This is page numbers 3905 – 3976 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 year.

Topics

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Let me be clear. We have and are handing out and have handed out, I understand, 150 tags, authorizations to Yellowknives to hunt. What I was talking about was the assertion by the Member that we were doing it somehow with the chief’s signature on the authorization. That particular fact I haven’t had confirmed from ENR.

We want to work out an arrangement with the Yellowknives that involves ENR, that involves monitoring, that involves a coordinated, cooperative effort to oversee this process as opposed to just having carte blanche and we’ll check back with you and trust us we’ll take care of it.. We want to have something like we have with the Wek’eezhii Board and which we have in other regions, as well, which is a much more coordinated, integrated, cooperative approach.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back on orders of the day; item 5, I believe it is.

---Unanimous consent granted

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

It might get me into trouble not to recognize my beautiful wife up there in the gallery along with my father and my mother-in-law. I know they’re not my constituents, but they are family from Fort Providence, Albert and Caroline Bonnetrouge, and my sister-in-law, Jackie Hope. Welcome to the gallery.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Nadli.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mr. Speaker, it’s a great honour to recognize Mr. Albert and Caroline Bonnetrouge, who are respected elders from Fort Providence. They are here to witness the proceedings of the Assembly. Also, two former constituents of mine, Jackie and Shyo.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ITI. I talked about the special relationship with our people on the land and helping each other get out to the land. I made statements in 2012, on November 2nd , about

trappers and life on the land. I want to ask the Minister, given that knows what we contribute, has there been any type of discussion in terms of helping families get on the land with all the programs that we have offered through the government.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently there was a traditional economy workshop held in Deline with the SRRB and, as well, CanNor helped us fund that. I would be happy to provide the Member with a copy of our presentation from that.

But getting to the programs that we do have and the assistance that we do have, of course, we have the Take a Kid Trapping and Take a Kid Harvesting, which are done through the schools in the Northwest Territories. We also have the Community Harvester Assistance Program, which is almost $1.1 million on an annual basis. We also have a number of other programs that we provide assistance to harvesters. The Community Harvester Assistance Program is another one. Through these programs at the local, level people

and families could approach the local authorities there to get some of that funding to get out on the land.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

We certainly have supported the trappers, people who make their life on the land. It’s the point of view that we look at trapping or harvesting and being a fisherman, to being a trapper, to be a hunter. Some look at it as a business. We sometimes look at it as a way of life.

I want to ask the Minister of ITI, could he look across the different departments and say can we come up with a unique program, because we’re known for our uniqueness in the Northwest Territories through education, health, whatever, and say we can do this program, treatment, healthy living or education or whatever, but come up with a program that says this is a family program that promotes family togetherness out on the land. Can he do that?

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Traditional activities out on the land are considered to be productive choices under the Income Assistance program. Certainly that’s something that I can continue to have discussions with my Cabinet colleagues on how we can go about getting some funding to allow people to get out and pursue the traditional economy out on the land.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I look forward to seeing if anything can come forward from working with his colleagues, like productive choices through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, so that people in the small communities can go to either the Department of RWED or to Education, Culture and Employment and say we want to take our family on the land, this is what it’s going to cost us to bring our families out, so that we have support from the government.

Would the Minister come forward within the life of this government, so maybe by next year we can have a program that would be offered to all people in the Northwest Territories?

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Yes, we could take a look at that, and I can let the Member know that we will take that into consideration and get him some type of response.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we come with this unique program that Mr. Ramsay is committing to look at and bring forward, it’s life on the land. The economy, that’s the business side, but I think it would be supporting the life on the land that supports our vision and goals of the 17th Assembly. I’ll ask the Minister, coming forward and getting some information back from our communities and seeing that we can pilot some type of unique program for the coming fall time. I’m

not too sure if that’s too short of a time, but I will look forward to some type of a movement on this.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Yes, we will try to do that in as short order as we can. In the meantime though, we do have opportunities for community members to take part in community hunts and community harvests under the Community Harvester Assistance Program, so if families wanted to get together and coordinate a trip out on the land to pursue traditional activities, there is currently programs and money available for them to do that.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As follow-up to my Member’s statement earlier today, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, since the MOU with the Union of Northern Workers on the Safe Disclosure of Information Agreement that we signed into April 1, 2013, I’d just like to ask if there has been any uptake into that program. If so, how many, I guess, allegations or complaints did the GNWT receive?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. As of today, since the memorandum of understanding has been signed between the UNW and the GNWT, there have been no disclosures.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As I mentioned, in the statement that was out on February 21st for the then-Minister of

Human Resources, it mentions that a safe disclosure coordinator was going to be put into position as well as a Safe Disclosure Panel.

Would the Minister have the costs of the staffing for this position for this past fiscal year that this government has approved? We aren’t getting any results on this safe disclosure of information pilot project, I guess you can say right now, or this agreement.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I do not have the costs for the creation of the Safe Disclosure Panel. Also, if they do have a safe disclosure coordinator working with the panel or putting the panel together at the time an employee discloses some wrongdoing, harassment or other things that are found underneath this disclosure agreement, I don’t have the costs of those at this time with me. Thank you.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentioned that we had no uptakes in this program that we’ve had in place since April 1, 2013. That makes we wonder: why zero? We hear complaints. As MLAs

we hear a lot of these complaints in bringing these concerns forward.

Has the department done an effective awareness campaign? How is this information been going out to employees to let them understand that this GNWT is supporting them for coming forward to bring any types of allegations in which they feel there are some wrongdoings? Has the department done an effective campaign to our employees throughout the GNWT system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, every UNW employee in the GNWT was informed of the new provisions by letter in March 2013, a letter that was jointly signed by the Union of Northern Workers president and the deputy minister of Human Resources. A copy of the Safe Disclosure Provisions and Guidelines were posted on both the UNW and Human Resources websites, also articles outlining Safe Disclosure Agreement and the process were published on June 7th and September

20th in the editions of the GNWT employee

newsletter, posters were developed and shared at GNWT worksites in December of 2013, and senior managers across the GNWT have been briefed on the safe disclosure process and are able to assist employees once an employee makes a determination that they would like to disclose wrongdoing. Thank you.