This is page numbers 6259 – 6290 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 work.

Topics

The House met at 10:01 a.m.

---Prayer

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Good morning, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, economic opportunity comes in all shapes and forms. This summer it is coming to the Northwest Territories in the form of morel mushrooms, a delicacy highly sought after by food markets around the world.

Ultimately, Mother Nature will have the largest role in determining the success of our harvest. However, under the right conditions, we anticipate this harvest could generate as much as $10 million in the NWT this summer.

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has been working to prepare NWT residents to take advantage of this opportunity and keep some of these revenues within the territory.

In preparation, we have hosted 19 morel mushroom information sessions in communities where the impacts of the anticipated season are expected to be greatest. These sessions were overwhelmingly popular, with nearly 1,200 residents participating.

Those in attendance learned of potential harvesting areas, methods for gathering and storing morels and best practices for selling and marketing their harvest.

The sessions also emphasized the message of harvesting in a way that is safe, legal and respectful of the environment and Aboriginal peoples, whose lands some of these mushrooms will be on.

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has worked with the NWT Association of Communities and the Government of Canada to produce a Morel Mushroom Harvester’s Handbook and field guides to ensure pickers have adequate

information at their disposal when they venture into the harvest areas.

On-site walking workshops have also begun and will continue until mid-June in areas where the mushrooms have appeared, to provide hands-on experience for those interested in harvesting.

I would like to extend my appreciation to the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for assisting us in also providing safety information for prospective harvesters venturing out this summer.

All of this information is now available in French and English on the Industry, Tourism and Investment website.

Mr. Speaker, while ITI has worked to prepare residents for this opportunity, it cannot guarantee a bountiful and prosperous harvest. Many other factors can and will impact the success of this year’s harvest.

Morels will need to meet or exceed certain standards of quality and consistency. Rain, the lack of rain, fire and cooler temperatures will have influences on the crop and the length of harvest that can be realized in our territory; and prices, determined by buyers, will similarly be affected by these elements and the economic principle of supply and demand.

Our territory has a proud history of resourcefulness and innovation. The quick development of a strategy and plan to realize the benefits of what could be a multi-million dollar morel mushroom harvesting opportunity this summer is a good example.

We are also a territory that believes in working together – as Northerners – and in partnership with those from outside of our territory.

I would like to recognize today Chief Lloyd Chicot and the people of Kakisa. In the face of concerns about the impacts that an influx of people will have on their community, they embraced the occasion, throwing a welcoming community barbeque for as many as 50 pickers in the area and sharing with them their traditional practice of catching and drying fish right out of the river.

It was an opportunity for pickers and residents to meet and learn more about each other and to agree on boundaries and practices that could be followed

in the mutual realization of benefits from this most unique and economic opportunity that has come to the NWT this summer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a few moments to speak to the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link Project, or MVFL.

On January 12, 2015, the government took the first step towards removing the limitations of our current communications infrastructure. The Fibre Link Project will allow Inuvik to become a global remote sensing site, enable our government to improve our programs and services, particularly in the areas of education and health, and allow many more of our residents and businesses to join the 21st century

and communicate in real time with the rest of the world.

Mr. Speaker, the first winter construction season of the MVFL Project has concluded, with over 430 kilometres of fibre optic cable installed. Though this construction season faced some initial challenges, it was successful with just over one-third of the route completed. The project remains on time, on budget, with a start-up date of the second quarter of 2016.

Winter construction activity took place between Tulita and Inuvik and employed approximately 112 local residents and used over 21 local contractors and suppliers. With the economic challenges facing many of our Sahtu and Gwich’in communities, this past winter, I am happy to report, the Fibre Link Project was able to contribute to the local economy in these communities.

Mr. Speaker, the summer build between McGill Lake and Wrigley is set to begin in late June. The MVFL Project Team is eager to begin summer work and will continue engaging local residents and businesses on project progress over the coming weeks and months.

Mr. Speaker, since construction commenced, we have experienced increased interest, nationally and internationally, in the growth of the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility. Since its official inauguration in 2010, a total of three 14-metre receiving antennas have been installed on site. An additional dish has been committed for this summer, with the site preparation work for the installation currently underway. A fifth dish is being planned for summer/spring 2016.

The Premier, Robert R. McLeod; the Honourable Robert C. McLeod; Mr. Robert Hawkins, MLA for Yellowknife Centre; and myself will be travelling to Europe in June with officials from the federal

government to continue to promote the Fibre Link Project and increase utilization of the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility.

We have seen first-hand the significant positive benefits the satellite ground station and remote sensing industry have had not only on the economy of Kiruna, Sweden, but also the important role they play in facilitating advanced learning at the Institute of Space Physics. The potential impact of an expanded satellite ground station in Inuvik on the Aurora Research Centre is significant and could make this facility one of the “the places to be” to conduct space-based Arctic research.

I would like to conclude my statement by thanking the sustained efforts and support from our residents, businesses and community leadership throughout the Mackenzie Valley to ensure the continued success of the project.

I also want to thank all my colleagues of this Assembly for their support in advancing the project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Minister of MACA, Mr. R.C. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, today I am very proud to rise and recognize that two of our very own have been elected to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

I am, of course, speaking about Sharon Firth and Shirley Firth-Larsson, who will become the first Northwest Territories residents to be inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony later this fall in Calgary.

Sharon and Shirley captivated the North and Canada from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s with their incredible sporting exploits. They first entered the national scene in 1968 when they won medals at the Canadian Junior Cross Country Ski Championships.

They went on to compete in four Olympic Winter Games, including Sapporo, Japan, in 1972; Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976; Lake Placid, New York, in 1980; and Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, in 1984.

In many ways they were trailblazers for women, for Aboriginal Canadians and for all Northerners in the rest of Canada and around the world.

Although Shirley is no longer with us, Sharon continues to be a role model and inspiration for hundreds of young people in her current work as a youth officer with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame recognizes our country’s finest athletes as role

models for Canadians of all ages, and sharing their stories unites our country and reminds us of the core values that help define our people.

All Northerners are extremely proud of Sharon and Shirley’s accomplishments. We only wish that Shirley could have been here to receive this national recognition of her contribution to Canada’s sport history.

Sharon and Shirley Firth have certainly inspired all of us. They will now take their place at Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, where their stories can encourage all Canadians to strive to be the very best they can be.

I invite all Members to join me in congratulating Sharon Firth and Shirley Firth-Larsson’s family on this wonderful honour on behalf of all Northerners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Mr. Speaker, this government is committed to achieving this Legislative Assembly’s vision of strong individuals, families and communities. By working together in partnerships, we can reach our goal of healthy and educated people in sustainable and vibrant communities throughout our territory.

To help promote, preserve and manage the long-term health and social well-being of NWT residents, the Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet and the corresponding deputy minister committee have introduced a number of initiatives and actions. We have previously talked about some of them, such as our actions to help reduce poverty in the NWT, promote community wellness and better address mental health and addictions issues. Today I want to tell you about some of our actions to ensure stronger coordination and collaboration in the delivery of social services and supports for NWT residents.

A number of our recent strategic frameworks, including the Early Childhood Development Strategy, the Anti-Poverty Strategic Framework and the Addictions and Mental Health Action Plan, speak to a more integrated approach to service delivery. The shift to more consciously coordinated service delivery is also evident in the 2015-2016 budget, which included investments to support integrated approaches to case management and initiatives to improve integration of services to people with a variety of needs.

We recognize the need to examine programs and make sure that we are taking a client-focused approach to service delivery. We are seeing many

successes in this work. This includes proposed changes to the way the NWT Housing Corporation will calculate rent for public housing clients. Minister Robert C. McLeod will have more to say about this later during this session.

Different departments are working closely together to promote healthy living for our youth. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has established a new Children and Youth Resiliency Program to support community programming that helps our youth build resiliency and be more physically active. A healthy snacks component has also been added to this popular after-school physical activity program.

Progress has also been made on protocols and training for support service delivery staff when it comes to referrals or support to clients with apparent mental health issues. The Mental Health First Aid program teaches GNWT front-line workers how to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health disorders, how to provide initial help and how to guide people to community mental health resources and professional help. Mental Health First Aid training has been provided to staff in the corrections service as well as to staff of the departments of Education, Culture and Employment, Municipal and Community Affairs, Health and Social Services and Justice. In addition, the Department of Justice has Mental Health First Aid instructors in house. The Integrated Case Management Team has two instructors available to deliver the three-day Mental Health First Aid workshops to employees and the public.

We are also making progress on services and supports to seniors. In collaboration with the NWT Seniors’ Society, the Seniors’ Information Handbook has been updated. This valuable resource for seniors provides a comprehensive list of government programs and services that seniors and their caregivers can access to help them make informed decisions and remain independent and active in their home communities. A companion booklet for caregivers is being developed and will provide information to assist families caring for their loved ones. The government service officers have received training on the handbook and are using it as a resource to support effective service delivery to residents.

Mr. Speaker, these are just some examples of our work to improve the coordination of service delivery and supports to NWT residents. We will continue to advance this important work, in the belief that better coordination and collaboration across GNWT departments and agencies that offer social services and supports will lead to improved access and outcomes for NWT residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mr. Speaker, ensuring Aboriginal languages survive for future generations is a key priority for our government and the Members of this Legislative Assembly. One of the most effective ways to ensure the continued use of all of the NWT’s 11 official languages is simply using and hearing these languages as part of our day-to-day interactions. This theme of “use it or lose it” resonates through the regional Aboriginal language plans now being implemented by Aboriginal governments, the 2009 Committee Report on Official Languages and the government’s 2010 “Aboriginal Languages Plan – A Shared Responsibility.”

Broadcasting in the official languages is one way all of our official languages are in use and heard by our listeners in all of our communities. Stories and important information are shared with one another over the radio and television in not just English but the other 10 official languages. In fact, many of our unilingual listeners rely on the radio as the primary source of information to receive the news in their language.

Mr. Speaker, this invaluable service is provided to us in part by the Native Communications Society and its broadcasting arm, CKLB. They have provided cultural and language programming since 1982, with broadcasts in English, French, Tlicho, South Slavey, Gwich’in, North Slavey and Chipewyan. In recognition of their important contribution to Aboriginal language revitalization, the Government of the Northwest Territories has long provided core funding to NCS and the Inuvialuit Communications Society, who provided programming in Inuvialuktun and Inuinnaqtun. This is in addition to federal government funding they are eligible to receive under the Northern Aboriginal Broadcasting Grant.

Over the past few years, they have experienced some operational challenges, culminating in CKLB having to stop live broadcasts and programming in July 2014. Aside from going off the air, it also meant a loss of jobs for people in many of our communities.

Mr. Speaker, as is true for Aboriginal language revitalization generally, it is truly a shared responsibility, and for that reason I continue to lobby the federal government to increase their funding for Aboriginal and French language programming in the current round of negotiations of the renewal of the Official Languages Agreement.

Aboriginal language broadcasting contributes to both our oral traditions and recording languages for those future generations. Having them on our radios, computers and televisions ensures that the North continues to hear, read and explore our languages that are so closely connected to our cultures.

This is why, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that this government will reprofile

$500,000 annually, found from within, on an ongoing basis, for Aboriginal broadcasting. Of that amount, $400,000 will be provided to the Native Communications Society and $100,000 will be provided to the Inuvialuit Communications Society.

The funding will allow NCS to be up and running by June 1st, broadcasting first in Tlicho and South Slavey. They have plans to resume live broadcasting of North Slavey, Gwich’in, Chipewyan and will be adding French later on this year.

We will also continue to make every effort to secure funding from the federal government to sustain Aboriginal language broadcasting in the NWT. Our funding will complement the federal contribution of approximately $700,000 to Aboriginal broadcasting.

Mr. Speaker, we have worked closely with the Native Communications Society to discuss how we can help support the organization with a better financial and operating model. NCS and CKLB play a critical part in promoting and sustaining our Aboriginal languages across the NWT and it is our priority to support them. Our languages are a foundational part of our heritage and the cultural mosaic of the North, and we must support every avenue we can to keep them alive for generations to come. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members’ statements. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk about what is coming up next week in Hay River, the 25th Annual Track and Field

Championships in Hay River, territorial championships.

This Territorial Track and Field Championship always takes place during our session at this time of year. Every year the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs charters an airplane to take Members who wish to attend the opening ceremony down to Hay River for this event. I’d like to thank the Minister for making that opportunity available again this year.

I would encourage Members to attend. If you have never attended the opening ceremonies of the Track and Field Championships, it is very hard to describe to you how exciting it is as those school teams parade into the arena under the banner of their school. Small schools, big schools, little people, seniors who are participating in the Track and Field Championships, it is a very exciting time for everyone. Those children are very pleased to see their MLAs and a face from home on that stage as they parade by.

This year, already the weather has been beautiful in Hay River. It’s been very warm. We’ve seen the little people out practising on the track. Every time I drive by, I want to stop and take a picture. Also, we’ve seen the loyal volunteers who prepare the track and make it ready for the events. They’ve been out in force this year as well. I don’t want to name them for fear of missing someone. It is that core group of volunteers which we will build on which gives you confidence because of their commitment for the bigger event that we will be hosting in Hay River and Fort Smith later.

I would like to say that I will be going home to the opening ceremony. I probably won’t be coming back for the last day of session next week. It’s really too bad that we couldn’t just all stay down there because right after the Track and Field Championships, they have a masters or seniors or corporate challenge. Some year wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could enter a team of MLAs in that event and we could show them we don’t just talk, but we can walk the talk? That would be really exciting. Unfortunately, I know business will take most Members back to the Chamber here on Thursday.

Mr. Speaker, all the best to all the athletes. Hundreds of them will converge on Hay River, athletes, chaperones, coaches, parents. We welcome them all and are looking forward to a wonderful week and we hope the weather holds. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My constituents are patiently waiting the opening of the new elders facility in Aklavik and also the start of construction of the new elders home in Fort McPherson.

Elders are looking forward to their new homes, which will also help keep our elders in the community with home support. This will also give an opportunity for people who have been on a waiting list for housing.

I will have questions for the Minister later today to ensure we are on schedule. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The C.D. Howe Institute is an independent not-for-profit research institute which is widely considered by many to be Canada’s most influential think-tank. It is Canada’s trusted source of essential policy, intelligence, distinguished by research that is non-partisan, evidence-based and subject to definitive expert review.

In April of this year C.D. Howe released a study, titled “By the Numbers: The Fiscal Accountability of Canada’s Senior Governments, 2015.” This study is based on the premise that a reasonably capable and interested non-expert should be able to read a government’s budget documents and year-end public accounts to assess whether the government is meeting its promises and commitments. Working from this premise, the study analyzed the budgets and public accounts of Canada’s federal government and provincial and territorial governments in order to assess the quality and clarity of their financial recording.

According to C.D. Howe, the GNWT’s quality of reporting tied with Quebec as the third poorest in the country, earning a D-plus grade. This study concluded that the GNWT public accounts were consistent with public sector accounting board standards and it did, “save the Northwest Territories from getting outright failing grades. yet its budgets would bewilder our idealized reader with multiple presentations of revenue and spending figures that no non-expert could possibly reconcile with the headline figures in their public accounts.”

As a member of the Standing Committee on Government Operations that undertakes this challenging exercise every year, I can personally attest to just how accurate these findings are. We hear repeatedly from this government, in almost every speech and every Minister’s statement, how committed the GNWT is to accountability and transparency. Yet if this commitment is not followed with meaningful actions to ensure the public and legislators have the information needed to independently assess the government’s performance, then this is merely lip service.

A D-plus grade on financial reporting from an esteemed Canadian research institute should be a wake-up call to the Minister of Finance that it is time to up his game and put serious effort into improving the quality of GNWT’s financial reporting.

Later today I will be looking for a commitment from Minister Miltenberger to do just that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I wanted to honour Mr. Ron McCagg who passed away suddenly last week in Fort Simpson. He became a big part of Fort Simpson when he began living there. Not only did he serve on the village council for over two decades, Ron worked for the GNWT for 38 years, including 30 years in Fort Simpson. Last year he retired as a superintendent of Public Works and Services and looked forward to the next phase of his life.

Since his sudden passing, many friends and colleagues have spoken out to remember him with great respect and love, describing him as a gentleman, a straight-shooter and a man who liked to stand up for the little guy. He had a passion for fairness, always working to make a difference in people’s lives on and away from work, and age was no barrier for his lifelong mission. Seventy years old this year, in fact his passion for fairness was such that he had intended to run for MLA this fall.

For me, it was an honour to know and work with him for the 12 years in my capacity as MLA for Nahendeh. Ron is survived by his loving family, two daughters, Natasha and Heather, their husbands, as well as four wonderful granddaughters, also his partner, Lucy, and her son, Quinton. I fondly recall last year how proud he was to give his granddaughters a ride around Fort Simpson on his new three-wheel Harley Davidson.

The community of Fort Simpson has lost a great man and a strong voice. Ron will be greatly missed. On Monday, June 1st , at 2:00 p.m., the people of

Fort Simpson will celebrate his life at the Fort Simpson Recreational Centre. If you can’t make it, the Deh Cho Drum offered for anyone to contact them with their memories of Ron to share. I know all my colleagues who knew and met him over the years will join me in offering condolences to Ron’s family. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s ironic the light is shining on me today. The light will be shining on the South Slave in 2018 when the South Slave hosts the Arctic Winter Games.

In March the International Committee announced that Hay River/Fort Smith were the successful components in the joint bid for the Arctic Winter Games. I would like to give a big shout out to the bid committee for both communities as well as those communities that are participating. Enterprise and Fort Res will be involved as well.

Both town councils have been working hard and budgeting for this process, and they had a meeting a couple weekends ago to get the process working. Now the work begins. They have to roll up their sleeves and make this a big success.

I look forward to the opportunity when the Minister, Minister R.C. McLeod from Inuvik Twin Lakes, will come down and sign the agreement for the Arctic Winter Games. There is great excitement to see this come back into the regions. The Arctic Winter Games will be coming back to the people of the Northwest Territories.

I’d like to thank the Department of MACA and the GNWT for additional funding to do it right and put it out into the regions. This will be a 40-year anniversary for Hay River to have the Arctic Winter Games. We hosted it last time in the South Slave with Pine Point. It will be the 40th anniversary in

2018.

I do support the fact that we need this back in the regions. The Beau-Del and Inuvik didn’t win this bid, but I think the Arctic Winter Games should go there next. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Justice on the land, the only place where there is justice. That was told to me by a colleague this morning.

I want to talk about the Justice department, the soon-to-be corrections department. One of the mission statements of the Justice department is “working with community members so that communities are safe and secure.” One of the five goals: the department is better equipped to provide core programs and services.

Under the corrections activity description, corrections services provide safe custody and supervision of adult and youth offenders. It also states later on, “deliver culturally relevant programs to support reallocation and reintegration, including wilderness camps and elders’ support.”

A further look into the budget here of 2014-15, the adult facilities at a $24 million budget, grants and contributions in the same report here says the Elders Program is $30,000, wilderness camp is $149,000, for a total of $179,000. This budget tells

us how this department supports NWT wilderness camps, and with $24 million versus $179,000 clearly this shows that something has to change.

The Auditor General, in his report, confirmed and stated that our corrections and management operations were not in compliance with key rehabilitation and reintegration requirements. Read the report and you’ll wonder why we haven’t made much achievement in our area.

We also had a profile of inmates who transport goods into our facility, and we have a population that is well, well overrepresented by Aboriginal people. We need a change of attitudes and mindset by corrections and the Justice department.

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

---Unanimous consent granted

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Wilderness camps are a valuable method for allowing offenders to maintain and enhance their traditional knowledge and skill to help in reintegration and rehabilitation when released from custody.

In closing, we need a strong commitment by this Minister to direct his officials. Let’s make these wilderness camps a success and get the resources to do that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Monday evening I happened to catch on the CBC website late that night, I noticed that there was a story, and the story headline said, “NWT Highway No. 3 at Risk of Closing Due to Forest Fire.”

That story was issued at 5:37 that evening. What caused me some individual concern is after last year’s fire experience, there was no e-mail in my inbox saying that there was going to be a closure of the highway. Not only that, to my surprise, I had been talking to people in the industry, the grocery industry saying that they had no notice in any way.

The following morning it was followed up by a Twitter notice saying forest fires near Highway No. 3. Again, no e-mail in the MLAs’ box.

It’s not a point of criticism, but MLAs are part of the solution to ensure that public information can be disseminated in a timely and safe way. Now, I know this isn’t a story or a Member’s statement quite as sexy as a screaming scandal of terrible things, the sky is falling, but the reality is good public communication is vital to ensure that the public knows what’s happening.

As I said about the grocery companies, in speaking to them, they wondered why the Department of Transportation doesn’t communicate with them as part of the critical infrastructure of public information. If you ask a grocery store, they said that in five days, or even four days if really pressed, they can fully stock their shelves for the long haul, just like the good old ice road closure days, like the ice road crossings. They said in two days they could bring any vital, critical type of perishable to their stores and be prepared for a bit of a short-haul but ensure that all their transportation of important goods come through.

What’s important, as well, is I’ve been informed that during last season’s experience, tractor trailers were sitting with milk, eggs and vegetables while lumber and other types of dry goods were passing through. So the issue really came forward as what are our priorities and have we learned any lessons from last season’s highway closure.

I’m not taking a personal issue with the fact that the department was doing some due diligence by ensuring that the public has known, but I think MLAs are critical to be part of the solution to ensure that we can provide information in a timelier way. People look to us. When my neighbour walks across the street and says, “What the heck is happening?” I say, “I don’t know, but I just e-mailed the Minister and I’m waiting for an answer myself.” We cannot have that type of solution. Here is the opportunity, and I’ll finish it by saying I’ll have some questions about solutions during question period. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Flexible Employment Opportunities
Members’ Statements

May 28th, 2015

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Even knowing the opportunities for Member’s statements during this short session are few, I would want to take time today to profile the need for and importance of providing flexibility in part-time versus full-time jobs in government and in our communities. This simple but key act yields benefits ranging from an enhanced quality of life to a healthier society and the retention and attraction of NWT workers and families. The far-reaching impact of this modest tweak to employment patterns is something that job providers throughout the Northwest Territories, both public and private, really need to pay heed to.

Time and time again people tell me they want jobs that give them more time to engage in the community outside of work. They want what we want: increased self-sufficiency, diverse economic opportunities, time for volunteer work and involvement in neighbourhood and community support and quality family time, especially with

young children. Well, even my good friend Peter McKay today exemplifies exactly this. People realize life is about more than a paycheque. They are looking for healthier, compassionate and more well-rounded lives. Businesses find challenges filling jobs, though they are much quicker to realize the need to offer different opportunities to employers like adjusting work time. The GNWT has difficulty filling hundreds of positions, with 500 to 700 empty at any one time.

We claim that temporary foreign workers are required to fill many of the available traditionally configured jobs. Perhaps a new approach is called for. I am always saddened when a hardworking and valued employee approaches the employer to request a change to half or three-quarter time and the ask is denied with little attempt to accommodate. Typically the employee is seeking a chance for personal development, home construction or renovation, volunteering in civil society or care of an ailing family member. Such rejection of engagement leads to the loss of a dedicated long-term employee and loss of all broader benefits.

We had shoehorned ourselves into defining jobs as one person year, no matter what the job is. I don’t buy it. Granted, it may be difficult initially to decline the work in ways that full, half, three-quarter or two-thirds steps can do, but the workforce, family, employer and, indeed, community benefits would soon outweigh that initial difficulty.

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

---Unanimous consent granted

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Job sharing, seasonal jobs and reduced-time jobs are important factors in the quality of life. Providing people with job opportunities geared to today’s northern lifestyle would yield happier and more productive workers with healthier families and communities. It may well yield improved attention and attraction of new northern families.

I urge this government to pursue this opportunity soon, and I will have questions for the Minister. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to revisit the subject of daycares and daycare funding. Over the years this government has repeatedly professed that children are important and that we care for our children, but the actions they’ve taken belie their words.

We don’t have many licenced daycares in the territory. Lots of communities have no daycare at all. Those licenced daycares which do exist in the NWT can get some funding from Education, Culture and Employment to help them with their operations, but it’s well-known that the current funding opportunities are not really working for them. For example, daycares are still funded based on daily attendance of children, an onerous and time-consuming practice that does not provide stable funding for the licenced daycare operator.

Education, Culture and Employment has, since last fall, been reviewing the Early Childhood Program with a focus on funding and governance. There are seven pages of the terms of reference for the review on the Education, Culture and Employment website, and it indicates that a report was due on March 31st of this year. Information went out late

last year to daycares about a survey they could participate in, and a symposium was to be held. According to the survey request from ECE, the focus of input was to be on administration and funding processes. Strangely, the survey targeted front-line staff, those working directly with children, those not usually involved in administrative duties. Why not target managers and operators?

But I’m very glad that this review was undertaken. It was long overdue. Little has been heard of the results of the review, however. Did the work actually get done? Was the symposium held? What were the results of the survey and the symposium? Was a report completed by March 31st as was

required by the terms of reference? Does the department have recommendations from the review for improvements to the administration and funding of daycares? Will we finally see changes to the way that daycares are funded? I have lots of questions and could find no answers anywhere on the Education, Culture and Employment website.

Changes are very much needed and I hope that change is coming. I will have questions for the Minister of ECE. I hope he will have the answers that I and others seek. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Respite Care Services
Members’ Statements

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An aging population and aging family support system have major implications on our health care systems but, more importantly, on our respite services that are provided throughout the Northwest Territories and in our communities. I’ll take it a little bit further than that. It’s not only the aging population but we do have people in the Northwest Territories, whether it be a child or an adult, who are living with a disability or a chronic health condition. It could be physical, mental and, in some cases, cognitive impairment,

and they need assistance in their home, and their families need assistance providing those respite care services.

I want to talk about respite care services, talk about home care services, providing support workers, and even support for the support workers, creating instrumental activities so people who are under these conditions can actually live a daily lifestyle that you and I share, Mr. Speaker, or help them get reintegrated back into society.

Respite care has been reported to reduce the burden on families with family members who have developmental disabilities at home, relieves family stress, improves family functioning and also reduces social isolation for people with a chronic condition or disability. It gets them out in the community.

I know when we’ve extended health care services, we do provide long-term care services, we provide day programming, we do have home care services in the communities, but when you talk to our home care support staff, when you only have one in a community, they’re overburdened with the amount of elders they have to visit, the amount of children they have to visit, the amount of people who have developmental disabilities or other physical impairments.

We do have a lot of challenges in the Northwest Territories. For instance, we have eight communities without a nurse. We have health centres that are aging and depleting. We also have some facilities that don’t have gyms and other facilities where we can hold these day programs, and we also have some human resources issues, and more importantly, there’s always a financial burden when it comes to these kinds of discussions.

Most families pay out of pocket for respite services. In fact, those who can’t pay for it actually go without respite services.

I will be asking questions of the Minister of Health today how we can address those issues and give people who need that assistance the assistance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Respite Care Services
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to have track tryouts this afternoon out back. If you can walk that far, you’re on the team.

This is a great time across the Northwest Territories. With all the graduation ceremonies that are going on, it’s just a very positive time. In Inuvik we have a number of ceremonies that are taking

place. It starts right from the four-year-olds, the Aboriginal Head Start program, with their little gowns and they graduate into kindergarten. We have our kindergarten children graduating into Grade 1.

Then on Saturday in Inuvik, the East Three Secondary School is having their high school graduation ceremony. I think they have over 30 students this year graduating, so congratulations to them.

The learning centre, those who have gone back to try and upgrade their schooling so they could get into college, they’re having their completion ceremony, if they haven’t had it already.

At Aurora Campus a couple weeks ago, Member Moses and I had the privilege of attending. They had their convocation ceremony. They had a fantastic theme this year. It was Our Elders, Cultures and Traditions. They had the gym all decorated up with tents, and it was just a fantastic ceremony. I was pleased to be part of it.

There are a lot of proud families across the Northwest Territories; there’s a lot of positive energy; there’s a lot of enthusiasm; and I think we have to do what we can, as legislators, to tap into that positive energy and enthusiasm and work to give all our young people an opportunity. I think this government and governments before and governments that come after us will do that. We’ll work hard to give them an opportunity to further their education and make sure they come home to work.

I would like all Members to join me in congratulating all graduates across the Northwest Territories. This is a great time for all their families and themselves. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Ramsay.

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s always a great day when we get students visiting us here at the Legislative Assembly. I have two great schools in my riding. One of those schools is St. Joseph School. I was mentioning to the kids out in the Great Hall earlier that I was a student at St. Joseph in Grade 6. So, it’s great to see them here visiting the Assembly today. This is a Grade 6 class. The teacher’s name is Amanda Delaurier. I’ll go through the students’ names: Jasmine Balsillie, Nolan Elliot, Aron Nathaniel Gomes, Avery Hacala, Tori Hamm, Keegan Head, Makayla Lane, Landon Lavers, Julia Leonardis, Elijah Loos, James MacCara, Lennie Mager, Juliet Mcguire, Raven Mutford, Madison Penney, Marianne Richard, Kyle Rogers, Katie Schauerte,

Olivia Talen, Ellie Mia Taylor and also Alyssa Vornbrock-Jaeb. Now, we had another class. I’m not sure if they’re up there, Ms. Booth’s class. If they’re up there, it looks like they’re gone, but I also want to thank Ms. Booth and her Grade 5/6 students who were here earlier visiting the Assembly. Thanks.

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

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Menicoche.

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m happy to have another student from Bompas Elementary join us here today and it’s my very own stepdaughter, Ms. Brittany Jewel Kendo. Welcome to the gallery. I just want to say she has been training hard to attend the track and field meet in Hay River as well. So, good luck with that.

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

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you. Mr. Bromley.

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize our Pages today, particularly Emma Willoughby. I’m not sure if she’s in the House at this moment, but she’s around somewhere. Also, of course, I’d like to recognize her mother, Catherine Boyd, in the gallery with us today. Thanks very much for all of the things you do on behalf of the MLAs.

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

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mrs. Groenewegen.

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

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I missed the name of the young man for whom we applauded, but I just want to say there is a leader. As soon as Minister Ramsay started calling out the names, he pointed at every single person that was being introduced. They maybe were shy to introduce themselves, but he did that. Hey, you need one in every crowd. Way to go. Welcome.

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

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I’d like to welcome everybody here. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings here today. It is always good to see youth in the House. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In response to Minister Ramsay’s statement today on morel mushrooms, I have a few questions. We have seen the morel mushroom pickers converge on Hay River. It’s an interesting group, the ones who are from outside of the Northwest Territories. You can recognize them readily. “Hi. You must be here to pick mushrooms.” That’s what I usually say to them. I can’t tell you why I recognize them, but anyway, they are coming in and the Minister has

indicated that this is an industry that could result in millions of dollars for harvesters. They say the department has offered on-site workshops.

I guess I have some concerns. It sounds like even from the Minister’s statement it’s creating a little tourism because there’s no rain, so there are no mushrooms to pick. So we’ve got all these people hanging around. So, good on Kakisa for taking an opportunity to do a little cultural awareness. That’s really great.

But anybody coming into the Northwest Territories who wants to fish, harvest firewood, transport goods into our territory, be a vendor in our territory, or even wants to go on a trip on the land, they generally have to check in with somebody. So here’s my concern. You have a lot of people from down south. No doubt the Northerners may be aware of some of the dangers of being in the bush, but these people say they’ve got camps set up all over the place. I say, “Where’s your camp?” “Oh, it’s 150 miles down, you know, the Kakisa River, or wherever.” I’m concerned that, yes, this may generate a lot of money, but how much is it going to cost us when one campfire or one cigarette butt goes into our extremely dry forest and burns the Northwest Territories down? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With all the authorities in the Northwest Territories we continue to work with, of course, the RCMP, ENR monitoring these camps and where people are. There is no requirement for them to check in. Many of them are working for somebody else who would know where they’re at. The Member has a valid point and that’s something I’ll discuss with the department, and because we have had a lack of rain, although there is some rain in the forecast for next week, we’re hoping to get rain on Tuesday and possibly Thursday, which will help the harvest and help with potential forest fire danger here in the territory. We’ll get a more thorough response for the Member on monitoring the pickers who are here, where they’re at, and that is a very important issue. Thank you.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

I would like to ask the Minister of ITI to share with the Assembly the risk-benefit analysis that the department has undertaken to determine how this territory would gain from allowing hundreds of non-resident harvesters to pick mushrooms on the land who will not pay income tax to the GNWT and, at the same time, will put the territory at great risk either for rescuing them or dealing with their emergencies or, as I said, starting fires that we know costs millions of dollars to suppress. What is the cost-benefit analysis of that being done? It’s a great idea. Come

on up here and pick mushrooms, but it’s worrisome. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Not only are we seeing an influx of pickers from western Canada who are showing up in the Northwest Territories, but through the work of the department we are trying to get local people interested in this harvest. That’s why we’re putting on the workshops. That’s why we’re doing the walking tours. It is going to have an economic impact. The pickers who do show up here are going to eat at restaurants, they are going to stay in our parks and campgrounds, they are going to buy gas and supplies from local stores. There is going to be an economic benefit to having them here, but we are trying our best to ensure that the benefits of the morel harvest this summer accrue to people in the Northwest Territories, pickers here in the Northwest Territories.

We’ve had a great deal of interest. I mentioned in my Minister’s statement that 1,200 residents attended the workshops here in the NWT. Our belief here is there is going to be a very good harvest once the rain hits next week and we will see some economic benefit. We haven’t, to my knowledge, done a complete cost-benefit analysis on what it would be. We don’t really know, as I mentioned in my Minister’s statement, and there are a lot of variables. Things like weather, supply and demand, a number of variables there. We haven’t done that, but once this morel season is over, perhaps we could take a look and try to quantify what the economic uptake was on the harvest this summer. The most important thing is we are trying to get local people out to harvest the morels.

Last March we had second reading given to a proposed amendment to the Forest Management Act, which would allow the Minister of ENR to make regulations in respect to the harvest of timber forest products, which would include mushrooms. This is moving forward as well. We have to concentrate on the local economic uptake on this. That’s local people picking morel mushrooms. Thank you.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

I agree with all that. Thank you to the department for all of the workshops and all the awareness they’ve brought to this potential remarkable industry for the Northwest Territories, renewable resource industry. But the fact is, we have many, many non-residents who have come to the Northwest Territories. It’s like a mushroom rush out there. There is no registry. There is no place to sign in. We don’t know their names. We don’t know where they’re from. We don’t know who their next of kin are. There are all kinds of dangers in the bush and that’s where these people are going to be operating and hanging out and camping.

You can’t come into the Northwest Territories and take one fish out of our rivers or lakes without a

non-resident fishing licence. You can’t hunt, you can’t kill an animal, yet you can come in here and be part of what is being touted as come and make $500 or $1,000 a day.

Why can’t there be a registry of some kind set up at the border where they are all coming in on rubber tire traffic? Why can’t there be some kind of a registry that the RCMP could have access to, to see who these folks are? So we could contact families if they went missing, just like you do when you are going on a canoe trip somewhere. You register with somebody, at least. It would be really nice to know who they are and where they are.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I mentioned the regulatory change that’s going to be required. That is being conducted through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. For us, if you are going to be conducting business in the Northwest Territories, we have a Business Licence Act here in the NWT. It’s administered through Municipal and Community Affairs. It requires businesses operating in the Northwest Territories to obtain a business licence, which may provide ENR the means to measure the extent of the industry at this time.

We also have a requirement that employers must be registered with the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission to conduct business where there are employees or employers. In the Northwest Territories, we also do not have trespass laws, which challenge the ability to restrain activities on private land. Again, there is going to be some regulatory changes coming. They won’t, however, impact the 2015 morel harvesting season. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement earlier today, I referenced that the GNWT received a failing D-plus grade in its financial reporting from the esteemed C.D. Howe Institute.

Can the Minister indicate if his department reviewed the C.D. Howe findings? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to point out the report the Member talked about has good information in it. I do want to make a distinction, though. It doesn’t talk about how well we are run financially, our Aa1 credit rating and that we are well situated in terms of managing ourselves, one of the best jurisdictions in the country, but that is how we present that information through our public processes that need work.

We are looking at it. I hadn’t looked at it until the Member kindly gave me the indication that he is going to raise this today. I have gone online to take a look and we will look forward to the rest of the Member’s questions. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I do appreciate the Minister’s response. When a Canadian research institute gives you not only an outright failing grade of D-plus but also tells you your financial reporting would bewilder the average person, I believe you have a problem.

Does the Minister at least agree with these findings? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

I will indicate that I’m going to read that report and we are going to look closely at where the shortfalls are. I have looked at the chart. There are some things we are doing, some things that need improvement and other jurisdictions that had very good grades. Of course, we will check to see how they format their financial information to see what the best way to move forward would be. We would look at doing that in consultation and collaboration with the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning as we look forward to a potential upgrade and improvement to the financial information presentation of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Earlier this year the CFIB, or the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, gave this same government an F for red tape. Coupled with this information we are hearing from the C.D. Howe Institute, it does create some concern in terms of our financial reporting as well as the amount of red tape we make our residents endure.

So, with that, does the Minister agree that his department has much work to do to improve both financial reporting and our red tape burden? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business report is marginally helpful. In my mind, they have a very narrow list of things that they consider when they make their grades. They don’t look at the tons of work we’ve done with online reporting, the improving of our procedures, the accountability issues, the investment we’re making to speed up to be able to do things like online buying of registrations, doing all the things the government requires when going online.

But, yes, we recognize that as a system we need to constantly look at improving how we do our business. I acknowledge that we are interested in that kind of ongoing, continuous quality of improvement. I’ve already indicated how we would be intending to proceed. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am encouraged to hear that we are improving.

With that, can the Minister indicate what work is underway in the Finance department right now that will ensure the GNWT receives a better grade next year when C.D. Howe does its work, especially in the area of transparent financial reporting? Thank you.

HON. MICHAEL MILTENBERGER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re already in the process of planning for the capital plan for next year as well as the initial business planning process. So we are going to be looking at the format. We’ll see if there are any things that come out right away that could be done in the short term, mid-term, long term. We don’t want to run holus-bolus here. We have to understand what’s in the report, the detail, and we have to look at other jurisdictions, check the landscape, not try to reinvent the wheel. So, we will take careful, measured steps as we continue to provide a very, very well-run financial system for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have some questions for the Minister of ITI, as well, about the morel mushroom industry and the gold rush, or the mushroom rush that we have going on.

My question that I have: Is the department and other departments in the GNWT, is there some sort of joint task force that’s discussing the issues that are coming from this? I would see maybe RCMP, ENR, ITI, MACA, Lands being all issues to deal with this issue. Is there a joint task force? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the department continues to work with our partners at ENR, at MACA, through the Department of Justice with the RCMP and other departments as we continue to try to get as much out of this morel opportunity as we possibly can. We can’t do this alone. There’s a number of agencies and other departments that are involved. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Yes, I do see a couple things that ITI does, and maybe we can get more information on this this season. I know the department does some parks surveys. Are we doing surveys maybe of pickers, whether they’re local or southern? Are we getting some sort of

information of how many Northerners are actually going out and doing picking? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Judging by the success of the workshops that we’ve put on with 1,200 residents taking part, we’re going to see a much greater number of local people in the Northwest Territories participating in the harvest this coming summer. You know, good ideas. I heard a good idea from Mrs. Groenewegen, another good idea with the surveys from Mr. Bouchard. We’re just moving into this. I think ideas like that, we can hopefully take those and incorporate them in our planning.

As far as whether or not we are planning a survey, I’d have to go back and see if the department has any plans to survey pickers on whether they’re local or they’re coming from the South, and I will get that information back to the Member. That is something that we will take into consideration. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

I think the Department of ITI also does exit surveys of tourists and I would see these as being… Maybe look at them as well as tourists coming into the North.

Is there a way that we could do a survey of them, even maybe, like Mrs. Groenewegen mentioned, a registration, a voluntary registration that, you know, I’ve come to the Northwest Territories to do picking? You know, I’m expected to be in the Kakisa area, that type of stuff. Maybe a registration and an exit survey of those people who are here for morel mushrooms. Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

That could work if it was done at the entry to the Northwest Territories south of Fort Liard and also the 60th parallel. Most of the

pickers that would come to the Northwest Territories from the South would, of course, come by vehicle, so we probably could get a good indication on numbers with a survey at those two locations. Some may come by plane. As far as surveying local pickers, that shouldn’t be too difficult to do either. So, again, it’s a fair idea and a good idea, and we will take that into consideration. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know some of these people are from different jurisdictions, but obviously they’re coming to the Northwest Territories. We know that we’re in a drought situation. They may want to live in the Northwest Territories permanently, so we should probably promote that as well.

I know already in the process that we’re seeing pressure under our ITI facilities, our parks facilities. Is there a plan for the Department of ITI to look at how they’re going to use those facilities? I know there are people who are not actually staying in

those facilities but using the showers and washrooms in those types of facilities. What are we doing to deal with that type of pressure? Thanks, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Where there’s access to a campground with facilities, contractors can charge a fee to use the facilities in the campground. I think that’s up to the contractor. The services are there. People need to pay for those services. Pickers who are in the area can utilize those services, and the contractor is going to be making more revenue as a result of that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about how necessary good and vital communications are. Rather than stressing and saying this is sort of a bad situation of how communication didn’t work, I actually would rather look at it as here we have a fantastic opportunity to do things well and to certainly build on the lessons we learned from last summer.

We have many vital industries out there such as the folks who carry and stock groceries on our shelves day to day. That’s not just all of them, that’s just one area. There are many other areas.

I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, what can he do to ensure that his communication folks will start to work in tandem with folks like the grocery industry and allow them to identify other areas that are absolutely vital, critical in this particular case, of keeping our shelves stocked with good food and priority items that are necessary?

The last point I’m saying, there may even be medical issues such as industries that need timely delivery of medical goods, et cetera, that need to be included in this list. There’s a huge opportunity.

What can the Minister do to start to sort this out so that they’re on a priority call list? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has been advised that we had done an excellent job in communicating with the folks last year during the fire season. We’re going to continue and, in fact, maybe enhance some of the areas that we had communicated to the people and to industry from last year. We have Twitter. We have a website. We also have a toll-free website and also the toll-free telephone, so we’re able to communicate with people, and people are able to communicate with us.

On contacting the actual people like the grocery stores or the hospitals and so on, we’re afraid that if we reach out to them, then we may miss somebody, and that could become a bit of an issue. So, we’re asking individuals to contact us through those media methods, and we try to do our best to try to accommodate everyone who needs accommodation for the highway closures. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Well, not contacting anybody misses everybody. Hoping that they’re on Twitter, we don’t know who we’re contacting and there’s no guarantee that they’re following that up. Heck, I’ve been informing schools like, for example, St. Pat’s, have things that’s called the Phone Tree and they build networks so they know to whom they communicate. What better way to develop a phone or e-mail tree that we communicate with this? It’s not foreign technology; it’s darn good customer service who we should be serving as the public, namely in this particular case, grocery stores, medical supply, whatever makes sense. If we miss anybody, I’ll assure you, they’ll contact you right away and say we want to be on this list, and the department could evaluate it.

So, under that circumstance as I’ve described it, would the Minister go back and re-evaluate this concept? It seemed like a good idea when the Minister and I talked about this on Tuesday. I don’t know what happened between Tuesday and today.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I think maybe I didn’t want to be misunderstood who we are… We’ll reach out to some of the key grocery stores, for sure, and then some of the other things will be expanded upon and we can reach out. But there’s always that fear that we will miss someone and that may become an issue.

What we’re asking for, if we made contact, is maybe to provide them for…because we would like to have regular contact beyond just the one contact, to let them know that the highway is going to close. But to try to set up a system where, if there’s going to be anticipation that the highway may close, maybe to provide them information how they could contact us, because we don’t know what their needs are and what needs to be brought into the city by highway. So, it would be a good system, we believe, that has worked last year. Aside from everybody being shut down for 39 days out of the 25 different times that we shut down the highway, no one was actually cut off and prevented…(inaudible)…outside of the times when we were shut down for everyone.

We will try to improve the communication on what we’ve done, but our priority is safety, and people will travel the highway when it’s safe to do so. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

There’s very little I can disagree with in the last statement made by the Minister, but

the fact is he’s missing a point about vital communications. There’s the general information, which I think the Minister gets and he just spoke very well on it, but there’s also the vital information that needs to be carried forward, and I’m not talking about emergency.

As I said in my Member’s statement, if we gave about four days’ notice, the grocery stores can fully stock up for the long haul. If we gave them two days’ notice, they could get the bread, the eggs, whatever the case may be, milk, here in this community or any community along the road that could be in a part ban or closure situation. That’s the type of list I’m talking about. We’re not talking about thousands of people on the phone or e-mail list; we’re talking probably less than a dozen people, half a dozen people.

If the Minister isn’t willing to do it himself, frankly the question is this: If I go make a list and find key contacts in those industries, would the Minister be willing to use that list as a priority contact list so we can give the people the critical kind of notice that they would need to ensure that their industries are serving the public, which we should be doing as well?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

We will do everything we can to try to keep the traffic flowing on the highway, so if there is a list… It becomes a difficulty to try to anticipate when the road will be shut down. Last year we found that to be difficult to anticipate. But if there are fires near the highway, communications and Environment and Natural Resources will stay in touch with them. If we’re able to determine that we might have to shut the road down two days out, four days out, whatever, I will be prepared to accept a list from the Member and provide that to the departments, and the departments can touch base with those organizations that need to know in advance if there’s going to be a highway closure.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that. I appreciate the Minister’s answer and certainly the willingness to develop and work on something, and I’ll certainly get to work on it right away.

I’ve already been working on it, so frankly, I’m glad to hear the words “will be used.”

The last question is about priority. The Minister had talked about keeping traffic flowing. Actually, that’s interesting he said that, because I’ve got reports from industry that they’ve allowed non-perishable goods, things like lumber and whatnot, to travel through the highway system when convoys were allowed to travel through certain periods, but things like eggs and milk and perishable goods and food goods that are critical had been left on the side.

Sort of the old when you show up, you get to go through.

All I’m getting at with this illustration here is there must be a way the Department of Transportation could probably work with the Enterprise weigh station or whatever the case may be, to come up with a priority system that if you’re bringing perishable goods through the system, you get to keep them moving along, as well, with people. It’s just, I’d hate to see skidoos come forward before eggs. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

When the highway is closed and we open up for our convoys, everyone that is at the convoy or waiting, we’ll use Fort Providence as an example, everyone that’s waiting there gets to go.

Now, I believe that we may have had situations where there were people en route with essential goods between Enterprise and Fort Providence and that we didn’t wait. We opened and closed the convoy before they were able to get to Fort Providence and, due to safety reasons, were unable to go further than that. What we’re going to do is we’re going to work with the people at the weigh scales and the industry that will be hauling, and if there is a situation where we know that there are some essential goods moving between Enterprise and Fort Providence and we’re ready to open a convoy, we’ll wait for them. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and I want to follow up on my statement. I asked a whole slew of questions in my statement and I’d like to ask some of those to the Minister now about the Early Childhood Program review, which the department has apparently been doing since sometime last fall, since September, October, I’m not exactly sure when it started.

My first question to the Minister would be to get an update on whether or not the work was done. Was the review done? There was a symposium that was supposed to be held. Can I get an update on the activities in regard to this review since last year? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Early Childhood Development Framework, the framework action plan has been in the works for quite some time now and we felt that it was necessary and important that we engaged

the stakeholders, the operators, the early childhood workers, the front-line workers, the managers, and so we invited them to participate either by phone or interview or in person. So we’ve conducted those processes as well. The review also includes licensing processes and Healthy Children Initiative funding. There’s also Small Communities Initiative funding, child care subsidy funding. So the discussions, we’ve gotten feedback from a majority of the operators. I believe there’s 102 out of 113 licenced child care operators that returned the feedback. So we are currently reviewing those. The symposium that we had last year has been very successful to date. So, we wanted to have another one this year as well.

So, those are some of the processes that we are going through. Mahsi.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister. He mentioned a lot of types of funding. My understanding was that this was a review of licenced daycare operations, governance and funding for daycare operators. I appreciate that they’re reviewing the information, but according to the terms of reference, which I found on the website, there was supposed to be a report as of the 31st of March of 2015.

So I’d like to ask the Minister, you’ve got answers from some 100-plus operators. Two things. Did it include the Montessori Children’s Centre here in Yellowknife? I don’t believe it did. Secondly, was there a report? I gather the report was not done March 31st . When is it going to be done? Thank

you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

As I stated earlier, those operators in the Northwest Territories were invited for their input; and Montessori, I can’t really speak to that organization, but I’m pretty sure they were invited to provide input. If not, then they should be allowed to provide input into our Early Childhood Development Framework.

We want to hear from each and every operator in the Northwest Territories. Not only that but the terms of reference obviously stated that we needed to conclude by March 31, 2015.

As you know, the engagement has been extended to various organizations and early childhood workers and operators. We are in the process of dealing with a universal child care study, as well, so we wanted to wait until that information is available to us. So, we’re dealing with all these issues that are coming at us, but this obviously takes a lot of effort and a lot of time to consolidate all of the information, the feedback that we receive. Now we are going through those processes. Mahsi.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

The letter that I saw asking for input, there was a list of daycare operators on the back. It did not include the Montessori. I’d ask the Minister

to specifically extend an invitation to the Montessori Centre to ask for input.

I thought I heard the Minister say that there are lots of things going on. I appreciate that. There’s the universal child care review that’s also being done, but I didn’t hear from the Minister when he expects that the results of this particular investigation will be coming forward. So, can I ask again, this particular looking at governance and funding of licenced daycare operators, when can we expect to see a report on this canvassing for information? Thank you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

As I stated earlier, we are compiling all of the program reviews. This Early Childhood Framework is one of them and the universal child care study, the review that’s been undertaken by my department, collecting all of the data, information and compiling all of the information within my department. We are currently reviewing those processes as well.

With respect to the dates, I won’t be able to give an answer today as to when it will be completed, but this will be a transitional document for the new government because it will deal with the new funding. The funding has been identified by the operators, what’s working, what’s not working. So, it will be a part of the transitional document that will be before this House. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister: I have to say that I am very dismayed. I am quite surprised. This is something that started last September, October, and now we have to wait until the 18th Assembly for any kind of change to

take place. I’m very dismayed. I urge the Minister to get it done sooner. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. More of a comment. Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to respite care. As I mentioned, when you look at it, respite care is actually more beneficial and could be less cost to government keeping the individuals in their homes rather than having to put them into institutional care, putting them into long-term centres or sending them down south into other institutions that provide services that we don’t have here in the Northwest Territories.

So, my first question to the Minister is: Can I get an update or see what the department is doing for in-home respite care? That’s where people go into the home, more like home care, but on more of a permanent basis. I’m not talking about the aging

population, I’m talking about people who have disabilities, whether they’re mental, physical or have cognitive impairments, and every year we have 216 new cases of diabetes in the Northwest Territories. Those are people who need care, as well, who are not very mobile.

So, I’d like to ask the Minister, what is the department doing for in-home respite care for on more of a permanent basis, not just the home care visits? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to start by just talking about some of the programs that we actually have with respect to respite. I did agree with the Member’s statement. Respite is an incredibly valuable service and I’ve been a supporter of respite services in the Northwest Territories for many years. We do have respite services provided through home care programs, and the NWT Home and Community Care Program provides respite services, mainly for caregivers of adults whose disability is a result of illness or a chronic health condition, while social respite for caregivers of children with complex care needs is often provided, when available, by NGOs in communities.

We do have a number of NGOs that we support. Two NGOs are receiving funding to provide community-based respite services for people living with disabilities. We provide $250,000 of federal funding that’s allocated to the Yellowknife Association for Community Living through the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority for community-based respite in Yellowknife, Detah and Ndilo.

We also provide $227,553 through the GNWT to the NWT Disabilities Council for community-based respite as well. That’s done in Aklavik, Fort Smith and Deline. On top of that, the NWT Disabilities Council does get some additional funding through some of the individual authorities to provide community-based respite service for people living with disabilities in communities like Hay River, Inuvik and Paulatuk. We also have some respite beds within our long-term care facilities that are available for families who need a bit of a break.

There are other things we are doing. I did speak earlier today about the companion booklet for caregivers being developed to provide information and assistance to families who are providing care for individuals in these situations.

This isn’t enough. We need to continue to do more. We need to continue to improve our services. To that end, we are going to be providing a pilot for a flexible respite model to do the exact thing the Member is talking about. This hasn’t yet been operationalized. We will maybe call to the

authorities to see which authorities are interested in being part of that pilot. We pilot with one authority and we are hoping to get into one or two communities. This is a two-year pilot and it will help us inform how we provide respite services or how we support respite services moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I’m glad to hear of all the services that are provided. In particular to the question I was asking is what is the department doing for in-home respite services? If somebody has a cognitive impairment or has a physical disability where they’re not able to get out and they need that longer-term service and it’s putting a lot of stress on the family, what is the department doing for the person who is home all day and providing services for several hours of the day? Do we have a program set up and is the department looking at addressing that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

There are a couple of different ways, as I articulated previously. There is the Home Care Program where we can have individuals go in, but it is limited and it’s not in all communities. We are looking through this pilot to find ways to expand that out to more communities, but we need more time to do the assessment.

There are also the NGOs. We should be incredibly proud of the work the NGOs are doing, whether it’s YACL or the NWT Disabilities Council. They can provide respite services exactly as the Member is describing for individuals in certain communities. They are always looking for ways to push out to the other communities and they have been working very closely with the authorities and the authorities continue to do what they can. I believe the pilot is going to give us the information we need and give us the opportunity to roll out this flexible respite model. I also strongly encourage the Member to promote the Caregivers Handbook, which provides people with a lot of resources on how they can have positive experiences, provide support to their family members and also take care of themselves. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I have always been a strong supporter of the Disabilities Council and I’m glad there is funding that our government provides to do some of these services.

I want to ask the Minister, has he had any talks with these NGOs on how they are spending their dollars in terms of in-home respite for people who are stuck in the house with these disabilities? Has he talked to the NGOs and if they are providing those types of services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I have a fairly decent relationship with the NWT Disabilities Council. We meet on a fairly regular basis to talk about the different programming they are providing and how we can work together, and we have been able to work together on many fronts. I also know the

department monitors and follows up on the contributions they are providing, to see if the services are being met. All this information is going to be important moving forward to enhance this pilot to see how we can actually move out to the communities where we aren’t getting the respite services the Member is describing. We do need the time to complete this pilot and we’re looking forward to moving forward with that pilot. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I mentioned we also need support for the support workers. I also mentioned in eight communities we don’t have nurses, which is a big challenge for elders and people living with disabilities.

So, I want to ask the Minister, what is his department doing in the recruitment and retention of home care staff that we have in the Northwest Territories right now? Is he looking to recruit more home care workers so they get a break as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

It’s no surprise we suffer some challenges around recruitment and retention of health professionals on all levels of the Northwest Territories. We’ve recently developed the NWT Health and Social Services Strategic Human Resource Plan to help us increase our effectiveness of recruitment and retention of health professionals.

We’re also supporting training of resident care aids and other positions for things like the Norman Wells long-term care facility so we can get more people into communities. This training is something that could be used for other positions as well. We wanted to continue to find ways to train local people, support local people, but in those communities where we don’t have nurses, we also do send nurses in on a fairly regular basis to do assessments on seniors and other people in the communities to ensure their needs are being met. We will continue to actively recruit and train, where appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement today with questions for the Minister of Human Resources. I would like to ask questions about new and innovative solutions for the recruitment and retention of employees for our civil service.

Is the Minister aware of the common interest in reduced work time and job sharing amongst many employees, such as interest in three-quarter time or two-thirds time, half-time, flex-time? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a job share policy in the government. Currently, the boards and agencies and the departments are allowed to hire and put two persons into one position and they share the one job. That is currently allowed in our system. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Minister. It’s that sort of straightjacketed model that I’m saying needs to be blown a little bit wide open with some innovation.

Currently, the vast majority of jobs in the NWT are traditional full-time, 8:30 to 5:00, five days a week model based on one PY. Many people would be happier seeking employment based on a different model. In fact, there is no reason in the world why a job should be one PY. Jobs vary highly. It’s how we categorize. Let’s put some imagination to that.

What proportion of our jobs would the Minister know vary from the typical 8:30 to 5:00 one PY model? He mentioned there is some job sharing. How many half or three-quarter positions do we have? How many jobs are job shared and are they simply half time or do they recognize actual job requirements, as I mentioned, recognizing what the job actually requires of a person in terms of time? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I don’t have the information of how many of those jobs are shared, like how many positions in the GNWT are half time or three-quarter positions. However, we do try to accommodate most requests for a flexible work day, compressed work weeks and so on. So, we do try to accommodate individuals in the various ways with time, and I can get that information on the amount of positions that are actually advertised as a job sharing position, as a part-time position and a second job is advertised with that same PY as another job sharing position. I didn’t request that particular information. I just asked whether that was allowed at this time. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate the commitment. The more flexible suite of job models would give people who would like to pursue local economic initiatives, for example seasonal land-based activities, more family time and opportunities for volunteer service in our communities and the freedom to do so. I can attest that, based on the number of people who are coming to me with this, that’s come up in our recent Local Economies Forum, people have a strong interest in this. Building stronger and more

welcoming and nurturing communities, and retaining current residents and attracting newcomers would also be, obviously, a desirable result.

So, would the Minister survey our employees to measure interest in different employee time, such as he and I have discussed, and what benefits or disadvantages they would see in having these options? Mahsi.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

We can do that survey of people to find out if what we are offering is something they would be interested in. That would be the various things like working flexible hours, job sharing and so on. We do employee satisfaction surveys across our government, so it is something that we could perhaps add to the survey. The next survey that is coming up, perhaps we could ask those key questions about whether the employees think that accommodating them with this option is something that they would be interested in and get a feel for how many employees might want to job share or take a differed leave year and so on. But we’ve never gotten into it. We can do that, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister. Given the benefits the new models will bring to our residents and communities, allowing people to pursue traditional seasonal land-based activities and so on and becoming more involved in community and family building, and if the results of the Minister’s survey indicate high interest, will the Minister commit to the pursuit of a more flexible range of job options within the civil service for the people of the Northwest Territories? I see this as a nicely contained thing that can be done before the end of this Assembly. Mahsi.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

There are two things that we have to look at before we can make any commitments, before I can make any commitments on a forum that is operational requirements. Number one, the fact that the majority of our civil servants are in the union, so we would have to discuss this with the union, and also, it becomes very important for operational requirements that all the positions that are needed in the key times and areas are there, and I couldn’t make a commitment to do that without checking those two things first, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Justice under the

Auditor General’s Report of the Correction Facility of 2015, recommendation 42: “The Department of Justice should identify the needs…of its inmate population.” More importantly, I want to underline, “assess its rehabilitation programs…ensure that inmates have access to rehabilitation programs that reflect their needs and their risks.”

I understand that the department is initiating reviews of the directive that guide programs access and delivery, to be completed by the fall of 2015.

I want to ask the Minister, are wilderness camps and on-the-land programs part of this initial review through the directives that would support the on-the-land programs by this department?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his question. We remain committed, through the Department of Justice, to establishing the wilderness camps and the benefit to having those camps here in the Northwest Territories. I should state that in the budget, currently we have $787,000 earmarked. We’ve had some difficulty in trying to identify proponents that can deliver the on-the-land program that we envision. In the meantime, we continue to work with other departments that are involved and trying to find somebody in the Northwest Territories that we feel confident can deliver the type of programming that the Member talks about, and we fully intend on doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Also in the Auditor General’s report, under point 41 it talks about the closure of wilderness camps and it also talks about, at the same time, the expression of interest that Mr. Ramsay has indicated is provided as potential to reopen these camps in the Northwest Territories.

I want to ask the Minister, would he direct his department staff to try harder, with a winning attitude of yes, we will do what we can with our best capabilities to open these camps and look at the areas that need to be expanded to make sure that these camps are a success by providing the resources to these camps, rather than to say no, it won’t work here? Could I get that commitment from the Minister?

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I’ve given that commitment in the past and I’ll give it again today, that we are committed to seeing the wilderness camps established here in the Northwest Territories. We’re going to continue to work with folks to ensure that that happens.

We had intended to issue an RFP this month, but after the expression of interest process and the discussions that we’ve had with respondents to that process, further changes to the design of the program is what are needed and what are required, and we’re currently working toward that. From the

discussion with interested groups, we concluded that the Wilderness Program needs to be more flexible so that different community groups and organizations can be successful in providing that programming. Not everyone is in the same place or has the same interest when it comes to wilderness programming.

We also want to make changes to the approach in order to encourage more communities to become involved in this, recognizing that wilderness programming can help offenders prepare for a successful return to their home communities upon release. We will continue to work with the communities and leadership in those communities to build a program that reflects the needs of the participants and the program partners, taking the time to do this properly – and I’m a big proponent of that; if you’re going to do something, you have to make sure it’s done right – that we will have a successful program here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I want to ask the Minister if he would clearly state and entrench within this department that this is what needs to happen at his highest officials, to make the on-the-land programs a success and provide them with strong resources to make it, and look at the flexibility of having these programs, these camps in Fort Good Hope, Fort Smith, wherever their interests are.

I want to ask the Minister, as part of the review of these wilderness camps, is his department willing to look at providing training courses for these operators, because it certainly would be conducive to what they’re going to be doing in these wilderness camps.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

We’ll continue to move on that path of getting a wilderness camp established here in the Northwest Territories. We will continue to work with partners, communities, leadership in the communities, as I mentioned earlier. I am committed. I know the department is committed to seeing this happen. We will find a proponent. The Member talks about training. We’ll work with somebody. We just have to find the right fit for the department. There are a number of safety and liability concerns, things of that nature. We have to ensure that it’s going to be done right, and we have to find the right fit for the department in a proponent.

We still are trying to make that fit and make that match, and hopefully soon we will have accomplished that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

The Auditor General’s report, again, states that point 41 of the recommendations…the department said they will review the records, and that’s their marching

orders. So, I wanted to state clearly that the directive, that the Minister would, through his review, look at the cost of camp operators, camps that pay a daily rate for the inmates. It has to be reasonable. They have to eat, also. You know, they’re up against a facility that also covers… You know, it’s a different operation at the Yellowknife Correctional Centre. So, I want to make sure that the camp operators, if they’re going to go through this agreement, they need to be sure that it’s going to be a success and that there’s a strong commitment from this Minister to make it a success.

Will the Minister ensure that his officials strongly get the marching orders that these camp facilities would be a success?

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Having served on the other side of the House for eight years, the department did get the message loud and clear about the Auditor General’s report and the steps that we need to take in the area of wilderness camps. We are moving forward; we’re going to get a fit; we’re going to make it happen; and I’ve impressed upon the department to do just that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Housing.

As I mentioned, there are elders who are patiently awaiting the opening of a new elders home in Aklavik, and I would like to ask the Minister if they are on schedule. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. We’re very pleased with the progress on the new Joe Greenland Centre in Aklavik, and I can report to the Member that it is on schedule and they’re looking at planned completion of June of this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

That’s good to hear. How soon can we have our elders moving into that facility? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

As I said, we plan for completion in June of this year. There would always have to be some work done as to inspections and making sure that it’s ready for the elders to move in. But, again, the completion date is in June and I’m assuming it would be shortly after that that the elders can start moving in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

We also have plans for a new facility in Fort McPherson. I’d like to ask the Minister, how

soon can we expect the construction of this building and has it be awarded yet? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The contract has been awarded for the construction of the seniors centre in Fort McPherson. We have planned for completion in December of this year. So, they would be doing a lot of the construction this summer, and if it goes according to plan, it should be completed by December of this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s good news. There are a lot of elders in the communities who are awaiting these new facilities here. It also gives us an opportunity for other people who are on the waiting list for up to three years. That’s really good to hear, and I’m sure they’re really waiting for this availability. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. No question. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to ask the Minister of Transportation some questions. Once again it’s about Highway No. 7. We did a tour in December. I’d like to ask the Minister about completing the chipseal work that’s been long overdue from kilometre zero to kilometre 20. When will that be completed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intention is as soon as possible to get the construction started again on that road. My understanding is that section was already awarded last year and it was not completed. It will be completed this year in addition to the other work that we are planning on under the Building Canada Plan. Thank you.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

I am very pleased to hear that. The sooner they get it done, the better. The Minister heard the residents complain about the dust. As well, from kilometre zero to 32 towards Fort Liard, is there any further planned rehabilitation work after kilometre 20 for this year? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The plan is to reconstruct the highway from 20 to 38. I believe that takes us to the chipsealing being finished right to Fort Liard. Also the intention is to try to do some resurfacing in some of the heavy truck areas between Fort Liard and the Nahanni Butte turn and concentrating on an area from kilometre 111 to 130 and a complete

reconstruction of a narrow part of the highway that is around 169, 170. Thank you.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

I am pleased to hear that. Would that include some dust control as well? Mahsi.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

That was a major complaint, as the Member indicates, when we were in Fort Liard. We are going to also be doing some dust suppression in the areas where they were considered to have the greatest amount of issues with dust on Highway No. 7.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. We also heard about the great big dip around kilometre 169 or 161, that area. What is the plan to remediate the dip at that point? It’s quite dangerous. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

We’ll be reconstructing that area. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents, entitled “Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015,” “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016” and “Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016.” Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Mr. Ramsay.

Bill 56: Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2015
Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Tuesday, June 2, 2015, I will move that Bill 56, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2015, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bill 56: Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2015
Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 17, motions. Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

WHEREAS Section 61 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act permits the appointment of an Information and Privacy Commissioner by the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, after the approval of the appointment by resolution of the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS the Legislative Assembly considers the appointment of an Information and Privacy Commissioner essential to exercise the powers and perform the duties under the act;

AND WHEREAS the term of the Information and Privacy Commissioner expires on October 30, 2015;

AND WHEREAS the Legislative Assembly is of the opinion that the appointment of an Information and Privacy Commissioner should now be made to be effective on October 30, 2015;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that pursuant to Section 61 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, that Ms. Elaine Keenan Bengts be reappointed for a term of five years as Information and Privacy Commissioner;

AND FURTHER, that the appointment be effective October 30, 2015.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Question has been called.

---Carried

Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 246-17(5), Supplementary

Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015; Tabled Document 247-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016; and Tabled Document 248-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. We would like to consider two of the supplementary appropriations that were recently tabled, Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015 and, time permitting, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. We will reconvene after a brief break. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

I’ll call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we agreed to first look at Tabled Document 246-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. I would like to ask the Minister responsible, Minister Miltenberger, if he has opening comments.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. This document proposes an increase of $25.337 million in operations expenditures associated with a non-cash expenditure for a one-time increase to the total environmental liability in response to changing accounting standards that became effective for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

I am prepared to review the details of the supplementary estimates document.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you. Minister Miltenberger, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort in the witnesses. Committee agree?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Minister Miltenberger, please introduce your witnesses, please.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

I have with me Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance; and Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary to the FMB. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I would like to open the floor to general comments on Tabled Document 246-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. Mr. Bromley.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand this came about as a result of new accounting procedures required by whoever sets those things. I don’t know whether it’s the Auditor General or what. I am happy to see this. I think our government is too. They realize these liabilities are real and are out there, and it’s nice to have some assessments on which to base what the costs are going to be in the future and today.

I understand that there are two components to this. One is assessing existing sites in a little more depth, rather than just knowing they exist and they do have some degree of liability. We are now trying to quantify that a little bit. We’re also adding in sites that were worked on before, non-operating sites.

In terms of the assessment of work that’s been done on estimating costs of cleanup of sites that we have done in the past, what degree of confidence do we have in those? How deep did they go? Do we expect when we get around to doing the work, we will need more work? Is it likely that these are conservative estimates and there is some chance the final cost will be less than what the current appraisal is? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Aumond.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Aumond

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Based on the work today, we are pretty confident we are understanding what the costs for remediation might be for these sites. However, the one caution I would put out there is, through past experience, one really never knows until you get on the site and start undertaking the work to find out what you are really faced with. We have all three phases of site assessments completed before we put together the cost of remediation. Other than what you might expect to happen to inflation to different components between today and then when we actually get around to remediating the sites, we’re pretty confident in the numbers we have.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks for that response. So, did we do any fieldwork on this? Was there an attempt to build in the area of contamination, the degree of contamination, the depth of contamination, that sort of thing, in toward building these estimates? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Aumond

Yes, we did. In particular there are four or five new sites that we actually undertook some fieldwork, some site assessment work on the field, which accounts for about 58 percent of the increased costs that we’re proposing to add today. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

That’s good to hear. I guess my last question is: So, operating sites, they are not included here. I believe we have another system, security deposits, financial security deposits and so on to look after those when if a mine is abandoned or the company goes bankrupt, which we know happens all too often, we will end up picking up that cost. But I’m wondering, in the consideration of what would go in here, do we include or should we be including, or is the mandate from the Auditor General or whoever is setting these standards, does it include consideration of operating sites for which we have not collected full financial security? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Aumond

For the purposes of this report, the assessment does not include any sites associated with devolution. Either closed sites or operating sites, as the Member stated, are assessed by the various regulatory agencies and they have security assigned to them. What we have here are for those sites that are on Commissioner’s lands prior to and after devolution came into place. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I understand that these are sort of two separate questions in a way. I guess, in terms of registering our liability for our public accounts, which I believe is a part of this exercise, how would those be handled where securities have been assessed but not collected or secured for operating sites? How would that be accounted for?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What will happen in the broad sense is the $25 million will be booked and will be able to be tracked through the public accounts on a yearly basis. We’ll look at the ongoing work during the year.

In regards to the specific question by the Member, we’re not aware of any sites of the type that he has referenced. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Bromley.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll leave it at that. I can inform the Minister of instances where those in fact have arisen, but that’s another discussion. I’m happy to leave it for now.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you. Committee, we’re taking general comments on Tabled Document 246-17(5). General comments. Ms. Bisaro.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some questions. I presume that’s acceptable? Thank you. I don’t have major concerns, but I think I need to ask some questions to ensure anybody who is listening to this and wondering about this great expense, to ensure that they understand what this is all about. The Minister stated in his opening remarks that this is a one-time expenditure, but I would suspect that we would see that it’s entirely possible with new developments happening, and/or the discovery of contaminated sites which we haven’t yet discovered, that we would see another one-time increase.

Can the Minister or officials give me some kind of idea if I’m correct in that, and if I am, what magnitude of dollars are we talking about?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have a fund and an amount of money before the House that we’ll book. It will draw down against that amount of money, roughly at about $2 million a year. Though we don’t think it will happen, should we stumble across a number of sites that we didn’t know existed that have significant costs attached to them after assessment, we would look at how it would draw down against the money we have. If we start we reach the point because of either increased development, sites coming to light that we weren’t aware of, then we would follow the due process to come back to ensure that we met the new standard.

As to the exact amount of money, I wouldn’t want to hazard… It would be inappropriate for me to hazard a guess on what may happen that far down the road. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister. Yes, I’m not surprised that you don’t want to guess, either, as to the amount. So, just to confirm, at this point we think that we have found all the contaminated sites, both operating and non-operating on Commissioner’s land in the NWT. Is that right? Thanks.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

When I use the term “Commissioner’s lands,” I’m thinking it’s the land that we’ve taken over since devolution, but I think those are called Territorial lands. So we think we’ve found all the sites on Territorial lands and Commissioner’s lands, just to confirm for me. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

On all those lands, except where there is an existing permit that was already granted. But for the most part, yes.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks. I’ll change direction a little bit here. This is a non-cash item, as the Minister said in his opening remarks and he kind of alluded

to a bit in talking to Mr. Bromley about how do we pay for this stuff. So, we’re recording a number of $25 million-and-some. It’s non-cash at the moment, but how do we pay for this $25 million? Because we’ve said we have $25 million of remediation work to do. So, how do we pay for that? Do we have a reserve, or are we accumulating money over a period of time? How do we end up with $25 million to do the remediation work whenever it needs to be done? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

There are two things. We’ve booked the number, a fixed amount as a liability that we have responsibility for, and we’ve built into our yearly budgets to the base at this point roughly $2 million a year to start working away at the remediation of the various sites as the work plan dictates. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that. I just have one last question. It’s my understanding that the public sector accounting principle that we are coming into adherence with applies to non-operating sites.

Could I get confirmation on that and could I also get confirmation that our number includes both non-operating and operating sites? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Deputy Minister Aumond.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Aumond

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The standard applies to both operating and non-operating sites. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, deputy minister. Ms. Bisaro.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Okay, I guess I misunderstood the other day, but that’s good. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you. Committee, we are taking general comments on Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. Is committee agreed to go into detail?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015, Department of Finance, operations expenditures, office of the comptroller general, not previously authorized, $25.337 million.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total budget, not previously authorized, $25,337 million.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Committee is agreed we’ve concluded Tabled Document 246-17(5). Agreed?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 246-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 246-17(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is on the floor and the motion is being distributed. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Committee, we will move on to Tabled Document 247-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016. I’ll go to the Minister responsible. Minister Miltenberger, do you have opening comments?

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016. This document provides for an increase of $65.8 million to the capital budget. The most significant items in this supplementary estimates are:

1. $61 million in capital carry-overs for the

completion of infrastructure projects. This represents a carry-over of 20 percent of the previous year’s capital plan, which is the lowest in the past 10 years. These costs are offset by an equivalent lapse of infrastructure funding in the 2014-15 fiscal year; and

2. $1.6 million associated with the revised

acquisition schedule for the new air tractor fleet.

I am prepared to review the details of the supplementary estimates document. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Miltenberger, I’m assuming you still have the same witnesses. Committee, we’re reviewing Tabled Document 247-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016. General comments. Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t really have specific questions, so I will keep my comments to general remarks here. I really would just like to acknowledge that the great majority,

probably 95 percent is carry-over from largely infrastructure projects, and it is indeed a great amount, $67 million. But on the other hand, it’s down in percentages in what our carry-over has been for the last several years. It’s been up to 30 to 35 percent and this year it’s down to 20 percent, and I’d like to acknowledge that we did a good job in the previous year at completing our infrastructure projects, or at least advancing to a greater degree than normal. I know that’s a result of some focus on that area, and I’d like to acknowledge that progress.

I’ll leave my comments at that, and I look forward to any further comments from my colleagues. Mahsi.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. General comments. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just have a few comments, as well, and I feel the same as Mr. Bromley. Although, from what I understand, the amount of carry-over this year in terms of dollars is larger than what we carried over last year. The percentage of our total capital budget has gone way down, by about 10 to 15 percent, I believe. So, I think that is an indication that we are being a little bit more realistic in what work we can do, and I think the departments are getting out ahead of the game, so to speak, and making sure that the projects that they get capital money for are, as much as possible, being done. I just urge the government to keep that up.

I think the less money we have in carry-overs, the better. There are always extenuating circumstances, so they’ll always have carry-over. But this year I think has been a good year.

I have a couple of concerns with some of the carry-overs, but I’ll leave that until we get to detail. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d again like to welcome the department here today as we review these supplementary appropriations. In a general sense, the concern I have is about the timing of these appropriations. To put it into context, the fact that Members here had very little time to review the numbers, to do the analysis, to read the number of briefing notes that were accompanying each line of change, even though it’s a carry-over or a lapse or an offset. Some of these documents do require some time to filter through and to balance off main estimates and even to look at past historical performance by the various departments.

My opening comment is: Is there any way that we can make this system a little bit more efficient so that we can get this information in the hands of the Members at a minimum two weeks before they hit the floor of the House? In this case, this information is within days.

I’m just asking whether or not the process or policy or both can be earmarked for future Assemblies to find more efficiencies. Again, it goes back to some of my earlier questions about financial management in my Member’s statement, getting a D-plus because of our financial reporting. This is a prime example of where the reporting of appropriations getting in the hands of Members was a bit tardy. So, really a general question, is there an opportunity for improvement, and can we get some degree of assurances that future governments, future Assemblies will at least get this information two weeks before we’re able to talk about this in the House? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

In this particular cycle, the session that we’re currently in is about a week or so earlier than normal and it squeezed us for time because of year-end and such. We agree with the Member that we would like to make sure that on a go-forward basis we hit the timelines that Members are given and have enough opportunity to thoroughly review the information so we can have a fulsome discussion. We’ll make sure that we work with the Legislature and committees on our planning on a go-forward basis when we look at dates. Normally when we look at dates of session, these types of documents don’t sort of figure into the mix about where they are in the cycle and what that will do to squeeze in the time requirements and ability to have enough time to further review things. So, the Member raises a good point and we’ll, on a go-forward basis, flag this to be considered as well. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I do appreciate the Minister’s reply and explanation, and we’ll take it for what it is and hopefully we can improve upon. No further general comments, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Committee, we’re on general comments on Tabled Document 247-17(5). General comments. Is committee agreed we’ll go to detail?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Okay, we’ll go to page 5, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016, Department of Education, operations expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, $115,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $115,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Health and Social Services, operations

expenditures, administrative support services, not previously authorized, $524,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $524,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, community operations, not previously authorized, $1.760 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $1.760 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Public Works and Services, operations expenditures, asset management, not previously authorized, $480,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $480,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Legislative Assembly, capital investment expenditures, Office of the Clerk, not previously authorized, $203,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe just a point of clarity here. This Legislative Assembly amount, I believe these were funds that were put in place from investment funds that are now in the hands of government to control for very specific enhancements and improvements to the facility of the Legislative Assembly. Aside from what we are seeing here as a new phone system, which I believe is a separate entity, the enhancement to the Water’s Edge Park of $147,000 and improvements to increase accessibility of $56,000, the $147,000 and the $56,000, is that just the lapsed money from this fund? Will that include the total amount that was put aside from the Building Fund organizers to the structures and enhancements that were promised? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

That’s correct, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

No further questions, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Office of the Clerk, not previously authorized, $203,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $203,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, $1.870 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Labour development and standards, not previously authorized, $448,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $2.318 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, environment, not previously authorized, $29,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Forest management, not previously authorized, $2.246 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a large amount here of $1.5 million to provide funding for the purchase of eight Air Tractor Fire Boss air tankers. Could I get an explanation of why this is a supplementary appropriation? I believe we had put it into our budget earlier, the budget that was passed earlier this year. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Deputy Minister Aumond.

Aumond

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At the latter part of April, the contractor approached the department with an opportunity or an option to exonerate the first two aircraft in exchange for offering savings on the remaining fleet of craft to be purchased. So we need to increase in 2015-16 about 1.254 million US dollars, or about 1.554 million Canadian dollars, in exchange for getting savings in 2016-17 of about 1.588 million US dollars for a net savings over the total life of the project of about $334,000 US. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to Mr. Aumond for that. I’m presuming that if we are advancing $1.5 million that we’re probably going to have to borrow it. Have we considered the cost of advancing the money in terms of borrowing against the money that we’re

saving? I imagine it probably isn’t a heck of a lot, but I have to ask the question. Thank you.

Aumond

Given that we are likely to be in a cash deficit for most of the year, it will cost us a bit of interest but be more than offset by the savings that we get in 2016-17.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Just one last question. The statement was that this would accelerate the delivery of the first two aircraft. Am I correct, we are going to get two aircraft a little sooner than the original schedule laid out? Will that have any impact on the aircraft following the delivery of the two? Is that schedule impacted? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Kalgutkar

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; we are advancing the engine and the airframe portion of the first two aircraft, so they should be ready a bit earlier. The remaining aircraft remain on the current schedule. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Kalgutkar. Next I have Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just continuing questions where Ms. Bisaro left off, so we have an accelerated delivery of two of the 802 Fire Boss air tankers en route. I look here and there is some carry forward or offset for an air tanker base workshop/storage in Hay River. We have another air tanker base dispatch standby facility in Norman Wells, which seems to be lapsed money. So, with the anticipated early delivery of these two air tankers, where will these tankers be predominantly located, and again, are we also having multiple air tanker base facilities throughout the Northwest Territories? Is that the intention here? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The current infrastructure will continue to be used. The aircraft will be split initially between Smith and Yellowknife on a start-up basis, then they will be moved across the North on a required basis, wherever that may be. We have other supplementary bases in Hay River, Norman Wells, Simpson and Inuvik, among other places. So we will continue to use the infrastructure that we have to support the current aircraft which, over time, will be surplused. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

I appreciate the Minister’s response to that. Just as a confirmation, because we are looking at an accelerated delivery of these 802 air tankers, will we have the facility in place to deal with that early delivery? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Yes, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Committee, we are on Environment

and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, forest management, not previously authorized, $2.246 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Water resources, not previously authorized, $180,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Wildlife, not previously authorized, $185,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $2.640 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Finance, capital investment expenditures, office of the chief information officer, not previously authorized, $592,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Office of the comptroller general, not previously authorized, $100,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $692,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, administrative and supportive services, not previously authorized, $33.139 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. The first one has to do with the amount of money for the H.H. Williams Hospital in Hay River. I see that this is a carry-over amount of some $200,000. I thought that we had advanced money for this project, so I’m wondering why we still have a carry-over at this point. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Kalgutkar

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Members know, it’s a large, multi-year project, and we did advance the work the previous fiscal year, and this is this work to complete the project and bring it into service later this summer. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Kalgutkar. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks, Mr. Kalgutkar. Can I get a sense, then, of whether or not we are on schedule, behind schedule, ahead of schedule in terms of the opening date? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The project is on schedule, as far as I understand. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. I’ll go to Minister Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. They’re planning to start moving into that building late summer or fall. It’s on schedule.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Ministers for that info. The other item here that I have questions about is the health centre in Norman Wells. It’s a large amount of money, almost $15 million. It suggests that that project wasn’t even started. Could I get an explanation as to why we are carrying over such a large amount?

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There were discussions and negotiations with the contractor that extended farther than was anticipated, which precluded us from taking advantage of the previous season. Hence, it’s all been sorted out and everything is operational now, but hence the requirement for the carry-over. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks. Just one last question. So, is this carry-over going to have an impact on the intended opening date for this facility? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

No, we are still going to hit the schedule as laid out. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Next on the list I have Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to talk about the line entry for the $4.687 million that was lapsed under the title or descriptor called medical equipment - various. If I can get an explanation as to what that is. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Kalgutkar

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That was some diagnostic imaging equipment that the department had planned to purchase during the fiscal year. They had some delays in starting the RFP process and are now requesting that funding be carried over into this fiscal year to enable the department to purchase that equipment. Some of the equipment that they’re purchasing is a mobile radiographic unit for the Stanton Hospital, for the Inuvik Hospital and for the Hay River Health Centre; general-purpose radiographic unit for the Stanton Hospital, the Hay River Health Centre and the Fort Smith Health Centre; CT scanner for Stanton and the portable radiographic unit for some of the various health care facilities within the Territories. If

you add this carry-over to the current existing budget that the department has of $3.25 million, it should provide them with the funding needed to complete their medical equipment plan for this fiscal year. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Kalgutkar. Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess to the question, does any of this carry-over or lapsed funding… Is there anything attributable to the electronic system, which we’ve heard has had significant project challenges in the last year or so? Does that have anything to attribute to this number? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Deputy Minister Aumond.

Aumond

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, not that I’m aware of.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, deputy minister. Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you. With that, I’ll go a couple lines down and I will speak to the line that is indeed called electronic medical records, EMR various, for $2.496 million. Again to my earlier question, we knew that there have been a number of project challenges, changes of the vendor system that I believe was acquired by Telehealth, delays with contract negotiations and vendor negotiations.

So, to the question, this has been something that I’ve been tracking for a number of budget cycles here in terms of the total dollars spent, total dollars lapsed, and if you start adding up the numbers, it is actually quite confusing. Some of these monies were federal monies that we had at the beginning and some of them were lapsed over multiple years.

I guess to the question, this $2.496 million that has lapsed, is this the final completion stage of the so-called original budget of the EMR process? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Deputy Minister Aumond.

Aumond

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the Member is correct.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you. If that is indeed the case, then I guess as a member of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and as a Member of this House, would we be able to get a final cost accounting? I believe this is over at least five or six years for the department. Could we also get a full cost accounting of all the federal monies involved just so we can get a complete financial picture of what EMR cost the taxpayers? Thank you.

Aumond

Yes, I think that information was provided to committee earlier this morning. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

No, I appreciate it. I haven’t had a chance to read it, if it has indeed been given. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Committee, we’re on administrative and supportive services, not previously authorized, $33.139 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you. Total department, not previously authorized, $33.139 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

The Department of Human Resources, capital investment expenditures, directorate, not previously authorized, $36,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department not previously authorized, $36,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, capital investment expenditures, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized, $65,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Mineral and petroleum resources, not previously authorized, negative $1.202 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Tourism and parks. Sorry, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look at the list here in tourism and parks and it’s not a huge amount of money. I mean, it’s $2.4 million but in the grand scheme of things it’s not that huge, but there are an awful lot of projects in here. So I’m wondering if this is a situation where ITI is trying to get too much done in a year. I seem to recall that in previous years we had a fairly long list in each of the last several years of tourism and parks projects, which didn’t get done.

So, although there’s not much in each of these projects, there are a lot of projects here and it adds up to $2.4 million. Can the Minister or his staff give me any idea as to why we have so many of these projects that didn’t get done? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Yes, committee, we’re looking at tourism and parks, not previously authorized, $2.397 million. Minister Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it’s a reflection of a number of things. ITI, we have a fair number of parks, all these projects that are underway. As you will notice, they cover a good range of the Northwest Territories. In just about every place, as the Member pointed out earlier, there are circumstances, for whatever reason or case-by-case that resulted in projects not quite getting completed. The amounts of money per park are small and it is anticipated that these will be completed this season.

The other thing I’d point out, especially in the smaller communities these types of projects are probably one of the bigger economic activities that will be happening. So this money will be put, once again, to good use as they get finished off this year. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that. I’m glad to hear that these projects are ongoing and that this is a continuation. I guess I would just admonish ITI to be careful how much they are planning to do in the next year, knowing that they get behind almost every year and maybe they should scale back a few of their projects. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I think that was a general comment. Committee, we’re on tourism and parks, not previously authorized, $2.397 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $1.260 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Next is Department of Justice, capital investment expenditures, corrections, not previously authorized, $2.127 million. Agreed? Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I notice in the corrections’ budget here we have two entries here for North Slave Correctional Centre, both involving fencing for a combined total of $356,000. This is lapsed money here. With this money, if you use this here, will that project be complete and on budget?

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It will be completed this summer during the existing construction season. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

There was a second part to that question: Will it be on budget? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

As far as we are aware, yes.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you. No further questions.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Committee, we’re on corrections, not previously authorized $2.127 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed?

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Agreed. Court services, not previously authorized, $783,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Legal aid services, not previously authorized, $106,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Services to public, not previously authorized, $231,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $3.247 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Next we’ll go to the Department of Lands, capital investment expenditures, operations, not previously authorized, $260,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $260,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Department of Public Works and Services, capital investment expenditures, asset management, not previously authorized, $7.412 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again we see on here the new 6,000 square metre general purpose office building in Yellowknife for $3.967 million. I would assume this is the last amount of money available for completion of this building. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

The Member is correct, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Again, my second question, I would assume this building will be completed during this quarter, quarter two here. Is the building, as well, on its original budget on its completion? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Yes to both questions from the Member. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister. Next on the list I have Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question with regards to the $300,000 for a planning study for Taiga Lab. I guess I would like to know, this is a new expense, I think. It looks to me like it’s a new

expense. So, why are we not able to put this into our budget which we passed not very long ago? Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Kalgutkar

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This project is going to be funded through the one-time transitional funding that was provided as part of the Devolution Final Agreement. There is some surplus available in that funding and we thought given that that lab does need a bit of refreshing and some upgrading, this would be a good opportunity to utilize that funding to look at doing that for that lab. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Kalgutkar. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to Mr. Kalgutkar. That does explain why this is here. I guess it would have helped if there was an explanation that it was offset by funding which we already had in the bank. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Committee, we are on asset management, not previously authorized… Sorry, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to follow up on my colleagues with regard to the new general purpose facility in Yellowknife. I know we’ve had a lot of discussions on getting territorial art into that building and coming up with a policy. Can I get confirmation that indeed the policy is in place and that this building will be, where appropriate, studded with NWT art as per the policy?

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Where it is possible to hang art in our new buildings, we will do that. We have been working with the NWT Arts Society. You are seeing some of the screens with the art on them at the airport here and in the main office building in Inuvik. So we’ll continue working with them to put what’s appropriate up in that new building.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I appreciate the Minister’s response. I wonder if committee could be provided with an inventory of the art and the space in the building, the wall space or whatever, floor space, dedicated to the display of art in the facility according to the new policy.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I will have the department provide that information to the committee.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Committee, we are on asset management, not previously authorized, $7.412 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Energy, not previously authorized, $179,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Technology Service Centre, not previously authorized, $1.414 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $9.005 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Next we are on Department of Transportation, capital investment expenditures, airports, not previously authorized, $2.780 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Highways, not previously authorized, $6.414 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question here with regard to the Inuvik Tuk Highway. It’s almost $5 million and it is a carry-over. I understand that. It’s my recollection we had an extended discussion in the House about advancing money for this project. So I’d like to get an explanation as to why this project is seemingly behind, perhaps, where we are in terms of completion of this project, are we going to be finished on schedule, why it is that we are lapsing $5 million from last year’s construction season. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Kalgutkar

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; it is a lapse, but the department did fall about seven to 13 kilometres of where they had targeted to be completed in terms of the 2014-15 construction season. The key reason for that is they had some warm weather conditions that delayed some of the construction work. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Kalgutkar. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m not quite sure how to follow that. I am having a very hard time reconciling that we advanced $20 million and now we’re lapsing $5 million.

The other part of my question is what impact is this going to have on the schedule for completion of the highway? I don’t think I heard an answer to that. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The project was advanced $40 million. The project still intends to hit the timelines and construction schedule that was laid out.

I will ask Minister Beaulieu if he wants to add anything further, with your concurrence, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The amount of kilometres is the way in which we will be budgeting the project. However, the project and the cost and the payments are based on the amount of embankment that is hauled by the project company. What we were anticipating is to haul 67 percent of the embankment on the construction of the Inuvik Tuk Highway at this point in time. However, we were able to haul just slightly over 60 percent of the embankment and that caused us to lapse the $4.8 million that is lapsed. We have a distance of about 55 kilometres to cover next construction season. We budgeted that it would be 40 percent. But as far as the embankment goes, we would need to haul about 40 percent of the embankment. We anticipate that we will be able to be on schedule because we were able to haul about 40 percent of the embankment this season in spite of the warm spell that affected us not quite in the middle but close to the end of the construction season.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Committee, we’re on highways, not previously authorized, $6.414 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Committee, Department of Transportation continued, marine, not previously authorized, $563,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Road licensing and safety, not previously authorized, $366,000.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Total department, not previously authorized, $10.123 million.

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Does committee agree we are done with Tabled Document 247-17(5)?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

I will go to Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 247-17(5),

Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 247-17(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is on the floor. The motion is being distributed. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

The motion is carried.

---Carried

We have concluded consideration of Tabled Document 247-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016.

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Mr. Chair, I move that we report progress.

---Carried

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I will now rise and report progress.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Mr. Bouchard, can I have the report of Committee of the Whole?

Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 246-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015; and Tabled Document 247-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016, and I would like to report progress and that consideration of Tabled Document 246-17(5) and Tabled Document 247-17(5) is concluded and that the House concur in those estimates and that an appropriation bill be based thereon be introduced without delay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Do I have a seconder? Mrs. Groenewegen. To the motion.

Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole

Some Hon. Members

Question.

Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

The motion is carried.

---Carried

Item 22, third reading of bills. Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.

Orders of the Day
Orders of the Day

Tim Mercer Clerk Of The House

Orders of the day for Monday, June 1, 2015, at 1:30 p.m.:

1. Prayer

2. Ministers’

Statements

3. Members’

Statements

4. Returns to Oral Questions

5. Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

6. Acknowledgements

7. Oral

Questions

8. Written

Questions

9. Returns to Written Questions

10. Replies to Opening Address

11. Petitions

12. Reports of Standing and Special Committees

13. Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills

14. Tabling of Documents

15. Notices of Motion

16. Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills

17. Motions

18. First Reading of Bills

- Bill 48, An Act to Amend the Mental Health Act

- Bill 55, Mental Health Act

19. Second Reading of Bills

20. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of

Bills and Other Matters

- Tabled Document 248-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016

21. Report of Committee of the Whole

22. Third Reading of Bills

23. Orders of the Day

Orders of the Day
Orders of the Day

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Monday, June 1st at 1:30 p.m.

---ADJOURNMENT

The House adjourned at 1:40 p.m.