Debates of Feb. 11th, 2015

This is page numbers 5451 – 5490 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th 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 housing .

Topics

Oral Questions

Members Present

Prayer

Minister’s Statement 139-17(5): Community Policing Plans Demonstrate A Difference

Minister Statement 140-17(5): Minister Absent From The House

Member’s Statements On Affordable Housing Issues

Expanding Tax Revenues

Energy Efficient Led Lighting

Housing Needs In Fort Simpson

Budget Dialogue 2014 – Supporting Non-Governmental Organizations

Alberta Student Achievement Test Results

Costs And Benefits Of Budget Dialogue Process

Budget Dialogue 2014 Review

Bringing Budget Dialogue To Small Communities

Budget Dialogue Process

Power Franchise Purchase Agreements

Expanding Tax Revenues

Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Homelessness Strategy

Affordable Housing Issues

Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Community Power Distribution Agreements

Mining Industry Advisory Board

On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Assisting Communities To Student Attendance

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)

Tabled Document 195-17(5): 2015-2016 Marketing Plan – Spectacular Northwest Territories

Tabled Document 196-17(5): Managing The Risks Of Hydraulic Fracturing

Document 197-17(5): Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission Annual Report 2013-2014

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Report of Committee of the Whole

Orders of the Day

The House met at 1:31 p.m.

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---Prayer

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Prayer

Prayer

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Justice , Mr. Ramsay .

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Minister’s Statement 139-17(5): Community Policing Plans Demonstrate A Difference

Ministers’ Statements

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

Minister of Justice

Mr. Speaker, communities have worked with the RCMP to develop policing priorities and action plans that designate specific priorities to make our communities safer. I would like to share with Members how this collaboration is making a difference in our communities.

Stopping bootlegging and stemming the inflow of prohibited liquor is a main focus for many communities. This priority is very important, especially around Christmas, holidays and other community events. It requires active participation by everyone, including community members and leaders, RCMP and partners, to combat bootlegging and maintain healthy homes and communities.

In Deline, strong partnerships between the RCMP, citizens and community leaders recently led to successful initiatives including check stops and investigations. These resulted in a seizure of a significant amount of alcohol: in December, a total of 67 bottles of vodka, 51 cans of beer and two bottles of wine. Charges were subsequently laid under the Deline Liquor Restriction Regulations.

However, it wasn’t all about punitive activities. In addition to enhanced law enforcement, the community of Deline hosted cultural activities with RCMP participation throughout the holiday season. Their aim was to help promote sobriety and safer, healthier choices. The results are clear. In December 2014 there was a 32 percent reduction in the number of calls to the RCMP for service compared to December 2013.

Other communities have seen similar successes. Fort Resolution saw charges laid for a seizure in December totaling 73 bottles of liquor, and Fort Good Hope had 51 bottles confiscated in one seizure. Each of these communities saw positive change for December as a result of these actions.

If you have information about any illegal activity affecting your community, speak with your local RCMP. You can also call Crime Stoppers. Crime Stoppers is safe and anonymous and will get your information to the people who can help to make positive change happen.

As you can see from these examples, each of us is able to have an impact and make a difference when we work together to build safer homes and communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Minister’s Statement 139-17(5): Community Policing Plans Demonstrate A Difference

Ministers’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay . Honourable Premier , Mr. McLeod.

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Minister Statement 140-17(5): Minister Absent From The House

Ministers’ Statements

Bob McLeod

Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Glen Abernethy will be absent from the House today due to illness. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Minister Statement 140-17(5): Minister Absent From The House

Ministers’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake , Mr. Dolynny .

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Member’s Statements On Affordable Housing Issues

Members’ Statements

Daryl Dolynny

Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like most MLAs, many of us spend a large portion of our time assisting our residents with affordable housing situations. For the most part we find solutions but, sadly, there is still much disappointment for our most vulnerable in society. This has prompted me to speak today about what I think should be a basic human right. That right, Mr. Speaker, is the right to shelter.

There is nothing more colonial in our modern-day history than the way a number of bureaucrats and politicians in Ottawa decide on budgets for our nation’s housing crisis. Sadly, with federal CMHC funding declining to zero in the next 23 years,

provinces and territories are left struggling to fill the void of affordability, adequacy, quality and homelessness. In essence, housing has become the real orphan of public policy in Canada and the North is not immune.

With our small population base and our inability to increase own-source revenues, this state of dependency is further cast into despair of resentment and dysfunction in seeking resolution to the question many of us ask: Do we have the power and the means to address the challenges of housing in our foreseeable future? Many are optimistic. I myself am very skeptical.

You see, this download of responsibility has created nothing more than a crisis of governance that provincial, territorial and Aboriginal governments share. None of these entities have the means to address this issue alone, even with the best of intentions and collaboration. Dysfunction is imminent.

It’s time, with 2015 being the year of elections at all levels, I ask citizens to address these challenges in the voters booth by asking and seeking clarity in the way we divide the fiscal pie, to ensure that the proper revenue streams are going to the right orders of government and to make sure the housing crisis is deserving of a proper transparency and accountability its citizens want and need.

We can learn from our history when it comes to our housing crisis, but we cannot afford to live in it any further. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Member’s Statements On Affordable Housing Issues

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny . The honourable Member for Weledeh , Mr. Bromley .

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Expanding Tax Revenues

Members’ Statements

Bob Bromley

Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a revenue problem. It’s no surprise that when the Minister of Finance was gathering views of NWT residents during his Budget Dialogue 2014, no one called for lower taxes. Indeed, some suggested increasing revenues through smarter taxation and improved royalties.

The need for investment in sustainable energy infrastructure, home retrofits, early childhood education, adequate housing, job training and addictions is obvious. Expenses are going up. How can we address this need? Shifting to a smarter tax approach is a good start.

Reducing taxes on low and middle income earners balanced by slightly higher ones for high income earners would help with cost of living, attracting new residents and retaining current ones, both yielding federal transfer revenues.

Sin taxes are a natural target and we’ve acted on these for tobacco and alcohol, but let’s recognize that the definition of “sin” includes pollution, and

start making polluters pay instead of blindly accepting these health and environment costs with no ability to pay.

With no revisions since 1997, the NWT’s transportation fuel taxes are significantly below the national average, yet fossil fuel prices have gone through the roof since then. We don’t even tax a penny on natural gas and propane. Economists have shown that, done smartly, establishing a price on pollution, including carbon, would help us to capture industry innovation and reduce cost of living while improving our job numbers with other benefits.

Some corporations reduce northern tax payments by using creative accounting techniques and using commuting labour from afar. A capital tax would help make sure they pay their fair share. Another untapped revenue source is a resource income tax, which could contribute to our Heritage Fund and help smooth out the boom and bust nature of our resource economy.

Hotel and airport departure taxes, common throughout Canada, are unlikely to affect tourism, considering their small proportion of overall travel costs.

While yearly increasing our subsidies to the extractive industry, the Minister was consulting with the public about our budget. In those consultations, people were clear in demanding more than the promise of a few jobs over the life of hugely profitable projects in exchange for our non-renewable resources.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted

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Expanding Tax Revenues

Members’ Statements

Bob Bromley

Weledeh

A better balance is needed. The resources of the North belong to the people. They are valuable and they are being exploited with too little public benefit for owners of the resource.

A revenue tune-up is long overdue, but I acknowledge it will take courage to get it done. Mahsi.

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Expanding Tax Revenues

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley . Colleagues, before we go on today, I would like to welcome our honourable table officer and a man who needs no introduction here in the House, Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford. Welcome back to the House today, Tony.

---Applause

The honourable Member for Deh Cho , Mr. Nadli .

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Energy Efficient Led Lighting

Members’ Statements

Michael Nadli

Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’ve got the blues, but I want to tell you why that’s a good thing. Today I want to talk about LEDs. LED

stands for light emitting diode, and these lights offer a way to replace old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs and less efficient light sources.

LEDs light up the lives of NWT residents every day at home, school, work and while travelling, from household lightbulbs, televisions and laptop computers to vehicles, streetlights, runway lights at the airport in Lutselk’e and even Christmas lights.

Yes, I’ve got the LED blues. Each of these lights uses a unique blue LED chip. This chip forms the base for LEDs of many different colours. That’s what makes these lights different from other bulbs. LEDs use as much as 80 percent less energy and last up to three times longer than fluorescent bulbs and 10 times longer than incandescent.

In our thermal communities, relying on diesel for electricity, this kind of energy efficiency is even more important for residents’ wallets and for community savings. It’s also better for the environment.

Since January 2014, federal regulations have seen retailers required to sell alternatives to incandescent bulbs, often fluorescent lights. But LEDs are still an efficient, sensible option. Unlike some fluorescent bulbs, LEDs have no mercury. If you’re interested in making a switch, rebates are available through the Arctic Energy Alliance for up to $200 for people in diesel communities.

At the community level, I know that communities across the Territories are replacing costly, low-efficient streetlights with LEDs. The NWT Power Corporation estimates that this will cut costs in half. Changing a few lightbulbs may seem like a small thing, but every little step you can conserve energy helps reduce the load on diesel generators in our communities. That means lower fuel consumption, lower cost and better outcomes for our environment.

Today I want to thank the Members’ families and communities that are already making the switch to LEDs, but I hope I can encourage anyone who is still hesitant to come down to the house of blue lights too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Energy Efficient Led Lighting

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Nadli . Member for Nahendeh , Mr. Menicoche .

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Housing Needs In Fort Simpson

Members’ Statements

Kevin A. Menicoche

Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As a small community MLA, in the past I have blasted Yellowknife, but today I want to commend them. I was pleased to see the City of Yellowknife address the needs of the homelessness with their Housing First initiative. They have developed a five-year strategy to deal with the homeless, especially with the youth.

In my Nahendeh riding and throughout the other regions of our NWT, there is a need to increase the amount of housing units and even homelessness shelter complexes, much like Yellowknife has planned. In Fort Simpson there are over 30 single people homeless and on the housing list waiting for units. There are individuals on that list that have been there for about seven years. As our young population ages and starts young families, they too are now looking for accommodations and places to live.

There is a private market there, but one developer has about 12 to 14 units that are close to being condemned, and then where would those families go? Fort Simpson is a regional centre and people from the surrounding communities do migrate to Fort Simpson looking for work and also increasing the pressures for a place to live.

I have been in contact with the NWT Housing Corporation to work with the leadership of Fort Simpson in addressing this issue, also in finding a way to use their available programming and that of the Anti-Poverty Strategy to make an impact on increasing available public units and establishing a homelessness shelter.

Mr. Speaker, today I’m calling on our government and the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation in offering all their resources in addressing this situation.

I will be asking questions later to the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation about our Homelessness Strategy and what resources we have to address these regional centre concerns. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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Housing Needs In Fort Simpson

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche . Member for Inuvik Boot Lake , Mr. Moses .

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Budget Dialogue 2014 – Supporting Non-Governmental Organizations

Members’ Statements

Alfred Moses

Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On November 18th I attended the budget dialogue in

Inuvik where various concerns and recommendations were brought to the government in the Minister of Finance ’s budget dialogue tour across the Northwest Territories. There was a big discussion around investment in renewable energy, and obviously Inuvik is going through a gas situation, and that was one of the big topics, and I’m glad to see that it was also reiterated in other regions with the high cost of living and energy that was put into the Taking Stock Budget Dialogue.

This government is working on, right now, passing a $1.6 billion budget. There is a big increase in the wages and the benefits that we do supply our employees. When I was going through the budget dialogues for the last three years, in 2012 one of the things that I noticed in the overarching themes was mention of duplication of programs. We do

have organizations in the Northwest Territories that do programs on behalf of government and do really great work that help residents become healthier, become educated, become part of society, yet we still do some of those programs within our departments.

Yesterday, during some of our dialogue with one of the departments, we got around to talking about the Third-Party Accountability Framework and how this government is increasing the budget of two not-for-profit organizations in the Northwest Territories who do work on behalf of government, and found out that under this accountability framework the department actually went out and worked with these organizations to increase their wages and benefits, like we do with the employees for the Government of the Northwest Territories.

We still have numerous other not-for-profit organizations that have been running on the same budgets, the same wages and same salaries for years.

I will ask question to the Premier of this government on what he’s going to do to ensure that all not-for-profit organizations do come up to speed with the economy that we’re dealing with right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Budget Dialogue 2014 – Supporting Non-Governmental Organizations

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses . Member for Sahtu , Mr. Yakeleya .

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Alberta Student Achievement Test Results

Members’ Statements

Norman Yakeleya

Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to speak about education in our small communities. In 2013 the Alberta Achievement Test results show that the Northwest Territories is not doing very well. Actually, this test is a measurement of our education system in the Northwest Territories, and when you look at it, the results are pretty glim and bleak in the small communities. We do have a commonality with the larger centres.

When you look at the results from the small communities and larger centres like Yellowknife and Hay River and Inuvik and Smith, there’s a commonality that connects us, and that shows in the results of testing the grades 10 and 11 students. That’s where the results show that the students dip below the percentage. It goes down.

There’s something happening for the students right across the North by grades 10 and 11. Attendance grades are up, then all of a sudden they all drop no matter where you are, Yellowknife, Smith, Hay River or in Colville Lake or Deline. The attendance drops and slightly peaks at Grade 11. So that’s the factor that shows our system isn’t well.

If you look at the other tests, our small communities are way below 50 percent. Students are operating below their grade level, meaning that they can’t

comprehend. If you have a Grade 3 here in Yellowknife and a Grade 3 in Fort Good Hope, they’re not at the same level. They’re actually maybe at Grade 1 or Grade 2 at the best, so we’re failing them at that level.

I wanted to talk about what will it take to provide a quality education. The Minister talked about the four programs as being the foundation, and this is only for academics. There are students who do not want to be a doctor or a teacher; there are students who want to be in the trades. Like the Budget Dialogue says, we need to put screwdrivers and hammers in their hands to make a living.

So, I will ask the Minister, at the appropriate time, some questions on my statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Alberta Student Achievement Test Results

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya . Member for Frame Lake , Ms. Bisaro .

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Costs And Benefits Of Budget Dialogue Process

Members’ Statements

Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start today by praising the Finance Minister for the initiative he has shown for holding budget dialogue events for the last three years, allowing NWT residents to comment on NWT budgets.

Over the three years the meetings have produced considerable feedback, but due to the timing of the forums, I’m not sure that feedback has actually been used. I have to wonder about the value for money of this initiative. Having said that, though, I’ve previously said that we can’t put a price on democracy. Consultation is a necessary evil of government.

This year there were 97 attendees at seven meetings held all over the NWT. Other years have had about the same number of participants, but what has this exercise cost us? Has it been worth the expense?

As I said, I’m unsure how the feedback has been used. In the report from the 2014 Budget Dialogue, the

section called Next Steps states “The results of this process will be used to inform Legislative Assembly discussions in its February budget session and beyond.” The budget dialogues have been held in late fall, generally in November. Given that this year the 2015-16 budget was all but finalized by early December, I don’t know how the Minister used the results of the November 2014 dialogue to influence this year’s budget.

The same can be said of the report’s statement that “Other feedback pertaining to the government’s fiscal priorities and programs and services will be used in the 2015-16 budget.” I have to ask, what info was used and how did the budget change from November 2014 to today?

On another note, there’s significant mention in the Budget Dialogue report of the government’s strategy announced last year at this time, a strategy to grow our population. The report mentions a number of obstacles to achieving this goal and one of the most mentioned is government recruitment.

I want to thank the Minister for his commitment earlier this session to provide Members with concrete evidence of the government’s plan to get us 2,000 new residents, and I look forward to reviewing that plan.

In closing, although I question the value of this budget dialogue exercise and I hope the Minister will do a value for money audit on it, I compliment the Minister and department for holding these forums and giving residents a chance to express their views in person.

I’m hopeful the 18th Assembly will continue to seek

out residents’ views on NWT budgets. Thank you.

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Costs And Benefits Of Budget Dialogue Process

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro . The Member for Hay River North , Mr. Bouchard .

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Budget Dialogue 2014 Review

Members’ Statements

Robert Bouchard

Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will obviously be talking about the budget dialogue that the Minister of Finance continues to hold for the last three years.

I’m not sure if I’m really that confident in this budget dialogue process. Indications from this year are we had 97 people attend and we had 11 individuals or groups submit. Those are really low numbers and I’m not sure if we’re using this to direct or just as an excuse that we’ve consulted, because the numbers look crazy as far as I’m concerned. Thirty people from Yellowknife attended. Thirty people from a community that’s very large, the centre and our capital. That’s a very small number. In Hay River we had eight and I know Hay River had more interested; we had a conflict in meetings.

From this type of dialogue, the government moves forward with the budget. Like my colleague indicated, most of this is probably in stone already. So I’m just wondering if the Minister and his department really were hearing the public in this process, or did they have a preconceived notion? Because I know at each meeting, the meetings that I attended, the Minister and the staff had a presentation to make, had a discussion on the fiscal strategy and that we were limited to what we can do anyway. So I’m just wondering if there’s a preconceived notion of how this process is going to happen and the budget that was going to happen. So, are we just playing lip service to the general public?

I’ll have questions for the Minister about what he actually learned out there this year. Thank you.

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Budget Dialogue 2014 Review

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard . The Member for Mackenzie Delta , Mr. Blake .

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Bringing Budget Dialogue To Small Communities

Members’ Statements

Frederick Blake Jr.

Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will say a few words on the budget dialogue that has happened over the last three years. When this first began in one of the communities we even had a peaceful demonstration, which showed great support for the Inuvik-Tuk Highway Project and that is one of our priorities that we have undertaken over the last couple of years. Also with the Fibre Optic Link.

Those investments in the Beaufort-Delta region really needed to happen. Before that it was very slow up in the region, but now there’s a lot of jobs happening over the winter season, a lot of people working, a lot of happy families over Christmas.

Also, what I was hoping to say, and if this happens in the future, is come and visit the small communities, not just the regional centres. Thank you.

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Bringing Budget Dialogue To Small Communities

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake . Member for Hay River South , Mrs. Groenewegen .

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Budget Dialogue Process

Members’ Statements

Jane Groenewegen

Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not to the substance of the budget dialogue but to the process, I would like to say that I applaud the Minister for his efforts to consult with people in the communities. It is always a debate, to dialogue or not to dialogue, to consult or not to consult, because we don’t have any way of realistically predicting how many people, how many constituents, how many people in the communities will actually be interested in taking the time to come out and speak with the government.

Perhaps there could be some tweaking or adjusting done in terms of the timing of the consultation if people feel that the input could be put to better use if we had it earlier on in the process. So, those are things that we could think of.

But the fact is that for the last three years the Minister of Finance has taken his staff and he has gone out to the people in the Northwest Territories. If they did not avail themselves of that opportunity to have input, that is their choice, but we as a government have, I believe, a duty to consult and we made those efforts and we made that investment. So it’s hard now, after the fact, to say that we shouldn’t have done it because of poor turnout. As Mr. Bouchard said, in Hay River there was something conflicting that night. I didn’t even make it to the budget dialogue that night as there

was something else going on in town, but I can’t remember what it was.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to also say that for myself as a part of this government, I am happy to have someone like Mr. Miltenberger in the position of Minister of Finance . That is not an easy job, I can tell you that I’ve been here as long as he has and I could not do that job. It is something that after the number of years that he’s been doing that job… I was saying to his brother at the airport the other day, that Michael – oh, I should say Mr. Miltenberger – almost makes the job look easy.

But I know it is not easy and it is leading a team, and we as a government have credibility when we speak to our counterparts and our other Ministers across this country when that portfolio is handled by someone who has the ability to do it well. So I would like to thank him for his years as Finance Minister and say a job well done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Budget Dialogue Process

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen . Member for Yellowknife Centre , Mr. Hawkins .

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Power Franchise Purchase Agreements

Members’ Statements

Robert Hawkins

Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, once again I want to talk about the problems families are facing with their power bills and how they relate to the cost of living. So, what better area to focus in on today than the subject of power companies having specifically tuned to their franchise purchase agreements with the communities in the North?

Families taking care of families matters to me most, and that’s something I think most of us know every day here, is we worry about our constituents and we don’t lose sight of that. So, keeping that in mind, I’ve been looking at the franchise agreement process, and what I’m noticing is franchise agreements can easily be described as, or even somewhat compared to, sole-source negotiated contracts. In fact, the similarities are so close I’m not sure anyone can really tell the difference between them. So if a person isn’t a contract expert or certainly an administrator, I don’t think they can tell the difference.

So now that we’re starting to put our finger on the problem in the right way, looking at it with the right eyes, whose interest is being served? Well, let me draw the House’s attention to a particularly great Member’s statement made some time ago here that puts the finger on the problem. It was a statement that drew the attention of the Cabinet’s increasing practice of awarding lucrative contracts without any competition. So, I quote the Member of the day: “I’m not suggesting that the people who have received these contracts are not competent. I’m not suggesting that they’re not offering a fair price. What I’m saying is that there’s no way to be sure of

either of these things if we do not use a competitive process like a tender or an RFP. This is particularly true when we are sole sourcing contracts to individuals with very close ties to government.” Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Member, MLA Ramsay, for that particular quote and passage provided on February 23, 2010.

What the issue really comes down to is we need to find ways to create a competitive environment that helps drive down the cost of power for Northerners so we can afford to live here, because the cupidity of these sole-source contracts are so aggressively sought after, people dare not let them go.

However, if we cannot create an environment of a robust competition, then we simply need to have the courage to break up the monopoly, because the Power Corp Minister said quite nicely the other day, this is an “essential” service. We must find a way to protect the public’s interest. That’s why we’re here. That’s what we should be fighting for. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Power Franchise Purchase Agreements

Members’ Statements

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins . Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. I’d like to welcome everybody in the public gallery. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings here today.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Weledeh , Mr. Bromley .

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement today with questions to the Minister of Finance . This government definitely needs increased revenues if it’s to shift to a sustainable foundation and continue providing a sufficient level of services and programs to people it serves. We’ve heard of a plan to attract 2,000 new souls to the North. To date, we have seen neither the plan nor the souls.

The global economy is, understandably, stalled and our big investments in giant infrastructure provide little economic return. Five percent on $2 billion worth of diamonds exported from the NWT seems too little.

What real opportunities for increased revenue is the Minister of Finance pursuing? Mahsi.

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley . The honourable Minister of Finance , Mr. Miltenberger .

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Thebacha

Michael Miltenberger

Minister of Finance

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One quick word about the diamond mines. We have a GDP of about $3.6 billion a year. Of that, half of that comes from the diamond mines. So when you look what they pay in royalties, but you have to combine that with all the money and

value added that comes into the territory, that if we didn’t have those diamond mines and the $1.6 billion or so that they contribute to our economy, we’d be having a considerably more difficult conversation in this House.

The approach that we are taking in an area that has some of the highest costs of living in the country is to look at trying to build the strategic infrastructure that’s going to help create the conditions and provide the tools for continued economic growth that will expand our tax base as a result. I point to things like the $80 million commitment to put in the Fibre Optic Link which, if it holds true as to what happened in Kiruna, Sweden, we’ll see over the years an added value to the community of Inuvik of hopefully over $100 million a year. If we get good at it, the value added in terms of jobs could be anywhere in the neighbourhood of 400 jobs, if Kiruna, Sweden, is any indication.

It’s that kind of investment that we see as where we want to put our attention and invest our money, as opposed to at this point looking at expanding the taxes on Northerners. Thank you.

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Weledeh

I think the fibre optic line is a good project and probably our best and, unfortunately, our only example. The 400 jobs the Minister speaks of are obviously far beyond any estimates I’ve seen provided by Cabinet, but I do support that project.

Obviously, the GDP that the Minister mentions is a false measure. It has been well recognized as a false measure. We know that over half a billion dollars, the Minister tells me, in wages are being sent out of the Northwest Territories. That all goes to the GDP, right? So how real is that?

One possible enticement for people who might be considering a move to the NWT, though, and a reason for those already here to remain, would be lower income taxes on low and middle income brackets. There are many aspects of this that would have to be examined, but the Minister seems to write this off out of hand.

How has the Minister considered this possibility in a plan to attract new residents and their intended transfer payments? Mahsi.

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Thebacha

Michael Miltenberger

Minister of Finance

We’re looking at our initiative, as noted by the Member, where we’ve committed to provide an actual formal strategy that links together all the pieces that we’re doing on our 2,000 folks into the territory in now four years. We see that as, once again, a way where we can bring people into the territory.

The issue of changing the tax rates, more taxes on the higher income, lowering it on the lower incomes, we haven’t. I’ve made a decision, we’ve made a decision that we want to focus on building the tax base. So we haven’t spent a lot of time looking at how much we would need to raise the

taxes on the high income, lower them on the lower and middle income. If it’s to be revenue neutral, that’s one thing. If it’s to put a whole bunch of new revenue in the pockets of the government so that we can spend it on other needs, then I would think that would be a fairly significant increase. We’ve tried over the years to raise our corporate taxes. We raised them up to 14 percent. I think that lasted about a year. We’ve quickly changed back to a more competitive rate as there was an absolute flood of equity and investment out of the Northwest Territories to file their taxes in other jurisdictions where the rates were more competitive. So it’s a very delicate balance. Thank you.

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Weledeh

Obviously, the Minister has got a hope and a prayer for revenues, but I think we need a little more than that. You know, the hope that people are going to move here because we want them to move here is not going to get us what we’re looking for. We need some real action on revenue. Increasing taxes on bad behaviours, or sin taxes they’re called, are always popular and we’ve done a little bit of that. The increased revenue is useful and any decreased demand on costs of the bad behaviour is welcome.

The inclusion of fossil fuel use for energy generation and transportation could be considered in this light. When was the last time this House reviewed the Petroleum Products Act, and how will the Minister go after this potential opportunity? Mahsi.

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Thebacha

Michael Miltenberger

Minister of Finance

To dismiss out of hand the initiatives to become more efficient in our hiring, to empower our people to go down south on hard-to-fill positions to be able to make on-the-spot job offers, to make us more competitive in terms of how we do that, to say that the Nominee Program that will hopefully increase the number of seats available with the expedited process, cut the times down to six months would help bring, hopefully, hundreds of people into the Northwest Territories, plus their families is not worth the effort, I think doesn’t do justice to the complexity and the going back to the issue of let’s just tax the small diminishing population that we do have in the hopes that somehow we can generate the amount of revenue that we need.

What we need is an expanded population, expanded tax base that’s going to create more tax revenue, more people with jobs, families here using our services, driving up the quality of living in the Northwest Territories and giving us the capacity to do things we need to do.

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger . Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley .

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I agree this is complex and there’s a complexity to this that can’t be addressed in this format, but this Minister is not coming forward with discussions on revenue generation. We’re not

having any of that. There’s no analysis being done. To do analysis requires an unbelievable effort on part of committee. Currently there is no tax levy on natural gas and propane in the NWT. The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, had it gone ahead, would have been powered on natural gas without a penny of tax collected by this government, and this situation, this travesty remains true today. Not surprisingly, no other jurisdiction subsidizes such fossil fuel consumption and foregoes revenues in this completely inexplicable way.

Would the Minister at least consider closing the policy gap and protecting our people by establishing a revenue opportunity to help with costs incurred from that activity, even though he’s refused to do so to date? Mahsi.

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Thebacha

Michael Miltenberger

Minister of Finance

Once again what I will commit to do is I’ll commit to put a paper together that I’ll share with committee that will lay out some of the challenges when it comes to raising some of the taxes, which we have looked at in terms of petroleum products and motive and non-motive fuels. It’s not like we dismiss it out of hand, but we have to look at the balance and the cost impact on the economy. I will share that with committee and we can have a discussion if committee wishes to ask us to appear before committee. If there is a consensus, we will look at including that in the transition document, but in this budget there’s no intention to raise taxes. Thank you.

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Question 597-17(5): Expanding Tax Revenues

Oral Questions

Bob Bromley

Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger . The honourable Member for Sahtu , Mr. Yakeleya .

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Question 598-17(5): Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the 2013 Alberta Achievement Tests, they talk about factors that give our smaller communities and larger centres test results. One of the biggest factors that brought our percentage down was the children’s attendance in schools.

I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment , in order to raise the level of success for our young people, what is the department doing along with education boards in communities to ensure that children go to school, stay in school and bring their grades up? Right now, the biggest factor is children not attending school.

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Question 598-17(5): Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya . The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment , Mr. Lafferty .

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Question 598-17(5): Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Oral Questions

Jackson Lafferty

Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular area is a prime focus of my department to improve the overall education system in the Northwest Territories. The students learning and success will improve if attendance rates also improve. The Member is alluding to that. Ensuring students attend regularly is a shared responsibility between the school boards, ourselves as the Department of Education, families and the community at large.

We are doing what we can. Within Educational Renewable and Innovation, we want to focus on students’ well-being through safety and care as school practice and nutritious food in our schools and also enhancing the school/community relations through elders in schools, residential school resources, staff training and also providing personalized quality of education through focused inclusive learning supports, career orientation and distance learning programming. Those are just some of the key areas we’ve initiated within our department and we will continue to make those improvements in our educational programming. Mahsi.

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Question 598-17(5): Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Sahtu

I do wish the department all the success in their initiatives to raise the level of attendance of our children for them to go to school. Is the Minister looking at

some innovative ways that the school itself can do to get the children and parents saying it’s important that your child gets the proper amount of rest, so they can come to school fresh and be ready to hit the school work? Is his department working with the educational boards to do a one-time initiative as they did a long time ago and get the teachers to go and visit the families at their homes, sit down with the parents, talk with them at their homes rather than have the parents come to the school and meet with the teachers? Can we do a reversal on that?

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Question 598-17(5): Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Oral Questions

Jackson Lafferty

Monfwi

We are discussing both of either the parents going into the school system or the teachers going into households to talk about attendance as well. Parents and guardians are encouraged to ensure their children attend school on a regular basis, Mr. Speaker. When an individual misses one day a week of school over the life of high school, it equals one year without school. That has a tremendous impact. So there should be attendance of 90 percent or more. That’s our target that we want to achieve. We are working very closely with the school boards to achieve that. We are developing various action plans geared towards how we can improve attendance in our school systems. Mahsi.

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Question 598-17(5): Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Sahtu

In today’s life, students bring with them lots of issues to school. Some of these issues they have they need support on. Is the school now looking at ways to help the children with their emotional and mental issues, so they can have support other than to hold onto them and not deal with them? That sometimes prevents a child from attending school. Is there support for them such as counselling services in our small schools for the kids?

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Question 598-17(5): Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Oral Questions

Jackson Lafferty

Monfwi

The quickest answer would be yes. Again, we are working with school boards to establish those kinds of support mechanisms. Again, poor attendance is a symptom of underlying issues such as students being disengaged in learning, negative feelings within our schools towards students or families, a sense of not belonging and the safety factor is a huge issue. It’s a priority for school boards. Our prime focus on student well-being through safe and caring school practices, providing nutritious food in our school system.

Those are fundamental and what we’ve heard from our elders and educators in the school system that we must provide to our education system in the Northwest Territories. Those are areas that we will push forward on. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 598-17(5): Impact Of Attendance On Student Achievement

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Colleagues, before we go on today, we’ve been going through eight questions and eight answers today and it takes 15 minutes. Your

preamble and your responses, if you could tighten it up a little bit for the House, thank you. The honourable Member for Hay River North , Mr. Bouchard .

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

Robert Bouchard

Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement about the budget, I will have questions for the hard-working veteran Minister of Finance .

I would like to see if the Minister can give me some information on how they look at getting more information from these budget dialogues going forward. The numbers are definitely low. Can we get some information on how we improve that?

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard . The honourable Minister of Finance , Mr. Miltenberger .

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

Thebacha

Michael Miltenberger

Minister of Finance

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When you go out on budget dialogues, it’s a commitment that takes a number of weeks. There’s a Swedish word that caught my eye that sort of lays out some of the challenges of that task. The Swedish word is “resfeber,” it’s the restless beat of a traveller’s heart before the journey begins, a mixture of anxiety and anticipation. Every time I go out and go around the territory, I always wonder how it’s going to go. I look forward to going out to the communities to meet with people no matter who shows up, not only in the rooms where we are, but in the coffee shops and in the offices when we go around to meet employees.

So how do we get more people out? It’s a good question for this Assembly because as I came back in here, I looked around the auditorium and there’s not a soul in here but the work we do is important. We come here day after day, sometimes people show up. I know we’re wired in for people. People in the communities value the fact that central agency folks, especially finance people, take the time to go out there. How do we do that?

There has been advice provided and we’ll look at the struggle of trying to do our budget consultations, the timing, because it ties in with business plan reviews, the work that we do, advertising, trying to figure out ways that we don’t conflict with community activities. One of the challenges being we have to book so far ahead, by the time we get there, other things could overtake us. I think there are ways and we look forward to feedback form the Members. Thank you.

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

Robert Bouchard

Hay River North

My next question is: What did we hear this year and how does that apply and how has it been applied to our current budget?

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

Thebacha

Michael Miltenberger

Minister of Finance

The work we do is cumulative and every Assembly builds on the work of previous Assemblies. Every budget builds on the work of previous budgets. The 17th Assembly charted out a bunch of priorities that we’ve been trying to

implement. We’ve done things that the communities have asked us to do. We’ve put more money into prevention. We’ve protected programs and services. We’ve beefed up our capital plan in the places like the Far North. We’ve put in projects that are going to help not only provide infrastructure but some employment. As I pointed out before, this is not a situation where communities are sitting there and it’s a blank slate. They have MLAs that sit in this building, and I commended MLAs prior to this, that reflect the views of their constituencies to a great degree. Plus, we all travel.

It just gives us a chance to put faces to names and to hear firsthand many of the things we already know or think, or we know are critical principles and values of the Northwest Territories and of government, and in some cases they give us good advice, regional advice that we can look at when we come back. It may not be reflected in the budget, but it could be reflected in how the departments adjust their business on a day-to-day basis. Thank you.

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

Robert Bouchard

Hay River North

I would like a specific example of what, out of this year’s budget dialogue, came out from the public? Because I’m concerned the presentation was just made, the presentation was there, the public was heard, but nothing was implemented.

What specifically was implemented from this budget dialogue will be going forward or was implemented to this budget?

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

Thebacha

Michael Miltenberger

Minister of Finance

Let me give a couple of examples. There are a legion I could give, but let me give a couple.

The Western Arctic Geomatics Centre we’re setting up in Inuvik. It came up that we need to look at getting stuff out of Yellowknife; we need to tie into the work of the fibre optic line; we need to do a better job now that we’re the land owners post-devolution, and we need to invest money to do that, and we’ve done that with the western geomatics.

We committed to decentralization and one of the places that we’re going to decentralize to, some positions from ITI parks to Hay River.

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

Robert Bouchard

Hay River North

This is the problem that I have, is I think that those park positions were in the budget before the budget dialogue. So, I’m looking for specific examples from the budget dialogue that were implemented. We already knew about the fibre optic line; we already knew some of this stuff. I’ll even go back to the previous budget dialogues.

What has the department learned from the public, has implemented and put into our budget process and into the operations of the government?

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

Thebacha

Michael Miltenberger

Minister of Finance

Let me use another example. We put I think $425,000 into doing an Integrated Case Management Pilot Project, of which Inuvik and Yellowknife and, I believe, Hay River are going to be beneficiaries to push the departments that deal in the social envelope to integrate their case management approach so that when they deal individuals and clients with multiple presenting problems they do it in an integrated, coordinated way. A goal we’ve been striving to get done ever since I can remember and I’m in my 40th year now in government. We believe

that maybe this will help us turn the corner on that. That’s a specific one.

If we want to look back, the fibre optic link has had a life in the previous Assembly, and as we build off the work of that Assembly, we’ve now broken ground, we’ve got counties beating the path to the door of Inuvik. We’ve put in the Western Geomatics Centre to build off of the opportunities that the fibre optic link provides. I would be glad to maybe share again a copy of the budget address with my colleague for Hay River North because it is replete with all the fine things that this Legislative Assembly has asked to get done that we are doing. Thank you.

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Question 599-17(5): Improving Budget Dialogue Process

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger . Mr. Menicoche .

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

Kevin A. Menicoche

Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.Earlier in the day I spoke about the need to get more public housing units in Fort Simpson as well as begin a plan about doing a homelessness complex. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation – I know that we do have a Homelessness Strategy – what kind of supports are there in the Homelessness Strategy that can help with projects such as this? Thank you.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche . Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs , Mr. McLeod.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; we do have a Homelessness Strategy. One of the parts of the strategy is the Northern Pathways to Housing, and it’s a pilot project that we’ve been trying to implement in the communities. I think we have four communities that were identified. We have two communities, Aklavik and Behchoko, that actually have their proposal put together; and we have Fort Simpson and Fort Good Hope that we’re continuing to engage with, hoping they take us up on our offer.

It’s up to $100,000 to renovate an existing unit and there is ongoing funding of $70,000 over five years. That would go a long way in trying to help address some of the issues facing these smaller communities, and also it would be an opportunity there for some employment in a small community, because we do want to work with a community organization to deliver this program on our behalf. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

Kevin A. Menicoche

Nahendeh

That’s certainly something that we can move towards. I was talking to my colleague Mr. Yakeleya , and the Housing Needs Survey of 2014 indicates the Nahendeh region, of course, is number one again in core needs. We had addressed that the last survey but it’s creeping back up again, and some of the issues are new and emerging young people and families. So I appreciate that answer about homelessness.

Can that program also work in conjunction with our Anti-Poverty Strategy and accessing more funds to make units available for homeless in the regional centres like Fort Simpson? Thank you.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, it is our hope to try and address the homelessness. It used to be that it was more of a regional issue, but I think we’re finding more and more that it’s continuing to branch out into a lot of the smaller communities and that’s one of the reasons that we’ve come up with this program to try and assist with that.

There are opportunities there to tie into the Anti-Poverty Strategy and all the different pieces of work we’ve got going out there. We have identified some money through our corporation to help deal with this and we’ll continue to do so. I think we have about four or five programs that are specific to design to help deal with homelessness activities across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

Kevin A. Menicoche

Nahendeh

I’d like to thank the Minister for that answer. As well in addressing the homelessness, I think part of the issue in Fort Simpson, as well, is the lack of public housing. I indicated in my list, particularly for single people there’s a list that’s almost 30 people long. In fact, a couple of the applicants have been on that list for about seven years.

So I would just like to know, how are we addressing increasing public units in the community of Fort Simpson, especially in light of there being a private developer that has 12 to 14 units and I think they may be shut down within the next year or two, as well, and that will certainly increase the need for more units for Fort Simpson. Thank you.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, first of all, the person who has been waiting for seven years, I would have to look into that. As I was saying the other day, there are many reasons people are on a waiting list, but one of the requirements of receiving support from income support is to be on the waiting list – they could be on the waiting listen even with support from income support – but also paying off their arrears. I’ve seen a number of cases where they’ve been on the waiting list for a long time and taking care of their arrears and they were, in fact, allocated housing units once their arrears were paid off.

I commend them for that. There are a couple of cases where they’ve been on a repayment plan for a number of years, but they’ve seen that through and are now in public housing.

As far as increasing the public housing stock in the Member’s community, we do use the Community Needs Survey that we just completed in 2014, to help identify some of the communities and the most in need. Again, the Member pointed out that his region was number one, so we use that in helping to allocate units to a particular community.

I mean, we’re challenged with some of the funding decline, but we’re taking steps to try and deal with that issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche .

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

Kevin A. Menicoche

Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In using the housing needs assessment, I just wonder if in this case of the assessment being done in 2013-2014, I wonder if I can ask the Minister if he can check with his officials if they’re aware of this private housing provider about his units, 12 to 14 units being shut down and how that would affect the current needs assessment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, I’ll be glad to have a conversation with the officials and ask them about the units being shut down in Fort Simpson and how that’s going to affect our numbers there. I will gather that information and I will have conversations with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 600-17(5): Homelessness Strategy

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Range Lake , Mr. Dolynny .

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement earlier today, I mentioned that as a nation we are facing an affordable public housing crises. With only 23 years left in the declining funding model from Ottawa, the NWT is being saddled with decisions on affordability, adequacy, quality in its annual public housing budgets. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Recently the Minister was in Ottawa with his Cabinet colleagues discussing the infrastructure needs for Northerners with his federal counterparts. We know that an announcement for $18 million over five years for the extension of the Affordable Housing Agreement followed.

Can the Minister inform the House, what does this extension mean and does this deal with the shortcomings of a declining CMHC funding model? Thank you.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny . Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The agreement was an extension to the Investment in Northern Housing Initiative that provided $1.8 million annually from the federal government, which is matched by the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. So that gives us about $3.6 million in investment over the next five years.

We’ve used these funds in the past to help deal with some of the programs to help low- and modest-income homeownership repairs, and it doesn’t address the problem of declining federal funding to operate social housing.

We’re continuing to have discussions with our counterpart in Ottawa on this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, we know that CMHC funding for the Northwest Territories is declining from $21 million 2001 to zero by 2038 with only 23 years left in funding. We also know that 50 percent of our housing stock today is over 30 years old or more.

Can the Minister tell us, what is the current strategy of the NWT Housing Corporation in dealing with these two very important problems? Thank you.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, first of all, we’re very fortunate that the 17th Legislative Assembly has added about $2.1 million annually to the NWT Housing Corp to help offset some of the decline in federal funding. We do have a long-term strategy. I mean, we would hope that the federal government enters into an arrangement on public housing for long-term, stable funding in partnership with us, because we see that as a way of going forward.

But we are taking steps to address the declining funding. I’ve spoken to this before. We’re building more multi-family, energy-efficient units to help with that. We’ve done about 700 retrofits to existing units during the life of this 17th Assembly. We’ve invested

in energy initiatives like solar and biomass. We’re also realigned our rent scales and we’ve improved the administrative efficiencies of our operation with the local housing authorities. I have to give a shout out to the local housing authorities, not only to them but to the clients because many of them are stepping up to the plate and starting to honour the commitments that they’ve made. That’s why I made the announcement during my opening remarks yesterday; that the collection rate is at 97 percent, so I think a huge shout out should go to them.

This helps us deal with the sustainability of our public housing stock, because if we can collect rent, then we can reinvest that money and not have to count so much on the declining federal funding. So we’re taking steps to deal with that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, of course managing our assets better will result in a healthier balance sheet. This is a given. We know that there are about 400 mortgages still being held by the Housing Corporation and this has not always been a smoothly run area. Collection rates were around 30 percent back in 2012, with arrears totaling about $16 million, then came the Revised Mortgage Balance Program to deal with that.

Can the Minister inform the House today, what is the current status of this Revised Mortgage Balance Program and what is our current rate of collection and how are we dealing with these balance of arrears? Thank you.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Inuvik Twin Lakes

The Member is correct that we did introduce a Revised Mortgage Balance Program near the end of 2012. We gave homeowners with mortgages with the NWT Housing Corporation a chance to get a fresh start with predictable, fair monthly rent. Total arrears in the mortgage portfolio have been reduced from $16.5 million to $9.1 million over the last couple of years. A majority of the clients have actually opted into the new program and collection rates have been in the 70 to 80 percent range for these clients.

We have about 115 clients that have not entered the new program for one reason or another and collections among these clients are very low. A lot of these clients we’re now talking to legal counsel, sue collections through the courts. Thank you.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny .

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

Daryl Dolynny

Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With 2,700 rental units being managed by local housing authorities across the NWT, again, managing our rental collection, and if done properly, will help the bottom line.

So I do applaud the good work that the Minister and Housing Corporation has done in cleaning up this backlog of a low collection rate, which back in 2008 was about 71 percent and as we heard today, I got the number 97 percent today. So that’s a good job. That said, we still have some LHOs today that have collection rates under 70 percent.

What is the Minister doing to improve these rental collections in those specific communities? Thank you.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

Robert C. McLeod

Inuvik Twin Lakes

There are about three elements to the collection approach for our rental units. First of all, we need to improve the collection of current rent and we did note that 97 percent was a good sign that progress is being made, and I think we see that in all areas of the Northwest Territories.

Secondly, we need to ensure that those who have accumulated arrears enter into some form of repayment plan, and we do obtain rental officer orders for these tenants. We’re currently seeing the number of tenants with large arrears declining as people are starting to dig themselves out of the hole, and we still need to engage with collection of former residents. Because you moved out of one of our units, that doesn’t change the amount that you owe to the NWT Housing Corporation.

As the Member noted, we had a couple of LHOs that had collection rates under 70 percent last year. We’re working with the LHOs to ensure that they’re obtaining rental officer orders for tenants not paying their rent. At the same time we want to work with tenants to enter into a repayment plan because our goal is to house people, not to evict them and this goes a long way. Again, I give a shout out to those that are honouring the commitments that they’ve made because we have seen a bit of an improvement. I just said that in a lot of these communities they do run a high risk of eviction if they don’t keep up with their rental payments and their arrears. Thank you.

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Question 601-17(5): Affordable Housing Issues

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake , Mr. Moses .

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

Alfred Moses

Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to follow up to my Member’s statement. In our main estimates it shows that there has been an increase to the forced growth for two not-for-profit organizations and I’d like to commend the Premier for taking that initiative to get our organizations who do excellent work on behalf of government and getting their wages and benefits up to par with what we pay our government employees.

So my first question is to the Premier . When we’re going through an exercise like this, who initiates that process? Thank you.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses . The honourable Premier , Mr. McLeod.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

Yellowknife South

Bob McLeod

Premier

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this case it was the NGOs in question. Thank you.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

Alfred Moses

Inuvik Boot Lake

So, moving forward just in terms of awareness and an education component, hopefully some of our non-profit organizations that we do fund are listening and can take that same process, but sometimes those organizations don’t want to come knocking at the door. Would the Premier make a recommendation to his Cabinet Ministers to go and talk to their non-profit organizations and see if they do in fact need an increase in their funding for salaries and wages and benefits to keep up to par. Thank you.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

Yellowknife South

Bob McLeod

Premier

The Government of the Northwest Territories has what we call a third-party accountability framework and that is to deal with third parties who provide services and programs to the Government of the Northwest Territories. In the interest of accountability and transparency, we have a framework in which we determine the level of accountability for third party agencies, which include political risk, financial risk and results risk and on the basis of that rating we put them into three categories, which determines the funding process that we use. Thank you.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

Alfred Moses

Inuvik Boot Lake

Can I ask the Premier , when was the framework developed and what year did it come into effect and, in fact, if that framework will be reviewed? Thank you.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

Yellowknife South

Bob McLeod

Premier

Thank you. The framework was developed in 2004 and in 2011 it was updated with a Program Manager’s Guide for Funding NGOs. Thank you.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses .

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

Alfred Moses

Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just making a recommendation to the Premier . Would the Premier , in the framework, make it mandatory that forced growth with all our non-profit organizations be reviewed or even the framework be reviewed every four years or every time there’s a GNWT negotiating the collective bargaining agreement for our GNWT employees and do the same for our not-for-profit sector? The ones that we fund.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

Yellowknife South

Bob McLeod

Premier

Thank you. The third party accountability framework results in three categories of third party funding. The first category is for major service delivery bodies and that provides for multi-year funding through the business planning process.

The second category is for other service delivery and commercial crown corporations that don’t have large infrastructure, and in those cases there’s a mandatory budget consultation with the funding departments.

The third category is for the much smaller, quasi-judicial, smaller NGOs and those are annual funding requests or application-based. Through that process they would approach their department for funding.

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Question 602-17(5): Supporting Non-Government Organizations

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Yellowknife Centre , Mr. Hawkins .

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation.

My question for the Minister is: Can the Minister of the NWT Power Corp inform this House which of our 33 communities the NWT Power Corp does not service as the distribution agent and explain why that is not the case? Thank you.

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins . The Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation , Mr. Miltenberger .

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

Michael Miltenberger

Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That would be Hay River, Yellowknife, Providence, Wekweeti, Enterprise, Trout Lake. Thank you.

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Yellowknife Centre

Would the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation explain why the NWT Power Corp isn’t the agent for distribution of power in those particular communities or from his ability to explain how we got where we are today to have individual franchise agreements for those particular communities and not in the others that remain out of the 33? Thank you.

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

Michael Miltenberger

Thebacha

Thank you. The way our system is structured, communities make the choice of who they would like to make an agreement with to provide their electrical services. There’s a process through the franchise process to do that and communities have done that over the years. Thank you.

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Yellowknife Centre

We’re all well aware that the Cabinet has the authority, as does the Executive Council to exempt the NWT Power Corp from delivering a dividend payment to the government. By the way, when I say dividend I mean profit. Is the Minister able to speak to how long this happens to be the case and when was the last time the government directed the NWT Power Corp to deliver a dividend? As this government waived the dividend, what is the intent of why they’ve waived it?

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

Michael Miltenberger

Thebacha

The Power Corporation does have a rate of return, but as it’s been demonstrated over the last number of years, there’s been cost pressures on the Power Corporation that far exceed to manage without the government’s ability to come and cushion the blow on the ratepayers. The $37 or $38

million we put in to cushion the impact of what would have been a rate cliff because the prices of fuel hadn’t been raised over the last number of years. The most recent one would have been the low water surcharge that we’ve covered off as a contribution to the Power Corporation. Thank you.

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger . Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins .

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

Robert Hawkins

Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the NWT government has the ability to waive the dividend, can the Minister speak particularly to the franchise agreement? I believe they are 10-year agreements. Would the Minister be able to speak to that detail on whether they are all 10-year agreements and does the territorial government have what one could define as an exit clause if they need to find a new direction for the people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

Michael Miltenberger

Thebacha

Those franchise agreements are arrangements between the communities and power provider. I would have to commit to the Member to find out the length of time of the agreements. I don’t have that knowledge readily at our fingertips. The GNWT does not have a role to play as the communities look at their franchise arrangements. For example, the community of Inuvik just signed an agreement with the Inuvik Gas for a 10-year period. That was work they carried out as the community government. Thank you.

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Question 603-17(5): Community Power Distribution Agreements

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger . The honourable Member for Frame Lake , Ms. Bisaro .

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment . I would like to follow up on an announcement that the Minister made on January 28th when he was in Vancouver. The Minister announced a

Mining Industry Advisory Board. Since that time, there’s been some comment by my colleague in the Assembly raising some questions. We’ve had questions from two organizations concerned about the environment that are also raising questions. I would like to ask questions to the Minister around what he is intending with this advisory board. First of all, the announcement stated that the board members will have direct experience in the NWT minerals industry. That suggests that they will be limited to just the minerals industry. What is going to be the composition of this board? How many members and who will they be representing? Thank you.

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro . The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment , Mr. Ramsay .

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The composition of the board will be made up of folks who have a wide range of experiencing in the mining industry, not only here in the Northwest Territories but across the country. The full complement will be somewhere between five to seven members. Thank you.

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister. So a wide ranging experience in the mining industry, how are these people going to be chosen? Are they simply going to be

representatives of mining companies? Are they going to be representatives of chambers of mines? Will there be any representation from social interests? As the Minister stated in his press release, “something that will encourage economic growth while maintaining high regulatory, environmental and social standards.” So that’s a concern that has been expressed. What will the representation be on this five or seven?

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

The appointments to the board will be at my discretion. Again, Mr. Speaker, these will be industry experts. We will be looking for a cross-section of experience from producers to explorers to folks in the service side. We are still working on who is going to populate this advisory board. It’s an industry advisory board; it’s not a social advocacy board. We will populate it with people we will get information from that will help us develop a mining industry here in the Northwest Territories.

I will add that there’s ample opportunity for folks if they are interested in providing commentary on how we develop the industry here by writing letters. I have a couple of letters, as the Member has indicated, today and yesterday or the other day in the House. I welcome anybody’s feedback on this. As the Mineral Development Strategy laid out, this is an important part of us being a successful mining jurisdiction. We have a really strong history when it comes to mining. We’ve seen numbers on exploration grow 32 percent last year.

We were the only territory of the three that have seen their numbers continue to climb last year.

We really need to focus on how is it the Northwest Territories can be a jurisdiction where people want to invest money and we want to look at opportunities. I know Mr. Bromley talked about increasing our government revenue. That’s going to happen by developing the resources we have here in the territory. Thank you.

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

I thank the Minister for his Member’s statement. I have no qualms with increasing mining in the territory. I know we need the economic development. However, when we have economic development, the offshoot and the results have an effect on our social conditions. I think it is extremely important that we have a cross-section, not just people who are experts in mining but people who are experts on the impact of mining. Can the Minister provide me and Members on this side of the House with a terms of reference for this committee? Thank you.

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

Again this is an industry advisory panel to the Minister. They will also be able to provide input to other Ministers as needed. In the Northwest Territories today, we have a very stringent regulatory system. Again, there’s ample opportunity for the public and groups to comment on developments as they occur. We can’t lose sight of the fact that this is an industry advisory panel and nothing more, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay . Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro .

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I need to say to the Minister that industry itself is concerned with the impacts it has on the social conditions in communities that they’re close to. So I guess there are no terms of reference. I would like to ask the Minister that as terms of reference are developed, as this project goes forward, if he will involve committee in providing some feedback to this board as it is developed? Thank you.

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Question 604-17(5): Mining Industry Advisory Board

Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

I would be happy to provide Members with a terms of reference on the make-up/composition, of this committee. Again, this advisory board is going to be populated at the discretion of the Minister of Industry, tourism and Investment . I will get the best people on that board to give this government and myself the best advice we can receive so we can have a jurisdiction companies want to invest in to help us develop the resources we have here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Ramsay . The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta , Mr. Blake .

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Question 605-17(5): On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Oral Questions

Frederick Blake Jr.

Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a couple of questions for the Minister of Justice . It’s been almost a year now since there was an offer for proposals to offer on-the-land programming in the Mackenzie Delta region. Why did it take so long and also has the department selected a successful candidate to offer the program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 605-17(5): On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake . The honourable Minister of Justice , Mr. Ramsay .

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Question 605-17(5): On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

Minister of Justice

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Members for their support for wilderness and on-the-land programming. I know there are a number of Members interested in seeing the Department of Justice move forward with this initiative. Last year we were unsuccessful. Earlier this year on January 20th , we had an

REOI, a request for expressions of interest, across the Northwest Territories looking for proponents to help us get a wilderness camp set up, so we can have programs for inmates here in the Northwest Territories. That closed on the 20th of this year, 2015, and

we had a number of folks respond to that, several. Our hope is to have a meeting of those interested proponents take place sometime in the very near future and we’ll be notifying those folks by the end of this month. Thank you.

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Question 605-17(5): On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Oral Questions

Frederick Blake Jr.

Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Speaker, that’s great. In the past we had a great program offered just outside of Aklavik. When does the Minister see the programs starting again in the Delta region? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Question 605-17(5): On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

Minister of Justice

Mr. Speaker, that would be dependent upon us finding a successful proponent, somebody the department can work with in the Mackenzie Delta. I know we’ve had some success there in the past and we’re very much interested. I think this is a real key priority for the department, is to see on-the-land wilderness-type programing for inmates here in the Northwest Territories. So we’re going to do whatever we can to work with the folks that responded to our request for expression of interest. We’ll work with them; we’ll try to get a program up and running. I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to when that might happen, but the wheels are in motion today to ensure that that happens. Thank you.

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Question 605-17(5): On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Oral Questions

Frederick Blake Jr.

Mackenzie Delta

I’d just like to ask the Minister, what type of facility is required to offer this program? Thank you.

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Question 605-17(5): On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Oral Questions

Kam Lake

David Ramsay

Minister of Justice

There would be a wide range of equipment and facilities that would be required, and again, the department’s interested in talking to interested folks across the territory that have responded, about what equipment they have, what services they have, what facilities they have, so that we can get a program up and running here in the NWT once again. Thank you.

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Question 605-17(5): On-The-Land Programming In The Mackenzie Delta

Oral Questions

The Speaker

Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay . Member for Sahtu , Mr. Yakeleya .

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Question 606-17(5): Assisting Communities To Student Attendance

Oral Questions

Norman Yakeleya

Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask my last question to Mr. Lafferty , Minister of Education, Culture and Employment . We know that from the Sahtu needs assessment studies and indications from other reports that if you have Grade 12 or a post-secondary university of college degree, your chances of getting a job are a lot better than a dropout. We also know that people li