Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us what type of economic or other conditions would need to be met in the future to enable a refinery of this nature to be constructed in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can speak to that a bit. One of the interesting elements would be actually access to more ore, to more minerals and metals. And fortunately, there are quite a large number of projects that are looking into those possibilities across the Northwest Territories. Although at the moment, that would be one barrier, is just simply not having access to enough. Another big one again, as I already mentioned today, Mr. Speaker, is more green energy opportunities which, again, is something that is a priority for this government. Another one, Mr. Speaker, being access to skilled labour, which again, similarly, is a theme we hear a lot here and one that I know the Minister of ECE is certainly live to and keen to see some advancement on. And last, Mr. Speaker, I'd suggest is generally looking at investor confidence, that individuals and businesses and investors are looking at the Northwest Territories and seeing the opportunities here to being on the critical minerals and metals value chain. We know that that opportunity's there. We know that they should have that confidence. But the more there is that buzz out there, the more likely we're going to see projects like this, whether a refinery or simply advanced mining, succeed. Thanks, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ENR. In doing research for my Member's statement today, I was unable to determine the date of the closure of the commercial caribou hunt. What was the actual date of the closure and what was the value of caribou meat at that time? For example, the Wild Cat Cafe and other restaurants used to sell caribou burgers. How much were they paying price per pound for that meat? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, and I thank the Member for her questions. As we all are aware, the Bathurst caribou herd is facing serious conservation concerns and is currently at record low numbers. The government has worked closely with our wildlife comanagement partners to put a range of management actions in place to support the recovery of this herd. It is important to note that the Wildlife Act and the regulations differentiate between commercial hunts and outfitting hunting.
In 2006, ENR began to reduce the number of tags issued to outfitting numbers given the conservation concerns for the Bathurst herd.
All residents, outfitters, and commercial harvesting of the Bathurst herd was suspended in 2010 when the herd fell from 470,000 to an estimated 3200. Commercial tags allow the tag holders to sell the game harvested. In the past, it was RWED, which was renewable Wildlife and Environment Economic Development sorry. So that was our former department. It was not involved in setting the price. So we weren't involved in setting it up, so yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was a very long answer for my question. So I appreciate that you explained what RWED is because that has to do with my next question. And the reason for my statement, Mr. Speaker, was that I've had a lot of conversation with Indigenous hunters that have had meat seizures and they've raised concerns with me. So those same hunters have mentioned to me that when they've had their meat seized, the RWED officer was telling them which herd that the meat was from. So my next question is how does the RWED officer distinguish that in the field? Is there a field test or an inspection checklist that officers need to follow? Really, can an officer tell someone in the field what herd that caribou is from? Thank you.
Thank you, and I apologize to the Member for the longwinded answer but it's very important we get this information out there.
So it's not what the herd is, it's the mobile zone. So the mobile zone is the area where the caribou are. Last year we had the overlap of the Beverly and the Bathurst and the Bluenose. And again, it's where we have our collared animals and that's where we know where our herds are. It's important to note that it's illegal to harvest any caribou in that mobile zone and regardless of the herd. And I think every Tuesday it's updated. So we make sure that information, so people know where it is. We work closely with our comanagement partners to make sure hunters are aware of where the zone is. I think in your Member's statement, you talked about GPS. We give them the coordinates. If you go to the camp, you can get that information so you know where the coordinates are.
In regards to I think it was yeah, I think that answers your question. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn't ask about the mobile zone but I did want to I think that my point being is that it sounds like to hunters that they're actually saying this is this kind of caribou rather than explaining it's based on geographical location and that's likely the type of caribou that they're killing, not that it is. So that's just more of a comment, Mr. Speaker.
My next question is what happens to the seized meat? What measures are in place to ensure that it's not wasted and that it's being distributed to people that need it? Because it's not going to the hunters' families so I'd like to know where it ends up. Thank you.
I thank the Member for her comment, and we'll make sure we get that messaging out there about the mobile zone.
So ENR becomes involved or notified of a potential infraction under the Wildlife Act. A renewable officer will initiate the investigation. If they believe that the animal was harvested illegally, they may then seize the caribou and start a legal process. While the investigation's underway, seized caribou are stored securely in a frozen state for evidence. As you are aware in the last budget, we are actually building another storage or building a place where we can store the seized caribou and that.
We're in a challenging state of trying to deal with the caribou, and it's getting the weather's getting warm right now. We then go to the justice of the peace, and then we work with them, who then gives us the ability to distribute the meat. So we give it to Indigenous governments out there. So the meat doesn't get spoiled. We do give it out as well, we need permission from the justice of peace to do that. We need the legal authorization to do that moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm just going to come quickly back to the Minister's comment around the GPS. I do just want to state that there has been some concerns that wrong GPS units have been entered into machines for hunters therefore forcing them into the mobile zone versus out. So I just wanted to make a comment on that. The Minister does not need to respond but perhaps being aware.
My last question is that in 1986, the Bathurst herd caribou numbers were recorded at 450,000. By 2021, the Bathurst herd numbers declined to 6,240. The BluenoseEast herd and the Ahiak herd numbers have grown in comparison to the Bathurst decline. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and it's going to be a long answer on this one because I want to make sure we get the information out there.
In recent years, we have seen a decline in many caribou herds across the NWT and northern Canada. As you noted, the Bathurst herd declined from an estimated 47,000 in 1986 to 6,240 in 2021. At the time, we also saw a major decline in the BluenoseEast herd, declining from 120,000 in 2010 to 19,300 in 2018. The Beverly herd declined located to the east of the Bathurst herd was established at 103 in 2018. That's 103,000. And has been undergoing a slow decline in recent years. While the historical range of the Ahiak herd has extended in the NWT, they currently don't occur in the NWT but only in Nunavut.
Given the declines and the size of the barren land caribou herds, the GNWT has been working closely with wildlife comanagement partners in the NWT to implement measures to support conservation recovery of these herds.
So we are working very much with our Indigenous hunters. And one of the questions the Member talked about or not said or heard about wildlife and that, we do have the opportunity to do community hunts, that we work with the Indigenous governments, but there's also caribou, moose, muskox out there as well, that opportunity to get wild meat out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Housing who, I'm sure no one more in the territory, wants the Fort Good Hope seniors complex to open. So my first question is when is that going to occur?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member. I appreciate this question because it has been we did, you know, have a grand opening last year but once that we did receive the reports for the project, we did end up with some issues in completing the project that were identified by the office of the fire marshal. And one of the key issues was the fire separation. And right now, the corporation is addressing those issues, and we are now underway with the remediation work.
The work will involve electrical, structural, architectural, and mechanical repairs. The electrical contractor is scheduled to travel into Fort Good Hope, and this scheduled travel was for November 8th. And also the structural engineer is scheduled to travel was scheduled to travel as well too, November 8th. A mechanical review is underway by the private engineers and are in an architectural firm for these remaining components. The Housing Corporation is pressing the contractor for a completed remediation plan to confirm the expected occupancy date as soon as possible. And once those reports are received, it would be able to announce an opening date.
Sorry for the longwinded answer as well, too, but there's just a lot of issues that were identified once the project was completed, and we are working very closely with the contractor at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to just try and understand how this happened. You know, we cut the ribbon on the building. We completely thought it was complete and open. And then after the inspector, it turns out the contractor, that there was electrical problems, structural problems, fire break problems. Can the Minister just highlight what happened here? How did we build a building with this many aspects of the code that were not compliant and not catch them until an inspection? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I just, you know, really thank the Member for these questions as well because it was sooner, like I was able to receive a briefing on this project and we had actually put this out for tender in two components. So once the project was completed, the deficiencies were identified. And it's unfortunate, and you know, I'm hoping to have that complex opened this year. We did have a commitment last year of March 2022. So I will follow up with the Member and let him know if we're still going to be having that building opened this year. But also the other thing that we ran into complications with as well was COVID, the restrictions, and also finding contractors to get in and being able to repair and address those specific issues for the opening of the complex and the occupancy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm hoping the Minister can explain what the costs are here. You know, we thought this building was complete, and I assume there is some sort of there was new tenders for different contractors to come in and remedy this. It's been closed for a year. I don't know how much of this falls on GNWT or some poor contractor. Can the Minister just give us a sense of how much this delay has cost the GNWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have those numbers with me at this time. I will follow up with the Member as well. But the corporation is working very strategically to try to minimize those costs as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Okay, before I begin, I would like to for the record, I would like to say that three of four Tlicho communities Behchoko, Whati and Wekweeti are underfunded. They are underfunded communities, so I just wanted to say that for the record.
So Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister referred to an agreement in 2007. It is now year 2022, and we have a community without access to clean water as identified in United Nation Declaration on Human Rights. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister focus on what can be done now, not on what was done in the past? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're already focusing on the future and the present. We are working with the municipal government on this very issue. So the Member, I've given her emails showing what was going on. Yesterday I provided an update that was very current as of yesterday morning, that they met with the community and were working on trying to address that issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Well, I don't think I did not receive the email that he is referring to. And I know that I keep checking my email. I didn't get anything from him. But I keep getting email from his assistant. So if he sent that email yesterday, I would like to see it today, if he can resend it.
Mr. Speaker, does the formula for funding received by the community government, especially in Behchoko into consideration that there are two distinct geographic communities? Each community has its own water plants, sewer facilities, water, and sewer distribution centre systems, fire halls, fire fighting mobile equipment, and recreation facilities. Thank you.
Thank you. So the Member should be aware that my EAC is sending out emails that I get, and I send it to the Member right away. Whether we get them from the community, who are asking questions and that, when I send this stuff out there, the latest one was an issue about freeze up. We get that sent to the Member right away so she is aware of what's going on.
As for the formula, yes, it encompasses everything. Again, when we talk about the municipal funding formula, it was developed with NWTAC for the betterment of the territories, the 33 communities. So it's a formula that's used, and it counts all those things that the Member's talked about.
Just so the Member's aware, we are looking at those funding policies, and we're trying to fix them presently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, well, I would like to see the email again. But what I would like for the Minister to do is that to meet with me and the community leaders to discuss these important issues.
So another question is that, Mr. Speaker, I know that we are coming to a fiscal year end, okay. So there may be some operational budgets that have not been fully spent. Can the Minister commit to work with the Department of Finance to identify where there is any unused funding across the entire GNWT and redirect these unused funds for a onetime payment to the community, especially those just like Behchoko for damage repair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've already met with the TG government, and we're more than willing just recently, with Cabinet, and I'm more than willing to meet with them. Our staff are meeting with the TG governments as we move forward.
In regards to surpluses and that from the Government of the Northwest Territories, we don't have surpluses. We don't. We're $1.5 billion in debt. We have a budget that we're using. So there is no surplus out there. If there was, we have 33 communities with 33 issues that each community has that we need to move forward on. So I can't promise the Member that there. There's no surplus, and there's no money available. And if there was a surplus, we have to compete against needs of the Northwest Territories, just not one community. It's departments; it's other communities as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.
Well, we just did the Finance budget today. So Mr. Speaker, with reference to the 2014 study that identified the shortfall in funding many community governments, will the Minister agree to update the 2014 study to identify the current shortfall in funding for NWT community government and commit to correct the inequalities in a timely manner? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding of the 2014 report that the Member's talking about was jointly done with NWTAC. We're more than willing to work with them to go on there.
As for the inadequacies that the Member talks about, it's a budget process. We need to compete with other priorities for the Government of the Northwest Territories. The Member from Yellowknife North talked about $20 million for housing. Bam, let's give me $20 million for housing. Well, how do we take that compared to other issues? Housing is a priority. We've heard it in this House. But we have other priorities and other commitments that this government needs to be recognizing. I'm more than willing to work with committee and work with the government, Cabinet, and our colleagues from AOC to come up with a process. I need to stress that it was a priority of the NWT of our moving forward. We had $25 million for initiating initiatives for the four years. $5 million is going to the municipal funding gap. We are also working from lands and doing some work on that as well to help municipal governments move forward. So we're trying, using all the tools in our toolbox, to help shrink this funding gap. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my first set of questions, if I can get in a second set, is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I'd like to start off by thanking the Minister, staff, Stanton, and especially OBS staff for working hard to get labour and delivery open and running again at full service. So thank you for that.
My first question, though, is some people are already in Edmonton waiting to deliver, and they'd like the opportunity to come home and deliver in their home territory of the Northwest Territories. So how can people, or can they come home from Edmonton? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the question. The thing that the families who are now in Edmonton should do is talk to their health care provider in Edmonton about the possibility of travelling back to Yellowknife in order to give birth at Stanton, and that health care provider can evaluate the stage of their pregnancy, potential complications and so on, and give them an answer. Thank you.
Thank you very much for that, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure health care providers in Edmonton will be getting a lot of phone calls so people can come home. Can I go back on your list, please?
Thank you. Take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my second set of questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Mr. Speaker, schools have struggled with staggered and delayed enrolment for the 2020 and 2021 school year as well as the 2021 and 2022 school years. A lot of parents didn't send their kids back to school right away. They held the kids at home if they were able to, just to see what the pandemic was going to do and to reevaluate how families wanted to reintegrate their kids back to school. Schools, unfortunately, have a cutoff for funding enrolment for September 30th, and a lot of kids, because of school closures, went back into the school setting following the September 30th cutoff date. As such, schools have found that their funding has been quite a lot less compared to the 20192020 school year. So will the Minister base school funding on 2019 enrolment numbers for 20202021, and 20212022 school years to provide increased funding stability to Northwest Territories schools? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to make that commitment. But, fortunately, there are mechanisms in place where schools are in situations where they have extraordinary enrolment compared to what they are funded for. And the school, if it meets certain criteria, if there's a certain increase in their student population, they can apply to ECE to receive additional funding to cover that, recognizing that there are extraordinary circumstances. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So then if schools are coming back to their MLAs and saying that they've seen significant differences in enrolments, would those schools not then qualify for that and so can we not make that commitment that schools will see stability in their funding so that they're not expected to educate students without the funding for those students? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If schools meet the criteria, then there shouldn't be an issue. But there is a criteria. It is not just anecdotal evidence that there's changes in student population. And in places like Yellowknife, there are a number of different schools, a number of different school boards so there is movement between those schools as well. Some might see increases, some might see decreases. But it's not a change perhaps in the net population of students. Overall, we've seen about a .4 percent decrease in the numbers across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I'm going to have to have a conversation, I guess, with the Minister offline to compare information from school boards to ECE as well just to make sure that schools are supported.
I'm wondering if so teachers have long indicated that students to teacher ratio includes teachers who are also not present in the classrooms and therefore it does not allow for the number of teachers needed to meet the students where they are at. Students have a lot greater needs in the territory and around the world with COVID. Students are at much different places from missing a lot of school or just from the mental health and anxiety that comes with COVID and the disruption to stability for students, kids, and everybody these days.
So to help improve student outcomes, will the Minister pass a directive reducing the studentteacher ratio in NWT schools and provide additional funding for additional teachers? Thank you.
