Debates of Nov. 5th, 2020
This is page numbers 1689 - 1724 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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
- Oral Questions
- Members Present
- Prayer
- Minister's Statement 95-19(2): Work Plan for the Development of the GNWT Action Plan in Response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Final Report
- Minister's Statement 96-19(2): Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission Support to Employers during COVID-19
- Minister's Statement 97-19(2): Sport Canada COVID-19 Funding Support
- Minister's Statement 98-19(2): Family Violence
- Remembrance Day
- Food Security
- Recognition of Interpreters
- Affirmative Action
- Remembrance Day
- Reflections on Effecting Positive Change
- Remembrance Day and Wish List
- Call on All Politicians to End Systemic Racism
- Elders' Housing Issues
- Guaranteed Basic Income
- National Skilled Trades and Technology Week - Recognition of Michael Turner-Davis and Nathan Dunn
- Remembrance Day
- National Skilled Trades and Technology Week - Recognition of Joel Hanthorn and Joseph Lemieux
- National Skilled Trades and Technology Week - Recognition of Slavomir Rohac
- Eulogy for Elaine Blake
- Return to Oral Question 358-19(2): Long-Term Care Facility
- Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
- Question 477-19(2): Direct Appointments in Government of the Northwest Territories
- Question 478-19(2): Food Security
- Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
- Question 480-19(2): Addressing Systemic Racism
- Question 481-19(2): Elders Housing
- Question 482-19(2): Hiring Local
- Question 483-19(2): Alcohol Strategy
- Question 484-19(2): Ingraham Trail Fire Services from Dettah
- Question 485-19(2): Increased Winter Trucking and Covid-19 Considerations
- Written Question 21-19(2): Applications to the National Co-Investment Fund
- Return to Written Question 19-19(2): Homeowners Insurance
- Tabled Document 235-19(2): Taking Action - A Work Plan to Address the Calls for Justice in Reclaiming Power and Place: Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Tabled Document 236-19(2): Interim Public Accounts of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the Year Ended March 31, 2020 Tabled Document 237-19(2): Northwest Territories Business Development and Investment Corporation 2019-2020 Annual Report Tabled Document 238-19(2): Grants and Contributions Results Report 2019-2020 Tabled Document 239-19(2): Consolidated Budget 2020-2021 Tabled Document 240-19(2): Northwest Territories Oil and Gas Annual Report 2019
- Tabled Document 241-19(2): NWT Health and Social Services System Annual Report 2019-2020 Tabled Document 242-19(2): Tlicho Community Services Agency Health and Social Services Annual Report 2019-2020 Tabled Document 243-19(2): 2019-2020 Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority Tabled Document 244-19(2): Hay River Health and Social Services Authority Annual Report 2019-2020
- Tabled Document 245-19(2): Annual Report 2019-20 Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation and Northwest Territories Power Corporation
- Tabled Document 246-19(2): Annual Reports for the Northwest Territories Education Bodies for the 2019-2020 School Year Ending June 30, 2020 Volumes 1 and 2
- Tabled Document 247-19(2): Operations Report 2019-2020 Western Canada Lottery Program Tabled Document 248-19(2): Northwest Territories Housing Corporation Annual Report 2019-2020
- Tabled Document 249-19(2): Excerpt from Globe And Mail, November 3, 2020 - "In Manitoba, An Omnibus Bill Puts Systemic Racism Against Indigenous People In Plain View"
- Motion 22-19(2): Appointment of Law Clerk, Carried
- Motion 23-19(2): Appointment of Sole Adjudicators, Carried
- Motion 24-19(2): Changes to Committee Membership, Carried
- Motion to Amend Motion 24-19(2), Carried
- Motion 25-19(2): Extended Adjournment of the House to February 3, 2021, Carried
- Bill 22: Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2021-2022
- Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
- Committee Motion 59-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Authorizing Speaker to Conduct Remote Session, Carried
- Committee Motion 60-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Display of Mace during Remote Sittings, Carried
- Committee Motion 61-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings Report on Remote Sittings - Authorization by Speaker of Remote Attendance of Members for Session, Carried
- Committee Motion 62-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings Report on Remote Sittings - Application of Rule 12(10) for Remote Attendance, Carried
- Committee Motion 63-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings Report on Remote Sittings - Training and Headsets for Online Sittings, Carried
- Committee Motion 64-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings Report on Remote Sittings - Neutral Background for Video Conferences, Carried
- Committee Motion 65-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings Report on Remote Sittings - Recorded Votes in Remote Sittings, Carried
- Committee Motion 66-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings Report on Remote Sittings - Registration of Votes in Event of Loss of Connection, Carried
- Committee Motion 67-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Roll Call Procedures, Carried
- Committee Motion 68-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Disconnection and Reconnection during Oral Questions, Carried
- Committee Motion 69-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Redirection of Questions during Loss of Ministers' Connections, Carried
- Committee Motion 70-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Announcement of Written Questions, Carried
- Committee Motion 71-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Members' Statements in Event of Loss of Connection, Carried
- Committee Motion 72-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Revised Daily Orders for Remote Sittings, Carried
- Committee Motion 73-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Reference Guide for Remote Sittings, Carried
- Committee Motion 74-19(2): Committee Report 6-19(2): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Remote Sittings - Standing Committee Review of Remote Sittings, Carried
- Report Of The Committee Of The Whole
- Bill 22: Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2021-2022
- Recorded Vote
- Assent To Bills
- Orders Of The Day
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1702

R.J. Simpson Hay River North
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I pretty much agree with everything the Member has said and earlier in his statement, as well. I will just answer the question. Are we going to conduct a review or a feasibility study for universal basic income? No. However, that is because I do think that the Income Assistance Program has a strong foundation and that we can build on it. In many ways, it's just a tweaking of a few rules here and there, and we have something that is very similar to what the Member is talking about. We have already made some of those changes, and he mentioned those, as well. He is doing my job for me today, so I think I will leave it at that and wait for the next question. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1702

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North
Numerous studies have said that the biggest issue for implementing a guaranteed basic income is actually jurisdictional; it's getting the federal money streams to line up with the provinces and territories. I know every time the federal government rolls out a new program, we in income assistance have to go change and see whether we are going to include it or not, is the first decision. Then we have to recalculate the seniors' subsidy; sometimes, pensions get involved; sometimes, income assistance gets involved. It causes this bureaucratic mess of programs not aligning. The federal government, this Liberal Caucus, has made a basic income one of their number one priorities. Our Arctic framework number one goal and the number one priority is ending poverty. I believe, when that framework comes out with lobbying, we could get it to be a guaranteed basic income. Is the Minister willing to write to the federal government and lobby for us to be a pilot project for rolling out a basic income?
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1702

R.J. Simpson Hay River North
I am not going to write to the federal Minister to ask that question. I am going to look into what we are doing, how we can do it better. When I have the conversations with the appropriate federal ministers and when I am on these FTP calls, I will have those types of conversations and promote the types of changes that we are looking at. The Member mentioned there are a number of different programs that we offer across the GNWT, across departments, and that the federal government offers, as well. Within the GNWT, part of the income assistance review is going to be looking at everything that is offered, what housing offers, what health offers, what ECE offers, because we need to move to a more streamlined approach. I think it will cut down on paperwork; it will make people's lives easier, and it will be more client-centred. I have no problem suggesting that the federal government does something similar, but it's a little difficult to get the federal government to change their programs just for us.
The Member mentioned that one of the biggest difficulties of implementing this is the federal government, but I think one of the biggest difficulties for implementing a guaranteed universal basic income is the amount of money. I think it's as simple as that. If we had $50-, $100-, $800-million to put towards a guaranteed basic income, we could use that money to solve a lot of problems. This is a very blunt instrument. Maybe we put a hundred million dollars into after-care for when people come back from treatment; they have a place to go where they know they can stay sober, and they can avoid all the issues that lead them back on the road to addictions. Then we can take another $100 million, and we can build economies in small communities. We can take another $100 million and do this. It's not as simple as just saying we want to do this. It's a lot of money, and I don't know if a blunt instrument like a universal basic income is something that would work necessarily in the territory, considering how different every community is.
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1702

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North
I believe the problem with saying that it costs a lot of money is: we have not actually done the assessment to see what it costs, and we have not looked at the way all of these programs are working together and how much is already being spent. I personally believe we could actually lower income assistance if it meant we guaranteed the money for longer periods of time and with less bureaucracy. I heard the Minister of health the other day mention the idea of putting a seniors' portal such that all of the applications of funding for seniors is in one place, and I laughed because I know how impossible of a task that is. There are different pools of seniors' funding across multiple levels of government, not to mention pensions. Trying to bring one person to bring that all together is extremely difficult. It requires political will. As part of the income assistance, can I get a commitment from the Minister that he will not only look across departments what we're doing but also what the federal government is doing and roll that into the cost analysis.
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1702

R.J. Simpson Hay River North
Yes, we'll look at what everyone's doing. If we're going to review something, we're going to review the money that, a program that's solely about the money that people are getting, we're going to look at what money people are getting from every source. That includes the federal government.
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1702

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1703

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I've got a refusal to do a feasibility assessment. I've got a refusal to do a roadmap. Can I get something from the Minister that he can give me an idea of what we think it would cost because I honestly don't know? I don't know if there's already enough money that we could roll this out tomorrow or whether it is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Can we do some preliminary costing, Madam Speaker?
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1703

R.J. Simpson Hay River North
Last year, about 4,000 people accessed income assistance. If we were to pay each one of those people the max amount that you can get on income assistance each year, it would be about $80 million. That's an extra $50 million on top of the $30 million that we spend now. If we did the real universal basic income where everyone in the territory regardless of income gets that amount, we're looking at $800 million. The very low end of this is $80 million. To the Member's point, if we spend money here, costs elsewhere go down. I get that. Same thing with education, but that doesn't mean that we have all this money to put into these things. I would love to put money into education right from prenatal all the way up to post-secondary. I think that would solve all of our problems in a generation. This would be utopia, but the fact is: there're needs now, and it's difficult to reallocate money that way. I'd be happy to sit down with the Member and have these discussions because income assistance is one of the areas that hasn't been thoroughly reviewed in a number of years, and it's one of the arguments that, by the end of this Assembly, I really want to make improvements to so that we can get to a system similar to what the Member is talking about. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Question 479-19(2): Income Assistance
Oral Questions
Page 1703
Question 480-19(2): Addressing Systemic Racism
Oral Questions
November 5th, 2020
Page 1703

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier. My first question is: what is this government currently doing to address the problem of systemic racism? Thank you.
Question 480-19(2): Addressing Systemic Racism
Oral Questions
Page 1703
Question 480-19(2): Addressing Systemic Racism
Oral Questions
Page 1703

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Across the government, we are taking a variety of actions to address systemic racism. It's a huge issue, and Members have said 50 percent of our population is Indigenous. We've already talked all week about the affirmative action. We need to do something, so we're doing our best. We're ensuring that our decisions, including the creation of new programs and services, are all contemplated using what's called the gender-based analysis plus lens. Everything that we do should be considered there this lens. It's not only about gender. It's not only about women and men. It's about how different groups in our territory will be affected differently by every decision, every policy, every program that we set up.
We're also implementing modern treaties including self-government agreements and land claims. This is an important part of what we do as the Government of the Northwest Territories, and it respects Indigenous self-determination and self-governments. It's something I take totally to my heart. We're also implementing the United Nations Declaration and calls for justice from the Truth and Reconciliation. As well, we have an Indigenous Employee advisory committee, which is committed to providing advice and feedback to HR, human resources branch, with regards to identifying barriers and increasing the representation of Indigenous people at all levels of our public service. It also works to create an environment that supports and promotes Indigenous people currently within the government to the Northwest Territories workforce.
As well, Madam Speaker, we meet with our counterparts in other jurisdictions to discuss best practices at all times. For example, the previous Minister of Justice, she attended an FTP meeting on systemic racism in the justice system. Subsequently, she reached out to the Indigenous governments and began a conversation about what we can do to address some of these issues within the justice system, and that work is still carrying on. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Question 480-19(2): Addressing Systemic Racism
Oral Questions
Page 1703

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
The Premier touched a little bit on my next question, but I'm wondering if she can expand on how the GNWT is doing this. My next question was about my gender-based analysis that the GNWT does with Cabinet and the Financial Management Board. I'm wondering if she can explain what tools they use to ensure that there is a systemic racism lens used in that work, as well.
Question 480-19(2): Addressing Systemic Racism
Oral Questions
Page 1703

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake
The Management Board Secretariat has added gender-based analysis plus to the assessment process for Financial Management Board's submissions, and I think this was new to our government. It wasn't done before if I remember. It's huge. This is a huge thing. The initial focus, again, on a gender-based analysis plus lens is on gender. However, like I said before, the differences for all populations, not only just about biological, but it also considers our social, cultural issues, and how different programs, et cetera, affect different people
We also have multiple characteristics that intersect and contribute to who we are. The gender-based analysis plus considers many other factors. Like I said, it considers race, ethnicity, religion, age, mental, and physical disability and how that interaction between these factors influence the way we might experience government policies and initiatives using the gender-based analysis plus lens when analyzing, planning, and making decisions means carefully and deliberately examining the implementations of our work in terms of gender and other factors. Madam Speaker, it's not easy work, but it's critical work and important if we do recognize that our population is half Indigenous and half other. We really take this work seriously.
Question 480-19(2): Addressing Systemic Racism
Oral Questions
Page 1704

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Some of the regulations and laws that contain kind of those hidden moments or hidden pieces of systemic racism are often ones that we often overlook and have been in our system for decades. I'm wondering: what work is being done right now to dig those out and make sure that all of those pieces of legislation and pieces of policy work are being used on that lens because a lot of the programs that are getting that lens are new programs? What are we doing about our old existing programs?
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