This is page numbers 673-724 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 2nd 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 thanks.

Topics

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Homelessness is a serious issue that we don’t take lightly. So the HAF program, the Housing Assistance Fund is meant to provide one-time assistance so that people that are at risk or in homelessness situations can get the assistance needed to provide them with support so they can get into secure housing. However, within that, we recognize that there are some issues, so we really try to do counselling for people because often when people get to the point where they have lost their houses, there’s underlying issues. It could be poverty, it could be addictions, it could be a multitude of issues.

We provide counselling for people as well that are in those situations so that we can address underlying causes that so to ensure that they won’t be in that situation again. People are really encouraged to seek assistance from your community social workers to deal with any kind of mental health, trauma, addictions or any kind of concerns that they may feel are that are not able to maintain them in housing, as well as the counselling support that the LHOs within each community will provide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

I appreciate the response from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, my second question is what is the status of planned work to enhance the women’s shelter, women and emergency shelter care in Tuktoyuktuk for 2016 and 2017?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

The Corporation realizes that the shelters and the foster care shelter is really important and vital to our communities as it provides a safe place for our children in this case and for women that are experiencing family violence. So in order to do that, we try to maintain them as best as possible. The NWT Housing Corporation did receive federal funding for renovations for family violence shelters and we’ve met with the, we’ve got together with the five shelters and we’ve put all the money on the table and we’ve asked them to kind of prioritize what they see as the needs.

On top of that, the Housing Corporation has gone into each of the family shelters and done an assessment of what they think the needs are and what we see that what we can look at fixing for them. Within the shelter that we’re talking about, however, there is, both of them are really likely to require replacement. The renovations in that shelter would be substantial. So we’re just trying to review what the best course of action would be to provide another alternative for that shelter.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my final question is: what is the status of planned work for the Nunakput communities, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour and Ulukhaktok, to help these communities to access homelessness funds?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Working with the communities and getting the communities to actually prioritize their own needs is something that the Housing Corporation is working towards and will be a big focus within our community surveys that are coming out lately. Within these regions actually, we did get their priorities.

Currently, we have two multi-year agreements to support the homeless priorities of the Nunakput communities, Sachs Harbour Community Corporation. We have funding in the 2016-17 budget for food programs, community homeless planning, community kitchens and food banks. The community itself identified that their specific focus is on a food bank for the homeless and the less fortunate. So we’re working towards that. The Hamlet of Paulatuk for our 2016-17 monies, the funding will go for teaching people who experience homelessness and who are at risk of homelessness, learning how to cook healthy food, working with Nutrition North and so far, it’s been really successful in that community. We’re looking at community-driven solutions and working from where they want us to go.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Masi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance, Mr. Speaker. Anyone reading the government’s Report on Contracts over $5,000 will see that sole source purchasing is sometimes for very large amounts of money. In a 2013-14 Department of Executive awarded a contract for $457,000 for organization design services and another $187,000 was awarded sole-source for hiring an Ottawa lobbying firm. So it would be interesting to know why the delay in these, in two service needs would have not have been known so far in advance that they would, that they could have planned ahead for a competitive process. So my question for the Minister is to ask him what kind of oversight, audit and challenge is applied to ensuring the requirements of urgency and unique source are met before the contract is awarded. Is there any oversight applied before the contract is awarded? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Minister of Finance.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, in the Members’ statement, she makes some very strong comments and used very strong language. I think it’s unfair to those within the government system that administer a lot of these contracts to hear such language. I can assure the Member and all Members that there is oversight and in this day and age, with all the checks and balances in place, that type of, if any of that type of activity went on, it would be detected quite early and it would be unacceptable. There is oversight. The sole-source negotiated contract was the change in the numbers was one that was well received by the business community and we had their support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, my question again for the Minister of Finance is: what kind of oversight is provided in this area to ensure that these sole-sourced contracts meet the requirements of urgency and unique source of supply before they’re awarded?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, when they’re going out for a sole-source contract, the policy states that if it was something that we had to do right away, then we would go to a sole-source contract. In the smaller communities, this is one that’s well-received because the price for goods in a lot of smaller communities is $5,000 and once it was raised to $25,000, that gave them an opportunity to be able to land some of this work and not have to go to a public process or a tendering process, which for $5,000 is a lot of work and a lot of administration. I can assure the Member that a lot of due diligence goes into these contracts before they’re awarded.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, I’d like the Minister to tell us, what oversight is applied to ensuring the requirements of urgency and unique source of supply are applied to sole-source contracts before they are awarded.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I would like to repeat the same answer I gave before that significant oversight goes into these contracts. It’s just not one that they woke up this morning and decided they’re going to award a sole-source contract today. There are requirements that need to be met. If they meet the criteria, then sole-source contract could possibly be awarded.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister answered my question I would stop asking it. But at this point, I have no detail on what kind of oversight is provided on sole-source contracts so that we know they meet the needs of urgency and unique source of supply. Masi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

I didn’t really hear a question there. I take that as a comment. Oral Questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First, I want to apologize. At the end of my Members’ statement, I indicated that my questions would be for the Minister of MACA and in fact, it’s for the Minister of Finance. I just wanted to correct myself there. I thank my colleague, who went before me and asked some questions around this same subject matter. So, quite frankly, a few of my questions have been answered.

I will put this one forward to the Minister. It seems as though we are having some, these changes to the sole-sourcing limits are having some degree of impact on small business and local business and to some degree and being fair, negative impact. Will the Minister commit to developing some way in which to monitor and evaluate these impacts over a certain period of time and then be able to report back to the Members of this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Minister of Finance.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a change that has just been made recently and I will commit to the Member and all Members that we’ll monitor the usage of these sole-source contracts. Again, as I answered to the Member previous, this was an initiative that was fully supported by a lot of the small business community and a lot of business and we were actually encouraged to consider because there hasn’t been a change, I believe, since 1993. I will make the commitment to monitor and we do have to file a Contract Report $5,000 and under. I think the Minister of ITI tables that, so we’ll monitor and I’ll keep the Members updated as to the usage of these sole source contracts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in our last sitting, the Minister of Housing said that there was a 30 per cent cost savings from modular versus stick-built. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please provide the House of a breakdown of how this calculation was derived? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The average percentage was based on the stick-built price the Housing Corporation received as part of the public tender process, compared against the design build process, received for module homes that were awarded.

The NWT Housing Corporation is not permitted, under the Tendering and Contracting Rules to provide specific detailed information on each proposal, but we can say, that on average, the prices received for stick-built, was more than 30 per cent higher than the module prices. In some case, the per cent was actually much higher. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I thank the Minister for her answer. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister worked with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to see if this decision has an impact on income security in the communities where modular units are being built or being brought in, instead of the stick-built process.