Masi. Members' statements. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in March of this year I raised the issue of the dormant NWT Disabilities Action Plan, completed in 2008 but apparently forgotten until the NWT Disabilities Council resurrected it in 2015 with questions about its implementation and status. Their evaluation contained a number of recommendations, all based on the principle that we have all the information we need on current supports, or the lack thereof, and that we now need to move on to action.

I attempted to move this process forward through a motion, which was adopted by this house and supported by my colleagues, and supported by the Cabinet, as well. It called on the government to work with the NWT Disabilities Council and other stakeholders to develop a new action plan, including measurable outcomes and ongoing evaluation.

In June, the government replied to that motion. Government said it would first of all complete an updated inventory of the disabilities supports in place. The work would identify gaps in those services and assess the barriers to providing services in the right combinations. Key to the effort would be a collaborative process, including both service users' and service providers' input.

I understand that a working group including government and stakeholder representation has been created and they are hard at work. Detailed service and gap information is being assembled, with government members showing good effort to collaborate across departmental lines. Next week, departments and stakeholders will gather again to review that disability program review and set plans for completing a new action plan that relies heavily on accountabilities and evaluation. In the reply to our motion, the government has promised that plan will be in place by the end of this fiscal year. Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent denied

Masi. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to recognize my wife, Judy McLeod, who has joined us today in the gallery. Welcome.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to take an opportunity to thank all the pages who have been working with us over the last couple weeks. They provide us a great service, and we really appreciate everything they do. In particular, I wanted to recognize one of the pages who happens to be a resident of the Great Slave riding, Ethan Aumond. Thank you so much for everything you've done.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's always a pleasure to see our constituents from the communities in the Chamber, here. I would like to recognize one of my constituents from Inuvik Boot Lake, Ms. Judy McLeod. Welcome. Thank you.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we've missed anyone in the gallery, thanks for joining us. It's always great to have an audience in this part of our proceeding. Masi. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to Members' statements so that I can conclude my statement, please.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi, colleagues. Representatives of the NGO sector are reporting positively and hopefully on the efforts with the disability action plan, but the test here will be whether this new plan suffers the same fate as the last. Clear deliverables, regular evaluation and reporting, and, above all, adequate resourcing will be essentially for making progress on helping persons with disabilities make the most of their potential. We'd like to see an end to the resolution of disability access cases through human rights complaints and settlements, as reported twice in recent media. It's time to get out in front of complaints with proactive delivery of services. I'll have questions for the Minister about the road ahead. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs tabled a report, and it was done by The Sutcliffe Group. In looking at this report, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise how this organization or company was selected to do this report? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs selected the contractor for this project through the standard request for proposal process, so that means we put out a call for proposals that was publicly distributed. The Sutcliffe Group was the only respondent to this request for proposals, but their bid matched the criteria that we were looking for in the request for proposals. Therefore, we awarded the contract to this group. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for her answer. In looking at the report, there were a number of recommendations. Can the Minister advise this House if any of these recommendations have been implemented at this date?

At this point, the department has begun to implement a couple of recommendations. The main one is that we're looking at undertaking the work that's involved to establish a Western Canada Lottery Commission within the department.

I thank the Minister for her answer. Can the Minister please explain why it only seems that the recommendations for nongovernmental organizations are being affected by this implementation?

The department actually reviewed and considered all of the recommendations contained within the report. At the moment, we are working on the implementation of the most critical ones, so right now we're looking at establishing in our legislation a special fund for the lottery operations. We are also in the process of calling together our five partnering sports organizations. The purpose of that will be to review the sectorial-wide policy, and, also, we will be looking at all of the recommendations within the report, to obtain their feedback on where we should be moving forward.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer. I'm looking forward to that work. I think it's a very positive step. Can the Minister make a commitment to this House to report on the recommendations and see exactly where they are by the next sitting? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I will make sure that we actually give the Members an update during the next session. Thank you.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about arctic fisheries, and my questions are for the Minister responsible for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. Mr. Speaker, my first question is: how is the GNWT monitoring the development of an agreement on the arctic fishery? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.