Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I said earlier we're still assessing. We don't know the full extent of how the pandemic has impacted us. However, we're able to draw some initial lessons from the actions that we took initially to support individuals and businesses.
Emerging Stronger, for example, includes commitments to review the NWT Housing Corporation policies, and we made a commitment to do that with Indigenous governments, which is really exciting work during this term of the government. We're going to be accelerating the work on the alcohol strategy because of the pandemic and increasing support for addictions. And we'll be revisiting efforts to promote and diversify our economy because of the pandemic as well. So more lessons learned will be identified as we work through the updating of this recovery plan, as I noted, and it will be tabled in this spring coming up. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, knowing that another severe variant may rear its ugly head, from lessons learned does this government have a plan in place or that addresses business relief and support and social supports if we find ourselves taking a step backwards in this pandemic? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we're not waiting. Changes have already been made to address how we coordinate internally, how we partner with Indigenous governments and community governments. And work has been undertaken to better prepare ourselves and our communities for future outbreaks. This work, I believe, will support better emergency planning generally, not just if there's a pandemic or COVID.
Based on our experience over the past two years and the supports that we've implemented, we'll be better prepared to respond accordingly should the pandemic move in the wrong direction.
I want to stress also, though, we're not going to be starting in the same place. While we remain diligent, there's a lot of reason to be optimistic, including the vaccines that we have now and the antivirals that weren't available at the beginning of this pandemic two years ago. So it'll be a different starting place, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I brought up the issues that we've been having with the communities in regards to just needing help for our youth, our elders, for the community gatherings, and once, you know, the restrictions are lifted, you know, if the budget's passed, I see a lot of monies that are available for us, for the Beaufort Delta, potentially for getting people into the community and doing like sharing circles and stuff like that to help the people that we represent and who we work for.
Mr. Speaker, is the Minister of Health willing to assist us in doing that and not just giving us a 1800 number to call, because that doesn't work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Member for that question. There's no question that the pandemic has been very hard on the mental health of the whole population. People at different times have been stressed; they've been lonely; they've been anxious; they've been worried. And we have tried to respond by providing counselling in a virtual setting if COVID restrictions are in place, or facetoface if not. I realize that Tuktoyaktuk is short a couple of counsellors. And the primary reason for that is because there's no housing for them, and so people have been offered jobs but have been, in the end, unable to take them because they have nowhere to live. So I want to acknowledge that their counselling workforce is not up to speed. But that said, there are other ways of obtaining services from the people who are there through the community counselling program as well as through online and telephone services. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Minister for that. I'd really like to see how we used to do it four or five years ago, when you're travelling in with three or four people, a team that comes in for three or four days, able to work with the community that are certified to listen to people's concerns and they know how to deal with the stresses in life and, you know, suicide prevention workshops and stuff like that. We really need that. We can't just endemic is coming right now. We're going into that next phase of the endemic now, they're saying. So now we need help. And like I said, are we able to bring people into the Beaufort Delta, into each community, to help them? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize that the Member is talking about some issues that preexisted COVID and for which we have specialized support funds, such as the suicide prevention fund. And so I hope that the community has applied for those funds and considered how to use them. They are to address that particular problem.
In the time that I've been Health Minister, there was a travelling team that went to Tuktoyaktuk and spent a few days there. And I think it was around about January of last year. And so I'm certainly happy to inquire whether that kind of a response is possible again. So what I understand that the Member is asking for is a oneweek intensive visit to his community to provide facetoface counselling services, and that's the request that I will make. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. The thing is, like, you know, it's us as leaders that we have to bring forward stuff like this for the people that we represent because we see it, and we live it every day, the hurt and the pain that our constituents go through, you know. Sometimes I'm on calls, you know, for an hour trying to help people. It always come down, you know, and, you know, for the alcoholism, for short of food, for just everything, and then they're being turned away by our government's different departments. Mr. Speaker, it's us as leadership that have to make a difference. Us in this House that don't have to have the community supply for this monies. We should be providing that. It's my job to provide service for the communities I represent. Not only Tuk; I got Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok, and Paulatuk, the most northernly communities in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, that need help. My constituents need help. And I know this Minister wants to work with me. So just say yes, and we'll bring people up as soon as the endemic time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is right. I certainly would like to help his communities to gain or regain their mental health. I said that I would inquire about sending a travelling team to Tuktoyaktuk. I'm not sure about the staffing levels off the top of my head in his other communities and whether they are as shortstaffed as they are in Tuk. But that's something that I will inquire about.
At the end of the day, we want people to be living their best lives, and we're prepared to support that in whatever way we can. And if that's a travelling team while there aren't people in the positions permanently, then we'll certainly look at that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I again thank the Minister for that. I'll bring, you know, everybody healthy living and for the communities to try to provide best service we can, and I'm really happy to hear that. We are short. And it's not only Nunakput as a whole but the Beaufort Delta. We have nine communities up there that really need help for poststress, everything, anxiety. There's so much stuff that came out of this last two years. We can't even grieve for our families at funerals, Mr. Speaker. You know, having ten people going to a funeral and stuff like that, it's tough on everybody. It drains everybody so bad. And we're in a real tough situation. I'm happy the sun's coming back now, you know, and brighter days, longer days, that people are able to get out. But working with the Minister to get to all the communities with this travelling team, it doesn't have to be out of Yellowknife; we could contract people out. Is that an option? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate again what a difficult time this has been for people across the NWT in all the age groups. There is nobody who has been unaffected by the stress and the strain of the pandemic and now trying to rebound in the light coming back; it's still very cold.
Before committing to helping the entire Beaufort Delta, I want to take a look at the differing service levels in different communities, because I don't think all of them have the same needs. It is possible for us to contract services. We do that for child and youth community counsellors. We do that where there are fewer than 75 students in the school. If that's the case, there isn't a resident school counsellor. And so we can certainly look at all the possibilities there.
I also invite, I've realized this isn't the answer to the problem in and of itself, but the Help Line is there 24/7 to deal with people who are in crisis now; they can't wait for the travelling team or an appointment. And so I would really encourage the Member to post that number on his Facebook page for people who are in crisis imminently. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about the development of regulations for discharges from the Alberta tar sands. Can the Minister tell us what resources have been dedicated to this effort and whether we have the necessary expertise to fully engage the development of these regulations? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to be clear, there's no releases of oil sand process. Water is currently allowed under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act or the Federal Fisheries Act. The Alberta government has said its regulations will not be in place until at least 2023, and the federal government regulations will not be in place until at least 2025.
At ENR, we have employed sciences and experts as part of the GNWT water management and monitoring team who are reviewing the proposals to authorize each release, including those with regulatory expertise. We are also looking at hiring, or seeking external scientists' expertise to review the documents Alberta provided to fill six knowledge gaps identified to inform the development of the regulations. The team regularly engages with our counterparts in Alberta. So we are in constant contact with the Alberta government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Clearly, we're downstream of this mess, and there's a lot at stake with regard to potential impacts in water equality, aquatic life, and human health.
Can the Minister tell us what engagement this government has undertaken with Indigenous peoples and the public with regard to the development of a GNWT position and these regulations themselves? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for the question. The department has been engaging with Indigenous governments and organizations for many years as part of the development and implementation of the TransMonitoring Water Agreement and the Water Stewardship Strategy. I've met with Indigenous leadership about the transboundary water agreement implementation and I've heard concerns from communities and residents about the proposed development regulations authorizing and the release of treated tailing water. ENR provides regular updates and seeks input from the NWT strategy Indigenous steering committee whose members appointed represented to the bilateral management committee. There are representatives for implementation of our bilateral agreement, including the agreement with Alberta.
ENR will continue to provide input and ensure that Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations and NWT residents are able to share their perspective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Maybe he can share some of that information with this side of the House. Although I can appreciate the Minister's enthusiasm in saying GNWT is not supportive of discharges, I don't think that that's a tenable position for much longer. A more appropriate standard might be something like that the premier of Alberta can drink the discharged water directly.
Can the Minister tell us what the GNWT position is on discharges from the tar sands tailings ponds? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT is not supportive of the plan to release treated tailing water from the oil sands to Athabasca River until we have all the information, data, and science to assess whether this can be done safely.
In this House, I've stated this publicly and make this clear to Alberta and the federal government. We will keep our Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations, committee, and other water partners, informed of our work on this matter which we know is a great importance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister again for that, and I really do encourage him to share some information with this side of the House, because I haven't seen anything, and that's why I'm asking these questions today.
Clearly, there are issues with regard to notice and adequate engagement of GNWT when it came to unilateral decisions that were made to stop upstream water monitoring last year. The transboundary agreement, I'm not sure it's actually strong enough to protect us.
Can the Minister tell us what progress, if any, has been made on increasing and strengthening our role in the transboundary water agreement and how this agreement is going to protect us if the federal government, or Alberta government, goes ahead with regulations without us on board? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this transboundary agreement's one of the best ones in the world. We were very lucky in how we were able do it. And it is our standard moving forward with our transboundary agreements.
To ensure NWT interests are considered in decisionmaking on the oil sands monitoring, ENR made a request to the federal government and provincial governments for a seat on their joint oil sands oversight committee. We were waiting for a formal response from the federal government. The department has asked for it and received the work plans and requests for proposals to understand how Alberta's working to fill the identified knowledge gaps. The GNWT and the Government of Alberta have also agreed to regular updates at the senior management level.
Through our AlbertaNWT bilateral management committee, ENR is receiving regular updates from the Alberta's oil sand mine water science team and the last one was just, it was held this January 2022. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice. The statistics from the public service annual report show that, again from my statement, from 2013 to 2021 Indigenous employment went down by 23 while nonIndigenous employees went up by 61 staff. The declining trend has continued during this Assembly.
Can the Minister explain the main reasons for declining Indigenous representation at the Department of Justice when we have had programs in place like the Indigenous Career Gateway, the Indigenous Management Development Program since 2018? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm happy to report that we have reversed that trend, and the numbers are on their way up. We hit an all time low about two years ago, or actually last year, and then we have reversed and we've made up ground by a couple years. So there's a long way to go, but the work is underway and there's a number of initiatives. I won't preempt any of the Member's questions by talking about them, but I just wanted to let everyone know. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of our committee's government operations has had presentations from human resources on the Indigenous recruitment and retention framework, and each department must create a plan. So what is the plan specifically at Justice to reverse these trends? And I know he says that we're going up, but we should have a plan to make sure that number stays where it's going up and continues so that we have a representative government in Justice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This has been a priority of this Assembly and of this Cabinet, and it is taken seriously at all levels, so. And I had many conversations with senior managers at the Department of Justice, and this is something that they are regularly discussing. Procedures have been put in place within the department to ensure that, where possible, Indigenous candidates were hired, and if not, why not. There's checks and balances.
We are running a CNRTP program, which is the corrections training program, strictly for Indigenous trainees. So generally this is open to the public, but there's currently an application process for Indigenous persons only. And that deadline closes, I believe March 4th. So I'd recommend everyone who wants to apply get their name in. We are constantly looking at the job descriptions and how we can improve those to ensure that we're not unintentionally excluding people. So there's a number of initiatives, and it's something that is really being driven from the top down, and we want to ensure that we instill this culture across the department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I go to my next question, I'm going to go back to this since the Minister has talked about the CNRTP program; I've brought this up in the past with the department. Will the Minister commit to having the hiring staff, the recruiting staff for this program, to go through some of those pools that we currently have in our HR department for any Indigenous applicants to see if they're interested. You know, they've put their resume in once already. You know, we should be utilizing those areas to see if we can bring these people into, like I said, a career in Justice. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to say yes, but I can't commit to something that's already happening. I don't want to take credit for it. That is what's happening. And if the Member knows of specific instances where it appears that it's not happening, please let me know. We want to find out. No system is perfect. And if there are some gaps in the system, we want to figure out how to address those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister, and I hope it is happening. And, you know, I just wanted to say, like, to Mr. Speaker, when you and I toured the correctional facility here, one of the comments that I did make when we were there was that other than the warden at the time, there was not one other Indigenous employee that we saw while we did the tour. Every employee that we did see was and the counsellor. Just the two. And the warden is no longer there. So I just wanted to make that comment.
Can the Minister be bold and commit to issuing a ministerial directive to instruct hiring managers to use programs like the Indigenous Career Gateway and Indigenous management development and training programs as well as searching the pools, casual pools, and job before posting, at least until the end of his term? Be bold, Minister. Be bold.
Laughter
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So that's what happens. That's what's supposed to happen. We have HR processes in place. The Department of Finance, the human resources division, is the lead on ensuring that the work is done. So that is what happens. And I can't make a directive to you know, that is beyond my scope because we have governmentwide policies in place. Again, if the Member, or anyone, is aware of instances where things aren't happening the way they should be, I want to hear about it because we do want to make changes where needed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister of ITI consider it a lost opportunity that Fortune Minerals decided not to build a refinery in the NWT for the minerals extracted from the NICO project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is an exciting opportunity for the Northwest Territories, not a lost opportunity. I appreciate the Member's interest in the area. Building the refinery is a massive undertaking and requires access to affordable energy, clean energy. It wouldn't have been feasible in the Northwest Territories.
That said, the fact that there is now going to be a mine operating here hopefully going to be a mine operating here, but we're tied into another Canadian jurisdiction, in my view is a reason to go back to the federal government and speak to them about the need for the green energy that I'm talking about, the need for transportation corridors, a need for the kind of investments that will, in fact, bring a project like that to light. So I see it as an opportunity, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if our government had any discussions with Fortune Minerals about refining the minerals extracted from the NICO project inside the NWT rather than a different province? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, apparently there were some early discussions with respect to this as a possibility. It didn't go very far, and it was before my time. It's not a conversation I've had despite having opportunities to meet with this company during the virtual roundup week. So, again, not something that occurred in great depth here. But, again, I do think the conversation can advance where, you know, we can now be part of the Canadian critical minerals and metals approach that's happening a strategy that's happening across Canada, and we can be an important part of that value chain. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this project has not been finalized yet. So there is still time to negotiate a deal for this project to be built exclusively in the NWT. Can the Minister tell us if our government would welcome the economic opportunity of a mineral refinery such as that being built in Lamont County, Alberta, to instead be built in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think any Minister of ITI can ever say they don't want an opportunity to build any sort of new opportunities in the Northwest Territories. But realistically, Mr. Speaker, the Member makes an important point. This is not an operating mine yet. It still has some way to go. There still are some gaps to be bridged. And the conversation where I want to be having is, you know, what are any remaining barriers or challenges that they might face before becoming a successful operation here in the Northwest Territories and putting us on the map for critical minerals and metals.
Again, and the concern I would have with a refinery is the same concern you hear from so many industries high cost of doing business, high cost of power, lack of transportation corridors. So Mr. Speaker, those are all issues that attach to really any investment, and that is where I do want to take that opportunity that I see here to be able to speak to colleagues, federal colleagues about ways to invest and grow the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
