Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. WSCC was first informed about the exposure on August 10, 2013, and they sent me a briefing note on August 14, 2013. Those are the days that have been identified. Mahsi.
If the Minister and Cabinet were informed August 14, 2013, why were Regular Members and the public at large not informed of such critical health and safety findings? Thank you.
Part of the mandate of the WSCC is to first deal with the workers and the employers. In this instance, the general public were not at risk of exposure but were confined from the contaminated zone on the Giant property. The general public does not have access to the mine site or the contaminated zone. Worker/employer information is confidential and cannot be disclosed, so that’s part of the reason why it was kept confidential to the parties. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Maybe the Minister can elaborate on what activities the cleanup workers were doing to put them at such a high risk of exposure. Thank you.
The workers were in the midst of cleaning out the asbestos and arsenic from the roaster complex at Giant and they were wearing the protective equipment required at that point. In some cases equipment fails, and in all the cases WSCC and company are still trying to find out how the workers were exposed. During that time frame, the WSCC were giving directions to the company on how to eliminate the exposure and WSCC also immediately closed the project down until the company determined what caused the spike. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Minister for that, but can the Minister inform the House as to what exactly is being done now for these exposed NWT workers to this highly toxic arsenic, and when can the House expect a full risk assessment of this arsenic exposure for public review? Thank you.
WSCC is dealing with the workers that were exposed, to ensure that they have all the information that’s required to deal with the exposure.
The low-level arsenic exposure is not a substance to cause any instant illness. It can manifest over long periods of time. That’s the information that we received. WSCC is also ensuring that it is not manifesting to a latent disease of the workers. Those are some of the areas that we are currently monitoring. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. My constituency, of course, is situated very close to the southern NWT with easy highway access. Basically the Deh Cho, in the heart of the region, there was tremendous forest fire activity last year that basically rendered a lot of the forests highly impacted by an unfortunate natural occurrence. Yet at the same time, it’s February at this point and summer is dawning. This matter has been raised in the House before.
My question to the Minister is: What changes to legislation need to be made in order for the commercial harvest of wild mushrooms to be viable in the NWT? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a major piece of legislation that has to be redone. That’s the Forest Management Act. It’s a major legislative undertaking. Some preliminary work will get done in the life of this government, but it will be carried through to conclusion in the life of the 18th Assembly. Thank you.
This matter, as I’ve pointed out, has been brought to the House before and there are some entrepreneurs at the local community that are poised to take advantage of this opportunity, especially at the local community level where there are very few employment and business opportunities.
What is the Minister prepared to do to help out the communities to basically prepare for the commercial harvest of wild mushrooms? Mahsi.
ITI has put on, and will continue to put on, workshops to assist communities and interested individuals on the ins and outs of the morel mushroom harvest, both in terms of the actual harvesting and then looking to the secondary piece, which of course is marketing the product. Thank you.
There seems to be a call of action for this government to put in place some provisions to ensure that the commercial harvest activities of mushrooms are, first of all, regulated. At the same time, there’s a level of control to ensure that this very precious natural resource is protected, so it seems that the Minister needs to do something.
Is the Minister prepared to step towards an interim provision to protect mushrooms? Would the Minister consider establishing immediately an arrangement with First Nations on their traditional lands to put in place a traditional knowledge study of morels? Mahsi.
If there’s a specific request, ITI and the government, of course, would work with the Aboriginal governments on land that is identified or a part of a settlement area. On public lands we have the provisions put in place that we are able now to do under the current legislation and we will continue to do that. We, as well, offer these workshops to folks at large.
As the Member indicated, the year after fire season, there tends to be a bumper crop of morel mushrooms, and there’s an industry that tracks these fires across Canada, and the harvesters will appear to pick as soon as the harvest season commences. So, we’re prepared to work with the Aboriginal governments and community governments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s encouraging that the Minister is going to take some action after many times that this has been brought to the House.
Will the Minister ensure that there is at least a dialogue that is established with those First Nation communities that are interested in at least doing a baseline study of the traditional study and the purpose and the value of wild mushrooms, especially those communities that are situated close to the NWT border and along the highway? Mahsi.
The government, of course, stands ready to work with the affected communities in the affected areas where there have been fires in the previous year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement about the fishery in the Great Slave Lake, and my colleague from the Deh Cho reminded me that they also boil that fish and it’s delicious that way as well. I have a question to the Minister of ITI about the current activities that they are doing with the fishery.
What are those monies that the Minister and the budget addressed the other day, what are the monies going towards to increase the production of the fishery in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money that we have announced in this year’s budget, it’s about $1.7 million, will go toward upgrading the fleet on Great Slave Lake, a new marketing effort to get more product in the domestic market here in the Northwest Territories which we predict is somewhere around 500,000 to 750,000 pounds in addition to the 930,000 pounds that were taken from the lake last year.
Also, the key piece to this is the construction of an export grade new fish plant in Hay River. We’re going to try to leverage the dollars that we do have that you see in this year’s budget with monies from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, as well as CanNor. Those discussions are ongoing and we hope to see that come to fruition really soon. Thank you.
My next question for the Minister is about that marketing that he discussed. I know he’s talking about domestic marketing. I’m also concerned about marketing this product outside of the Northwest Territories.
Along with that marketing and pricing, what is the department doing to bring up the prices for the fishers to basically create an income and get paid for their good product?
Part of the funding that was announced in this year’s budget would include a marketing subsidy of 44 cents per kilogram for fishermen. It is believed that the domestic market would be much more lucrative for fishermen to sell their product in the local domestic market, Hay River, Yellowknife, Fort Smith, for example. Again, we have announced some money to help fishermen market their product here in the domestic market, which will put more money in fishermen’s pockets here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know the department went throughout the Northwest Territories on their new Economic Opportunities Strategy and the fishery was one of the things that came forward from there.
What monies are they putting into this Economic Opportunities Strategy to help the fishers in this industry?
We did hear loud and clear, both in the North Slave region and in the South Slave region, the need to reinvigorate the commercial fishing industry on Great Slave Lake. That’s why, I believe, the cornerstone of the work of the EOS here initially is going to be to revitalize that fishery. We’ve got $1.7 million. We want to build a new fish plant in Hay River; we want to upgrade the fleet; we want to attract new fishermen to the industry; we want to keep the existing fishermen that we have; and we’re going to put our best effort into doing just that.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is about the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation and our work with them to do this marketing.
How much involvement has the Minister had with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation? Have we looked at that opportunity? Have we looked if that is a need? Do we really need them still? I know that’s been debated in the fishery quite a bit, but what is the department doing with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation?
I have met with the officials from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation last year. Our officials continue to dialogue with Freshwater. It is our hope that they will be a vital piece of the puzzle in the construction of a new export grade fish plant in Hay River. We want to work with them and we also want to work with CanNor to ensure that this happens.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister for Public Works. Around this time last year, I had a great debate with the Minister of Public Works. We debated whether displaying more NWT art in public buildings was a good idea or a great idea, and I believe a great idea won the day.
Could the new Minister of Public Works update us on the current status of the northern art in government buildings policy?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. After the commitment was made to do this work, a working group consisting of four departments, ECE, ITI, Transportation and Public Works, was put together to work with the NWT Arts Council on making this display of art in GNWT buildings possible.
Thanks to the Minister. We put a lot of effort into this. Did we actually come up with a policy? When developing policies, obviously it’s a good idea to consult with the public, so as well as consulting internally, can the Minister report back on the latest meetings with NWT artists and what they thought of his latest proposals?
The first thing that had occurred was the two content management TV display systems were created and put out. Essentially, a TV screen, one at the Yellowknife Airport and one in the Public Works office in Inuvik, and they display art. They have had discussion with the NWT Arts Council. This group of departments had discussions with the Arts Council and are working on what will be displayed, for what type of period they’ll be displayed, how many different things would be displayed and so on.
In as far as the policy goes, ECE will be developing a policy, working with Public Works and ITI, and this policy will guide how GNWT buildings are used to display NWT art, so there is some movement there.
Thanks again to the Minister. Last year we also had some discussion about possibly doing displays on a rotational basis, and I’m wondering if that discussion has been had yet or whether that’s also being left to those other two departments. Anything the Minister could report?
The Department of Public Works will advise the group of areas where spaces would be available for art display. Like I indicated, there will be a policy developed, and I think that’s going to guide us on whether or not we are displaying art, in which buildings and what pieces of art that we will be displaying. As I indicated, at this point it appears as though the group, the NWT Arts Council, that we’re working with were happy with the display appearing on the television and the TV display system, but because the policy is not finalized, it would be difficult to indicate at this point what art we can use on a rotational basis in the Public Works buildings.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks again to the Minister. I note that the GNWT office building downtown here is very close to completion. I’m wondering: how are things proceeding in terms of a plan for displaying northern art in that building and, if I can squeeze it in, if the Minister has any comments on how we’re going to be sure and communicate this new policy, whenever it’s developed, to all our artists.
As far as the new building goes, I don’t know what will be available, but one of the things that we have determined as the group of departments working together that it was very important for us to do our communications to the NWT Arts Council. They seem to have their membership communicating with the memberships right across the territory throughout the arts community, so any communications that this government has in order to determine what would be displayed and which buildings will be communicated to the NWT Arts Council.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is certainly a great pleasure to have the opportunity to follow up on my Member’s statement. I want to find out, first and foremost, what is the government doing to promote these 800 vacancies, as highlighted by the government, and certainly reaffirmed by the Minister of Finance that 571 jobs are being actively recruited by this government.
I will ask the Minister of Human Resources, what is he doing to ensure that Northerners have an opportunity at these jobs first and foremost, because when you look on the website it only shows about 100, 120 jobs. Where are we hiding them?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is our mode of communicating with individuals. A careers website is what we’re using to advertise for the people that are looking for jobs in the NWT. The departments, various departments are constantly trying to advertise the jobs on the career website. If there are 100-and-something jobs on there, I can check with the department to just determine why there are not more jobs on the career website at this time.
