This is page numbers 3089 – 3112 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 work.

Topics

New Year Update
Members' Statements

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome everybody back for the third session as we work for the residents of the Northwest Territories and look forward to the next six weeks. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recap and highlight some of the things that I have done since our last sitting.

This past November, the various standing committees had the opportunity to review and discuss the business plans of all of the departments as we prepared for the 2018-2019 budget. I would like to thank the Ministers and their staff and look forward to the debate and discussion for the budget this year.

Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Social Development had the opportunity to travel with the Minister of Health and Social Services and a number of his staff to tour the four addiction treatment facilities that the government has contracts with for our residents. I found the facilities to be unique and we had a lot of questions and good information exchanged. Later, I will be doing a couple of Member's statements in regards to this trip and the committee will be tabling a report.

Mr. Speaker, from December 20th to 28th I had the opportunity to visit all my siblings, my children and their spouses, and all my grandchildren. This is the first time I have ever been able to do that. I drove over 4,000 kilometres to eight communities. It was an amazing trip, and I got to see the whole family during this time. Like the old saying goes, the trip was priceless.

January 3rd I took my youngest son to Fort Smith. To say the trip was an adventure would be an understatement. I will be addressing this adventure in another Member's statement later on in this session. The following Monday, Minister McLeod and his staff arrived in our region to do a regional tour. I would like to thank the Minister for wanting to drive the whole trip. I know in speaking with the residents that they really appreciated us driving to their communities. Unfortunately, we were not able to get to one community, and we made plans to reschedule later on.

Mr. Speaker, I also had the opportunity to participate in three community sporting events. One was hockey, senior hockey. I played four games, and then the next weekend I curled in the Merchants' Bonspiel. There, we were down eight-nothing after three ends, and we were able to come back to tie and play an extra end. Unfortunately, we did lose. This past weekend, we had the pleasure of going to Fort Smith and playing the Old Timers' Tournament. It was a great weekend, a bit tiring. We played six games in 28 hours. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank all the volunteers and organizers for making these three events great. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

New Year Update
Members' Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Members' statements. Member for Hay River North.

Reflections On Role As A Member Of The Legislature
Members' Statements

February 6th, 2018

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you are well aware, the life of an MLA can get quite busy. That is true if you are a Regular Member or a Minister or even Speaker. There is a never-ending supply of constituency issues, policy issues, legislative issues, meetings, appearances, travel, and so on, and with so much going on we always run the risk of losing focus on why we are here. That is why it is important that, once in a while, we take a step back and reflect on what our role really is.

Despite the diversity of our responsibilities and the complexity of many of the issues we deal with, the reason we are here is simple. It is to work for the benefit of the people of the NWT. I am positive that all of my colleagues know this, but we have to make sure that it is in the forefront of our minds every time we make a decision. We must always ask: how is this going to affect the people on the ground? We are not engaged in some academic exercise. The decisions we make here have real-life consequences for our residents, but I find that too often we end up providing lip service to that fact.

We are only human. We all have our own principles and ideas about how things should be done, but we cannot let those distract us from our central role. We need to ensure that we do not make decisions with the sole purpose of advancing a cause or championing an ideology. We have to make sure that egos or hurt feelings do not get in the way of our decision making. It is a shame, but it happens, and it is a disservice to our residents.

Ministers have to make sure to remember that first and foremost they are MLAs elected to represent to people. They are not senior managers, and they are not the GNWT's board of directors. The GNWT is their tool to serve the people. Regular Members have to remember that we are here to make sure that the GNWT is serving the people. We are not here to grandstand, represent special interests, or make headlines.

Mr. Speaker, I apologize if I am coming off as a little preachy, but sometimes I find that we cannot see the forest for the trees. I truly believe that all of us who are here took on these roles with the intention of improving the lives of our people. To do so, we have to stay focused, we must not get distracted, we must not let ourselves be managed, and we must not forget why the voters elected us. It is not good enough to know that we are here to serve the people. We have to act like it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Statement for 2018, onwards. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The Member for Yellowknife North.

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

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like yourself, I would like to recognize the esteemed resident of Yellowknife North, Mr. Tony Whitford. 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. Member for Range Lake.

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

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize two Range Lake Pages that are here today, young Mr. Logan Hayward and Ms. Danica Taylor. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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. If we missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to our Chamber. It is always great to have an audience as part of our proceedings. Masi. Item 6, acknowledgements. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the achievement of my constituent, Bes'ha Blondin, who is a Member of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Project team which, as you may know, won this year's Arctic Inspiration Prize. The project won the $1 million prize for their plan to combine Indigenous cultural education with traditional therapy to improve the mental health of at-risk Inuit, First Nations, and Metis people through collaborative, culture-specific, community-supported programs. Please join me in offering congratulations to Bes'ha for receiving this award. Mahsi.

---Applause

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Finance, and they are with regard to the Stanton Renewal Project and the partners in the Boreal Health Partnership. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has stated that the service contract with Carillion Canada is business as usual. However, we know now that subsequently Carillion Canada has sought creditor protection, and this is in effect for 30 days, and its leadership is currently assessing the situation and working with stakeholders to ensure continuity of operations. I want to ask the Minister: is the Minister, since his original statement, still confident that it is business as usual? 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, as the Member noted, Carillion Canada's financial situation has changed dramatically, and it required CCA protection so that it could stabilize its operation and secure financing to ensure the company remained operational over the long term. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you to the Minister for the reply. I think what I'll do is, because I respect that there are probably other questions coming down later today, I'll then jump to my second question instead of asking for more detail there. What action is the GNWT taking to mitigate the impacts of the potential sale of Carillion Canada and the potential loss of Carillion's considerable expertise both in project and in operations experience? Can the Minister give us the reply to that?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

First of all, they are partners in the construction, and the hospital is for the long term. It's the Department of Health that would provide health services, health care in the new Stanton Hospital, so they are partner in the consortium that's building the hospital and the service provider in the long-term care.

We have not entered into any contractual arrangements with Carillion Canada to provide service for the Stanton Hospital. BHP, the Boreal Health Partnership, it is their job to find a replacement service provider in the event Carillion Canada is not able to stabilize its operations.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you to the Minister. Okay, well, I guess then if there's the opportunity that the structure of the partnership might change because of the possible sale of Carillion Canada, which almost seems imminent, I just would like to get clarification from the Minister: does he expect that there would be any delay in planning implementation of the 30-year project agreement?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

No. As I previously noted, this was the Boreal Health Partnership's issue to resolve in a timely manner. There are financial incentives for them to do this.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given that we know that there might be, and likely will be, a change of one of the players within the partnership, there's still an underlying concern out there as to whether the GNWT will get the opportunity to have any oversight or any input into the possible replacement of this partner. Can the Minister explain? Will we have any input into the possible replacement for the partner of Carillion? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

BHP ultimately remains responsible for the performance of the services, or it will face significant financial penalties. Further, the project agreement requires any replacement service provider entering a service agreement with BHP on same or similar terms as was agreed to by the existing service provider. There are also a number of restrictions on which entities can be selected as a replacement. For example, the GNWT can refuse or accept or replace an entity whose standing or activities are inconsistent with or likely to compromise the reputation or integrity of the GNWT or the delivery of public services in the Northwest Territories.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are on the same topic. There are restrictions on the replacement. I'd like the Minister to elaborate please on what kinds of restrictions would be in place on a replacement partner. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Finance.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Well, again, it is BHP's responsibility. However, as I said before, we can refuse or accept and replace an entity. They would have to be able to be in a position to provide the same types of services that we had set out in the original project agreement with the partnership as it stands today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

So what I understand is that the evaluation of the replacement entity involves their capacity to deliver the service. There is no other criteria. Is that correct?