This is page numbers 4861 - 4892 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

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi to the Minister for that answer. But where I live I know for a fact that no servicing of heating appliances were done this year.

Mr. Speaker, I've been apprised that the Housing NWT headquarters in Yellowknife controls the purse strings of all LHOs. What is the relationship between headquarters and their LHOs in terms of budgets and surpluses? Mahsi.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And for the budgets that are established and that are worked on through the Northwest Territories, we do have a funding formula. But with the policy review that we are currently doing right now, that is under review as well, on how we do fund the local housing authorities as well, but we do also work very closely with the LHOs to determine whether they have a surplus. If they do have a surplus, we do identify operation and maintenance deficits and also surplus units and also further units that may have to be renovated. And also if there is a deficit as well too, headquarters work very closely with the local housing authorities to try to help them to get back on track as well. There is a lot of support provided from headquarters to the local housing authorities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister for that. It would have been interesting to ask for financial statements as to the surpluses that go back to headquarters because it may show a lack of a preventative maintenance program.

Mr. Speaker, I'm certain headquarters can determine if and when a preventative maintenance program is not being adhered to. Is there a reporting mechanism that is available to headquarters to determine if a preventative maintenance program is being followed at the LHO levels? Mahsi.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for the question. And I just wanted to just emphasize that when there is a surplus at the local housing authority level that headquarters does work with the local housing authority to spend that money that is there. Some LHOs do carry over a certain amount of funding but that does also provide them with a financial security should they be dealing with any floods, any freezups, or whatever that may happen over the coming months. But also headquarters does work very closely and monitors the preventative maintenance of our units as well too.

I just also wanted to just speak about the budget that we do have. We did get allocation of $60 million over two years from the federal government, and $30 million of that funding is going to be allocated and put towards home repair programs for -- or I mean, sorry, public housing repair programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Deh Cho.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister for that.

Mr. Speaker, many of the heating units, whether they be furnace or boiler units, have ceramic firepots within to prevent burning a hole through the metal heating chamber from the burner. The state and condition of the firepot is extremely important as this will prevent carbon monoxide poisoning to residents. Tenants are not aware of how they can get carbon monoxide poisoning as there is no education material afforded to them. Tenants usually are alarmed when they spell diesel fumes which may not be related to the carbon monoxide. Will the Minister ensure tenants are made aware of how carbon monoxide occurs and if LHOs will install carbon monoxide detectors in the homes? Mahsi.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member as well too. And I just want to appreciate his work as well, that he did work with the local housing authority and also in his community and also with the technical questions as well. I'm not too familiar with the metal heating chamber and terms such as those. But I can assure you that we will be looking at the monitoring of carbon monoxide detectors within those public housing units, and I will follow up with the department to making sure that we do have them installed in our public housing units. Safety and health is a priority of mine as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Will the Minister commit to completing a jurisdictional scan to learn what other Canadian provinces and territories are doing to support their residents with infertility and report back on it to this House? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the question from the Member. We've done a jurisdictional scan, and there are some large jurisdictions with big populations and big revenue bases that can support specialized services such as fertility treatments. But that is not the case here, and fertility treatments are not covered. Thank you.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would ask that the Minister maybe share that with me. I've missed it somewhere in my research.

The Minister's alluded to it a bit, but what other options and ideas has Health and Social Services explored to help our residents on their fertility journey; can she elaborate a bit on what work has been done so far? Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for the question. So the GNWT provides services to individuals who need a diagnosis and treatment for an underlying medical condition that is preventing pregnancy from taking place, and this is part of our insured health services. So if that service is required here, it would be provided here. And if is required in the south, then medical travel would pay for that to happen in the south. So that's the "why aren't I getting pregnant" answer.

In terms of assisting people who don't have underlying medical conditions to get pregnant, that is not part of insured services in the NWT. Thank you.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I guess I struggle to understand how we can spend money and support people to learn why they're not getting pregnant but then not help them to get pregnant after the fact when we talk about growing our population. So can the Minister speak to whether or not she would look at changing the medical travel benefits to include those that are seeking fertility in the south? As I mentioned in my statement, a small investment here could lead to further babies being born in the Northwest Territories and future co-transfer payments from the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, falling pregnant is not a medically necessary intervention provided by our healthcare system, and we have no plans to change that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think this speaks a lot to how women's health is treated in our medical profession and healthcare system. If it were men that wanted to get pregnant and they couldn't, I'm sure we would have found a cure for it a long time ago, so. I would like to ask that the Minister work with her counterpart, the Minister responsible for Human Resources, and look to at least adding this to GNWT benefits going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you for the comment.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Question 1241-19(2): Crime
Oral Questions

Page 4874

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT is known as a leader in one area, unfortunately that area is with respect to the national crime rate. Since 2005, except for a small blip, we have been in first place. However, Mr. Speaker, when it comes to justice, we all have a part to play, whether we're a parent, teacher, health worker, police, judge, lawyer - it doesn't matter. So Mr. Speaker, I'd ask the Minister of Justice if he can confirm what the resulting factors are that have contributed to the increase in the NWT crime rate while we see the correctional centres are showing a steady decrease in population? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 1241-19(2): Crime
Oral Questions

Page 4874

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Justice.

Question 1241-19(2): Crime
Oral Questions

Page 4874

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a big question. I'll do my best to keep my answers short.

So the most recent information we have is from the 2021 calendar year, and that shows us actually a decrease in crime during that time. The total crime rate went down by 3 percent in the Northwest Territories driven by a reduction in robbery, a 21 percent decrease in drug offences, as well as a 7 percent decrease in sexual assault offences. On the other side, we saw an increase in assaults and breaking and entering. But that's 2021, and I know the Member -- there's issues going on right now in his community and so people want to know what's going on right now. And there's a number of factors that influence crime rates.

Socioeconomic factors, the age of the population. In the Northwest Territories we have a very young population. We have a significant amount of poverty in the Northwest Territories, a significant amount of trauma in the Northwest Territories. And when you talk about crime rate, that means different things. So there's the crime rate, just a pure number of crimes, and there's the combination of the types of crimes. So the crime severity index is one way that we can look at the crime rate by taking into account how severe certain cases are.

The crime severity index in 2021 also dropped by 6 percent, and the youth crime severity index dropped by 23 percent in 2021. So when we say we're seeing an increase in crime, we are -- there's a general trend. We were following the same trend as Canada up until about I would say maybe five years ago, and then we have continued to increase while the rest of Canada has sort of stayed steady or decreased. But we are very similar to other regions that are similar to us.

So Nunavut and northern Saskatchewan, you can almost map our crime rates, the trajectory, overtop of each other; they almost form a single line so. There's a number of different factors that contribute to the crime rate. And I'll also say that we have twice as many police officers in the Northwest Territories per person compared to the rest of Canada. So just the mere fact that we have that many officers would make you think that we're going to be -- there's going to be more crimes reported. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 1241-19(2): Crime
Oral Questions

Page 4875

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it seems like more and more people are just being released on bail after committing crimes. Can the Minister explain why people aren't being remanded into custody? Thank you.

Question 1241-19(2): Crime
Oral Questions

Page 4875

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and this speaks to the Member's last question as well. Most of the people who are in the correctional system in the Northwest Territories are there on remand, meaning they have not yet been sentenced.

In the 2010s, there were a number of Supreme Court of Canada cases that spoke to bail and, you know, what was needed in order to detain someone versus to release them. The Government of Canada, in 2019, codified some of that language -- or those decisions. And now the release of accused persons is the cardinal rule and detention is an exception. So the Criminal Code of Canada and Supreme Court of Canada have both been moving in a direction where it is becoming more onerous on the prosecution, or the Crown, to actually have someone detained while they're awaiting trial. And we can see that in the Northwest Territories here with our numbers.

So between that and COVID, where you didn't want people, you know, crammed in small spaces next to each other, those are the factors that contributed to a decline in the number of people we have in correctional facilities. That being said, we are looking at more precise reasons. So there's a group in justice who is looking into this and hopefully sometime in the new year, we'll have some more concrete information. Thank you.

Question 1241-19(2): Crime
Oral Questions

Page 4875

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister provide any direction to ensure people who are in custody stay in custody while being remanded and not let out on bail? Thank you.