Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Inflation is at a three-year low. Why? Because of cheaper gas prices across Canada, everywhere but the Northwest Territories. The Canadian Consumer Price Index is saying that it is at its lowest since 2009 in January. Why? Because of gasoline prices, yet again everywhere but the NWT.
I visited the fuel pumps this week, like many Northerners, and we all continue to experience the high prices of gasoline here in the Northwest Territories. Since raising this issue almost four weeks ago, Northerners keep telling me that they feel like they’re at the mercy of the local market controlling the gas prices, which are truly not reflective of what should be considered fair market price. Northerners, like all Canadians, are willing to pay their fair share, but are Northerners being taken advantage of?
I’m not a fan of needless, useless, continuous government regulation, but we need, maybe, regulation in this particular case to ensure that Northerners are protected and are defended from price poaching.
Gas prices in Saskatchewan dropped almost nine cents. Almost 7.5 cents they were lower in Alberta and that led the country. They’re dropping everywhere but the Northwest Territories. How much longer do the people of the Northwest Territories have to be held victim or hostage to gas poaching?
In short, we need consumer protection that speaks for Northerners, that protects, Northerners because we cannot allow this any further. I again stress that regulation may be the answer and it’s important that the government steps to the plate, leads by example, and shows that they are interested in protecting Northerners. If they are not, who knows who is, because I can tell you that gas sellers are not.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two Pages from Hay River North: Nadia Wood and my niece, Sherisse Bouchard. Also in the gallery is my sister-in-law Leslie Bouchard, who is their guardian for the week.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I’d like to welcome all visitors in the public gallery here today. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of ENR regarding the fracking technology that will possibly be used in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister regarding this technology what the Environment and Natural Resources baseline data information he’s using to measure the impacts and quality of land, air, water, animals. What type of information does he have to look at the types of impacts that fracking could cause in our region?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government’s working collectively to assess the potential impacts of fracking. We’re working, and have involved the committee, to pull together guidelines and best practices. We intend to come forward in the next couple of months with what we think are guidelines for consideration as it pertains to fracking. We’re working, as well, to establish baseline information on groundwater, surface water, wildlife habitat issues working with, of course, the Environmental Research and Studies Fund that exists. It is funded partially by industry. We want to pull all this information together. This is not going to be a short-term commitment, it’s going to be a longer-term commitment as we look at the potential in the central Mackenzie Valley.
The oil companies are very encouraged with the Canol shale play in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister, within the next couple months, I believe even by next month, there might be possibly an application going in for horizontal fracking in the Sahtu. The Minister has talked about the long term. Is there anything in the short term between now and the application that has reached the regulatory boards? Is this information going to be sufficient for us to judge it on the merits of this procedure?
Every application, as far as I’m aware, has to do in their area some initial drilling to set a baseline so they know exactly what is going to be taking place in the ground beneath their feet. There are processes the application will have to go through and we will see what is contained in the detail of the application. It will go through the appropriation processes and the determinations will be made in due course.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the process of the application for fracking does go through in the Sahtu possibly next month, possibly this summer, do we have enough protection for the people of the Northwest Territories, protection for the people in the Sahtu region that we could withstand the test of the application saying yes, we have the baseline information? Can the Minister assure me we have the baseline information on the animals, the water, the air, the things that need to be to ensure our lifestyle will remain intact, even if we go ahead with the fracking?
I can tell the Member that we’re hard at work putting all the pieces in place, doing the proper groundwork to make sure we have the procedures and practices that are necessary if horizontal hydraulic fracturing is going to be considered and contemplated, and to get ready for the use of that technology.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the application for the hydraulic horizontal fracking would be, of course, the application. Is our government going to wait to see what type of information the application is going to be calling for, or are we going to go ahead and say, well, we have to look at the baseline for the water, quality of the air, the animals? I’m trying to get a sense that we have a good stance in terms of responding to the application that when it does come through, it is coming through.
We have been hard at work on this now for well over a year, gathering information, doing our planning work. We’ve had meetings with the National Energy Board. There is a clear recognition that we’re coming into a territory where there are some gaps in terms of groundwater, surface water and wildlife data that have to be made up. Each project will be looked at on its merit as we continue to do the broader required work in terms of gathering the baseline data.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow-up to my Member’s statement earlier today and are addressed to the Minister of Public Works and Services. In May I raised the idea of providing space in GNWT buildings for the display of artist products supported with government policy. The Minister said he thought this was a great idea and that he would work with his colleagues and have conversations with some of the local artist organizations to gather their input. Could the Minister inform us of his progress on that work?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Glen Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I still think it’s a good idea, and to that end we’ve actually formed a working committee or working group that consists of Education, Culture and Employment; Industry, Tourism and Investment; Transportation; as well as Public Works and Services. We’ve had a number of meetings. We had some meetings prior to Christmas, where we actually had some input from art organizations in the Northwest Territories. The most recent meeting, trying to put together a plan – and Public Works and Services is taking the lead on the development of a program or policy – was just last week or the week before, February 12th. I don’t have the information from that last meeting but what I’ll do is I’ll get a recent or current update and provide that information to the Member and committee.
Just to remind the Minister, he didn’t say good idea, he said great idea. I just want to keep things going there.
As we know, a brand new GNWT office building is going up right here in Yellowknife. One of the things taken into account in the design of the building is, or should be, the design of viewing spaces. This is established practice in Europe, integrating culture into public life. The new office building presents an ideal opportunity to develop and implement the policy while ensuring a start on rolling this practice out across our facilities.
Will the Minister commit to pursue and complete this policy soon, identifying the physical space requirements, beginning the arrangement with producers that need to be put in place and making this happen at our new building?
We plan to have this policy done long before the building is open. Interestingly enough, it is a great idea. I will stick to great.
In talking to some of the arts communities, different ideas were brought forward. One of the ideas that was brought forward was, rather than having dedicated space for a hanging or painting, it may be better to bring in screens that have rotating art on them so that we can see carvings, paintings, many different art forms on a rotational basis. That means we’ll get a greater degree of artists being presented on a regular basis. We can do things like this in airports, in other areas where we have screens available. We’re just trying to work out some of the details that will actually create the greatest amount of awareness and the largest number of artists that we can support. If we stuck with just a painting on a wall that just rotated every once in a while, the number of artists who would get exposure would be far less.
So we’re very excited by some of the ideas being brought forward. As I indicated before, as we move forward, I will certainly bring that information to the Member and committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. The Minister had some great ideas there. It shows the value of consulting with the artist, which I very much appreciate.
Concerns were also expressed that such an arrangement would create competition with art retailers, and I supported checking with businesses to see if they had a problem with this art display opportunity. Clearly, the government would not be selling the art.
In his early effort to develop the policy, has the Minister consulted with our business organizations to solicit their feedback and learn whether this would be a good promotion or a problem for them? Mahsi.
I will get back to the Member on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had some questions that I wanted to address in terms of one of our priorities in the 17th Legislative Assembly, and that deals with investing in prevention and education and also enhancing our addiction treatment programs. Really, we only have one treatment program in the Northwest Territories and that’s on the K’atlodeeche First Nation Reserve. I wanted to talk to the Minister in terms of what he is doing, just get an update of where we are in enhancing those treatment programs, and also looking at existing infrastructure in the Northwest Territories that will be able to provide such services and programs for those in need.
Can I ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, has he identified, to date, any existing infrastructure in the Northwest Territories that would be suitable to operate as an addictions treatment centre that would provide the adequate and appropriate programs and service for those that are suffering from addictions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are waiting on recommendations from the Ministers’ Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness. We do suspect that one of their recommendations may be to place an additional treatment facility somewhere. Once we get their recommendations, if that is one of the recommendations, we will weigh those against the current treatment centre we have in place and then move forward from there.
I’m glad the Minister has mentioned that he’s waiting for recommendations from the Ministers’ Forum. With that said, would the recommendations from the Mental Health Addictions Plan, the recommendations from the Beaufort-Delta meeting Building on our Foundation, Regional Dialogues, 2010-2011, the budget dialogues from this year, would those recommendations not say the same thing, and why are we waiting when I’ve got one, two, three, four, five, six reports here that say the same thing? I’m just trying to prove a point here that we need to start creating action rather than continue to consult and make these reports to tell us what we already know.
I would ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he hasn’t found any existing infrastructure to date – we have a lot of great NGOs in the Northwest Territories that are doing a lot of great work in these services but they need the program and service dollars – would he commit to looking at these NGOs, partnering with them, providing them with the dollars they need, whose main mandate is to provide programs and services for addictions treatment? Would he commit to working with these NGOs and help them and support them so they can support ones that are in need? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I recognize that we do have several reports. What I also recognize is, up until 16 months ago when I became Minister of Health and Social Services, there seemed to be a lot of issues surrounding a lack of treatment to the individuals suffering from addictions. So this forum was struck so we could go out and hear from the people firsthand. I’m not sure that those reports had full across-the-board community consultation like we’re doing with the Ministers’ Forum. We do try to fit what we have into the system, but so far we are hearing some preliminary things from the forum that we haven’t thought of that aren’t in those reports. So once we get that information back, then yes, we will work in other reports, as well, to see how they line up with what the Ministers’ Forum tells us and we will move forward from there. We are almost there. We are now just entering into March and the plan is to have the report back from the forum at the end of March. Thank you.
I did make reference to reports, but I didn’t ask the question specifically on the reports. I asked the question: Is the Minister willing to work with these NGOs that are providing good services and programs on a very stretched dollar? Would he be willing to work with them, provide funding dollars so they can provide more adequate and appropriate services for those people that are in need in the regional centres, here in Yellowknife, and doing the work in the NWT? Would he commit to working with the NGOs… Not work with them, support them financially so they can provide the services. I’m not asking him to work with them, but provide them with the appropriate resources so they can deliver these programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
If additional financial resources are going to be issued to NGOs that are not currently in the budget, we would have to go back through the business planning process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask one quick question here. The Minister said that he was waiting to hear back from the forum. I just want to know if the Minister is familiar with the Health and Social Services Regional Dialogue, 2010-2011. Can he just answer yes or no? Does he see the recommendations and directions that came from all the regional communities in the Northwest Territories, because he says he’s waiting to hear those recommendations. Is he familiar with any of these dialogues, yes or no? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services a question regarding nursing in Wrigley. I know when he was a Regular MLA, he certainly supported my cause in putting a nurse in Wrigley during the 16th Assembly and that was much appreciated. Now that there’s increased demand for it, will the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to re-examining and reopening the nursing station in Wrigley? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will commit to re-examining the possibility of having nursing services in Wrigley. Thank you.
I guess it involves working with the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority. Just moving forward to the next step towards that commitment, I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services to examine it and can he commit to research it to see what kind of resources we need to establish nursing services in Wrigley.
I will commit to researching, working with the Deh Cho Health and Social Services, to see exactly what type of medical services are needed in Wrigley, specifically nursing services, and get back to the Member on what is needed.
Mr. Speaker, the last time I went down this road, our government gave all kinds of reasons not to establish nursing services in Wrigley. I think here I was using the point that there is extra development and extra impact on the community of Wrigley because of the development in the Sahtu. That alone makes the case that we should examine the need for nursing in Wrigley. Can he also include the impacts of development on Wrigley in his assessment? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, yes, we will look at the impacts of exploration that’s happening in the Sahtu on Wrigley when we examine the need for nursing in Wrigley. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am also well aware that our budget is very limited and stressed, as the Minister of Finance is quick to point out to Members on this side. Also, I think this strategy of introducing nursing in Wrigley involves working with our federal counterparts.
Will the Minister also work with our federal counterparts to see if impact funding is needed for this development? That way, I think we can work towards getting nursing in Wrigley. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, each time there’s an opportunity for the federal government to participate in any of our medical health services, we always take the opportunity to try to work with them. Yes, I can discuss this with our federal counterparts. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
