This is page numbers 3237 - 3260 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd 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 budget.

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

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise to recognize two Pages today from my constituency in Kam Lake, Noah Zoe and Stella Smyslo. It is great to have you in the House helping us out this week, and I really appreciate it, and I appreciate all the work of the Pages, as well. Thank you.

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

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Early in the life of this Assembly, the Department of Finance raised the sole-source procurement threshold for goods and services to $10,000 and $25,000 respectively. This means that those GNWT employees with the appropriate purchasing authority can purchase an item worth less than $10,000 without going to RFP and have no reporting on that spending. I have had some constituents who support this increase, but I have also had some who are very concerned with it. This has been raised in the House numerous times by multiple MLAs. My first question is: it was my understanding that the increased thresholds were going to be reviewed by the end of this fiscal year. If that review has been completed, I would like the Minister to share those findings with the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Finance.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. We did raise the limits. It has been well received by a lot of businesses across the NWT. Of course, there are always concerns with a lot of the initiatives that we take on. I have committed the Department of Finance to review the impact of the increase. The procurement committee is just developing the terms of reference and are looking at getting an independent contractor to review the policy.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

I have a feeling that the procurement committee might hate me by the end of this Assembly. I am going to switch around my questions here. I am going to jump to the third one that I provided to the Minister. So, the increase has resulted in many government purchases not going to RFP, which means that, small businesses, not only do they not have a chance to bid on these, they do not even know these are going out. Purchases might be being made based on friendships, you know: the person in the government, his buddy might own a store, and that is where they get these purchases from. When you are looking at $10,000 per item, that can add up. Will the Minister commit to looking at what impact these increased thresholds have had on small businesses?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

First of all, we would like to think that the folks who are working for the GNWT first of all will look at getting value for money in the products. If there are situations such as the Member described, then I would not approve of that and I would have to get to the bottom of it and do an investigation into using friends and such. Going back to the Member's question, that could be one of the parts of the review, is to have a look at how it has impacted smaller businesses.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

He mentioned value for money. That is the other thing I am concerned about. The public is not aware of these purchases. We do not know what is going on, and the public often is the one pointing out if we are not getting good value for money. You know, there are a lot of people out there who pay attention to what we do. I suppose, since they are still determining the terms of reference, how is this committee going to ensure that we are getting value for money? What is the plan going forward?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

As part of the review and in my conversation that I will have with the department, I want to ensure that the government gets value for money. If it means a different type of reporting, then that is something that I would commit to having a discussion with my officials about because, at the end of the day, I want to ensure that the government gets value money and there are also opportunities for a lot of smaller businesses to take advantage of some of the sole-source contracts that we have.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned yesterday that I had over half a dozen business owners and representatives in my office discussing procurement. This was one of the major themes that we discussed, so I'm going to sit down with the Minister and bring up some of those specific examples so I can show him what I mean about value for money. I guess I would like to know: when can we expect this review to be completed and presented to the House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I look forward to having the conversation with the Member because we're always interested in some of the concerns that are raised across the Northwest Territories. Not only on this particular issue, but other issues. I look forward to having that conversation. I will commit that I will follow up on any discussions that we may have as far as the timeline. As I said before, we're developing the terms of references and, as I become aware of the timeline when we actually get this out, I will keep the Member and this House informed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Question 114-18(3): Fort Liard Medical Travel
Oral Questions

February 14th, 2018

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my Member's statement today to the Minister of Health and Social Services. As I stated previously, the issue of trying to get patients referred from Fort Liard to Fort Nelson to deal with their medical conditions has been a concern that has been going on for 25 years. I was really shocked when I heard that, and I've talked to the Minister about it. I realize he's only been in this portfolio for four years, I believe it is, so I feel sorry for him, but: can the Minister of Health and Social Services please provide the status of the agreement with the BC government to allow residents from Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte to be deferred to the Fort Nelson Hospital? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This issue first came to my attention about three and a half years ago, when I travelled to the communities of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte with the former MLA for the Nahendeh riding. At that time, I indicated that we would certainly be willing to have a discussion with Fort Nelson and the Government of British Columbia to put in place any protocols that would allow us to refer our residents from Fort Liard to Fort Nelson. At that time, I did say we would wait until we finished our negotiations with the Alberta government that we're currently updating our protocols on. Unfortunately, that has taken far longer than I had hoped. Last fall, I had a discussion with the department and got an update on both files. At that time, I did direct the Department of Health and Social Services to work with the Government of British Columbia and to speak to Fort Nelson to establish some protocols that would allow us to refer residents of both Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte to Fort Norman in British Columbia, which, as the Member said, is a two-hour drive away instead of a three-hour drive away and a two-hour flight away and then an overnight stay and then a return. We're interested in providing best health and best care to our residents, and I think this is an important protocol that we have to put in place.

The department has done some initial research and an analysis, and they will be travelling to Fort Nelson later in March. Hopefully at that time they will also be meeting with leadership in the community to try to determine the best ways to move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I thank the Minister for giving us that update. I appreciate the hard work he and his department are doing. Again, you can understand the confusion and the willingness or unwillingness. The community is saying it's been 25 years, and I appreciate the work he's doing right now, and the department is doing. Can the Minister please tell us what challenges are stopping this agreement from being completed?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

There are a couple of things. First off, I want to say, as Canadian citizens, all residents of the Northwest Territories can go anywhere they want to receive acute care and primary care services. Residents of Fort Liard can go to Fort Nelson now, and those services will be covered. It's the referrals that I think are the problem. Right now if we make a referral, they're referring to our system, which means often they'll end up in Yellowknife or Edmonton, which is I think the main issue that's being raised.

One of the challenges we have is in gauging the level of interest in Fort Nelson and British Columbia to actually open up more their services than they currently do. Right now, a large number of our residents from Fort Liard do go to Nelson, but there are no formal protocols. We need to determine what level of support or what level of services they want to make available. We need to understand the costs of providing medical travel there as opposed to other things. There might be an opportunity for controlling some spending, which is good. We also need to make sure what types of services are available in Liard so that people are receiving services in Liard when they're there and are being referred accordingly. So there are some challenges and some details we have to work up, but we are committed to getting that work done.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I thank the Minister for the answer. In my conversations with some of the residents, they were concerned about exchanging of medical information between British Columbia and the hospital there in Fort Liard. I guess my question to the Minister in regards to that is: has this been one of the challenges that we see, and how are you able to resolve this issue?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Privacy rights of our patients is certainly an issue. A number of years ago, we come up with a new health privacy legislation here in the Northwest Territories. Having that legislation actually, I think, will help us in this particular situation because we know what the expectations are, as opposed to when all privacy was under the Access to Information and Privacy. I think we're actually in a better place to have a more informed discussion on this, but it is absolutely a factor. I mean, the rights of all patients to have privacy and their information not ending up where it shouldn't be is paramount, and we need to make sure that is addressed and taken care of in all of our discussions. If we're going to open up to having referrals to a jurisdiction that we don't currently have a relationship with, we need to make sure that that relationship is solid and that there are protocols in place to make sure that our residents' privacy is protected, while at the same time providing high-quality health services to all residents.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer. It did help clarify a number of issues from what I've heard, and I think the Minister has heard those same concerns previously. When will the residents of Fort Liard and Nahendeh finally see an agreement in place so that they can be sent to Fort Nelson for their medical treatment in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

As I have indicated, I have already provided direction to the department to move forward on this initiative and to engage British Columbia, but this is a negotiation between the Northwest Territories and the Government of British Columbia. I'm cautious about sending out or setting a finite date, because there is a third party here. There's the Government of British Columbia that will have certain expectations and criteria they want. This may not be as big of a priority for them as it is for us, but we'll have a better sense, I think, towards the end of March on what kind of timelines and what kind of workload this is going to take. When I know, I'll certainly let the Member know and he'll be able to share that information with his community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I talked about the federal government's new plan, and that's for the Prime Minister to implement a new Indigenous Rights Framework. Some of this stems from the Royal Commission on Indigenous Peoples, which dates back to the 1990s. In particular, it's a call for the federal government to help foster autonomy by moving communities away from restrictions of the colonial-era Indian Act, which has impacts on Canada, but it also has impacts on self-government. I'd like to ask the Premier if this government has a position on the newly announced Legislative Framework for Indigenous Rights in Canada? Thank you.