Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Concerning the SEAs, we had come up with an MOU with the three diamond mines. That MOU expired last year. We’re currently in the process of trying to replace that MOU. I’ve had the opportunity now as the Minister of ITI, to sit down with the three head folks at the diamond mines and we have to chart a course forward when it comes to replacing that MOU, and I fully intend on doing that and including my colleague, the Minister of Health and Social Services, and my colleague, the Minister of ECE, in a way forward on that. Thank you.
We are, I’m sure, aware of the challenges faced by these companies, as well, in attracting and recruiting people to work for them, regardless of whether they live in the North or the South, just getting the manpower or the labour force that they need to operate their mines. But I’d like to ask the Minister, in his discussions with the three diamond mines, is it his sense that they are aware of our plight in the need to see more benefit from these resources that we are extracting from our territory and the absolute advantages of having these folks live in the North. Thank you.
Thank you. They’re acutely aware of that and I believe wholeheartedly that they’d like nothing more than to see the majority of their workforce take up residence here in the Northwest Territories. However, the reality is, and I just returned from an FTP meeting in Goose Bay, Labrador, where the economy is red hot in Labrador, as well, and the representative from the province of Alberta mentioned to the Ministers at that meeting that in four years’ time the province of Alberta is going to have a 77,000 person deficit when it comes to skilled tradespeople in the province of Alberta, and that’s just in Alberta. There are many areas around the country nowadays where people can choose to live where they want to live and go to the work, and that unfortunately is the reality that we’re in. That’s the hill that we have to climb and I think we really need to start thinking about how we’re going to retain the people that we have. I think that should be front and centre as well. Thank you.
Thank you. So apart from the pressure that we could put on industry to try and have their people live and work in the North through inducements and incentives for their employees, what kind of a campaign do we have to try and communicate to people? I mean, we obviously love it here in the North. What kind of campaign do we have as a government to show people the kind of lifestyle, unique lifestyle that they can have here in the Northwest Territories? The Spectacular NWT is a wonderful campaign; you know, a nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there. Or does it say come and see us and live here? Thank you.
Thank you. We have had the Make Your Mark campaign that has been doing a great deal of work in eastern Canada and trying to tell people about the opportunities that are here in the Northwest Territories. Many people that currently live in a city like Yellowknife have roots in eastern Canada. We need to do everything we can to ensure that we’re putting out the welcome mat.
We’re looking across the country for people that want to move and live here in the Northwest Territories, but we’ve got a couple of hurdles again that we need to get over and one of those hurdles is the cost of living. When surveys are done with the mine workers that are on site, the main focus is the cost of living here in the Northwest Territories as compared to the South. That’s an obstacle that we have to try to continue to pursue and get over.
The other obstacle is if you look here in the city of Yellowknife with a vacancy rate of 0.6 percent, there aren’t too many houses on the market. We really need to do something with the City of Yellowknife, free up some land and get some housing developments started so that there are places. If we’re going to try to attract people to live here, we need to have houses for them to live in. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Lots of houses for sale in Hay River. I just thought I’d throw that in there.
One of the other things that we’ve seen is with the mining companies that come in here. They have trained our northern people, they have employed our northern people, but it is even easier for them to go live in St. Albert or Spruce Grove. We’ve had out-migration. One of the side effects of our people getting jobs at the mine is that they say, you know what, it’s easier to live in Spruce Grove than it is to live in Behchoko, and we’ve had out-migration as a result of that.
What can we do about this? Where is the campaign to try as a government to encourage people not only to move here but to also stay here? Thank you.
Thank you. We need to really look at communities like Hay River, like Fort Smith, like Fort Simpson and try to see how moving forward we can attract people to live in the Northwest Territories. If there are opportunities for people to live in a community like Hay River, Fort Smith or Fort Simpson, we need to gear up and we need to come up with a way to try to attract people to do that.
We’re continuing on with the Make Your Mark campaign and as we move forward it’s certainly my intention to try to keep as many people here in the North as we can and attract as many people as we can.
I look forward to working with the Regular Members on the opposite side of the House to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to ensure that that happens, and that includes working with industry. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand here before you not just as the MLA for Range Lake but as a health care professional who’s been practicing here in the North for over 20 years and serving not only the needs of Yellowknife but pretty much the needs of all of the Northwest Territories and prior to 1999, Nunavut as well. So I stand here before you today as someone who I think has got a lot of vast experience when it comes to prescription drugs and health care.
I will not deny the fact that illicit drug use, tobacco, alcohol, these are all serious addictions out there that we see every day, and I don’t want to take anything away from those addictions out there, but what I was talking about in my Member’s statement earlier today is what I like to refer to as the quiet addiction. This is the addiction we don’t talk about as much, because we talk about the other ones that have so much more press time and media attention. That’s narcotic and opiate dependence that leads to dependency as well as addiction.
This is a serious issue that tends to go quietly and unannounced, and again, when you’re trying to get information about it, there is nothing out there. So I was very concerned when trying to look for information about it. We statistically have nothing out there to lead by. So my question for the Minister of Health here today is: Why is the department not looking more into the addictions of prescription narcotic abuse and why is this information not available to the people of the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The information is not available because the department does not track use of opiates. However, we do have the NWT Pharmacy Act which will give us the power to set up the regulations, but we don’t have the funding to set it up. Health Canada does track non-insured health benefits prescription use, if they’re going to that program to purchase the prescription drugs; but if they pay cash, we don’t track that either. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister for giving reference to the act. There’s no doubt that the topic of addictions is a high topic for the Members on this side of the House. You can only count on many hands how many times this has been brought up even in this Assembly here. But the idea about addictions is understanding where you start. We talked about emerging addiction areas; well, I don’t want to use the word emerging because I believe this has been around here not only for the short period but it’s been around here for a very long period of time. Given what was said here today and the response from the Minister, can myself as a Member and the people of the Northwest Territories get some reassurance and assurances that this information can be statistically gathered in the very near future? Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, through regulations we can gather the information. However, at this time, like I said, we haven’t gone through the act to gather the information. I’m told that information can be gathered. The electronic medical health records that we are starting to use now allows us to gather information in Yellowknife and Hay River at this time. We need to expand the electronic medical health records right across the Territories as a first step if we’re going to track all the prescription drug use across the Territories. For now we are capable of tracking in Yellowknife and Hay River.
Again I appreciate the Minister’s response on that. Can the Minister or his department give some idea of the timelines when these regulations might be altered or amended so that we can gather information throughout the Territories? As I said, this is not just isolated to urban Northwest Territories; I believe this issue is prevalent everywhere. Having an understanding of the timeline would definitely help prepare, with respect to addictions.
We will be working with our partners at the Bureau of Statistics. We’re going to include questions on prescription drug use the next time we do addictions surveys, the general addictions survey. That survey is scheduled to begin in late 2012.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
No further questions, Mr. Speaker.
The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Northwest Territories we pride ourselves in being self-reliant, fending for ourselves, families and communities. Firearms or guns become a large necessity as tools for livelihood for survival and subsistence. As we look forward to the warming weather and spring hunt, can the Minister of Justice give an update to this House in terms of the Department of Justice’s perspective on Bill C-19 that is before the House of Commons?
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recognizing the value and importance of hunting in the Northwest Territories and the need for long guns to do most hunting activities, the GNWT has actually always opposed the long-gun registry. Our position hasn’t changed. We oppose the long-gun registry and actually support the federal government’s position on getting rid of it.
Supporting the long-gun registry and the government, what measures is the department taking in the likelihood that the bill is passed and becomes law in terms of respecting the uniqueness of the North and also some of the cultural values respecting long guns?
Right now the long-gun registry is a reality and there is a requirement to register long guns in Canada. In the Northwest Territories we’ve always opposed it. We still oppose it. It’s my understanding that the bill has actually gone to third reading in the House of Commons and that if it passes it will go to the Senate. If it does pass in the Senate and becomes law, then the long-gun registry won’t exist and we support that position. We don’t support the long-gun registry.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up on some remarks made by my fellow colleague Mrs. Groenewegen. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay. It’s in regard to his Minister’s statement that he gave earlier where he mentioned that mining has brought significant economic opportunities to our territory such as jobs in the mines. Then he goes on further and says that he wants to benefit all Northwest Territories residents.
Back in January we had a leadership meeting in Inuvik and he had mentioned and had some questions in regard to the recruitment process that some of the diamond mines came up to Inuvik, did some recruitment, did some promotion, however, we didn’t see much follow-up on that. I do understand that he’s in new MOU discussions with some of the mines. I just wanted to ask the Minister what progress has been made in those discussions or since the meetings in January in getting the people of Inuvik, who have gone through some training, getting them possible jobs at the mines.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s important that the benefits of mining accrue to all regions in the Northwest Territories. The situation right now in the Beaufort-Delta is such that people are looking for work. The mines have done some work in the Beaufort-Delta in trying to attract employees to work at the mines. As we move forward, this is going to be an issue and I want to let the Member know that as we work through whatever replaces the MOU, the opportunities for other people in the Northwest Territories, I’d rather see people living somewhere in the Northwest Territories working at our diamond mines than people flying in from the East Coast or southern Canada.
I want to follow up as well to a Minister’s statement made by Mr. Lafferty, ECE, directed to Mr. Ramsay. I just wanted to ask Mr. Ramsay, based on some of the results with the apprenticeship and occupational certification that’s done through ECE, the department has issued 23 certificates of qualification and eight certificates of competence to journeypersons in the Northwest Territories. Today there are 424 apprentices in the Northwest Territories. Has the Minister of ITI done any work with the Minister of ECE to ensure that once these guys get their papers that they’re not just kicked out the door, that they have a job and place for them once they’ve gone through their certifications?
I know a new subcommittee of Cabinet has been formed. It’s Economic Development and Employment, of which I’m the chair. I will be working closely with the lead deputy on that, Dan Daniels from ECE. I will certainly be working closely. We need to also keep in mind that as we move forward with devolution and we get more responsibility, we’re making decisions for ourselves, we’re growing our mining industry here in the Northwest Territories and the opportunities that that will bring, that there are going to be more jobs available. We need to ensure that our people are trained and we’ll have to make every effort to work with our colleagues in Nunavut and the Yukon to come up with a comprehensive mine training strategy for northern Canada, something that we will be pursuing in the future.
I just wanted one short supplementary question here to finish off. That’s in regard to the recruitment process that has gone up into Inuvik and the new deal with the MOU that’s being discussed. I don’t want this to fall onto a case in point where the diamond mines say they’ve come to Inuvik, they’ve done their consultation, and leave it at that. It’s in the agreements that they’ve done their consultations. I want to see follow-up. I want to see that in this new MOU that in fact the mines do hire northern people from these communities, regardless if it’s Inuvik, Fort Simpson or Hay River; that they are being looked at first for hiring in these mines, in these resources that we have in the Northwest Territories. In regard to the MOU, can the Minister of ITI give us an idea of when the MOU will be drafted or even finalized?
I understand the Member’s concerns. Obviously the MOU expired last year. We’re in the process of working on replacing the MOU and what form that takes is yet to be determined. I certainly will bring up the issue of exhausting all avenues for employment in all regions of the Northwest Territories to the mining presidents when I do meet with them again and we do get some formal correspondence from them on the next steps forward as we work towards a replacement for that MOU moving forward.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services about the public advisory on Ekali Lake and other lakes in the Nahendeh riding. I’d like to know the communication plans that the department has to advise the public about eating fish from these lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The public advisory is one of the first key communications that we will do with the community. In the past what we’ve done when we’ve had a couple of lakes in a certain area, we’ve also followed up in writing and attached any other reports that do accompany these type of releases and present them to the First Nations. We know that we’ve had discussions with Dehcho First Nations. In turn they have met with the local chief and senior admin officer from Jean Marie River.
The Minister spoke about meetings. Will he be doing a public advertising campaign as well in the Deh Cho Drum and perhaps the News/North?
Yes, we can do that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I have concerns with the budget process. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance. When was the last operational business review of the GNWT costs done?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We set up a program review office in the 16th Assembly to start looking at value for money and efficiencies, economies, looking at how we do business. We also, through our annual business planning process and budget process, look at what the costs to government are and what our fiscal capacity is, and our ability to move forward and where changes need to be. Those are the two areas where we have work on a regular basis that allows us to examine how we do business with operations, both infrastructure and O and M.
If we’re continuing to do reviews of the operations on an annual basis, how do we include the public or our public sector employees to contribute to some of these cost reductions the ways that we do some cost reductions or the way that we can make the government more efficient? How do we include the public or the public sector?
Over the last few years we have had roundtables on economic development, roundtables on dealing with revenue options. We are as well looking forward to, in the life of this Assembly, moving that show on the road where we will go to regional centres and we will meet and do pre-budget consultation with the communities and with the regions. We also have other activities through the daily work of Ministers that are involved in economic development. As well where we’re looking for that type of feedback, we’re currently negotiating for collective agreements with the various unions that are going to lay out that arrangement going forward and we want those, as well, to be fair but affordable.
