Again, my concern is, you know, we have looked at this agreement in committee and it’s full of holes. It doesn’t hold water. Is there nothing, I suppose we are just committed to this now, we have signed it, there is nothing else we can do to improve that in the five to eight years in the meantime.
The agreement was signed in the 15th Assembly and that agreement is binding for the life of the project. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, that’s all. Thank you.
I wanted to clarify before I left with Mr. Bromley, he had asked me a question in his general comments about revenues. I didn’t have a chance; I forgot to address it in the response. I just wanted to indicate that the main reason for the reduction in the revenues was that we reduced the interest rates that were charged by the Business Development Institute of Canada while the economy was in a downturn for two years, so that is why the revenues dropped in that area. I just wanted to add that in. Thank you for your indulgence.
Mr. Bromley, did that answer your question?
It did indeed, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate the Minister filling in that gap. Thank you.
Okay, next I have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister, in regards to the Government of the Northwest Territories socio-economic agreements with industry and the monitoring of these industry activities, and I want to ask, with the socio-economic agreements with the mines, I have been approached by one employee that was working at the mines and he wanted me to check and see when there are layoffs and people are asked to leave work for whatever reasons from the mines, a statement that was made by this individual was that they lay off the Aboriginal people first before they start laying off other people and he thought that was discriminatory and that it wasn’t fair and he asked me how closely is the Government of the Northwest Territories monitoring or taking the socio-economic agreements to task by meeting with the mining companies. He thought that should be looked at, so I want to ask the Minister what is the mine doing to mitigate some of these concerns that I have heard.
Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will respond in a general way and then I will have Mr. Vician. I think the best way to look at it is, when we had a downturn in the economy and two of the three diamond mines shut down for extended periods, the people that were laid off were mainly southern workers that didn’t live in the Northwest Territories. So the mines went to special effort to keep Aboriginal and northern employees on and they did that until the economy recovered and I think things may have changed when the mines moved from open pit to underground mining where the skill sets required a change. That could have impacted.
I would like to reassure the Member that there is human rights legislation that was passed by this Assembly to protect against any possibilities of discrimination and I would like to ask, through you, Mr. Chairman, for Mr. Vician then to explain how we monitor the reporting through the socio-economic agreements. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Vician.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The socio-economic agreements with the mines reflect commitments that the mines have made to the Northwest Territories and one element of each socio-economic agreement with the mines reflects the people issues and there are three primary elements to those people issues. Hiring provisions, maintaining an employment level, particularly with Northwest Territories residents and Aboriginal persons of Northwest Territories residency and, finally, the training element. As the Minister has indicated, reporting mechanisms are built within the socio-economic agreements that require the mines to report regularly, annually and sometimes more often, with regard to performance in each of those areas. Each of those reports are made public and reviewed by the government and followed up with in terms of reviews with the mines and Government of the Northwest Territories. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the Department of Health and Social Services all participate in those people issues and the discussions with the mines to ensure that they perform as we had hoped them to. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Vician. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If it is possible, if I could ask the Minister if he has reports as to indicate the miners or the workers that were released were the southern workers that the Minister indicated when they had the economic downturn and that certainly when mining companies changed their operations to an underground mine, then maybe that is a factor that showed that they need more skilled workers there that contribute to hiring more southern workers to operate their mines at a different level of operations.
Minister if ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can go back and provide information. Also if the Member has specific individuals that have been affected, we could pass information on and we could follow up with the mining companies. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I appreciate the Minister’s offer and I would take him up on his offer. I want to ask the Minister also on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Office, we certainly want to continue to support the operation and look at where they can help support communities along the valley that look forward to training. It takes awhile to be an apprentice, pipefitter or any type of trade that would be required for the pipeline. That’s part of what we’re looking for in the support to get our communities up and trained to prepare for a pipeline, if there’s going to be a pipeline. I want to ask the Minister if that’s something we continue to do with the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Office.
Mr. Chair, the pipeline office does go to the communities. For those people in the communities that are interested in trades, they are prepared to direct them to the right people. We work very closely with Education, Culture and Employment. Not only has the pipeline increased their commitment for apprentices, they’ve increased it significantly.
As far as the approved funds, if our budget is approved, there will be $148,000 to continue to support efforts in relation to any B regulatory review; $300,000 contribution to APG; $360,000 for Aboriginal capacity building, contribution funding for Aboriginal organizations; and $55,000 for community consultation efforts. So we will be going to the communities and if there is interest, we can point them to the right direction. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. With that, we’ll take a short break and resume shortly.
---SHORT RECESS
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. Prior to the break we were on page 12-17, Industry, Tourism and Investment, minerals and petroleum products, operations expenditure summary, $6.063 million.
Agreed.
Moving on to page 12-18, activity summary, minerals and petroleum resources, grants and contributions, contributions, $895,000. Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Chair, the Mackenzie Valley development contributions, I want just a little more information on the Aboriginal capacity building initiatives. I understand from the previous page there is about $360,000. That’s what I wanted to ask this Minister, if he had some details he could pass out to the Members here to see the plans. We have six months left in this government to work closely with our communities that are going to be at ground zero at the pipeline, when the pipeline comes down. I’d like to see what programs are going to be supportive in capacity building. Thank you.
Minister of ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That money is used to help Aboriginal governments build capacity, get ready for the pipeline. So we provide contribution funding to the Inuvialuit, the Gwich’in, the Sahtu and some communities in the Deh Cho. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Certainly communities and the regions are appreciative. Can I get a breakdown of the amounts for the groups that he listed off?
My recollection is that it was $100,000 for the Gwich’in, $100,000 for the Inuvialuit, $100,000 for the Sahtu and $60,000 for the Dehcho and they draw down as the communities need it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I’ll have to do a little bit more research and digging around in this to how they’ve been drawn down and what type of capacity building initiatives the Sahtu has been using towards helping them with this project. That’s it, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Page 12-18, petroleum resources, grants and contributions, contributions, $895,000.
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to page 12-19, information item, active positions. Agreed?
Agreed.
Page 12-21, again, activity summary, energy, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have really three or four little sets of questions here. The first is on the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee and I’m pretty sure this was a new committee to this Assembly. I just wondered if they’ve produced any reports yet, or if the intent is to produce any reports.
Minister of ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is new to the 16th Legislative Assembly and I’ll have to go back and check our terms of reference as to whether we had identified that we would be fulfilling an annual report or not. I know that we haven’t been to date. It’s been more of a coordinating committee approach that would deal with specific projects and we would report on specific projects. Some of the main things that we’ve been working on that we will be reporting on is we will be developing and releasing an energy report that will be released in 2011. We worked on an electricity review. We’ll also be developing a draft Hydro Strategy that will be released in 2011 and also the EPI, an update of our energy priorities inventory. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the Minister’s remarks there. I want to ask is there also a focus internally in the government use of energy? Is that part of the mandate of this committee and maybe some progress in that area if it is? Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, that is given a focus on a departmental level. It is part of our energy priorities framework and that is something that is ongoing and we have invested on things to reduce energy for the GNWT like a wood pellet boiler for the Legislative Assembly, a wood pellet boiler in Fort Simpson, the Capital Asset Retrofit Fund under an energy efficiency for public housing. So those are some of the areas that we’ve been focusing on through the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The other area I wanted to ask about is the Taltson Hydro Project. Obviously we’ve chatted about that quite a bit over the years here. Is this dead in the water? I know that there was a bit of a response, a rejection of the environmental assessment I believe by the federal Minister and there is a challenge to get, well, let’s call it a hiccup, figured out and that’s the routing. I’d like to see this project go ahead, but with this routing figured out in a way that resolves the issues. Could I just get an update on that? I see we’re not spending any money on it this year, so I’m assuming maybe the partners are. Thank you.
We did have the environmental assessment report sent back by the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs and we are doing an assessment of that. My understanding is that the Premier will be briefing SCEDI, I believe, or SCOPP within the next couple days or in March, I think it’s March 2nd there will be a briefing on the Taltson. So I think at that time you’ll get the full details of what is being proposed. The corporation is working on that and the Premier will be updating committee on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for the Minister’s remarks. I’ll look forward to that briefing. I’m sure the Minister is aware and I’m sure he’s been part of briefings where we talked about the contracts with the mines. There’s high interest there, but obviously they can’t make the commitments until they have a definite proposal before them. Yet, as time goes by, the feasibility of it perhaps is compromised. Is there anything the Minister can share with us in terms of whether or not the mines are beginning to back off from interest in this proposal?
I can say that Deze Corporation sent letters to all of the diamond mines and my understanding is that they have received responses and they are reviewing the responses from the mines and they are factoring that into their response on how they’re going to deal with the environmental assessment of the proposed transmission line in the Taltson Hydro Expansion. So the Premier will also be reporting on that, as well, to committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks again to the Minister. I will await the Premier’s briefing. On the Hydro Strategy, I note we’re anticipating about one and a quarter million expenditures there. What’s planned for those expenditures? How do we plan to expend those dollars in the Hydro Strategy? Thank you.
We’ve been spending that money to get more detail and information in order to finalize the Hydro Strategy and I’d like to ask Mr. Vician to go into more detail. He’s been working directly with NTEC on this, Mr. Chair.
Deputy Minister Vician.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. A number of projects would merge and continue to emerge through NTEC where the funding is provided from ITI to support the projects of particular interest as work continuing on the Sahtu hydro assessment and the work associated with providing hydroelectricity to Sahtu communities, the most interesting projects regarding the Bear River potential and some hydrokinetic potential that we’re working with the community of Deline on. The next project that continues to be assessed is the Lac La Martre project and as we continue to work with the Tlicho Government with regard to a facility development, possibly as much as 13 megawatts, but again, subject to the Tlicho’s plans on a proposed hydro facility in the Lac La Martre area. Of course some of this money assists with the Taltson Project overall through the NTEC participation in the project with Deze. The other and overarching matter that NTEC is dealing with is the overall assessment of the potential for hydroelectricity development throughout the Northwest Territories and all regions, and so this is all part and parcel of the draft Hydro Strategy that exists and would be finalized and presented as part of the overall plan for hydro development in the Northwest Territories. Specifically, it provides them with the funding for the expertise in conducting all of these works. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Vician. Mr. Bromley.
I appreciate that information from the deputy minister. The $1.25 million probably wouldn’t cover all that. I think there’s another four-point-something million to cover most of those items including at least some of the Bear River stuff and the Whati project and in-stream hydro and Lutselk'e. I guess I’m trying to figure out how the dollars, $1.25. million, is being spent on the Hydro Strategy specifically versus on the work to develop hydro, so if there’s any clarification there, I’d appreciate it. Also, there was some mention of dollars going towards Deze, I think it was, for the Taltson project, and I’d like to know what that amount is. Thank you.
I’m presuming that the reference is in regard to the contributions on 12-22 and the $1.25 million that goes to NTEC is there to provide supporting capacity for the Northwest Territories Energy Corporation and the experts in the corporation and the costs associated with the projects they’re directly working with and the contracts that they enter into to provide them with technical knowledge on the various projects. The other contributions that are identified are those contributions that are going directly to the communities and supporting the communities and their work on those specific projects identified.
In terms of the overall Taltson project, there are no funds specifically identified under this budget proposed for Taltson at this time. There has been in previous years, but all funding now emerges through other vehicles. Thank you.
Thank you. Next I have Mr. Yakeleya and Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Yakeleya.
