This is page numbers 4953 - 5010 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

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'm happy to say that Housing is considering this area for future development. We do have plans that are on the way. Right now it is a discussion within the department, and I will keep the Member informed as we progress with the new seniors' complex. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Question 1273-19(2): Heating Costs
Oral Questions

November 1st, 2022

Page 4970

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My Member's statement was the GNWT presented legislation to increase carbon tax last week. Legislation will remove carbon tax rebate for home heating fuel, change increase of home heating bills by hundreds of dollars in my riding. In the press release yesterday, Madam Speaker, there was nothing said about the impact of heating bills. Can the Minister tell me how much heating bills will go up for the average household in the communities of Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok, and Tuktoyaktuk? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I do have that information. I was just trying to see if I could pull it up quickly to provide that sense. I certainly can say, Madam Speaker, that quite unfortunately the communities in the riding of Nunakput are likely to be facing some of the highest impacts from the change to the federal carbon tax rate. And Madam Speaker, I'm not sure it does much good at this point to try to guess at those numbers. But they certainly are facing some of the highest increases certainly in the Northwest Territories as a result of the change to that carbon tax rate. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Could we have that information that she just said before the end of the sitting.

Madam Speaker, our government's press release said nothing about the impact of higher carbon taxes in heating bills. It didn't say anything about the impact of cost of living average in a household or a business. When the government raises its taxes to explain the impact of people from $50 a ton to $65 a ton, it's not meaningful information for the people. Government should provide more transparent accessible information on its proposal, Madam Speaker.

Can the Minister commit to release information on how the carbon tax will affect households in each community now through to 2030? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I certainly will be able to release that and make sure that we get it to the Members, make sure we get that out to the public. And Madam Speaker, you know, to be very clear also there's a difference in terms of who's being impacted. Folks that own their home are likely to pay more because they pay their heating fuel. Folks that are in market rentals that are paying for their heating fuel are likely to pay more. Folks who are in social housing or affordable housing will not be paying simply because that's part of the costs that get paid for them. Or if someone lives in a rental situation where the landlord won't be passing that on, they wouldn't, although given the increases, that is certainly not something one wouldn't want to plan on. But there are a number of households who are in other circumstances, they will be facing increases and we'll make sure to get that information out what the anticipated average rate increases will be by community. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the press release said, again, that GNWT offset its heating costs using a cost of living offset will the equal average out household heating cost increase and the people will still get impacted through the social housing due to the local LHOs going to still have to pay for that fuel which comes out of their budget which is so limited.

Madam Speaker, will the Minister consider a fairer approach to the carbon tax to offset such as a tiered cost of living offset payments to give more support to the people of the Beaufort Delta in a tiered system? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I certainly would consider that. And Madam Speaker, I just wanted to acknowledge that, you know, it's thanks very much to the ideas presented by committee that the department can go back and take some time and see if there are other ways to try to mitigate the increases to the federal carbon tax. One being a tiered system by region but at the same time looking at, you know, that -- as I said earlier, home -- someone who owns their home, someone who doesn't own their home, even within a region, there's going to be differences in what someone pays. So we do want to do some work to try to be as equitable as possible but acknowledging that because there certainly are those ridings who are facing those higher costs, Madam Speaker, we are going to go back and see if there is a way to adjust to account for that. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

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

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you. I thank the Minister for that, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, some provinces rebate provincial sales tax and heating bills. We don't pay provincial sales tax but we do pay GST in our heating bills, and that adds 5 percent on our tax on every bill. What measures has the Minister considered to support heating costs in the Beaufort Delta? Has the Minister considered asking the federal government for a rebate GST on heating bills in the territories when heating costs is most expensive? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I can say that I have not heard it raised, the idea of requesting specifically a GST rebate on heating fuel. So as I said earlier, I'm happy to take that forward. And more generally, I will acknowledge I've certainly been tasked by my colleagues to take the message to Ottawa given the impacts of climate change in the Northwest Territories that the increased costs and what that's going to do to individual residents and businesses is, as I say, a message that I've been tasked to carry forward and I certainly will do so. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ECE. Can the Minister explain how the department and the city are going to work together in order to finalize the access to Tin Can Hill as a university? And by access, I mean the physical access. We can talk about the getting Northerners into the university at a later day. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So there is a regulatory process, and the City of Yellowknife -- it is their regulatory process. And so officials are meeting with the -- officials from ECE are meeting with the officials from the City of Yellowknife to get an understanding of what that process is and the timelines involved with that. But it is through that process that the issues of traffic flow and things like that can be dealt with. And the college wants to be a good neighbour to all of the residents in the area. I can assure you of that. And we don't want to create a situation where there is, you know, concern in the neighbourhood or there's safety concerns. That's not the goal. The goal is to build a post-secondary institution to benefit the people of the Northwest Territories, not to cause disruptions in neighbourhoods. So as I said, the city is driving those -- that regulatory process, but as soon as we find out what that process is and we get some timelines, I'd be happy to share that with the Member. Thank you.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's comments and commitments to share with me. I do think that there's a lot that can be done to ensure that residents don't feel blindsided as we progress. And I just want to get that plug in for extension of 52nd Street so that School Draw and Copper Sky don't deal with the traffic coming out of the university.

My next question, though, is to do with the facilities management plan. It does comment in the plan that the community learning centres are going to be a key role in the future polytechnic as extensions into the smaller communities and tied to their regional centres of Fort Smith, Inuvik, and Yellowknife campuses.

So can the Minister speak to the fact that several of the small communities do not have a community learning centre, so how will those communities get that support or be an extension of the nearby polytechnic campus if they don't have a learning centre in which to operate? Thank you.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And one of the goals that we set out with this transformation was to ensure that the college had a presence in every single community in the Northwest Territories. And that's not the case right now. What that presence looks like, that is what is being worked out. In a perfect world, there would be a physical space with appropriate internet connections and whatnot in every community, but this is a massive project and we're looking at improvements to the three campuses as well as a number of community learning centres. So it's not likely that every community will have a community learning centre, a physical space in the near future. But the college does want to be able to expand what they offer online so that if you're in a community without a community learning centre, you can begin your studies online and then perhaps move to a community with a community learning centre or to a campus community to complete those studies. Thank you.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I almost thought I was going to get a commitment there for every community to get a community learning centre but the Minister is smarter than that. So I do appreciate the commitment on the access; however, that does bring up the lack of internet and computer availability and education within our small communities. I guess then that leads me to my question.

I sort of noted in this job if someone is not responsible for something in particular, no one seems to become responsible for it. So who within the organization of ECE will be the person that coordinates and ensures that the communities get those CLC faculties or at least have the access to that in the community? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So we're on a path, along with Aurora College, towards a polytechnic university. And it is going to be the college who is going to be making those decisions about access as we progress further. Once we have a board of governors in place, which I hope happens early in the new year, it will be that board of governors that will be fulfilling the mandate of the college and focus -- one of the focuses from the beginning has been ensuring access to college programs in every community. So it will be the board of governors who will be tasked with ensuring there is access in every community. Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Final supplementary.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I know there were some controversy around the board of governors, but I won't touch that here today. I guess my last question is around how will the community learning centres be used to utilize or open up for other initiatives within the community? I had the great fortune of going over to Makerspace recently and seeing their space, and the big conversation there was not so much about always having the programming for people but having the space so others can execute their programming. So if the Minister could respond to that, that would be great. Thank you.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you. And since we've made the changes to the Aurora College Act, I can't speak for the college, but we are working closely together so I can say that the college is open to working with community partners. There is a Makerspace up in Inuvik, and that is part of the college already. And so if there are other opportunities to work with third parties and their synergies, if there's space required and the college has that space, I know that they would be happy to make those connections when it makes sense. We all need to work together and pool our resources. Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Question 1275-19(2): Diabetes
Oral Questions

Page 4972

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions to the health Minister stem from my Member's statement regarding diabetes.

Canada's framework for diabetes acknowledges a self-reported rate of diabetes among First Nations and Metis adults is, respectfully, 1.9 to 1.5 times that of non-Indigenous adults. And the number rises to 4.7 percent among Inuit.

The report also notes cases of diabetes in Indigenous communities are often more severe than those in the general population. My question is what is the health Minister doing specifically to address the rate of diabetes among Indigenous people in the NWT, especially the Indigenous communities? Mahsi.