This is page numbers 2989 - 3034 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 know.

Topics

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you. From the Municipal and Community Affairs side, with the bylaws, we would be more than willing to come with the municipal governments to come up with the bylaws that they need to do that. If it's something to do with lands, more than willing to work with the municipal governments, the Tlicho government, moving forward.

Again, I appreciate the Member asking these questions. And she's been very true to her word. She's been asking the questions numerous times, and I appreciate that. And all we need to do is work together to help solve that issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

We have to be persistent. If we're not persistent, then it's going to be shelved, so.

So the final question, can the Minister commit to having discussions with the Tlicho and community government regarding amendments to the Tlicho Community Government Act to address the legislative barriers of transferring lands and property title. Thank you.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you. Thank you, and the Member for Thebacha kept on reminding me about land issues. I asked them the same questions so I appreciate the commitment by the Member. I love it, I think it's -- that's how we get things solved here.

I'm more than willing to work with the municipal governments. Our staff is more than willing to work with the Tlicho government. Again, though, I just want to make sure we know what we're looking at, what we need to do. So if the Tlicho governments can work -- reach out to us, work with their MLA, we're more than willing to sit down and have conversations how we can improve things moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I visited Jean Marie River and the Minister on August the 11th to see some of the flood damage. Can the Minister provide an update as to the status of funding expended to date by this government in Jean Marie River and efforts to carry out any of that work from other sources. Merci, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for MACA.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank the Member for touring my riding. It was greatly appreciated. And the community of Jean Marie greatly appreciated him stopping in to sit there. I also have to give a shout out to the Member from Hay River South. He was very much involved in that as well.

So in regards to how much money we spent right now, presently, as of September 30th -- sorry, I just had a mental block there -- we spent $1.7 million for the flood recovery for activities in there. We are projecting that the total for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, we'll spend approximately about $6 million in total.

The GNWT is making a claim for reimbursement for flood-related costs to the Government of Canada through the federal disaster financial assistance arrangement, and Municipal and Community Affairs has engaged Public Safety Canada throughout this. So they're not being surprised about it; we are actually being proactive and saying here's what our costs are and, you know, is this something that we can or cannot claim through the process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that response.

The community of Jean Marie River was particularly hard hit by flooding as we all know. Can the Minister tell us if and when the water treatment plant was put back into operation and what arrangements were made for clean water for the community before that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to answer the last part of the question first, and then we'll go from there.

So when the flood hit, the leadership from the department and local governments from Hay River and Yellowknife provided bottled water to the community. So we were bringing in bottled water to help address that issue. Then as the ferry was kicked in in Fort Simpson and people were moved back into their homes, or they were still in their homes that weren't impacted by the floods, we were bringing the water from Fort Simpson, the water truck.

Now we continue to do that. In July and August, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and contractors worked on improving getting the reservoir up and running and as of September 30th -- or September, it is now operational. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Good to hear that the water treatment plant is up and going again.

I noted in my statement the housing closest to the Mackenzie and Jean Marie rivers was particularly heavily damaged. The previous Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs had promised publicly that people would be in accommodations, be back in their communities before winter.

What's the status of the assessment or repair work for both private and publicly owned housing in Jean Marie River, and are people back in their own homes. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I'd like to thank the Member for asking these questions. I think these are questions I asked weekly with the staff on it.

So the status is basically we've been working on it. For the homes that we're able to repair, we're hoping to having everything as of December 17th. For the ones that may or may not be back into their home, we brought in a camp. So we have two camps. One for the Elders, and one for the family. When we were asking the community about getting a camp in there, we gave them some options. They provided the option -- they selected the options, and that's why the camp we have set up as we have it here.

In regards to homes that are beyond repair, what we've done is we've given them a number of options of how we're going to move forward on that. And then the community members made that decision. It wasn't us as government saying this is what you have. We said, here's option A, here's the consequences if you pick this, option B, C, D, and then the community members made a decision.

I'd just like to share a quick story. I had one individual who was going to do it but decided that the home meant too much more so he -- they have actually gone back to building it, fixing it up themselves. So as in regards to the public, there's four units. My understanding they're in the process, if they're not already done. Housing has done the work on them, and we're moving forward on that. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Clearly, people in Jean Marie River, particularly the Elders, like to be close to the rivers. That brings some risk with more extreme events which will increase with the climate crisis.

Can the Minister tell us whether there have been any discussions or plans to relocate or move some or all of the community of Jean Marie River, and what support is our government giving. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've been working with the residents. Some people want their homes to be raised. We're able to do that. Some of them have actually looked at potentially moving to another location. And with the homes that we are replacing, we're making sure that we can lift them up and move them should they wish to move to another location in the town.

Very much the community wants to stay close to the river. We have some locations that we're working with them. But we've also made a commitment to work with them to come up with a plan, a community plan, based on their needs and what they want. So, again, it's very much about working with them on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake. Oh, that's fine.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Sorry about that, Mr. Speaker. I'm operating electronically today. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services today, and I'd like to continue my conversation from yesterday.

My first question is will Health and Social Services waive the $400 copayment fee being charged to families for travelling to Edmonton to deliver between December 10th and February 21st. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for the question. I'm unable to answer that specific question. What I understand is that the obstetrics team has started to reach out to the families who will be disrupted by the closure of the Stanton obstetrics unit and finding out what their needs are in order to understand whether we need to do some systemic changes to accommodate families who will be going to Alberta to give birth. So at this point, I can't say specifically what measures we are going to offer beyond those that are already in place for everyone who travels for medical travel. Thank you.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. I can confirm that the people who I serve when I stand in this House would like to not have to pay out of pocket for essential health care and that would be to deliver a child and would like to not have to pay the $400 copayment fee in order to access required health services.

My next question, Mr. Speaker, is will Health and Social Services increase the $50 hotel benefit to a hundred dollars regardless of escort presence to ensure all parents travelling to deliver in Edmonton have access to equitable hotel benefits regardless of marital status to better cover the costs of hotels. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, medical travel benefits are available to these families who are being disrupted by the closure of the obstetrics unit at the same rates that are provided to everybody else who travels for medical travel. In the event that the family has access to employer benefits, noninsured health benefits, or extended health benefits, Metis health benefits, then they may be able to supplement those numbers. In the event that they are unable to supplement those numbers, they should certainly make the obstetrics team aware of that so that we can consider what else may be available to them. Thank you.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that this is the norm for medical travel, but most medical travel patients aren't travelling for three plus weeks and expected to foot the unexpected bill of thousands of dollars in hotel costs.

What I will also say is that I do have residents in the constituency that I serve who have been reached out by the OBS team and it doesn't seem that the OBS team is able to make decisions on the phone, which I appreciate that this is an evolving situation and is a new situation for everybody. And so I would like Health and Social Services to please consider the length of stay expected of families and the large financial burden that that brings with it.

My next question, Mr. Speaker, is will Child and Family Services help keep families together by paying for the flight costs of children that cannot be left behind. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. All of these answers are about medical travel providing benefits to people who need to seek services in Alberta and in other jurisdictions. In fact, people who go for chemotherapy might also be away for weeks at a time.

The medical travel program is not a program that provides dollar for dollar costs replacement for going south. There is a financial cost to the individuals involved unless they are low income and in which case there are other possibilities. I cannot make a commitment that every family will have the costs of their children with them paid for.

I think that the Member needs to consider that with 540 births in the NWT a year, and with many of those occurring with people who do not live on the door step of Stanton Hospital, that we have to be very mindful of the precedent that we're creating here and the extra spending that we're committing ourselves to. We need to, as I said earlier, continue to gather information about what families need and then make a decision about what additional supports we can provide. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I see this as an opportunity to create a more equitable birth path in the Northwest Territories. I see this as a voice being lent to the right for people to deliver children in a safe space close to home, close to the community that they reside in, and I think that we need to be able to take this and focus on things like doula programs, like our midwifery program, like bettering the medical travel policies that do exist.

And so I am wondering if the Minister will then please commit to finding out from staff what she is hearing or what they are hearing, rather, from constituents of the Northwest Territories as to what they need and to be able to share that information with Members so that we can compare that with the information that we are also receiving from constituents. Thank you.