Mayors and Chiefs around the table at the Northwest Territories Association of Communities (NWTAC) took full advantage of an open question and answer session with the 19th Legislative Assembly cabinet during their annual general meeting Feb. 27-29 at the Midnight Sun Complex in Inuvik.
For almost two hours, Premier Caroline Cochrane, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Social Services Diane Thom, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Shane Thompson, Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Housing Corporation Paulie Chinna and Minister of Finance Caroline Wawzonek fielded questions ranging from infrastructure plans to education and housing.
"We're much more powerful when we come together as one voice, especially when we go to the federal government because they don't understand us," said Cochrane in her opening remarks. "The goal of this government is get the support we need and more. We are not being territorial and defensive; if we work together we will do better."
Inviting the ministers back to Inuvik for the Arctic Development Expo, Mayor Natasha Kulikowski asked for an update on a planned Wind Farm that was to begin this year and asked where the territory was on getting the power grid off diesel generation.
"On March 9th, we're coming forth with our strategic plan for 20 years," said Thompson. "I have to be very honest with people, when we talk about reducing the power rates by using green energy, that's not reality folks. We're going to see an increase because we still need to have our redundancy plan, which is our diesel program. But we are looking at LNG, Wind Power and Solar. Right now Fort Simpson is the next one in line to get their LNG.
"If people have ideas that might work — please share, we don't know everything."
Saying the health department needed to establish a good recruitment team to bring in more health and social workers to the north. She added the department was looking to host a new 'Better, Together' conference by 2022 and noted one of the 22 priorities of cabinet was to establish addictions counselling services within the territory so people didn't have to go south to get the help they need.
She went on to suggest it may be more pragmatic to fly medical specialists into towns to care for patients instead of flying the patients out.
Poverty and high rental costs were brought up, with Mayor Laverna Klengenberg of Ulukhaktok drawing applause after calling for a change to how public housing assesses rent and pointing out using income tax is unfair when many people in the north are only able to work seasonally.
"We need to take into consideration the high cost of living a lot communities have," she said. "When we set policies for small communities, we can't be making those decisions in the Yellowknife office. People need to visit communities, meet with tenants, see what kind of homes they live in and go from there.
"I'm not talking about a two or three hour visit. They need to come back and come back and come back. This is why the system in the department is broken."
Noting she had lived in social housing herself, Chinna said she was working to visit each community in the territory and learn about their particular challenges, adding working through costs can be daunting.
"I have the experience of what it's like and where the communication breakdown is," she said. "Looking at the northern part of the territory, programs seeing differences in what we're building. Something in Yellowknife that would cost $500,000 might cost $1.5 million in Ulukhaktok."
Several of the questions related to challenges municipalities were coping with from climate change, including a request for a hard closure date for the Norman Wells ice road by Mayor Frank Pope, Fort Simpson Mayor Sean Whelly suggested getting the ball rolling on a bridge study and Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Merven Gruben noted the hamlet felt a needed bus service between the Reindeer Point housing development and the main part of town had been downloaded onto the community.
Concerns were raised about the state of the caribou herds by several members, which Thompson said the government was responding to with the selected wolf cull.
"This is a five year plan. If we only do it for one year, we know the population will reproduce," he said. "We're using science and traditional knowledge to address this concern.
"I do not want to be the minister responsible for having no caribou after these four years. So hard decisions are being made."
With only $25 million to split between 22 priorities and projects, finance minister Wawzonek said she was trying to find ways to stretch out the dollar as far as she could. One area she was finding success with was finding crossover between departments with similar needs, so the government wasn't paying for the same services twice.
Noting the territory was moving to four-year business plans, Wawzonek noted the budget kept taxes at the same level while holding the line on services.
Industry, Tourism and Investment minister Katrina Nokleby was not at the meeting because she was at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto and Education Minister RJ Simpson was unable to make the meeting due to a personal issue.