Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister: what is the plan for the department if this vessel didn't meet the criteria for the Coast Guard?

If we were to get into a situation where the Louis be serviced in the region, we do have the backup area that the Member alluded to in his Member’s statement that we could probably put in the water and bring into service to meet the emergency needs of that, and then in the long-term, if that was the case, if something drastically happened to the boat, we'd have to look at the long-term plans of how we're going to replace one of these units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister just said that the Merv Hardie is the backup plan, yet to get it ready to operate, it'll cost $1.5 million. Why would we spend that $1.5 million rather than investing that into a new vessel?

As the Member knows, we have limited funds. We would spend the $1.5 million versus the $10 million it would cost to replace that ferry, and plus in the short time you just don’t go buy a ferry off the shelf. They just don’t have them sitting there at the store to buy. We would have to order this thing. It would probably take a couple of number of years to put into service. So the short-term fix would be to reactivate the Merv Hardie.

Mr. Speaker, that's why I'm asking to do the planning study now, rather than wait till, you know, when we're panicking here. But, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister and the department, you know, start planning ahead and put this into the next bundle for the Building Canada Fund.

I cannot commit to putting it into Bundle 3. As this Legislative Assembly know, ours infrastructure needs across the territory are huge, and I'll say the same thing here I've said at FPT table. We could take every dollar the federal government has put into infrastructure, all three bundles that the government has proposed and this country could spend every dime of it just on upgrading the road system into Canada. So the limited amount of funds the Northwest Territories gets, we have to spread it across the complete territory to meet the needs of all residents.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's good to see the Minister of Health with us today. I was wondering if he could provide this House an update on the federal health transfer and what progress has been made on bringing more crucial health dollars into the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I just got back from the FTP meeting earlier today. The meeting went well on many fronts. We talked about many of the areas where the federal and provincial and territorial governments are working together, like pharmaceutical prices across this country. Working together we've brought the price of pharmaceuticals down by over $700 million annually and with the new partnership with the federal government, we look like we might be able to bring it down by $1.2 billion annually. So a lot of good work on that front. When it came to the health accord, we did make a significant amount of progress. We talked about shared priorities. I think all the federal government, the provincial government, the territorial government agree that we need to work together to put some more priority on homecare, aging in place, as well as mental health and addictions. Unfortunately, we're not prepared to move forward on that until we can straighten out the issue around the Canada Health Transfer. The federal government has reduced the amount that the Canada Health transfer increases on an annual basis by three per cent. So instead of six per cent increase, it's now a three per cent increase.

For us, in the Northwest Territories, that equates to about $1.5 million, $1.25 million in reduced funding available to fund healthcare here in the Northwest Territories. That doesn't sound like a lot of money, but other jurisdictions it's upwards of half a billion dollars reduced funding. The federal government had indicated they have no intention at this point of raising back to their levels at six per cent, and we have now escalated as Health Ministers this issue back to the council or Federation who has written a letter to the Prime Minister indicating that this is something that needs to be worked out before we can have any conversation about a health accord.

What the federal government is proposing and they have really only talked about some of the homecare funding is $3.9 split over all the provinces and territories over a number of years. We feel right now based on previous calculations, this might work out to $600,000, $800,000 a year for the Northwest Territories, but we're losing $1.3 million. So we're going to ask for, you know, $800,000 but it'll cost us $1.3 million. We need to figure out the CHT and that has been escalated to the Premiers and the Prime Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for providing that update. What is our plan going forward now that there's an awareness that there'll be a shortfall for health funding? Is there a chance we can turn this around before we move into our next budget cycle or is this going to reflected in the next budget? When will this reduction impact the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day we have to provide healthcare services. Because there's less money coming from the feds, we don’t get to say, no, you're sick; we won't treat you, or you need dialysis, we won't provide you with dialysis. We will. We're going to continue to provide those services. What it means is we have less federal dollars going to it which means it's going to have to be made up in some capacity through our other revenues. But we're committed to providing comprehensive healthcare services here in the Northwest Territories. There's absolutely areas we need to do better. There's absolutely areas that we need improvement as clearly articulated in the mandate that we're working on together to try to improve those services. But we will continue to provide services.

I'm optimistic that the Premiers will be able to come to some sort of resolution with the Prime Minister of Canada and get that funding levels back up to a 6 per cent annual increase. Until such a time, all the provinces and territories are at 25 per cent funding from Ottawa, 75 per cent funding from the provinces and territories. Currently in the Northwest Territories, CHT covers about 10.6 per cent. In most provinces and territories, CHT covers about 20 per cent, so in the provinces there's about a 5 per cent shortfall. Here it's slightly larger.

Mr. Speaker, the federal government provides Community Wellness Funding as an on-reserve fund to assist with addictions and mental health issues. Currently, the City of Yellowknife has one of the -- I think it's perhaps the largest population of Indigenous people and the city can't access that funding. Has the Minister brought this issue to his federal counterparts and provincial counterparts and looked for some resolution to see if the City of Yellowknife can start accessing this so we can get safer streets and increase and enhance our preventative treatment programs for people who are suffering and in need in the City of Yellowknife?

Mr. Speaker, the fund that the Member is referring to is actually money for the community wellness for the Northwest Territories targeted specifically for Aboriginal people and communities. We are a funnel for those dollars and we work with the communities to flow those dollars on behalf of the federal government directly to those communities. In Yellowknife, it was agreed that, given that Yellowknife in itself with the community is not an Aboriginal-run community, the dollars for Yellowknife actually flow through the Yellowknife's Dene here in Yellowknife. They get the component that would address all the other Aboriginal people who happen to be living in Yellowknife. So they're proportion, compared to the Yellowknife's proportion, is quite a bit larger in Yellowknife. I have encouraged the mayor and others to have a conversation with the Yellowknife Dene to see if there's any opportunity for partnership so that they can build upon those funds to benefit the Aboriginal people who happen to live in Yellowknife.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that there is funding that goes to Yellowknife's Dene, and they of course in close proximity, but they still have their own community and it's constituated its community. It's the City of Yellowknife that doesn't receive this funding, and the City of Yellowknife that increasingly has the needs of Northerners pressed upon it. People come here for the services and there's always a constant and rising demand for services. So is there any way that the Minister can communicate that message to Ottawa for a direct partnership from the City of Yellowknife to Ottawa? A special agreement as we see a lot of this funding doesn't flow to the Northwest Territories because we do not have reserves. That's a constant issue. Is there any way we can start having that conversation then that we have specific Northern needs? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, at a larger level, the Premier has been talking with individuals like Minister Bennett and the Prime Minister about funding for Aboriginal people in many different ways. Wellness happens to be one of the ways. The Wellness Fund is specific for Aboriginal people. There have been other communities who have tried to work and have been successful in working with the Aboriginal organizations and governments that happen to be in their communities to be partners on the delivery of the wellness funding initiatives.

In Yellowknife, the money was allocated to the Yellowknife Dene in hopes that they would work with the Aboriginal people throughout Yellowknife. Their wellness plan actually includes activities that are supposed to happen in Yellowknife and I believe, in many cases, do to benefit all the people in Yellowknife. Whether you're Inuit or Inuvialuit or Dehcho or Tlicho, those dollars are used for services here for people who happen to live in Yellowknife outside of their other regions.

I have had conversations with the Federal Minister expressing our desire to work with the Aboriginal communities and find ways to make sure that as many people as possible are benefitting from these funds. But at the end of the day, these dollars are very specific funds for Aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories. Right now the City of Yellowknife isn't an Aboriginal government or organization. The residents of Yellowknife can get benefits and are receiving benefits for the services that the Yellowknife Dene are providing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to Commissioner’s opening address. Item 11, reports of standing and special committee. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of committee on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following documents, entitled “Inuvialuit Water Board Budget 2016-2017,” “Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund Financial Statements for the Year Ended March 31, 2016” and the “NWT Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program 2015-2016 Annual Report.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tabling of documents. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. 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 143-18(2), Capital Estimates, 2017-2018 with the Member for Hay River North in the chair. Before we do that, I'd just like to recognize Ms. Green, her birthday today as a Member. I'd just like to wish her a happy birthday.

--- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to continue consideration of Tabled Document 143-18(2), Capital Estimates, 2017-2018. We would like to consider the Departments of Justice, Education, Culture and Employment, and Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree?