Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today will be to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and it goes back to my Member’s statement today where I talked about the film industry. Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement, really, the crux of it really was getting at the fact that the foundation for the film industry has certainly been planted in the Northwest Territories, but I’m not sure it’s been cultivated and grown properly. I think we still have a significant amount of potential out there to continue and grow.
So, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment what can his department do to help foster and further develop the film industry here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this Member is trying to win an Oscar. The department has provided some limited funding through its SEED program for filmmakers and other larger projects. In the past, we’ve dealt with on an ad hoc basis, depending on the benefits that would accrue to the Northwest Territories. Otherwise, we would direct them to the National Film Board of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like to thank my supporting cast in this expose, my thespian, the Minister McLeod. Mr. Speaker, the issue really is about not just attracting issue, but it’s equally weighed with helping to develop the industry. Now, we have some very dedicated and, I’m going to stress, significantly talented filmmakers here in the Northwest Territories, but without the types of resources, which are very expensive, it’s very difficult to get off the ground. In the recent example I talked about, Ice Pilots, they had to bring everyone up from the south to do the work here, and they couldn’t do the editing and developing of the product. It all had to go in raw form back down south. So, Mr. Speaker, it’s that type of support.
Does the Minister foresee that the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment can find ways to help develop the film industry here in the Northwest Territories so we can attract not just business but people too? Thank you.
We’re committed, as a department, to undertake a review of the possibilities for expanding into NWT filmmaking. I made a commitment to your colleague Mr. Bromley the other day that we will be undertaking a review and we will be reporting back this spring. I have asked the Department of ITI to provide us with some recommendations. I think that other provinces and territories do provide incentives and we’ll see how they’re doing. Here in the Northwest Territories, as well, my colleague, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, does have programs through the Arts Council. There is $500,000 available through that process. We have a number of other programs to fund northern performers, northern theatre arts, northern library arts, northern film and media arts, new arts membership, cultural projects and so on. So there are a number of programs there as well.
But I think that, as I said before, whatever we come up with, if it’s seen that there are benefits, and we’ve looked at it in the past where most of the benefits were short-term and left the North. But, as I said, I believe times have changed and if there are significant benefits, then we would have some recommendations that we can look at this spring. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister highlights a financial pot and by itself it does sound quite significant. I will acknowledge that. But the problem is a lot of people are coming to the table, and when they all split up the pie it ends up being very small, and that industry does need some serious focus to help keep it moving forward and to continue to develop.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister has been, or I should say it sounded pretty clear that he made a commitment to review the program as what we offer for the film industry, but I’d like to ask the Minister specifically, what does Industry, Tourism and Investment do as a department or even through their tourism marketing leg to market the Northwest Territories as a venue to attract the film industry. Thank you.
Right now we currently have the NWT Film Commission, which acts as a liaison and provides advice to prospective filmmakers. This year we’ve responded to 215 e-mail inquires and 303 phone inquiries. We also are having NWT Film Week at Canada’s Northern House, which will run from March 15-19. As the Member indicated, we have contracted Western Arctic Moving Pictures to help with those who are interested in doing films and we think that through the exposure to Canada’s Northern House that there will be a lot more interest in filmmaking in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with all those inquiries the Minister has talked about, I think that’s a significant milestone in the sense of showing that there is attention on the North as a marketable option for people to do this work. The issue really comes down to are we actually getting them here to run those cameras, get those actors acting and the film crews filming. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to hear if the Minister, recognizing that there seems to be interest in the North, would he work, in his review, to help develop a program just like made in the North. Perhaps we could develop a format, be it tax proposals, a support system, and we could call it filmed in the North, because that could help launch a new avenue to draw investment money, workers here and certainly good business for our North to develop film. Thank you.
Those are all the elements that we would look at in the review and also in developing recommendations. I think we have to be careful if we start trying to get into a race to the bottom with B.C. or Ontario with regard to tax incentives, but again, I think that with specific benefits to the Northwest Territories and we can look in those areas and, certainly, we’ll probably try to focus on existing NWT filmmakers. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My oral questions are for the Minister of ECE. I’m having a little bit of trouble understanding some of his replies to my questions in regard to yesterday’s Member’s statement. They just don’t seem to add up. What I know, Mr. Speaker, is my CA received a call this morning from the Beaufort-Delta superintendent, Mr. Roy Cole, at 9:30 this morning. According to Mr. Cole, he has reported anything new to the Minister; that the situation remains the same in Sachs Harbour. Where is our Minister getting his information from, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my department works closely with the Beaufort-Delta education council and we get information directly from them. The information we got from them is exactly what I quoted yesterday. There might have been a miscommunication, but that’s what we received. We do have a superintendent who continues to have a discussion on this particular issue, as well, between our department and also the Beaufort-Delta, to deal with the one outstanding student that I referred to yesterday and how we can work with those students and then continue on our dialogue where if some of the students are comfortable going to Ulukhaktok, so those are the arrangements and the options that we’re gathering. Mr. Speaker, the information that we gather is through the education councils. Mahsi.
Thank you. Well, myself, Mr. Speaker, at 9:30 this morning I got an e-mail from my CA telling me that Mr. Roy Cole called and he didn’t report anything to Minister Lafferty either. BDEC executive board met and nothing has changed for Sachs Harbour, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when will these students get their teacher they require to finish their academic year, since nothing has changed? Thank you.
Mahsi. Again, it is at the Beaufort-Delta Education Council level. Again, we provide funding to them to provide teachers to the students. We provide operation maintenance to operate the schools, to look after the students based on enrolments. That’s what our funding is based on and if the students happen to drop out of school for some reason, then it is the responsibility of the Beaufort-Delta because the funding is allocated to their board to deal with those matters at hand. As the Minister responsible, I am responsible to make sure the act is in place where the board of education is following the act. So, Mr. Speaker, when it comes to hiring teachers, it is at the board level. Mahsi.
Thank you. The Minister stated yesterday that the information he had was accurate and from the superintendent. This does not seem to add up, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain what was he trying to accomplish by stating these things yesterday that just didn’t make sense? Thank you.
Mahsi. With this outcome, we can certainly clarify what’s truly happening. It’s just a matter of making calls to the superintendent or the board level and reconfirm where the students are at, but at the same time, the Member is asking for an additional teacher in the community to what was required based on their funding. It will be at the board level to deal with those eight students that have been brought forward to our attention. Mr. Speaker, yes, we will clarify the matter once and for all. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could share that information that he did read out yesterday to me in the House in regards to the stats or where he got that information from and that the Beaufort-Delta education, Mr. Roy Cole, the Beaufort-Delta education superintendent says nothing has changed, Mr. Speaker. I want to get to the bottom of this, I want to work with the Minister and his department to make sure everything gets properly allocated for these eight students that supposedly nothing has changed. Thank you.
That is exactly what we’ll get out of the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Transportation and I’d like to thank both the Minister of Transportation and Finance for the package of information on the Deh Cho Bridge that we received the other day. It was comprehensive and there was a lot of information in there, which Members have been asking for.
I spoke about the bridge last week and in my statement I asked for two things. I asked for an analysis of the costs, how they were accumulated from inception until now, and I also asked for protocols for the future. My first question to the Minister is in regard to the bridge project’s estimates and the costs to date information that was contained in the package of information we got the other day. I didn’t see any obvious reference in either of those two items to what I called “hidden costs” in my statement, and by that I mean the work that’s been done by GNWT staff, the Department of Transportation, Department of Justice, Department of Finance. So I’d like to ask the Minister where do those costs show up in this summary that we received the other day. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The costs that were incurred by our government that were not directly charged back to the project I’m assuming is what the Member is referring to. Those are one full-time position and another part-time position and, of course, there are other people within our government that have worked on this project. Those costs are not included, as the Member stated, as part of this budget. Those costs are outside of the project costs. These are all calculations that would be charged back to the project and we don’t charge back our staff positions to the project at this point. So it won’t be included as part of the estimations.
Thank you. That goes to my point, when I call them “hidden costs” I was not impugning that anyone was hiding anything, but these are costs which are not all that easy to itemize. The two PYs, yes, they’re obvious, but then there are many other bits and pieces of costs in various departments and that’s what I’m talking about. I’d like to know if the Minister can tell me approximately what kinds of costs the GNWT is incurring for staff time that’s been spent on this project, and that would be from after October 2007 election until now. Thank you.
Thank you. I suppose we could calculate that. That’s not something we normally do on our project is divide a person’s time up into how many projects he’s got and assign a cost to those specific projects. This is a normal course of duty. We can certainly try to get some calculations together. It would entail some effort. We have a lot of people that may have worked on one portion or another on this project, but we can certainly have a discussion to see if we can get that together in a fairly short order, if that’s what’s being requested. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I do appreciate the commitment. That is what I’m asking for, is some kind of an approximation of costs which GNWT has had to endure for this project over and above the actual costs of the construction and the management of the project. So I am looking forward to that information.
My next question has to do with chargeback and the Minister has mentioned that many costs are charged to the project. These GNWT staff costs I presume are not charged to the project and I’d like him to confirm. I understood that the $15 million we just approved is going to be paid back to GNWT through tolls. Will these GNWT staff costs also be paid back to GNWT through tolls over time? Thank you.
We don’t have any projects that we charge back government services. The people that are working on these projects are hired to do those jobs and, no, they’re not included in the toll recovery. The $15 million does not include the two positions or the position and a half and things of that nature that are right now part of regular duties. So I guess the short answer to the Member is no, it’s not included in the $15 million. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that clarification. So I guess I have to then ask, this is a P3 project, you know, the cost for the project is now $181-some-million, but is it normal that in a P3 project that the public partner is going to encounter and endure and have to undertake extra costs over and above the actual cost of the project? Thank you.
There’s a P3 arrangement in this case and, yes, there are responsibilities assigned to different partners. In this case, we did charge back a lot of what the government has to have incurred, including all the different components of responsibility, but the two people that we have assigned are a position and a half that we have assigned directly to this position. We have not included and we did not agree anywhere in the concession agreement that we would charge it back. That’s the rationale for why we’re doing it the way we are. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my statement earlier today with the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I want to start by saying I was happy to see the Biomass Strategy, but I did note that it was pretty high level. Many actions noted in it were actually started years ago, but of particular concern is there were no targets or plan or basis for evaluation other than sort of a feel-good general review after 18 months from now.
As we’ve seen in Europe, the marketplace became the driving force in the shift to biomass energy after government actually placed some ambitious and mandatory targets for greenhouse gas reductions. So any kind of targets give a strategy some teeth and some basis for evaluation. So what are the Minister’s plans for leadership to actually establish targets with a schedule to be achieved? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This whole initiative going into year two is a major undertaking. We recognize that the Biomass Strategy is at a high level and as we work through our various energy plans, as we review and redo our Greenhouse Gas Strategy, as we look at all the other components of our Energy Strategy, that the debate and decision-making that’s going to take place with regard to standards and targets is going to flow from that. Thank you.
That’s kind of my concern. We’re three years almost into our mandate here and yet we’ve got a lot of debate to go before we actually do things. So I’m pretty concerned here. The Minister notes, as anybody could have noted in this strategy, that cross-departmental efforts are needed, but again there is no mechanism for merging community engagement which is called for with private enterprise and Public Works and Services’ considerable experience now in a pilot test approach to distribute a biomass energy project in each region. So I’m wondering what is the mechanism for that. There is no indication. It’s a lot of work and hopefully the thinking has been done, but what is just that one mechanism for getting that going? Thank you.
In case I hadn’t mentioned it, we are committing $60 million to this initiative. We finished year one. We are moving into year two. We are committed to community energy plans. We are also working very closely with all the other strategies within government. We are looking at government itself doing a significant number of retrofits. We are growing the market with biomass, with our efforts, with the communities, within government retrofits, within the private sector. We’ve also started discussions and planning in terms of inventory to see what type of biomass industry could be sustainable and what’s the best structure for that; is it regional or should it be territorial? So I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that we have a lot of pieces on this chessboard and a lot of them are in play and there’s a lot of work being done and there is $60 million of government money being put to this initiative to move it all forward. Thank you.
I’m glad there is a lot of work being done and I’m glad to hear that assurance. I’m just trying to pull out some of that work here, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister realizes, from his comments, that it’s an enormous task, but I’m trying to get at how far along are we at all. What is the quantity and the volumes of things we are talking about? How many furnaces do we need to change over and where are those targets to be established? So what work is actually underway to get down to the brass tacks on what the specifics are on this challenge and its opportunities? Thank you.
Once again, the Member and I are aiming for the same goal. I have been suggesting and saying right from the start that, yes, we have to do these broad strategies. Yes, we have to have that long and intense debate about targets, standards. In the meantime, we should be doing things on the ground and we shared the information with the Members about the dozens of initiatives that Public Works has taken in its mandate for retrofits. We are doing some very innovative things with ground source heat pumps. We have initiatives with wind, we are moving on the mini-hydro with Lutselk’e, in addition to the mass amount of work I think we are doing with biomass. We are getting things on the ground.
People in the residential sector are buying into this process. In the industrial sector, they are too, because a lot of the big buildings are government buildings. There are contracts that go with that. We started the work to look at the secondary value-added industry with biomass production. So we’re trying to hit all these initiatives on the go, but we want to get things on the ground and I believe that we are doing that.
Just on the government ones alone, we showed the thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas savings and the savings in terms of actual dollars that will be put into a revolving fund that will allow for the retrofits to continue. So I think we can demonstrate in almost every sector that we have work underway as we still try to do the broader planning. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t want to take away from the work that we are doing. As enormous as the Minister makes it sound and as modest as I feel it is, I don’t want to take away from that. I will note that we have a 10 percent reduction target for the GNWT, which is one-twelfth of the NWT. One-twelfth times one-tenth, that’s one one hundred-twentieth of the greenhouse gas emissions in the Northwest Territories. So it’s pretty modest. We know that’s way out of date and typically small. So I’m hoping we are getting going on that strategy
Let me just say, will the Minister commit to bringing forward a multiyear costed plan for consideration prior to the next business plans with real targets that can be evaluated from year to year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As he talks about our modest efforts and what he sees as miniscule goals and targets, we do have a project, just one project that I’ll point to which is the Taltson Hydro Project that could reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent. We know we are already saving thousands of tonnes just with the work the government has done, let alone all the things that are going to come into play. We’ve committed to and we are going to start the process in April 2010 to renew the Greenhouse Gas Strategy with a full intent to have a final product by April 2011. It will speak to a lot of the issues the Member talks about. As well, we will look at the second edition, basically, of the Biomass Strategy and is refined and is more practical in terms of its application. Those issues the Member talks about will be addressed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Time for question period has expired. Item 9, written questions .The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to return to item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
---Unanimous consent granted.
I appreciate the indulgence of the House. I was so excited to have a visitor in the audience earlier that I forgot to thank my Page. I would like to express my appreciation for Mikelle Wile who’s been here serving with us for the last several weeks. Thank you.
