This is page numbers 4901 - 4934 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. View the webstream of the day's session.

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, in follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Health.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, my constituents are demanding better quality healthcare, and I would like to ask the Minister: will the quality of healthcare improve once the new Stanton Hospital is completed? 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. Mr. Speaker, there are lots of things that are happening in the Health and Social Services system with a focus on improving the delivery to all residents. Moving a single authority has given us many opportunities, and the construction of the new Stanton building will certainly help us provide efficient services in that building.

More importantly, for residents outside of Yellowknife, residents of the Member's riding, I think that one of the most important things that we are doing right now is the Cultural Safety Action Plan, which is going to help ensure that our frontline people are trained and understand the environments in which they work.

With that Cultural Safety Action Plan is also primary healthcare reform, and honestly, in my opinion, the primary healthcare reform is really the step that is going to help us improve delivery at the front line for all residents of the Northwest Territories, including residents of his riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

When will my constituents be provided the best quality of healthcare and receive thorough examinations when needed?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

That is a very broad question. We know that in the Northwest Territories we do have some pretty great staff out there providing services, and many of our residents are getting timely and good care, but there are certainly residents who are raising issues. It is important for us to learn from those issues.

I would strongly encourage that the Member, and all Members, in fact, if they have a resident who has an issue with the care that they have received, please bring it forward to our quality assurance professionals so that they can review those situations and make recommendations to help us ensure that some of those unfortunate situations are not occurring on a regular basis.

We want to have a system that is constantly evolving, improving, and growing to meet our clients' needs, but we need our residents to be part of that process as well.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

My constituents do bring up these issues, but this is an ongoing issue. Many times constituents go for checkups when they have an illness that needs attention, but they are basically given Tylenol and being sent home, and that needs to stop, Mr. Speaker.

Is our quality of healthcare being limited to save money on medical travel, as most high-quality examinations, like MRIs and CT scans, are done in Edmonton? Is that being limited to save on medical costs?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

No.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can residents also travel to Vancouver for medical travel, or does everyone have to go to Edmonton when travelling outside of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Under medical travel, you are referred to the location within our system that has the services available closest. For some individuals, they would come into Inuvik. For some individuals, they might come into Hay River. For some individuals, they would come into Yellowknife.

For things like MRIs and many of our specialist appointments or surgeries, our relationship is with Alberta, so our referral pattern is into Alberta. We are working with a couple of our communities in the Deh Cho to create a relationship with northern BC, but for the most part, all of our referrals are to our partners in Alberta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the new bilateral agreement on housing announced in November, and today I have some questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.

One of the goals of the federal strategy for housing is to expand the stock of rent-assisted housing by 15 percent. Does that mean that the number of special housing units in the NWT will increase by 15 percent to 2,760? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under our current agreement with the federal government, the NWT needs to ensure that we preserve at least 1,231 existing community housing units across the Northwest Territories. Currently, we have double that. I know that there are concerns about waiting lists and that the new National Housing Strategy only provides funding to temporarily address the declining federal support for public housing units.

One solution that we are looking at in addressing this, Mr. Speaker, and to all Members, is that we do have this Homeownership Program, and once we get people into the Homeownership Program, then we can start increasing our stock. We are also looking at private investment through the current co-investment fund that we did make an announcement on.

If we can start developing those partnerships and working with some of our private industry and getting people into homeownership, then we can start increasing our public housing units across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

The Minister himself has said that having people in public housing turn into property owners has been a challenge, even with various incentives and training programs. What is the rest of the plan to expand the housing stock, given that the uptake on homeownership has been low?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As the Member had mentioned in her statement, we are working on finalizing a three-year action plan. We are going to be working with communities. With the Homeownership Program, we are going to try to get into each of our five districts across the Northwest Territories. We are also doing a lease homeownership program, as well, lease-to-own program. For anybody that is in good standing with the Housing Corporation, we can work with them to start leasing to own their housing unit.

All of these programs that we are working on are going to hopefully open up opportunities to start creating new housing units. We are also looking at a disposable program where we are disposing 50 units a year as our goal. That will open up lots so that we can start building new, improved, energy-efficient units that are going to add to the stock. We have a lot of programs that we are working on with this three-year action plan for the investment of the National Housing Strategy. I think it is going to have an impact throughout our communities across the Northwest Territories.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Can the Minister assure Members on this side that all of these initiatives that he has enumerated will result in a 15 percent increase in the number of available units across the NWT?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I think it is the responsibility, not only for the NWT Housing Corporation, our government, but my discussions with Indigenous governments as well as non-government organizations is that we all have to play a part in this. We all have to bring some type of responsibility, bring some skin to the game, so that we can address housing needs across the Northwest Territories. I do know there is a high waiting list, especially here in Yellowknife and in the regional centres. We are continuing to put pressure on the federal government.

One thing that I didn't make comments to is that we are still looking for Indigenous housing funding. We do have a good program with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, but we are trying to bring a stronger voice with all leadership across the Northwest Territories. I can assure Members that we will be making an impact in housing across the Northwest Territories with all of these programs and continued funding from our partnerships with the federal government and Indigenous partners moving forward.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have heard from this government before that we all have a role to play. The fact is we are talking about people who have very low income, people who have finished their work lives and are now seniors, people who are disabled, who are looking for housing. I don't understand what role they are expected to play in creating new housing stock. I feel that the Minister is hiding behind the CMHC declining funding. That funding is not going to decline for another 10 years. Why is the Minister pointing to declining CMHC funding as a reason not to increase the housing stock? Mahsi.

Question 580-18(3): Housing Bilateral Agreement with Canada
Oral Questions

February 20th, 2019

Page 4909

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As I mentioned, in the agreement with the federal government, we have to ensure that we preserve at least 1,231 existing units. We doubled that already. We have worked hard to get this bilateral agreement done with the federal government. That gives us the flexibility to do some really good work here in the Northwest Territories. We have carved out some extra funding for the co-investment fund. We are continuing to speak with the federal government on Indigenous housing funding and seeing how we can get more funding moving forward.

In terms of the seniors, we are going to have that study. We are going to present that committee tomorrow, actually. Then, also, we have met with the Disability Council and have invited them to this northern housing summit that we are looking at doing to promote accessibility for people throughout the Northwest Territories as we look at building new stock or how we address people living with disabilities in our housing units. We are working very hard to address the concerns that Members have brought up and assure Members that we will see some positive results moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Daniel McNeely

Daniel McNeely Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Carrying on to my questions for the Minister of MACA on sports, my first question, Mr. Speaker: the Traditional Games Championship is led by the Aboriginal Sports Circle NWT. How does MACA support this organization? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.