Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In August 2012 I went to Fort Reliance and met a retired RCMP officer named Garth Hansen who was looking for a lady that had saved four kids from a burning fire way back when he was a member in Reliance and Lutselk'e about 50 years ago.
Today I would like to pay tribute to this one amazing hero that he was looking for. I speak of Celine (Nataway) Marlowe, the wife of George Marlowe, the mother and grandmother of many in Lutselk'e and other communities in the Northwest Territories.
On New Year’s Eve 1960-61, Celine, before she turned nine years old, saved the lives of four young children from a house fire in Snowdrift/Lutselk'e. This act speaks of the kind of person Celine is today. Celine acted bravely and is a true hero. Today there are people walking around Lutselk'e because of this act of bravery.
Celine received the highest honour awarded for bravery in the Northwest Territories issued by the RCMP. Celine was the second person in the Northwest Territories to receive this award since 1993. The other person is now on the Nunavut side.
On January 14, 2014, the retired RCMP officer that nominated Celine, Garth Hansen, who was at the RCMP station in Lutselk’e/Snowdrift or Reliance at the time of the house fire, actually was stationed in Reliance and then was in Lutselk’e during Christmastime. Along with some high ranking officials from the Northwest Territories, including the chief superintendent and two of the other high ranking officers, gave this award to Celine Marlowe. Presented by the RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to Celine (Nataway) Marlowe for her dedication and bravery in rescuing Peter Abel, Dorothy Abel, Gilbert Abel and Raymond Abel from a disastrous house fire which destroyed Joe Fatt’s home on New Year’s Eve in 1960-61 in Snowdrift, now called Lutselk’e, on the north arm of the Northwest Territories. Her immediate response encouraged a nine-year-old, actually before she turned nine, to save the lives of her friends and brought great credit to her community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Itai Katz who is one of my constituents from Tsiigehtchic. I’d like to welcome him to the gallery. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Chief Edward Sangris of the Yellowknives First Nation, Detah. I know he’s got a very busy schedule, so it’s great to see him in the House today.
I had the opportunity to meet Itai Katz from Tsiigehtchic just before session here. That was the first time I’d met him. I welcome him to the House. Of course, he’s the spouse of the famous Alistine Andre. I’d like to recognize her. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Jim Thomas was born at 2 Island, 32 miles below Fort Simpson, on February 25, 1924. He has lived all his life in the North, from Fort Chipewyan to Fort Providence to attend the residential school. In the 1940s he worked underground at Ptarmigan Mines until he was transferred to Con Mine. Later, in the 1950s, he also found work on the drilling rigs when oil companies were exploring for oil and gas. In the late 1950s, he was working on building the road to Kakisa.
In the 1960s Jim called Hay River his home. He worked in many different capacities, as a firefighter, a captain on an NTCL tug boat, to a corrections officer and a fisherman on Great Slave Lake, but the land would always have his heart, and that is where his true talent shone.
Jim's sense of humour for everything in life always brings a smile to people who know him.
In the 1990s Jim became very involved in the Dehcho Process. After the West Point First Nation got recognition of band status, he sat on council as an elder at the local level and as an elder advisor to the Dehcho leadership table. With all his wisdom, he shared what he learned as a child to the leaders then of the treaties and what they stood for.
I am happy to recognize Mr. Jimmy Thomas on his 90th birthday. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment replied to one of my questions by stating: “If there is an asbestos issue, then we would be proactive and work with the Department of Public Works and Services and put in mitigating measures to deal with that. At this point, it hasn’t been brought to my attention if it is an issue.”
I’d like to know, since my exchange with the Minister of Education last week, if the Minister of Public Works or any of his departmental officials supplied information to the Minister of Education about asbestos in the Moose Kerr School. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the information has been exchanged between officials of Public Works and the Department of Education. The assessment of Moose Kerr School did not identify any asbestos-containing materials. Thank you.
I will continue my questions to the Minister of Public Works. Last week the Minister of Education mentioned that a major renovation was made to the Moose Kerr School in 1999. A number of upgrades were subsequently made to the school between 2008 and 2012.
I would like to know if any asbestos issues were encountered in any of these upgrades. Did these upgrades include abatement or mediation of asbestos-containing materials? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Several years ago some officials were inspecting the school and they had identified materials in the crawl space of the school that they figured could possibly be asbestos. The department took a closer look with experts and determined it was not asbestos in that basement or in the crawl space of that school. That was the only place it could have possibly been identified. Thank you.
As I mentioned last week, as well, most of our buildings, their life expectancy is 35 years, yet Moose Kerr School is 45 years old. When will this school be replaced? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In the 20-year assessment as we assess all our assets and determine which one would be moved to a five-year capital plan, Moose Kerr School in Aklavik has been identified for a major renovation or a complete replacement in 2019 and we’ll make that decision as we get closer to that date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Were there any other contaminants found within the school premises? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I have information that we were looking for asbestos-containing materials. There was none of that. If there are any hazardous materials or asbestos identified as we look in other areas of the school, then we will go through the regular process of identifying that to the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today about community policing and police presence in all of our communities, I would like to direct my questions to the Minister of Justice. Communities in southern Canada have their own police force. Tell me again, if I didn’t already know, why the Northwest Territories, if not RCMP, cannot have some kind of policing presence in our communities currently that do not have a police presence.
When we have no police presence, it falls to other people to fill in that gap. It falls to band managers and people who are respected in the community and it puts a great deal of stress on other people and it is not an ideal circumstance. I would like to ask that as my first question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue to work with communities on providing a service to the communities. There was the Aboriginal Constable Program. We didn’t get enough applicants. The program was supposed to run at Depot in Regina in 2013. There weren’t enough applicants. That program has been reworked. There is an intake that’s supposed to happen early, I believe, in 2015. We are hoping to have a couple of applicants from the Northwest Territories enter that program.
We have to also look at opportunities with each community. We try to make a policing model for each community in the Northwest Territories and make things work by working with community leaders. We’ve had some success in Tsiigehtchic, we’re going to try to get members to stay in the community overnight. I mentioned yesterday, in response to some other questions during the mains review of Justice, that there are other communities here in the Northwest Territories where that may be a possibility. We will continue to look at creative ways to try to get more police presence into every community in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
The Minister mentioned an Aboriginal Constable Program for which there was not much interest and that these individuals or candidates would have been able to train at Depot.
My question to the Minister is: Would these Aboriginal constables or these graduates from the Aboriginal Constable Program, would they have been able to offer policing services in communities, stand-alone, without the presence of an RCMP officer? Thank you.
We currently have four of those positions in the Northwest Territories in four different communities across the NWT, but no, they’re there to observe and monitor and act as a liaison with the RCMP and report activity to the RCMP and monitor the situation as it happens. Thank you.
So, I gather from that answer that these constables work in conjunction with existing RCMP detachments. So they do not go to the issue of what I’m talking about here today, and that is communities, the number of communities in the Northwest Territories who currently do not have any police presence. So I’ll ask the Minister, has the department, has our government ever considered some form of auxiliary police department in the Northwest Territories that could be stand-alone outside of the RCMP in these small communities? Thank you.
Thank you. On April 1st of 2012 we signed a new 20-year agreement with the RCMP for services here in the Northwest Territories. We also are working closely with our counterparts in Nunavut and the Yukon on First Nations Policing. It’s a federal program. We’re hoping to have some success by working in a pan-territorial approach to try to get some funding for First Nations policing. We’re hoping for the best with that as well.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In no way am I suggesting that the contract we have signed with the RCMP is not a good thing for the Northwest Territories. I believe that they provide a wonderful service and that should continue, but because of the regulations that came about, partially due to some of the unfortunate incidents that took place, one of them in Hay River and another one in Nunavut, the rules around having single-member detachments changed greatly. So we are bound by the rules that regulate the RCMP.
I’m not suggesting that the RCMP be replaced in any way. I’m talking about how we can get some form of police presence into the small communities where we currently do not have an RCMP detachment. If that means working with the other territories to come up with another level of policing, then we need to do that. I’d like to ask the Minister for more detail on what that model would look like. Thank you.
Thank you. I agree with the Member. I think it is time to be creative. It’s time to try to find a way to get a police presence in communities across the Northwest Territories. I’d be more than happy to get some additional information for Members on the First Nations policing work that the department is underway with the Yukon government and also with Nunavut. There have been discussions in the past by the former Minister of Justice and discussions will continue into the future. We’ll get that information.
Again, it’s very important that we look at creative ways and means, whether it’s through the Aboriginal Constable Program or First Nations Policing, or opportunities in some of our other communities to overnight RCMP officers in those communities. We have to do everything we can to ensure that there’s a police presence in communities that we can provide a presence in. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address my questions to the Minister of Environment today. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has had an understanding that ENR had offered support for a community caribou hunt. Yet, despite numerous requests, there has been no response up to this time. It’s getting close to the end of the season here.
Will the Minister honour the commitment made to support the community hunt for the Yellowknives Dene and Detah?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of ENR, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been ongoing discussions. That offer has been on the table. Within the banned zone for the Bathurst, we’ve allocated 150 tags and there is a continued offer to assist the community with the hunt outside the banned area. Thank you.
Thank you. Everything sounds copacetic, but that’s not the message I’m getting. I’m wondering if the Minister would get on the phone as soon as we’re done here.
The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has been cooperating with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on recording the number of caribou they have harvested. Since 2010 the basis of this partnership has been an interim harvest agreement initially for two years and then extended for a year. Has the department signed an extension to this agreement for this year and, if not, why not? Mahsi.
Officials from ENR and my office upstairs are tracking the discussion here and they will be following up, as the Member has suggested. There have been a considerable number of meetings between the officials in ENR and the Yellowknives and they have been unable to come to a satisfactory agreement.
In the meantime, ENR has set up the processes to hand out tags and authorizations so that, in fact, the Yellowknives can take advantage of the opportunity to harvest 150 animals in the banned hunting area. As well, we’ve talked about a broader arrangement. We’ve just had a big Bathurst Management Herd Advisory Board meeting here in Yellowknife last week. So the intent is to come up with a way to do this, just keeping in mind that this is fundamentally still a conservation of wildlife protection issue and we are very interested in trying to resolve that with the Yellowknives. Thank you.
I am very sad that the Minister has not come to an agreement and, in fact, would move independently, given that this is a government-to-government relationship we’re speaking of.
The Yellowknives Dene First Nation recognizes that Bathurst caribou need extra careful management and has cooperated with the department in this respect for several years. The leadership of the Yellowknives has not agreed to a tag system this year, yet the department is unilaterally issuing 2014 tags with the chief’s signature on them.
Why is the department disrespecting the leadership of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation in such a blatant manner? Mahsi.
Thank you. I’m aware of the assertion of ENR handing out tags with the chief’s signature. I have not received that confirmation from ENR. The whole intent was, of course, to respond to the very many requests we’ve had from the Yellowknife members to be able to go out and hunt in the restricted area and we’ve done that, keeping everybody fully apprised of that interim step. Our preferred approach of course is, as the Member stated, we’d like to have an arrangement with the Yellowknives, same as we have with the Wek’eezhii, and hopefully have them fully involved in the development of a Bathurst Caribou Management Plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you. All I can say is, huh? The Minister just said that in fact he was issuing tags and now he says he’s going to check with his people to see if they’re issuing tags. The Yellowknives Dene have offered a reasonable alternative to the tag system. They’ve offered to hunt up to 150 caribou and report back when that limit has been reached.
Why has the Minister rendered Bathurst caribou even more vulnerable by not accepting this entirely reasonable alternative to the tag system, or at least work with this Aboriginal government to come to a mutually agreed upon plan of action as this government always professes to do?
Let me be clear. We have and are handing out and have handed out, I understand, 150 tags, authorizations to Yellowknives to hunt. What I was talking about was the assertion by the Member that we were doing it somehow with the chief’s signature on the authorization. That particular fact I haven’t had confirmed from ENR.
We want to work out an arrangement with the Yellowknives that involves ENR, that involves monitoring, that involves a coordinated, cooperative effort to oversee this process as opposed to just having carte blanche and we’ll check back with you and trust us we’ll take care of it.. We want to have something like we have with the Wek’eezhii Board and which we have in other regions, as well, which is a much more coordinated, integrated, cooperative approach.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back on orders of the day; item 5, I believe it is.
---Unanimous consent granted
It might get me into trouble not to recognize my beautiful wife up there in the gallery along with my father and my mother-in-law. I know they’re not my constituents, but they are family from Fort Providence, Albert and Caroline Bonnetrouge, and my sister-in-law, Jackie Hope. Welcome to the gallery.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Nadli.
Mr. Speaker, it’s a great honour to recognize Mr. Albert and Caroline Bonnetrouge, who are respected elders from Fort Providence. They are here to witness the proceedings of the Assembly. Also, two former constituents of mine, Jackie and Shyo.
