This is page numbers 6517 – 6558 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 need.

Topics

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

I didn’t really hear an answer to my

question as to why you have to be out of school for a year. I can apprecia

te you don’t want people

double-dipping and getting student financial assistance from a province and also a territory, but I don’t understand why we can’t monitor that and allow students to go from a school in Alberta to school in the NWT from one school year to the next.

The second question I would like to ask the Minister with regard to the residency is we have determined that someone must be in the NWT for 12 months before they are eligible for student financial assistance. It doesn’t seem to matter where you were born, where you grew up, how long you’ve been out of the territory.

I’d like to ask the Minister what the rationale is for 12 months in the NWT before you can establish residency. Thank you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

That policy has been in existence since 2000, for 15 years. We’ve heard from students about the particular policies we have in place. There are certain areas where 12 months’

residency

versus

what

Members

suggested, three months. If an individual moves south after high school, whether it is for work or school, and they come back for three months and go back to school again to further their schooling down south, they would qualify based on what the Member is suggesting, three months. There is no guarantee that these students will be coming back. We just have to be mindful and monitor those mechanisms that we have in place, Mr. Speaker. We are open to discussing these areas of residency. We’ve made some drastic changes, as you know, in 2015, 2013, 2006-07 and 2000. It does take time to make some changes, but we have enhanced our SFA program and we have one of the best SFA programs in the whole of Canada.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I’m really pleased to hear that there’s a willingness to consider a possible change. I’m not too sure that he said he would consider three months. I’ll leave that to my colleague Mr. Bouchard to follow up on.

I want to ask a question with regard to the other policy that I mentioned, and that has to do with travel. I spoke yesterday about a mother who endured Christmas on her own because her children were flown home by the dad and she was left at school on her own. I had made a suggestion. I provided a solution to the Minister yesterday.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he will consider if what he considers wrong with providing a dollar limit to a student. They can travel up to whatever the dollar limit that SFA sets. Once that’s gone then they can’t travel anymore. Will he consider that and does he see anything wrong with that?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Again, that particular policy has been in existence since 2000 as well. Depending on which students you talk to, some students want to be down south with their family that they brought over there. They don’t want the hassle of coming back to the Northwest Territories, to their community, with the kids that they have without belongings, so it’s their choice if they want to pursue that.

There is a cost factor that we need to look at. How much would it cost us? With 1,600 students, how many are parents with children and dependants? Those are areas that we are currently looking at and how can we move forward on this. If there is any decision that needs to be made, obviously, it would have to be at the forefront of the 18th Assembly government.

Again, we just made substantial changes in 2015, so it will take some time to provide that recommendation to the new government.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister again. I appreciate that there were a lot of changes that were made fairly recently, but I have to say to the Minister, he quoted both of these policies of having been in existence for a long time. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t cut it with me. Just because it’s been here for a long time doesn’t mean it’s right.

I would like to ask the Minister, in terms of allowing students, of doing the best for our students, and I guess I would challenge the Minister to read my statement from yesterday and for him to understand that this mother spent Christmas on her own and not with her family. But will he consider and will he recognize tha

t there’s an ability within staff to make

some of these situations work? Will he empower his staff with the flexibility to make decisions not to throw the policy out the window totally but to make a decision based on the particular circumstances of a student and allow for the best interests of the student to be met?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Any changes we make to our policies, obviously there’s a cost factor, as I stated, and this is an area that we are looking at.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Transportation will certainly be the lucky recipient of my questions this afternoon, and I’m sure he’ll be quite pleased to have them. My questions will be focused around, of course, the $32 million claim being submitted by the contractor.

As we understand it, we don’t know what the outcome of that is, so to be clear, I don’t think a decision has been made to spend money or not. But I think it’s important to stress this and build a good foundation on the issue of the Inuvik- Tuktoyaktuk Highway. I need to be clear, there is no question about the importance of that infrastructure to Northerners. In its very own way, of course, it’s nation building, and I have no doubt that the residents of that community will benefit from this and certainly the fact that it will lower the cost of living. It will be a beautiful highway, I have no doubt. Maybe not beautiful enough to drive a rented Audi A8 down, but it is certainly a beautiful highway in and of itself.

My question for the Minister of Transportation is: How does he plan to keep Members informed once the review of this potential claim has been submitted? Members want to know the next direction that will be taken long before any decision is made. How does the Minister plan to keep the Members informed? And this really affects whether there is an election or not.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the committee meeting of Priorities and Planning yesterday in the House, I committed to providing regular weekly updates on this potential claim to the committee. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I’m sure I don’t need to remind the

Minister that we only have basically a week of committee meetings left and the Assembly, of course, is done on October 8th from a sitting point of

view and Members are still active, in theory of cou

rse, until I think it’s the stroke of midnight on

Sunday the 25th .

But decisions are being made behind the scenes and I think the issue really comes down to what assurances can the Minister provide the House publicly that no decision, if there is a situation where there may be a need for extra money, that no decision will be made in absence of the Members having an opportunity to discuss the merits of this initiative and certainly debate them and, if need be, support them if necessary.

What assurances is the Minister going to provide this House that true accountability can happen?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The Member is correct. Of course, the writ will be dropping within probably the next four weeks or so. So, I guess we will ensure that the Members are advised, if it has to be in writing, advised up until the point the writ is dropped. At that point we have 30 days or 28 days of campaigning period. During that time, if there is a need for a decision, we’re hoping that there would be no need for a decision during the campaign period, but we would govern according to the contract that we have with the company.

The last thing we want to do is stop the project or delay the project. They’re already operating with reduced days because of the weather. So, I guess the best case scenario is we make our decisions prior to the election and any other decisions that need to be made will be made after the election.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Can the Minister clearly say to this House that no decision will be made if the case need be to advance money on this project, that no decision will be made if Members are not around in any normal form or fashion to be able to participate in a meaningful discussion, debate and decision?

If there is some decision, I just don’t know how it’s going to happen and I’d hate to see a Deh Cho Bridge déjà vu all over again.

So, is the Minister going to say to the House clearly that no decision will be made in absence of the Members being able to fully participate in the decision?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

There may be a decision made prior to the writ dropping, to continue the operations, to continue the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk Highway. There will be no decision made after the writ is dropped until after the election of the 18th Assembly. Thank you.

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. From my last question, it’s certainly seen as it can be an obstruction of the freedoms and rights of a Member to do their job if we are not able to participate fundamentally in a meaningful way on decisions of this magnitude. We’re not talking about a $100 decision here; we’re talking about a $32 million decision.

So, how does the Minister expect that we will be meaningfully involved in some type of decision between October 8th and October 25th prior to the

election starting, because everybody knows October 8th is the last sitting day. So if they do not

have any decision on what to do on this project, whether to give money or not to give money, we’re not going to be involved and we cannot allow that to happen. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

One of the reasons that we’re going through the claim process is to

determine what the claim would be. Currently we know, one thing we do know is that the majority of the potential claims would be in the future. I

t’s

something that would be looked at as year three and year four construction winds down. So, what we’ve done is we’ve divided the potential claim. There is actually no claim yet, but the potential claim has been divided in two. It’s $12 million for the construction to date. That’s what we’re engaging in now. The $20 million potential claim is for the coming construction.

What’s happening now is the project company is indicating that there is potential. If the weather is similar to what the weather has been in the last two years, there’s potential for a claim on the last two years of construction for $20 million. But what we’re looking at currently and what we’re meeting with the project company today on is the $12 million that has become an issue for them to date. So, the construction to date. That is not yet a claim and may not be a claim if we’re able to work with the company to get the construction going and using the money that’s approved in this House to continue construction. They mainly need to start construction and that’s what we are hoping to do now.

After October 8th , I’m hoping that there is no

requirement for a decision, but nothing is going to happen in the $232 million, that’s for sure. We’re hoping that we can have a decision on the $12 million before the 8th . If we don’t, we’re hoping to

have a decision before the 26th when the writ will

drop. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It

’s quite

encouraging that we’re seeing the dances of the proposed wood pellet plant moving forward. I think there’s cause for excitement and there seems to be a sense of being positive in terms of the optimism that it is generating.

I wanted to take a business approach to this whole project and ask the Minister of ITI in terms of his role with his department in playing a support capacity. My question is to the Minister of ITI.

What support role, if any, does ITI have in terms of moving to establish a wood pellet plant in the NWT? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like other government departments, we’ve committed to support the development of the wood pellet industry here in the Northwest Territories, and

we do have programs related to business start-up. Our South Slave office has been busy in talking to folks who want to get into trucking the harvest of timber and other pursuits related to biomass. Thank you.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

My question is: How can the Minister ensure we have more biomass-related business initiatives in the NWT? Mahsi.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, we’re very

excited about the prospect of the pellet facility in the South Slave. We will take direction on the development of that facility in the ensuing business opportunities for business start-up in the South Slave related to that new biomass facility. So, we’re waiting for ground to break on that and the opportunities that it will bring. Thank you.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

The Minister has indicated that his department is playing a role in terms of assisting communities, more so for communities that are directly impacted by a project of this nature, whether it’s going to be positive or negative.

Could the Minister outline in terms of the availability of programs for funding that are available for communities that could perhaps access funding and research and discuss locally in terms of strategies in terms of mitigating a project of this nature? Mahsi.