Good afternoon, colleagues. I would like to welcome Mr. Tony Whitford, who has held every position here in our Assembly at one time or another.

----Applause

Welcome. Good to see you, Tony.

Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, with its guaranteed advances, prime fur bonus and grubstake, the GNWT’s Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program is the envy of the Canadian trapping industry. The returns of this small but dynamic made-in-the-NWT program to our trapping industry continue to impress.

The Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program provides NWT trappers with one-window access to the international fur auction market. It works with the Fur Harvesters Auction to promote wild NWT fur, while educating and training resident trappers to maximize their returns with best practices for trapping and pelt preparation.

The results of this approach can be seen in last year’s trapping season, the best in over 30 years for NWT trappers with total returns to participants in our trapping industry exceeding $2.7 million and demand is expected to remain strong this year.

Of course, this success is due to our territory’s growing community of committed and hardworking trappers. Wild fur from the NWT is world renowned for its top-class quality and fetches the top prices at auction. NWT marten, which comprises almost 75 percent of our territory’s harvest annually, is in huge demand in all markets, including the European Union and now the Asia Pacific.

Recently a trade mission to China took a delegation from the GNWT to the 40th Annual Beijing Fur and

Leather Show. China leads the world in manufacturing fur garments and has a continuous demand for high-quality fur products. Currently 80 percent of all NWT wild fur ends up in China, indicating that our genuine Mackenzie Valley fur is recognized as a premium product that Chinese designers want to work with.

Last year a small amount of marten, branded with the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur label, fetched an astronomical $1,300 per pelt. But this type of success would not be attainable if trappers did not first learn and invest the time in properly handling and preparing their fur.

Our trappers are the very best in their trade and, as a result, so is the fur they ship to market.

Mr. Speaker, the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program was expanded a few years ago to address the long-outstanding challenge, faced by traditional arts and crafts producers in the NWT, of finding reasonably priced and properly prepared furs and hides to support their livelihood. The expansion diversifies our economy by encouraging trappers and craft producers in all regions to become more involved in their industries.

Today the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur - Hide and Fur Procurement Program provides producers of traditionally tanned moose and caribou hides with a market to sell their finished hides. It then re-sells these hides to NWT-based arts and crafts producers at the same price.

We also buy NWT seal and beaver pelts directly from auction, arranging for them to be tanned and dressed before returning them to the NWT to sell on a cost-neutral basis to NWT artists and producers.

Through this expansion of the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program, our government has been able to offer seal harvesters a precedent-setting $55 per pelt. While traditional markets for seal pelts have been wiped out by the European Union’s ban on sealskins, here in the NWT we cannot keep up with the demand from our arts and crafts sector and in the near future we will be increasing the price paid for seal pelts to increase our supply.

Mr. Speaker, it is estimated that fur bought and sold through this program last year generated almost $350,000 for craft producers in the NWT. Their beautiful creations promote our cultural diversity and are part of our socially responsible and environmentally sustainable Economic Development Strategy.

The release of the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy last year confirmed that we need to build on the success of our Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program and look to broadening its scope.

I am happy to advise Members today that the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment will be introducing a pilot project this year to purchase muskox hides from hunters and make these available for sale to leather and qiviut producers in southern Canada and abroad. The department also intends to expand the Hide and Fur Procurement Program to include more species of fur aimed at our traditional arts and fine crafts sector.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy, like this government, recognizes and endorses the important role of traditional pursuits in our economy.

By supporting the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program and the Hide and Fur Procurement Program, this government will continue to support and promote excellence in our traditional economy from the trapline through to the marketplace. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services is committed to publicly reporting on the performance of the health and social services system and our progress towards achieving the Legislative Assembly’s goal of an effective and efficient government.

The Department of Health and Social Services uses a number of different reports to ensure we are accountable to this Assembly and to the residents of the NWT.

The Northwest Territories Health Status Report is published every five years and presents updated information on the health status of the NWT population. It is an important resource to help understand health trends, the changing burden of disease, and the effect of lifestyle choices on chronic disease and mortality.

Physician services and hospital utilization reports are also published every five years and provide profiles of the top five reasons or conditions for which treatment was required. This again helps to provide a profile of our population, the burden of disease and the system’s response.

An addictions and substance use report is published every three years and reports on behaviors in the population and the effectiveness of policy and programs in changing behaviors.

Health services client satisfaction surveys are conducted and reported on every two years. In 2013-14 we also undertook a client satisfaction survey of the Community Counselling Program.

The Health and Social Services Annual Report forms a significant component of our commitment to overall accountability. The theme of this year’s annual report is: 25 years of delivering health care in the North – recognizing the 25th anniversary of

the devolution of health care. The report measures progress in a number of key areas such as:

• leadership and financial stewardship;

• innovation in service delivery;

• progress in achieving the strategic plan

priorities;

• a report on the medical care plan; and

• an update on the performance measures

outlined in the strategic plan.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to highlight some of the work the Department of Health and Social Services is doing to improve accountability and reporting. We are updating our accountability framework.

Through this project, we have established an initial set of 25 system performance indicators that will publicly track and monitor the performance of the NWT health and social services system across a number of areas.

These include leadership, allocation of resources, access to services and utilization, satisfaction with services, the system’s response to population health trends, burden of disease, and changes in the behaviors of the population.

The Department of Health and Social Services is also working with the health and social services authorities to develop an NWT accountability framework for patient safety. The NWT Patient Safety Framework will ensure that residents of the NWT can expect consistent standards for patient safety, regardless of where in the NWT they access services.

Mr. Speaker, accountability is fundamental to establishing good management practices and the Department of Health and Social Services will continue to report on our actions and our performance.

At the appropriate time I will be tabling the 2012-2013 NWT Health and Social Services System Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about two words and those words are...not Highway 7…

---Laughter

…passive restraint. I am not referring to a self-locking seatbelt but rather some very slick language used by our Finance department.

So, before we can get to passive restraint, we have to understand a bit of the context. For starters, if you have not noticed, many Regular Members are concerned at the number of job vacancies facing this government, and if you are from a small community, you should be paying attention.

Yet other Members have asked how the dormant or inactive jobs continue to get financed during the budget process year after year. To the crux of the issue, many have asked if specific jobs are deliberately left vacant so these wage dollar funds can meet other priorities or offset other operational pressures with the assistance of cleverly worded policies.

I can assure you, Mr. Speaker, many Members have tried to get resolve to these questions and the Finance curtain is slowly starting to open.

Compounding our deficit spending, also called our debt wall, or wall of worry, is the Finance department’s miscalculation of personal and corporate income tax revenues to the tune of over $30 million in this current budget.

If you add all this up and even without the resource revenue debt, you have yourself a perfect storm of financial concern. So in the past when our Financial Management Board found themselves in a sticky or tight situation, they initiated what they called a Passive Restraint Policy. Now, in my own words, it was a policy that directed departments’ restraint in operational spending to achieve savings. So I guess a sort of tightening of the belt, if you will.

How effective this tightening of the belt was is a mystery because nothing has ever been tabled in the House, reviewed by any third party, nor publicly discussed by anyone in Finance. So, in essence, for many Members of this House, passive restraint is on the same level as chasing Peter Pan. First, you have to believe and then you have to leave the real world to go to never-never land where the

passage of time is ambiguous to try to find answers. Unfortunately, some of us refer to this last step as what we do in the committee room every day.

Seriously, and in the face of our financial debt wall, I will have a number of questions later today for our Minister of Finance, so he can clear up what our Financial Management Board is doing to mitigate our losses in revenue and deficit spending and if he is using passive restraint protocols in his 2014-2015 budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Before we go on, Members, I’d also like to welcome back former Sergeant-at-Arms and Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Ms. Nicole Latour. Welcome to the House, Ms. Latour.

The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think Members of this House willagree that Hay River is nothing if it is not home to some very interesting people, some very innovative, entrepreneurial and very successful people.

Just briefly, I want to recognize a few of those people today. We have here in the gallery today Brad Mapes, who most of you know is doing a very cutting edge, leading edge entrepreneurial endeavour in Hay River, which we wish him well with and are honoured to witness a signing today, an historic signing today.

You don’t have to talk to very many people outside of Hay River, Northwest Territories, and you will hear them talk about Ice Pilots NWT. There again is a business that was started by a Hay River person over many years and then turned into Ice Pilots NWT and has literally put Hay River on the map as a destination for tourists and for people who want to see what Hay River is all about. There is that entrepreneurship again.

One other person I want to mention today, if I could, is the young gentleman who lives at our border, living in the bush taking advantage of a land-based activity. Our Minister of ITI today spoke about our famous furs from the Northwest Territories and that industry which maybe has not been all that it could be in recent years, but I would like to commend Andrew Stanley on a new TV series that’s being filmed about him about 60 kilometres south of Hay River. The company called Artless Collective has been down there and they have been videotaping Mr. Stanley in the bush. He is there trapping wolverine, marten, wolf, coyote and other animal pelts. This series will be broadcast on Wild TV,

which is a channel that people can tune into and watch, also through NorthwestTel Cable.

This again is yet another example of an innovative and interesting person from Hay River who has carved out their living in a very traditional way by harvesting furs just outside of Hay River.

I would just like to commend these individuals and ask the Assembly to join me in congratulating them on their work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been a lot of discussion in this House about GNWT jobs as of late. How many are being created through devolution? Are they being decentralized? Are small communities getting their fair share? Certainly we’ve heard a fair bit about the advertisement about these mystery jobs out there. How many are truly vacant and certainly where is the money going?

I recognize, as do all my colleagues recognize, how important jobs are to Northerners. I wish this government would wake up and smell the coffee and stop hiding all of those jobs. On that particular point, we often talk about how important jobs are and not keeping them hidden from the public. Now I’m going to specifically use my Member’s statement today to talk about direct appointments.

As a Cabinet, we all know they have the prerogative, and they certainly reserve the right from time to time, to appoint someone to a particular position without running a competition. We all know a competition typically is based on merit, but Cabinet occasionally uses that in their favour of vaulting a particular anointed candidate to a particular job position.

I don’t take issue with the occasional prerogative of using that authority, it’s how often they do it and how often we don’t know they do it where I have greater concern. When we wonder about these situations of who jumped into and has been vaulted into these coveted GNWT posts, we really have no idea.

How do we hold this government accountable when they operate under the cloak of secrecy, the shroud of Cabinet? I say it’s time to pull back the curtain of these direct appointments and allow us to do an accountable job by keeping scrutiny high and intense on this McLeod government. They’re making decisions behind the scenes, as we all know it, but how do we know they’re making them? We just don’t know.

What I’m saying here is, on average, in some years the government appoints 100 direct appointments. We just don’t know how many they make. We have to ask them to table it. We don’t know who they appoint.

It is time that we start publicizing some of these direct appointments, if not every single one of them. Don’t hide behind oh, it’s a small territory. Be proud we have the confidence to appoint these people without competition. Show some courage.

It would be good to know that these people weren’t appointed because of who they were related to or certainly who they know. It would be great to know that they were appointed because of what they knew and what they could do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

[Microphone turned off]

…peak of our season. People throughout the Northwest Territories are enjoying greater ease of travel between the communities along the winter roads, a key feature of our northern way of life and doing business. We all agree that public safety is a top priority on our winter roads. Roadside assistance is available on the public winter highway system through the Alberta Motor Association and the Ford Roadside Assistance, who contract the nearest local contractor on a driver’s behalf and within a short time help is on its way.

This service enhances public safety in a way the North has never experienced before. But it seems because the road north of Wrigley is called an ice road instead of a public winter road, the current roadside assistance contractor in Fort Simpson is not authorized to respond to calls on this section during these winter months.

We invest significant public resources into the construction and maintenance of our winter road system. The public also invest into these extra costs when they purchase these vehicles for roadside assistance.

I’m calling on the Minister of Transportation to contact the Alberta Motor Association and the Ford Roadside Assistance and let them know that the seasonal road north of Wrigley is a public winter road, not an ice road.

All travellers need to be prepared for unexpected events before driving on any of our highways, especially during the winter, but roadside assistance provides an added level of comfort and safety. It also helps people respond efficiently to major vehicle problems that are beyond anyone’s

control. All the Minister has to do is designate the winter road north of Wrigley as a public winter road and ensure that both the Alberta Motor Association and the Ford Roadside Assistance are aware of this designation.

The investments we make in our winter roads are worth it; our local contract service providers are worth it; and above all, the safety of the travelling public is worth it. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last sitting the House passed Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act, on the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, and the report from that committee had 15 recommendations, which I would like to speak to today.

During the four public hearings for Bill 24, the people’s voice was heard loud and clear and a large part of what committee members heard was a cry for help. Many of the expressed concerns were well beyond the scope of the bill. As a result, the committee felt that their report must include recommendations, which went beyond the limited scope of Bill 24.

The 15 recommendations in the Government Operations report are addressed to six different GNWT departments: Health and Social Services; Education, Culture and Employment; Justice; Finance and the NWT Liquor Commission; Municipal and Community Affairs; and Transportation.

Five of the recommendations are addressed to Health and Social Services: to increase addictions awareness, prevention programs, treatment and detox programs, and after-care. Some of them are already partially addressed in the updated Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, like the on-the-land programs and after-care treatment, though many others are not, like the recommendations to increase awareness and prevention programs related to alcohol consumption and abuse, like a residential treatment facility.

The Department of Justice was asked to consider four recommendations around bootlegging and bootleggers. They were also asked to provide a safe house in every community as part of community safety plans.

Finance and the Liquor Commission are asked to consider three recommendations around alcohol sales and restrictions and to use a portion of the profits from liquor sales for addictions awareness and treatment.

The GNWT has yet to respond to the recommendations laid out in the standing committee report.

I’ve said before that alcohol is a scourge in our territory. In order to rid ourselves of that scourge, we have to act on the recommendations in the Government Operations committee report. Is the government in the process of doing that? I don’t know, but I certainly hope so and I look forward to a prompt response to these recommendations from the government.

I will have some questions for the Premier at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s an exciting day for the forest industry in the Northwest Territories. Later this afternoon our government will be signing an MOU with Fort Res. We hope that this will be the start of well needed jobs in the South Slave area and economic opportunities. A lot of hard work has been done by the Fort Res band and the Metis. Good job.

A great deal of work has been done also by our forest management division, who should be commended for all of this hard work.

It is a great opportunity to see there’s a forest industry back in Fort Res and in the South Slave. We are excited to see the opportunity. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to talk about something that’s a concern, especially in our smaller communities dealing with oral health care.

A colleague of mine yesterday made a statement on Drop the Pop. That’s one way we’re looking at preventing oral disease, tooth decay and issues that arise with poor oral health. This government lost out on some funding in this coming budget through the THSSI funding that we get through the federal government and there’s still a lot of concern out there in the small communities about poor health care within our children, and even within our children from zero to five.

I want to ask the government today, and looking at the new federal funding that’s coming down the pipe for the three territories in the next three years in the amount of $70 million, to look at replacing that funding that went into the research on getting stats, put that funding back, not to do any further

research but to put it into hiring dental hygienists, put in the proper prevention, promotion and education programs, provide every child in the Northwest Territories with a toothbrush even. Do something to prevent the damage that’s caused by oral health care.

Just doing a little bit more research into this, I find that oral health care just doesn’t cause gum disease or tooth decay but it leads to other things such as diabetes, oral cancer, pancreatic cancer, heart disease and kidney disease, so this is a very serious issue. We lost funding that we had last year. I’d like to see this government put it back in for some proper care and treatment prevention, education and promotion programs.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement will be similar to Mr. Menicoche’s on the winter road north of Wrigley.

When I visited the Sahtu some time ago, I drove up from Wrigley to Norman Wells, and from Wrigley to Blackwater is about 105 kilometres, and Tulita another 153 kilometres. The winter road is very rough. Actually, between Blackwater and Tulita there are about 57 snow-fills that you have to make and cross over.

I’m happy that the oil companies are putting the winter ice road paving program in place to get the roads smoothed out there. A lot of people have bought a lot of vehicles in Hay River or in Yellowknife here, and they’re worthwhile these vehicles, and the road is pretty rough and they have to go pretty slow at times, and there’s no fault to the contractors who put the roads in. They’re one of the best road building constructors that I have ever seen in the Northwest Territories.

My concern, along with Mr. Menicoche, is that the Roadside Assistance Program is useless in the Sahtu region. As Mr. Menicoche said, north of Wrigley, people who have broken down, new trucks, cold weather driving also doesn’t help. They say that when they call for roadside assistance there is no help for them. Basically, they’re literally on their own.

I’m going to call upon this government to designate that road so the Ford, GMC, whatever company these vehicles are sold to people in the small communities, that the roadside assistance will be honoured, and that the Government of the Northwest Territories needs to step up to the plate and put this roadside assistance in place so that our people then do not have to pay out of their own pocket to get a truck to bring them down to the garage. I’m going to call upon this government to

make a commitment that sometime before this winter road ends that letters will be going out to the companies to honour roadside assistance, and I will do that along with Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is with some sadness and appreciation that I rise to report that this past Saturday a well-known and colourful Weledeh constituent “Stan the Man” Larocque passed away peacefully with his family by his side at the Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Mr. Larocque was 94 years old and was known as a real northern character. He made his way north in the late ‘30s when Yellowknife was just beginning as a gold mining town. He worked on the early cat trains, hauling freight across Great Slave on sledges pulled by a bulldozer. Known for his good sense of humour, you could often hear Stan claim to have “never had a flat” in 40 years of catskinning.

Stan the Man lived life on his own terms. He worked as a guide and camp worker at fishing lodges and with Johnny Paul on welding projects. I fondly recall my visits to the Gold Range as a young fella when I would see Stan in action, playing the air guitar and having fun.

Stan was involved with Einar Broten and Lou Rocher in their efforts to save the old shacks and lifestyles of historic Yellowknife, and he himself remained dedicated to that lifestyle living in his own neatly organized shack down in the willows of Peace River Flats, refusing to move to modern housing even into his 90s. He was well liked in the neighbourhood and even in his later years he was willing to lend a hand when someone’s skidoo got stuck or a bear happened to stumble into a neighbour’s backyard.

Stan Larocque is survived by his sister Elsie Yanick, 96, who is unable to travel, and many relatives, including his nephew, our own Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, George Tuccaro.

Our sympathies and good wishes go to all Stan’s family as they mourn his loss and celebrate his life. The funeral will be at St. Pats Church tomorrow at noon with Mr. Tuccaro giving the eulogy.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to discuss child poverty and its effect on learning. We know that children are less resilient than adults when their basic needs aren’t met. We know that to thrive and learn, they need nutritious food, a safe place to sleep, loving relationships and stimulating learning opportunities.

Poverty forces people to eat bad food and live in substandard homes. It breeds toxic stress, shame and discouragement. Parents living in poverty are perpetually forced to make trade-offs: pay the rent this month or feed the kids, replace the kids’ outgrown winter clothes or take them to the dentist; buy storybooks or pay for prescriptions at the drugstore.

Canada’s child poverty rate is appallingly high. In a recent report of the OECD countries, Canada ranked 15th out of 17. Even worse is the rate of

poverty among Aboriginal Canadians. While Canada officially ranks an impressive fourth on the UN Human Development Index, the indicators of poverty among Aboriginal peoples put Canada in 78th place, the spot previously held by Peru.

To be sure, poverty in the NWT is concentrated in small communities where the vast majority of residents are Aboriginal. The evidence tells us that poverty puts children at greater risk of developmental delays. Contributing factors include poor nutrition, vitamin deficiency in the mother, and toxic exposure to things like mould and poor housing. Another factor is that children in low-income families have less interaction with primary caregivers. Taken together, these factors make for a tougher time in school. Indeed, the indicators of school achievement in the small NWT communities are dismal and telling.

The government’s major initiatives – the Anti-Poverty Strategy, the Early Childhood Development Action Plan and the Education Renewal – appear to be taking things in a promising direction, but more needs to be done. The future of our territory is at stake.

I call on the government to make deeper changes so that by the end of the 17th Assembly we’ll be

able to say we gave our young people in the communities a substantially better chance in school and beyond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. It’s a real pleasure for me today to introduce the

leadership of Fort Resolution and some of the South Slave. In the gallery today with us is Chief Louis Balsillie, chief of Deninu Ku’e First Nation; president of the Fort Resolution Metis Council, Kara King; president of the Northwest Territory Metis Council, Garry Bailey. Also Don Balsillie, chief negotiator of the Akaitcho Territorial Government, is also in the gallery with them. They are some officials, and a well-known businessperson from Hay River that MLA Groenewegen spoke of, Brad Mapes; and also a couple of officials, Frank Lepine from the forestry division and Troy Ellsworth, regional superintendent of the South Slave, is with them today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve been in the North for almost 40 years and, unlike many of you, I don’t have very many blood relatives here, so it’s a real pleasure. I have a couple; I gave birth to them. But I have my brother visiting today from Calgary – John Ostler – and it’s a real pleasure to have him here. I had to twist his arm a bit to get him here. He’s wearing a cast. I did not break his arm, but it was a great time to get him up here to visit his sister. My brother, John Ostler. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great honour to recognize Anthony J. Whitford, a resident of Weledeh and a person of some renown in this House and I believe still holding, in fact, an honourary assignment as Table Officer of this House. Welcome, Tony.

Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize our resident Brad Mapes, owner of Wesclean, town councillor and a proponent for Aurora Pellets. I would also like to recognize a former resident of Hay River, Nicole Latour and her friend Michael Woodward, first time to the Ledge. Obviously, I’d like to recognize all the people from Fort Res on this exciting day, and also the people from forest management. I appreciate their hard work. Also, Tony Whitford and Mr. Ostler, obviously Jane’s brother. I’d like to welcome all of you to the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Shannon Payne who’s here with us today. She’s part of the Assembly of First Nations Indian Residential School personal credit liaison. She’s the lead on the file for the NWT and will be here in Yellowknife until Monday. She will have a booth at the NWT Wellness Conference this weekend. If anybody needs more information

about the Indian Residential School personal credit, Shannon will be the person answering those questions. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. I’d like to welcome everybody here today to our public gallery. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings and have a good day.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my line of questioning yesterday that we had for the Minister of Health and Social Services in what must have seemed like a mini theme day for Minister Abernethy, but when we talk about people leaving the Northwest Territories, the outward migration of residents of the North, we need to look at all aspects of that.

Yesterday I spoke about some of the challenges for seniors living in the North: the cost of living, the cost of living independently in their own homes. Today I’d like to talk about another segment of population who we often hear leave the Northwest Territories. Those are people who moved to the Northwest Territories who are not necessarily indigenous or from here who have aging parents in some other part of Canada.

I have talked to numerous people who had to not retire in the North because they needed to go back to where they were from in other jurisdictions in Canada to care for aging parents. So today I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, is there anything in legislation, regulation, policy within this government that would be a framework for an organization, an NGO, a church, some kind of an organization to set up private care for seniors in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy,

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s certainly an interesting idea and anybody who’s interested in coming north or currently in the North who’s interested in opening their own supported living facility would obviously be great. There are no impediments to a private corporation or business opening an old folks home or long-term care centre in the Northwest Territories, but any private corporation would obviously want to do some research in advance and find out what building codes or other things might need to be in pace for a multi-person dwelling, but as far as Health and Social Services,

there are no restrictions for a privately run old folks home.

This idea of an NGO running a health-related institution is not a foreign concept. As everyone knows, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada had a management contract with the Government of the Northwest Territories for many, many years to run the hospital in Hay River. When you do go into southern jurisdictions, you do see many church organizations that have seniors complexes associated with them. You see hospitals still being run by, say, the Grey Nuns in Edmonton as an example, but when you turn on the news, you do hear of some tragic events around some of the care of seniors in other jurisdictions. You don’t hear of those things here, but you know that we hear that where there is a lack of guidance or guidelines or rules and regulations that sometimes that care is in obvious need of being more highly monitored.

Is the idea of putting in place some standards something that the Department of Health and Social Services would consider for such an institution? Thank you.

As I said, I would encourage anybody who is interested in starting this type of business here in the North to review the regulations that exist within their communities with respect to building and construction.

To the Member’s question, we do have the National Building Code of Canada, which requires that all facilities in the Northwest Territories that provide health care must comply with the National Building Code. We have the National Fire Code, the NWT Public Health Act and regulations, and just an important reminder that there are no regulations governing private long-term care centres in the North when they’re not receiving GNWT money. If they’re receiving GNWT money or looking for a partnership with the GNWT, the rules would not be the same. We would require specific criteria to be met.

I think we have a very lively and competent organization here in Yellowknife: Yellowknife Association of Citizens Concerned for Seniors. I’m not getting their name exactly right, but it’s YACCS, I believe. They have set up Aven Manor, Aven Cottages. They have set up a number of institutions for seniors in Yellowknife. They probably even attract people on a regional basis.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, does that society receive funding from this government?

Yes, Avens and YACCS do receive funding, and they are providing services on behalf of the GNWT. As a result, they are limited in what they can charge and they must

apply the long-term care fee, which is basically monthly accommodation to cover meals and accommodation. Currently that rate is $752. That is something that anybody interested in starting a private business would have to consider, because that may not be a sustainable business plan if they took in GNWT residents and were expecting us to pay.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a topic that’s of great interest to me and I’ll try and make this short. Of course, I still have my eye on that H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital in Hay River that will soon not be required anymore. Well, I can’t ask a hypothetical question, but I would like to confirm that should an NGO be interested in acquiring that particular facility for extended care, the aging population in the North is a ballooning demographic. I don’t think that the government could possibly have enough money to accommodate all of the needs that are coming forward with seniors.

That facility, in the disposal process, would it be possible for an organization like Avens, but in Hay River, to set up a seniors complex in Hay River?

Setting aside that particular business, which has its own issues and will follow the normal disposal process, as I indicated previously, if there are private organizations who are looking at setting up facilities in the North, we obviously strongly encourage that, recognizing that if it becomes a GNWT-funded institution as far as we’re paying for the clients, that might change some of the requirements that are placed on them. If they’re completely private and encouraging people to come in and pay a fair market rent to be in those facilities, they would have certainly a lot more freedom.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about the term “passive restraint” and the situation we are faced within our financial debt wall. The Financial Management Board Passive Restraint Policy is used in times of trying to find savings within operational spending and usually around job positions and wage dollars, or at least this is how it has been presented to Members of the House.

The duty of a Regular Member is to protect the public purse, and with nothing ever tabled in this House on this policy, it is imperative that we take a moment today and ask some probing questions for the Minister of Finance.

For the record, can the Minister clearly define what is meant by the term “passive restraint”?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened to the Member’s statement with interest, and his references to Peter Pan and such, and as he was talking, clearly the image that came to my mind when I think of those characters, of course, was Tinker Bell and Mr. Dolynny sprinkling stardust and fairy dust around as he goes raising his issues in this House. I appreciate the comparison.

In regard to his question, passive restraint is a management tool where targets are set within government, within departments to manage their budgets to realize savings that will help us meet our targets both in savings or to put towards other issues, other commitments, other priorities. That has been in effect now since the last Assembly and it’s just one of the tools we use on an ongoing basis. Of course, every budget is reviewed in this House, there’s public accounts review of how money is spent, where it’s spent and it doesn’t pertain just to holding positions vacant to realize those types of savings, but their managers have any number of other tools at their disposal, as well, to hit those targets. Thank you.

Just to give the Minister a little clue on Peter Pan, it’s pixie dust, not fairy dust.

Can the Minister clearly indicate what savings were realized by using this FMB policy in the past for years? In other words, what total dollars were saved from 2010-2011, from 2011-2012 and from 2012-2013 by initiating this Passive Restraint Policy?

Of course, I will defer to the Member’s superior knowledge when it comes to Peter Pan.

In regard to the savings, every budget that we have done in the life of this Assembly has met the targets that we have set out in terms of managing with fiscal discipline the budgets of the first two years to control our expenditures, the forced growth limits, the hiring limits, all those types of initiatives. We have met those targets this year. While we are still continuing with passive restraint, we are going to be able to in fact honour the third year plan, which is to add $25 million to the capital infrastructure budget this year as well as next year. Thank you.

The only sound I am hearing on this side of the House is tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

Clearly the Minister is fine with sharing his numbers with the committee, but somehow 24 hours later he has no idea and has nothing to present to the people of the NWT, which I think is quite shameful.

Given our questionable financial situation in the current budget, where we continue to have a number of funded, dormant, inactive positions and a miscalculation of our taxation revenues, can the Minister indicate if the Financial Management Board is initiating any passive restraint policies in its 2014-2015 budget, and if so, what are its targets? Thank you.

Just so the people at home are clear, this is the Legislative Assembly, not never-never land.

The issue that the Member has raised, the answer is yes.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I would remind the Members, since I was a kid, I have heard Walt Disney in this building more than once, and now this. Let’s try to keep the decorum going respectfully. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bang on. I agree with you.

In my view, this government’s duplicitous free spending of its entire first installment of the resource revenues in this current budget is a clever maneuver to cover revenue loss, but sadly, it’s not so clear, from the Minister’s comments today, the need to find additional offset savings for the miscalculated taxation revenue.

That said, why is this Minister financing and not initiating a full court press of passive restraint initiatives in this current budget to find the much needed savings? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Member has accused us, once again, of duplicitous behavior and nothing could be farther from the truth. There was no miscalculation of our estimates for income tax, corporate or personal income tax. We are here with the budget, it’s transparent, we’ve been going through the business planning process like normally we would, we’ll go through the public accounts, and to have the Member accuse us of duplicitous behaviour, to me, is uncalled for and it is not acceptable.

If he wants to stand up and point to something that is truly duplicitous, then I would have him do so. We are on a full court press, we are going to find savings in this budget and we are going to find an additional $30 million in the ‘15-16 budget as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Deh cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are directed at the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I believe the

vision of the 17th Assembly is we have healthy,

educated people free from poverty. At the same time, in reference to my statement, I made the point that sometimes parents are confronted with the reality of paying their rent for this month or feeding their kids. Children don’t understand or care about fiscal restraint, yet they live with its very real effects.

What concrete things is this government doing to support families with young children in the Deh Cho communities? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Part of the initiative that we are undertaking through the Early Childhood Development Framework is aimed at dealing with that matter and providing the best services we possibly can for children of the Northwest Territories, covering all communities and regions as well.

Some areas we have been providing to those communities through Education, Culture and Employment through the Early Childhood Development Framework, and the action plan with 22 recommendations is the part of the plan we are willing to move forward on. Once the budget is approved, then we will be rolling out the program to the communities. Mahsi.

It seems that once the budget is approved, that’s when things will move.

The other point is people are very familiar with the federal initiative. The federal initiative, not a GNWT initiative, that’s been very successful is the Aboriginal Head Start Program and some communities have taken advantage of that.

In my statement I talked about child poverty, noting the high rate of poverty in small communities. The ECD Action Plan will involve data that measures children’s readiness for school. It’s an internationally recognized instrument called the EDI.

How are kids in small communities performing on the EDI compared to kids in Yellowknife or the regional centres? Mahsi.

It’s important to note that the EDI has been performed throughout the Northwest Territories so it can capture how our children are doing in the small, isolated communities versus the regional centres and larger centres as well.

The Member is raising some areas of concern about how some small communities are in a different calibre compared to regional centres. That is quite true. We need to focus on those areas. Due to that fact, we are developing action plans. We have developed action plans around the Early Childhood Development Framework and the whole

Education Renewal Initiative. We will be developing an action plan towards that, too, as we move forward this summer.

We want to capture those individuals that may be falling behind in small communities, providing the best available resources, the best available services we possibly can to reach out to those individuals in the small communities. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the Minister’s response. Recognizing that there is a real disparity between how kids are doing in the small communities compared to the larger centres and, actually, Yellowknife, I’m worried that this government will feel fiscal restraints and fail to adequately fund the Education Renewal Initiative.

Can the Minister commit to a substantial increase in funding for this initiative and especially in attacking dismal education outcomes reported in small communities? Mahsi.

The Member is quite correct; with our GNWT fiscal constraint, we are challenged with that throughout the whole Northwest Territories. At the same time, we must move forward on the initiatives before us. We certainly will be providing or developing an action plan towards Education Renewal Initiative and Innovation. That will be available by this summer. Based on that, it will highlight the cost factor for those recommendations being brought to our attention as part of the recommendation plan. Once that’s available, then we will go through a business planning process, then we will highlight the cost factor from there, so it will be captured as part of the business planning process. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I’ve highlighted some realities and facts that our government is challenged with, but more so the responsibility of Cabinet and the Minister. At this point, there seems to be a push for an action plan to be developed and strategies, initiatives, to address the poverty issue.

What steps will the Minister take to ensure that there’s an immediate response towards addressing these very core issues of poverty in the small communities? Mahsi.

As it’s been highlighted with the budget address in this House, it is capturing a lot of social issues in the small communities. I believe we have gone a long way to reach that point where once we go through this action plan through the Education Renewal Initiative, then it will capture those small, isolated, vulnerable communities. We initiated that earlier.

Part of the pillars we have is focus on small communities, small community schools. Those are key factors and part of discussions we have been having with engagement with the public and we will continue to do that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about having the courage to finally publicize some of these direct appointments. First of all, we don’t know how many there are and we don’t know who are getting them. Annually, the Legislative Assembly tables our public service report. We could table the names and positions of where these direct appointments were issued and directed. My question will go to the Premier of this Assembly who is in charge of Cabinet and could make this decision and show some political courage today and demonstrate some accountability.

Would he finally be willing to table annually the direct appointments that Cabinet makes in secrecy and show the Northerners, both the public service and Northerners, that these appointments aren’t being based on who you know and who you’re related to? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member gets his picture in the local rag and he thinks he’s a movie star. The answer is no.

That was an original answer, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure to even bother acknowledging it.

Why won’t the McLeod government show some courage for a change and say we’ll prove that these direct appointments were meaningful and appropriate and we can honestly measure them? Right now, there’s zero accountability on a single one of them.

Again to the Premier, would he do something different by showing the public he’s being accountable by annually tabling who got these jobs and which jobs they went to?

Direct appointments have been a management tool for this government ever since this government has been in place. On every occasion, a direct appointment is a benefit to the government and it is provided for through appropriate legislation and we will continue to use that practice.

The Member complains that we don’t have positions filled. We’re trying to fill positions and now

he doesn’t want us to fill positions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the only question over here is asking about transparency. It’s not about stopping jobs. No one would stop that freight train. I’m telling you that if these appointments were truly worthy of the appointment, then the government shouldn’t hide beyond the veil of secrecy, behind the numbers of… We don’t know how many there are and who they’re appointing and who they may be related to. Nobody has any clue. It’s time we show a little courage, lead the nation with a little backbone. Nobody is talking about taking the authority away from Cabinet. We’re just talking about accountability of these secret appointments the government wants to make that nobody knows. Would the Premier show that courage and finally do it?

We don’t advertise our new hires either. Would his request extend to that as well? Perhaps I’ll leave it for the Hawkins government and the next Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Premier is offering to resign, we could take care of that today, honestly.

So, quite frankly, the question keeps being missed and the Premier can distract it with any joke or whatnot, but he is avoiding the true responsibility and accountability that is being called for by this House. This is the question yet again, and he can make all the jokes he wants but it doesn’t deter the facts of what the public sees.

Cabinet makes these secret appointments, nobody knows how many they are making, nobody knows why they are being appointed and these people show up in these positions and nobody understands why, other than the fact that Cabinet makes these secret decisions; hundreds possibly, we don’t know.

So, I am asking the Premier once again, show some political courage, start tabling the names and what positions people are receiving in their types of positions and be proud of these appointments. Don’t hide and scurry from them. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, human resources, all of our employees are our most valuable asset and we are very proud of all of our employees. I have already answered his question and the answer is no. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier, as I mentioned earlier. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement.

I mentioned in my Member’s statement of the 15 recommendations that are in the committee report from the Standing Committee on Government Operations on Bill 24. There are recommendations for almost every member of Cabinet; therefore, I chose the Premier because he is responsible for all of them.

I would like to first ask the Premier whether or not the government is considering, or whether they are actually in the process of considering or acting on an Executive Council response to the 15 recommendations that are in the Government Operations report. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member indicated, these 15 recommendations came about, they are extraneous to the requirements of Bill C-24. These recommendations were not discussed or voted on in Committee of the Whole and there is no requirement for a government response; however, since we are a government that focuses on results, a government that gets things done, we are in the process of reviewing and responding to all 15 recommendations and the Minister responsible for the Liquor Act or the Liquor Board is coordinating and monitoring the response and the work that is being done by seven departments on these 15 recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Premier for that answer. I do know that those recommendations, that the government is not required to respond to those, but all those recommendations are integral to the issues we discuss here every day and to the issues that our standing committees discuss, the things that we hear from our residents, so I am very appreciative that the Premier indicates that we do have some action that is happening. I am also appreciative that I now know the lead Minister who is looking into these 15 recommendations.

There is really not much else for me to ask, Mr. Speaker, but simply to ask, when can I expect a response from the government on these 15 recommendations? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have a tendency to be optimistic, so I will say that we will be able to respond before the end of this session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I will be asking questions for those that can’t speak up themselves and those that need representation. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

In a lot of our communities we have a long waiting list to get into housing. As a result, a lot of our residents will go through the Rental Subsidy Program and will go into market rental units. However, with the high cost of living in some communities, such as Inuvik, I would like to ask the Minister, what process and practice does the department do when they are looking for a place for some of our residents who need housing in our communities? Do they help them find a place, or do they find the cheapest place for them to go, or what is the process when our residents need a place to stay in the communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There is a process that we have to follow through Education, Culture and Employment when it comes to dealing with clientele when it comes to housing. I have to work closely with the Housing Minister because they have the units of availability in the communities and the units that may be available to them.

The process that we have highlighted is also based on the Office of the Auditor General guidelines that we have to follow. Based on the needs of those individuals, the community members, whether it be couples, it is a guideline that we have within Education, Culture and Employment, again working closely with the Housing Corporation to find a match to these units, whether it be a one bedroom, two bedroom or three bedroom for those clientele. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I am going along these questions because I have an elderly couple in the community of Inuvik who are having a hard time to find a place to stay and when they approached the Minister in question, the elderly couple was asked to look for a different apartment when they were initially approved.

So, how does this Minister and the department approve a couple that meet the disability accessibility and then take that away and look for another unit that is cheaper and not meeting the needs of the couple? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, when we talk about the couple in Inuvik, we may be getting specifically into the clientele which I don’t

feel comfortable discussing in this House. I can talk to you about the process itself, and with this we are talking about individuals from the community accessing housing units available through the Housing Corporation. We subsidize on the rent scale a one-bedroom apartment based on their needs, or a two-bedroom apartment depending on availability in the community as well.

It is my understanding that there are two available in Inuvik, so those are discussions that we have been having with my department with the Housing Corporation, so this is an area that we have to be very cautious because we have to deal with the Office of the Auditor General guidelines. They set very stringent, very strict guidelines and it is a public purse, as well, so what we do here with a purse of funds, we are going to be setting precedents in other jurisdictions as well. Those are just some of the areas of precaution that we follow with the guidelines. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I was speaking on behalf of all elders. We do have a growing population of seniors in the Northwest Territories and we don’t always have the housing units to allow them to get into housing, they have to go into the market rent areas.

I would like to ask the Minister, what is he going to do to change his policy, especially when we have our seniors who are in wheelchairs, seniors that use canes or walkers, or seniors that have very limited mobility, to address the issue that when we get some of our seniors, or whomever it may be, the proper housing units that they need? How is he going to change the policy to address some of the disability concerns that are out there in the communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the information that we receive with a one-bedroom apartment is suitable to this couple and the funding that we provide is upwards of $1,100 to cover the rent on a monthly basis. The information that we receive is assessable for this couple, so based on that we provide the funding, but if they want to access a two-bedroom, at their request, then we can provide up to what they qualify for and the difference will be up to the couple, but at the same time, they are eligible for a one bedroom subsidy from our department. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just going back to my other question about the policy, will the Minister take a look at his policy with this and make it specific, possibly working with the Minister responsible for Seniors and see how we can change that policy to better address the need? As I mentioned, we’re getting a higher seniors population in the Northwest Territories and the lack of long-term care facilities, some of these seniors

do still live a pretty independent lifestyle and we want to promote that independence in our communities as well.

So, will the Minister look at reviewing his policy again? Thank you.

Mahsi. Within the income support division, we’re always reviewing our policy. This is one area that we can certainly look at working with the Housing Corporation, also the seniors, the Minister responsible for Seniors, how we can manage this file. At the same time, we have to keep in mind the Office of the Auditor General, the strict guidelines that they set for us. We have to follow those as well. By all means, we will be reviewing those policies that we have within our shop. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Wildlife Act was recently passed by this House after many years of effort, but it left many of the tough decisions to regulations, which must be developed for implementation of the law.

Can the Minister of the Environment provide an update on the development of these regulations to date? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of ENR, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a preliminary meeting held in mid-January of the working group to look at what needed to be done, what regulations are required for the Wildlife Act to come into effect, what regulations may take longer and what regulations may not be required. That work is underway and the next formal meeting is going to be near the end of March. In the interim, as well, we intend to work out the process to engage with the stakeholders and Wildlife Act Advisory Group on the work that’s been done on regulations, and my intent is to meet the timelines and have the Wildlife Act ready to come into force within the year since it was given assent. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I’m glad to hear we’re off to a start here. A large part of the reason it took so many years to revise the Wildlife Act was that people did not feel they were included in the early rounds of discussions.

Can the Minister outline the approach we will be taking to ensure that everyone will be included in the development of the new regulations – and so far the people I’m talking to are not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling there – and how committee will be included in this work? Mahsi.

The intent is to use the same process that we had developed, maybe with some modifications since the type of work is a little different, but the same intent that we had when we engaged with the Aboriginal governments, the Wildlife Act Working Group and then, as well, with stakeholders, the Wildlife Act Advisory Group to make sure we get the full range of input as we lay out and do the work in terms of the regulations. We will, of course, be prepared to provide regular updates with committee whenever they would like to have that feedback and opportunity to have input. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister again. I’m not aware of any briefings to committee on this, or any offer, but I appreciate that offer now. This House, I believe, is on record on wanting input into the development of regulations for this act and also the Heritage Fund Act.

How has the Minister started work on this approach and what groups have been contacted so far? Mahsi.

Thank you. As I indicated, there was a very preliminary meeting held in mid-January with the Wildlife Act Working Group. They’re working out the work plan, they’re looking at the regulations, the extent of the regulations, what regulations need to be done, what regulations are currently in place that are fine as they are and what regulations may require more work, they’re laying out that work plan. We’re laying out how we can best engage. Part of that work is being done as well. So right now the initial focus is on making sure we have that process nailed down. Thank you.

Again, the Minister referring to the working group doesn’t tell me exactly what groups are being contacted there. Perhaps he could provide that information. I just note that in developing the Wildlife Act we recognized that our desire to carefully manage wildlife through accurate reporting of how many animals were harvested was perceived as a barrier to hunting by Aboriginal people, especially elders. We left that issue unresolved, but, if anything, the need for accurate harvest estimates has become even more extreme, as the Minister has stated himself.

What is the Minister’s approach to this as the regulations are developed? Mahsi.

The make-up of the Wildlife Act Working Group is there for review. It contains and involves the Aboriginal governments and their representatives, the GNWT, the stakeholders, Wildlife Act Advisory Group as well as a membership that was in place prior to the start of the regulatory development. We’re looking at engaging those two bodies again.

One of the challenges that is on the table, as the Member has pointed out, is an understanding reflected in regulations that’s going to require mandatory reporting so that we can collectively manage the wildlife in the Northwest Territories, because you can’t manage what you can’t count, as the Member has often said and I have concurred with. That is going to be one of the expectations coming forward, that we’re going to come up with a meeting of the minds on how that is going to get reflected in regulations so that it is applicable across the board so that we can all have that same information and all the concerned parties, all the public co-management boards, Aboriginal governments, everybody knows and agrees with the rules and the need to have that critical information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke earlier about the people driving up in the Sahtu and we have the Sahtu winter roads. For example, from Wrigley to Fort Good Hope is 480-some-odd kilometres and from Tulita junction to Deline is about 105 kilometres. So there are a lot of roads in the Sahtu and people use a lot of this opportunity to go down south, drive to each community, get fish, caribou and to visit.

I want to ask the Minister, because of a constituent asking, how do we get the Sahtu winter road recognized as a public road like any other roads in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The winter roads maintained by the GNWT are considered public roads. Thank you.

Just conversing with my colleague here, we were kind of having a little mini day here. So we want to ask the Minister how do we let the Ford dealership, the GMCs, the Toyotas, those car dealerships know that these are public roads and when we buy a brand new $50,000, $60,000, or $40,000 vehicle there’s roadside assistance? They’re saying right now that they cannot go because it’s an ice road or winter road. So how do we get that message through to the dealerships?

Mahsi cho. We’ve been in contact with two major roadside assistance organizations, the Alberta Motor Association and Ford Roadside Assistance, and both organizations indicate that they cover all public winter roads in the Northwest Territories maintained by the GNWT.