Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That work is currently underway. I would suspect early in the new year that will in fact take place. Thank you.
This Legislature needs to be informed, but our citizens also need to be prepared to participate effectively in any reviews and assessments. We need that information early on so citizens can digest and debate to be ready for public reviews. Will the Minister commit to getting information materials out to our public, perhaps in partnership with non-government organizations, presenting the variety of views that exist out there so that good debate and wise decisions can be made? Thank you.
The Department of ITI will be working in concert with my colleague Minister Miltenberger at ENR to develop that plan as we move forward, get the information to committee and hand it out to the public as well. The Member can look forward to us working collaboratively with Members and committee on moving this effort forward so that people are better educated about what fracking is. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment there. I want to note that Paramount is already using fracking in the Northwest Territories, apparently without any requirement for environmental review of this controversial technology. Further, the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board is not commenting on the use of fracking and says it falls under the jurisdiction of the National Energy Board. The National Energy Board says they can’t comment because of confidentiality agreements.
What’s going on here, Mr. Minister? Can the Minister inform the Assembly whether fracking is currently underway in the Northwest Territories, and if not, will he commit to getting back to us with this accurate information? Thank you.
Certainly we will take the Member’s concerns seriously. Right now the regulatory process is not in the hands of the Government of the Northwest Territories; it rests with another body. After we conclude negotiations on devolution, responsibility for managing our lands, waters and resources will rest with the Government of the Northwest Territories, at which time we can take every step to ensure that we know what is happening there. I will certainly get back to the Member as to the current disposition of the episode that he is concerned with in Cameron Hills. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
I do point out that this government spends tens of millions of dollars on areas that we have no mandate in. In terms of exploiting resources, I’m hoping we would do the same for protecting our citizens.
So my final question to the Minister is: How is it that fracking can happen in the NWT without going through the environmental assessment process? I think that’s a valid question for a government to be asking on behalf of its citizens. Thank you.
Again, I will work with my colleague Minister Miltenberger and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to get a response to Mr. Bromley’s question. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a follow-up question to my statement this morning in terms of congratulating the leaders of the various communities that were elected to local governments. I just wanted to follow up in terms of where this government might be going in trying to build a relationship with First Nations. My question is directed to the Premier, whether the Premier would more likely consider perhaps continuing on at least the principle of our working relationship with First Nations by perhaps considering this Northern Leadership Forum that was undertaken in the last Assembly. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are committed to reaching out to Aboriginal governments to develop a working relationship or a better working relationship, and right now we are following up to the Detah meeting and have had a number of meetings and phone calls with all of the Aboriginal government leaders. We’re also following up, trying to do bilateral meetings with each of the Aboriginal governments in order to have a follow-up meeting.
As a government we’re developing what we’re calling an Aboriginal Government Engagement Strategy and as part of that we’ll decide whether we’ll continue the Northern Leaders Forum process that was introduced in the 16th Assembly and we expect to be making a decision on those things early in the new year. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Premier for giving us an update in terms of where things are at in government relations with First Nations. Another major question related to this initiative is to understand that First Nations issues have figured prominently in the courts in Canada and one of them is in northern Ontario. Recently the Prime Minister had committed to First Nations that there will be a meeting with the Prime Minister and First Nations leaders sometime in January. I want to know if the Premier would be involved with that and perhaps what role the GNWT will play.
Right now, as I understand, it’s primarily between the Prime Minister and the Assembly of First Nations and their leadership. I’m not sure exactly how the meeting will be structured. I have written to the Prime Minister in follow-up to our phone call requesting a meeting with him. I’m also planning and we’re trying to set up a phone call with Minister Duncan. I have been texting with the grand chief of the Dene Nation who has been involved in the discussions along with the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations to see how we can work together. So we expect to be meeting with him sometime before Christmas. So I expect that we’ll have a fairly good idea of what role we can play within the next week or so. Thank you.
The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in my Member’s statement I talked about the cost of home heating oil, diesel and gasoline at the pumps in the Northwest Territories. I’m going to direct my questions to the Minister of Justice, who I believe is responsible for consumer protection. I’ll just repeat a little bit from yesterday.
The Competition Bureau has commissioned studies of the relationship of crude oil prices to retail and wholesale gasoline prices. These studies have found that gasoline prices generally do track crude prices, but there can be a delay of up to two months before decreases or increases of crude oil prices are passed along to the consumers. At the same time some of these studies found that variations in crude oil prices are only one of the factors in influencing retail prices.
My question first of all is: Does this government have any role in protecting consumers for this unregulated but very essential commodity? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll direct this question to the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs who has responsibility for consumer protection.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department does have a consumer affairs branch. It’s a very small office right now; it’s complaint driven. As far as the Member’s question on the cost of crude, we don’t regulate the cost of fuel. If we were to do something like that, we’d obviously have to go through the legislation. It is a concern obviously amongst folks out there that constantly have to deal with it all the time. One thing we do do as a government through I think it’s Public Works, is if they get a shipment of fuel at a cheaper price, then they adjust the fuel price of the communities that they serve and they would reap the rewards of it. Obviously if the price goes higher, then it has to be adjusted again.
I know that the communities that are serviced by the petroleum products division do have fuel provided and the government does have these safeguards built in. I believe there’s some averaging and things to make it less onerous on the communities when the purchase of fuel has taken place at a higher price. But we regulate the cost of power in the Northwest Territories. I don’t think that home heating oil or gasoline and diesel to drive our vehicles is any less of an essential commodity, yet it seems like right now anybody can charge any price they want.
The Member raises a very good point and I think it’s something we should do as a government, is try and track to see if the prices have been adjusting with the price of crude oil. I can assure the Member that I will have discussions with the department and with my Cabinet colleagues to see how we would go about this. It’s something that I think we should do to try and protect our consumers out there the best we can.
We are concerned about our consumers. We are concerned about the cost of living. Understandably, some things are not within our control. The price of crude oil on the world markets is not within our control. There are many other things that are not within our control. If we could at least satisfy our constituents here in the North that they are not being gouged at the pumps and at the home heating oil trucks, if we could assure them of that because this is something that is raised to me quite regularly and I think that the question could be laid to rest by the kind of research that could fairly easily be undertaken. Even if we can’t go back and find the historical data, if we could begin to track it going forward, I would appreciate that very much.
I agree with the Member that I think there is some research we need to undertake. I assure the Member that I will have discussions with the department and we’ll go about undertaking some of that research and try to track the price of fuel and gas.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier has promised to take action to address low employment rates in our small communities with large projects. In Aklavik the employment rate is 36 percent. That is way below the territorial average of 67 percent. There are simply more people who need work than there are jobs. We do have one project that is on our government’s red flag priority list A and that is the all-weather access road to the Willow River gravel source. When will construction begin on this project during the 17th Assembly?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should clarify exactly what I said. As a government we are working to have a development project in every community. In that way we can increase employment and create more jobs in all the communities. So for Aklavik we hadn’t specifically found a project, although we had expected that the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline would fit that bill quite nicely. We have been working with the community on the access to gravel and noting that it is a community responsibility.
Over the years our Department of Transportation has worked in partnership with the Hamlet of Aklavik and the Black Mountain Road Committee to advance this 18.5 kilometre road, which I think is going to cost about $19 million. We’ve been successful in providing $250,000 over two years to the committee to develop a project description report. I think that once we get our fiscal situation and our borrowing limit finalized, I think we’ll be in a much better position to advance this important project.
At this time I don’t have any further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the downtown day shelter. I don’t need to go into length to highlight how important it is, but I can’t go by without stressing how important it is to many people who have nowhere else to go. My question for the Minister of Health and Social Services is such: With the closure of funding – I’ll say it that way – with no scheduled funding in the new year to continue this pilot project going forward, what is the Minister of Health and Social Services’ plan for people who are homeless and have nowhere to go, for the reasons that I’ve already discussed earlier today?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services has done an evaluation on the day shelter and at this time is reviewing the possibility of extending the funding through 2012-2013. The City of Yellowknife has also committed to extending their funding. Unfortunately the third funder on the project, BHP, will not be extending funding for this particular project but spending it elsewhere.
Am I correct to hear the Minister say in the House today that the downtown day shelter will be protected at least for one more year, the 2012-2013 fiscal year? Is this being said clearly today that he intends to keep those doors open?
Yes, that is the intention. The City of Yellowknife has put their money forward to extend the shelter. Health and Social Services has done a review of the service that has been provided, and once that review is done, the intention is to follow the City of Yellowknife and extend the money through 2012-2013.
I want to thank the Minister of Health and Social Services for letting us know this here today, because I’ll tell you there were a number of people who weren’t really sure what the plan was going forward. Today is the first time I’ve heard it’s actually being formally reviewed, so that’s why I was a little bit unsure whether it’s still being reviewed and would there be consequences of longer term funding options. It sounds like the Minister’s plan is to at least carry it through one year, which is great news.
In that review that the Minister referred to, is he also reviewing the type of programming offered at that particular facility? When I refer to programming, I’m looking at specific options for people, plans in the sense of helping people with work plans, whether it’s access to treatment, access to housing, access to employment options. Is that being encompassed in this particular review?
The intent of the shelter was to provide a warm place for people to go have coffee, socialize and so on. There is also the availability in there of some counselling pertaining to possible housing, employment and so on. The John Howard Society is actually the organization that works with the people in the day shelter in order to provide that service.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. A final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to be clear on the record here with the Minister of Health and Social Services, because in a relentless sense we cannot give up on these folks. We may be the only ones who are out there caring for them. We cannot give up. I just want to make sure that this review is focusing on options that will continue the counselling as well as offering treatment paths for people. I just want to make sure that we have a captive audience here, and that will be the mission and continued goal of the Department of Health and Social Services as they support the day shelter.
I’m hoping that the evaluation that the department would do, working with the John Howard Society, looks at continuing the things that the shelter was put there for, with access to washrooms, telephone, Internet and so on, and also some counselling to the individuals who are accessing the shelter, to try and improve their lives.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today the Minister of Health gave us a glowing review on the state of the union of the Department of Health and Social Services. Glowing in a sense that I’m also wondering why we had so many election questions, during our walks, with our constituents in terms of their health and sustainability. That said, I want to point out one section of what was said today in the Minister’s address, “We’re working at better ways to manage chronic diseases like diabetes by giving patients the proper support at the community level and the tools they need to manage their illness.” It was only less than six months ago that the Auditor General’s report gave a rather scathing review on the program development and program support for many disease conditions, one of them being diabetes. My question for the Minister of Health is: Has progress been made since that Auditor General’s report?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
The Department of Health and Social Services funds the health and social services authorities across the North and they deliver the chronic diseases programing, including diabetes. Right now the department is piloting a Chronic Disease Prevention and Management Program in a few of the communities across the North with the intention of improving the situation for people with chronic diseases.
