This is page numbers 4183 - 4214 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

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I thank the Minister for that answer. I know in my riding, we are based on diagnosis. They have been identified. We have seven that I know of with autistics, you know, they've been identified as autistic. Parents are going out to schools or going down south to get educated because, right now, we, as a government, are not dealing with that. So I guess my next question to the Minister is: do you track how many students have student support programs in place in the Deh Cho, and is it above average compared to other regions? Because that's what I'm hearing.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Yes, there is some evidence that says that we do have more difficulties within some of the smaller schools. The Deh Cho is one of the areas that was identified as a higher-than-average population base. I should say, though, that, yes, some of the children would be diagnosed as people who have autistic issues and such things, but some other issues are not easy to diagnose, such as FASD, with which sometimes the symptoms show many years later. So the inclusive funding is not only based on the children that have been diagnosed; it's based on the general population formula, which in my opinion, I think, is a more equitable formula at this point, until we can have more resources, so that every child can be diagnosed in an early intervention. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. It disappoints me. We talk about our youth being our future. That is our resource, and this department is, "Well, we don't have the resources, so we have to do a formula." There's a need. There is a need. We have people diagnosed here, so will the Minister look into this further so we can come up with the right resources for our people? I'm talking about our youth.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

So, Mr. Speaker, I want to clarify again that the reason that it is not needs-based is because we don't have the resources to diagnose every child. The inclusive funding formula is based on the number of children in all schools so that children who do not have the ability to be diagnosed or aren't showing the symptoms yet to bring in a diagnosis are still accessing funding.

I do want to say that we are seeing large difficulties within small communities, so we need to look at small communities in themselves to see how we can actually support them better. So maybe the funding formula that is based on number of children is not adequate for small communities, where they don't have as many resources, but I don't think it should be needs-based. It should probably be community-based versus needs-based. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Question 347-18(3): Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Oral Questions

June 1st, 2018

Page 4183

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur the President. My questions are for the Deputy Premier. I would like to follow up on the motion passed unanimously in this House on October 20, 2017, calling on our government to take action to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Porcupine caribou herd. That motion directed the Premier to write the Prime Minister of Canada on these matters. I'm wondering whether that letter was sent, whether there was a reply, and can he give that correspondence to us and table it in the House? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Deputy Premier.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the letter was sent as a result of that motion. The letter was sent on December the 19th to the Prime Minister from our Premier. I'm not sure of the response, yet. I will follow up on that, and, at the appropriate time, I'm confident that the Premier will table those letters.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I'd like to thank the Deputy Premier for that, and, if he could provide the correspondence in advance of tabling, that would be really helpful. On April 20th, the United States Bureau of Land Management opened a public comment period on oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the deadline is June 19th for that. So can the Deputy Premier tell us whether GNWT will be making a written submission to the Bureau of Land Management on this matter and what that submission might look like?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we are currently preparing a technical submission to the environmental impact statement scoping process, which I will submit as Minister of ENR before the deadline of June 19th. I'm not exactly sure the contents of the technical submission, but I can follow up on that.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I want to thank the Deputy Premier again for that. I would like to encourage him to publicly release that submission here in the Northwest Territories.

The October 2017 motion on protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge called on our government to support and assist Gwich'in and other governments in their efforts. Can the Deputy Premier describe what efforts GNWT has made to support and assist other governments protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is, of course, the calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

GNWT has been one of the parties to the Porcupine Caribou Management Agreement. We have been working very closely with our counterparts in the Yukon and the Gwich'in. The Yukon actually hosted a Porcupine caribou summit of the parties on January 31, 2018. As Minister of ENR, I hosted a follow-up to the Porcupine caribou summit in Inuvik on April 6th and 7th, and based on these meetings, a technical workshop was held in Whitehorse in May to coordinate a science assessment of the potential impacts of development on the Porcupine caribou calving grounds. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Deputy Premier for that response. It sounds like our government is actually following through on that, and that is a great thing.

While we are on the subject of protecting caribou calving grounds, does our government actually have a policy position on resource development in other caribou calving grounds, and what are we doing to protect them?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I was waiting for that. I was waiting for that. Well, this is a herd that is extremely important to the people in the Western Arctic and in the Yukon and Alaska. When we do our work on some of our own projects, all of the best science will go into it. We will obviously take the preservation of any species into consideration. The issue that we are faced with here with the Porcupine caribou herd is that we are dealing with an administration in Washington. That will open up to the wild west without much thought given to the preservation of the caribou herd.

This is a very passionate issue for the people of the Western Arctic, in the Yukon, and in Alberta. For a lot of these people, it is a hill that they will die on. It is something that is very important to them. As far as our policy, we will do all of our scientific work when we have projects, and some of that work that we do will go into the decision-making process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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, today, I made a Member's statement on public service. Going through the annual report, I have questions for the Minister of Finance. I would like to ask the Minister if all of the Ministers have looked at the Priority 1 numbers in the various departments. Thank you.

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, we have Priority 1 as our priority within the Government of the Northwest Territories, and we follow those numbers very closely. As you are able to see in the report that we released a little while ago, I believe that our Priority 1 candidates were quite high, and actually, the Priority 1 women candidates were a lot higher than the men.

We are aware of those numbers, and we continue to monitor them. We are developing a GNWT-wide resource plan with the departmental implementation plans as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

The Priority 1 candidates have hardly increased for 10 years. I would like to ask the Minister if anything is actively being done to increase the number of Priority 1 candidates in the GNWT.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

As I said, we are developing a GNWT-wide human resource plan with the departmental implementation plans. We expect that work to be done over the summer. As far as trying to increase the numbers, obviously, we want to see those numbers go up, and I have always been a firm believer that, based on merit, those numbers will go up.

I think the Member and I are both from an era where it was harder for P1 candidates to get into the government system, and maybe the numbers have not gone up much in the last 10 years, but I think the numbers are quite high, and I think they are continuing to improve, and they will continue to improve. As we see our younger people graduating and going off to university, getting the knowledge from there and bringing it back and working in the communities, I think we will see those numbers continue to rise.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

I think part of the increasing numbers at the graduation level to give their parents jobs.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me if direction was given specifically department by department on the development of human resource plans?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

As I said, we are working on a GNWT-wide plan. As far as specific directions given to each individual department, I would have to follow up with the Department of HR, but the government knows, and we also recognize the fact that we want to see more P1 candidates. We are starting to see a lot of P1 candidates that are moving into positions based on merit and what they bring to the job. We will continue to work on that.

I had the opportunity just a couple of months ago to take part in a workshop that was actually being sponsored by ENR. It was an Indigenous women's workshop. What they did was they brought in a lot of Indigenous females from across the Northwest Territories that work within ENR, and I spoke at that. The first thing I said is, "I am excited about all of the potential I see in this room." We will see a lot of those girls that were there moving through the system based on what they bring to the position.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

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