Good afternoon, colleagues. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise at the earliest opportunity after reviewing unedited Hansard from yesterday to raise a point of order against Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Miltenberger said to me in my proposed amendment to a motion, and I quote from yesterday’s unedited Hansard, page 50: “…if it’s not outright duplicitous, it’s friggin’ double standard. And I withdraw the friggin’.”

Mr. Speaker, House Rule 23 states it’s against orders of the House, under (i), to impute false or hidden motives to another Member; under (j), charges another Member with uttering a deliberate falsehood; and, finally, (k), uses abusive or insulting language of a nature likely to create disorder, which, Mr. Speaker, speaks for itself.

I am not on the warpath here and this is not about the use of the word “friggin’,” which the Member is known to use and then apologize for at the same time, something that’s apparently an acceptable practice in this House. It’s about the word “duplicitous.” The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines duplicitous as “deceptive in words or actions.” It provides the synonyms including “bent, crooked, deceptive, double dealing, dishonest, fast, fraudulent, guileful, rogue, shady, sharp, shifty, underhand and underhanded.” Rule 23(h) applies here.

Double standard is defined as: “a situation in which two people, groups, et cetera, are treated very differently from each other in a way that is unfair to one of them.” My amendment, which I had proposed to the motion and speaking to it, was accommodating to different views perhaps, but showing a double standard? I don’t think so, Mr. Speaker, and Rule 23(i) would apply here.

During debate, several Members, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Moses, for example, possibly others, suggested that the current planned date of the election was something we should stick to. Others wanted the longer period of change, but recognized the value of flexibility within the month of October 2015 to coordinate the NWT election with other elections planned for October 2015.

My intent was clearly honourable and meant to be an accommodating compromise between these two views, no matter how satirical or ironic a person might be listening to it. To call it duplicitous and a double standard is wrong.

I ask the Speaker to seek correction of this injustice for the dignity of the House and the people of Weledeh. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve looked at the Hansard and I, as well, looked up the definition of duplicitous and it says, “deliberately deceptive.” I do say that if it’s not outright duplicitous, it’s a friggin’ double standard. I withdrew the “friggin’” and I apologize for that once again.

I will give the Member the benefit of the doubt, even though methinks he doth protest too much, that it wasn’t deliberately duplicitous and I will withdraw that comment, that phrase. However, I do think the use of the term “double standard” is entirely within the acceptable bounds of parliamentary language. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley, do you accept the apology?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to accept that. As I said, I’m not on a warpath here and I’m not going to worry about the colours the Minister wants to put on it. He can couch it as he wants, but I think he knows he was in error. We’re talking about the dignity of the House and I accept the apology. Mahsi.

Thank you. Let’s not waste any more of the House’s time now. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to provide the House with an update on the success of the Department of Transportation’s on-line driver and motor vehicle services.

As you’ll recall from my statement earlier this session, residents can now register to receive e-mail reminders to renew a driver’s licence, general identification card, vehicle registration, driver’s medical, appointments, and commercial vehicle inspection notifications. They can also renew their vehicle registration anytime on-line. This is already making our government an industry leader; other jurisdictions have contacted us to find out more about how they could implement similar systems.

Mr. Speaker, our service centres are now able to deliver client services better than ever, while remote communities can now connect to services where none were previously available. The department has also provided training to community government service officers so they may effectively help elders and other clients gain access to the services on-line.

In the first month, Mr. Speaker, residents from 27 communities have already taken advantage of our on-line services. Over a thousand clients have subscribed to the e-notification system and half of all registrations are already being done on-line. That has resulted in 2,500 e-mail notifications and over 3,000 on-line registrations in the first month.

This is a significant reduction in red tape. Residents are getting the service they need, when they need it.

We are already working on additional improvements like the ability to schedule appointments and obtain drivers’ abstracts on-line.

Mr. Speaker, on-line service delivery is part of the GNWT’s Service Innovation Strategy, which supports effective and efficient government.

The department looks forward to continuing this success through ongoing improvements including the replacement or renewal of drivers’ licences, commercial vehicle services and address changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Colleagues, before we go on, there was no point of order after the apology. We’re just moving on now.

Item 3, Members’ statements. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I continue to be concerned about our Aboriginal people and employees who are not getting jobs and advancement opportunities in our government.

Earlier in this sitting, I spoke about how the new shared services department made it difficult for employees to advance but treated long-service employees like new hires. We have to take pride, Mr. Speaker, as we say we do, to support our Aboriginal employees as they advance in our government.

I also have many Aboriginal employees who have been trying to be hired by our GNWT, without success. They are upset because they are qualified, experienced and ready to work, yet consistently they get screened out because there were no suitable candidates. That is very frustrating.

Potential new employees are also subject to screening tests each and every opportunity they apply for. They somehow fail and when they get screened, they have no opportunity to review the test or to see it or have ownership of it. It’s all behind the manager’s desk and saying you failed because of this or this. They never actually get to see it. They know they have the experience, training and skills for the job they are applying for.

I believe that we have to apply every effort to assure we have Aboriginal managers and executives in our government. We also must ensure that our representative workforce exceeds the 30 percent we have been at for the past 10 years, Mr. Speaker.

Later on I will have questions for the Minister of Human Resources. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Constituents are saying their home heating and power bills are higher than they’ve ever been. Just last week I tabled a petition from residents of the NWT calling for more action on climate change.

Government expense is increasing with increasing damage to infrastructure. We all know that oil is just going to get more expensive and that climate change is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It is our dependence on fossil fuels that is creating this crisis.

The Chinese character for crisis is a combination of the symbols for danger and opportunities. Today I’d like to stress the opportunities we have.

In a January newspaper I read, Superior Propane was introducing micro-combined heat and power units. These systems provide both heat and power at 90 percent efficiency instead of the usual 28 percent efficiency that most community diesel generators run at. This great idea is something that a few Northerners like the Snowshoe Inn in Fort Providence and Gruben’s Camp in Tuktoyaktuk have been doing for years. With new quieter technology we can see micro-combined heat and power use throughout the territory. If the Power Corporation got onto this, they would have a new source of revenue, selling both power and heat to large buildings like schools, northern stores, arenas and so on.

The Public Utilities Board has just made a decision to implement net metering, or close to it. Net metering, or the sale of home-generated renewable electricity into community grids, has great potential for reducing power bills. Northern businesses are gaining experience in installing these solar panel systems, recognizing a business opportunity here too.

Homeowners have been seeing the top savings of wood pellet heat for years now. A recent study by the Arctic Energy Alliance showed that we could use 20-foot shipping containers to bring affordable pellets into all communities with barge access right to Tuk, in fact.

Lentil farmers in Saskatchewan use containers to ship their lentils overseas and we can use the same methods to ship wood pellets.

Combined with the plans for a wood pellet plant in Enterprise, this could make Hay River the bio-energy hub of the whole Western Arctic.

All of the opportunities I’ve just mentioned make financial sense right now, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got local businesses stepping up and taking the lead and we need to support them.

We know the price of oil is not going to be coming down.

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

---Unanimous consent granted

We know the price of oil is not going to be coming down. We know that President Obama will soon put a price on carbon emissions and Canada will follow. The only question is when, not if. Many in our business community are responding to these opportunities and so are many home and building owners.

To reduce the cost of living, we need to find ways to support the rapid rollout of these opportunities to everyone in the North. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When serious accidents happen, urgent rescue is required. In the field of medical triage they say, “time is tissue.” In some cases minutes, let alone hours count and lives do hang in the balance. People in the Northwest Territories still don’t have 911, but they do have a reasonable expectation that if they or their loved ones are hurt, they will be transported with haste to the nearest suitable medical facility.

Unfortunately, we are hearing of too many instances where medevacs are not being provided in a timely manner, and with disastrous results. Just last week we heard from Mr. Yakeleya and he spoke of a heartbreak of one of his constituents by the failure of a local health centre to make the right call in transporting a constituent who had been seriously injured in a skidoo accident.

Last year Member Menicoche spoke about two serious accidents in Trout Lake affected by delayed medevac services. The first, a boating collision where an elder died before the arrival of a medevac plane, which took almost six hours to get to the scene.

A Trout Lake resident who rendered assistance to the victims of this boating accident happened to find himself at an unfortunate scene of another accident. This time it was his wife who injured herself with a skill saw. When staff at the health centre told him they would need to seek approval to medevac his injured wife, this gentleman, knowing full well how critical a delay could be, called for air transportation himself, rather than risk the wait. He was then struck with the worry that he would be billed for a flight that should have been paid by the GNWT.

Another accident took place in 2013 near Fort Providence, leaving two dead and another seriously injured. This highlighted the problems resulting from the lack of a clear policy on emergency highway extraction. In this case, a waiting helicopter crew was told to stand down while the severely injured truck driver was driven to Fort Providence before being flown by medevac to Yellowknife and then finally on to Edmonton.

Clearly, there are many problems with medevac services. Decision-makers are not always clear about who has the authority to make the call on a medevac. Too often, decisions are being made by staff without the appropriate credentials. It also appears that the cost is being factored into decision-making when the severity of a patient’s condition should be the only consideration.

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

---Unanimous consent granted

The Minister of Health and Social Services has advised this House that his department is moving forward with Med-Response, a program that will give all the health centres and all the communities direct access to a physician to coordinate expediting of medevacs, which is going forward, as we were told, on April 1st of this year.

Clearly, the sick and injured in the Northwest Territories deserve better service than they are getting.

At the appropriate time, I will be asking the Minister of Health and Social Services questions about the status of this proposal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Transportation talked about on-line services today. I appreciate the department’s hard work in that area.

One of the areas that I see this being a benefit…and I think I’ve talked about the trucking industry in the Northwest Territories before and some of the issues plaguing them. One of the issues that have come up recently is the on-line 24-hour service for permitting wide loads and heavy loads currently being done by a southern company. I don’t quite understand why we have a southern company doing some of this service, but I’ll be asking the Minister about some of the on-line services that we can provide for that trucking industry.

As well, some of the issues that I’ve had in the past have been to deal with the commercial vehicles and light commercial pick-ups towing a trailer that are over the 4,500 kilograms, something that came up from the bridge tolls, but that are now requiring a Class 3 licence that has always been there but was stirred up from the bridge process. This is very difficult for companies that are looking for southern employees that are basically low-skilled but yet can be helpful to them. But if they’re towing a trailer, then they need a Class 3. Now those individuals that don’t have the skills and don’t have a Class 3 are not employable by those companies. This is a difficulty in the industry; it’s a difficulty for people who are trying to find work in our area, so I think the department needs to work on this.

The other issue with the permitting is also bridge tolls. Can we do bridge tolls on-line along with this 24-hour service?

Later on I’ll have questions for the Minister of Transportation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today the Department of Education, Culture and Employment did do a news release in regard to the Beaufort-Delta Education Council’s program, the e-learning program that they have within the Beaufort-Delta region and it is one-time funding to explore e-learning in more of the communities across the Northwest Territories.

I’d just like to speak to this again. This method of course delivery helps the Beaufort-Delta Education Council, and hopefully the Department of Education address many of the challenges that our schools face, such as high teacher turnover, limited course offerings, small senior high class sizes, which prevent the allocation of a full-time teacher to many of the specialized courses, decreasing the gap in academic achievement between our smaller and rural schools and the more populated centres. As well, it has the potential to increase the need for students to leave their home communities in search of various course offerings.

The Beaufort-Delta Education Council over the last five years has been developing these on-line courses to provide better learning opportunities for all their students. These on-line academic courses are for students and teachers to meet the objectives through activities, videos, on-line work and assessment. I know a few of the Members here have firsthand experience working with this program and it is very successful.

Today I’d just like to thank the Minister and the staff in his department for working with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council to provide this one-time funding to the Beaufort-Delta Education Council to get more of these academic courses into our smaller communities. I’d also like to thank the Beaufort-Delta Education Council for being so innovative, thinking outside of the box, looking at different ways to keep our students at home in the small communities while getting the education that they deserve. I’d also like to thank all Members that support this initiative moving forward. I think that will show some very strong, positive impacts for education in the Northwest Territories in the years to come. Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There’s no dispute obesity is a serious health issue with adverse impacts on people’s quality of life, longevity and public health care. Obesity used to be a personal issue, but with the increasing burden on our taxpayers, it’s turning into everybody’s problem. This government can take action by introducing a tax on junk food. It will help raise revenues and guide consumers toward healthy choices. It’s already a very popular idea.

A coalition of health and education experts has called on the Quebec government to introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks and energy drinks. Ontario’s doctors want higher taxes and graphic warning labels on junk food, to combat obesity. The taxation and warnings on cigarettes have led to a decline in smoking. Other groups in North America want taxes on fast foods that contain more than the recommended daily intake of sugar, salt and calories, such as potato chips, chocolate bars, French fries, burgers and pizza.

Our current tax code already distinguishes between foods that are good and bad for you. Basic grocery items are untaxed and junk food like candy is taxed. The structure isn’t perfect, but the intent of the law is clear: junk food should be taxed more heavily than basic groceries. The Nutrition North Program, for example, only subsidizes healthy choices. Taxing junk food could help promote equality between our communities.

Some people argue that raising taxes will hurt people with modest incomes who tend to eat more fast food because it means they have less money to spend on general groceries and so they won’t buy as many fruits and vegetables that are already expensive in the North.

Healthy people making better choices results in greater cost savings overall. The reduced costs to health care could eventually help reduce the cost of living. People need help making a conscious choice to change their eating habits and lifestyles. We can all do that by teaching our people, especially young parents, about healthy eating. We can restrict marketing fatty and sugary foods to children and support national initiatives to label foods in ways that help consumers choose more wisely.

Finally, we can tax unhealthy foods so that we’re less likely to choose them as often. It’s like putting the cookie jar out of reach. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk about the issue of repatriation. That is, northern residents in southern placements. Over the years we have spoken of this often. We have often calculated how many northern residents are in southern institutions. We call them southern placements for a variety and a number of reasons with different types of challenges.

I think that from time to time we need to review that list and that expense for many reasons. For one thing, if we can have Northerners in the North, that’s a good thing. If Northerners in the North need to be looked after, having other Northerners look after them, that’s a good thing. It brings Northerners closer to their families where there is a different type of support. It possibly creates employment in the Northwest Territories, and there are just a whole lot of reasons why it is best, if we can, to have these folks in the Northwest Territories.

I recognize and realize that there are sometimes very specialized needs that residents have that there is no solution other than a southern placement in order to most effectively address the needs of a client, but I think that this is something that we need to constantly be monitoring and watching, because I think that when front-line workers run into situations where they need help and support, and perhaps accommodation for an individual sometimes if it’s not readily available in the North, the quickest thing is to refer that client to a southern institution, and once they’re in that southern institution, I would hate to think that out of sight is out of mind and that perhaps it’s easy to put that cheque in the mail every month to that institution where that person is being cared for.

I would like to explore today in question period a little with the Minister of Health and Social Services what types of services that are being procured for our residents in the South that might be possibilities for repatriating to the Northwest Territories with a longer view than just the immediate need of the client and to a bigger picture kind of view.

I’ll have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services later today.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the past eight years and hopefully this summer, in July, people will tell us to take a hike, and I say I’m glad to. I hike along the Canol Heritage Trail. I hike with the young people. We’ve been doing it for the last eight years. Why take the hike? Why go with them?

I look at this and I say, well, what’s the experience? From this experience, what will help the youth today? We go out to the Canol Trail, someplace, maybe at Mile 15, maybe at Mile 70, maybe at Mile 222, but we take one of these locations and we go out with the youth and we give them the opportunity once every year, maybe once in a lifetime, to come out and experience life on the land of the yesterdays and see how this experience will help them. They need help in all kinds of ways today because of such an enormous amount of challenges facing them.

This experience helps them with the value of teamwork and learning how to work together, how to survive on the land, what areas to look for to camp, how to gather wood in the rain, to make fire in the rain, how to cook for themselves, even to wash dishes, what kind of wood to get, and know that the sticks are not going to get off the ground and make their way to the fire. They have to get up and get the sticks to put them on the fire because there’s nobody there to do it for them, or to get water, but the values they learn as young people are enormous, and their potential.

You know what? After the hike, these young people are so beautiful. They’re so rich and so strong, and all they need is guidance from older people. I’m looking forward to the ninth annual hike to learn more with them, to learn with them, and having some of my colleagues that hopefully will be on the trip with me to hike this year. This will be the ninth annual leadership hike with the youth in the Sahtu, and I’m hoping that, again, we’ll have some more youth coming out with us to experience life and that this experience will do them wonders in life.

So, Mr. Speaker, certainly this summer I will take a hike.

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

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to support my colleague Mr. Menicoche in this little micro theme day statement here.

Often I hear from people who are trying to apply for jobs and they’re screened out for various reasons, some that make sense and some that just want you to bang your head against the wall. In some cases, we hear they’re screened out and they only get the news long after the job has been awarded and the appeal period is long past. At this point, of course, they have no rights to appeal because they weren’t screened in, and often these people are screened

out. Why? Because they didn’t have the official university degree or college diploma it boldly says right on the top, but sometimes it also says on the bottom that if you have experience, demonstrate that.

The calls I get always say it seems to matter little. They show that they have 10, 15, 20 and even 25 years of hardworking experience, but to them it appears that if you don’t have the academics, don’t even bother.

This is frustrating, because I know, and everybody in this building knows, skills, training, education, experience are absolutely critical. No doubt about that. No one is trying to sell it for any less. But no one is suggesting that we take a first aid attendant and give him a shot at being a doctor. What we’re trying to do is giving meaningful people a meaningful opportunity, but oftentimes we hear, oh no, you don’t have a certificate; you need not apply.

A lot of good people fall through the system because it’s almost like the door is shut before they even get a chance to open it. So rather than use that as a distraction, let us finally realize that there are many paths to the same destination. We could work with people who have great, dedicated, northern experience. I believe strongly, and Member Menicoche believes strongly, we have to get our people working. That’s our focus. I know that’s my focus and that’s his focus; it would be nice to see it be the government’s focus.

In the end, I often hear stories like this. I got a call a little while ago about an Aboriginal woman who had some difficult choices early in her life, but she got a break and her break led her to a job. She has got 20 years of experience. She applies for a job, but no advancing. Why? Because in some ways, in her eyes, she’s being punished by 20 years ago a choice she had to make, a choice I wouldn’t want to be forced to make, one she had to make on her own. But how do we help her move forward? Not this system. What system then?

Myself and Mr. Menicoche believe really strongly that we’ve got to provide all Northerners, Aboriginal, women and everyone, a fair shot. Just because they don’t have the technical credibility of a university certificate doesn’t mean 20 years of experience is a waste of time. We can do better; let’s start doing it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Mrs. Patricia Modeste from Deline, who was chosen for the 2014 Wise Woman Award for the Sahtu.

Mrs. Modest is known for her kind heart and dedication towards helping our community. She is a well-known lady who likes to laugh and get things done when needed. She deserves this award, as do the other recipients.

On behalf of the Sahtu region, I congratulate Patricia and her family in Deline and to keep up the great work you’re doing for your community and people and remember to rest too. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’m aware that the Minister and his department have been doing some very good work on reviewing a lot of files within their mandate and I’d like to ask the Minister if he could put in some context either the number of clients or the kind of money that we spend as a territorial government to support clients that require southern placement at this time. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I actually can’t remember the exact number of clients that we had in there. I actually just talked about it a couple of days ago when we were having our budget dialogue, but it is about 100 adults and about 100 youth, give or take. We know it’s incredibly expensive. During the last round of supps, I asked for $2.5 million for youth and another I think it was $2.5 million or $2.6 million for adults. So there is a significant cost. There’s multi-millions of dollars a year.

I take the Member’s point from her statement where we need to dig into these files and review them and see if there’s any opportunity to repatriate and I’ve already directed that the department do that. They’re going to do a file-by-file review and where there are similar clients with similar needs and

there’s a business case for repatriating a block of them, it’s something that we’d like to explore and I’m certainly willing to work with committee on that. Thank you.

The number of clients in southern placements, adult and children and the types of placements that they are in, I understand, are probably fairly varied, but I’d like to ask the Minister, and I know he hasn’t been in the department that long, but at his first analysis on maybe a high level, is there anything that jumps out, is there anything that stands out that may be a type of southern placement that could be repatriated to the Northwest Territories? For example, in Hay River we have the assisted living facility. A lot of the clients in that facility were in southern placements prior to this. So, is there a type of care that initially stands out that the Minister could identify where we, as Northern communities could think about accommodating? Thank you.

My initial discussions with the department, we’re looking for a similar type case where we have individuals with similar needs, but we do know right now that there’s a huge variety of residents in the Northwest Territories. We have some residents who require 24/7 care with multiple individuals and others that are more in the independent setting, but require significant medical supports. So at this time I’m not prepared to say that we have found a catchment, a group of individuals who have similar challenges that we may be able to repatriate up here, but I have directed the department to do a case-by-case review. As we do that, we’ll start to be able to see what, if any, similarities exist and where an opportunity exists we will certainly be having that discussion with committee and I hope to have the information available. We expect it to take about a year to do a review of every file. Thank you.

That was going to be my next question is when we might begin to see the results of the review of those files to see where there might be some economies and would make some sense to a business case scenario and, also, we know there’s a human factor to this, as well, to bring some of these folks home.

In the interests of decentralization and the fact that there may be communities out there that would be interested in accommodating, whether it be a group home or an assisted living facility or maybe something even more specialized, how will the results of this work be communicated so that if there are communities who would like to express interest in being involved in a plan to accommodate these folks, how will that be communicated in such a way?

Before any decisions are made, we do need to understand the caseload, the client load, and the individuals that may be able

to be repatriated. I intend to share that information with committee and we can have a discussion on what might be the most appropriate location and how we, as an Assembly, decide where we want to invest our dollars, remembering that we want to keep people as close to home if we can find a way, and we have residents from all over the Territories, so there might be multiple opportunities here.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is exactly what I wanted to hear. There are opportunities, I think, for regional facilities and that would accommodate keeping people closer to home and it would also maybe create the need for smaller-type facilities but more home-like where possible. I really don’t have any more questions.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Just a comment. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What precipitated my Member’s statement today and my oral questions was as a result of a search on our government careers website. Recently there was posted an advanced territorial support medical coordinator and an emergency medical dispatcher. When you look on the job description, it does mention to help emergency medical evacuation services including medevac triage, coordinating dispatching and repatriation of services. This prompted me to talk about it in my Member’s statement today, but, more importantly, to have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

In less than three weeks, Med-Response is going to go live. Can the Minister indicate what is the research basis for this new program and how is this program intended to improve what I talked about earlier, our current situation?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health. Mr. Abernethy.

Mr. Speaker, a significant amount of research has been done on this particular file. It started off with a different name many years ago, the Territorial Support Network. We’ve had physicians from across the North and we’ve had some real strong champions for this particular approach, and we have looked at other jurisdictions. This is going to give the community health care workers in the communities one point of contact for all medical emergencies, medevacs, all of those types of situations as opposed to what we’ve experienced in the past where every authority had their own plan, their own reporting mechanism, which often and was capable of

leading to some real confusion out there with respect to coordinating all of these activities for the best interests of the patients. This will coordinate everything into one contact point.

Can the Minister indicate what the department’s position is on the provision of medevac flights to emergency extractions on our NWT highway system? Last time I asked this question with the previous Health Minister we didn’t have a clear policy. Can the Minister indicate, has this changed?

The Department of Health and Social Services, the Department of Justice, and the Department of MACA are working together on a ground and highway rescue strategy. This particular EMR response tool is with respect to direct contact out of health centres to the regional centres, and we can coordinate things like medevacs out of there, but they will be going to the communities where there are airports as coordinated by the on-site people, the coordinator in the EMR office and a dispatcher in the EMR office. It will not be dispatching airplanes or helicopters to highway situations.

In this year’s budget, the Minister noted funding in the amount of $790,000 to continue the implementation of the new Med-Response service. As he quoted, it was to “provide community health care practitioners with remote emergency clinical support, triage advice and help to coordinate NWT air ambulance services.”

Can the Minister of Health indicate for these funding dollars, what overall improvements to the medevac service can Northwest Territories residents expect to see? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

These dollars are intended to provide 24/7 coverage in the office for our staff who will be providing the services. The significant difference and benefits for residents of the Northwest Territories – and our focus is on the people, the clients and our residents – is when somebody is injured in a community and they are in the health centre and they need immediate response, immediate action or immediate medevac, the community health worker or the community health care professional in that community will be able to call one office and that office will give them links to physicians or specialists. If we need to medevac them, there will be a medevac dispatcher on the phone as well.

So, all the people who need to be involved in the discussions to get that person to where they need to be or to provide them care on-site will all be on the same line providing advice. All of them will be informed, all of them will be able to provide the best level of care and, if medevac is needed, the most timely medevac for that patient. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you to the Minister. Once Med-Response is launched, can the Minister indicate what plans the department has to monitor and evaluate this program ongoing?

We will be putting in and developing an evaluation framework around this particular model to see how it’s working, to make sure it’s meeting the needs of our residents, patients and professionals in the individual communities. I’ve said it before and I’d love to say it again, I’d love to invite committee out to see staff and see the operations once we get it up and running. I ask for a couple of months, but then I’d love to invite the Social Programs committee out there to see the operations up and running. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Minister of Transportation on trucking issues. As he discussed an on-line service, has the department looked into putting truck permitting on-line?

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. The intention is to have on-line services for commercial vehicles within the next two to three years.

Also, another on-line service I’m wondering if we could implement is the bridge tolls. I know the bridge tolls are under review, but I am wondering if we will be putting that on-line as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think the bridge tolls currently are provided out of a company we have a contract with in the South. I’m not sure if we are putting bridge tolls on-line, but I think we will definitely look at that possibility. There may be some issues with the configuration of the vehicles that may be close to the border where some Members have indicated that they may or may not need a toll permit to go across. It is a possibility, but I’m not 100 percent sure if that is in our plans right now. Thank you.

The other trucking issues that I have discussed in this House are the commercial vehicles and the requirements for a regular pick-up towing a trailer to have a Class 3 licence.

Has the department looked into this difficulty? Many of the businesses in my riding are having difficulties with this. Has the department looked into a solution for that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Our transportation system is harmonized with all the other jurisdictions that have interconnected highways into the Northwest Territories. When we consider removing the requirement for somebody to have a Class 3 and certain size vehicle, we do have to consult with other jurisdictions. So, currently there is a regulation that certain size vehicles need a certain class of licence. At this time, we’re pleased with the way that’s going and it fits in well with the other jurisdictions.

We can look at it to see if there is something we can harmonize with the other jurisdictions, but we can’t make a change and not advise the other jurisdictions that we’re making changes and so on. We can look at it but it would probably be more of a national discussion than just us making changes to the regulations here in the Territories. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m having difficulty with the harmonization concept. The Minister is telling me there’s harmonization when I know, in fact, in Alberta a pick-up is a pick-up. It doesn’t matter if you’re towing a trailer or not, it’s still not required to have a Class 3 licence. As well as the issue of licence plates, in Alberta they need a licence plate on the front. When you cross the border now, you have to put a licence plate on the front. So I don’t know how the harmonization is working.

Can the Minister commit to look at these regulations and the fact that they aren’t harmonized and try to harmonize them with Alberta, which is the main transportation province we deal with? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This is a national issue. Alberta does have its own regulations. We aren’t exactly similar. We are trying to become part of the transportation system. We do harmonize with the other provinces. Harmonization is the ability for vehicles to move across the country and into the Territories without switching loads or being ineligible or eligible of driving a vehicle of that size. So we would look at everything, not just one province and just harmonize with a province where the most commercial vehicles are coming from. We’d look at everything. Like I said, if that was the best possible solution, was to do the same thing Alberta was doing, we’d probably look at that, but at this time we have our own regulations and we’re following what we think is best for the Territories. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made a statement on the idea of a junk food tax. My question is to the Minister of Finance.

What level of taxing authority does the GNWT have in implanting indirect taxes on goods and services sold or bought in the NWT? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have the authority, listening to the Member’s statement, to set some taxes in place as they pertain to some of the substances that the Member was talking about. We also do things like liquor, tobacco and those types of things as well. Thank you.

Earlier I also made the comment that some provinces, such as Quebec and Ontario, are seriously taking the lead in terms of implementing taxes as a deterrent to the lifestyle of their citizens because they realize the significant costs it incurs down the road to the health care institutions.

Would the Minister of Finance agree to follow the lead of those provinces and begin examining the idea and concept of perhaps coming to a point where you could come back to the House with a proposed idea of maybe putting a tax on junk food? Mahsi.

We, as a government, have been trying to use taxes as a way to encourage, in effect, behaviour, especially as it pertains to cigarettes and alcohol. We have some of the most expensive cigarettes and alcohol in the country. We’ve just recently raised the price of loose tobacco, and our smoking and drinking rates, unfortunately, across the board haven’t shown a lot of bending the right way. We haven’t bent the trend, as they say. We continue to monitor through it that way.

If there’s an interest in committee to look at some type of tax on sugar, I’d be prepared to have that discussion. It’s much more complicated than it sounds on the surface, on junk food, but we’d be prepared to definitely engage in that discussion.

Thank you. It seems that at this point – you know, sugar is a candy – and recent studies have indicated that if you consume it, at least for diabetes, and we have a high rate of diabetes here in the Northwest Territories. Recent studies have indicated that sugar intake on a daily scale could lead to some forms of cancer.

Would the Minister, perhaps in the next session, indicate to the House whether it could be probable

for the Minister of Finance to categorize the junk food tax as a form of sin tax? Mahsi.

The definition of sin, of course, is one that’s been debated for centuries. The issue of classifying sugar as a tax similar to tobacco and liquor… I mean, junk food similar to tobacco and liquor is a discussion we can have.

Once again, if you look at the literature, the debate and the complexity you get into in trying to define your term very, very precisely for taxation purposes is not without its challenges. We’ve been spending a lot of time as a government trying to look at active living, productive choices, Drop the Pop, Don’t Be A Butthead, getting people and young people to make the right choices, babies born healthy. Taxing the way to good health I don’t think has shown to be that successful, but once again, we’re not averse to having that discussion with committee. Thank you.

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

Would the Minister agree that a tax on junk food could be a possible source of badly needed revenues? Mahsi.

Given the prodigious appetite we have in the North for things like junk food, if there was a definition that was agreed to and a tax that was agreed it, it would maybe generate an initial spike of revenue, but if the Member’s rationale proved out, then the demand would drop off precipitously. But it could be, if all the stars aligned. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in the day I spoke about the difficulty my constituents had, the long-term employees advancing as well as new employees that want to get in with the Government of the Northwest Territories. I want to ask my question to the Minister of Human Resources.

In our 20/20: A Brilliant North, NWT Public Service Strategy Action Plan 2012-2016, how is the Minister and this government planning to advance our Aboriginal employees in management and executive? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are starting to employ the Regional Recruitment Strategy as one of the strategies that we’re hoping will bring the Aboriginal numbers up across the GNWT. Also, as far as trying to advance more Aboriginal employees in the GNWT to senior

management and management level, we are using the Aboriginal Development Program, which is we are placing associate superintendents and associate directors, Aboriginal employees, into the system for them to take those jobs on. Also, we are now developing associate managers so that people from lower than managerial positions, such as officers and clerks and so on, can be advanced into manager positions. Thank you.

One of the issues raised was when they created a new financial shared services division, a long-term employee with many years of experience and training applied for a management job and yet that person wasn’t qualified. Once again, I question the government’s ability to over-qualify jobs and not giving enough attention to many, many years of service. How is this plan addressing that? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Aboriginal employees are all employees that were affected by the financial shared services. Regionally there were 16, and 15 in headquarters, so 31 people were affected by the position, and the majority of them were placed into jobs with the government. I think there is a possibility that a couple of the specific cases where individuals may have been applying for the positions that would have been considered an advancement did not get the jobs, but my understanding is that there were some discussions held with these individuals. I don’t have the specifics on the individuals that may have been looking for advancement and didn’t get it, but my understanding is that most people who were affected were placed in other jobs within FS, financial shared services, or retained in their own departments. Thank you.

I continue to urge the HR Minister and all the Ministers that when we’re trying to advance our Aboriginal employees that we pay attention to them like we say we do in our plan.

I also spoke about the frustration that individuals are having trying to gain employment with the Government of the Northwest Territories. They apply on many jobs and every time they have to do a personal screening test for each and every job. I can see how complicated and how frustrating that can be.

Does the plan include anything to make it easier for potential new employees to gain employment in the Government of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we do have a Workforce Planning Strategy and where we’re looking at including the strategy I referred to, Regional Recruitment Strategy. There are various strategies that we are employing as a department, working with other departments in the GNWT. Our intention is always to try…(inaudible)…our numbers set out by the Affirmative Action Policy. The

Affirmative Action Policy calls for the government to be representative of the population and that’s our goal, so we do work, as a government, with other departments to try to achieve those goals.

We’re moving ahead with some of the committees, like the Aboriginal Employee Advisory Committee and get some advice on them. They’re from across the regions. Aboriginal employees from across the regions are giving us advice on how to move forward on hiring Aboriginal employees into the public service. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Once again, for new employees, entry-level jobs are often overqualified and they don’t get attention for the years of experience and training that the individuals we have.

Does the plan address this fact? Are they reviewing those entry-level jobs and lowering the qualifications because people cannot get in. When you want a new employee, it’s about just getting them in there. They’ll learn the system; they’ll learn the organization and become long-term and valuable employees. Can the Minister look into that?

We can discuss this with the departments. The departments do the job descriptions and through their knowledge, skills and abilities that are typically required for a position that they’re posting. So they need to do a certain job; there are tasks that have to be done; the department determines what type of qualifications that individual needs to carry in order to do that job. So, if we’re discussing with the department on looking at those qualifications that maybe a job with a different type of task in there may be sufficient, then we’ll have that discussion. I’m more than willing and prepared to do that through the deputy to have those discussions with the other deputies in the other departments. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, we’re not going to let the Human Resources Minister off that easy because, quite frankly, I don’t think that these goals are being achieved. Often I hear people apply for jobs who have years if not, in some cases, decades of experience, but because they don’t have that actual certification, such as a university degree or a college diploma, they get screened out.

Let’s start off with a simple question by asking the Minister, how often does someone get hired on the

principles of they have a university degree, versus the people who’ve brought real life decades of experience? The department must track this because they spend a lot of time evaluating these things. What kind of answer can we get from the Minister on this? We’ll start this question off this way. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I couldn’t possibly know how often that occurs in the government. I indicated in the House previously, we have anywhere from 1,600 to 1,700 staffing actions per year going back I don’t know how many years. How am I able to determine how often this occurs in the government? I would perhaps do a long research and then we would probably be able to come up with this number, but it would mean tracking everybody that qualified up against the individuals that got hired in order to determine that number. Thank you.

Maybe the Minister is starting to grasp the complication behind this particular problem. I’ve got people who have applied with 10, 20 or more years of experience, but they’re screened out and the competition is awarded and they don’t know until after the appeal period is gone, but then again their rights don’t really matter. Of course, they feel they don’t matter because their experience is weighed directly against credentials of the university. So let’s go with this group, and by the way, the footnote I’d like to add is quite often I hear of this complaint, and it’s a good complaint and it needs to be solved, by women and certainly Aboriginal women are screened out because their years of experience clearly don’t matter. So maybe the Minister can help us, help the House, help the public understand how does the department weigh experience on a job and evaluate them against somebody who has the official credential, because it appears right now if you have experience it doesn’t matter, if you have the certification by a university diploma then they’ll look at you? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, related experience does matter. Minimum qualifications, as far as education goes, and related experience matter. It’s written in most job descriptions, if not all job descriptions, that we receive from the department. If an individual has directly related experience in the job they’re applying for, it has a significant impact on whether or not the individual gets hired. If a person has directly related experience, education that may not be directly related, but many years of directly related experience as the Member is talking about today, we will not screen that individual out. The person with directly related experience will be interviewed. Thank you.

Thank you. Recently I had someone who applied or wanted to apply for a job, but of course it says, as a must, they have to have a high school diploma, but their 20-plus years of experience didn’t matter because their job was pre-qualified and they were encouraged to apply anyway. Frankly, they had to make a choice at that high school year severely impacts their life. Somebody defined it as it continues to haunt their life because they had to make the choice that was right for them, but they can’t apply.

So perhaps I’ll ask it this way, how does the Minister see someone with 20 years’ experience – and, of course, he did say related experience matters – apply for jobs like this that they’ve been doing for years, but it doesn’t appear to matter because if they don’t have that high school diploma they don’t even get into the game and they’re told weeks later after the competition is over, hey, by the way, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

Thank you. It’s difficult for me to speak on this. For me it’s a hypothetical case. If the Member has an actual case where an individual has 20 years’ directly related experience and was not allowed to apply for the job that they were doing, I would be glad to hear about the specifics from the Member and we’ll then contact the department and find out what the issue is. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If it’s difficult for the Minister to answer this question, quite frankly it’s difficult for the public wanting to apply for jobs if we don’t know how they can get opportunities that they rightly can do and they’re being blocked at the front door by this little sticker that says if you don’t have the university degree, don’t apply, if you don’t have the college diploma, don’t apply and in some cases, unfortunately, some people don’t have the high school, but they’ve got the 20-plus years’ experience.

I’m going to ask this question: How is the Minister going to fix this problem? Because we have a lot of good people and my experience, growing up in Fort Simpson, I can tell you some people just had to take paths that they didn’t necessarily like, but by golly they’re dedicated, hardworking and certainly capable and they’re being shut out because of these small things and we can make this happen. I’d like to ask the Minister how he’s going to solve this problem. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, I’m looking at case-by-case would be the way to resolve this issue. People have not come to me, individuals have not come to me and said that they had been working jobs, have 20-plus years’ related experience and then were not eligible to apply. I’ve had situations recently exactly as the Member

spoke, an individual that said that they had 20 years’ experience, but they didn’t have a Grade 12 education that was a requirement. I encourage the person to apply for a job at any event. So, I don’t know that is an issue. I haven’t specifically heard that is an issue until today. If this is an issue, it’s an ongoing issue, it’s a big issue, then the Member can provide me specifics on it and I will go to the departments and try to find a solution to get those people to work. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement. It is obvious, and I mentioned it in my statement, that the government is not going to be able to meet the March 24th deadline date that they have for the

court date and come forward to the judge with a solution, with an alternative solution to what’s been mandated by the court.

I’d like to know from the Minister at this point, knowing that negotiations are not happening either in Yellowknife or in Hay River, what’s next on the part of the department and the government? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of ECE, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Initially the department has had an exploratory discussion with the Hay River District Education Authority, the Yellowknife Education District No. 1 and also Commission scolaire francophone to determine whether or not alternatives to the court order could be found in both communities.

These are the discussions that we’ve been having with both communities and the government has a responsibility to work with its partners to ensure that school facilities are used in the most cost effective and efficient way. The discussions we’ve been having since September until this last couple weeks have come to a stop. We’ve heard from both Yellowknife and Hay River. The next step will be to present that to my Cabinet colleagues this coming Thursday and then go from there. Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister for hearing that it’s going to go to Cabinet this week. I want to talk about the timing. The Minister stated in answer to my colleagues last week that there are two options, we can proceed or we cannot proceed. The amount of time that’s involved so far, it has already been two years since the court decision

and it was quite some time before that that both parties were in court, so the Commission scolaire has been looking for this accommodation for a very long time.

I’d like to know from the Minister, if there’s going to be a discussion at Cabinet this Thursday, how much longer are we looking at before there’s going to be some movement on capital planning for these two schools?

As I stated earlier, Hay River Commission and the YK No. 1 have all stated no to the school swap at this point, and I realize that YK No. 1 is still engaging, but March 24th has been a deadline because we still have to

go through the appeal process and it is before us and that’s the next couple of weeks. What I’ll be presenting to the Cabinet colleagues will be what’s going to be happening for the next step, and it’s still to be seen. Those are the discussions that we need to have as a government. As part of the capital planning process, what should the next step be?

Thanks to the Minister. In the discussions with Cabinet, again, I want to try and get some sort of a timeline. Can the Minister give me any idea if Cabinet decides to go ahead and put these two schools into the capital planning process, when might we expect construction to start on one or both of these schools?

I can’t really speak to that at this point because we still have to make a decision to move forward on this particular subject. At the same time, there is an appeal process that’s happening as well. All those will come into play, but the specifics of the capital infrastructure, the discussion will be brought to the Cabinet colleagues and then we will let the Members know what will be the next phase of the approach.

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

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, at this point I’m a little surprised the Minister couldn’t give a ballpark estimate of time that it would take to go from planning to actual start of construction, but there we are.

To date, the government has incurred costs in terms of the legal costs in terms of the court costs. The Commission scolaire has also incurred costs. From my perspective as a Member of the Assembly and trying to keep costs of the government down to a dull roar, I’d like to know from the Minister what kind of costs we have incurred to date. I know we are going to incur more costs because it sounds as though we’re going to go forward with further appeals.

I’d like to know from the Minister how much has it cost us to date to take this legal action to try and avoid expanding these two schools.

I did already commit that last week to Member Bouchard, so I’ll definitely provide that detailed information to the Member.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I’d like to note that our current Greenhouse Gas Strategy was released in 2011 and runs until 2015. According to the document, the GNWT is going to start work on a new Greenhouse Gas Strategy in 2014.

As we begin this work, could the Minister tell us how the success of the past plan will be evaluated?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been looking at the cost effectiveness of greenhouse gas reduction initiatives. We’re going to hit the targets we have set for ourselves. We will review those. We will look at all the work that’s been done in the intervening time, the development. We have an extensive amount of work looking at the cost effectiveness, and that will be one of the key determinants as we look at renewal.

Thanks to the Minister. I hope it will be more than that. Both the current Greenhouse Gas Strategy and the relatively new Energy Plan are focused almost entirely on the supply of electricity to our communities and a little bit on heating, yet they all start with graphs showing that our greenhouse gas emissions primarily come from transportation and industry.

How can we claim that our strategy was successful when it did not even address the problem?