This is page numbers 6207 – 6238 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 water.

Topics

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I’d like to welcome also here today Doug Camsell, Captain Doug Camsell, from my old working days up in Tuk before coming to this Assembly. A lot of good times. Welcome to the House, Doug. I’d like to welcome also Ms. Mahalia Newmark, raised in Tuk for a lot of years. It’s always good to have people from back home. I’d like to welcome everybody here for taking an interest in the proceedings here today.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. In my research, I understand that there are 71 positions within the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority. Thirteen of these positions are vacant. The following communities have vacancies: Deline has three vacancies, Tulita has one, Norman Wells has eight vacancies, Fort Good Hope has one vacancy.

Why are these important vacancies not filled, some of them since September 2014 of last year?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; there are a significant number of vacancies in the Sahtu and we recognize that it’s a problem and we’re working closely with the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority to find ways to fill these positions. There are active recruitments on a number of positions, and in some cases until we can find somebody on a more permanent basis, we have been filling some

of them with casuals, but that doesn’t change the need to find permanent staff.

There’s a number of reasons that we may be having difficulties. Some individuals, some of those positions require real solid knowledge, skills and ability and some statutory requirements, but the Sahtu Authority has held discussions with community leadership on more effective approaches to providing a range of culturally appropriate mental health services, because one of the larger vacancies we have is around mental health services in the Sahtu and they’re in the early stages of designing a pilot project in partnership with one of the communities to see if there’s a more innovative way or a better way to involve local people to provide some more stability in the Sahtu. So, we’re looking forward to seeing how that goes. In the interim, we continue to actively recruit, and hopefully we’ll be able to fill those positions in short order. Thank you.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I look forward to the pilot project partnership study. The communities of Deline, Tulita, Norman Wells, Colville Lake, the mental health and addictions counsellors positions have been vacant since August 2014, September 2014. These positions have been vacant for well over a year. I want to know from this Minister and also from our Health and Social Services Health Board about these positions. We have given the Minister some creative ideas, solutions.

Why are we not having these positions filled? Can we not do something different? We seem to be running up the same old issue of credentials and academic credibility. Well, we have another method using the Aboriginal context of looking after ourselves. Why is the Minister not exploring that issue?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I hear the Member, and that is exactly the type of thing that is being done with this new pilot study, looking at new ways to involve communities and find alternate ways to provide services in communities and looking at local solutions.

I have also had an opportunity to travel around the Northwest Territories and talk to leadership, and every time I meet with leadership, I talk about the vacancies that we’re seeing across the Northwest Territories, and I ask them to work with us to encourage youth to pursue some of these professions.

As a note, some of these professions do have statutory requirements, so it does tie our hands a little bit as far as who we can put into those positions. But I do take the Member’s point. We are going to be working with the Sahtu. I know the CEO in the Sahtu has been running a number of competitions and is looking forward to this new relationship to see if we can have some success through this pilot.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

There are some very well-educated, culturally credible people in the Sahtu who can be working with the health board.

I want to ask the Minister, within our own health board there are some people who are either on sick leave or are on extended leave because they are being overworked within the Health department. Some of the workers are even complaining to me that there aren’t proper support mechanisms within the health board. Some of them need to be recognized and be honoured by their experience, and yet they’re being overlooked. There are other people coming to the health board that are taking on the managerial positions, who are actually being trained by these qualified social workers or mental health workers and they’re not given the credence, I guess, or the recognition that they deserve.

When is the department going to look at our own Sahtu homegrown labour force?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

As a government, we’re always looking for ways to train local people for local work, and if we have individuals who are in the system who would be appropriate for succession planning purposes, we often look at those individuals. But in some situations, I mean, it is frustrating, and I understand the Member’s frustration. If there is a statutory requirement for a job, when you need that in order to have a licence to perform the duties articulated within the job description, that can be a barrier, which is why we have to look at other alternatives such as this pilot project that we’re talking about in the Sahtu region.

But at the same time, there are programs available to us, such as the Regional Recruitment Program to bring local people into local work. But we are looking at a number of ways to train local people. For example, we are hopefully going to be opening up the long-term care facility in the Norman Wells area in the next year or two, the next two years, and we’re working with the Gwich’in, the Sahtu and the Inuvialuit to arrange training for local people to take on many of those roles.

I hear the Member. I support what the Member is saying. We’re looking for creative solutions. We’re working with the Sahtu. The chief executive officer in the Sahtu is constantly working with the leadership in the communities to try to find ways to encourage youth to pursue careers, and we’re looking for ways to train local people, where possible.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would strongly suggest to the Minister and also to our CEO, go to the homegrown, qualified statutory social workers in our communities, sit down with them and say, “what’s the issue,” because certainly they aren’t being heard. This has been told to me.

This is not happening. They’re telling me directly. I’m saying right now in this Assembly to this Minister, if they can do that we would certainly clear up a lot of issues that will put people in good positions within the Sahtu health board. There are some issues that we cannot speak of today in the House that need to be addressed. I’m asking the Minister if he would do this with our health board and CEO.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I’ll pass that message along to the chair of the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority and have him strongly encourage the CEO to meet with the individuals the Member is referring to.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This spring we had an early spring up in the Mackenzie Delta, about a week early actually, and over the last few days the water has dropped a lot, there’s no more ice on the river, and as far as I know, the ferry is supposed to be launched tomorrow.

I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, will the ferry be launched tomorrow? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan is to launch the ferry tomorrow, Thursday; at the very latest, early Friday. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Just over lunch today I got the latest update from Tsiigehtchic and the water level is very low, you can see the landing.

What is the status on the landings right now? Are there people working on it, building it up, getting it ready for the ferry? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The water is subsiding and the slipways are ready. Equipment is now working to improve the landings, so yes the landings are ready. We are expecting the service of hauling vehicles to actually start on Sunday. We are trying to speed it up to try to coincide with people wanting to travel over to Inuvik for the graduation. We have put a bit of a rush on it, so the department tells me that they are hoping to resume service, but safety is very important. There is some welding that has occurred while the ferry was on land, so we have to ensure that those things are taken care of before we are able to haul the public. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

That was going to be my next question, but the Minister answered most of it. What is the holdup on the ferry? Is there welding still needed? I didn’t really get that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

When we put the ferry into the water and start to run the ferry across the Mackenzie River, we have to ensure that there are no issues. We don’t anticipate issues; we just need to do a test before we actually let the public onto the ferry. There is no real holdup. It is going as we initially scheduled for the ferry to operate. Generally on average the ferry has started on June 1st . We’re

hoping that we’re able to at least meet that day this season as well. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, the graduation is on Saturday, and I would like to ask the Minister, does he think that the ferry will be ready for people to travel on Saturday? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The information I have right now is that the service will begin on Sunday. As I indicated, we would like to try to get the ferry running on Saturday so that we can accommodate people wanting to go to watch the two graduates from Tsiigehtchic. We recognize that that’s something that the community wants to see, so we are working hard to try to make that happen. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance. I would like to start by noting that the new debt limit of $1.3 billion contributes to financial potential. We need to move forward as a territory, but we certainly have to use this potential wisely, focusing first on our people and communities rather than servicing the global corporations that rarely are yielding the economic development we seek.

With this new flexibility, and recognizing the dire issues our people face, what are the Minister’s priorities in the allocation of these newly authorized opportunities? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.