We’ve done a number of things. We’ve had a number of meetings in the communities in the Sahtu. We’ve taken the Members from the Economic Development and Infrastructure committee on a fracking tour. There have been leaders from the Sahtu attend a fracking tour in Calgary as well. Sometime in April I’m hoping to get a group of business leaders from the Sahtu down to southeast Saskatchewan and into North Dakota to talk to Aboriginal leaders in Bakken about what has happened there, and how Aboriginal governments and leaders here in the Northwest Territories can translate what is happening in the Sahtu to business opportunities for their people and make a better life for them and their families. Certainly, we’re looking to get the guidelines right. It is taking us some time, but I want to assure the House and the Member that we want to make sure this is done right. We can’t afford to mess this up. Rest assured, if there’s no fracking in the Sahtu, there will be no development, so we need to ensure we get it right.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions for the Minister of ITI. In my statement I talked about the recognition success that Yellowknife has achieved on composting in partnership with Ecology North. While a project such as the Yellowknife central composting facility may be beyond the scale of our smaller communities, there are valuable lessons to be learned here. One Ecology North staff active in this project is from Hay River. Ecology North has been a prime mover in the local community garden effort. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can tell us what part composting development plays in the delivery of our agricultural programs.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I believe composting can play a very big role. We were just down in Hay River this fall opening the egg grading facility there. I had an opportunity to tour the chicken barns that are there, and the amount of manure that is produced from those barns and how that’s going to be used as compost into developing other types of agricultural development in the South Slave. It was something that was very interesting.
I think there is a role for composting in communities that can take a look at it, and it is something that I know we have an agreement with the federal government for the Growing Forward 2 monies. It’s about $6 million over the next five years. It is something I think we should spend some time on and ensure there is a program to allow composting in communities that are looking for that opportunity.
I do note that I have used both that chicken manure and the Yellowknife composting products in my garden at home and I know many have. Obviously the goals Yellowknife sets out to achieve – waste reduction and making soil amendments available – are challenges facing our communities, all of them. Partners have learned that aggressive public education and motivation are essential for promoting participation.
With community gardens really taking off around the territory and very small transportation distances, there seems a big opportunity to begin establishing the habit of household composting as a contribution to community gardens. My question is: Will the Minister commit to directing his agriculture program staff to examine opportunities to build composting into community garden projects?
Again, I think this is an important topic and it certainly is something I will agree to go back to the department to get them to have a look at. Education is a good thing, getting posters out, getting community announcements out on the benefits of composting. I think most people would understand what those benefits are. We need to do that and we’ll take a look at that, and I thank the Member for raising that issue today.
Thanks for the comments and commitments from the Minister there. Obviously there are some real linkages with Municipal and Community Affairs here. The savings in landfill costs is in the $100,000 range. Organics, I believe, are often in the order of 25 or greater percent of the waste stream. Here is another opportunity for cooperation: the possible examination of helping communities set up organics drop-off points at the landfills.
Will the Minister commit to gathering the information I’ve requested from his staff and then consulting with the MACA Minister on possible opportunities and reporting to committee on his findings?
That is something that we could do. Perhaps the Member could also get the EDI committee to write to us. I’d be more than happy to work with my colleague Mr. McLeod with MACA to get a better understanding of how this would work, and I look forward to a letter from committee, and the commitment of the Member to take a look at this and put some tangible things in place so that we can make a difference here.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I want to follow up on my statement about 911 service. At the time that the city completed the feasibility study, along with a number of other partners, the recommendation was that it be started in seven communities – that’s the majority of the residents within the NWT. About 75 percent of our residents live in those seven communities. About 50 percent of our residents live in the City of Yellowknife. The start-up costs, at that point, were estimated to be about a million dollars, which was, unfortunately, beyond the possibility of the city alone.
I’d like to ask the Minister, now that we are well along our way to getting cell service in every community, whether or not he would entertain a proposal from the City of Yellowknife for partnering with them to implement 911 service.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I believe we also partnered with the city when they were doing the report. The Member is correct; there have been a number of things that have improved since then. What I said at the time was that we do provide a lot of infrastructure money to the municipalities, and if they wanted to use that for implementation of 911, then that would be a decision that they would make. However, looking at the overall picture, maybe there is an opportunity now to sit down and review a proposal that the city may want to put together. Short answer the long way was yes, we will be glad to look at a proposal from the city.
Mr. McLeod seems to have a particular skill at taking the long way around to come to a yes. I thank you, Minister, for the yes. I’m smiling when I say that.
I appreciate that the Minister referenced gas tax money and, absolutely, there’s gas tax money, but I think the Minister also knows that community infrastructure needs are huge. I think Yellowknife’s alone – and I don’t have the exact figure – is millions and millions of dollars. I appreciate that he’s willing to entertain a proposal. I will certainly pass that information on to the city.
I know that this year’s budget is done, but I would like to know from the Minister if there’s any possibility of funds being included in the 2014-2015 budget. That would be the end of the two-year period when all the cell upgrades are done. Is it feasible that we could start now to look at earmarking some money for the 2014-2015 budget for 911 implementation?
Planning now is already underway for the 2014-2015 budget. We will be glad to look at a proposal. There is opportunity for an investment from this government and something that we would have to look at. We’d work very closely with committee and we’d work very closely with communities to see if there are opportunities for them to use some of the infrastructure money they get.
The Members in this House are well aware that MACA really doesn’t have very much money, where 78 percent of our money goes out to the communities in the forms of infrastructure and O and M. There are opportunities there. Planning is underway for the next budget cycle, and if there are opportunities, I believe we’ll have to explore those.
Thanks to the Minister for his response. I had a couple more questions where I was going to ask him to help us out, so I’ve already got a positive answer, so I’m a little stuck here. The Minister mentioned that MACA doesn’t have money and I appreciate that. I recognize that MACA in itself doesn’t have funds that it can give to communities for infrastructure needs. However, the government does have that kind of money, and I think if the Minister were to represent communities and make the pitch, I guess, to Cabinet to put that money in there, I think it’s possible that out of the grand picture of our $1.6 billion we could put some money in.
I’d like to know from the Minister if he will, as a champion of municipalities – which I think he is and I hope he will continue to be – do that on behalf of, at this point, the City of Yellowknife.
I do champion the needs of the communities within the Cabinet table as well as my colleagues championing the needs of the communities that they represent. I have to tell the Member, if there is a proposal that comes forward, we have to seriously have a look at it, understanding that technology is changing. Again, we have to work very closely with the communities, because this is not going to be a system that would apply to all 33 communities that we represent.
If the city wants to come forward or any other jurisdiction wants to come forward with a proposal, we will have a look at it and see if it fits within our budget, see if it affects the infrastructure money that we give to the communities, because there’s $28 million that we distribute to all 33 communities. There are opportunities there and I do commit to the Member that we will explore all avenues and go forward from there.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I, too, have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod. Recently the towns of Norman Wells and Behchoko narrowly escaped disasters with their town losing gas supply and power, respectively. I do applaud the hard work of all those who came to the table to restore these services in these communities. As is also known to Members of the House here, I have actually spoken many times about our community emergency action plans as well as our emergency preparedness for our communities.
With this in mind, I would like to ask my first question to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. What was the formal synopsis or recap with the efficiencies and effectiveness of these two emergency action plans for both Norman Wells and Behchoko?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have to commend the leadership of Norman Wells. They acted very swiftly when the situation arose there. I have to commend them for that. They had a plan in place. I believe they were probably a couple of hours from evacuation, but they mobilized very quickly with the help of the municipal government and our folks on the ground there. That situation was handled very well. They had an emergency plan. They implemented it and it went very well. It went a long ways to preventing further disaster there. As far as the Behchoko situation goes, I think the lesson that came out of that situation was we need better work to do with the folks in Behchoko. I think there was a bit of miscommunication not knowing who the contact person was in charge. I think we learned a valuable lesson from that, and it’s a lesson that we plan on taking forward and preventing something like this from happening again.
I, too, want to earmark the fact that a lot of people were involved with the communities and they should be commended for getting these communities back on line here. The Minister mentioned opportunities and that’s where I want to focus the remainder of some of my questions here. What did we learn from these opportunities? The Minister indicated communication. Maybe the Minister could elaborate a little bit more with respect to communication. Was there a proper communication plan for the Behchoko situation and, if so, what did we learn from that or what opportunities did we learn from that?
I think we learned a very valuable lesson in the Behchoko situation. First of all, there should be a central contact number, central contact point. There was a bit of confusion there. That’s one of the reasons that we encourage our communities to come up with an emergency action plan. Most of our communities, I have to admit, have an emergency plan and a lot of them, from past experience, have learned some lessons and made some changes. This is one, again, that we will take some valuable information away from and to ensure that hopefully doesn’t happen. But if another situation like this arises, they are well prepared to deal with it. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
I want to definitely say the Minister was very forthright during at least the Norman Wells situation. He did actually come to the Members’ offices to share information, which I do applaud and appreciate those actions. However, throughout the course of the day, communication was probably scarce at best, and I did have to rely a lot on news and social networking, the tweeting that was going on. One CBC reporter was doing an incredible job.
Are there opportunities within these communication plans to help improve the communication of these types of disasters with the general community as well as elected leadership. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, in situations like this with the situation in Norman Wells, we informed the appropriate Member from that constituency. If communication skills like we need to get information to all committee members, maybe it’s something we’ll have to do in the future. As far as the Behchoko situation, the protocol, we contacted the appropriate Member for that riding and informed him as to the situation there. Again, there are opportunities that we could share the information with all Members. I’d have to find out exactly what the protocol is, if we share the information with all Members or if it would be the appropriate Member’s responsibility to share with all Members. I’ll find that out and I will communicate that to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Again, I do appreciate the genuine offer from the Minister and I will definitely take him up on that offer.
Very simply, I know I’ve brought up in the House, a number of times, the number of communities that are prepared in the event of an emergency, what our plans are. Can the Minister maybe give us a brief update as to which communities may still be not on the list of having a proper plan in place or a number that may be still out there for opportunity so we can get all our communities in a safe environment? Thank you, Madam Chair.
I know we do work with a number of the communities to update their emergency plans. For the actual number and which communities, I don’t have that information right now. However, I will commit to the Members that I’ll compile a list of communities that don’t have emergency plans, but I don’t think there are very many. I think they all understand the importance of having emergency plans, and they’re working on those and updating ones that haven’t been updated for a while. But I’ll get the numbers and I will share them with the Members. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and it’s with regard to the e-learning pilot project that’s happening in the Beaufort-Delta right now. As I mentioned earlier, to make any travel to the communities is very expensive. What the Beaufort-Delta Education Council is doing is very innovative and unique in getting the education courses out to the communities very promptly and very efficiently.
I want to ask the Minister of Education Culture and Employment, what are the department’s plans for the future of this project when it concludes after the next fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I’d like to commend BDEC for the excellent work they’re doing with e-learning. This is an area that we are exploring with other communities as well. As you know, we service 33 communities. With this particular work, we’ve dealt with Alberta Distance Learning at the beginning of the initiative in 2010. Since 2010 we have continued on with the district education authority taking on the initiative on their own.
It’s been very successful to date. There have been approximately 136 students that have taken the program and 110 were successful. That’s just a capture of the success.
We provide funding to work towards this important initiative of $100,000 in 2011-2012, with possible renewal over a two-year period. So we’re at that stage. We feel that we need to continue with this e-learning, along with other communities, to deliver those academic programs that may not be delivered in small communities. So we’ll continue to make those initiatives into the communities. Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, the Minister did mention that there’s a possible renewal and he did mention the success rates of how many students go through this program and actually proceed.
In the small communities we have one teacher that might be instructing three different levels of education: Grade 10 level, Grade 11 and Grade 12 level. The e-learning program would bring students at the advanced learning into programs specific with a teacher in Inuvik or a teacher in Fort McPherson that might be teaching and other communities could come on.
What I’m asking for the Minister today, after this program – he stated just earlier that it is a very successful program – would he commit to ongoing funding for this program that would cut costs down of providing teachers into the communities, sending teachers into the communities, providing housing and all the travel that goes on in the Beaufort-Delta. Would he commit ongoing funding for this e-learning program so that we could get more communities on base with the e-learning program in the Beaufort-Delta region so that students can learn in the comfort of the communities that they grew up in?
Madam Speaker, as I stated, the funding is in the process of renewal up to 2013. Beyond that we need to deal with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council and how we can move forward.
As I stated, I’m very interested in having the continuity of e-learning. Again, we have to service all 33 communities, so we’re currently dealing with the school boards at this point. If we’re going to commit the funds, then those are the discussions that we need to have at that level, then it will be brought back to the standing committee as part of the business planning cycle as we move forward. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, I guess this kind of goes on. If there’s no commitment right now and they have to reassess, would the Minister commit to possibly providing more teachers, then, or more teacher assistants to the communities that need it? If he’s not looking at an e-learning program and the possibility of continuing this funding, which I didn’t hear a commitment from, would he commit to providing more teachers so that one teacher doesn’t have to be instructing three different levels of grade level programs? We need some commitment so we know what our Beaufort-Delta Education Council can look forward to in the future and start planning today for the future of our youth and our children. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, I didn’t say if I have committed or not on this particular initiative. I stated that we need to deal with the school board and identify the importance of delivering this program into the communities.
What I can state is we are going through various initiatives within the Government of the Northwest Territories. Education renewal is before us. Part of the pillars is professionalism, dealing with the teachers. Also, there is a Small Schools Initiative, the funding that goes to the community, the programming and the delivery. So those are the discussions that will be initiated with the stakeholders. We will be sharing their input and if there’s a need for a continuation and expanding it further with e-learning, then those are initiatives we will bring forward to this House. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I understand we’re going through an education renewal process, but this program is new and I don’t feel that there needs to be renewal on this successful program that is already bringing a lot of students in the smaller communities up to par and advanced education where they weren’t two or three years ago. This doesn’t need to be renewed; it needs to be supported.
With that said, earlier in my Member’s statement I did make comments about formula funding and the money that the Beaufort-Delta Education Council does receive. They only receive so many dollars, and they stretch those dollars to ensure that they can provide these services.
Would the Minister commit and look at reassessing this formula funding so that our region, with one of the highest costs of living in all of Canada, can actually provide some of these programs and services to the communities that need it? Can he commit to that? Thank you.
Madam Speaker, the educational renewal will deal with that matter as well. What I can commit here is that the renewal of the e-learning up to two years from 2011-12, so we do have some time this year and next year, what has been laid out here.
This is an area that we will be discussing with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. We will update the standing committee on the results of our discussion and then the next step. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions will quite obviously be for the Minister of Transportation, if anyone was listening to my Member’s statement. I am sure they were listening very carefully, of course, as to how important it was. Everyone was.
That said, I had asked the Minister’s office for detail on schedule B, or I should say Appendix B, to prove that the contractor had won the electrical bridge contract fairly and squarely. Maybe the Minister could, for the education of the House, say who officially won it and did they have northern content as required in the tender process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. This tender was won fair and square. It was won by Can-Traffic at a cost savings of about $800,000 to the taxpayer here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
I want to thank the Minister for putting Can-Traffic on the record. This isn’t an issue about cost. This gets down to the bread and butter of ethics of how contracts are won and awarded and, certainly, issued.
Did Can-Traffic fill out Appendix B as required in the contract? When I e-mailed the department, they refused to show me that they even complied, so nobody even really knows. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, the GNWT public tender process was followed. Three compliant bids were received and evaluated. Those bid prices ranged from $1.149 million to over $4.1 million. The lowest acceptable bid was deemed suitable and the award letter was sent out at the end of January. To my knowledge, that was followed.
If the Member would like further details, he is able to see, through ATIPP, whatever he wants to view. We provided the Member with whatever we could provide him with. Thank you.
