Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to do a special recognition to Chief Superintendent Tom Middleton, and pass on my well wishes to him and his wife, Susan, who will be retiring. He’s a constituent for just a few more days. At the same time, I’d like to recognize, although I haven’t had the pleasure to meet the incoming Chief Superintendent Wade Blake, so I’d like to wish him well on his new adventures leading our RCMP of the North. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On behalf of my colleague Mr. Abernethy I’d like to recognize Mark Bogan, a resident of Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier and the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. Mr. Speaker, I would hope that today, through some questions and answers here in the House, we could set the record straight. Mr. Speaker, at the outset of any sensitive negotiations of course we can’t fully predict the outcome of those negotiations, and no doubt, there will be obstacles and challenges to try to achieve the goal that we have of trying to see value added from the Rare Earth’s mining activity in the Northwest Territories. We recognize that. However, what advantage is there of the Power Corporation coming out and essentially cutting this negotiation off at the pass here. We were just embarking on this. The Premier was clear in his support for trying to find ways and means of ensuring that this extremely important economic activity was retained in the North to the largest extent possible.
Mr. Speaker, my question today to the Premier is: will those discussions and those negotiations continue on behalf of and with Avalon Rare Metals to try and find a solution that would see this value-added activity in the North? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the letter that I sent in response to a letter that we got from Avalon Rare Earth Mineral’s project and the people within that organization stands. We’re interested, as we have been with any secondary industry potential that we have in the Northwest Territories. There are many challenges that need to be looked at, so we’re still going to go ahead with those discussions. I know that Minister Bob McLeod with ITI folks have been arranging to have these ongoing discussions, and they’re still open. Of course, we’re challenged in our environment to see how we can meet some of the requests that will be on the table as well. But, of course, we are definitely interested in pursuing any potential we have for secondary industry in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I can’t, of course, quantify what kind of damage might have been done by that very blunt and categorical dismissal of the opportunity to provide power at a rate that would be competitive enough to see this processing take place here in the Northwest Territories. But, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Premier if he could advise those who are in positions of leadership in these organizations, which are really the, you know, it’s really the role of the shareholder in these types of things to be the spokesperson, if it’s possible for the Minister to communicate to people the sensitivity and the importance of not coming out on these kinds of statements in the media. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we, of course, during initial discussions don’t want to put barriers up before we have a chance to get into any detail. I know in discussions, brief discussions with the chair of the Power Corp board there was issue there about the interview that was done. I don’t have a lot of detail on exactly what was said or stated, but at the same time, I said that communication needs to be improved between ourselves and the board as to letters and correspondence, as well, that we share. So we’ll get that message through the system. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it’s a small Territory, we all know who the board chair is for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, and I want to say -- and Mr. Voytillla knows this -- that I’ve always had a great deal of respect for what he has done for our government and his many years as deputy minister and how pleased I was when he became the chair of the NTPC board. Would the Premier convey to Mr. Voytilla, please, that we would appreciate his support as the chair, because he would be a very key person in these negotiations; that we would like him to participate with our government in trying to find a viable solution to affordable power for the Avalon Ventures processing plan. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Avalon project is one that’s early days. There has been some exploration. There is discussion about potential establishment of the mining operation itself and then the secondary industry and, of course, we’re interested in how we might be able to work together on that. So we’ll continue down that path, as I stated earlier, and see where we can get to on that.
As I stated earlier, the communications between our boards and ourselves needs to be clear and open and have a consistent message. We’re all challenged, though, in making sure that we do provide the best return for our investment on any project that we’d be involved in. So we’ll continue down the path and keep Members informed of where we’re going on this and, again, improve the communications process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So for the benefit of the folks at Avalon, for the Premier of Saskatchewan, for the public, for those of us in the South Slave who would like to see such an amazing economic opportunity come our way, for all intents and purposes, would the Premier state that Mr. Voytilla’s comments in the media are formally retracted? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I said, I will speak to the chair of the board on this and have him clear up his comments that were stated. He’s unavailable for contact at this point, but I’m sure that we can arrange that contact in a number of days.
As the Member pointed out, we’re the shareholder. We’re negotiating, we’re undergoing these discussions and ultimately we’ll set the direction of where we want to go as a Government of the Northwest Territories. We’re challenged, of course, in our environment, but we want to come up with the best deal possible, if we can come up to the arrangements. But at the same time, it is difficult to compare ourselves to other jurisdictions.
But that aside, there’s still a process we want to go through and see if we can and how we can advance the potential for this, like we did with the secondary diamond industry, of establishing secondary industries in the Northwest Territories. So our goal is to advance those discussions and see where we can go.
Again, communication is something that we will clarify and clear up as well.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked about a designated territorial park near Fort Resolution. I would like to ask questions of the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on that.
Mr. Speaker, last October I raised the issue and asked questions. Since October, can the Minister tell me if his ITI staff have had meaningful discussions with the community regarding the development of a territorial park near Fort Resolution? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During last session, October 2009, I committed to visiting the community with the Member for Tu Nedhe to facilitate the wishes of the people of the community of Fort Resolution, and I am still committed to doing so and visiting the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister tell me if prior to our visit to Fort Resolution, if he’s able to provide me with some sort of a plan on what is going to occur as far as territorial park development goes in the Northwest Territories?
We do have some ideas of where we would like to go with developing a territorial park in Fort Resolution. We have had some very preliminary discussions with one of the former chiefs of Fort Resolution, and since October we’ve been endeavouring to meet with the Deninu Community Council, the Deninu K’ue First Nation and the Fort Resolution Metis Council, so we are committed to working with the community of Fort Resolution and we would certainly appreciate if the Member could assist us with helping set up these meetings so we can discuss where we can go from here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I’d be pleased to set up meetings with the Minister or the department; I just haven’t been able to find the appropriate time to do so. Can the Minister tell me in the interim if he will direct his staff to go to the community to start talking specifics about the park near Fort Resolution? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m quite prepared to do that and we’ve been calling as recently as last night or yesterday to attempt to set up meetings. So the next step would be to have our staff go to Fort Resolution and meet with as many people as possible.
We still want to develop a park in that area, because we think it’s something that would be beneficial and certainly fit in with the attractiveness around Fort Resolution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. What happened is the question I have for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Myself and my colleague Mr. Krutko thought we had certainty in the delivery of nursing services for our small communities. I was very happy with the strategy produced by Health and Social Services called a Foundation for Change. It supports enhanced services for smaller communities; for me, the return of nursing to Wrigley in 2010. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services tell me how can this be accomplished? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct in saying that we have been working under the Foundation for Change to enhance our goals. The goals under Foundation for Change are: wellness, accessibility and sustainability. So we are working on that three-year plan that would change the way we deliver our programs in the North and to strengthen services at the community level, but as a Territory-wide plan to use our resources as efficiently as possible and change the way we provide services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m glad to see there’s a bit of a plan in that strategy. However, as I indicated in my Member’s statement, when I first became MLA, to return nursing services to Wrigley was policing. Policing was the answer to returning nursing. That’s accomplished, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got dedicated RCMP; we’re looking forward to establishing a detachment by 2011. Yet I stand up here today and I still have no certainty on returning a nursing position to Wrigley. Can the Minister tell me why did we go through six years of establishing policing when, in fact, they will not follow up on the original commitment to the community of Wrigley and to myself? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, we should be mindful of the fact that all of our communities have a nursing service. The community of Wrigley does have a nursing service and other health care service there. I do understand that for a lot of communities, they would like to have a live-in service, but that’s not always possible everywhere.
I want to advise the Member that the department and Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority are working on a plan to see how they could enhance health care service in small communities within Deh Cho. There are some other very small communities in Deh Cho outside of Fort Simpson, and they are working on that and I am committed to working with the Member and the authority to see how we could work that out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The return of policing to Wrigley is piecemeal; there are slow baby steps; they do have two dedicated RCMP officers, yet they’re located in Fort Simpson and the plan is to eventually relocate them to the community of Wrigley. That’s the type of solution, that’s the type of creativity I’m looking for from the Minister of Health and Deh Cho Health and Social Services. Let’s start by dedicating a nurse to the community of Wrigley, and it does not have to be a resident nurse at this point but at least pay attention to the needs of Wrigley and pay attention to the needs of the residents of Nahendeh. Will the Minister work with Deh Cho Health and Social Services and work towards that creative solution? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Health and Social Services has been as creative and diligent as the policing service has been, because that is exactly the same model that Health and Social Services use. We understand the RCMP cannot be in every community but they do provide services, which is what Health and Social Services does.
I can advise the Member that there are right now four nurses that serve the communities of Wrigley, Trout Lake, Nahanni Butte, and Jean Marie River. The Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority have been working on a proposal to enhance services for those small communities. That includes Wrigley. It will see a strength in services so that we can do a lot more work on chronic disease management and health prevention and promotion as stuff the nursing services can provide. I have discussed this with the Member and I look forward to continuing to work with the Member and the board to see how we can do that.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I do have one more solution for the Minister. By having a dedicated nurse for Wrigley does improve the services for the rest of the communities in Nahendeh. Will the Minister work towards that and do that for our residents?
I don’t disagree with that. I do think that having a dedicated nurse for a community would be helpful for the communities. Right now the Deh Cho authority, like many other authorities, have a high vacancy rate in nurses. They have somewhere up to 30 to 40 percent vacancies in nurses. Like all the other authorities, they look at the pool of nurses available and have to share them around the authorities so that everybody in that area gets the nursing service. But they are working on a proposal to enhance nursing coverage in small communities including Wrigley, as the Member has stated in this House on many occasions.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice. Yesterday I had the opportunity to raise a couple of issues with him. The first one I want to talk about is the idea of locating a federal penitentiary here in the Northwest Territories. Yesterday the Minister stated that because they were dealing with the courthouse issue and had to set some priorities, they weren’t able to get to this idea that I had brought to him a while back.
The courthouse project has not been on the capital plan at least for the past two years, so I’m trying to make some sense of the Minister’s comments. I’d like to ask him why we haven’t, as a government, had any preliminary discussions with the federal government on exploring the possibility of locating any new federal corrections institutions here in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular area, we get direction from the Legislative Assembly and the priorities and goals and objectives of this government. I didn’t see any penitentiary within the goals of this Assembly. There are other priority items, priorities of the Northwest Territories and the communities such as community policing or other community programming. Those are the areas we focus on. Mostly on community policing, the Community Policing Program. Those are the areas that we’re focusing on. The areas we feel we can achieve and we have to date achieved those goals and objectives. Whether it be a penitentiary institution, that may be five or 10 years down the road that we may see a light. At this time we went after the short term and have achieved it.
As a government I believe we have to be searching out opportunities. I disagree with the Minister. Here’s an opportunity to get some real economic development in one of our communities here in the Northwest Territories. I’m talking 300 jobs, multiple families with the possibility of moving to the Northwest Territories, increasing our revenue stream, business opportunities, contract opportunities for businesses. This is something the government has to pay attention to. They have to have some vision, they have to have some passion, and they have to have some vigor. They’re low when it comes to any of those things. They’re letting opportunities pass us by and I’d like to ask the Minister when he will have that discussion. If the Minister’s not going to have that discussion, when will the Premier have that discussion with the federal government? If we don’t make our own opportunities and pursue them nobody’s going to do it for us.
If it is the will of this Assembly, I will be more than willing to present that idea to the federal government. But I haven’t heard much from this Assembly if this is a priority for this government. If it is, then I’d like to know from this Assembly. Then I can put a bug in the federal Minister’s ear that this is of high importance for the territorial government. I haven’t heard that to date. There are other pressing issues that we certainly are dealing with. I feel that we need to tackle more of those small issues that we can certainly achieve.
Like I said, if we don’t pursue opportunities, there are other jurisdictions in this country. I know Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario are very aggressive in pursuing opportunities. You can rest assured their Members of Parliament and provincial Legislature are out there beating the bushes with the federal government, looking for the federal government to invest in their provinces. We’re not doing that and I think this Minister has to have that discussion. It’s not going to cost us anything to write a letter or sit down with that Minister of Justice and talk to them about the possibility of a penitentiary here in the Northwest Territories. That’s not setting aside any of the other priorities of this government; that’s sitting down with the Minister and discussing the opportunity. That’s what I’m asking the Minister to do. I can’t speak for the rest of the Members of this House, but 300 jobs in an economic opportunity like this is something I don’t think we should turn our backs on because of other priorities.
With the federal government and their own initiatives, we don’t know if this is on their radar. At the same time, if we’re going to build this kind of facility, we’re talking millions. Those millions going through the communities, such as preventive programs that we currently are pursuing, we are again achieving those successes to date. Community policing. We’re talking about an institution here that could be in the far distance, down the road. At the same time, we have to listen to what the federal government’s goals and objectives are for the Northwest Territories. When the opportunity comes up, sure, I can ask the federal Minister if there’s a plan for that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, we wouldn’t be using our own money. It would be a federal penitentiary. A federal institution, much like I’ve asked this government to go to Ottawa and demand that those 800-or-so-odd jobs that are located in Gatineau in Ottawa that pertain to northern development are located here. It’s much the same as asking this government to go to the federal government and demand that more military jobs are located here in the Northwest Territories. It’s the same thing. It’s not our money. So how hard is it to go and ask for it? That’s my question. When will the Minister write a letter to the federal Minister of Justice asking them what their plans are for building a new penitentiary in this country and whether in fact we can register our interest in locating that here? It’s not going to cost us anything. I’ll give him the 42 cents for a stamp.
Fifty-eight cents. We have to keep our priorities straight here. We have two detachments that are coming: Wrigley and Gameti. Those are my first priority as a department of the GNWT. Penitentiary is over here possibly. We have to consult with the federal government if they’re willing to do that. My focus is on two detachments and I’m going to continue to push that until we see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s coming. Those are our priorities for this Government of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
