Robert C. McLeod

We have a staff retention policy that applies to affected employees, and we take every opportunity to try and find other positions within the Government of Northwest Territories for these employees. The preference would be their home department, but if that is not the case, then we do work to try to find other positions for the employees.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize in the gallery today we have Dr. Rob Gordon, Vice-President of Research and Professor in Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. They just opened an office here in Yellowknife this morning, and we are pleased with the partnership that we have with them. I would also like to recognize Joel Peters, who is in external affairs with Wilfrid Laurier University, and also with them from ENR is Mr. Andrew Applejohn. Welcome to the gallery. Welcome, gentlemen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, climate change is an issue of serious concern for this government and the people of the Northwest Territories. Our government has made a commitment in its mandate to develop a territorial climate change strategic framework. I am pleased to provide Members with an update on the development of this framework, intended to guide our efforts on climate change from 2018 to 2030.

Since my last Minister’s statement on this topic in March, the department has been working hard to develop a draft NWT Climate Change Strategic Framework.

In April, a very successful three...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank committee. I appreciate committee's input and some of their thoughts on the capital plan. I am just going to touch on a few of the highlevel concerns that were raised, and then there was a lot of detailed information that was requested by committee. I think they will have an opportunity to question the appropriate Minister when the time comes. I am not going to try to respond on the department's behalf, but I will touch on a couple.

The Fiscal Responsibility Policy, we can commit to provide the information when we are doing the plan reviewing, and we will also...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right I have Mr. David Stewart, who is the deputy minister of Finance, and to my left I have Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary to the FMB.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am here to provide comments on the GNWT’s Capital Estimates, 2018-2019.

The Capital Estimates, 2018-2019, total $261 million, which includes $27 million for community infrastructure investments and $24 million for NWT Housing Corporation projects.

As in previous years, the Capital Estimates, 2018-2019 do not include appropriations for housing infrastructure proposed by the NWT Housing Corporation in 2018-2019. The appropriation for all these investments will be sought during the Legislative Assembly’s review of the 2018-2019 Main Estimates. However, the NWT...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

For staffing of positions, we do apply the Affirmative Action Policy for the layoff of employees. We have the Staff Retention Policy. It is just the layoffs; so it does not matter -- that is not the right way to put it. The affirmative action would not apply to layoffs as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in 2018, the budget included 65 position reductions. Thirty-three employees received their layoff notice. Of the 33, five employees have elected to retire; one employee remains eligible to retire; 15 employees have been redeployed; three employees remain on affected status; and nine employees are on a layoff notice period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, 2017 was an above-average fire season. This year, 249 wildland fires were reported, affecting over one million hectares. That makes this the seventh worst year for area burned by forest fires since Environment and Natural Resources began keeping records in 1975. As a comparison, in 2016 there were 188 fires that burned 229,000 hectares, a below-average year. In 2014, 385 fires and 3.4 million hectares burned. In a regular year, the Northwest Territories experiences about 213 fires, affecting just over 500,000 hectares of land.

This year, in addition to the 136 fire fighters who...