This is page numbers 3883 – 3910 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 report.

Topics

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

This individual who we had speaking at this event is someone that I think has an opinion. He had an opinion. He brought his opinion to us, but let's make something quite clear: this is an Indigenous person. He was an Indigenous leader in BC, of an Indigenous government. He is in the public government. He was a Cabinet Minister and now he is an MLA within the BC legislature. He brought his views to the table around industry and development, and try to get his people out of poverty and in having an economy in his area. His comments were taken. In fact, the Member says, if we would like to open up our views to be wide open, I would like to ask the Member if he would like maybe to speak a round next year at one of our events. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a few things that I am really passionate about; education is one of them, and that's why I always tell the young people, that makes me sound old, but I always tell the young people that we have great student financial assistance in the territory. It has gotten better recently with their Bring It North initiative, which rewards people for coming back to the North, or even if you weren't from the North, moving here. It helps with student loans.

Recently, a lot of people started receiving their T4A slips for one of the initiatives in Northern Bonus. I have some questions on it. People are worried, well, they are not worried, but I mean they are a little concerned that this is something they're going to be taxed on, this loan remission is something they're going to be taxed on, but I would like some clarification from the Minister: is this T4A that the students are receiving from the Department of Education a taxable item? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I believe our program has a lot of incentives for our students who do have a forgiveness loan. We also have zero per cent interest on loans, and the Northern Bonus, as the Member alluded to. Mr. Speaker, because the Northern Bonus is classified as a grant, therefore it is a taxable benefit and recipients are issued actually a T4A slip.

I want to let the Member know that our department is currently reviewing this program, the Northern Bonus program, to determine if there are any alternative ways to provide this benefit without the tax implication on the students. For Members, the Northern Bonus is to try to bring students to the Northwest Territories and they are allotted up to $2,000 per year to pay off their student loans, to a lifetime maximum of $10,000. As I said, we will be reviewing this specific Northern Bonus program to see if there are any changes that we can do to include it without a tax implication. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

I'm glad the department is taking that step to look at this. I understand maybe why it rolled out like this, because this is even offered to people who aren't from the territory, who didn't get SFA, who may have got other student loans, so I can see maybe why this happened. Does the Minister have an idea if this might be changed for the upcoming year?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As I mentioned, we are currently reviewing this Northern Bonus program. Once we get the results and that review completed, I will share it with Members, and most likely it will be put up on our website as well.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe it's crucial to involve elders in all areas where they can meaningfully participate in intergenerational relationships. Research has shown that these interactions can have benefits for each generation. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, does the GNWT have anything formal in offering interactions between elders and college students, school children, and children of other ages in a variety of settings to provide and consistently expose them to language and culture? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our JK to 12 education system is based on the goal of ensuring that all students are grounded in the rich and diverse history, culture, language, and heritage of our peoples in the Northwest Territories. As you know, we do fund all of our Indigenous governments that play an integral part in working with our schools and in the classrooms. We do have the Elders in the Schools Program, where we are currently revising our Aboriginal languages curriculum, Indigenizing education, and we always promote to our schools to ensure that our elders are in fact participating on On the Land activities as well. We also hire some of our elders as language instructors, cultural resource experts, and at any opportunity, I will have them come into the schools.

In terms of early childhood development, as I mentioned, we do offer to the tune of about $4.8 million to Indigenous governments. One of the great programs that they do have is an Indigenous Language Nest from programming that ensures children in early childhood development settings are surrounded by their Indigenous languages, as well as working with some of the elders in the community.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

That is good information for the rest of the territory to hear. Mr. Speaker, elders are not just passive recipients of care. They are resourceful individuals with great achievements and skills in their roster. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister look into any possibility of combining daycare for children and elders to further enhance Indigenous language and culture exposure with early childhood development working with the Minister of Health and Social Services to bring elders and youth together in elders' homes and daycares across the Northwest Territories?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

The department does not operate early childhood programs in the NWT. However, the department does license, and we also fund, not-for-profit organizations who administer early childhood programs and centres as such. Under the child daycare standards, regulations require licensed early childhood programs to engage in community involvement, which would include connecting with community elders.

As I mentioned, elder participation is highly encouraged in all forms of education right from early childhood to post-secondary, and I know that, in some cases, elders work with some of the daycares and schools in terms of teaching traditional skills, sewing, culture camps, language instruction, storytelling, even, and in our unique small communities, it is a lot easier for our elders and our youth to get together on more of a regular basis, and we do promote that and encourage that.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation some questions on the new program, the fuel tank program. I think that is a very good program. It is good for the environment and very good for, even, insurance purposes.

I would like to ask the Minister if, in communities where most of the heavy materials are brought in by barge, if the Minister could, in advance, in communities that are barged in, particularly Lutselk'e, of course, for my riding, if the Housing Corporation would send several tanks into Lutselk'e in preparation to exchange the tanks some time as the current tanks begin to fail? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will take that into consideration. It is important to learn from programs that we have offered in the past and see how we can make them better. We did learn through Housing that we need to work with the communities that don't have all-season roads and be more proactive. We will look at barging in fuel tanks to those communities that don't have access through the all-season road.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

In many of the communities, we don't have private tradespeople. I would like to ask the Minister, in situations where there may be an inventory of tanks, and we have a tank failure that may be urgent or an emergency situation, if the Minister can work through the system and have the housing authorities' maintenance staff change the tanks at the community level?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

I think we would have to do a community view. I think that we are looking at seeing how the local housing authorities can support their communities better, recognizing that they don't have available supplies, contractors, et cetera, for a variety of housing needs. We are looking at that.

I do have to make sure before I make a commitment in the House, though, that, if we are going to be doing that, my thinking is, and I may be wrong, that you need to have some kind of certification to be able to do that. I need to make sure that either the local housing authorities have that certification or we have some means to provide that certification, but I do commit that we are trying to look at how to address the needs of all homeowners within the communities.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

One of the main things that the Housing Corporation is trying to prevent with the new program is, obviously, the potential for a huge environmental disaster, as we have seen situations where we have leaking tanks that have cost $250,000 to remediate, because it takes quite a hole to get the fuel out of the ground.

In my case, there is hardly anyone that can afford to actually pay for the costs of a full remediation if they have a complete failure with their fuel tank. Therefore, it could involve moving a home and so on and so forth. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister would have discussions with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to see if the government can pay for such a disaster?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

The Member is correct. We are looking at being proactive and to try to alleviate the need for huge environmental costs when fuel tanks leak. It is not only a costs issue; it is an environmental issue that we are trying to address. I can't speak on behalf of either departments, but I can say that I will direct the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to touch base to try to work with ENR to actually see how we can address any fuel tank spills as best as possible.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for that response. Mr. Speaker, we have situations where individuals are beginning to discover the reason why they have the program, and that is because those older tanks do fail after a certain number of years. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister could look at the possibility of helping individuals out where there is no tank in the community to install and they have a leak. It will take potentially a couple of weeks, because most likely, in situations like Lutselk'e, you would have to fly the tank in. Could the NWT Housing Corporation work with the local housing authority to maybe do something in the interim to stop a leak until a new tank can be delivered to the community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

I am willing to work with the communities on this, but I can't do this alone. If homeowners actually have an issue where they have an environmental concern, they don't have a fuel tank or they may be having to take one out because it is not meeting the need now, and we can't get a tank in there, if they apply to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, we will try to do our best to try to alleviate any potential or spillage that is there currently, recognizing that they have to fit within the needs assessment, the income threshold, to be able to qualify for our programming.

However, tell people: if they have an issue, apply, because if you don't apply, if you don't let us know, then we can't provide any services. Anyone who has an issue, apply, and see if we can support them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of questions for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, during my constituency meeting, an elder brought up the need for sending elders to Inuvik during spring break-up and freeze-up, as we have a couple of elders in the community with serious health issues. I would like to ask the Minister: will the Minister and his department send elders with health issues to Inuvik for spring break-up and freeze-up? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.