Brendan Bell

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t, for the Member, indicate what the exact arrangements are in Wrigley and Jean Marie River in terms of EDO support. I can get that information for the Member, but we do have a couple of different arrangements that vary by community and vary depending on what the community’s interests are. In some communities, in some regions, we have RWED staff that fill that role and through the community transfer initiative some time back, RWED was able to transfer funding to communities to have them provide the service for the community and on that community’s behalf. So it...

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we believe it’s the most effective tool. It will build on many of the access agreements that are being negotiated right now. I think it will fill gaps and it will provide some certainty for all NWT residents and all businesses, beneficiary and non-beneficiary in the NWT, and that they will, in fact, see tangible benefits and opportunities from this pipeline development. That’s important. We want to make sure that there are benefits that stay here in the North because that really is what will make this development worth it for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Specifically to social impacts, which I think is really outside the NEB process, which will be focused more on technical issues, on tolling issues, those kinds of questions specific to social impacts, we want to work with communities. We are certainly going to find some dedicated resources to coordinate this government’s approach to that. I know that the social envelope Ministers are going to sit down, and one of the first steps is to take an inventory of programs and services currently available in communities and then to sit down and recognize that different...

I can give the Member that assurance. I also want to say to the Member and other Members, if issues do come up and there are things that arise and Members believe it is as a result of the transition process, I want to make sure they bring them to my attention as quickly as possible. We want to work with our regional staff, as I said, to make sure this is a seamless transition. We want to make sure there’s no interruption for our clients and this is of utmost priority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of existing arrangements, we believe it will be a seamless transition from RWED to the two new departments. But it would be ITI that would be responsible for providing the submissions to communities and staffing these positions where we have that arrangement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not saying 20 jobs because of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. I’m not saying 28 jobs, as the Member indicated in her statement. It’s 23 additional jobs. We’ve got a heated economy. We had to do something about our mandates in terms of economic development and environmental stewardship. These are critical priorities of this government. They have been well discussed and debated, as our Legislature set out to create the strategic plan. Certainly that’s where I was taking my direction, Mr. Speaker.

I want to also indicate that of those 23 jobs, one additional position is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In short, yes. I think we are also going to be setting about a plan to better understand the federal government’s intentions on ensuring a sustainable environment and the $3 billion in new funding that was announced in that regard. Again, we have to know what that means for the Territories. The Minister of MACA, Mr. McLeod, has recently written several letters to federal officials making the case for communities in this territory who need help in order to be ready for this development, who need help in developing capacity. As a government, we will continue to press...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know if the Member is making the argument for me, but the fact that the Wildlife Act is taking a long time and the beverage container recovery plan is underway but won’t be rolled out in every community for April 1st, I think speaks to our capacity as a government in some regard. I don’t want to put it all there, Mr. Speaker. We’re moving forward on these initiatives, but quite clearly we have been under resourced. Yes, we do need to work to ensure the federal government steps up to fund its responsibility in terms of helping interveners through this GRPEA. I...

Mr. Speaker, the environment is very important to us, as is the economy. I think it’s important that we ensure that the resources are there for us to meet the needs of all NWT residents in this regard. I’d like to also indicate to the Member that when we looked at the breadth of responsibility in this one department, RWED, and compared it to other jurisdictions, Mr. Speaker, British Columbia has six different departments to handle this breadth; in Alberta, it’s seven; Saskatchewan has four; Manitoba has eight; Ontario has eight; Newfoundland has five. We were dealing with one department for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is of highest priority. Our Joint Cabinet/AOC Pipeline Planning Committee has discussed how we had better approach the federal government in a number of areas, including how we might help to get money to mitigate some of the social impacts. There are a whole range of areas. This is of highest priority for that committee, of highest priority for this government, and we will certainly continue to do that, Mr. Speaker.