Several issues of concern to Hay River were raised before the territorial cabinet earlier this month.
The occasion was a Feb. 17 question-and-answer session involving the premier and five other cabinet members during the annual meeting of the NWT Association of Communities.
Coun. Vince McKay asked Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) Minister Caroline Cochrane about the long-running issue of funding for highway rescue.
"Fifteen years ago I brought forward the highway rescue issue and I think we're on our second study of this issue," said McKay. "And sadly we have no solution in place. We don't have any results. We've had recommendations on what to do, but nothing has been done."
The councillor urged the government to quit studying things to death.
Cochrane said she also has issues with studies, noting she is about action.
"But with highway rescue it's a difficult situation because it encompasses many departments. It's not just one," she said, noting it involves, for example, the Department of Health and Social Services.
"So we're working on it. Not a study, but a strategy to be able to address it," she said.
Cochrane admitted that the $185,000 in the GNWT budget for communities offering highway rescue is not enough.
However, she also noted some communities are better than others in collecting insurance money from accidents on highways.
Cochrane said the GNWT doesn't have extra money.
"I believe it's about $82 million that we've lost in revenues in the last three years. That's huge for us," she said. "That means that all the programs all across every department is looking at how do we crunch, how do we provide the same level of service with $80-some million less money."
Cochrane said that means the highway rescue issue will not be an easy fix.
"We will identify what we need to do. We'll identify how much money it will take. But it will take time to implement it," she said. "But I promise you it won't be a study. It will actually be a strategy."
McKay said he was happy to hear that a solution is on the way.
The Town of Hay River has some expensive equipment to pay for, and more than what it needs for the community, he said. "We've got to get more because we have to provide a vital service."
McKay also asked Cochrane – the minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation – if a policy could be developed to either evict or not allow people in public housing if they are involved in drug trafficking, bootlegging or other illegal activity.
"As a government, we should not be supporting that," he said.
While noting she doesn't agree with drug dealing or bootlegging, Cochrane listed a number of concerns about dealing with the problem.
"So I'm going to take it from a feminist perspective," she said. "From a women's issue is that often drug dealers, bootleggers, etc. are part of a family unit. They're not always single people. And from a feminist perspective, that usually means that women get penalized for that."
Cochrane also pointed out the housing corporation has 2,600 public housing units and 200 market housing units.
"I'm not the police," she said. "I can't go into every home and decide what is appropriate and what is not. People have a right to privacy."
Cochrane noted she encourages people who call her about drug dealing or bootlegging to call the RCMP, but they don't call the police.
"That's not OK, because when you don't call you're part of the problem, as well. So call the RCMP. Have them arrested," she said. "Once they're arrested, they're automatically out of our housing units. They have to live in the housing unit to be able to have that unit. But if nobody charges them, if nobody steps forward in your community, then it's left unresolved."
Cochrane said the department is looking at its policies, and will take the issue into consideration.
Deputy Mayor Donna Lee Jungkind asked the cabinet about the coming legalization of marijuana, including the age in which use will be legal in the NWT.
Jungkind noted the Association of Communities' annual meeting heard from the NWT's chief medical officer that the brain isn't fully developed until 21 to 25 years of age and cannabis affects brain development in youth, but the legal age for smoking marijuana will be set at 19 in the NWT.
"So what I'm wondering is why we're not listening to what our chief medical officer is telling us, and being leaders and saying we don't want our kids to smoke until your brain is developed," she said.
Justice Minister Louis Sebert said the GNWT looked at other jurisdictions across Canada in setting the minimum age for legal use.
"Of course, our drinking age is 19 and we decided to use the same age because we thought that, if we used a much higher age, it would be virtually making the act unenforceable because of the large number of those using the drug are, of course, between 19 and 25," said Sebert.