This is page numbers 4649 – 4690 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was public.

Topics

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure it’s worth it, but I’ll stand up and speak anyway. I personally was enabled to go into politics by participating in workshops arranged by the non-profit sector on how to run for office. I suppose that may be grounds for the Premier to deny my following suggestion; however, these were very helpful to me.

Would the Premier commit to funding similar workshops across the NWT, aimed at encouraging more people to run for political office, not just enjoying hearing me speak? Thank you.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you. It’s good to know that Mr. Bromley has all the answers on this issue.

We want to encourage women to run for politics. We’ve been trying to work through the Status of Women Council. I don’t think it’s only the purview of the Status of Women Council. I think this Legislative Assembly could do more in that regard. I think other groups in society could do more. To put the tail on the donkey and blame it just on an organization that is doing its best to further the advances of women, I think, is not very helpful. I think we will do whatever we can to do, as we have in the past, to put on campaign schools for women. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, before we go on today, I’d like to welcome to the House our Languages Commissioner, Ms. Snookie Catholique, and her assistant, Eleanor Klengenberg. Welcome to the House.

Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I talked about the hundreds of volunteers that are working in Hay River, and some of those volunteers are GNWT employees, so I have questions for the Minister of Human Resources about what leave is available to GNWT employees for volunteering for community events.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has various leave for volunteer activities. Some of the leave is laid out in the Collective Agreement and in the Human Resource Manual. We have civic leave, where an individual employee of the GNWT can take up to 15 days to work with public boards, community councils and committees. There is other leave, as well, for something we refer to as sporting leave for people who are athletes, officially designated coaches, managers, head officials and so on, and GNWT allows up to eight days for that type of activity. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Mr. Speaker, the next question I have is I understand this leave is something you probably have to apply for, but I’m wondering if we have any agreements or any leave in place for short-term demand or quick demands on volunteers, such as firefighters in the Northwest Territories. My colleague from Inuvik talked about his firefighters and department. In Hay River we have a strong firefighters group as well.

I’m just wondering: what agreement does a firefighter have to have with the GNWT to take immediate action when there’s a fire?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, as far as the training of the firefighters goes, for that aspect of it the GNWT will provide five days of leave. If a firefighter at work is called to a fire and needs to take leave for that day when they’re fighting a house fire, I think that is something that we don’t have specifically covered in our HR Manual, but it’s something I think that the GNWT, as the manager of that employee, allows an individual to go and fight a house fire if they’re part of the volunteer group.

However, some of the other things that may be important to this questioning is that right now the

GNWT is doing a comprehensive review of all of the planned leave, to try to determine the best way to move forward with this leave and also recognizing the fact that the GNWT has probably the best leave from most public services across the country. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Mr. Speaker, the question about the short-term leave for firefighters has come up over the last couple of weeks when we’ve had two major fires in the community. I’m just wondering: in that review, will there be something that once you have a firefighter on staff, that basically there is no requirement; he or she can be called on demand for the firefighter services once they’ve agreed that they’re allowed to be in the GNWT and be a firefighter at the same time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, although the operational requirements are something that is a factor in granting immediate leave for an individual to fight a fire, none of the departments or any of the managers that work for the GNWT will withhold leave when some firefighters have an immediate need to leave to fight a house fire. None of that leave will be unreasonably denied, but like I indicated, there is an operational requirement as well. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the other volunteer groups that have come to me recently is the Canadian Rangers, obviously a great volunteer organization, as you all know.

I guess the question is: What are the leave requirements for GNWT staff that are members of the Rangers?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, civil leave used for participation in community councils, public boards and other committees, other volunteer organizations around the community. The Rangers are used extensively for search and rescue, as well as firefighters. CASARA have their leave when an individual is out on the land, lost. In that case the Rangers would fall into that leave. When the Rangers are exercising, as I’m sure the Speaker is aware, then the leave will be granted under the civil leave. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I made reference to the state of northern and Aboriginal broadcasting in the Northwest Territories by pointing out opportunities in assisting our broadcast station of CKLB. I made reference that

capital funds are particularly hard to come by. The station has struggled to keep up with maintenance of its community transmitters and has been unable to implement new communication technologies. In essence, as I see it, Aboriginal media should not be a second-class citizen in today’s NWT broadcast community and it deserves better. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Training has always been a major component of the Native Communications Society’s work. It has been a springboard for many well-known careers woven into the fabric of our daily life in the Northwest Territories: William Greenland, Peter Hope, William Firth, Richard Van Camp and photographer Dorothy Chocolate are among the first to jump to mind. Therefore, I’m recommending that we build upon this strength and develop a fully funded training program for northern Aboriginal broadcasters, monitored and administered by the society.

Can the Minister tell me how he will assist in making this happen? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As this House knows, I am a true supporter of anything that contributes to the health and strength of our Aboriginal languages. NCS, the Native Communications Society, is valuable and also contributes towards this.

Again, there is no doubt that those talented individuals have worked for the society, as well, and learned from NCS over the years. We fully support that as government, for their contributions over the years.

The Member does put in a very interesting idea about how we can move forward on providing the training to these northern broadcasters. I have instructed my department to work with NCS possibly developing some sort of a training package. Not only that but identifying those students that may be pursuing this at post-secondary. It will consist of northern broadcasters, Aurora College, Aboriginal organizations to keep the language strong. Those are the individuals that I need to coordinate with.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I’m encouraged by what I’m hearing today and I’d like to thank the Minister for that. As mentioned, core funding from Heritage Canada has not changed in over 30 years, and coupled with the meagre advertising revenue and inconsistent GNWT funding, this has created a very lean operational base in which to maintain the open doors.

Can the Minister tell me how he’s going to leverage what is possible from the GNWT as own-source funding in order to meet this growing concern, and

how is he going to act as a lead negotiator with CanNor opportunities?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

The CanNor funding has got its own sources and they deal directly with NCS, but I can speak to the areas of meeting with the federal Minister, the former Minister and the current Minister of Canadian Heritage, on a number of occasions to lobby the federal government for additional funds on Aboriginal language in general. This work, obviously, is ongoing work that we’re doing between the two parties. This year we’ve entered into negotiations, as well, with the federal government on the Canada-NWT Languages Agreement. We are on the verge of negotiations with the federal government and it will be happening this fall.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I thought we were on a roll here, but it seems at a little bit of an impasse. Some of the things that I can introduce to the Minister are simply just indexing what we’re giving annually to this society so we can actually increase with the cost of living.

As I mentioned earlier, CKLB is a Timex watch working in a digital age. Therefore, I’m recommending that the proper funding be provided to assist northern and Aboriginal broadcasters with, specifically, capital equipment replacement costs.

Can the Minister tell me what he’ll do to support this initiative?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

This is an area that we’ve been working very close with NCS, identifying the capital projects, and they’ve submitted proposals to our shop, the GNWT, through ECE, and we’ve been working very closely with Heritage Canada, as well, because they provide the capital expenditures. Those are some of the discussions that we are currently having with the federal government on behalf of NCS. At the same time, NCS, the CEO is also advocating with the federal government, as well, so at both angles we’re pushing the federal government. We’ll do what we can to push that even further.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In order for us to make sure we do not hit this wall of worry for our northern and Aboriginal broadcasters in the future, it’s imperative that we put in place the right evaluation tools to prevent this mishap from occurring again.

Assuming we can get a new funding model in place, can the Minister indicate to the House by what measures he plans to evaluate progress after this renewed funding is made available?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Since we’ve been dealing with NCS the last few years now on the

reporting mechanism with the federal government, we’ve been talking about evaluating and reviewing of their proposals, as well, and the annual reports that are coming in. I completely agree, because we are a public government, and the way that the money is spent is essential to be a responsible government. This is an area that we’re primarily focusing on.

My department also recently discussed the 2014-15 contributions with NCS, which included an enhanced review of the outcome. This was done with NCS agreement, so they’ve also supported our government, as well, and we support them in return. The annual reporting requirement, which I’m very pleased to advise the Members that NCS has provided on time and in accordance with the requirements.

In closing, I’d just like to give the Members a heads-up that I would like to restate that this government supports NCS and, indeed, our community broadcasters in terms of their contribution in promoting Aboriginal languages across the NWT and I would like to thank them for the excellent job that they do on a daily basis.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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