The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Good morning, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. Item 3, Members’ statements. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tomorrow is the 103rd International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day is annually held on March 8th to celebrate women’s achievements

throughout history and across nations. It’s also known as the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

On this day we all need to spread the message of women’s empowerment to our families, friends and men in our lives. It’s a day that connects women around the world and celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. It’s a day to celebrate the women in our lives and in our communities, to honour the advances women have made. But at the same time, we need to remember the need for continued action to ensure that the equality fought for and gained by women who have passed before us is maintained in all aspects of our society.

To quote an old advertising slogan, “We’ve come a long way, baby,” but I must echo a quote heard recently, “Much has been accomplished and much is still to be done.”

Of the world’s 1.3 billion poor people, nearly 70 percent are women. Between 75 percent and 80 percent of the world’s 27 million refugees are women and children. And of the world’s nearly 130 million children who are not in school, two-thirds are girls.

On average, women earn 30 to 40 percent less than men for the same work. Women also continue to be victims of violence, rape and domestic violence, which are significant causes of disability and death among women worldwide.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is Inspiring Change. It encourages advocacy for

women’s advancement everywhere in every way. It calls for challenging the status quo for women’s equality and vigilance inspiring positive change.

Tomorrow we will honour five NWT wise women, who each in their own way have contributed to changing the world for the better. The 2014 winners are Karen Willy, North Slave; Pamela Faith Gordon, Beaufort-Delta; Patricia Modeste, Sahtu; Sister Margaret Ann Beaudette, South Slave; and Harriet Geddes for the Deh Cho. Congratulations to that formidable group of women, Mr. Speaker. Let’s use tomorrow to get fired up about women’s rights and empowerment and use the day to promote changes in the lives of women all over the world. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ECE Minister has given us a schedule for rolling out free junior kindergarten service across the NWT. It begins with small communities in ’14-15, followed by regional centres next and, finally, Yellowknife in year three.

Unfortunately, the Minister is funding small community programs this coming year by removing funds for our students here in Yellowknife. The Minister will say schools have a surplus, but in fact our schools raise funds through taxes on Yellowknifers to cover costs not covered by government. While the Yellowknife students are funded on a much lower per capita basis than those in small communities, Yellowknifers have recognized the need for that. But now the Minister is penalizing the initiative by the Yellowknife school boards by not only reducing their funding but also requiring that is what is currently a cost-recovery JK service be replaced with a so-called free service.

Yellowknife schools currently use ECE funding and taxpayer dollars to provide education for 12 classes plus kindergarten. As of ’16-17, the Minister will require them to do the same plus provide junior kindergarten for about 120 small children in each

school system with no additional support. Without any investment from ECE to support this extra responsibility, this can only be done on the backs of our children, a clearly unacceptable basis for any program.

It’s not right to give new responsibilities without new funding. The Minister should provide new funding for junior kindergarten to all communities. This relatively small investment will help ensure the success of this new program and avoid eroding the quality of education we offer our kids.

Once again, the Minister is forcing Yellowknife school boards to struggle without needed funds as he removes them over the next two years. With a weakened system, he will then add the responsibility of 120 wee children for each school board requiring specialized early childhood development programs in junior kindergarten, returning only to the original level of funding. Blood from a stone for our children. Shame!

I will have questions for the Minister. Mahsi.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I woke up thinking of Stompin’ Tom this morning. It’s hockey night tonight because tonight we start Polar Pond Hockey in Hay River. It’s an annual event, a spring event. The 10 rinks are built on the Hay River. The big blue tent is up and being fitted with facilities for the upcoming event. There are concessions there this weekend. The event was a question mark this year. It was a question because of Arctic Winter Games and because of so many factors going on whether we’d do it this year or we’d skip. But the crew all got together and said, you know what? We’re going to do it. And they’re doing another great job.

There’s currently over 45 teams, four-person teams, teams of ladies, teams of old-timers, teams of mixed open class. So I would like to commend all those people that put together all that work, all the Zamboni workers, all those people that are going to be out in the cold this weekend helping out with the event, and honestly, we’re looking forward to a great event again in Hay River. Thank you.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had some questions in the House yesterday in regard to some human resources issues. I just wanted to bring to

attention today there was a Minister’s statement or a Minister’s news release on October 13, 2013, that mentioned the Regional Recruitment Program. I’ve made reference to it calling it the 80/20 program, where the residents of the NWT who actually try to get into the GNWT workforce get paid 80 percent of their salary and 20 percent of that overall salary goes into training.

I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources some questions later on the implementation of this program because in the press release it did state that the program would be implemented before the end of this calendar year and that was in 2013. He was hoping that trainees are anticipated to be on the job in early 2014. Obviously, we’re in the third month right now of 2014, I want to see how that’s going.

He also mentioned that this program would help reduce barriers of entering into the workforce where individuals who go into the job would do training on the job. I brought up concerns yesterday in regard to individuals trying to get into the workforce and actually not being able to get in because they have to look for a Commissioner for Oaths to sign something, or else also looking at trying to get a criminal records check or some other things that can happen to them.

This Regional Recruitment Program is a great program. I want to get an update on that and I want people of the Northwest Territories to know that this program is supposed to be in place and we’re supposed to get some residents into the workforce this year. I will be asking the Minister, later on today, how this program is coming and whether or not we’re actually having a perfect program here to get residents of the Northwest Territories into these jobs that are vacant. Thank you.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today is in reference to the recently tabled Northwest Territories Health and Social Services 2012-2013 Annual Report on the subject of patient no-shows for specialists, family and nurse practitioners.

For the record, the no-show rates for specialists are at 9.1 percent, slightly lower from the target of 10 percent, and a no-show rate for practitioners are at 12.6 percent, slightly higher than the 9 percent target. Keep in mind the 12.6 percent rate is only for Yellowknife and the Sahtu as the disclaimer in the report says the numbers aren’t consistently available for other health authorities. This concept

of no-show rate is nothing new as I’ve spoken on this topic before in the House, as have others.

Alarming, still, is the continued lack of understanding of the true cost this has on our health care system, coupled with the waste of important resources in a system limited by design.

So what is the cost of a no-show? I guess this would depend on the specialty. However, what this report doesn’t really address is the issue of our no-show rates for our travel clinics and the no-show rates for our surgical operating rooms. For these numbers, one has to dig a little bit into the archives. In fact, what has been mentioned in the not-so-distant past is the no-show rate for our specialists travel clinics at 16.8 percent and for our operating rooms at 16.5 percent.

How do you begin to quantify the costs of not coming to your own operation? I can’t imagine what a team of doctors or an anesthesiologist and a couple of surgical nurses cost to have standing around these days, but I’m sure it’s not a pretty invoice.

To the question: Who pays the price of these no-shows? Well, you’ve guessed it. The taxpayer. How do we protect the taxpayer from having to pay for the arrogance of a few? That’s a good question. For some of these answers, I thank the private practice of my dentist. How about a reminder phone call? How about a text message? How about an e-mail? How about doing this for a secondary contact? How about doing all four suggestions at once, or better yet, if you really want to reduce the no-show rates, how about a deposit at the time of booking which is non-refundable if you are a no-show. Now that you’ve got everyone’s attention and, I mean, the wallet does have a way of stimulating the cerebral cortex, doesn’t it.

It is clear, we have limited resources in a world begging for more service delivery. I’m not just sure we’re giving the proper attention of this no-show rate in the NWT, so I will have questions at the appropriate time for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Money is set aside for this year’s capital plan for a new fire lookout tower in Enterprise. The tower will replace an existing tower located in an isolated part of the Cameron Hills, 73 kilometres from Kakisa.

Like other fire lookout towers, the Cameron tower is staffed from mid-May to mid-August by a contract employee from Hay River. It is used for fire detection and it is also part of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’

communication system. However, the tower has limited visibility over Hay River and the Cameron Hills Plateau. It can only be serviced by helicopter, which increases operating costs substantially. Its isolated location raises health and safety concerns for the employee stationed there. Fire detection for Kakisa is primarily from another tower located 15 kilometres west of the community and from aerial detection flights.

We have a strong business case for removing the Cameron tower and relocating its functions to Enterprise. My constituents look forward to that work starting as soon as possible. The new site provides better coverage of high priority values at risk. It will be easier to manage and brings added activity to the community. Tower construction and servicing would ideally involve contractors from the region and, better yet, from the community. This lookout station also makes the community aware of the role we all play in forest fire management as stewards of our land. With a certain amount of commitment, a local person might have the opportunity to work the new fire tower, thereby reducing costs even more.

The new tower in Enterprise makes sense. I’m very pleased to see it in the 2014-15 Capital Plan and look forward to the community of Enterprise being a key piece of our forest fire management system.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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