timely manner, because we want to be able to have folks move into these places as quickly as possible. We continue to work on that though.

The waiting list in some of the communities, and I think one of the communities in your riding was identified, because we work closely with the NWT Teachers’ Association in trying to identify some of their communities where they feel that they have a lot of trouble getting teachers in there, for example, because I think they did a review of their housing situation in a lot of the communities working with our folks, and one of your communities was one of the ones that was identified as one of the communities to have challenges providing units to professionals that come in. We take that information and we use that as a guide to help us determine that, well, we should maybe get four units into this community and two units into that community and a few more over there, and that will alleviate some of the pressure. That was very valuable work that went on there.

The power outage that you had in McPherson, you talked about the wood stoves, and we like to see our homeowners with wood stoves because, you’re right, Mr. Blake, with the high cost of fuel and electricity and that and the fact that the power goes out, you need to have a backup. If the homeowner

wants to put a wood stove in their place, again, they would have to deal with the insurance issues on that.

You were talking about the power outage in Fort McPherson and the power plant burning down, and it was interesting how all that came about, because I was working in Inuvik, and they just happened to have a workshop in Inuvik where they brought all the maintenance workers from the communities into Inuvik and then the power plant burnt down, so all the boys were shipped from Inuvik. Well, they volunteered to go up there, and they spent a couple days up there just going from unit to unit running the generators and making sure that they had some heat. Unfortunately, the power plant burnt down, but at the same time, we had boys from some of the High Arctic communities that were in Inuvik that were up in McPherson assisting, so it was a real team effort not only from the residents of McPherson, who were pretty good, but from the Housing Corporation, and it just worked out that all our boys were in Inuvik at about the same time. That was a good news story there. I know in the housing office in Inuvik they still have the letters up from the Minister of the day commending them and all the other employees on the work that they did.

I think I’ve touched on a number of points that the Member raised. I hope I didn’t miss anything, Mr. Blake.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Moving on with general comments, I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments to the Minister. I do appreciate Housing’s list of seniors units into the small communities, and Fort Good Hope being listed as one of them, and the community of Colville Lake being listed also for a unit up in their area. The homeowners in our communities, there are quite a bit of them in our region: 38 percent, according to the stats that I’ve got, in Norman Wells that own their own homes; 41 percent in Tulita own their own homes – I’m just doing some of my work here – and 36 percent in Deline own their own homes. You can see that there are a high number of homeowners. Fifty-seven percent in Fort Good Hope own their own homes, and in Colville Lake the number is quite high there, too, at 86 percent. But also in Colville Lake there’s 77 percent, just the latest numbers. It might be better than 77 percent of their households in Colville Lake are in core need. When you look at core needs, you look at three criteria that fit the core need. Tulita, 37 percent of core need. These numbers are still 55 percent of households in Fort Good Hope are in core need. When you look at and examine the core needs of these houses, they are quite high and I understand that there are programs set out for them and to lower the core needs in our smaller communities.

I guess what I’m saying is some of the people, either in homeownership or in the public housing units, sometimes it’s quite difficult to get equipment and material in there, and people are pretty busy, especially in the last couple of months with the cold weather coming in and freeze-ups of pipes, water pressure pumps and sewer pipes. On top of that, you have leakage on the floor. Is there an annual really in-depth inspection of these units with the wood floor chipping away because of leaks in the bathroom or the kitchen dripping water throughout a continuous period of months or weeks? I would like to know if each household gets a pass inspection from the health that there is black mould, or people don’t really know sometimes if it is black mould or just something else.

I get calls. There are repair units that people are living in that sometimes you see boards over the floor that is rotten. The boards are there and they show it to me. Things like that they have in some of these public house units.

My point is there is a high percentage of homeowners, also, that get quite challenged by having to purchase their own material and supplies because you can’t pick up the phone and ask Housing for the guy to come up with a van and work. They have to do it themselves. In small communities it’s quite expensive, so they would like to see some kind of relief, especially for the older people to have someone they can call in the community. It would be good if you have that. I know it is quite difficult, but it is also nice to have somebody from the government, a maintenance person, to come and help these people to have their equipment. I had to do that over the holidays and get my own equipment when it’s 55 below outside. It’s not fun.

I want to ask the Housing, is that something that is discussed or talked about? One of my neighbours across the street, who does he call? He is an elderly person. He owns his own home. If his pipes are broken, he has to buy his own pipes from Norman Wells or from outside the community. Those are just some of the unique challenges. I’m not too sure if it is being put into any type of discussion with the Housing Corp.

You have enough houses already to look after; it’s a lot of housing. This is added stress, but it’s also more for the people who own their own homes. I’m very interested in having the Sahtu be considered as one of the hard to house because we have some people in Deline who are very challenged and it makes it quite hard for them to get into a house. Actually, we have a young man – I just talked to and let the Minister know – that is living in his own shack. He made his own house out of crates from the housing packages. This young man is challenged because he is disabled. The doctor said he can’t be out in cold weather, but he’s so bad in

arrears that he just kind of gave up on life and that’s what he was trying to do, but he survived. Now he is in a little shack in 40 below. It is really difficult, because of our policies and programs, to get him into a unit. He has to wear a scarf over his face. It’s too dangerous for him to be out in the cold weather and he’s still in that situation. I guess for myself, I am requesting a hard-to-house unit in the Sahtu for this one, look at a community that I would ask that he be given some consideration.

I brought up this black mould and mildew because I had a couple of people from my community come and talk about that. We weren’t too sure. They’ve taken some pictures. It is very difficult to get the nurse involved because she doesn’t really get involved with that type of situation. Is there an environmental or health person that comes around and says, I want to inspect the houses, not just the housing, but I want to do it from the South, inspect the housing around our small communities, looking for black mould or mildew? How do we clean that up? People get sick. I’m really concerned about that.

Overall, when I look at the Housing operations and their efforts to help those with all the unique challenges in our communities, especially in the Sahtu, they have come a long way. It’s not bad planning they have, trying to capture everything we could do with the money that we have. I look forward to seeing some of the infrastructure being built in our small communities. I think that people in the communities would appreciate it.

I guess the bottom line is, is there any type of an apprenticeship program that we can increase in our communities for electrical, plumbing, pipefitting, to maintain a house that we can get our young people to work? Does the school offer any type of training so the kids can learn the trade and they can help the elders out or help their grandparents out? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is talking about the homeowners in the Sahtu. If you look at the number of homes that are in the Sahtu, initially those homes were provided by the NWT Housing Corporation or with assistance from the NWT Housing Corporation. We contributed greatly to homeownership not only in the Sahtu but across the Northwest Territories.

The Member talks about core need. Again, core needs is kind of a tough one to gauge. If you look at the numbers from the last one done in 2009, I think it said that – I can’t remember exactly what the numbers were – 35 percent was core need. Again, we have to make sure that information is accurate, because if you came and asked me is there anything wrong with your house, I can find

something wrong with my house, so that’s going to affect the core need percentage in a house.

He talked about inspection of units. We have condition ratings that are required to be done on our housing units every year. It’s done every year. They go in, they inspect the unit and identify any potential work that needs to be done and any potential issues that might be coming up. Again, I think the Member was using this in reference to homeownership. Again, if you look at homeownership, it would be their responsibility to ensure that they do the inspections on their house. We have programs in place like the preventative maintenance program, the SAFE program, which is a bit of an emergency repair program, and CARE program. If they identify some issues that needs to be done, they put an application in and our technical people will go work with them to make sure they identify work that needs to be done and they help them with it. Nowhere else in the country is that opinion available to a lot of homeowners.

I’m a firm believer in putting the onus back on the homeowner to identify. I always think of the story where an 85-year-old lady had crawled underneath her house to work on her own sewage tank because it was her house. She felt it was her responsibility, so she did that.

Again, we have a number of programs in place that assist people in the Northwest Territories. If they feel that there is a potential issue with their unit, then they would contact our district office. We’re hoping that with the new way we do business, they would contact the local housing authority and do a lot of the application process through them. Then if there is technical work that needs to be done, our technical people would come in and help identify that.

As far as mould goes, mould is getting to be an issue and a lot of it is how we maintain our own units. That has something to do with it. We were starting to see more and more people… In one of our district offices, we have someone there who is a qualified mould technician. We’re hoping to have those. After a recent visit to one of the communities in the Mackenzie Delta, they had some concerns there with potential mould. I think it was the very next day our mould remediation person went over there to inspect the unit. I haven’t heard the outcome of that yet. I am quite interested in hearing about that.

With mould being an issue, we are starting to see more and more people with expertise privately and within the corporation and we plan on utilizing that. A lot of it is education. We try to put a document out there to say this is what you may need to do to prevent mould.

As far as the transition housing goes, the hard-to-house units that we’re doing, it’s our intention to try to spread these units all across the Northwest

Territories to make sure everyone benefits from them. Again, we haven’t decided where these are going yet. We will work with the communities and see which communities have high need. I am sure we will hear from a lot of communities across the Northwest Territories. Again, this is four units this year and we can maybe consider this a bit of a pilot project to see how this goes over and then go from there. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe I have touched on everything Member was asking.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Moving on with general comments, I have Mr. Bouchard.

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

I move that this committee now concludes consideration of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation financial summary information and all related information items in Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates, 2014-15. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. We’ll just take a minute and circulate this motion. The motion is in order.

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Question.

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

I’d like to thank the Minister today and our witnesses, Mr. Stewart and Mr. Anderson, for joining us. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.

Thank you, committee. Just for the record, with this motion we have concluded consideration of Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Does committee agree?

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you. Moving on with our agenda, we have Health and Social Services. With that, we will go to the Minister of Health and Social Services for opening comments. Mr. Abernethy.

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you for this opportunity to appear before Committee of the Whole to present the Department of Health and Social Services’ main estimates. The proposed operating budget for 2014-2015 is $391.929 million, which represents an 8 percent increase from the current fiscal year.

This budget includes $19.1 million in forced growth and $16.5 million in key initiatives. The initiatives increase our investment in a number of areas that

target priorities identified by the 17th Legislative

Assembly.

Our system continues to face many challenges, including fiscal sustainability, an aging population, changing patterns of chronic disease and the need to keep up with emerging technology. Investments in this budget will help to address these challenges and move us towards our goal of better health, better care and a better future for NWT residents.

Sustainability of the health and social services system is an ongoing concern. We face constant increases in cost and demand for services to meet the needs of our clients and patients. Members of this Assembly have raised concerns about deficits in health and social services authorities. This budget includes $15 million in forced growth that will help to address ongoing pressures in the system, including providing our authorities with appropriate funding for standby and callback pay. Three point two million will address a base deficiency in Stanton Territorial Hospital’s medical travel budget. Five point two million has been added to the budget to address increased costs of children and adults accessing residential placements outside of the NWT.

Funding to support our work in shared services and innovation will also promote sustainability in our system as we move towards achieving efficiencies by sharing expertise and resources among health and social services authorities. One million three hundred thousand dollars in funding to bring Stanton Territorial Health Authority and the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority will help lay the foundation for moving all authorities to a common financial system as well as being an essential stepping stone towards implementing a territorial electronic medical record.

We know we can deliver better care by improving access to services to our residents. The budget includes funding to roll out the Med-Response system. Beginning later this year, this program will provide regional and community health workers with immediate access to physician support, using phone and telehealth technology. This will ensure an immediate response to community medical emergencies, including coordination of medevacs. The budget also includes funding to expand midwifery programming in the NWT.

But we can’t focus only on how we deal with people when they need our services. To achieve better health for our population, we need to invest in prevention and promotion. This budget includes funding to improve the overall health and well-being of our people through three major initiatives focusing on anti-poverty, early childhood development, and mental health and addictions.

The budget includes $500,000 in new funding to support communities, Aboriginal governments and non-government organizations in tackling poverty in

our communities. It includes $1.5 million to implement our Early Childhood Development Action Plan. We absolutely agree that focusing on healthy child development in the zero to three age group remains a top priority and that we must implement and strengthen a number of programs to support this age group. We also realize that those in greatest need are the families most at risk. They are often the ones who do not take advantage of facility-based programs, whether they are offered in a health centre, a child and family resource centre or a daycare program. If we are going to truly make a difference, we need to find ways to improve our ability to reach the parents and caregivers who are in greatest need of support; including pregnant moms, and parents and caregivers suffering from addictions issues.

Lastly, we continue to invest in Mental Health and Addictions. We continue to make progress on our action plan, including offering a broad continuum of treatment services to meet as many unique treatment needs as possible. We are exploring new options for addictions treatment in the NWT using existing infrastructure, from community-based services to specialized residential addiction treatment options. We have been working with an established treatment centre to pilot a mobile addictions treatment option, and are expanding the availability of day programs and after-care. We are exploring options for re-establishing residential addictions treatment in the Northwest Territories.

A key recommendation of the Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness was that the government support a range of on-the-land programs as part of the continuum of addictions programs. I am pleased that the budget includes $900,000 in new funding which will position us to respond to this recommendation, working in partnership with Aboriginal governments and communities.

This government has identified a number of priorities for this department. I plan to keep Members updated as much as possible as we roll out these new initiatives.

This concludes my opening remarks. I am happy to answer any questions.

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Hawkins.

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Committee Motion 6-17(5): Conclusion Of Consideration Of NWT Housing Corporation, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

I will now rise and report progress. Thank you, Mr. Premier.

Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Can I have the report of Committee of the Whole, Mr. Dolynny.

Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2014-2015, and would like to report progress with one motion being adopted. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.

Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Do I have a seconder? Ms. Bisaro.

---Carried

Item 23, third reading of bills. Madam Clerk, orders of the day.

Orders of the Day
Orders of the Day

February 17th, 2014

Clerk Of The House (Ms. Langlois)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Orders of the day for Wednesday, February 19, 2014, at 1:30 p.m.:

1. Prayer

2. Ministers’

Statements

3. Members’

Statements

4. Returns to Oral Questions

5. Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

6. Acknowledgements

7. Oral

Questions

8. Written

Questions

9. Returns to Written Questions

10. Replies to Opening Address

11. Petitions

12. Reports of Standing and Special Committees

13. Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills

14. Tabling of Documents

15. Notices of Motion

16. Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills

17. Motions

- Motion 10-17(5), Setting of Sitting Hours by Speaker

18. First Reading of Bills

- Bill 8, Write-off of Debts Act, 2013-2014

- Bill 9, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2013-2014

19. Second Reading of Bills

20. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of

Bills and Other Matters

- Tabled Document 4-17(5), Northwest Territories Electoral Boundaries Commission 2013 Final Report

- Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2014-2015

- Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act

21. Report of Committee of the Whole

22. Third Reading of Bills

23. Orders of the Day

Orders of the Day
Orders of the Day

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Wednesday, February 19th , at 1:30 p.m.

---ADJOURNMENT

The House adjourned at 5:58 p.m.