Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Children have been described as the ultimate resource for a society’s long-term development and well-being. Nowhere is this more true than in the NWT where the proportion of our population under 24 years of age is almost 8 percent greater than for Canada as a whole. Last week I had the opportunity to participate with an esteemed group of northern leaders in hosting a youth forum in Fort Providence. I was joined by Mr. Joachim Bonnetrouge, chief of the Deh Gah Got’ie First Nation; Mr. Sam Gargan, former grand chief of the Dehcho First Nations and MLA; Mr. Steven Vandell, deputy mayor of Fort Providence; and Dene councillor Xavier Canadien, along with a group of dedicated teachers, community health and social service workers, recreational workers and the RCMP.

We met with a group of bright, ambitious young people to talk about their fears and concerns, their goals and hopes for their future, and their suggestions for community improvement. I’d like to thank Chris Carson and Lois Phillip for helping us out.

Our discussion was the beginning of a dialogue which highlighted the importance of involving our youth in decision-making at the earliest possible opportunity. After all, everything that we do is ultimately for the benefit of our young people. Youth today are growing up in a fast-paced, technological world. They have big problems such as addictions, suicide, teen pregnancy and violence which can derail young lives and steal bright futures. How do we prepare young people to be competitive in society while still embracing the culture and traditions of their ancestors that will ground them and give them strength and perspective?

The high school graduation rate for non-Aboriginal students in the NWT in 2011-12 was 78 percent, which is consistent with the national average. However, the graduation rate for Aboriginal students was only 44 percent. We are failing our Aboriginal youth. They cannot get jobs or be qualified for future employment if they are only

educated to a Grade 9 level. Our kids need to know how the doors of the world will open to them with the right education. They need to know what it takes to succeed and to believe that they can do it.

Our young people need a variety of educational opportunities. They need youth workers, parent volunteers and interagency committees to help them set up access resources. They need jobs in their home communities. Most of all, they need the love, support and encouragement of healthy families and communities to give them the best possible chance in order to become productive adults. We must remember the youth that we raise today are tomorrow’s northern leaders.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the new bypass around Giant Mine has opened, there are now barriers and gates across the old highway that passes through the contaminated mine site. The public no longer has access to the site but they still have questions.

When the City of Yellowknife referred the stabilization plan for an environmental assessment, the federal proponents complained that this would result in long delays. They said that any delay would be dangerous. Yet their recommendations were released almost a year ago and we are still waiting for the responsible Ministers to complete the process. Six months ago, in December, the Minister stated that they accept the recommendations, but we have heard little since.

What is the plan for operations at Giant Mine this summer? Are they following the old plan that was largely rejected or the new one based on the environmental assessment that is sitting on the responsible Ministers’ desks? Both Minister Valcourt, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, and our own Minister Miltenberger are responsible for approving the environmental assessment. While Ministers delay responsible oversight, work is proceeding without a clear and transparent plan. Also, it’s proceeding without any inspectors in Yellowknife to monitor what is going on.

Now that devolution is in place, all the former government inspectors work for the GNWT. The nearest federal inspector is based in Whitehorse. We’ve just come through another spring thaw and are getting reports of arsenic-contaminated dust from the tailings and spills of arsenic-contaminated water on site blowing into town at off-the-chart levels of contamination. Meanwhile, and despite an offer of GNWT inspectors, there have been no inspections for months now.

The Giant site is closed off from the public, and that is probably good for public safety. It doesn’t mean that we should relax our vigilance. We need to keep a closer eye than ever on activity at Giant, particularly because the work team regulators and inspectors are all working for the federal government. The environmental assessment clearly lays out a plan for stabilizing Giant Mine and providing independent oversight. We need to get the plan off the Ministers’ desks and implemented. What will it take? Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use today’s opportunity to return to one of my favorite subjects, which happens to be the consumer affairs protection division, or lack thereof, Mr. Speaker.

Many Northerners continue to wait for any action from this division and certainly by the Minister and for years have been continuing to raise issues about the restrictiveness and confusing concerns around cell phone contracts, problems around homeownership purchasing, protection, the fact that homes don’t require full disclosure under protection rules, and payday loans continue to hold people at risk, at prey and vulnerable.

I’ve gone on relentlessly about the high cost of gasoline and how they affect the cost of living. There are so many other issues when it comes to collection agencies and certainly home renovation repairs.

Municipal and Community Affairs seems to not be interested in this issue. While I sit and watch, it certainly pales in comparison to the action taken across Canada by other governments. Why won’t this government budge? It appears this Minister is either not interested in these issues or, as constituents ask me, does he just not care about consumer protection or does he not understand consumer protection? People want to know, does he just believe everything’s fine or is he stubborn? We just don’t know.

The constituents ask me how do we know he even appreciates the issue. I just don’t have an answer for them. I’ve been asking for years. When you pay some of the highest gas prices in the land in our remote, northern communities, you often wonder if you are being taken advantage of and you don’t know where to go. When our phone bills hold you over a barrel, people want to know how to access services to find out if they are being treated fairly.

Many services go on and on and on, but people don’t know what their full rights and disclosure and

protections are. That’s why we need a consumer affairs division that is public and not anonymous.

Speaking of that, many months ago, if not a good year and a half ago, I asked the Minister of MACA to make this public, not anonymous. This office continues to hide behind I don’t know what, some web page.

I went to the web page because I actually know where to go. There is very little information on how to contact this particular office, so when the Minister says it’s a very busy office, perhaps not from complaints. I’m not sure what they do.

The bottom line is we need a public office that helps citizens know their rights, understand their rights and so they know where to go. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Dolynny on March 4, 2014, regarding tobacco tax collection and reporting.

Statistics Canada conducts the Canadian Community Health Survey on an annual basis in the Northwest Territories. This survey collects self-reported cigarette consumption and is publically available from a variety of sources, including the Statistics Canada website.

In the Department of Finance, the tax administration section collects tobacco product data as part of the tax collection process. Wholesalers of tobacco products sold to retailers in the NWT report their sales and remit the taxes on these sales monthly to tax administration. This data is released annually to the public in the public accounts as the tobacco tax revenue for the year.

The tax audit and investigations section has standing procedures to perform compliance audits on tobacco wholesalers and retailers. Retailers are also inspected on a regular basis. All complaints of non-compliance with tobacco tax legislation and possible non-compliance issues are fully investigated. The section keeps detailed statistics on its activities, which are not publically available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 5, recognitions of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned in my Minister’s statement earlier, but I want to recognize two individuals with us today. First if all, Mr. Wade Blake. I’d like to welcome him today and thank him very much for his work here in the Northwest Territories. I wish him well in his new capacity as director of community justice and policing with the Department of Justice.

Also, Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize Mr. Ron Smith, the new commanding officer with “G” Division here in the Northwest Territories. Ron is from my hometown, St. John, New Brunswick. It’s nice to see another fellow from St. John making it to the top. Congratulations, and I look forward to working with Ron in his new capacity as commanding officer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to introduce to you and through you, again we’ve heard from the Minister of Justice, but I, too, would like to thank the new commanding officer of “G” Division, Mr. Ron Smith, for being here. I’m looking forward to working with you.

Of course, without due cause, Mr. Wade Blake, the retiring chief superintendent of “G” Division, it was a pleasure working with you over the years. You are well deserved in your retirement. I hope your golf game goes very well.

We also have a number of Pages with us who have been working very hard all week. We’ve had Pages from all over the Northwest Territories, but more importantly we have one Page from Range Lake. I’d like to thank Sommer Snow for working very hard this week. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

I would just like to recognize and I appreciate all the Pages working with us. I appreciate their work ethics and just for being here with us. One of them will be Sahara Sadeh Lafferty. Sadeh stands for my sunshine. She’s also my girl, Sahara Sadeh Lafferty. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to join in and thank retired Chief Superintendent Wade Blake for his many years of northern service. He has dedicated himself in an excellent manner. At the same time, I’d also like to recognize our incoming chief superintendent, Ron Smith. I really appreciate the dedication and service both gentlemen have offered Northerners. They

continue, as in Mr. Blake’s case, serving Northerners working for the Department of Justice and Mr. Smith works now serving Northerners in his new role. I want to say thank you to both of them for their fine service and certainly service with distinction to all Northerners. That’s an important difference, distinction, it’s a high quality in their area. Thank you for that.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On behalf of the residents of Frame Lake, I too would like to thank Mr. Blake for his service. It has been great service and we appreciate that. I would also like to welcome the incoming commander, Mr. Smith. I have some Pages as well. Frame Lake is extremely well represented with Pages in the Assembly this week. Today I would like to welcome three Pages from Frame Lake: Sebastian Ransom, Isaac Macpherson and Dakota Earle. Thanks to those three in particular for your service, but thanks to all the Pages for the work they do for us. Thanks, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourableMember for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I have a couple of questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

The issue of child and family services is something that has been much discussed in this House. The previous Assembly did a very in-depth consultation in this topic and now the Auditor General’s report has been reported on. There is one area that I particularly wanted to zero in on today. We know that families do, from time to time, suffer from extreme challenges and from crisis, and where there are children involved, sometimes it requires an intervention or outside support.

It would be the natural thing for close family members to be aware of these situations and to step up to the plate. However, in reality this may put stress on that family that’s helping, those grandparents, aunts and uncles, may put financial stress on them.

I’d like to ask the Minister if the department has ever contemplated support for direct family members than is less invasive than having to apprehend children, putting children through the trauma of that, but finding a way to support those

related family members who could, at a time of crises or challenge, step in and help family members. Has the department contemplated that being done on a collaborative basis and seeing some remuneration available to those family members? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services does become involved with children at risk when they enter the system and access the Child and Family Services Act. When that occurs, whether it’s voluntary or through identification, we do try to keep children with families as much as possible. When a child needs to be placed, we obviously like to approach families to see if they’d be willing to foster. If they’re willing to foster, we’ll put them through the process. If that happens, they will receive remuneration that is consistent with all other foster families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My experience has been that sometimes when family members step in, there is a sense in the department or with the child welfare worker that the problem has now been alleviated, it has been solved and the inclination is to step away from the situation and say, okay, the children are no longer at risk and therefore they are safe.

I would like to know if there is a process that allows family to be involved in that transition for those children. Quite often, child protection workers are seen as the enemy coming in to apprehend children and take them out of their home. I know there are very many variables on what can happen in terms of why those interventions are required, and I have always been very reluctant to ever criticize child protection workers who have to do a very difficult job. But, is there a piece missing here?

Is there a collaborative way that family members could approach social services and realize the same end without having to intervene with an apprehension? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, just for clarity, raising children is, first and foremost, a responsibility of the family. Parents have the right to make decisions about where their children live, but the GNWT is not necessarily responsible for paying for those decisions. The only time the GNWT would actually become involved is if a family has some financial challenges, is living in poverty, and we would provide income support. Families can make the decision to have children stay with one group and then apply for income support.

When health and social services becomes involved, the only time we can actually engage with families and do the types of things the Member is talking

about is when they actually become part of the system and we have a file on them. When they come in, whether it’s voluntary, which I think is part of what the Member is talking about, or whether it’s through an intervention, we will work with families and we will try to find ways to keep the children with the families. If that requires a foster placement, we have a process that is expedited or modified for family placements, which is less thorough – thorough is not the right word – less intense than the normal foster process. When they are placed with those people, whether it’s a shorter term placement or a longer term placement, they do get the same funding or financial support.

But as we move forward with child and family services, we’re talking about changing our philosophy. We’re talking about helping support and build stronger families, which means we want to work with families when they are struggling, so that they can continue to provide the loving care that they want to to their families, which will include the types of things that the Member is talking about. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’ll keep this really short. Here’s a scenario: The grandparents already have the child in their care. The child is not apprehended. The grandparents intervened. They already have the child in their care. Who can they go to to talk about getting support for caring for that child, other than income support? Thank you.