Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I hear from people I’m chatting with is often our system does not ensure that the context, and there’s an infinite variety of circumstances in people’s lives, that all important context does not go with them through the system and that often income support is not cognizant of that. It’s a relatively cold and objective system if it doesn’t incorporate the very human aspects of it. How does this Minister and others in this government ensure that all important context goes along with people as they access all types of different government services?
We consider as much context as we possibly can, once the individuals provide that information. Sometimes we have to request the information when they are not provided immediately, but we do what we can to get the information out of them. People do change, so we need to work with those individuals and, through the development stages, provide training for them to have productive choices in life as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to ask a follow-up on my Member’s statement and ask the Minister of Transportation some questions with regard to carry-overs in my riding. Last year we had a huge opportunity to provide some chipsealing towards Fort Simpson, reconstruct Highway No. 7 from the B.C. border to Fort Liard, and complete the Nahanni Butte access road. Unfortunately, we were unable to do it. I’d like to ask the Minister what the plans are to complete these projects this coming fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has listed a number of projects in his riding that have been deferred or carried over. Our intention is to get them all done for this year, on top of the projects that are listed; providing that the budget is approved, of course. We’ve had a lot of work going on in the area of Nahendeh, I think to the tune of almost $30 million worth of projects. We had a few projects that weren’t able to move forward as a result of weather and other issues, but we fully intend to have those done this coming year.
I guess the most important question for the constituents is: will we be involved in another lengthy tendering process and awarding the contract where it will take us into late summer or fall to complete these projects, or can we get out of the gate early and complete these projects in the springtime?
There were only a couple of projects and some of them had a fairly large budget that we weren’t able to bring forward. Those have, for the most part, awarded, and we expect those will come out fairly quickly in the spring. Conditions, of course, with the weather and ground conditions will be a factor, but we expect those to move forward. There are still some that need to be tendered, but we’ll have those out fairly quick also.
With the couple of contracts that the Minister did speak about, do we have to wait until the new fiscal year, April 1st, to get those tendered out, or is the work and process underway to get those contracts into the system and into the public’s hands?
Some of those were already tendered out and have been awarded, and we’re not able to move forward as a result of weather conditions and some other issues that have not allowed these projects to progress. I would expect that we’d be looking at coming out really quickly, as this money is being carried over.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess one of the largest incomplete projects was the Highway No. 7 from the B.C. border to Fort Liard. What efforts and plans and how many kilometres will be completed this coming construction season?
The Member is asking me to talk about some very specific details. I don’t have it in my memory bank to tell him how many kilometres are going to be done. I could tell him there was $5.4 million dollars planned for Highway No. 7 that needs to be concluded. We’re also planning to do a number of kilometres along Highway No. 1 to get chipsealed. That’s the information I can share, is the dollar amount. I don’t have the actual kilometres and locations.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to my colleague from Nahendeh for leaving me a few minutes on the clock here. My questions today for the Premier relate to the Member’s statement that I made. We say that we are interested in lowering the cost of living for people in the Northwest Territories. Some 22 years ago the Government of the Northwest Territories repatriated the power company from the Northern Canada Power Commission and established the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. As creating that Crown corporation, we necessarily, as a government, owned it, we were the shareholder. Then we instituted the Public Utilities Board to regulate that power company and some other utilities in the Northwest Territories. As the shareholder, we require the NTPC to act like a business and to earn a profit so they can pay us, as a shareholder, a dividend, which we could then take and redistribute that money to levelize the power rates in the Northwest Territories. As you can see, the whole thing gets really convoluted.
The Premier told my colleague Mr. Ramsay that we could have a fairly immediate positive impact on the cost of living in the Northwest Territories if we would implement some of the recommendations in the electricity rate review. Could the Premier tell me if there are any recommendations there that would somehow streamline this fairly convoluted process we have for generating, regulating and delivering power to the people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the rate review work that was done does highlight a number of areas that we could look at when it comes to the way we do business and how we’re structured across the board, and that would include the Power Corporation. For example, rate of return versus cost of doing business, in a sense, is one of those areas that could be looked at. The other work that we were doing is tied to this. We’re still wanting to sit down with committee to go over how we would look at the NTPC review itself. But more specifically, I believe there is opportunity in the energy rate review work that’s being done and how we would respond could give us areas to look at in looking at potential areas of change, if the House was willing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Mr. Speaker, I am very interested in what becomes of all these reviews because, Mr. Speaker, in the community of Hay River resides the Power Corporation headquarters, which we value very greatly; the headquarters for Northland Utilities, which has been there for over 70 years; and, of course, the headquarters and offices of the Public Utilities Board, also located in Hay River. So this is something that is very important to me, but I’m sure very important to other communities and other people in the Northwest Territories as well.
Mr. Speaker, again, I ask the Premier, is there a precedent or a template out there somewhere of a jurisdiction like ours where we can bring the generation and distribution and sale of power closer to us as a government, in some way eliminating some of these very costly processes that we necessarily have to go through. Thank you.
There are templates across the country that are similar when you look at our size. The one closest to us, of course, is Nunavut. As the Member pointed out in her Member’s statement, when division occurred, we took a stance. At the time, the government-of-the-day took a stance where it was focused on the business entity, as arm’s length as possible. The Nunavut government has taken a different approach and we’d have to look at that model to see if it’s worked in that location. I know they’ve been pressed with their issues around the cost of energy as well. But through this energy rate review process and working with Members of the Assembly, we would be, again, as part of this process, engaging in some of the big picture look at how we deliver, and is the process we’re under the best way to do it. So those things are up for discussion with Members. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this may be a slightly technical question, but I’ll ask the Premier in a general way, has some analysis been undertaken that would indicate the cost-savings if the Power Corporation were not operated as an arm’s length Crown corporation but as an entity providing power not on a for-profit basis but just as an essential service on a cost basis. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, my understanding, again, through the rate review that’s been ongoing, the cost of service versus a rate of return is one of the areas that has been discussed and some recommendations made around when you look at the different zones that are being contemplated in that report. So that is an area of looking at cost of services versus rate of return. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just, I suppose, for the comfort of those people out there who know this electricity rate review is going on, I would like to ask the Premier if any of the recommendations considered are going to result in any increased power rates for any community in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I apologize for that. In the shuffling of my papers I didn’t catch the last part of the Member’s question. So if I could have that repeated. Thank you.
We are considering the rate review report. I’m sure people out there are wondering about what will be the outcome of that deliberation. I’d just like to, for the record today, have the Premier tell us if any of those recommendations would indicate increased power rates in any community in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the initial report that came out that was presented did show there was a balancing of, for example, corporate costs, the headquarter costs across the board. So there would be some redistribution there. There was some impact on hydro communities as well. That was what was presented.
Since our initial discussions with Members of the Assembly, we’ve looked at other ways of mitigating those costs and bringing forward a process that would lessen the impact on any community of any increases and try to come up with lowering the cost overall and stabilizing those costs. So I would say that in our response as the GNWT, we believe we’ve come up with a package that would, in fact, stabilize those costs or reduce costs overall. There are some issues we have yet to deal with on community service by NUL and the Power Corp specifically. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Regarding the NWTHC programs PATH, HELP, CARE AND STEP:
How many applications have been received in the Mackenzie Delta between 2005 and 2009?
How many have been approved in the Mackenzie Delta between 2005 and 2009?
How many have been refused in the Mackenzie Delta between 2005 and 2006?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 7 of the orders of the day.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of Justice some questions in regard to a tabled document he had on February 8, in terms of he’s going to ask the Supreme Court of Canada some questions. I’m not too clear in terms of what this Minister is asking, because in the tabled document he indicated the Bathurst caribou herd and later on in the document he talked about the barren-ground caribou in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask for clarification from the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we’re dealing with here is barren land caribou. The question that we’re posing to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories is: did the GNWT have the authority to issue the banning on the caribou. Mahsi.
Thank you for the clarification, Minister. So it’s the barren land caribou. The barren land caribou covers a wide range of jurisdictions. I want to ask, in terms how it affects the Gwich’in, the Inuvialuit, the Sahtu and the Tlicho in the Mackenzie Delta in terms of the authority, because we certainly have land claim agreements that speak to the authority. I want to ask the Minister in terms of how this is going to be impacted on the various other land claim groups and also the groups that would have treaty rights, groups that are not in the land claim discussion right now, in terms of Treaty 8 and Treaty 11.
Mr. Speaker, this is a generic question to the Supreme Court. We’re asking if the GNWT has the authority. We want to clarify that, because there are a lot of questions from the organizations throughout the Northwest Territories, if the GNWT has the authority to ban caribou hunting. So that’s the question that we’re throwing out there. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, that’s a very disturbing answer from the Minister in terms of banning caribou. This is right down the Northwest Territories. We certainly have agreements that speak to the authority and the management of caribou. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister, through his wisdom, in terms of we passed a motion to consult. How come he didn’t come to us to talk about we want to have this discussion and pose the questions to the Supreme Court of Canada? I never had him once come to us and ask us. You are putting a question that is going to be fighting our people. How come he didn’t come to this side here and talk about this and consult, rather than going to the courts? This is a really disturbing question to the courts there.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This area the question that the Minister of Justice has put forward on our behalf is one that addresses the issue of authority in the Northwest Territories. When you have your own Members of the Legislative Assembly questioning your authority under the NWT Act, we clearly need to address the issue. We believe we have the authority. This is a confirmation. There are too many times in the history of our Government of the Northwest Territories when it comes to issues around what and how we affect aboriginal peoples in the programs we deliver. From time to time it has come up and it has been said that we don’t have the authority, that we are a government with limited authority. Well, let’s clear the question once and for all, so that even Members of this Assembly elected under the authority established under the NWT Act will clearly know where they can stand as Members of this government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You go back into communities. This question always comes up to us as Members in terms of the authority of the federal government, the authority of the territorial government, even the authority of the federal government in the region. I guess I want to ask how come, instead of going to the Members across here, this government decides to go to the courts and look to seek authority? Certainly they could have come to us, consulted with the Members and talked about this issue here. Now it is fighting our people. I am not here to fight my people. I am here to support my people. I ask that to whichever Ministers, when I ask in terms of coming to consult with us. How come they have not come down and sat with us and talked about this important issue?
Mr. Speaker, the legislation is clear. Under advisement of the Cabinet, the Minister can pose a question to the Supreme Court. This is not challenging aboriginal leadership in the Northwest Territories. This is going to provide final clarification on who has authority. That is not taken lightly, because when you have your own Members of the Legislative Assembly raising issue of whose authority, that definitely needs to be cleared up. So we have provided that avenue. The courts have their own process now which will seek input from all of the people that they feel is necessary across the Northwest Territories. There will be ample opportunity for them to do their work and answer the question that we have posed. Clearly, Mr. Speaker, there is risk of doing this, in a sense, from the Government of the Northwest Territories itself, because if the question comes back and it clarifies that, indeed, the GNWT was not on the same ground that we believe we were, then we will have to change our policies forward from here. So I think, Mr. Speaker, this is not a challenge to leadership. This is setting for the record in clarifying who actually has that authority so that this is not a question that has to come up in debate and further debate in the future. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
