This is page numbers 3851 – 3904 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 communities.

Topics

The House met at 1:33 p.m.

---Prayer

Prayer
Prayer

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Good afternoon, colleagues. Mr. Hawkins.

Point Of Privilege
Prayer

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a point of privilege. Although the matter has clearly been dealt with, upon further personal reflection this weekend, I decided that I wanted to specifically withdraw certain remarks I made on February 12, 2014, which were called into order by you this past Friday. The specific words I wish to withdraw and apologize for are: “It’s tantamount, in my view, of breaking the law.“

Mr. Speaker, I do this because, in my view, recognizing the dignity of this House, it is certainly the right thing to do and also because I’d like to move forward as we work on the job of the budget before us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Point Of Privilege
Prayer

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Minister's Statement 35-17(5): Northern Lands, Northern Leadership
Ministers’ Statements

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, later today, at the appropriate time, I will table Northern Lands, Northern Leadership: The Government of the Northwest Territories Land Use and Sustainability Framework. Completion of this document is a significant achievement and a major step in this government’s final preparations to assume new responsibilities for public lands, water and resources on April 1st .

The Land Use and Sustainability Framework establishes a policy foundation for the Government of the Northwest Territories as we assume our land management responsibilities after devolution. It is based on our years of work and collaboration with Aboriginal governments and stakeholders in land

use and conservation and reflects the special relationship that Northerners have with the land and the environment.

The vision of our government, set out in this document, is that land is life. It sustains and nourishes us spiritually, culturally, physically, economically and socially. Working together, Northerners will responsibly and sustainably manage the lands, waters and natural resources of the Northwest Territories for the benefit of current and future generations.

Principles set out in the Land Use Sustainability Framework will help us achieve our vision as we make decisions about land use and land management. Our decisions will be balanced and sustainable, considering ecological, social, cultural and economic values. They will be responsible and responsive, made in the context of sound environmental stewardship. They will be respectful of Aboriginal and treaty rights as well as third-party land interests and legal rights.

Decisions will be informed by our strong and respectful relationships with Aboriginal governments and Canada. Decisions will be relevant, made by Northerners, while providing residents with meaningful engagement and input. We will be coordinated and collaborative, involving the relevant government departments, external organizations and agencies as well as neighboring jurisdictions.

Our decisions and actions will be fair and equitable, recognizing that responsibilities for environmental stewardship and creation of resource opportunities should be shared equitably across all regions of the Northwest Territories. We are also committed to transparency and accountability in our decision-making processes, ensuring they are consistent and communicated.

The Land Use and Sustainability Framework is one part of a broader legislative and policy framework that our government has been putting in place to ensure that we are ready to manage our new authorities and responsibilities. That broader framework includes existing territorial legislation like the Commissioner’s Lands Act, Area Development Act, Community Planning and Development Act and Environmental Protection Act. Our legislative framework will continue to operate consistent with

our obligations in settled land claims and complement the management structures built within those agreements and in conjunction with federal legislation, such as the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act.

New mirror legislation and associated regulations called for in the Devolution Agreement, like the Oil and Gas Operations Act, Petroleum Resources Act, Northwest Territories Lands Act, Waters Act, Surface Rights Board Act, Reindeer Act and Archeological Sites Act, will also part of the broader framework.

Other elements of the overall policy framework include the Devolution Agreement, settled land claim and self-government agreements, the Sustainable Development Policy, the Water Stewardship Strategy, the Mineral Development Strategy, Economic Opportunities Strategy and the Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program. As new land claims and self-government agreements are negotiated, they will also shape and inform this policy framework.

All these acts, agreements, policies, strategies and frameworks will operate together to ensure that Government of the Northwest Territories decisions and actions about public land, resources and water are consistent, based on sound policy thinking and reflect the priorities and values of Northerners.

Three departments will have primary responsibility for managing and administering the new responsibilities being devolved to the Government of the Northwest Territories. These include the new Department of Lands, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Together, they will be responsible for decision-making and regulation of activities involving public land, water and non-renewable resources guided by the broader framework of legislation, policies and strategies we have put in place.

The Department of Lands will support, manage, protect and administer the sustainable use of public land in the Northwest Territories. It will assume land management responsibilities being transferred from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and the federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. It will manage all surface lands disposition, such as sales, leasing, permits, licences of occupation and rights-of-way. It will also manage inspections, enforcement and policy development for public lands.

Most importantly, the Department of Lands will be responsible for coordinating and conducting project assessments on public lands in the Northwest Territories, functioning as a “single-window” for development applications. This will ensure that Government of the Northwest Territories consideration of projects is coordinated, timely and consistent. It will ensure all our decisions on land,

water and resource development reflect northern priorities and values and uphold the public interest.

New responsibilities will be assumed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources under the new NWT Waters Act and delegated to it under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. It will be the security holder and manager for water licences and be responsible for inspections and enforcement of water use. It will also be responsible for regulating the deposit of waste regarding activities and developments on or which impact public lands and water.

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment will assume new responsibilities for administering mineral exploration and development activities, including issuing prospecting licences, prospecting permits, mining leases and recording mineral claims. Industry, Tourism and Investment will also be taking on new responsibilities for onshore oil and gas development in the Mackenzie Valley.

As part of our devolution preparations, Cabinet recently designated the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment as the regulator for onshore oil and gas activities outside of federal areas and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Agreements for technical services and support from regulatory experts in other jurisdictions are being finalized. Having the regulatory function sit with Industry, Tourism and Investment, rather than simply contracting a regulator from outside of the Northwest Territories, will ensure that knowledge and skills are transferred to, built in and held by people in the Northwest Territories. This model was arrived at by careful review and consideration of several possible models and is consistent with how Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Yukon have successfully regulated oil and gas activities for years.

After decades of negotiations and years of planning, we are on the eve of momentous changes in the Northwest Territories. We did not achieve this alone. With the support and participation of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Northwest Territory Metis Nation, the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated, the Gwich’in Tribal Council and the Tlicho Government, the Devolution Agreement provides for continued, stronger intergovernmental relationships with Aboriginal governments through the Intergovernmental Council. The sharing of resource revenues with participating Aboriginal governments also supports this government’s commitment to strong Aboriginal governments.

I also want to thank the Members of this House, whose due diligence throughout negotiations and implementation planning was a critical part of the process.

The land and its resources are our common heritage and must be managed to the benefit of all

residents of our territory. Making the right decisions today to ensure a healthy and prosperous tomorrow for future generations is one of our greatest responsibilities as a government. Let us continue to work together, both in this House and with all of our partners, to make sure we get it right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister's Statement 35-17(5): Northern Lands, Northern Leadership
Ministers’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Minister's Statement 36-17(5): Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association 60th Anniversary And Thank You For Making A Difference
Ministers’ Statements

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment wishes to recognize the dedication and service of the educators who have contributed to the well-being, support and education of our students.

The Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association was founded 60 years ago with just 60 teachers, including those from the Western and Eastern Arctic, eventually becoming a member of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation. As we proudly recognize this anniversary, the NWTTA now represents more than 800 teachers in 49 schools, demonstrating tremendous growth in the territory.

Throughout this growth, we have faced many challenges together and are always ensuring that we are working together to make the right decisions for the future of our territory. The NWTTA has worked hard to define and protect the rights of educators across the territory and has helped teachers and principals in their professional development.

Thank you for Making a Difference, established in 1998, has been highly successful in highlighting teachers and engaging students across the Northwest Territories. It has been a great source of encouragement and pride for hundreds of NWT teachers over the years and is a perfect example of the heart and vision of this organization. In 15 years the NWTTA has received more than 20,000 entries recognizing educators who changed their students’ lives.

Mr. Speaker, as we move to implement our foundational initiatives, including Education Renewal, Safe Schools and Early Childhood Development, it is more important now than ever that we work together, as we seek guidance and assistance with the development and implementation of these initiatives.

I would like to close by thanking the NWTTA for providing 60 years of excellent service in the Northwest Territories, and I wish all the best for the next 60 years and beyond. Through our ongoing work together, we will continue to improve our

education system for both teachers and students. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Minister's Statement 36-17(5): Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association 60th Anniversary And Thank You For Making A Difference
Ministers’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Colleagues, before we go on, I’d like to welcome back to the House a former Member, former Minister, former Speaker, Sergeant-at-Arms, Honourary Table Officer and Honourary Captain, too, Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford.

---Applause

Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Decision-Making Process
Members’ Statements

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on the Premier’s statement.

Cabinet’s vote against a proposal to keep decision-making in the regions was curious, and people are wondering why would they vote against the wishes of their own people.

As details emerge about the devolution of lands and waters to the NWT, people are noticing a disturbing undercurrent. In the process of transferring authority to the NWT, decision-making is being quietly moved from open public processes into the murky world of the GNWT bureaucracy and top secret Cabinet room. There is so much happening that it’s hard to see at first, but some examples are starting to emerge from the haze.

First, the authority to regulate oil and gas. Currently, this is done by the National Energy Board. They hold public hearings and anyone can participate and express their opinion. As of April 1st ,

this authority will transfer to the GNWT Cabinet.

Second, participation by departments in environmental reviews. Currently, each federal department, like Fisheries, Environment or Natural Resources, can intervene separately in environmental reviews. Their opinions are all considered by the board. As of April 1st , much of the

federal capacity will be transferred to GNWT departments like ENR, ITI and Lands, but all GNWT departments will be required to submit their opinions to the Department of Lands that will consider them and create a single unified GNWT position to be approved or not by Cabinet.

Third, authority to provide direction to NWT boards. The changes to the MVRMA in Bill C-15 take power and independence away from land and water boards and place it in the hands of the federal Minister. As of April 1st , some of that control will

then be delegated back to GNWT Ministers. Once again, a power shift from open, public process to secret, behind closed doors of the GNWT Cabinet.

Some may say that our government is public and accountable through this House and through elections, but nobody will deny that decisions made in Cabinet and in this House are political. Just like we don’t let Cabinet decide court cases, there are very good reasons to keep oil and gas, land use planning and land and water permits out of the political realm and under the control of impartial boards.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Decision-Making Process
Members’ Statements

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Cabinet is giving us the impression that we are creating a mirror-image system through our mirroring legislation. But these not-so-subtle changes are starting to look like a Cabinet power grab.

I will have questions. Mahsi.

Decision-Making Process
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Hospital-Induced Infections
Members’ Statements

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.Let me start off today by sharing some very shocking numbers. Every year, over 220,000 Canadians develop infections during their hospital stay, and on average, these infections kill 22 patients every single day. To put this number into perspective, this is about the same number of Canadians who will die from breast cancer and leukemia combined.

This is the new reality facing our hospitals in the 21st century and it has now become a very massive

burden on our health care system. This is a fight we cannot afford to lose.

Right now the superbugs that pose the biggest challenges in our hospitals are Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA; Clostridium Difficile, or called C. Difficile; Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, or VRE; and the latest threat is Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE. That’s a mouthful.

Collectively, right now one in every 12 patients in a Canadian hospital is infected by one of these superbugs and the NWT is not immune to these statistics. Unfortunately, we just don’t track all of them.

Just last week the Minister of Health and Social Services tabled the NWT Department of Health and Social Services Annual Report of 2012-2013, and within this report, on page 34, it states the incidence of Methicillin-resistant Staph A, and that’s the only superbug that it lists. This superbug has increased from a baseline of 28 cases per 10,000 patients to 46.6 cases in 2012-13. So what does that mean? It means that in almost a year it has doubled. In fact, if you look back to 2006 at three

cases of MRSA for 10,000 patients, we are nearly at a 15 times multiplier in seven years.

What is further alarming with the relevance of these increasing cases of MRSA is that it is mostly affecting our seniors and elders in our population, and because our population is aging, we should be very careful with that.

In the end, I am greatly concerned that with an alarming statistic of one of every 12 patients infected with a superbug, which is an epidemic in my books, is our current health care system doing enough with just an awareness campaign as it states in this report? Or should we be following mainstream health care with better collection, analysis, monitoring and reporting to the public…

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

---Unanimous consent granted

Hospital-Induced Infections
Members’ Statements

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

…and should we retool our basic defence and superbug control with a more robust and well-funded housekeeping program?

I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you.

Hospital-Induced Infections
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Hospital-Induced Infections
Members’ Statements

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m not prepared to do a statement today. Thank you.

Hospital-Induced Infections
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Pedestrian Crosswalks Across Public Highways
Members’ Statements

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Crosswalks across public highways within communities is an issue across Canada and really highlights our government’s responsibility to promote public safety and enhance the feasibility and traffic controls at these intersections. Hay River does have a GNWT highway that runs the full length of our town.

Today I’d like to highlight the important public safety issues for the people of Hay River. The pedestrian crossing located on Highway No. 2 near The Rooster convenience store and gas station is more hazardous than it should be. Constituents have reported that it is a dangerous crossing, being a poorly lit corner, and it is confusing to drivers as the streetlights and the crosswalk lights look very similar from a distance.

We have a large residential area on one side of the area and the schools and all of the hospitals and many other places people work on the other side of the highway. So this is a crosswalk which is used very, very extensively. This may seem like a minor

issue, but last fall, unfortunately, a pedestrian was hit by a driver in that intersection.

This issue had already been raised to me prior to this accident occurring and the Department of Transportation did respond. They performed an investigation and made recommendations to improve the safety of that crosswalk last September. Since that time, the Minister of Transportation has passed on news that changes to the crosswalk are being considered to go ahead this summer. These improvements would include new lighting, improved signage and replacement of the overhead light flashing system.

I’d like to thank the Minister and his department for the work that they’ve done reviewing this Highway No. 2 crosswalk in Hay River and I look forward to seeing these improvements this summer.

I learned when I came from Ontario to western Canada that pedestrians have the right of way, but I think we need a very clear awareness campaign with reflective stripes and all kinds of other things to teach people that just because you have the right-of-way does not mean that you should step out onto the road. People need to look and live. Thank you.

Pedestrian Crosswalks Across Public Highways
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Education Week
Members’ Statements

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciated the Minister of Education’s speech today about thanking the educators and Teachers’ Association. I also would like to rise and thank those members, it being Education Week. I think there are a lot of people out there in the education world that are putting a lot of extra hours in and they should be thanked, especially during this week.

There’s a whole bunch of different teachers. There are teachers, there are teachers’ assistants and there are people in our district education authorities that help run it that are dealing with the management of education in the Northwest Territories. They all should be commended during this week.

I’d also like to congratulate them on their 60th anniversary, and I’m glad to know that a lot of those retired teachers are living in Hay River and we do appreciate the former teachers that we’ve had in the community. Thank you.

Education Week
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Investment In Traditional Economy In The Sahtu
Members’ Statements

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of Canada invested in the NWT traditional economy. On February 5, 2014, the office of the Minister of Environment, Minister of Canadian Northern Development Agency, CanNor, and the Minister of the Arctic Council announced funding for a project that will promote opportunities for employment and skill development training in both the traditional and industrial sector of the Sahtu regional economy.

This is a two-year project, which is being led by the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board in partnership with the local Renewable Resource Council and the GNWT through the Department of ITI. In 2012-13 the traditional economy of the Sahtu region experienced unprecedented growth, driven by the emergence of major overseas markets for Northwest Territories fur.

Last year 106 Sahtu trappers sold 3,944 pelts, which injected a record of $725,000 into the local economy, including sales representing 27 percent of the total for the Northwest Territories. This has considerable potential for expanding production in several areas of the traditional economy, including subsistence harvesting, trapping, outfitting, arts and crafts and traditional knowledge.

Today our traplines are busy in the Sahtu, but at the same time we have what we call another trapline: industry. Our trappers are faced with a balancing out. Do we continue to live on the land, produce these fine furs, or do we go to work in the industry? They both bring us food and bring us money. One is a way of life, the other is becoming a way of life. We’re in this balance here. The Sahtu renewable resource councils and the board are going to the Sahtu communities and talking to people. How do we balance the two lifestyles? Our traditional economy comes from our land. As Premier McLeod said, our land is our life.

Investment In Traditional Economy In The Sahtu
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Congratulations To East Three Elementary School Basketball Champions
Members’ Statements

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the great pleasure and opportunity this weekend to attend some of the Junior Cager basketball games that happened here in Yellowknife. At this moment, I would just like to congratulate the East Three Elementary boys’ team who went undefeated this weekend, going six wins, no losses. On that sixth win that they had yesterday, they claimed the NWT territorial championships, the first ever for East

Three Elementary School in any banner of sorts. I just want to say they had some great games, had some great competition and showed a lot of sportsmanship, but a lot of leadership on the court as well.

I’d also like to thank the coaches, the teachers, the organizers, as well as there were a lot of parents that were there, this weekend which showed for a lot of support and really great sportsmanship in the crowd as well.

I want to take this time just to congratulate the young boys who I helped coach partway through the Steve Nash Basketball Program. But if I can recognize one individual at this time, it would be coach Jason Dayman. He’s put a lot of time and effort into these boys who also went on and played another tournament in the Yukon and in Inuvik.

With the short basketball season, I think they play about 18 basketball games in this short season. I’m very proud of the boys and I’m very happy for them. I want to thank the coaches for putting in the effort and the time that gave them the undefeated record this weekend. Good job, boys, going 6 and 0. Congratulations on bringing home the first banner to East Three Elementary School.

Congratulations To East Three Elementary School Basketball Champions
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Will And Estate Planning Seminar
Members’ Statements

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to discuss the need for access to will and estate planning for our residents. We do have one GNWT lawyer, a community outreach lawyer, whose job it is to visit communities and provide legal services to our residents. But one lawyer can hardly even begin to make a dent in our residents’ needs around will and estate planning. There’s a huge need to educate people about the need to have a will and another huge need to give residents access to lawyers to draft their wills and help them do estate planning.

Employees of the GNWT have access to assistance with wills and trusts through our Department of Human Resources employee and family assistance programs, employees of large companies usually have access to planning through their company pension plan, and there are will and estate planning sessions offered in Yellowknife and some of our regional centres. But other residents, especially in our small communities, are left to their own devices to do the necessary planning for wills.

It’s not the first thing that people put on their to-do list, nor do many people realize how important it is to spend the money to get a will done, if they can afford it, that is. A will is one of the most important documents in anyone’s life. Without a will, settling estates can be complicated and costly for both the

government as well as relatives. When someone dies intestate – that is without a will – the government, the office of the public trustee, and/or the courts must get involved in settling the estate, paying bills, disposing of assets and inheritance and so on. It’s a cost to the government and ultimately to us, the taxpayers. How many residents die intestate in any one year, I wonder? How much does the GNWT spend dealing with the estates of our residents who have died intestate? I have no idea, but I’m sure the costs are considerable.

I would like to see the GNWT offer will and estate planning sessions to NWT residents in all of our communities on a frequent and regular basis. As a government, we would be better served to be proactive, spend a little money up front and ensure residents have access to lawyers whose law practices include will and estate planning, as opposed to dealing with the affairs of residents who die intestate after the fact.

Not every lawyer does estate planning work, nor do they all want to do that kind of work, so we need to hire the right people. They can be found. The access to residents can be made available if the will – joke intended – is there on the part of government. Thank you.

Will And Estate Planning Seminar
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Kakisa Wildland Fire Protection Plan
Members’ Statements

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Forest fires pose a threat to many communities in the NWT. Every year millions of taxpayers’ dollars go to fire management efforts, from public education and prevention, to staff training, to air tankers and firefighting crews.

Last summer forest fires destroyed many hectares of forest in the Deh Cho region, demanding significant public resources to manage.

The community of Kakisa is at high risk of damage due to forest fires. This small hamlet, in the dense forest of the southern NWT, could be destroyed within a few hours, if not minutes, given the right conditions. Kakisa needs a reliable fireguard.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has completed the Community Wildfire Protection Plan for Kakisa in 2010. This plan identifies risks and recommendations for local forest fire management. At the time the plan was created, a full firebreak ran from the lake to the community access road, but the dense stand of spruce and pine nearby still limited its effectiveness. More trees need to be thinned in certain areas.

Community consultation needed to take place, with input from elders, to preserve traditional land uses before people started cutting brush in the area

surrounding the community. It is also uncertain whether the community fire department has the capacity to take on fire suppression activities. Some people felt that not enough community members were trained or available on an ongoing basis to help fight a fire.

Without a local first line of defence, the community has to rely on outside help to help fight a fire. Given the travelling distance and time it could take for help to arrive and how quickly a fire can spread, Kakisa could be in serious danger.

The community wants to move ahead on forest fire protection. The popular campground is a valuable asset in the community and they would like to advance an initiative to construct a walkway to link the campground to the hamlet. The infrastructure could serve as a strategic forest fire management tool. Debris from additional brush cutting could be used as home heating fuel.

The Department of ENR is very committed to forest fire management and has implemented some great programs over the last four years. It is time to revisit and renew the Kakisa Wildfire Protection Plan in time for the upcoming forest fire season.

Kakisa Wildland Fire Protection Plan
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Junior Kindergarten Funding
Members’ Statements

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to stand up and use this occasion to revisit the issue of junior kindergarten. Last week the Minister made a statement, and that was his second statement in this particular House where he talked about junior kindergarten will be available for four-year-olds starting in the new year, and of course, it will be rolled out over three years throughout the various communities.

Let me first get the biggest issue out of the way. I don’t know anybody who is against junior kindergarten. There is nobody on this side of the House against junior kindergarten, and sometimes in our questions and answers it is described as over here we are against junior kindergarten when you question his policy methodology. I can frankly say, I haven’t spoken to everybody in the Northwest Territories and I am not sure that is even feasible, in the sense of my lifetime, by going door to door knocking on every door and saying, do you support junior kindergarten. However, I do feel comfortable by saying, and I certainly feel very strong in saying that I could say everybody, in an overwhelming majority, would support the development of the Junior Kindergarten Program.

The one issue before us, and continues to be before us, articulated clearly by the school boards, being raised by Members, being raised by the public, is the funding model. That is only the issue.

The Minister of Education has decided, and certainly designed, that they will now work with producing 14 years of schooling on 13 years of budgeting, and to be clear for the public that don’t follow that, that is also when we include kindergarten as the 13th year.

Now they are asking for a 14th year, so you have your normal one to 12 plus kindergarten and junior kindergarten. It is like saying we are going to re-profile 7 percent of your funding. Let’s think about that, 7 percent of your funding. Let’s put it this way. If we had asked the Department of Education to re-profile their $305.6 million budget and we took and re-profiled 7 percent of their funding, that would almost be $22 million. I could only imagine them kicking and screaming and saying, it isn’t fair, we couldn’t run programs, we’d have to lay people off. I could imagine. I don’t know where we’d start and certainly finish on what they would say. The point being, and the issue before MLAs, before the public, before the school board is the funding model.

I’m going to close by saying if the children, if the students, if families really mattered that much, then ask us for the money, we’ll find a way. Thank you very much.

Junior Kindergarten Funding
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Lafferty.

Whati Hand Games Tournament
Members’ Statements

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I have an important thing to say. I know that there are a lot of things happening in our region. In the last little while in my region, in Whati there were hand games that were held in the community, and I want to express, to the community, a thank you and congratulations.

We had visitors from Alberta and all the people from the Northwest Territories. This was put on by the Whati community. The chief and council have prepared and hosted the hand games for all the people. They also had security for the community. I want to express my thanks and congratulations for taking care of all the visitors that came to their community.

There were over 40 teams that competed in the hand games. There were a lot of people, people from all communities that had a very good social event in their community. I’m very happy that it was properly done and the security was done and they had a good hand game. They have all returned home and I just want to say thank you to the Whati community.

Whati Hand Games Tournament
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my great pleasure to once again recognize Mr. Tony Whitford, a resident of Weledeh. Welcome, Tony.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lafferty.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the president of the NWTTA. Gayla Meredith is here with us and is doing an outstanding job as president and is recognizing the 60th year. Mahsi for being here.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s with great pleasure to recognize one of our favourite constituents of Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories, and he’s already been recognized but it is always certainly exciting to stand up to recognize Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford, who you so eloquently described has having almost every job in the Northwest Territories, certainly in this building at one time or another. He’s a hero to all. Thank you for coming, sir. Good to see you.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ITI. The Minister has noted that the Government of Canada has invested into the life of the trappers, certainly with the daunting and challenging task of working with the trappers in light of the emerging demand for the Northwest Territories fur and also the demand for our energy in the Sahtu region.

I want to ask the Minister, is his department working with the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board to come out with a plan that says if you want to be a trapper, here are the support mechanisms you can have to become a trapper for life, or if you’d like to change or have some type of balance working in the industry? Is there going to be a report after these two years of funding projects?

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories today has the best trapping programs in the country. The reason why our programs are so successful is because we work out of our regional offices to help deliver the

programs that we have, and in the area of trapping specifically we have a strong relationship with the local operations at the regional level through our department. As things change – I know the Member is talking about the potential economic development happening in the Sahtu – it’s even more important that we continue that close relationship with the hunters and trappers in that region. Thank you.

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Can the Minister of ITI inform the House, with the funding that we got from the federal government it will be geared towards promoting opportunities for employment and skill development training in both the traditional and the industrial sectors of the Sahtu regional economy, from that is there going to be some type of report or some type of plan that says you can be a trapper in these seasons and then you could switch to the industrial sector of the economy and go back to life on the land? Is there some type of plan that would see our people in the Sahtu having these types of opportunities in front of them?

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

Thank you. It’s in all of our best interests to ensure that opportunities for employment are there on an annual basis and all throughout the year. I know some of the opportunity currently underway in the Sahtu is during the winter months. We need to ensure that there are opportunities for people year round, and if there is a way that we can put a bridge between the two to allow people to pursue their traditional economy and also be employed in the oil and gas sector in the Sahtu, that’s something that we should be looking at. As far as a report goes on the money, there would be some expectation that we would have some kind of an evaluation and know where the money has been spent and its effectiveness. Thank you.

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I know that some of the people in the Sahtu, especially the trappers because that’s their life and that’s what they want to do, also I know there are some people who love to trap but also see the wage economy in the oil and gas sector. I want to ask the Minister, is he working closely with the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board to say this is a program we could have in the Sahtu that could pilot, say, a trapper who would like to trap to get these furs, but also the trapping season might be a little difficult so they would move into the industry? Is there a program that flow the trappers into an oil and gas industry type of employment to support them, because that would be crucial in terms of which way they want to go in the future.

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

I think each individual’s circumstances may, in fact, be different than the next person, but we could be potentially talking to Education, Culture and Employment about opportunities to bridge the two. Again, I think it’s very important that people have opportunities on a year-round basis. If there is that opportunity to work

with ECE to talk about training opportunities and how we can get the trappers that are trapping that want to be employed in the oil and gas sector as things continue to move along in the Sahtu, again, that’s something that we’re very much interested in doing. Thank you.

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year there were 106 trappers that sold close to 4,000 pelts and injected $725,000 into the local economy of the Northwest Territories. We know that the Asian countries and the European countries are well versed in the Northwest Territories fur.

Is there any type of report as to the number of trappers now in the Sahtu that his department is tracking to see if we are going to pass the numbers that we had from last year’s report?

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

I don’t have the exact number of trappers in the Sahtu that we are tracking, but that’s certainly a number I could get for the Member. What I do know, and I know the Member mentioned it himself, is the amount of dollars that are flowing directly back to trappers across the Northwest Territories, and this is money that gets right back into the local economy and, in most cases, into the smaller communities. Last year that was $2.8 million directly back to trappers across the Territories, so it’s a significant amount of money that gets back into the economy.

Question 164-17(5): Training And Skill Development Program In The Sahtu
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up from my statement with questions for the Premier today, and they’re related to the three examples I mentioned earlier of decision-making power being moved from public boards to behind the closed doors of GNWT. I do believe that our Cabinet and their advisors are competent, so they must be aware of this power shift.

The question is: Is this a deliberate power grab, or is it an unintended consequence of the rush to implement devolution?

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I’m not surprised the Member is already condemning devolution before it even occurs. It’s a month and a half away, and also, I would think he would support the fact that we’re reducing about 5,000 miles of red tape. It’s just mirror legislation,

and I’m not sure what he’s referring to when he’s talking about a power grab.

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I hope the Premier is satisfied that we have devolution, that we’re talking about implementing it here, so I won’t bother to respond to that.

Intentional or not, this power shift away from public boards is happening.

Where did the Premier and Cabinet get the mandate to set things in motion this way? Did this Assembly ask them to shift power away from public boards? Did our Aboriginal partners ask them to shift power to behind the closed doors of GNWT?

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

The Member should be pleased that the MVRMA will continue as a public board. We are not taking it. They will still be making those decisions and putting forward recommendations. The responsible Ministers will be putting them into effect.

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Premier. Most of the legislation that we will be bringing forward to implement is not even available to the public yet.

Are these few examples just the tip of the iceberg? Are there any other power shifts from the public boards to behind the closed doors of GNWT that we have not discovered yet?

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

As I said, the MVRMA, the board will be dealing with applications for development and so there is no power shift other than the fact that the responsible Ministers will change, and that’s part and parcel of mirror legislation.

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, that’s not the way it was a few months ago. That was the recent change with the federal government and it seems like we’re choosing to emulate the federal government here. The Premier is on the record, probably hundreds of times, saying we want an efficient and effective regulatory system. I note that he rarely mentions a fair system or an objective system, but I will assume that he would agree that fairness and independence are key.

How does the Premier propose to reverse these power grabs and put land and water decision-making and resource management decision-making back in the realm of fair and independent public review boards?

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I’m sure the Member will be pleased to hear that this is not a power grab. It’s moving decision-making to the North, and those most affected by activity will be making the decisions. That’s what this is all about and I’m pleased in my Minister’s statement I used those words exactly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 165-17(5): Decision-Making Power Related To Devolution
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions in regard to our procurement contract processes that we have. The Minister of ITI tabled a document in the House in our last sitting session. I just want to talk a bit about some of the concerns that are brought up from residents, especially the small businesses that can’t really out bid some of our bigger companies. I wanted to bring forth some of the concerns that they do have.

I would like to ask the Minister about sole-source contracting, not the process behind it but at what point is this government going to start looking at doing a better job of getting some of these sole-source contracts out into the public process, and what is this Minister going to do about trying to get that back into a more public discussion so we get contractors who are able to do the jobs and also make it more fair for all contractors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are transparent; of course, the Contracts Over $5,000 Report is tabled in the House. Members have a chance to go through that book, and if there are specific questions regarding any of those contracts in the report, Members can ask questions about those specific contracts. Sole-source contracts are just another tool that is available to government to allow us to do our jobs and carry out the work of the various departments.

I can’t, again, speak to specific contracts unless the Member asks a specific question to a specific contract. Thank you.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Mr. Speaker, when this government goes into sole-source contracts or negotiated contracts with a big firm or company, are there any provisions put in these negotiated contracts where the main contractor has to have a certain percentage of local subcontractors, the smaller guys, the guys that have the small businesses? Is there a percentage in that negotiated contract when any of the Ministers or when the Minister goes forward and proceeds with a sole contract? Is there a percentage set out so that when the small businesses in the communities and across the Territories get a piece of the pie? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Again, it is in the governments’ best interest to ensure that dollars spent here in the Northwest Territories by our government stay in the Northwest Territories, and that is certainly an objective. We have, I know the

Member mentioned, negotiated contracts. That is another policy separate from our policy on sole-source contracts. Again, it is there so that we can build capacity here in the Northwest Territories, so departments can look at various contracts that are going to enable groups around the Northwest Territories to build up that capacity and employ local people and ensure that money stays in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Mr. Speaker, going back to the report that was tabled in the House, I’m glad that the Minister did mention trying to keep money in the Northwest Territories. In the report it states that there is about $51 million that is not in the NWT contracts that this government goes into that does contracts for, and I know there are some services that can’t be provided here in the Northwest Territories to do some of these contracts; that goes down to training.

How is the Minister going to try to bring those numbers down, that $51 million that we go out of jurisdiction with contracts and keep that money here in the Northwest Territories and look at supporting our businesses either through training or education, but making sure that our contractors in the Northwest Territories have some of that money, that that money actually stays here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, we need to continue the dialogue with all departments and ensure that when we are contracting, whether it is any of the various modes of contracting that this government does, an eye is to keep those dollars in the Northwest Territories. Not always are we going to be able to get the goods or services here in the Northwest Territories. There are going to be examples of when we have to go outside, but again, it’s our government’s goal to ensure that the procurement dollars that we do have end up staying here in the NWT for us. Thank you.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a Business Incentive Policy that the government goes by. However, there are some clauses in there and I think we need to discuss those. I brought it up in the House before about how we have businesses from the South that win the BIP process by having some companies, one, two and sometimes three, in their proposal. What is the Minister going to do to fix that? Sometimes small business doesn’t even get to do the work they were asked to do in the proposal, they are just used to get the BIP points.

What is the Minister going to do to effect the change so our small businesses do get the work and our contractors that do bid on the projects get the work as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The Business Incentive Policy is there so we can support businesses here in the Northwest Territories. Again, it is another tool that this government uses to ensure dollars stay in the Territories. I’ve been here just over 10 years and this issue about BIP comes up at least once a year. We’ve had a number of revisions and changes to it over the past decade, and if the Member and Regular Members feel it’s necessary to go through another process of taking a look at BIP, how we can improve it, areas we feel we should be looking at, that’s something I would be happy to sit down with the Regular Member and Cabinet and discuss ways that we can improve upon the Business Incentive Policy that we have today. Thank you.

Question 166-17(5): Procurement Processes
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Recently in Canada we experienced the unfortunate tragedies with forest fires overtaking communities. Here in the NWT, we are seeing recent trends of drought conditions.

Of course, in anticipation of the forest fire season, I want to ask the Minister whether all communities at risk of forest fires have a community protection plan in place. Mahsi.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member; this is a serious concern. We have an initiative to work with communities through FireSmart, the communities across the North, all those in the boreal forest. Some are more advanced than others. The intent is to work with all communities to look at those types of plans. Thank you.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

The community that I represent, Kakisa, I think the recent effort in 2012 was participating with ENR to develop at least a baseline to prepare for the eventuality that a fireguard will be established.

How often are community wildfire protection plans reviewed and updated? Mahsi.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

We work at this on an ongoing basis, so most communities are at different levels of activity when it comes to those particular plans. Once they’re in, then the issue becomes maintenance, which tends to be problematic in some cases, especially given the rate of regrowth. In others, we are just struggling to find resources and use existing resources and fire crews, if they’re not busy, to work with

communities. I don’t have the set schedule before me, but we do tend to get this done and maintain it. Thank you.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Is the Minister aware of any actions taken by the Ka’a’gee Tu First Nations in response to recommendations made in the Community Protection Plan? Mahsi.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

No, Mr. Speaker. I’d have to ask the Member to refresh my memory. Thank you.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand, in 2012 the community had identified a need for a fireguard around the community.

Will the department commit to work with Kakisa to update the Wildfire Protection Plan prior to 2014? Mahsi.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

I am as happy to say yes to this fourth question as I would be happy to say yes to the first question. Yes.

Question 167-17(5): Wildland Fire Protection Plans
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Justice. I’d like to follow up on my statement and ask him a few questions about whether or not we can do something about providing will and estate planning for our residents. I know it will take some time to establish a program, but in the meantime there are certainly some tools that are available to our residents, or could be available to help our residents.

I refer the Minister to the GNWT public trustee web page. It’s under the Department of Justice and it states: “The public trustee is independent from the Department of Justice. The Department makes this web section available on behalf of the public trustee. A separate website will be established in the near future.” This is a huge opportunity for Justice and the public trustee to provide information to residents on wills and on estate planning. I would like to know from the Minister when the public trustee will have its own website. Thank you.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can get that level of detail for the Member. In regard to will and estate planning in the communities, we did hire a new lawyer in August of 2010. We do have a Community Outreach Program at the Department of Justice. We’ve been to all communities in the Northwest Territories with the

exception of, I believe, three. In January we were again in Wrigley, Fort Simpson, Gameti and Fort Smith. When this Outreach Program is in the communities, anything that community members want to raise through that program is available to them. That includes will and estate planning for folks who need that type of assistance. So we do have that available to residents around the Northwest Territories.

On the website issue regarding the public trustee, I will get that information for the Member. Thank you.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that and I appreciate his commitment to get the information. I do appreciate the fact that the government has a community outreach lawyer, but when a community outreach lawyer goes to a community, they aren’t just dealing with wills and estates. They are dealing with any legal service that a resident in a community needs and I think we need to specifically target will and estate planning. In the end, we will be saving money because the office of the public trustee will not be dealing with people who die intestate.

I’d like to know from the Minister if he would consider, he and the department, looking into a different kind of program to provide lawyers to residents. We need education and we also need access to lawyers. I think via an NGO, it’s possible we could do some of that work.

Would the Minister consider dealing with NGOs or negotiating with NGOs to provide will and estate planning assistance to our communities? Thank you.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

That is a good suggestion. Another opportunity may exist through on-line information and services provided to residents across the Northwest Territories on will and estate planning. I will certainly check with my officials at the Department of Justice to see what information is out there for folks. If we can look at providing more opportunities to have questions answered with regard to will and estate planning around the territory, that is in our interest to do that. I would certainly look forward to any further discussion I could have with the member and the Standing Committee on Social Programs as we move forward to try to address her concerns. Thank you.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

It’s nice to know that the Minister and I are on the same page. My next question was going to suggest that the Minister look at our neighbour to the west, the Yukon, who have some excellent information on-line. They have plain language information for residents. They have a fact sheet on estate planning, which is one of the resources that they have there and I think that’s something that we certainly could do. So I appreciate that the Minister has indicated that this is something we can do.

Is the Minister making a commitment to do some of that work and to provide some of these resources? Can he give me any indication of when we might be able to see something concrete? Thank you.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

This government has made a commitment to improve services to residents around the Northwest Territories and a lot of that has to do with getting the good services available to folks on-line. I know we’ve just recently done some with legal registries; I know there’s registration now on-line at the Department of Transportation. We are making an effort in that regard, and certainly if there are examples out there and if the Yukon has an example of how that information can be put on-line and utilized by people in that territory, that’s something that we could certainly look at.

As far as a timeline, I wouldn’t want to make a promise I couldn’t keep. That’s something I’ll take back to the department and hopefully be able to provide the Member with some kind of a response in the very near future. Thank you.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Yes, I figured that you really weren’t going to give me an answer right now, but I appreciate that you will come back to me at some point in time and advise when I might be able to expect this kind of a program.

I imagine the Minister doesn’t have this information with him, but I’ll ask the question anyway and he can hopefully get back to me. Do we have any idea of what the average cost is to the government when somebody dies intestate? Thank you.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you. I don’t have that detail with me, but again, I’ll make a commitment to get that information to the Member and to the House. Thank you.

Question 168-17(5): Will And Estate Planning Services
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

The recently tabled Department of Health 2012-2013 Annual Report mentions Methicillin-resistant Staph aureus at 46.6 cases per 10,000 patients. However, on the same department website there’s an epidemiology newsletter, called Epi North 2012, Volume 22, Issue 1, which states during a similar reporting period of 16 months, field epidemiologist Katie Rutledge for the department reported laboratory results of 267 cases with 345 MRSA

infections. Factoring and removing the extra four months and when you compare apples to apples and case management reporting, this leaves a disparity of these lab results reported to what is being underreported in the annual report. Can the Minister account for this difference? Thank you.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s an incredibly detailed question, but I will certainly get back to the department to see if we can figure out what that discrepancy has resulted from. Thank you.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you. Detail is my middle name.

Going back to the alarming statistic that, on average, one in 12 Canadian hospital patients are being infected with a superbug, if we looked at that recent table of 46.6 MRSA incidents per 10,000 cases, if my math is correct that works out to 0.06 in 12 NWT hospital patients being infected.

Can the Minister account as to why the NWT is reporting such a low number to this national Canadian statistical average? Thank you.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

We obviously take these types of situations very seriously and we are doing a number of things within the department and our authorities to control infections but also report on infections. One of the things that we have done is we have defined minimum competencies and skill sets for all practitioners within our system, and we review and modernize existing infection and control standards and standards for sterilization on a regular basis. We’ve also implemented a surveillance system of reportable infections and we’re working to develop, or we have developed and implemented reporting and compliance mechanisms.

So with respect to the detailed specifics that the Member is asking, I don’t have those in front of me, but I’d be happy to go to the department and get that detail for the Member. Thank you.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

That was a great paid political announcement, but it didn’t answer my question. I believe the reason why we don’t see the same numbers statistically is that we don’t reflect that in our accounting, we don’t count these superbugs. In fact, we do not report any other superbug other than Methicillin-resistant Staph aureus and there are a lot more bugs out there that make these alarming statistics.

Can the Minister indicate why his department consistently does not data collect, analyze, monitor and report these other deadly superbugs in our NWT health facilities? Thank you.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

There are a number of infections that are not reportable under the Public Health Act because hospitals are required to monitor these under their own set of regulations. However, as we get copies of lab results and other things, we’re able to determine where some of these exist.

With respect to a greater level of reporting on these particular infections, certainly I’d love to have some more discussion with the Member as well as committee to find out or to improve the system that we have in place. Thank you.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to work with the Minister on that one. I’d appreciate it.

It has been stated by many infectious disease specialists that our cleaners are, in many ways, the front-line gatekeepers against superbugs, but these days we know that with shrinking budgets and hospital demands, this department is all too easy a target for cuts.

Can the Minister indicate what his department is doing to strengthen our cleaning services in all our health care facilities to combat these superbugs? Thank you.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

We have a new NWT Infection Prevention and Control Manual that was released in 2012. It contains all the standards of practice required by health care facilities to prevent and control the spread of infectious disease. The manual has been distributed throughout the Northwest Territories. Health and social services authorities have a lead responsibility to implement and audit these standards within their facilities and client service settings, but we have sent that out to all authorities. Thank you.

Question 169-17(5): Reporting Hospital-Induced Infections
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

February 23rd, 2014

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I used my Member’s statement today to talk about junior kindergarten and certainly the impact of re-profiling 7 percent of their funding model without working together with them. While I explained and it was certainly illustrated during my Member’s statement, what if we took 7 percent of the Department of ECE’s budget how they would go kicking and screaming.

Now, let’s talk about the broader picture now being forgotten about this whole situation, which are the day homes. Ironically, that’s part of the reason why this whole shift of junior kindergarten has evolved.

So, as such, what changes are now going to take effect to the day homes that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is now going to have to address? Quite frankly, there are rules that you are only allowed to have two under two; you’re only allowed to have six kids maximum. So, in essence, the government is not only taking one or two of the kids away, you’re almost destroying their funding model by potentially taking half of the kids away, which may make these day homes in Yellowknife unaffordable and certainly unfeasible Thank you.

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This whole implementation of junior kindergarten has been positive news. As the Member alluded to earlier with his statement, there’s a lot of support on this particular piece of work that has been in the works for some time now, the last few years. We are mindful of the day homes, the operators in the Northwest Territories. We’re doing this for the whole Northwest Territories and the Member touched on two under two, there’s also three under three that we’re fully aware of and my department is working diligently with the operators, the day home operators and other operators within the city of Yellowknife and also in the whole Northwest Territories so we can mitigate and work and provide support to those individual operators. Taking the four-year-olds out of their facility will allow more focus on the zero to three. Those are discussions we’ve been having with the operators as well. So, we will be providing support mechanisms to those operators in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I’m glad the Minister has started to touch on this whole broader problem, which is he says he’s mindful of day homes and certainly he’s going to look at providing support, but let’s talk turkey. What kind of support is he actually referring to, because we all know you can do two under two, as the Minister even highlighted, you can have three under three. So potentially he’s taken 50 percent of their funding model to exist away from these day homes that are trying to provide necessary daycare and certainly family support for these young people.

So, in essence, what is the Minister really doing and how much money is this going to cost this government that he’ll have to come back to the Assembly and ask for? Thank you.

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi. Those are the key detailed discussions that we are currently having with the operators to justify and find out the cost factor. As the Member knows, there are various subsidies available to the operators, whether it be the rent, the mortgage, the support

mechanism is currently there to subsidize those operators. There is part of the O and M as well. Based on the discussions that we’re going to be having, we need to move forward on that and then provide feedback on what’s the best approach. Those are the discussions that we’ll continue to have with the open dialogue with them.

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

It was just a few days ago in this House this Minister issued an edict saying that it will be done, it shall be done, and it’s going to start this year. Not only that, he said he was going to solve a problem, which is there weren’t services available in the communities. All noble things that we support, so let’s stop focusing on these types of things.

Let’s get back to the money. If you’re going to issue these types of edicts and tell the NWT residents you’re doing this and, darn it, it’s coming, how much money is this happening and why haven’t you planned this and costed this out? Why are we sitting here having discussions when we should already know that if you’re taking 50 percent of these funding models away from these good folks at home taking care of children, what have you left them? You should know what this is going to cost before you pull the legs out from underneath them.

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

We have to keep in mind that we are providing free junior kindergarten across the whole Northwest Territories, and especially those 10 communities that are without licenced child care programming. The communities will definitely be benefiting from this program that we’re initiating. It’s a three-year phased approach, so the daycare, the home care operators… Again, I must emphasize that we are providing the supporting mechanism in place. It’s been there before, it’s always been there, and we’re going to enhance it further as we move forward on implementing a junior kindergarten. There is a lot of support and we’re moving forward on this.

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, yet again the Minister tries to divide this as a big town against small town, against small communities, whatever the case may be. The fact is that there seems to be no plan whatsoever to cover this funding model, and it’s okay, Mr. Minister, you can say you just don’t know. When you do that and you feel better, we can all start working and building from there.

When the Minister says we’re going to enhance, let’s put the dollar on the table and tell me what type of dollar you’re going to have to come back to this Assembly and ask for, because we want to know because nobody out there knows, and all they know is they’re losing half their kids, which is their funding stream because you’re taking them away. How are they going to operate?

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

It was in this House that I mentioned the zero to three, what kind of funding that will be allocated based on what their needs are, whether it be the cribs and other certain necessities that are required. Those are the supports that we are going to be providing to the zero to three, the day homes, the operators in the Northwest Territories. I can lay that out to the Members again, the detailed information. I’ll be more than glad to do that.

Question 170-17(5): Impact Of Junior Kindergarten On Day Homes
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Yakeleya.

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation. I understand that the construction of the Four Mile Creek Bridge was halted due to some environmental issues with the regulators, and I want to know what is the status now of the Four Mile Creek Bridge close to Tulita.

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Transportation staff had met with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada in Norman Wells on February 18th . We presented a water

management plan that was deemed acceptable by the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, and with that the work order on the Four Mile Creek Bridge was lifted.

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

With this recent work stoppage with the Four Mile Creek Bridge, will the department or will this Minister see if it’s salvageable by this winter? I know there’s not much time left, but this is an outsider contractor coming in to work in our area. I’m not too sure what happened, but somebody goofed on this one here, so certainly it causes some concern for us in the region here.

Is this work salvageable? Can we do as much as we can before the winter road is closed?

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The department, using two contractors from Tulita, started to do some dewatering on the bridge on the 22nd , this past

Saturday, so the work is proceeding and the intention is to complete the work that was scheduled to complete, so we’re back to work there.

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I appreciate the quickness of the Minister. I want to ask the Minister, is this bridge on schedule, on time, within budget to be completed within the scope of the project that was presented to us for allocating funding to it?

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I don’t have the original schedule with me, but as I indicated, the

department is working with two local companies that have the machinery under our direction. We are providing support for planning and design and any geotechnical engineering is being provided by another engineering company called TerraTek. With that, we’re hoping that the work will be on schedule, but I don’t have the exact dates with me. I don’t know if there’s been a slight adjustment or not here in the House.

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I ask the Minister of Transportation, once he gets his full briefing from the department on this Four Mile Creek Bridge, if he would provide it to me and the Members of the House to know that this work will get done, will get on the books of completion, because from what I’m understanding, the work in the Sahtu will continue to increase and the bridge is important for the community and also important for the oil and gas activity that’s happening in the Tulita district.

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I would be pleased to provide that information on the dates. I know that once the bridge is complete there, that would become the permanent structure that will be used for that crossing on the winter road going into the future.

Question 171-17(5): Construction Of Four Mile Creek Bridge
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Hawkins.

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to use this occasion to ask questions to the Minister responsible for Housing. Quite often I’ll have complaints sent to my office, called in or certainly e-mailed in, about health and safety issues. Whether they’re about leaky windows, heat not on, steps not shoveled, complaints all orientated to, actually, the landlord. A lot of these calls that come in, they’re all Yellowknife Housing Authority clients. It got me to thinking, does the Housing Corporation instructor work with our housing authorities to actually bring complaints forward to the rentals office against landlords that aren’t the GNWT? In my research, I’ve yet to find one complaint, but yet we have continued complaints come in all based around those types of factors, but yet the landlord of these buildings never is brought before the rentals office. But if the shoe was reversed or the situation was reversed, my goodness, they’re the first ones trying to get these folks out of there.

I’m going to ask the Minister of Housing, how often has the Housing Corporation worked with any of the authorities to take these types of landlords, that

aren’t GNWT landlords, to the rentals office for dereliction of their responsibilities under the Residential Tenancies Act, as I’ve highlighted, and if he hasn’t, why not?

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Housing, Minister R.C. McLeod.

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t work with the tenants in market housing to help take the landlord to court. Sometimes we will get some concerns from those that are living in market housing and we tell them that their option is to go to the rental office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, they are a third-party source tenant situation here. We have Yellowknife Housing renting the units from a landlord. The tenant itself through Yellowknife Housing, by way of example, has no tenancy rights on this because they are directly responsible. It is the housing authority that has a direct contract with the landlord. That is where the responsibility lies.

So I ask again to the Housing Minister, if this isn’t the case, why isn’t this the case? Because I can tell you I have had habitual complaints all built around things like heating, access, safety and other responsibilities, all directly related to the Residential Tenancies Act, that say the landlord must provide, and if they ignore these requests, what are we to do?

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, in the Member’s first question he didn’t point out the fact that they were renting these from our local housing authority and was involved as a third-party renter. If that was the case, then I would encourage the tenants to work with the local housing authority to identify some of the problems there because they would be leasing these from the private developer, and if there is an opportunity to get some work done and they are not willing to do it, then the option might be there for the local housing authority to work with the tenants to take them to the rental officer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, they do, and they take them to the housing authority and the housing authority takes the complaints to the landlord and nobody does anything. So I’m asking, why don’t we have a rule on the books, or why don’t we have a Minister’s directive that if the landlords are not responding to the needs of the tenant, which are furthermore supported by the needs of the housing authority that they believe that they are valid, and again under the Residential Tenancies Act, that they will be taken to the rentals office and they will be treated as appropriate? Thank you.

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, I would like to think that our local housing authority, if they are leasing these units of the developer, that they would have some say into the maintenance of

these units, and if the work is not being done, then I would encourage them to… There are some options they may have at their disposal, but I would encourage them to work with the rental officer to see if there is opportunity there to have the landlord do some of the necessary repairs because, at the end of the day, we are paying the landlord to use these units and if there are opportunities for us to use some of the stuff at our disposal, then we may have to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They, again, are doing these things, but the housing authority isn’t taking the landlord of the units, that we lease and pay a hefty sum for, to the rentals office. So I would like the Minister to show some leadership on this issue to say that if we have anything outstanding over 30 days, that falls under the Residential Tenancies Act, we are going to start filing, and that will motivate these landlords to comply with the rules as clearly stipulated under the Residential Tenancies Act. He could do that today and he could send a letter not only to just the Yellowknife Housing Authority but to all authorities so, therefore, our people are treated fairly and respectfully as outlined in the Residential Tenancies Act. Thank you.

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, I would like to work with the Member, and if any other Members over there have specific cases where I don’t hear from any of the other communities, but if there are specific cases, then the Member has raised them and the Minister will show leadership and try and rectify the problem before it gets to the floor of the House. This is the first time I have heard of it, and we need to work with each other sometimes to ensure we try to deal with these issues. If we are unable to deal with these issues, or are unwilling to deal with these issues, then we raise them on the floor of the House to bring them out to the public, but give us that opportunity and we will take care of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 172-17(5): Complaint Against Third-Party Renter
Oral Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 8, written questions. Mr. Dolynny.

Written Question 11-17(5): Prevalence Of ‘superbug’ Bacterial Infections
Written Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have two sets of written questions here today.

My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

1. Please provide the total number of cases for

10,000 patients for the following superbugs for

each calendar year starting from 2005 through 2013:

a) Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

b) Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE);

c) Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)

d) Klebsiella;

e) Acinetobacter;

f) Enterobacter;

g) Pseudomonas; and

h) Clostridium difficile.

2. What is the regional breakdown of the number

of cases per 10,000 patients for the list of superbugs listed in question 1 for the same time period?

Written Question 12-17(5): Housekeeping Cleaning Budgets In NWT Health Care Facilities
Written Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

1. What is the total dollar amount of housekeeping

cleaning budgets for all NWT health care facilities involving in-patient services for each of the calendar years starting from 2005 through 2013?

2. Within the context of question 1, please provide

the following breakdown for the calendar years starting from 2005 through 2013:

a) the average number of housekeeping

cleaning dollars per in-patient visit for each of the NWT health care facilities;

b) the average number of hours/minutes of

cleaning time per in-patient visit for each of the NWT health care facilities; and

c) the staff turnover rate in housekeeping for

each of the NWT health care facilities.

Written Question 12-17(5): Housekeeping Cleaning Budgets In NWT Health Care Facilities
Written Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Hawkins.

Written Question 13-17(5): Social Work Program At Aurora College
Written Questions

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Please provide the following information:

1. the cost of expanding the Social Work Program

at Aurora College by one year so that three years of study toward a degree in social work are available in the NWT;

2. the steps that would be required to expand the

Social Work Program at Aurora College by one year; and

3. the obstacles, if any other than funding, that

would have to be overcome in order to expand the Social Work Program at Aurora College by one year.

Written Question 13-17(5): Social Work Program At Aurora College
Written Questions

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committee on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Tabled Document 48-17(5): Errata For Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2014-2015
Tabling of Documents

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Errata for Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates for 2014-15.” Thank you.

Tabled Document 48-17(5): Errata For Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2014-2015
Tabling of Documents

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tabled Document 49-17(5): Northern Lands, Northern Leadership: The GNWT Land Use And Sustainability Framework
Tabling of Documents

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Northern Lands, Northern Leadership, The GNWT Land Use and Sustainability Framework.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tabled Document 49-17(5): Northern Lands, Northern Leadership: The GNWT Land Use And Sustainability Framework
Tabling of Documents

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Mr. Miltenberger.

Bill 12: Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act
Tabling of Documents

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, February 26, 2014, I will move that Bill 12, Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Bill 12: Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act
Tabling of Documents

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Bill 11: Petroleum Resources Act
First Reading of Bills

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Kam Lake, that Bill 11, Petroleum Resources Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bill 11: Petroleum Resources Act
First Reading of Bills

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Bill 11 has had first reading.

---Carried

Item 19, second reading of bills. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Bill 10: Northwest Territories Lands Act
Second Reading of Bills

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 10, Northwest Territories Lands Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill substantially mirrors the Territorial Lands Act of Canada in accordance with the requirements of the Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bill 10: Northwest Territories Lands Act
Second Reading of Bills

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Bill 10: Northwest Territories Lands Act
Second Reading of Bills

Some Hon. Members

Question.

Bill 10: Northwest Territories Lands Act
Second Reading of Bills

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Question has been called. Bill 10 has had second reading and is referred to committee.

---Carried

Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Bill 10: Northwest Territories Lands Act
Second Reading of Bills

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 10, Northwest Territories Lands Act, moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Bill 10: Northwest Territories Lands Act
Second Reading of Bills

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, with Mr. Dolynny in the chair.

By the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 10-17(5), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider business before the House. Thank you.

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

Good afternoon, committee. I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have three items on the agenda today: Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act; Tabled Document 4-17(5); and Tabled Document 22-17(5). What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee wishes to continue with Tabled Document 22-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2014-2015. We would like to start the Department of Justice and, time permitting, Industry, Tourism and Investment and perhaps Finance. Thank you.

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, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

Great. Thank you, committee. We will commence after a short recess.

----SHORT RECESS

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

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are going to be working on the Department of Justice. With that, I’ll turn it over to the Minister of Justice for his opening comments. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today I am presenting the 2014-2015 Main Estimates for the Department of Justice.

The department’s mandate is the administration of justice in the Northwest Territories, including policing and corrections. The department is also responsible for providing support to the courts. Within this mandate we continue to build a system of justice that is open, accessible and responsive to the needs of the people we serve. We support families when they are in conflict or personal crisis, and help them as they work toward successful resolutions.

The department’s main estimates propose an operations expenditure budget of just under $125 million. This represents an increase of 7.3 percent over the 2013-2014 Main Estimates. This includes just over $6.1 million in additional funding to ensure core programs and services have sufficient resources to operate, and it also includes $2.5 million to fund initiatives that will enhance and improve service delivery to the residents of the Northwest Territories.

The bulk of our resources go towards maintaining core programs and services the people of the Northwest Territories rely on, and making sure that these programs are efficient and effective. We support this Assembly’s goal of sustainable, vibrant, safe communities. We provide safe and secure custody of offenders and community supervision to

support rehabilitation and reintegration back into communities.

Department of Justice staff assist youth in trouble with the law, victims who have been harmed, people who need lawyers, families who need help working through separation or divorce, and offenders who need support to make better choices. Staff are located in regional offices bringing them close to the people we serve; however, we do not do this alone. We have strong partnerships with NGOs, community justice committees, community and Aboriginal governments, and our colleagues within the GNWT.

The Department of Justice also meets the needs of residents through our services to government. These include the provision of legal advice and legislative drafting for all departments as well as policy advice and support on access to information and protection of privacy matters. While these areas may not be clearly apparent to most, they are the foundation of a strong and effective government and are an essential part of our program and service work. These services will be under pressure this year, as we move forward with the Devolution Agreement and take on new responsibilities from the federal government. In response, we have identified $1.4 million to assist with this vital work and support the Assembly’s priority for an implemented agreement.

As I have mentioned before, providing these services and programs during times of fiscal restraint remains challenging. The justice system is experiencing pressures similar to those confronting other departments. Socio-economic factors contribute to a rate of police-reported crime that continues to be the highest in Canada. It is vital that we not simply react but take the time to fully investigate and plan, making sound decisions that are proactive and fiscally responsible.

We are working towards this by proposing investments in areas to support this Assembly’s priorities. New in this year’s main estimates are resources aimed at strengthening our services and improving the way that we work with our partners. We are proposing additional resources in the amount of $807,000 to pilot an Integrated Case Management Project. Additionally, we are proposing to move forward on the implementation of a wellness court. The purpose of this court is to assist those in our society who come into conflict with the law because of addictions or mental health issues. Funds in the amount of $300,000 are budgeted to implement this court in the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Justice programs and services also provide the GNWT with modest revenue of just under $14.3 million, or 11.5 percent of the department’s expenditure budget. These revenues are either generated through cost-sharing agreements with

the Government of Canada for access to justice and youth justice services, exchange of services agreements for housing federal and Nunavut offenders, or through the collection of fees and fines in legal registries and the Territorial and Supreme Courts.

The budget presented today is prudent, responsible, and will allow the department to continue to work on Assembly priorities and serve NWT residents.

I thank you for the opportunity to provide an overview of the department’s 2014-15 Main Estimates and I look forward to discussing it in more detail with you. Thank you.

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 Ramsay. Minister Ramsay, do you have witnesses you’d like to bring into the House?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

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 Ramsay. Does committee agree?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Minister Ramsay, please introduce your witnesses to the House, for the record.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my right is Sylvia Haener, deputy minister of the Department of Justice; and to my left is Kim Schofield, director of finance for the Department of Justice. Thank you.

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 Ramsay. Ms. Schofield, Ms. Haener, welcome to the Chamber.

Committee, we’re going to begin today’s deliberations with some general comments. With that, with our conventional protocol, I will allow Members to go through one time for 10 minutes and I will allow the Minister to respond. If I could say to the Minister, you do not need to respond to each individual question within the parameter from the Members. Maybe aggregate your responses accordingly. With that, we’ll open up to general comments. 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, and thank you, Minister Ramsay. It was very interesting to hear your opening remarks to this year’s budget. I’m very pleased to see there are going to be some initiatives that we have been working on for some time and certainly bringing them to reality within the years to come.

Mr. Ramsay has indicated that Justice is responsible for providing support to the needs of the people in the Northwest Territories, and like I have made comments to the Minister of Health,

there are communities without RCMP members. Over the years I’ve been a Member, I have a file that tells me all the reasons why you aren’t yet having members in our communities. I certainly don’t want to bring that out right now, but just that if you could correct me later on, my understanding was it was 10 or 11, but I could be wrong too. We do not have RCMP in our small communities, and I’m going to ask you, too, Mr. Ramsay, along with the Minister of Health, that I’d like to see a plan with all this money coming to the Northwest Territories through various avenues, is to start looking at where and how and when and all this good stuff, bringing a business plan to us on this side to let us know that this is what we’re doing, Cabinet, as government, to put RCMP members in our small communities. There has to be some special consideration given just like with the Minister of Health.

There are no full-time nurses in our communities, so if you’re really, truly looking and want to follow that vision, that belief, responsive to the needs of the people we serve, well, there are communities without RCMP members, and we’re not being responsible to their needs.

I’ve also heard through the previous Minister of how the communities are being served, which is once a month or three or four times a month. In today’s society, that doesn’t seem to be very helpful for us to not have RCMP in our communities. I just wanted to raise that with the Minister.

I know this is an O and M budget; however, it’s important, because I don’t see anything in the operations and maintenance that has to go inside with the infrastructure budget, but at least I could have seen some type of O and M planning studies or some kind of business case why we need to put RCMP in our small communities. The same with Health. I’m getting, I guess, a little bit frustrated that year after year the department comes to us, but they seem to forget that there are communities in the Northwest Territories that do not have RCMP members full-time, but they always seem to have really good reasons why they aren’t doing it, but they seem to be okay with other projects. That doesn’t fly with me.

I’m going to ask Mr. Ramsay if he could show some strong leadership and say, if there are 10 or 11 without RCMP, this is what we’re going to do. As a Member here for 10 years, I have not yet seen a plan, but also being here, I’ve heard of a lot of reasons why they can’t do it. Show me one good reason why they should be putting it in those communities, not 10,000 reasons why they can’t do it. That’s the responsive needs to our communities. If you go into any one of our communities that do not have RCMP members, that is not a very good thing to have in today’s society, but they certainly have a lot of money for other things.

I argued a couple years ago with the then previous Minister of Justice how many dollars we were putting in to put in a fence at the correctional centre here. I don’t know where that kind of thinking comes from, but that’s what we’ve got in the Department of Justice, putting money in a fence to keep inmates in but you can’t put money into a community for crime prevention and safety to put RCMP members in our community. I just don’t know where the senior management team is and what they’re thinking. We are the legislators. We should be the ones that are driving this initiative. I don’t know, but I’m a little bit confused on this issue, so I’m going to put that challenge to the Minister and to the Cabinet.

I’d like to see a business case of putting RCMP in the communities without RCMP. I remember one time we had an incident here in Yellowknife and just like that they had an RCMP assigned to a school. Quick, like that, but not in our communities. Something’s wrong. Something is terribly wrong. I think it’s time our communities deserved some respect and some justice and say we’re going to do this for the communities. That’s what I’d like to see.

I applaud the Minister for taking on some new initiatives because we worked on them together as the pilot case. I mean, that’s a good thing. Our Members pushed it over here. We have some new initiatives. The Minister of Justice and I have been working hard in our communities to get on-the-land treatment programs, corrections programs, and it’s up to our people to come up to the plate and say yes, we would like to have on-the-land programs. I know the Minister has been very supportive in that area to get inmates out on the land and to do their time out there, and to be educated, to get well and to get back into their communities. I see that as a positive step working towards the wellness of our communities.

The other thing I’d like to point out before I leave the floor is the justice system. If we are going to be responsive to the needs of our people, they have to be properly trained to interpret the legalities and the terminologies that the court system uses. We have to support our language, speaking First Nation mother tongue, and that court has to recognize this. This is an English law coming into an Aboriginal community, but now you’ve got to have our people be trained properly to understand justice as it’s meant to be, so we have to have some funding resources to do this. I think that we deserve this in our communities.

Again, I put a challenge to the Minister and his staff here. Look for money, train our people in our communities, the ones that want to go through the court system using their language. It should be a no-brainer. The days of going through the system without properly trained legal translators are over. I ask the Minister to consider, with the limited budget

that we have, how do we do this in our small communities such as Colville Lake or Fort Good Hope. It’s a lot of work for us. I mean, I’m only talking two communities, but I think the Minister knows and he’s up to the challenge. I think he’s new in this, it’s only four months, but I’d like him to know that some basic things need to be put in place and look at where we need to step back and see where we need to correct our system but are meeting the basic needs of our justice in policing, corrections, or in the court service. What are some of the things that we need to do to ensure that we are responsive to the needs of the people of the Northwest Territories.

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. General comments. 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. Chairman. Just a few comments for the Minister along the same lines of policing. I know the community of Fort McPherson has received an extra RCMP to manage Tsiigehtchic, and as the Minister committed to having one of the officers overnighting in Tsiigehtchic, I just have to ask the question of funding. Has the detachment in Fort McPherson received extra funding to implement that? That is one of my major concerns. I know the Minister is willing to work with the Minister of Housing to line up a place to stay, but I look forward to that and I know we are a ways off from a detachment, but I think we are in the right direction. I look forward to working with the Minister, moving forward to that. Thank you.

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. Moving on with general comments, I have Mr. Nadli.

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

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The comments that I wanted to make are surrounding the recent and very public cases involving harvesting of either wood or else some caribou. This goes to the heart of treaty rights and Aboriginal title. I understand there is a process to the courts and we have to respect the due process; however, I want to find out, in terms of the Department of Justice dealing with treaty rights and Aboriginal title, with the understanding of governments with the way that they are usually structured is that there is a divide between the judiciary plus the executive, and at the same time the legal case precedents in the instances for specific rights are recognized and affirmed through the courts. I wanted to get an understanding of how, perhaps, the department is playing a role in terms of ensuring that there are guiding principles that the department upholds when dealing with those rights. I wanted to understand that.

The other point that I wanted to make is in terms of culture and languages. It is very important to the communities that I serve that we recognize that there are different cultures in communities, mainly

the First Nations culture and, at the same time, languages and their specific needs. It is important that we try to provide a service so that when a person finds themselves in a legal circumstance, that language translation is available so that people are treated fairly in terms of the judicial process and that they don’t feel victimized through the whole process when experiencing that there is a lack of language services available to them.

The other point that I wanted to make is I wanted to understand the Department of Justice mandate and role in ensuring that our RCMP, in terms of how they provide services, I understand there has been work in terms of trying to engage communities and developing policing plans. I think it has been noted that our communities, especially along the highways, need to be worked closely with, ensuring that the local leadership and citizens have a role in terms of developing their annual policing plans. I hope that will continue as well.

Those where just some points that I wanted to make. Mahsi.

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. Nadli. Continuing on with general comments, I have Mr. Menicoche.

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to briefly touch on our RCMP services in my riding. I think, particularly in Fort Simpson, I am pleased how they interact in the community, especially with the new organization for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. They really came out and pitched in, helped out with the kickoff of that event, and I am pleased to see that. I am also pleased to see that they continue to do drinking and driving. There were 11 charges in January, which is good to see. It sends a message to the community that we take this very seriously in the Northwest Territories. When it comes down to the small communities like Fort Liard that has a small detachment, every time I visit there, community members want that kind of involvement and that kind of, I guess it is intervention, or catching the drunk drivers and, most particularly, the bootleggers that cross the border from BC. I don’t know if that is part of their strategy to do check stops across the border. Fort Liard residents often say there are not enough check stops at the border. Perhaps they are doing it but not too visibly, so not everybody is seeing it. I just urge the Justice department to continue with that.

Another incident is search and rescues. I am really pleased how the RCMP steps up and gets involved and hosts whole community meetings, especially with when we lost the late Billy Cholo in Fort Simpson. The RCMP was front and foremost interacting with the community, with the leadership, trying to resolve that situation the best that they could.

There is something that is still on my plate, of course, is to return nursing to the community of Wrigley. Part of that process was to have RCMP services there. We have dedicated RCMP officers in Fort Simpson, but it is the long-term goal, of course, to get a detachment back into Wrigley. I can still see the business case where, with the onset of development in the Sahtu in the long term, Wrigley will require extra policing and extra medical services, such as the case as it was in the late ‘70s when they had nursing and police services in Wrigley. I have been pressing this House that that is the case coming up once again, and hopefully, I know that when it came to infrastructure, at one point it was largely federal infrastructure that created holding cells, et cetera, so I think that with recent changes that it belongs now to the Government of the Northwest Territories. I don’t know if the Minister wants to comment on that, the long-term capital planning for establishing catchments in a small community like Wrigley. Thank you very much, 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. Menicoche. I will turn this over now to the Minister for an opportunity to reply to general comments. Mr. Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Members for sharing their general comments with me. There are a few areas of concern that overlapped most Members.

I guess what I would like to start out with, and I know was raised by a number of Members, was policing in smaller communities and the need to look at services. We do provide services, especially a community like Gameti or Wrigley, Tsiigehtchic are serviced by the RCMP.

Just to put it into perspective, today there are 12 communities in the Northwest Territories that do not have a detachment. Three of those communities are within a 30-minute drive of a major centre with a detachment. The other nine – I could list them off, there are nine other communities – the cost of establishing a detachment in one of these communities is anywhere between $11 million and $12 million, an upfront capital cost. So if you look at nine communities, that is close to $100 million in capital expenditure. Also, on an ongoing basis we would be looking at somewhere around $40 million to operate nine new detachments in the Northwest Territories, so the cost is prohibitive today.

Moving forward, I think we have to ensure that we are providing services to those communities. We have had some success. I know the Member for Mackenzie Delta talked about RCMP members that are dedicated to the community of Tsiigehtchic, travelling from Fort McPherson into Tsiigehtchic and overnighting in the community, and we believe that is a very positive step in the right direction. We hope to have RCMP members in the community

eight nights out of the month. We are working toward that goal.

I know the Member for Nahendeh mentioned the situation in Wrigley and maybe that’s a model. I’ll go back to the department and to the RCMP and discuss whether or not we can have RCMP members look at accommodations in Wrigley so that they can be more present in the community on a monthly basis. That’s something that we’ll certainly take a look at.

Mr. Yakeleya also talked about on-the-land programs. We did have an RFP that went out late last year. We didn’t have any successful proponents that came forward. Right now we’re regrouping at the department. We’re going to see if we can take another shot at this and perhaps look at another RFP, or if there are interested groups, I know the Member and I had talked at great length about some proponents in the Sahtu that were interested in operating an on-the-land program in the Sahtu but we didn’t receive a proposal from them. We don’t want to close the door on that. I think there is some opportunity there and we certainly would look forward to working with groups, whether they’re in the Sahtu or other regions around the Northwest Territories, to look at on-the-land programming in the Northwest Territories.

A couple of Members also talked about interpreters and the availability of interpreters. We have the resources available to us so that we can provide that service to people. If Members want more details on how those resources can be available to community members, that’s something that we have and we’d be happy to help Members with that.

The one other issue I wanted to touch on and Mr. Nadli had brought it up, we support the government when it comes to legal advice and legal support to various departments. We don’t get involved in ongoing court cases. That’s something where there’s a clear distinction between the judiciary and the executive branches of government, and that’s always been the way it is and we don’t involve ourselves in court cases.

The other item is policing plans. We’ve had a great deal of success in working with communities on policing plans. I think it’s a perfect opportunity for the RCMP to meet with the community leadership to go over the needs of the community on an ongoing basis and it’s something that has been successful. We’ll try to continue that practice and ensure that those are in place for communities around the Northwest Territories.

I thank MLA Menicoche for his accolades to the RCMP in Fort Simpson and in Nahendeh. I know many times the RCMP are really involved in the communities they’re present in, and we certainly look forward to their involvement.

As we go forward, I know they’re front and centre on any search and rescue here in the Northwest Territories and we appreciate the job that the RCMP are doing for us here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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 Ramsay. Is committee prepared to go into detail?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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, committee. Committee, we are in your main estimates binder at 9-7. This is the summary which we will defer up until conclusion of consideration of the individual activities. I’ll get you to turn to 9-8, Justice, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

Seeing none, 9-9, Justice, information item, revenue summary. Any questions?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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, committee. Page 9-10, Ms. Bisaro.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Sorry, Mr. Chair, I couldn’t get back to page 9 quick enough. Could we revert to page 9?

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

Does committee agree to go back to 9-9?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

Ms. Bisaro, we’ve concluded that one, so if you want to capture that in another… We have concluded 9-9. Thank you. Page 9-10, Justice, information item, active position summary. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under regional allocation we have 475 employees allocated here. Would the department be able to break out, out of its individual regions, how many of the positions are funded and unfunded? Thank you.

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. Hawkins. Mr. Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Those positions are all funded. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you for that. Over and above this, how many casual positions does the department carry? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I’ll go to Ms. Schofield for that response, Mr. Chairman.

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 Ramsay. Ms. Schofield.

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

Schofield

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The department’s active positions are such as they are, 475. We do have relief positions that are not part of that in our correctional facilities, and off the top of my head I can’t tell you how many that is, but there are relief positions in our facilities that cover off our

correctional staff when they are not able to work because of sick leave or other leave. Thank you.

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, Ms. Schofield. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. Is there any commitment to finding out how many there are of those relief positions, and furthermore, what do they cost? Thank you.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can get that information for the Member. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. I consider also what they cost as part of that request.

Where does the funding come for these positions? Where does it come from? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the 475, it’s through the main estimates and for the other information the Member wants, we’ll detail that in our response to the Member. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. Is there any specific allocation for the unfunded positions and where would I find that, on what page? Thank you.

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

Mr. Hawkins, if I can get you to repeat that question, please.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Is there any specific allocation for these unfunded positions, and if so, what page would I find that on?

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. Hawkins. For that, we’ll go to Ms. Schofield.

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

Schofield

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have funding in our correctional facility appropriation for relief positions. It’s included in the compensation and benefits component of the budget. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

What page would that be on if this isn’t the appropriate page?

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

Schofield

That funding would be included in the correctional services budget on page 9-31.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. Over and above the relief positions as noted, which Ms. Schofield just said would be found on 9-31, are there any other unfunded positions within the department, and if so, where and how many?

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

Schofield

The Department of Justice doesn’t have unfunded positions. We may have positions where somebody has double filled the position because somebody is on a maternity leave or on a transfer assignment. The relief positions are actually funded, just for clarification. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Out of the 475 positions, how many are presently filled and how many are empty? Thank you.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think that information was provided to committee about two weeks ago. We could perhaps bring it back. I’ll go to Ms. Haener, but I think the level of detail the Member is looking for was supplied to P and P two weeks ago.

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 Ramsay. Ms. Haener.

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

Haener

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As of October 31st the department had 42 vacant

positions to be staffed. I can provide an update on the status of those positions as of the last week and a half or so. Twenty of those have been filled, 18 are still vacant and are waiting to be staffed, one is an employee’s home position who is on a transfer assignment, two are legislative counsel positions of which the funding is part of devolution implementation and those will be sunsetting at the end of this year and then will be deactivated, one is a legal translator position which we are intending to inactivate. The funding for that originally was to be part of devolution, but the work plan changed in relation to that position. Of the 18 positions that are still vacant, eight are here in Yellowknife, one is in the Deh Cho, six are in the Beaufort-Delta and three are in the South Slave.

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, Ms. Haener. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you for that. Do we have an approximation of what those positions, in summary, would be valued at? Do we have an average assessment of how long those positions have been vacant, referring back to the 42? I’m glad to hear that 26 have been filled. Furthermore, have any opened up since the October 31st snapshot had been taken? Thank you.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It would be that number, 42, isn’t a static number. It keeps changing. As the deputy minister mentioned, we filled 20 positions. That number will keep changing. It’s a rolling process where we identify positions that need to be filled and then we fill them. That number is always going to change. It’s not always going to be 42. It’s not always going to be 20 that we’ve filled just recently. Some months it may be more, other months it may be less, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

These types of questions are sometimes asked in committee, but the public lacks the ability to be in committee to hear the answers. Vacancy has been a bit of an issue right now and I would think the department would be somewhat ready for this or at least know they would be asked some of these questions. What is the value of the

42 positions? There must be some sort of rolling dollar amount. As the Minister said, these are a rolling process. There must be some assessment of what human resources dollars aren’t being consumed in the department in this particular case. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, we did come prepared to answer the questions. A lot of this information was provided to committee two weeks ago. The Members made assumptions on vacant positions and what their value is. If you have 42 positions and we filled 20 of them, that leaves you with 22 vacant positions. You can do the math quickly for what a full encumbered position costs the Government of the Northwest Territories and figure that out easily. It’s not rocket science.

Again, it is a rolling average, Mr. Chairman, and something that not just the Department of Justice deals with, but every department across government. We do the best to fill the vacant positions that we have. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I keep asking the question for the benefit of the public. It’s been stressed, reaffirmed, continued… Ms. Bisaro’s phone is ringing there. They must be calling in with the number, I guess.

I keep asking the same question that is not before the public and I’m trying to get it on the public record. Is the Minister unwilling or unprepared to answer the question I keep asking about the value of these positions when it comes to the monetary portion? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

It’s almost impossible to answer that question because some positions are vacant for a month, others are vacant for two months. You have to bring in casuals at some point to carry out the duties of those positions on a case-by-case basis. It is not something that you can just put a number at and say this is that. We have a department to run and we’re always filling positions as they come up. That number is going to change, as is the number that’s there. It’s not a static number. It’s something that’s constantly changing. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

A moment ago on the record, the Minister told me to just do the math, you can figure it out. Now he’s telling me it’s impossible to calculate. Which is it and what can the department provide? Thank you.

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

Mr. Hawkins, I believe that question has been asked and answered. Do you have another question?

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Well, the Minister just told me I can do the math. Now he’s telling me it’s impossible to calculate and he can’t calculate that value, so I’m trying to understand. How much of this is in resource value, in the sense of dollars and, perhaps, what’s the average vacancy of the Department of Justice? Thank you.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I mentioned that earlier, that was a ballpark number. If you have 20 or 22 vacant positions, you could arrive at a number, but that’s not going to be the number you have to go with because it’s always changing and evolving. On an annual basis the vacancy rate at the Department of Justice is roughly 9 percent. We continue to fill positions to the best of our ability day in and day out, Mr. Chairman.

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. Ramsay. Mr. Hawkins, your time has expired. Just let me know if you want to get back on the list. Committee, we’re on 9-10, Justice, information item, active position summary, Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In terms of relief positions, there doesn’t seem to be a protocol for reporting those and I don’t even know if they’re part-time positions or seasonal. If we have seasonal, they’re not here.

Is there any way of bringing transparency in reporting? Is that something the Minister could look into and report back to the House at some point to see what would be an appropriate way to bring some transparency to that?

I realize the dollars are in the budget, so I think the transparency is there, we ask the appropriate questions, but it might be useful just to make it transparent from the start. Thank you.

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. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is something that we could look into. Given the nature of the facilities that we operate, the corrections facilities that we operate, the requirement for relief workers is there. That’s something that is real for us.

In terms of reporting it, that’s something I will talk to the officials about and we’ll see if there’s a better way to report that and show that relief worker number. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Minister for the commitment. The second question is: I understand there’s a legal translator position that will be deactivated. I believe that’s a funded position. I’m wondering what happens to those dollars. Thank you.

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. Bromley. We’ll go to Ms. Haener for that.

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

Haener

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That position was created in anticipation of needing that function to support the implementation of devolution. As it turned out as we worked forward with our planning, we did not need that position. There was no funding

associated with it and it is being deactivated. Thank you.

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, Ms. Haener. Moving on with questions on page 9-10, I have Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister said there was an average, if I understood it correctly, vacancy of 9 percent for the Department of Justice. For the folks at home and certainly for the Members, specific to the Department of Justice, what would that add up to?

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

Mr. Hawkins, I will get you just to add the disclaimer at the end of your question. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

The 9 percent I am referring to specifically, what would that add up to in dollar value? Thank you.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, 10 percent of the 475 positions that we have times the fully encumbered cost of those positions would give you that figure. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

What is the fully encumbered cost or the average the department is using? Again, I can’t use committee documentation that the Minister keeps referring to here because it was given in camera. It makes it difficult when he keeps saying it was given to us, but we can’t reference it specifically. That is why I’m asking what is the average cost used for the fully encumbered cost per position as he’s highlighting. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The full compensation and benefits paid to GNWT employees on an annual basis divided by the number of employees would give you that calculation. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Not all employees are created equally and there’s an average being used. I mean, a deputy minister’s salary is much different than a clerk’s salary and certainly a correctional officer’s salary is different than, say, a director’s salary, so it’s difficult to know what reference he’s using or not wanting to ask. Is there a reason why he doesn’t want to assist with the clarification of this number?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The Member asked for an average, so I was trying my best to give him an average.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

What would the dollar value be of that particular average? Could the Minister put it on the record?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

It would be under $6 million.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you for that. If we may work with just under $6 million, then, as a figure, if there is just under $6 million in resources in the department wrapped up in the rolling average of

vacancies within the department, does the department have a utilization plan specific to those types of dollars and how is that money spent?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

That’s not how it works. The turnover government-wide on an annual basis is about 10 percent. Last year the government turned over roughly 600 positions government-wide. I’ll ask Deputy Minister Haener to help explain why that’s not the case.

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 Ramsay. Ms. Haener.

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

Haener

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the numbers that the Minister was previously referencing would be an annual amount, but as you know, positions are rarely vacant for a year. Sometimes they may be vacant for days if we’re able to hire a casual to fill behind someone who has resigned. Vacancy lengths vary and trying to come up with a number in terms of the salary dollars would be challenging.

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, Ms. Haener. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Generally, I would agree with I’ll call it the broad observation provided by the deputy minister, and I would say, from my point of view, I hear your point, but the issue of a 10 percent average, as the Minister has highlighted, a 9 percent average as he said earlier specific to the Department of Justice, and this dollar amount adding up to, on a rolling basis, just under $6 million. That tells me that if a position is open, there are dollars not being allocated whatever number of days that it’s not being allocated towards. Now, you don’t pay casuals at 100 percent of the normal cost and they don’t cost the full value of what a full-time employee may have cost, so they’re rolling dollars that are being left, I guess, in the system as positions are being filled and being made vacant. At the same time, I agree that, yes, in some cases it may be short periods of time they’re vacant; however, at the same time there are positions where there are extended vacancies so that’s where we get the rolling average, I would assume.

If there is a rolling average then I would ask this: If the Minister has identified just under $6 million that’s attributed to the approximate 9 percent vacancy in the Department of Justice, out of that just under $6 million, how much money is basically not being spent in the department on human resources? Because this is probably a calculation the department makes every year when they look at rolling the money back as a surplus at the end of the year.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The assumption the Member is making is that the vacant positions are vacant for the entire year.

That, of course, is not the case. That’s not reality, but I’ll go to Ms. Schofield for a further explanation.

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 Ramsay. Ms. Schofield.

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

Schofield

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The 9 percent that was used was based on the vacant positions from the number of positions we have, and when you had asked the question about how much that would work into dollar amounts, a simple calculation was done to take that 9 percent or 10 percent and apply it to the salary dollar amount, so it doesn’t necessarily correlate, like the deputy minister had said, because there are varying times throughout the year how long those positions are vacant. For example, in the main estimates document, in 2012-13 the department spent almost $54 million on salaries, compensation and benefits and our main estimates amount for ’13-14 was roughly $55 million, so if you take into consideration that there would have been a salary increase in ’13-14, we’re spending our salary dollars, so they are being spent in the department. There is not a lot of leeway or leverage there associated with a vacancy.

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, Ms. Schofield. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

There must be some of those salary dollars not being specifically allocated to human resources, because when you have the rolling vacancy that means there’s a vacancy. Yes, sometimes it’s 9 percent and sometimes it’s probably down to 4 percent, other times it must be 15 percent. That’s why we pick an average to work off of and that’s why I asked the department about the average. How much of that money isn’t being allocated to human resource dollars and where is that money going?

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

It’s being spent on compensation and benefits for the employees that we have at the Department of Justice. We operate 24 hour a day, seven day a week, 365 day a year operations at our facilities and those dollars are spent in the areas that the Members see in the main estimates.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I can take that at face value, but how do you account for 9 percent vacancies and just say that all the money is being used up? I mean, the money must be going somewhere. I mean, when you add up 9 percent, which is just under $6 million, there are vacancies so that position, whatever the vacancy is attributed to specifically, that money has got to go somewhere, and that’s the money I’m asking about. What we’re hearing is it’s just being gobbled up through other human resource needs. That may be the technical fact, but how it gets there is kind of the issue I’m

getting at. I hear that we have just under $6 million left on the table and yet it’s mysteriously being used through human resource things that I’m not seeing the direct connection to. That’s the connection I’m trying to get here, because quite frankly I mean, if a direct…

Quite frankly, what I’m seeing here is that, for example, if a director’s position was empty, I mean, you just don’t fill it with a casual that day. That’s an example, for goodness sakes, so we don’t take that on as an actual. You have the position vacancies. I don’t. The point being is in a director’s salary, I mean, where does it go? Oh, my goodness, you have more time at the jail and more time in the courts and money may be spent in those areas? Probably, but I view it as money that is specifically passed by this Legislature should be going to those particular allocations, and I’m trying to sort of put my finger on some of that.

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

Mr. Hawkins, was there a question in there?

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I’m trying to put my finger on those allocations as to where the money is going. Thank you.

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

Okay. Mr. Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If the Member is looking for a connection in the Department of Justice, there isn’t one there. We have the main estimates before us today. The Member talked about a director’s position. We’d look at putting somebody in there in an acting capacity. We’d look at perhaps training somebody. There are transfer assignments. There’s maternity leave, the use of casual, relief workers. The money that we do have is certainly earmarked for compensation and benefits to our employees.

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 Ramsay. Committee, we’re on 9-10, Justice, information item, active position summary. Any questions?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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, committee. Page 9-13, Justice, activity summary, services to government, operations expenditure summary, $12.471 million. Ms. Bisaro.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note a pretty large increase in compensation and benefits under services to government. Could I get a bit of an understanding as to what we are adding here?

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, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was for the legal divisions for support to devolution.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

I’m sorry. I didn’t hear the answer. Could the Minister repeat it, please?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, that increase was for the legal division in support of devolution. Thank you.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the Minister. So I note two pages in, I think, there is an increase in five positions. Are all five of those positions related to devolution or not? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, there are 10 new positions in total. Thank you.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Okay, so I am presuming all 10 of those positions are not in this section because we get five more in active positions in two pages later on. Are some of those in another section? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, it is just a net effect, that number. Thank you.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Great, thanks for that. So the 10 positions that we are adding, could I just get a rough idea of what types of positions they are, are they all lawyers or what functions do they have? Thank you.

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, Ms. Bisaro. For that, we will go to Ms. Schofield.

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

Schofield

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The positions are related to legal counsel, legislative drafting and access to information and privacy. Thank you.

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, Ms. Schofield. Ms. Bisaro.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s all.

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, Ms. Bisaro. Moving on with questions on 9-13, I have Mr. Moses.

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of questions here. The first one is coming out of the Government Operations report where committee had made a recommendation for stiffer penalties for bootleggers and drug dealers, and creating stiffer penalties such as seizure of vehicles and other materials related to any type of cases. I didn’t know whether to ask the question to this department, so I figured under this department would be the appropriate place. I just wanted to ask the Minister if there was any work that was done towards that or if there is any action going to be taken to these recommendations on creating these stiffer penalties to look at preventing or encouraging those that are doing these kind of activities to basically stop. Thank you.

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. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Department of Finance is taking the lead on that initiative and we certainly are supporting them in that effort. Thank you.

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I just have one other question in this area. Speaking with other professionals and looking at other acts and things that we are trying to amend or change within this government, I had it come to my attention that the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, there are papers and reports that are done by intern students working in that area, for however long a period of time that they are, that they do come with good recommendations, as well, and I am not sure if committee or Members have ever seen those intern reports.

I just want to ask the Minister, are those reports that are done by interns that work for the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, available to the public, or are they available to Members of this House to review and look at whether or not we could take those recommendations and put them into action? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, that is the first that I have heard of those types of reports. We can have the department go back and ask court services if they are familiar with those types of reports and where they go and how they could be utilized if there are some good recommendations in there. It might be an avenue worth exploring. Thank you.

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Just for more clarity, I know that when the interns come – I think one – and they are put into working with the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, one of their projects that they take is that they develop a paper or something as such. I was actually speaking to one of them who was in the position and they mentioned that they came across all these papers, so they are definitely there, reports and papers by interns that do have recommendations, so I do enjoy reading reports. I am not sure if I enjoy reading them, but that is part of my job that I do take that initiative to read reports and look at the recommendations, so those would be definitely some that I would like to review. If that information is available to Regular Members it would be greatly appreciated if we could find that 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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, we will find out for the Member and the House. Thank you.

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. Ramsay. Moving on to questions on 9-13, I have Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask a little about the 15 percent increase I see here in compensation and benefits. I know the Minister mentioned that devolution is playing or having or creating a demand, for sure. I’m wondering if that is what this increase is. Yes, we’ll start with that. I believe there are five positions, which probably accounts for the 15 percent increase, but if we could hear a little bit about it and

how that will be ongoing as to opposed to a one-time thing. Thank you.

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. Bromley. We will go to Ms. Haener for that.

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

Haener

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, those positions, the compensation and benefits increase there is associated with positions which will be located with the legislation division, legal division and in the ATIPP unit to support activities post-April 1st related to devolution.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

So is that all five of these positions?

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

Haener

Yes.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

That’s an education in itself.

The other area I am wondering about, I know from my experience with the AANDC offices, that when the mine inspection division had cases to be made and took it to Justice at the federal level, they repeatedly declined to take on that legal action, and obviously this has consequences because things get worse and worse and it is a bit of a sliding slope, so I want to know that this government is preparing for that. Now, this may not be the right division for this and I would welcome the Ministers’ direction on where to bring this up, but I am looking or will be looking for how this department is providing to ensure that we have the capacity to deal with those issues when inspectors put a case forward for legal action.

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. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That question would possibly be best posed to the new Lands department. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

This is not a lands issue. The inspectors are out there doing their job, I think Lands, in this case, are adding a number of new inspectors. They do their work, they put a case together, they have to submit it to the Department of Justice for legal action. I want to know that, unlike the Government of Canada, this government will have the capacity to take that legal action. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The department supports the various departments in legal advice and preparation, and I wouldn’t see it changing under what the Member is bringing up, so yes, that is what we do, we provide support and advice. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

So, what additional resources would be in this budget – and if there is another area to pursue this, then I am happy to do that – that will provide the increased capacity needed to deal with taking on the enforcement aspects of land and resource management?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

We don’t do any type of enforcement. Again, we’re there to support departments and we would provide that support. We have beefed up the legal division’s team in advance of devolution, I believe, by five positions. We anticipate that division will be busier and, again, be ready, willing and able to provide advice and direction to various departments. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Are we talking about this division?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The legal division is what I’m referring to, Mr. Chairman.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

That’s all for this page. Thank you.

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. Bromley. Continuing on with questions on 9-13, I have Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On this particular page we have just over $9 million in grants and contributions, and that looks like it’s applied to 70 particular staff members. I’m just curious as to the particulars of the dollar amount. How many of 70 positions are filled and, conversely, how many are unfilled? Thank you.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Was the Member talking about grants and contributions, the $9,000? Was that what he was referencing? Thank you.

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 Ramsay. I believe it’s the $9.231 million and the 70 positions. I think that’s what he’s referencing. Mr. Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’ll go to Ms. Schofield for a response. Thank you.

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 Ramsay. Ms. Schofield.

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

Schofield

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m just trying to do a quick calculation of the number of positions that are vacant. There are three positions that Deputy Minister Haener had identified that are being sunsetted or inactivated, then there are two actual vacant positions in that area. Thank you.

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, Ms. Schofield. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you for that. Out of the three positions that are being sunsetted, are they vacant at this particular moment, and if so, how long have they been vacant? Again, those three positions as noted by Ms. Schofield. Thank you.

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

Schofield

The two legislative drafting positions that are sunsetting are vacant and the work is being covered off through contract drafters.

The other legislative drafter, there was no funding associated with that position. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Then as far as the other two vacant positions, would Ms. Schofield be able to let me know how long they’ve been vacant as well? Thank you.

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

Schofield

I’m sorry; I don’t have that information in front of me.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Can the department provide it? Thank you.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we can.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Can the department provide me the information on the summary of dollar value attributed specifically to those vacant positions and, obviously, what positions they are so we can stop calling them vacant positions? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I thought we may have covered this off previous to this page, but yes, we can provide that information.

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 Ramsay. Moving on with questions on 9-13, I’ll go back to Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up. I don’t feel like we’ve got to the end of our trail here at exploring this. We are taking on, from a major federal department, responsibility for planned water resource management, a substantial regime, and within that there are inspections to make sure that mines are operating according to law and guidelines and so on and there’s an enforcement requirement. Now, my understanding is departments don’t have their own legal capacity to do prosecutions that they would request. The legal division, as I understand it, is this page that we’re on, services to government. I’m really sure that five ATIPP positions will not address the needs that I’m trying to ask about here.

At the federal level, prosecutions frequently did not go forward, leading to a massive deficit in financial security and so on, basically liability and damage to the environment and so on without the responsible oversight and accountability. That’s what we’re looking for in this new approach through the Devolution Agreement, I believe, and it requires a recognition and preparation within the legal division to handle this extra legal workload.

An example might be MACA doing its prosecution work with squatters. I’m assuming they’re not doing that, that they’re getting the Department of Justice to do that. If we are in this division, I believe, on this issue, how and where are the dollars? Is this additional capacity being addressed?

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. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our role as a department is to, again, provide legal advice and support to departments. We do have some new enforcement responsibilities. Those will be carried out by other departments. Our role in this was to add five new positions at our legal division and they’re not just the ATIPP position the Member referenced, but we have beefed up our staff complement in the legal division by five positions in anticipation that they will be busier after April 1st . As

we go forward, if we need further resources in that area, through the business planning process we could certainly come back to Members requesting that we find some additional dollars to hire some more lawyers in the legal division. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you. This is not assuring, I have to tell the Minister, because we already have a large, high-capacity government that’s failing to do it. You know, making good promises but not doing anything. I know the Minister has the highest of intent here, so I’m just saying, this is a bit of a reality check here.

To start with, I wonder if the Minister would provide me with a description of the five positions and how they relate to the question I’m asking here, and any other thoughts he might have at the same time on how he is truly beefing up the legal capacity to deal with the sorts of enforcement or legal proceedings that come with the taking on of devolution and an entirely new management regime for water and resources. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, we haven’t even got to April 1st yet, so my caution to the

Member is just let us get to April 1st . We’re trying to

put the key pieces in place so that we have the manpower at the Department of Justice to handle the increased workload.

The Member asked for I believe it was the job descriptions or what these positions will be doing. They’re lawyers. One of them will be dedicated to the area of prosecution, one of those five lawyers. We currently have two of our legal team embedded in the federal Department of Justice, learning how that process plays itself out, so that they can come back here and be able to help us out as we move forward with devolution. We’re not even to April 1st yet, so it’s hard to say. This is our best effort in trying to staff up our legal division so we can have that seamless transition into devolution and have the legal advice and support for government departments that are dealing with newfound authorities. Again, if five isn’t enough, through the business planning process we can look at some increased resources in this area, but we haven’t even got to April 1st . We’re trying to plan it to the

best of our ability. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I appreciate the Minister’s comments. I have to say that I’m hearing and reading, in every paper there seems to be an insert that says seamless transition for devolution and well prepared for devolution. Those are the questions I’m asking here. I’m finding some unexpected soft spots now. I was told these were five ATIPP positions, but I would happily stand to be corrected and that might resolve some of the confusion here.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Again, I respect the Member, but we’re trying our best to staff and be ready for April 1st when we get the new responsibilities. We’ve also got $11 million that we’ve got set aside for shortfalls in our operation. If we need to look at increasing resources and getting a staff complement more than what we have put in place today, that’s money that will be available to us as we go forward. Certainly, we are going to be ready. The Department of Justice will be ready. It’s not a soft spot. It’s something we feel strongly about, that we can deliver services to government, to the departments that will need our assistance and advice. We’ve put a team together and we will be ready April 1st to deliver that. It’s not going to be

a soft spot. It will be a strong point for our government. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I want to, first of all, thank all our staff for doing the good work they’re doing. I know this is a huge undertaking. I’m not intending to slight the staff or the efforts put out there at all in my questioning here.

In the Minister’s response, I did not hear any clarification that these are ATIPP positions are not. I would still appreciate some more detailed information on these positions that would help inform me with respect to this question.

With respect to the $11 million excess so far, the cushion that we have, I would urge the Minister to move and ask him to commit to seriously giving some thought to, if these are not positions that address the question being raised here, that he put together a case to access that fund. I’m happy to leave it at that for now and look forward to some more information.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I apologize. I didn’t mention this in my response during my previous opportunity. We have five new positions in the legal division. We have one new position that is specific to ATIPP. So there must have been a little bit of a misunderstanding there. That’s five new lawyers, one of them will specialize in prosecution and one ATIPP position, as well, just to be clear. I thank the Member for his questions. Thank you.

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 Ramsay. Committee, we’re on page 9-13, Justice, activity summary, services to government, operations expenditure summary, $12.471 million.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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, committee. Page 9-14, Justice, activity summary, services to government, grants and contributions, grants, $9,000. Committee agree?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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. Page 9-15, Justice. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to use the occasion to flush out the positions that we’re getting both increases and decreases. Earlier Ms. Schofield had mentioned that there were three positions sunsetting and I don’t see any negatives to the department in this area under services to government. I can only conclude as part of the last answer that there were new positions. So, maybe we could get a list of what positions would be sunsetting and leaving the department for whatever reasons as they will explain and what new positions we will be getting, for the record, because it appears that it seems to be a bit of a wash on the bottom line.

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. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We could provide that information to the Member. Thank you.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

That will be fine.

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. Hawkins. Page 9-15, Justice, information item, services to government, active positions. Any questions?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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, committee. Page 9-17, Justice, activity summary. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to ask about the diversion program. I see in the narrative description here that this division includes diversion programs where communities assist youth and adults to deal with matters outside the formal justice system. Do we have diversion programs in all communities? Thank you.

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. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For that detail, we’ll go to the deputy minister.

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 Ramsay. Ms. Haener.

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

Haener

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Unfortunately, it’s not a simple answer. We like to say that we have diversion available in every community. The reality is that diversion is usually associated with community justice committees. We do not have community justice committees in every single community in the Northwest Territories. The

reason I say we have diversions available is that we work with the resources we have, with the RCMP, with court workers and with others so that if there are an opportunity to divert an individual in a community where there isn’t a community justice committee, we will work with people to make that happen. 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, Ms. Haener. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks for that information and I’m glad there’s some flexibility there. I think we do want to take advantage of those opportunities when we can.

With respect to grants and contributions, I see one of the items here is YWCA of Yellowknife. They are provided funding as their role as designate under the Protection Against Family Violence Act. This is sort of representative. I see the budget hasn’t changed and I have brought this up a number of times and I know a number of people have. It is a serious concern of the Standing Committee on Social Programs. To that end, Mr. Chair, I would like to move a motion, if I may.

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

Go ahead, Mr. Bromley.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I move that the Government of the Northwest Territories develop a policy to ensure that non-governmental organizations providing essential government services receive annual increases for inflation and forced growth. Mahsi.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Just give us a second and we’ll circulate that motion.

The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I don’t have any desire to go on about this. I think it’s a very straightforward issue, and it’s been noted annually at budget time for a number of years. I know probably all Members have heard from our non-government organizations and the difficulties they have in meeting forced growth when they’re expected to deliver often essential government services without the resources to maintain their capacity, and at the same time, of course, they see government departments very substantially increasing their budgets for forced growth reasons. I think we need to start recognizing that they live in the real world, too, and we need to adjust for the inflation and forced-growth costs that they have to meet to provide those services.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

An Hon. Member

Question.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Question has been called. Motion defeated.

---Defeated

Committee, we’re on 9-17. I have Mr. Blake.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
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 concerns along the lines that Mr. Moses brought up earlier, is the sentencing that many of the people get, whether it’s through drug trafficking or bootlegging. I know some of the community programs through the local justice programming, they’re looking at ways to deal with, I’m not sure whether it’s these issues, but I think we need to look at a different direction, and I think that we need to increase jail times. These are pretty serious things that are affecting our territory.

If you look at other jurisdictions, whether it’s Alaska or further down south, they don’t tolerate these sorts of actions. First, second time offence, some places look at 10 years. I think people will learn once they get charged like this. Right now a person gets charged, they might get a couple hundred dollar fine. That’s nothing for them. They make that amount of money in a short amount of time and they just keep carrying on with what they’re doing.

I know up in this jurisdiction I believe it’s classified as Aboriginal law or somewhere along those lines, but it doesn’t matter what jurisdiction you’re in, drug trafficking is drug trafficking, and I believe that we should be having the same sort of legislation and laws as every other jurisdiction in the country. As we move further down the road I think that we need to seriously look at that avenue.

The other thing that I wanted to bring up was through the jail system, I know that last year I saw, it was like a request that went out to the communities in the newspaper, and I wanted to get an update on that. It was sort of an on-the-land programming that’s through the justice system. I know it was for the Beaufort-Delta region. I’d just like to get an update on that. As far as I know, there’s nothing there at the moment.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Ramsay.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Minister of Justice, I think I have to be very careful on getting involved in the Criminal Code side of things or sentencing. From my perspective and the department’s perspective, it’s very important that we look at opportunities to divert people away from the mainstream court system. Oftentimes, having communities deal with sentencing and issues at the community level is far more effective than locking somebody up in an institution, and we have had some success there. We made a presentation to the standing committee this morning on wellness courts, and that’s something that we’re very excited to see move forward to try to get to some of the root causes of

why people end up in court in the first place, and that’s mental health and addiction issues, and that’s something that we’re hoping is going to be very beneficial to residents here in the Northwest Territories once we get that wellness court up and running.

As far as on-the-land programming goes, I think I may have mentioned this in my response to the opening comments from committee, was that we had an RFP that went out late last year. We did not have any successful proponents on that RFP, but we still are very much interested in seeing on-the-land programming and looking for interested parties in the territory that may want to look at that opportunity. We’re going to regroup at the department. We’re not sure whether we want to go back out to another RFP or if we get some folks that are interested and just talking to them and sorting out how best we can deliver that type of programming on the land. That’s something we’re still very much interested in and something we’re going to continue to work on and pursue.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Continuing with questions on 9-17, I have Mr. Moses.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Community Safety Plan, I was just wondering if there was an update on how many of our communities across the Northwest Territories have a safety plan, and also looking at the recommendations from the report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations about trying to include some type of safe houses in some of the small communities that would protect some of our people that are in need. Maybe I could just get a little update on that and what kind of support is being put in place for those community safety plans.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re currently piloting that Community Safety Strategy in three communities in the Northwest Territories and we will be evaluating how that goes and looking to ensure that if it’s successful then getting it into as many other communities across the territory as we can. It’s still in its early stages but we hope to see it expand past the three that are being piloted.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Committee, we’re on 9-17, Justice, activity summary, community justice and policing, operations expenditure summary, $4.900 million. Does committee agree?

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, committee. Page 9-18, Justice, activity summary, community justice and policing, grants and

contributions, contributions, $2.331 million. Does committee agree?

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Page 9-19, Justice, information item, community justice and policing, active positions. Any questions? Seeing none, 9-21, Justice, activity summary, policing services, operations expenditure summary, $44.906 million. Does committee agree? Mr. Bromley.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A quick question here. I guess we’re up again 10 percent, perhaps a little over in the fees and payments, contract services, of course, which is essentially the sole item here. What additional services are we getting for this substantial increase?

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are really no additional services. It’s a variety of items that cause the increase to that line item.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I know recently I think we signed a new 20-year agreement with the RCMP. Was that a year or two ago, and if so, how is it working out? Are we noticing any changes, any improvements or otherwise?

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The Member is correct; it was April 1, 2012, where the new 20-year agreement was signed with the RCMP. We have, and will maintain, a good relationship with the RCMP. I know the Department of Public Works and Services is moving forward with a new way of maintaining RCMP assets here in the Northwest Territories, so we have a close relationship with the RCMP and it is getting closer. Of course, as Minister, I work very closely with the RCMP and the commanding officers here in the Northwest Territories, and I know they have done a lot of great work here in the communities in developing the policing plans for communities around the Northwest Territories, so yes, we are happy with the service we are being provided and look forward to the RCMP and the Government of the Northwest Territories continuing to work well together. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Minister for that response. Just in terms of the variety of items that account for the 10 percent increase, I assume there’s the usual forced-growth stuff here, I know a good number of people, and utilities, et cetera. Are some of those expenses related to the new conditions of the 20-year agreement?

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, there is a number of items in there. The accommodation program is the biggest item that is just $2 million, so that is part of the new agreement with the RCMP. There are also many other things, RCMP relocation, inter-divisional cost related to

compensation and benefits for “G” Division, public service salary increases, as well, so there are a number of different items in there, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Minister. I know that a lot of effort was spent on negotiating that new agreement and I am sure that along with these additional expenses there are some improvements in services provided. I don’t know if the Minister has those at hand, but it would be good to know, and I know the public would like to know what additional benefits we are getting, or whether this is just the cost of doing business to maintain the status quo. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, we have also seen more collaboration on capital expenditures, as well, as I mentioned earlier, migration of maintenance back to the Government of the Northwest Territories through Public Works and Services, so we have seen some of that, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Continuing on to 9-21, committee, Justice, activity summary, policing services, operations expenditure summary, $44.906 million. Mr. Moses.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just one quick question I want to ask. I know we have some Members here that are concerned that we have some communities that don’t have any RCMP staff in those positions and I do understand that we do have a 1-800 emergency line. For some of the communities there might be some concerns with the health and safety of the residents, should something happen, or with domestic violence or something where we’re sending some of our inmates, who might have been in on serious crimes, back into their small communities, that might cause concern for family members or other victims. How are we able to support some of these residents in communities that don’t have RCMP in line, or don’t have any RCMP in the community, and what’s the timeline should RCMP need to get to some of our smaller communities when a phone call is probably sent here to Yellowknife headquarters, and do we have the resources that are available to send an RCMP officer into a community should they need to follow up on a case, or need to go in there and possibly arrest somebody that is committing the crime? Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To answer the Member’s question, yes, if there is an emergency in any one of the communities across the Northwest Territories, the RCMP will be ready to act and get into that community as quickly as possible. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Just following up on that, maybe a concerned citizen might call into the 1-800 line to address an issue they see in the community. It could be domestic violence. That might be a case we can refer with. What does the department do to follow up on a case where a concerned resident is putting in a case and calling the 1-800 line or calling the Yellowknife RCMP detachment? What is the plan of action to follow that up and follow up with the case?

I know that in a small community, if a concerned resident heard some domestic violence going on in a house or an apartment and they call the RCMP, they be there right away to adjust the situation, but if someone is in a community and the resources aren’t there, how is that dealt with? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Yes, the RCMP would respond, and there are other departments, there’s ourselves and Health and Social Services that would have programs and services available to people as they need it. It depends on the community; it depends on the situation. I guess every situation would be different, but yes, if need be, the RCMP would look to involve us. We would be ready and able to provide some information to people that would require some services. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Maybe I can ask the Minister if there’s a protocol for each of our communities that requires assistance, because in some cases if it’s something really serious, you know, you wouldn’t want to put any other residents in the community at risk to intervene, so we’re missing that part of the initial intervening of an issue that might be happening. In that case, that’s some of our more critical times to respond. So, I guess if you could identify which of our communities have the longest response time, or maybe provide response times to Members that have communities that they represent, so they understand and can pass that on to their constituents. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are protocols in place, and as far as service time to various communities across the Northwest Territories, I would be more than happy to get that level of detail for the Member. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Justice, activity summary, policing services, operations expenditure summary, $44.906 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions. Mr. Minister, do you know if communities like Colville Lake and other communities without RCMP members in there full time, have the communities talked with the department as to what type of preventive measures or, as Mr. Moses talked about, a situation sometimes from Fort Good Hope, it is about a 45-

minute flight, if it is good weather, or it is a three-hour drive by truck. Sometimes situations happen in real time that requires community action.

Is there any type of discussion on community enforcement or what could happen when the members are called and they need to come into a small community?

It is the goodness of some people’s hearts that they do the best they can in a community and sometimes it gets pretty scary. Some communities are pretty scary when there is drinking involved, when there is drugs involved, maybe some mental disturbance. Some of these small communities have to sort of fend on their own.

I know the previous Minister was talking about some things when we had meetings in Colville Lake. We don’t have an RCMP member, and there are some things the community can do and some of the solutions we’re thinking about is to help out the community.

Is that type of discussion still continuing on, or are we going to raise this again next year in this type of forum? Just to get some security or safety or assurance in to our communities without RCMP members. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Ramsay.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. In developing community policing plans, the RCMP do work with communities around the Northwest Territories and community leaders. As I mentioned to MLA Moses, there are protocols in place, when it comes to emergency events in a community, on how things will happen. I am going to be providing him with some further detail on that – response times – and we can share that with the rest of committee as well.

We also need to continue to dialogue with the RCMP and also with the community members. Crime Stoppers is certainly a good avenue for community members who want to report crime in an anonymous way, to phone the 1-800 numbers and report the activity that is taking place in the community that they want to report, and when the RCMP do come into the community and do patrols, that’s what they can focus their efforts on.

I would encourage Members again to utilize the services of Crime Stoppers, and certainly the RCMP will be watching that, as well, and being able to react to those calls as well. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Madam Chair, I wasn’t in the House when Mr. Ramsay talked about some of my concerns and I apologize. I just want to know how many communities are without full-time RCMP members stationed in their community.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Madam Chair, currently 12 communities are without a detachment. Gameti

and Wrigley do not have detachments but they have dedicated members for their community, and I believe Tsiigehtchic is in that same situation, as well, where they have RCMP officers in McPherson that are dedicated to the community of Tsiigehtchic.

Of those other communities, all have fewer than 150 residents.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I appreciate that. I believe those numbers went up, Mr. Ramsay, when we first got in as MLAs, but I’m not too sure if the numbers stayed the same or went down for communities without RCMP members. I would like to see a plan of action from this government to start putting in full-time members into the communities. There are 12 without RCMP members and there are nine communities without nurses and we don’t seem to be putting much emphasis on the basics of putting some essential services in our communities. We are dealing with them through community patrols once a month. If the weather is good, we can get in there faster, but sometimes the weather is bad and sometimes we can’t get into a small community. So, we’re kind of leaving it up to the community to protect themselves.

I’m making a comment in there. I guess I’m also making a statement to challenge that we have to start looking at these communities and start focusing on putting in these essential services such as the RCMP.

I know there were a number of discussions with the last government and the government before that, and we don’t seem to be moving on this measuring stick here to get RCMP members into our small communities.

I will leave it at that. It’s not going to help too much on it. The Minister knows where I stand and the department also knows where I stand. It’s something that I would like to see from the leadership of this Minister, to put together some discussion plans to say, yes, this is what we plan to do; this is what we could do. I will be happy when that comes out.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Madam Chair, I mentioned 12 communities. If you take away three that are on the road and close to another city like Yellowknife and Hay River, so you could take off Detah, Tsiigehtchic and Hay River Reserve, then you’re down to nine. As I mentioned earlier, the cost of putting a detachment into a community is anywhere between $10 million and $12 million capital costs and that would include housing for the members.

Also, on an ongoing basis you’re looking at about $2 million on an annual basis for a small detachment. I mean, you could be somewhere around $100 million in a capital expenditure if you were to put a detachment in all nine of those

communities. On an ongoing basis, you’d be looking somewhere around $40 million.

Also, taking into consideration on whether a community does get a detachment are things like population, crime rates, the workload of members, remoteness, historic calls for service, types of calls for service, access to the community via all-weather roads, winter roads, or weather variability and, again, funding. That’s a big part of this, is the funding. At $10 million to $12 million for a new detachment, that’s money that we just don’t have today. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

The Minister has stated some pretty serious dollars for the community, and I understand that, it’s a given. I know what it will cost to put in an RCMP detachment, plus you have nine communities, and there are nine communities without health nurses in their communities, and I got it, Madam Chair. I’m asking again for some type of plan from the federal government.

What’s the cost of a life in our small communities without RCMP? If they have to go in, and it depends on if the weather is good, if there is an airplane, what kind of price tag do you put on a life if in one of those communities that don’t have RCMP and something terrible happens and you don’t have an RCMP member respond in time?

What do we go back to when we go back to these numbers? It is a price that I think this government can do. If we can find a business plan for a business case for a $700 million project on hydro, we certainly can do a business plan of putting RCMP and nurses in our communities. If we spend over $200 million on a bridge, we can certainly find money for RCMP and nurses. People’s lives are worth it.

I cannot sit here and accept this. I will just ask the Minister if he will work with the federal government. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I appreciate the Member’s concern and his questions. I guess the main thing is providing a service to communities across the Northwest Territories. If you look at a community like Tsiigehtchic, the RCMP have been working closely with the community leadership in Tsiigehtchic. We have plans now to overnight officers in the community, I believe it’s eight days out of the month.

I mentioned in response to some of Mr. Menicoche’s opening comments that that might be a model we want to look at in Wrigley, for example, or perhaps in Gameti. Those are discussions I made a commitment to earlier, to going back to the department and to the RCMP to see even if we don’t have a dedicated detachment in a community, can we get officers into a community and overnight in the community as a step forward. That’s something I think the RCMP in Tsiigehtchic have

been amenable to. If the discussions start with communities like Wrigley and Gameti, maybe we can get some progress there as well.

So, we need to continue to work with communities. I think by working with communities, we can provide the best service that we possibly can to the residents around the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Page 9-21.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Justice, activity summary, policing services, operations expenditure summary, $44.906 million.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. Page 9-23, Justice, activity summary, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary, $6.224 million. Mr. Moses.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. Under legal aid services, I know the department has done a lot of really good work in bringing down the wait times for regional centres and here in Yellowknife when people are wanting to access legal aid. However, in the small communities, what we’re hearing is it’s a little longer than 60 days. As a result, I would like to read a motion.

Committee Motion 10-17(5): Funding Increase For Ywca And NGOs, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. Go ahead, please, Mr. Moses.

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I move that this committee recommends that a new territory-wide target of 45 days be established for average wait times for legal aid services; and further, to support this target, in the 2014-15 fiscal year an additional $200,000 be allocated to hiring an additional lawyer for the Legal Aid Services Board. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Moses. I will give a few moments for the motion to be distributed.

To the motion. Mr. Moses.

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee that’s been bringing these motions forward, once again, is in support of the work that government is doing. Some other dialogue and statistics that we get when we do have questions for the department, a lot of these motions we do bring forward are in response to some of the questions and answers that we hear within our dialogue during the business planning session. We’re working with our organizations throughout the Northwest Territories, so committee just wants to acknowledge that we’re listening, we’re hearing

what people are saying and I just want to acknowledge that through a motion.

I think you’re going to hear some questions from committee with regard to this particular page within the budget. I just wanted to acknowledge that.

Once again, I want to acknowledge the standing committee and also thank Members for listening to the motions that are being brought forward from committee. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I appreciate Member Moses for bringing this forward. Committee had a long and heartening look at this particular motion for a number of different reasons. First and foremost, I think we have to thank the Department of Justice for listening to the Members last year, recognizing that the average wait time to seek legal aid was rather high in a lot of our communities. Some of those wait times were somewhere in the 90 to 120 days in some cases, which in Members’ views was a bit of a long period of time, especially to get access to legal advice. It’s probably imminent that they need to get things looked at.

The premise behind this motion is really to set a target rather than a dollar figure. We want the department to come up with what is a reasonable investment, so that target is really the focus of the motion. Bringing that average wait time to about 45 days for seeking legal aid, we think this is a very doable target with a very little amount of investment, yet this will definitely help greatly the Northwest Territories residents seeking that much needed advice. So the $200,000 is imbedded within the motion, but quite frankly, we suggest and encourage the department to use the 45 days as more the governance in doing so. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion. Mr. Hawkins.

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I request a recorded vote, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. The Member is requesting a recorded vote. Any further comments to the motion?

Committee Motion 11-17(5): Target Wait Time For Legal Aid Services, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Question.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Question is being called. All those in favour? Please stand.

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

Clerk Of The House (Ms. Langlois)

Mr. Moses, Mr. Bromley, Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Nadli, Mr. Hawkins.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

All those opposed?

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

Clerk Of The House (Ms. Langlois)

Mr. Menicoche, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Miltenberger, Mr. McLeod – Yellowknife South, Mr. Lafferty, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. McLeod – Inuvik Twin Lakes.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

All those abstaining? Seven in favour of the motion, eight opposed. The motion is defeated.

---Defeated

Page 9-23, Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to start by asking how many legal aid lawyers we currently have on staff, what the wait times currently are and how they vary across the Northwest Territories.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. Currently, the board has 15 positions for staff lawyers and the wait time is 60 days. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I assume that’s an average across the whole NWT, so that would vary region to region. I wonder if I could get a rough idea of what the variation would be like. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I should also mention that the waiting list for family law clients is 43 days. Urgent matters are assigned to counsel right away. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I am very happy to hear that about the family law clients. Did the Minister have handy on what the variation is on the 60-day average across the NWT?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I don’t have that detail, but we’d be happy to provide the Member with that detail. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Much appreciated, Madam Chair. I get to Social Programs when I can but I don’t always, so perhaps that’s been supplied and will be easy to pull out.

From time to time we have heard concern from legal aid lawyers about various issues and I’m wondering if the department has a process where they collect feedback from legal aid lawyers about what issues they’re having and how the department responds and whether there are any examples. Like, when would this have been done most recently?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

For that detail, perhaps we’ll go to Deputy Minister Haener.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Ms. Haener.

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

Haener

Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of information on cases and the length of time that individuals wait or the length of time a matter takes,

we would have to consult further with folks in the legal aid unit.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Haener. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I was switching topics a little bit there so I may have not been clear. I’m just wondering: our legal aid lawyers are obviously a very important part of our service delivery here, and I know that they have issues from time to time, and they may very well have suggestions for how the system can improve.

What is the process that we have in place to check with that professional staff, collect up any comments they have and respond to it, and assuming there is a process in place, when did we most recently do that?

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The staff lawyers that we do have, the 15 positions that I spoke of earlier, as they’re doing their job and interacting with the clientele, if they have issues or feel we should be looking at resourcing things in a different manner or doing things differently, they would bring that up to management. It would end up going to the Legal Services Board and we could make some decisions from there through the Legal Services Board. That’s currently how that’s handled and it’s an ongoing process, so as situations arise.

I should also mention that all of the positions that we have are currently fully staffed. We just had our eighth family law lawyer. She just started on January 20th of this year, so we’re fully staffed now

as well.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks for the Minister’s response there. I wonder if the Minister would consider it worthwhile taking the initiative to approach and offer these professionals the opportunity for feedback in an open way beyond the expectation that if they have issues that they will raise them. Sometimes you will get different input that way. It’s not an essential. I just think it might be a worthwhile exercise, a one-off if it doesn’t work, but if it does produce good results, that may be something to consider.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

That’s something we could take into consideration. There may be other avenues where we could get, perhaps if the Standing Committee on Social Programs wanted us to get some staff from the Department of Justice in to have a discussion about legal aid services in the Northwest Territories, that’s something that we could see happen, as well, and then Members could have that type of dialogue with our staff that are dealing with legal aid on a day-to-day basis here in the NWT.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I appreciate the Minister’s interest there.

Moving on to another subject here, I see the legal aid clinics, Yellowknife, Beaufort-Delta, community legal aid clinic and the Somba K’e. I have to get some explanation about what the community legal aid clinic is there. Maybe that deals with all other communities or something. But there are budgets for each of those, and I’m wondering if the information on what the various workloads is for each of those units is accessible, if in fact they’re… I’d like to see if the funding is related to the workload there.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

All the clinics are located in Yellowknife with the exception of the Beaufort-Delta Legal Aid Clinic.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you for that information. Just in relation to my question, what is the workload of each of those clinics? Do they share between them or are they specific to the regions? I’m just wondering: is the budget directly associated with the workload of each of those clinics.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The workload is disbursed among those clinics, so there is no conflict and things can be divided up as appropriately as possible.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I’m going to leave it at that and I certainly will talk to committee and see if there is interest to take the Minister up on his offer to do a briefing and discussion on our legal aid work.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you very much, Mr. Bromley. I’ll take that as a comment. Page 9-23, Justice, activity summary, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary, $6.224 million. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Madam Chair. I can see through the position allocation and activity on the further page, I’m not speaking to that, but what I’m asking about is the garnered dollars. How many positions are vacant in this particular section? I’ll start with that first question. Better under the compensation and benefits area of $4.1 million.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Ms. Schofield.

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

Schofield

There are currently five positions vacant within this activity.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

What positions and how long?

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

Schofield

I don’t have the length of time that the positions have been vacant, but I believe we had offered that in the other sections so we could provide it. They are court worker positions and one legal aid criminal lawyer.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. If the offer is on the detail of how long they’ve been vacant and the money attributed to that specific position, that will be all I require.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

No, we made a commitment to the Member and we will get that information.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Madam Chair. How many court workers do we have in this division?

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s 10 in total.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I know we went through a review not so long ago and emphasized the importance of the court workers and their multilingual status, so I think they do play an important role.

Are there issues about filling these positions generally or is this perhaps there’s just a higher turnover in court workers?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Yes, at times, there are some difficulties in staffing those positions.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I don’t have any other questions, I am sure the Minister is on top of what the issues are and will be trying to address them, and if there is anything committee should be aware of, then he will let us know and we can help out too. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Page 9-23 Justice, activity summary, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary, $6.224 million. Agreed?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. Moving on to 9-24, Justice, information item, legal aid services, active positions. Agreed?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Agreed. Thank you. Now on Page 9-27, Justice, activity summary, court services, operations expenditure summary, $12.415 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

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

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. On this page here, I do have a motion to read out.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Please read your motion, Mr. Yakeleya.

Committee Motion 12-17(5): Translation Of Legal Terminology, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the government provide funding and resources in the fiscal year 2014-2015, to develop and update materials related to the translation of legal

terminology; and further, that the Department of Justice work with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to provide specialized training in legal terminology to enhance interpretation services in the courts for all Aboriginal residents. Mahsi, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 12-17(5): Translation Of Legal Terminology, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.

Committee Motion 12-17(5): Translation Of Legal Terminology, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. The motion speaks to providing some funding and resources in 2014-15 to update the materials related to the legal terminology in our court system and having some materials that will be used for our interpreters in our communities.

When we go into our small Aboriginal communities, usually you look for who has the services for providing there, some of them provide these services without the legal terminology training, the concept of what is happening within the court system. It is all done in the English language. More so than is done in the legalities of the court system, so interpreting that into an Aboriginal language, and back and forth for a person who is not very knowledgeable in the English language what has been said, so the language has to be there up front as a constitutional right for any person going through the court system.

This motion talks about Justice working with Education, Culture and Employment to provide some of the specialized training in the legal terminology so that the people have the best possible opportunity and that their needs are being met, and response from the justice system, as the Minister has duly noted in his opening statement.

I would urge the Members here to look at this and give support to Justice to look at this legalized terminology training for our workers. Too many times we hear, in our small communities, where they take somebody off the community street or put them into the justice system and interpret for us. Those days are long gone and we need to put the focus on our interpreters.

I have talked to some of our interpreters in our Sahtu communities and they are saying we need to have some training in the legality and terminology of our court system. We need to have this training done so people who are more comfortable in the language, going through the court system, could have that opportunity other than to provide it only in English or very minimal and not understanding the legalities of the court system. So, this motion is brought forward to support the government to move in this direction to see if we can get some results. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 12-17(5): Translation Of Legal Terminology, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Mr. Hawkins.

Committee Motion 12-17(5): Translation Of Legal Terminology, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Recorded vote, please, Madam Chair.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

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

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

Clerk Of The House (Ms. Langlois)

Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Menicoche, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Nadli, Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Moses, Mr. Bromley.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

All those opposed?

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

Clerk Of The House (Ms. Langlois)

Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Miltenberger, Mr. McLeod – Yellowknife South, Mr. Lafferty, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. McLeod – Inuvik Twin Lakes.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

All those in favour, 8; all those opposed, 7. The motion is carried. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is unfortunate to do this, but a Member can’t walk into a Chamber during an actual calling of a vote as it has been called, so I would say that it is my observation that there are issues with that vote. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, give me just a moment here to consult with the...

I think at this time we will take a break for supper. After supper we will come back and discuss the motion. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. Just before the break there was a motion on the floor. There was a motion that was read and about to be voted on and a Member was not in their seat at the time that that motion was read, so their vote cannot be counted. It was counted, so when we take that vote away then we have a tie.

The principle applied is this: where if no further discussion is possible, a decision should not be taken except by a majority. So that leaves it to the Chair to break the tie. According to our policies, our traditions, I will be voting against the motion. The motion is defeated.

---Defeated

Justice, activity summary, court services, operations expenditure summary, $12.415 million.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Okay. Justice, information item, court services, active positions. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Actually, I was on page 27, Madam Chair.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Does the committee agree to go back to page 9-27?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Agreed. Thank you. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I want to mention both the integrated case management work, which I assume is in this division, and the wellness court, which I also assume is in this division. I know these are new initiatives and I’m wondering if I’m correct that the dollars that the Minister announced are listed on this page somewhere, the $807,000, I believe it was, for integrated case management, $300,000 for wellness court. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. The wellness court is on this page. The integrated case management is under community justice.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Minister Ramsay, please continue with your answer.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. The integrated case management is under community justice.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand that the wellness court will rely quite heavily on the case management program. I wonder if the Minister will just explain that to me, if I understand that. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. For that detail, we’ll go to the deputy minister. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Ms. Haener.

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

Haener

Thank you, Madam Chair. For individuals to participate in the wellness court they will require considerable support and case management. During the coming year, we have resources coming to the wellness court for two positions, and we expect that the Integrated Case Management pilot will help support the wellness court because it will put into place an intensive case management process for individuals, and that kind of a process could also support participants of the wellness court. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. Haener. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Madam Chair. That makes sense to me.

I assume that integrated case management is the Justice side of things, that it’s primarily Justice staff that are working on it and it relates to the legal or, in this case, perhaps quasi-legal aspects of the case. Is that correct? Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. The integrated case management isn’t on this page, it’s on community justice. We do have staff at community justice working on that. It’s separate from the wellness court in that the wellness court is going to be a service that’s provided through court services and that’s the separation. But the two are certainly linked, as the deputy minister had outlined for the Member.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. I’m sorry; I couldn’t hear your last statement. Did you say that the deputy minister was going to explain something? Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Just to clarify, Madam Chair, no, the deputy minister had mentioned how the integrated case management was working with the wellness court to the Member previously, and I’ll leave it at that. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you. I think what the Minister said was consistent with my question that it is primarily a Justice service. Obviously, I am talking about the wellness court. I’m forced into the integrated case management because of the close relationship here. But in terms of the wellness court for success, we would also obviously need a very well-integrated case management approach from the Department of Health and Social Services.

I want to know from the Minister if he feels that integrated case management approach from the Health and Social Services side will be in place to enable success with the wellness court. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Madam Chair, the Department of Health and Social Services is part of the steering committee on the wellness court, and a similar process is underway related to the Integrated Case Management Pilot Project here in Yellowknife and in Inuvik, so we’re working closely with the Department of Health and Social Services on that. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Just to follow up a little bit more here, is the Minister able to say in this forum what the time schedule is for rolling out this pilot project? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, that’s yet to be determined. Our hope is it would be sometime this coming fiscal year. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I would hope so. I think the Minister knows that we’ve been working on this for quite a while, and I know his staff have been working on this for quite a while. I consider the $300,000 committed here to this project is a very, very modest start, and frankly, I’m disappointed. I was disappointed with the Department of Health and Social Services not to hear any specific expenditures towards this service again, because it really is our best opportunity to deal with a major part of the mental health issues that we have, as well as our legal and corrections costs.

Does the Minister have an estimate of what the cost to our system is of the mental health issues that cause a reoccurrence of people in the system? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

That number would be certainly difficult to quantify.

However, getting back to the Member’s concern over the $305,000 that we have this year for the wellness court, next year we have earmarked for the wellness courts just shy of $1 million and we have had some of our staff at community justice working on this. We had a presentation that we provided to the Standing Committee on Social Programs today. We’re going to be moving forward and we feel that we have it resourced. We want to get it up and running, and I think once the wellness court is up and running, we’ll have a better understanding of how it operates and what resources may be required to run it. We’re going to ramp that up again next year with close to $1 million being put toward the wellness court. Again, I mentioned this this morning, if we do need further resources if it’s being well-subscribed and there’s people that are going into the wellness courts, we can look at additional resources as we go forward as needed. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you. I believe the Minister was talking about ’15-16 for the $1 million contribution, which there I feel that is significant and I’m looking forward to that.

Could I get a cost per day, an average cost per day for an inmate, say an adult male and a juvenile in corrections? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you. We can get that detail for the Member, get him a breakdown. I think we even have it by facility as well. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I guess I would appreciate that information. What I’m looking for here, the last time I looked, if I’m right, I think it was over $1,000 per person per day, I think in the order of $1,600 or something like that. Obviously, at that rate and given the success of other jurisdictions in Canada that have joined with mental health courts, these

costs will be made up very, very quickly. Albeit capital costs won’t go away and so on, and that’s my interest there.

So I think I’ll leave it at that and I’ll look forward to that information and perhaps have the Minister consider what the potential savings are with this. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I’ll take that as a note, a comment. Next on the list I have Mr. Menicoche.

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just with court services, I know that I think it’s almost been over a year, maybe more, that court services to the communities increased the cycle, I think from four weeks to six weeks. It is impacting people in the courts. I know that a couple of court cases have been thrown out because justice was just taking too long. Based on those cases and based on the length of people going to trial, it really impacts them because a lot of people are on probation, et cetera, even for a year before they get to trial. So I’d just like to know if the department is reviewing it, working with the judges to try to get people’s court cases heard earlier. Well, the principle of law is, of course, if justice is denied or taking too long, then it’s not good for our justice system. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The turnaround time for court services here in the Northwest Territories is one of the best in the country. The issue the Member is raising on going from four weeks to six weeks, that’s the first that I’ve heard of that. If the Member has a specific occurrence or situation in one of his communities that he wants us to have a look at the amount of time, I mean, that’s something we can inquire as to the length of time that it’s taken and respond back to the Member. Thank you.

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

No, it’s not a specific case, it’s just that there’s such a backlog because they have extended it to every six weeks to have the Territorial Court sit in the communities and it’s creating quite a bit of backlog. I guess I can ask the Minister, if he’s not too familiar with it, maybe if he can ask for a briefing note and share that with me. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you. We will get the Member some information on that, and again, to our knowledge, there is a pretty quick turnaround and it is one of the best turnaround times in the country as far as court services go. Thank you.

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much. I know he takes pride in our justice system, but in the communities there are people waiting up to a year to have their trial heard it’s just not working out. In fact, the last territorial circuit in Fort Simpson the

judge actually stayed an extra day and a half just to clear the backlog of the court docket there. So it is an issue and I’m just raising it with the Minister and asking him for a briefing note, and I look forward to it.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I thank the Member for bringing his concern forward and we will do our best to get an information package to the Member on that scenario. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Committee, we are on page 9-27, activity summary, court services, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Two areas I’d like to question. I guess the first one we’ll get out of the way. I had the same questions in the previous pages and I guess we can probably save a lot of time if the Minister can provide the same information and the same detail, as requested, under each section under compensation and benefits. Would he do that?

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we could provide that information to the Member.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. My second question, changing subjects, Mr. Bromley had asked the cost per inmate, per day, the individual costs of the inmate at a facility.

Can I also get a breakdown of what it would cost to send inmates out, be it adult or a juvenile, both male and female? Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you. We could get that information as well. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Committee, on page 9-27, activity summary, court services, operations expenditure summary, $12.415 million.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Page 9-28, information item, court services, active positions.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Page 9-31, activity summary, corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.928 million. Mr. Dolynny.

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s 9-31 that we’re on?

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Yes. Mr. Dolynny.

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to clarify. I just wanted to take a moment to look at the line item on grants and contributions that lists $179,000. This number is in reference to, I guess, on-the-land programs, in other words we call them wilderness camps and in this case there’s an

elders’ program as well. We know, as a committee, that wilderness camps have been on the radar for the department for some time. We know that we haven’t had many in existence probably for about two years. The last two that we had of value was the Kozo Lake adult camp and the Sahtu elders’ camp. We know those are no longer in activity.

We know that really these wilderness camps don’t represent a direct cost-savings opportunity for our NWT justice system partly because of the ratio of staff to inmates is quite a bit higher and the fact that they need more program development. We know that. We know that the cost savings in the end has more to do with the success of reducing recidivism at the end of the program, so we know there’s a high level of investment upfront and, hopefully, high rewards near the end. We know that in the operation of those two wilderness camps, safety was a definite issue. There were some issues regarding safety mechanisms for the inmates and the staff.

What has the department done to reflect on what we’ve learned from these camps to improve those areas of safety? Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree with the Member and there are other Members who have raised the issue about wilderness camps. Again, we went out to RFP late last year looking for a service provider for the operation of an on-the-land program. We didn’t receive a proposal that was deemed appropriate or available to us, so we are regrouping now. We want to get a wilderness program off the ground for all the reasons the Member has cited. It’s a good program to have here in the Northwest Territories and something we want to see and ensure happens. First and foremost, we want to assure the safety of the inmates who would participate in an on-the-land type of program. We need to, as a department, find the right fit for an operator.

Going forward, we are hopeful we can find an operator who wants to provide this service. Our belief is we will be successful in finding an operator. I know the Member for Sahtu has talked to me a number of times about an operator perhaps from Fort Good Hope. We’re optimistic that someone will step forward and help us get this program up and running. Thank you.

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I appreciate the barriers in trying to find the right proponent to try to take this on. We know it will be a pretty daunting task.

Has the department established any safety protocols so that when a proponent is identified that the government is the one who has established what those barriers of safety are? Did the

government prepare the safety protocols? Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Deputy Minister Haener.

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

Haener

For quite some time now, corrections has actually had some fairly detailed requirements around safety, which were contained in previous contracts for the delivery of camp services. They included items related to First Aid training, reporting in relation to the activities of inmates when they’re out at the camp, staff ratios, those kind of things were included in the contract documents. We’ve taken the opportunity over the past several months to review that information to strengthen it, and there was also some collaborative work undertaken amongst the social envelope departments because several of us are looking at delivering on-the-land types of programming in order to share best practices in this area and come up with some consistent baseline requirements around safety for on-the-land programming. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Mr. Dolynny.

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the deputy minister for that answer. I guess what I heard from that is they are working on it. They are working on some baseline, but it sounds still like the government hasn’t established the full parameters of a safety baseline in order for any proponent to work under our guidelines and not the guideline of the proponent. We can just park that for a second, Mr. Chair.

My next comment is there has to be some kind of guiding framework for the government to have for those on-the-land programs.

Does the department have a full framework, tried, tested and true that if a proponent comes around, that proponent is working to our guidelines. Do we have a framework for the government to go by when it comes to on-the-land programs? Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we do. That would have been part of the RFP package and something we would be able to share with Members as well. Thank you.

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I appreciate the Minister’s response. Let me rephrase my question a little bit differently here. Are we expecting the proponent to come up with the guiding framework, the safety protocols and the therapeutic outcome, or is the department establishing the baseline? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

It would be the department. Thank you.

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

So, given that, has that work been completed or is that still in process? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

That work has been concluded. Thank you.

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you to the Minister. So when we look at the budget line we have here for $179,000, what exactly is the expected result of that investment? Again, when we’re hearing the department say we couldn’t find a proponent or no one has replied to the RFP, could it be by chance that there’s not enough money on the table that any proponent would be of interest to invest? Do we have enough money invested in this very worthwhile, organic part of our court system? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

We do have, in addition to this money which is there to help operators with small equipment purchases, about $800,000 under another line item in the main estimates to help us get an on-the-land program. This is a small component of that, but there are other components to it as well on other pages. Thank you.

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

It’s not that I don’t believe the Minister; I believe the Minister is being very upfront with that but, unfortunately, I can only go, and committee can only go, based on what’s in the activity summary for this particular line entry. With that in mind, Mr. Chair, I do have a motion here.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Please go ahead with the motion, Mr. Dolynny.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I move that this committee recommends that the government in the 2014-2015 fiscal year allocate an additional $300,000 to complement existing funding for on-the-land programming, to establish a guiding framework, including definitive safety protocols and tools, for evaluating outcomes of the planned program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The motion is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the ability to be able to bring this motion forward. The Minister has spoken to some of the components of this motion. However, committee still feels that we’re not quite there with having all those initiatives in place in terms of having a very successful on-the-land program.

It is also apparent that there isn’t a lot of uptake in the communities, albeit even in the Northwest Territories, because there has been no success in

the RFP program, which tends to lend itself to the fact do we have enough money put in this program. That being said, I believe committee has still reached out to the department to formalize and to bring to the committee a very formal methodology and mechanism to, I guess, reassure us that we do have a guiding framework and a definitive safety protocol in evaluating tools in place. Up to this time, the committee has not seen these guiding principles, so it was with that in mind that committee and Members felt bringing this motion forward would help establish a more firm framework in order so that, collectively, we all want the same thing. We want to see a very successful on-the-land wilderness camp program.

With that, I’m sure other Members might have some comments. If not, I’ll ask for a recorded vote.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. I have Mr. Menicoche.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Once again, because there’s a value attached to this and I’m extremely concerned about drawing down on the resources of government because we will have to, through a cutback exercise shortly, and everybody’s well aware that we did not have time to work in our $30 million that’s in this budget.

I won’t be supporting this motion, but this is a very important issue that the mover of the motion brings up, Mr. Dolynny. Giving the government $300,000 is just not going to work. There has to be a better way to address this very, very important issue.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

To the motion. Mr. Bromley.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be supporting this motion. I agree with Mr. Menicoche, it is, indeed, a very important program and needs the support that is required to make it successful. I’m confident that the Cabinet can find the way to make savings in the system to cover this.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

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

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really appreciate the Member bringing forward this motion. As I mentioned a few minutes ago, we have close to $800,000 earmarked for on-the-land programs in this year’s budget, $787,000 to be exact. I’ve also made a commitment earlier to provide the established safety protocols and the framework to Members, and we will get that to Members as soon as possible. Again, it was part of the RFP process. We also will continue to work diligently on finding a service provider for a wilderness camp here in the Northwest Territories, and again, we have to remain optimistic that that can happen, and it’s not because we lack the resources to do that. We have the resources in this year’s budget to allow us to do that and we are still

going to pursue a service provider to allow us to do that. But I do appreciate the Member’s motion.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay.

Committee Motion 13-17(5): Funding For Evaluation Of On-The-Land Programming, Defeated
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

An Hon. Member

Question.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Question is being called. All those in favour, please stand.

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

Clerk Of The House (Ms. Langlois)

Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Nadli, Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Moses, Mr. Bromley, Mr. Blake.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

All those opposed, please stand.

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

Clerk Of The House (Ms. Langlois)

Mr. Menicoche, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Miltenberger, Mr. McLeod – Yellowknife South, Mr. Lafferty, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. McLeod – Inuvik Twin Lakes.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you. The motion is defeated seven to eight.

---Defeated

Thank you, committee. Committee, we’re on page 9-31, activity summary, corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.928 million. Mr. Hawkins.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. I guess the same questions to the Minister. We can go through it all or I think he understands funded, unfunded, which, et cetera, et cetera. I’ve asked the question repeatedly. I think he knows the question by now. To the Minister, I guess.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can get that level of the detail for the Member.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I have a couple questions. Would the Minister know roughly how many adult inmates we have and how many juvenile inmates in the system, either now or sort of on average through the year?

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The total for adults is 188. The total for youth is five.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I’ll just note our youth facilities are costing slightly over $5 million a year, so with respect to the wellness court, it would take roughly success with one-third of a youth to make payback right away. Clearly, with these sorts of numbers and the costs that we’re talking about, a wellness court

is a no-brainer in terms of investment. I’m sure the Minister knows that, but I just think it’s clear enough that it needs to be underscored here and the Minister needs to put all efforts to expedite this wellness court which has taken us so many years to get going. That was a comment. I haven’t done the calculation on the 188 adults for $24 million, but I’m assuming it would be in that sort of zone.

My other question was with respect to people with FASD that end up in the correctional system. I know the Minister is aware that people with FASD require a very specialized approach for care and management and certainly for rehabilitation, so diagnosis is very important now. Diagnosis of adults is also problematic, although there are jurisdictions that have programs in place. I’m not aware that Health and Social Services has a support system for diagnosing adults with FASD.

How does the department deal with this situation, knowing that we must have a number of people with FASD in the correctional system and they really should be getting specialized rehabilitation work?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The wellness court, of course, would help in this area, as well, and I thank the Member for his support on the wellness court.

As far as FASD, at North Slave Correctional Centre we do have a specialized pod at that facility to help deal with inmates that have FASD. Also, in Fort Smith we have an educator located at the facility in Fort Smith to help with the programming for inmates that have FASD as well.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I am aware of that facility and those services. Do we have, then, a FASD diagnostic capability within Justice?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

No, we currently do not have that.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I’m still confused about how people are identified with FASD then.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Haener.

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

Haener

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don’t diagnose individuals with FASD when they enter correctional facilities. What we do is an initial assessment with the individual to try to determine where their strengths lie and where we may be able to provide assistance to build upon weaknesses or deficits. We felt that, in many instances, trying to obtain a diagnosis is impossible because we must have information on whether or not the mother drank and sometimes it is impossible to obtain that information, so we focus on taking our limited resources and putting them towards trying to assess the individuals’ skills and to build from there. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Haener. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I am no professional, but my understanding is that the people with FASD do take a different type of care and work in rehab, so that is why I am posing the question and considering that it might be important.

It’s my understanding that it is possible, at least under addictions, to have a diagnostic methodology for adult people with the FASD. Now, that may be too expensive and whatnot, but I would say this is potentially an issue and I would appreciate some information to show that the department has looked into it quite a bit and made some decisions here, and how the treatments that we are offering, the rehabilitation work that we are offering incorporates that sensitivity and acknowledgement that you need a different approach with people with that syndrome. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a difficult situation when you are dealing with the adult population in our correctional facilities. We are not alone in that, the prevalence of FASD across the country. Other jurisdictions are in a similar situation as us in trying to determine the prevalence of FASD. We have a diagnostic team at Stanton Territorial Hospital but they deal with youth and it is very much intensive. You require the services of a psychologist, a specialized pediatrician and also other health care providers, so it is something that is not easily arrived at, but we do have that through the Department of Health and Social Services.

As far as how other jurisdictions are dealing with this, we could inquire with Health and Social Services, perhaps, to find out a little bit more information about how other jurisdictions in the country are diagnosing, especially the adult population. I think it is going to be very difficult to arrive at that type of diagnosis in an adult population. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I will leave it at that, I know the Minister is alert to the issue. I will just mention that I did have a colleague do the calculation for adults, and the cost of adults in our system is about $130,000 per person per year, so again a wellness course that is successful for three people would more than pay back, theoretically, the costs that we are proposing to invest, a very modest cost this year. I think the potential is substantially more than that, though I don’t know what is being contemplated for the pilot project, but the opportunities are huge. Just a comment again. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I will take that as a comment. Colleagues, to page 9-13, activity summary, corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.928 million. Agreed?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Page 9-32, activity summary, corrections, grants and contributions, contributions, $179,000. Agreed?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Page 9-33, information item, corrections, active positions. Agreed?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Page 9-35, activity summary, services to public, operations expenditure summary, $5.111 million. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wondered: from time to time we have a coroner’s office report when there has been an incident that requires particular investigation into the cause of death. I am wondering what the role of the department is in seeing that there is an official response to the coroner’s office and if they also have a role in working towards ensuring that the government follows up on those recommendations. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Haener.

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

Haener

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When the coroner makes a report or there is an inquest, the recommendations or findings may be directed at more than one government department or to entities, including private businesses and other organizations. The recommendations are non-binding, but we do in DOJ, if they are directed at us, as well other government departments, take those recommendations very seriously. They are carefully evaluated and whenever it is reasonably possible to implement them, they are. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wonder if the Minister would consider formalizing the process, when the recommendations are to the GNWT institution, that we formalize the record that the Department of Justice follow up on the response so that the public has some clarity on this. I know there is a lot of concern out there that some reports that have come out have just sort of wavered through the haze as they disappear and there is a lot of angst left behind. I would certainly like some clarity, and some transparency would be appreciated and might even serve the public in ways beyond simply clarity and transparency. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The office of the coroner is a separate entity. If we looked at formalizing, you know, it is the coroner’s reports and instructions to government, and to

formalize that in some different fashion would change the role of the coroner’s office and that is a pretty big discussion to be having, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I’m sure that the Minister is aware of the issue. What would his proposal be?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I haven’t given this any thought. What the Member is suggesting would certainly change the role and the scope of the coroner’s office. That’s something that we can take away and perhaps, you know, if there is a suggestion coming from the Member or the standing committee, that’s something we can get them a response to. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Minister. I think that would be useful. I am sure that the Minister is aware of the issue. I don’t necessarily see how this would be adding so much to the coroner’s office. It would not be something the coroner’s office would do; the Department of Justice would do it, take the lead for the GNWT as receiving the report and making sure that whatever department was the recipient would provide some sort of response that could be reported to the public and bring transparency that way. Just to the Minister’s perspective of this would be an extension of the coroner’s office and I don’t see that.

Could he possibly see what I’m talking about here, that it could be unrelated? The coroner does their job; the report leaves the office, that’s it for the coroner’s office. Now we’re being responsible to the public in follow-up. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

From what I’m getting from the Member’s questioning, he would almost see the department as policing recommendations that fall out of a coroner’s report. The department is not in a position to police other government departments that would be excited in recommendations of the coroner’s report. That’s not something that we do and I don’t know if it’s something we would ever anticipate doing.

I do know that there’s going to be some legislative changes to the Corner’s Act coming up. I’m not sure if it’s going to end up happening in the life of this government, but certainly that will be coming forward. Perhaps at that time, if there are some legislative changes to the Coroners Act, this might be a discussion that Members want to have when that act comes before this House. Thank you.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Minister. That’s an interesting thought. Again, I don’t see this as the coroner’s office. I think, in terms of a policing role, this department is well qualified to do that, but that’s not what I was suggesting either.

What I’m suggesting is bringing clarity and transparency to the public that the coroner’s recommendations in his or her report are actually received by the institution that they’re directed to

and that there is a response. It doesn’t have to be yes, we’re going to do that; it could be we’re already doing that or whatever, or we’re not going to respond, but something that simply responds to the public and provides that transparency. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, that’s something we could look at and discuss how that… You know, if it’s publicizing responses to the report, that’s something we can discuss. There might be a way to accomplish what the Member is after. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Next on my list I have Mr. Moses.

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just kind of staying on the same theme here with the coroner’s office, the Minister might know that this is something that has been of interest to me with the recommendations and reading of these reports and some of the alarming statistics that we do see with that.

I know in other jurisdictions they have these death review committees that offer recommendations to the government, and that poses another option of bringing accountability to government and making sure these recommendations get acted on.

Going through the Department of Justice website, looking if we had anything similar, which I don’t believe we do, I’m just wondering if the department has something that’s similar to a death review committee that would give assistance to the government about any legislation changes or policy changes that we need to address once an incident has occurred in the Northwest Territories. Obviously, they’d be working with the coroner’s office, but I’m not sure if the government has something like that. I just want to get confirmation and whether or not the department has looked into developing a death review committee for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don’t currently have a death review committee. That is something that the coroner is taking up with her colleagues from around the country. I believe Manitoba has one of those types of committees. She is still in the early stages of discussing that prospect, again, with colleagues from around the country. It’s certainly something that we may hear more about as her discussions continue with other jurisdictions on how those committees are working in other jurisdictions and whether or not there’s a possibility that we could have a death review committee established here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Some of my initial research on death review committees shows that they’re very good in

terms of the recommendations that are made and giving direction to government on what needs to be changed in terms of legislation or policies, or whether or not some type of action needs to be done in a small community. Obviously, there are incidents and cases where we’ve talked about policing in small communities and some of the small communities not having police officers, so that review committee might make a recommendation to include those things.

I’m looking at the number here for the coroner’s office and it’s just over $700,000. I don’t want to get a full breakdown, but how many positions are staffed at the coroner’s office here, and are some of those dollars used for the coroners’ operations for their duties in the communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, we have two positions there, and the Member is correct, a lot of that funding goes to communities and work of the coroners in communities. Thank you.

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

In terms of this budget, I know, especially when you have to go into a small community and it takes a lot to cover the cost of going into a small community plus any other expenses that may occur, it doesn’t leave much room for one of the staff members or even the coroners in the communities to do any type of awareness prevention, education around these recommendations that we see in these reports.

Is there a budget for education awareness within this office, and if so, can I ask how much of that budget is geared towards awareness and education? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, that’s not the role or the function of the coroner’s office on the education point that the Member brings up. That’s not something they currently do. Thank you.

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

In terms of educating our youth about high-risk behaviours, in the Northwest Territories sometimes we see the unfortunate incidents that result from that. I was very involved with a program called the Party Program, and I know they did it here in Yellowknife and I know they did it in Inuvik; I’m not sure what other communities there were. But it was very expensive and I know that the chief coroner at the time did some very strong presentations that were really effective in teaching youth and adults about high-risk behaviour, something that we always want to put forth. It was a very effective presentation and, actually, it was very interactive.

I wonder if the Minister would look at possibly providing some type of funding or working with the Department of Health and Social Services on injury prevention to look at developing that kind of program that really relates to high-risk behaviours

that we see in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Chair, the coroner would participate, if asked, in a conference or an opportunity like that, but we do not have a budget for an educational component.

As far as Health and Social Services goes, they have programs, also DOT, on the high-risk behaviour. You know the helmet program that we had. There are problems out there through a number of different government departments that, hopefully, especially young people are paying attention to and taking part in. Thank you.

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Obviously, the coroners that we have across the Northwest Territories are very effective in the fact that they deal with the scene at the time, whether it’s a crime scene or it’s a scene where… They’re sometimes one of the first few people on the scene, so they can share their own personal experiences or what they’ve seen that the general public doesn’t get to see. I’ve seen those kinds of presentations on various levels of areas and I always find to be the most effective in educating our youth about…(inaudible)…behaviour. So I think it’s something that this government needs to maybe look at promoting and seeing if the coroner would be looking at wanting to do something like that and just look at it as an option. Thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you. I thank the Member for his observations and his questions, and that’s something that we will consider. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Next I have on my list Mr. Hawkins, followed by Mr. Menicoche.

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under compensation and benefits, at the same time I’ve asked repeatedly the detail on this and I just want to reaffirm the Minister will provide a detailed level of detail to my office. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we will. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just had a question on the maintenance enforcement. I know we changed the legislation on that a few years back. Is the Minister able to report on any trends and how we’re doing in that area? Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Haener.

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

Haener

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m assuming that the question deals with some of the provisions that were introduced around drivers’ licences and

that type of item that can be used in order to convince people to pay up when they owe monies for maintenance. While I don’t have with me any specific statistics or information, certainly on an anecdotal basis we hear from individuals working in maintenance enforcement as well as from clients that those additional tools that are available to maintenance enforcement are quite helpful and do work. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks for that response from the deputy minister. I believe it was 2009 when we passed that legislation, and I guess I would appreciate an update at some point on some of those statistics, and I think it would be useful for the department to look at that and see where we’re at on that. I know it wasn’t without some kerfuffle. So just any sort of evaluation on how that’s working out would be much appreciated. That’s all I had. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we could get the Member and the committee an update on that. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Committee, page 9-35, activity summary, services to public, operations expenditure summary, $5.111 million.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Agreed. Page 9-37, information item, services to public, active positions.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Agreed. Page 9-38, information item, lease commitments - infrastructure.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Agreed. Page 9-39, information item, work performed on behalf of others.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Page 9-40, information item, work performed on behalf of others. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just wondering: the framework for enhancing victims’ services, $500,000 a year from the federal government with a five-year program. It looks like we’re into the final year here; it could be running out next year. I’m just wondering if that’s the case and whether we’re seeking a renewal with that and also whether there’s been any evaluation, if we can

expect next year to get an evaluation of how the program has worked. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re in the third year of the five-year plan and there is an evaluation built into the program as well. Of course, we would hope that at the end of five years the funding would be able to be renewed in some way, shape or form. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Committee, page 9-40, information item, work performed on behalf of others, continued.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Agreed. Return to page 9-7, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $124.955 million.

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Does committee agree that we’ve considered the Department of Justice and it is completed?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister, and thanks to the witnesses. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.

What is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we could proceed with Industry, Tourism and Investment, the Minister’s comments and any opening comments from Members, if there are any. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Is committee agreed to review the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

I’ll ask the Minister if he has any opening comments. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have opening comments.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Go ahead, Mr. Ramsay, and thank you.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present the 2014-15 Main Estimates for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

The department’s main estimates proposes total operational expenses of approximately $67 million for the coming fiscal year. This is an increase of 34 percent from 2013-2014. This includes specific initiatives of $18 million and forced growth of $1.8 million, which is partially offset by $2 million in sunsets.

The mandate of ITI is to promote economic self-sufficiency through responsible management and development of the Northwest Territories mineral and petroleum resources and energy sources; the development of natural resource industries, including agriculture, commercial fishing and the traditional economy; and the promotion and support of tourism, trade and investment, business, and manufacturing and secondary industries to create a prosperous, diverse and sustainable economy for the benefit of all Northwest Territories residents. Through this mandate, we continue to support the commitment of our government that all residents of the Northwest Territories must have the opportunity to build a stronger future for themselves, their families and their communities.

As a result of devolution, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is receiving responsibility for mineral and petroleum resources management. To accommodate its new responsibilities following the transfer, ITI will take on new functions and has redesigned its organizational structure, which will come into effect on devolution transfer date.

The department has created a new assistant

deputy minister responsible for mineral and petroleum resources;

a new petroleum resources division – nine

people, which will be established in Inuvik;

a new financial analysis and royalty

administration division is being added to manage royalty calculation, collection and auditing; and

a new client services and community relations

unit has been created to support industry by providing guidance on regulatory requirements and working with communities.

We have already hired key senior management for incoming programs, including an assistant deputy minister, and directors of financial analysis and royalty administration, the geoscience office and the petroleum resources division.

Additionally, 42 regional federal employees in transferring programs have accepted positions within the financial analysis and royalty administration division, the mineral resources division, the NWT geoscience office and the new client services and community relations unit within the department. We are pleased to welcome all new staff to the department as their knowledge and experience will enable us to provide continuity of service. Due to the department’s new responsibilities for the management of mineral and petroleum resources as a result of devolution, the budget for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment will increase by $13 million. This funding will be used to deliver regulatory responsibilities for petroleum and mineral resource

exploration and development, administration of the royalty regime, and related Aboriginal consultation and NWT regulatory system guidance. The department welcomes these new responsibilities and looks forward to our new role that will strengthen our ability to attract resource development and will provide territory-wide social and economic benefits for years to come.

In 2014-15 the department will support this government’s priority to strengthen and diversify our economy by proposing investments in a number of programs and projects. Last year this government achieved a major milestone with the completion of socially responsible and environmentally sustainable economic development and mining strategies. The Mineral Development Strategy and the Economic Opportunities Strategy are complementary strategies and are proceeding at the same time.

Industry, Tourism and Investment is proposing an investment of $1.5 million to address the recommended actions in the Mineral Development Strategy. This funding includes $655,000 to provide better and more comprehensive geoscience information and research, $400,000 for a NWT Mining Incentive Program aimed at attracting mineral exploration and $200,000 to market the NWT as an attractive place for mineral exploration and development investment. These investments will play key roles addressing the decline in exploration expenditures and firmly establish the NWT as a favourable jurisdiction for sustained mineral exploration investment.

To enhance Aboriginal engagement and community capacity building, a proposed $100,000 investment will go toward the Aboriginal Mineral Development Support Program, in support of organizations to prepare and participate in mineral developments in their area.

Our work continues to diversify our economy away from a dependence on nonrenewable resources. The department is proposing $1.2 million in new funding to initiatives supporting the Economic Opportunities Strategy. Each of the proposed initiatives provides the GNWT with the opportunity to make immediate investments in areas that directly impact NWT residents, businesses and communities. This work includes proposed investments of:

$150,000 on the development of comprehensive

Agriculture Strategy and Implementation Plan. The NWT agriculture industry has grown considerably in the past several years and there is great potential to grow this industry across the territory.

$100,000 for a Film Industry Pilot Project in

response to increased interest in the NWT as a

filming location. This project will measure the impacts of a rebate program to the film industry.

$150,000 for the development of regional

economic plans. Regionally-based plans will engage residents and guide the development of community and regional economies.

$200,000 to support the commercial fishing

industry in capitalizing on domestic commercial market demand. This includes investments to rebuild the current fish plant infrastructure in Hay River, improve the state of the current fishing vessels and improve distribution methods.

$100,000 in a Business Mentorship Program to

support small businesses to attract, recruit and hire professionals for in-demand positions.

Tourism offers some of the best opportunities for growth across the NWT, particularly in our smaller communities. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is proposing increased support to the tourism industry in several key areas which will strengthen and diversify the NWT economy.

In response to feedback from the industry, the department is proposing to invest $200,000 over the next two years in the establishment of a convention bureau. In addition, the department is also proposing an investment of $100,000 to support community tourism infrastructure projects and $75,000 to provide tourism business operators with increased support to develop skills within the tourism labour force.

To grow the tourism industry throughout the territory, we are proposing a forced-growth investment of $600,000 to increase the annual marketing budget of NWT Tourism to $3.3 million. Last year saw the first increase to NWT Tourism’s budget and this increased funding has allowed NWT Tourism to take advantage of new marketing opportunities and focus on prospects that would promote development in regions that are experiencing declining tourism activity.

This funding is in addition to nearly $1.4 million in direct support to tourism businesses through contributions to build and diversify tourism products, through our Tourism Product Diversification and Marketing Program and the Sport Hunt Outfitter Marketing Support Program. Moving forward, ITI will continue to work with NWT Tourism and tourism operators and outfitters to explore ways to grow this important sector of the economy.

Several of the department’s key initiatives centre around energy and energy projects aimed at reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, in support of the 17th Legislative

Assembly’s stated commitment in making “strategic infrastructure investments” and “hydro initiatives.”

Industry, Tourism and Investment works in partnership with the departments of Environment and Natural Resources, Public Works and Services, Transportation and Finance on energy initiatives. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is proposing several specific energy initiatives for the 2014-15 fiscal year, as outlined in the NWT Energy Action Plan, which focuses on efficiency and alternative energy.

The department will continue to support NT Energy in its efforts to continue to contribute to the implementation of GNWT energy planning initiatives. These include:

$1.4 million for the Whati transmission line,

which will connect Whati to the Snare hydro system. Reducing our reliance on imported diesel continues to be a key priority for our government.

$150,000 for finding a solution to the natural gas

shortage in Inuvik, which is a priority for our government. The funding will be used to explore medium- to long-term options for heating in Inuvik and will further examine the possibility of liquid natural gas for Inuvik, which has been identified as the most promising solution to Inuvik’s energy situation.

$200,000 for the Great Bear River mini-hydro

project.

$50,000 contribution to the NT Energy

Corporation to continue their Water Monitoring Program. NT Energy works with the Water Survey of Canada to measure water flows in selected rivers to determine the potential for hydro development. This funding will support current monitoring in the Kakisa River. NT Energy is working with and will share the results with the community.

$700,000 in core staff funding to NT Energy

Corp.

The department is also proposing some key forced-growth investments. To keep pace with the services and amenities visitors to territorial parks have come to expect, and to remain competitive in the North American marketplace, it is crucial to ensure parks are well maintained, have expanded amenities and services and have modern infrastructure.

The department is proposing an investment of $513,000 for parks operation and maintenance. The NWT parks system has experienced a system-wide deficit year after year. This funding will be used to replace deteriorating signage that is over two decades old, keep parks across the territory clean and well maintained and address the increased costs for park operations.

GNWT departments have been working together to find ways to encourage development and minimize impacts associated with the current and planned

petroleum exploration activities in the Sahtu region. The department is proposing $123,000 for a business development administrator in the region to assist residents and businesses with the opportunities associated with development in the area.

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment provides funding to the Northern Frontier Visitors Association for administration of services to the North Slave region. This funding has been unchanged since 1996, and administrative costs have risen significantly since then. The department is proposing a forced-growth investment of $50,000 in contribution funding to offset the increased administrative costs incurred by the Northern Frontier Visitors Association to provide tourism services.

Although I have outlined some new and ongoing initiatives the department is proposing, it must also be said that we will continue to support our existing programs, to grow and diversify our economy. Demand for our traditional economy and small business programs continues to grow and programs are often oversubscribed.

Funding for the Support to Entrepreneurs and Economic Development Policy will continue with dedicated funding for arts and fine crafts, the film industry and the Prospectors Grubstake Program. ITI is also proposing to continue our investment of over $1 million to the Community Harvester Assistance Program, $550,000 in promotion and support of commercial harvesting, processing and marketing of fish and meat, and $610,000 under the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program.

NWT furs continue to be in high demand at auction, and last year our trappers saw their highest profits in over 30 years. There is potential for even higher sales of NWT furs as world-wide demand for our prime wild fur continues to grow. The marketing of wild fur provides great opportunities for residents, particularly in our smaller communities, to gain economic benefits for their families and communities. We are also looking to continue investments in our Take a Kid Trapping and Take a Kid Harvesting programs.

The initiatives I have touched on are just some examples of how Industry, Tourism and Investment is working on behalf of this Assembly and this government to fulfill its mission and have a diversified economy that provides all regions and communities with choices and opportunities as envisioned by the 17th Legislative Assembly.

I look forward to the committee’s comments and ensuing questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Minister Ramsay, do you have witnesses to bring into the House?

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Does committee agree?

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

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, committee. Ms. Bisaro.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

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

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

The motion is defeated.

---Defeated

We will continue to debate the department. Sergeant-at-Arms, I will ask you to escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

I’ll ask the Minister to introduce his witnesses.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left I have Mr. Peter Vician, deputy minister, Industry, Tourism and Investment. To my right, Ms. Nancy Magrum, director, shared services, finance and administration.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. I will now open the floor to general comments on the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Ms. Bisaro.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

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

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

We need to have some activity. Mr. Menicoche.

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much. I’m pleased to provide some general comments to ITI. I just wanted to talk a bit about our parks and, more specifically, the Sambaa Deh Park and some of the issues that they were having there. Well, there was a fire there this year and it interrupted the operations. As well, something new that the department had done with the contractors was about the user fees. This year particularly, the government kept the fees and that impacted the contractor. I just want to ask the Minister what the ongoing plan is for the park user fees as we go forward this fiscal year.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are we departing from the way things have been going? Are we going through general comments and then I’m expected to answer all the questions at the end, or do you want me to answer questions one after the other?

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

At the end, I guess. What is the wish of committee? Committee has decided we’ll take all the general comments for the day and then the Minister can answer all of them at the end. So, Mr. Menicoche, if you could complete

all your general comments and then we’ll move on to the next person.

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I have concluded all my general comments.

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Ms. Bisaro.

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Mr. Chair, I move that we report progress.

---Carried

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

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

I will rise and report progress.

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. Bouchard.

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

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

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. 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. Bouchard. Do I have a seconder? Mr. Blake.

---Carried

Item 22, third reading of bills. Madam Clerk, orders of the day.

Orders of the Day
Orders of the Day

Clerk Of The House (Ms. Langlois)

Orders of the day for Tuesday, February 25, 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

18. First Reading of Bills

19. Second Reading of Bills

- Bill 11, Petroleum Resources Act

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

- Bill 10, Northwest Territories Lands 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 Tuesday, February 25th , at 1:30 p.m.

---ADJOURNMENT

The House adjourned at 8:09 p.m.