Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a couple of Pages here today from Helen Kalvak School in Ulukhaktok, Albert Okheena and Chris Haoga, along with their chaperone, Brandon Okheena. Mr. Speaker, the Helen Kalvak School in the Northwest Territories is very strong culturally, along with their language and on-the-land programs, and I would just like to welcome the students here today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to break protocol for a minute. I want to make a recognition of Ms. Judith Sharpe, who was instrumental in helping me get elected, was on my campaign team, and I owe a great deal of gratitude to her. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to recognize and welcome three constituents in the gallery today: Judy Sharp, I believe she is with the NWT Council for the Disabled; Romeo Berube, who is with Northland Utilities; and Miles Welsh, who chairs Yellowknife Catholic Schools. I would like to welcome them and thank them for their work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to my Member's statement, we clearly see a disconnect within our government's mandate in regard to supporting diversity and capacity building in our territory. By preventing NGOs from registering under the Business Incentive Policy, a policy, I must add, that has not been reviewed in over a decade, and as I pointed out in my statement earlier today, Mr. Speaker, the policy is a legal contravention of the Societies Act.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Infrastructure indicate to the House when and by what process has the Business Incentive Policy ever been reviewed regarding NGOs purposely being excluded from registering under BIP? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Premier stated in this House last week, the BIP policy is probably one of the best policies this government has ever created; so I am going to start there. The thing about BIP is that BIP was created for for-profit business-related activities, and it is there to help entrepreneurial-based businesses. Competing with NGOs is a tough business, because they do not pay any income tax; they get other sources of government funding, a number of them; they get a lot of stuff in kind for rent and different things as such from various people and stakeholders and Government of the Northwest Territories, in some cases. It makes it tough for an entrepreneurial-based business to compete with this, and that is why it is in the clause. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I am not arguing that it is the best in the world, but we have some problems with it. Let's be honest here. We heard last week that we had problems, and this week we are bringing problems here again, Mr. Speaker.
To be clear, under our current GNWT procurement process, NGOs are excluded from our BIP process. Mr. Speaker, I can certainly see how this can be seen as a level playing field. Can the Minister indicate by what process or methodology do NGOs compete fairly versus a private business in our RFP procurement process?
In the procurement process departments, we typically use the standard tender and RFP templates, which would include the clause excluding non-profit entities from the competition. However, in the event departments wish to include non-profit entities in procurement, they must ensure to exclude the clause from the tender and RFP documents and the reason for doing so in the tender and RFP files.
I thank the Minister for that answer. Mr. Speaker, during the set of procurement policy oral questions with the Premier on February 14, 2018, the Premier stated that concerns around procurement are primarily due to difference of understanding and that, if Members were to provide a list of problems, a review could result. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister agree NGOs being excluded from registering under BIP is an issue, and will he commit with the Premier to finding a workable solution?
We are continually working on the process to improve it moving forward, but as I have stated in this House last week, I added one more, so we are up to three on the procurement process. If Members have issues with NGOs around the procurement process and the BIP process, they need to come to me. They cannot sit on that side of the House and just say there is a problem with it. Show something to me in writing or bring something to me, but just to sit there and talk about it is not going to prove anything.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that long-winded answer about working with us on the other side of the table. You know, that hallway works both ways. You can actually walk down to our side, too, and when we bring it up, you can actually talk to us about it. I am a little concerned with your answer there, but I will go on to my next question.
Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss not to point out the NWT Societies Act has provisions that clearly articulate that an NGO can be deemed as a corporation by way of registration, yet the BIP application process does not recognize this law. Can the Minister inform the House why not, and will he investigate and fix this BIP registration oversight once and for all? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Here is a tangible question. I will look into it and get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance about what is being contemplated for the rollout and regulation of our cannabis products. How is our mail order system going to work? Is this something that is going to be licensed and regulated in the Northwest Territories, or are we relying on the federal government in other provinces to do that licensing? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been doing a lot of work on the NWT side as to how we want to roll this out, and once the legislation passes, we will be able to have a product that is made in the NWT. As far as the mail order, I believe that they are going to be regulated by the federal government, but I will confirm that and have a discussion with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We have a way forward document that lays out how the government plans to distribute cannabis products in the Northwest Territories, and mail order is an option for those communities that will not have access to cannabis stores. How are we going to tax mail order products? There have been concerns raised about lost revenue. How are we going to tax mail order cannabis?
We're still working out the details, but our plan is there is going to a tax on cannabis that's sold in the Northwest Territories. As far as products that are coming from outside the Northwest Territories, I would assume that they would be taxed at their point of sale. Again, I will confirm that. We are putting the details together. I do want to provide Members with the details once we get all our information together because the government has been doing a lot of work on this and recognizing the fact that it is coming down and we need to try and deal with it and mitigate the impact it's going to have on the Northwest Territories.
I do want to thank the Minister and acknowledge that he is opening the door for the collaboration on this issue. One thing I haven't seen addressed in any of the proposals going forward is a contemplation of cannabis co-ops or compassion clubs, or things along those lines. We've seen models like that in the past, but has the government done any research into a cannabis co-op model? How will that be regulated? How would that be run? How would it happen safely in the Northwest Territories?
Just off the top of my head, I'm not quite sure if we've done that work. Again, I will confirm that then and have a discussion with the Member. Again, I've made the offer before. That is we roll out our details and we gather more details. I'll be more than happy to sit down with Members and get their opinions and share that information with them.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally, with the acknowledgment from the federal government that the deadline for the retail models of cannabis distribution have been pushed back, is the Minister open to working with stakeholders and with this side of the House to iron out some of these details to create more opportunities for private sector distribution, for mail order distribution, for co-op distribution, for production of cannabis in the Northwest Territories? Because we have more time to work on this legislation. Is the Minister more open to those discussions and potentially changing the way forward so it's more flexible, it's more innovative, and it's not limiting our economic advantage with cannabis? Thank you.
The Minister is not more open. The Minister is always open to having a discussion with the stakeholders and Regular Members because this is an issue that we need to make sure we get the work done and get it done properly. The fact that the date has been pushed back, as we kind of anticipated, we will continue to do our work, have the discussions with the appropriate stakeholders, and then, when the federal government does decide to roll this out, I will assure the Members, the public, and the Northwest Territories that the Government of the Northwest Territories will be ready. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the National Indigenous Cultural Expo happening in Edmonton on September 28th to 30th this year. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to see Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Territories well-represented at the National Indigenous Cultural Expo and prominent on a Canada-wide stage. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering what our Department of Education, Culture and Employment will plan to do to ensure that this happens? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The event that the Member was mentioning in his statement was a gathering that took place in 2017. At that time, the department did sponsor the Inuvialuit drummers and dancers to attend the event. We do support artists and northern performers as well as cultural delegates through funding programs. As you know, we do have a pot of funding and that, if anyone wants to look at attending the event, they get their applications into the department sooner than later before the end of the fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the response from the Minister. My second question is: what level of financial or other types of support does the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment expect to pledge to this event?
Every year the department allocates about $100,000 for the support of northern performers and cultural delegates funding. As I mentioned earlier, I encourage anyone who wants to attend the event or any other events to submit a formal application to the department.
That's good information for organizations to know. My final question, and also just a comment: I think that the Indigenous Cultural Expo for Northwest Territories might be a good way to raise awareness of our cultures, languages, traditions, and arts. It also has a great potential to support our growing tourism sector. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister look into the idea and report his findings back to the Assembly of some events like this in the Northwest Territories?
Currently, the department supports a wide variety of events and programs that focus on our Indigenous cultures, languages, traditions, arts. To that, I can think right off the top of my head are the Great Northern Arts Festival, also the Metis Cultural Days that are in Hay River. Right across the parking lot here at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, we do that through exhibits and events throughout the year. We have over about 60,000 visits to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre on a yearly basis. We also continue to support heritage fairs in the schools, among many other things, but any other suggestions or supports that we can do, we're gladly willing to look at them.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, on February 15th, in light of longstanding concerns that have recently gained mainstream notoriety, the honourable Member for Kam Lake asked the Minister of Justice if he has taken any steps to review procedural fairness in our justice system. In his response, the Minister acknowledged that there has been a good deal of commentary about the justice system as of late and, according to unedited Hansard, stated, "I'm a little concerned that radical changes to the jury system would be ill-advised. This system has served us well for a thousand years."
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister who he meant when he said "us"?
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. By "us," I meant that it had served the system well for a thousand years. Thank you.
So the Minister is part of the system, it sounds like. Given that half of the residents of this territory are Indigenous and that this justice system hasn't been here for a thousand years, I'd like to ask the Minister: considering that about 90 per cent of the people incarcerated in the territory are also Indigenous, would the Minister consider that this system has served our Indigenous population well?
Dealing first with the question specifically with respect to the jury system itself, yes, I think it has served the North well. The jurors are selected at random from the health card list, those who are eligible for health insurance. In my experiences, juries that I've dealt with, probably 20 or 30 jury trials, they do fairly represent the communities. I didn't always like the verdicts they delivered, but I always thought they were fair and that they represented the community.
I recognize that the North is different. I never want to import a southern solution to a northern issue, and this is a case where it may be what they are saying in the South doesn't apply. If the issue with the over-representation of Aboriginals in the justice system isn't with the jury system, what is the problem?
Yes, the Department of Justice and the government as a whole are concerned about the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system. We are doing things to ameliorate that situation, including restorative justice, specialized courts, corrections programming, court workers, and legal aid, to just list a few areas. As I say, there are problems in society and in the judicial system, but I do not think the jury system is part of the problem.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a problem when we incarcerate as many people per capita as the Americans do. We are the worst in Canada. My concern is that, as MLAs, we are only here for a limited amount of time and, if we do nothing but maintain the status quo, our time here is essentially a waste. I know the Minister's plate is quite full with cannabis legalization and other initiatives, but Justice seems a little light on strategies and frameworks when compared to the other departments, so I want to know: does the department have any strategies or frameworks in the pipeline to finally begin addressing this issue that has gone unaddressed for too long? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
