Thank you, Premier Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Sometimes when important meetings are called about such issues as the caribou, it’s very important to people in my region here. It would seem that it would be a given that the Minister of at least ENR or another Minister attend this meeting with some heavy discussions here. Again, it’s called meeting some of the needs of our people here. I would ask again if it’s a policy of this government or Cabinet can be looked at and see if future meetings can be attended by some of the Ministers as a standard policy.
First and foremost we are putting in place the relationship that we have with regional leaders. Mr. Bill Erasmus is involved in that by notification of our meetings, the agendas and so on. We have been, for example in Lutselk’e at that Dene Assembly there, attended with a number of our Ministers, including myself. When we’re given enough notice, we try to be as flexible as possible and we’ll continue to do that. I’ll sit down with the Dene national chief, Bill Erasmus, to talk about a process we can set in place and that hopefully he can provide us enough lead time so we can work on making sure we have appropriate representation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Colleagues, I’m going to request that you consider keeping your questions and answers maybe a little bit shorter. We’ll be lucky to get eight Members to ask questions at the rate we’re going today so… The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I gave a Member’s statement on Mr. Maurice Lockhart. It was interesting that at the time of his passing Maurice Lockhart was doing repairs and painting his house. I have questions for the Minister responsible for Seniors.
Mr. Speaker, in many of our aboriginal communities it’s very common for elders living in their homes. However, when it comes to assistance, sometimes the assistance comes very slowly. Can the Minister responsible for Seniors tell me if there are any discussions with other Ministers to ensure our government provides the seniors with expedient and quality service? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the questions. Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to be the Minister responsible for Seniors and I do deal with issues that deal with seniors that goes across the government. But when it comes to administering programs and delivering services to our people, whether it be in income security or in housing or in health and social services and other areas, each department is responsible for delivering those programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to developing a protocol where there is regular dialogue with other Ministers on seniors’ services and seniors’ issues? Thank you.
Yes, I would be happy to look into that. We do, as social service Ministers, or social envelope Ministers have met and we do meet, but with the Strategic Initiatives committees under Building Our Future, a lot of our work falls under that, so we’ve been doing that work under that committee. But I will be happy to undertake this task and work with the Member as the chair of the committee to see how we can refine this process. Thank you.
It’s not a health question. Mr. Speaker, another major concern, however, is health. Can the Minister tell me if she has developed some sort of strategy to ensure that the seniors in our small, isolated communities are given the best possible and timely care? Thank you.
Seniors issues and the provision of services in Health and Social Services for seniors is not just a small issue in a small community, but it’s emerging as one of the biggest challenges that our government faces and will continue to face. It is a big area of work and task and challenge that the department is working on. So I think in coming days we will be discussing more on that. So I want to put that out there and specifically to small communities, yes, we continually work with the communities, regional health authorities and every partner to deliver and improve our services to seniors. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to working with the other Ministers on creating a centre for seniors programs to create sort of a consolidated approach to assisting the seniors to decrease any delays for services to seniors? Thank you.
I believe an issue similar to this was looked at before, and I’d be happy to share with the Member and the committee on that front. Mr. Speaker, I think in making sure that our seniors get the services they need, whether it’s housing, transportation, health and social services, income security, whether it’s the tax provision or income deduction, I think the fastest service is delivered when an issue comes up. It’s dealt with at the department level right away, and it’s something that we do. All the Ministers do that on a daily basis and, obviously, we could continue to work on improving that, but, yes, we do that. That’s our core business. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, and it’s on caribou. I want to follow up and get some more details on what’s transpired to date. But I’d like to start by asking how could this have happened. Obviously, dropping from 400,000-plus down to 32,000 is a tremendous decline, and I understand that happened over a period of time, that we clearly have responsibility here for that management. How could this have happened and are we capturing that to ensure that we learn and do better from now on? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to be briefing committee at the rise of the House and we have a lot of detail to share with the Members. But I think the big key point is I don’t think there is one particular reason you can point to. There is the human impact, there is the climate change, resource development, increased roads, accessibility, permafrost, insects, changing rain in the middle of winter. There’s any number of issues. I think one of the big points is that the human impact is probably going to be more significant than ever before in the past where there’s been the cycles and this time it looks very serious, but we are working to understand this and capture all those variables as best we can. Thank you.
I think it’s clearly important that we do that. I didn’t really hear harvest mentioned as a factor, but many of us that were hunting in the ‘90s clearly remember the big two-ton trucks of caribou, 150 animals in a truck, heading down the highway, and expressed a lot of concern without any action being taken. I hope that’s included in the thinking on what caused this.
But moving on, what support was received during consultations prior to establishing the hunting ban through consultation with aboriginal governments and co-management boards? Thank you.
The Member is correct; the harvesting, the more the numbers dropped, the greater the impact of the harvesting, especially if harvesting levels stay the same as when the herd was healthy. In a state of decline, if we don’t affect those numbers, the impact is significant.
This whole process, Mr. Speaker, keeping in mind your caution about short answers, initially it was going to be worked through the Wekeezhii process, with our report to them with our recommendations, ourselves and the Tlicho Government. The dates that the Wekeezhii Board were able to do things moved, and as we got into December we recognized the need for measures, because there wasn’t going to be a report in time to get a response out in a timely manner, and we started the compressed process to consult with all the aboriginal groups to be ready to have some recommendations in place by the end of December.
I appreciate that response. Given that Yellowknife, Ndilo and Dettah are right in the middle of this quite large geographic area that is now closed to hunting, what opportunities do the Yellowknives and other people have to harvest caribou or other alternatives so that they can replace the caribou meat that they’re missing? Thank you.
There are two key things that are available. We’ve made the offer in the Tlicho and with the Akaitcho and the Yellowknives to work with them to go to access some of the caribou in a controlled way, the Ahiak and the Bluenose-East, that we would work with them and assist them to do that, recognizing that these herds are under stress themselves, but we think we’re able to be able to manage that kind of harvest. We’ve also adjusted the bison tags so that both the Tlicho and the Akaitcho have access to a greater number of bison tags over the interim period. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question really is recognizing the important intents and emotional issues that are being raised about aboriginal rights in response to the hunting ban. How will the Minister ensure that the conservation of the caribou is front and centre through all of this, recognizing that those are important issues as well? Thank you.
Our whole initiative is predicated and has been initiated by the recognition that we have a wildlife emergency and it’s a conservation issue that has to be addressed over this hunting period. That recognition and acknowledgement are keeping in mind the respect and can lead to respect the aboriginal rights and treaty rights and rights to hunt. But our fundamental obligation is to look after the wildlife; in this case, the Bathurst herd. Those two are linked and our rationale is that there was a gap here. There is an emergency. The hunting season had to be addressed. We took these very measured and carefully considered steps. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and the local housing authority.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that we need policies. We have to set policies so that the good folks who work in our local housing authorities have guidelines by which to go, and the boards who also serve as volunteers in our communities. They have guidelines by which to deliver the housing programs. But, Mr. Speaker, sometimes the situation arises which calls for some kind of discretionary decision making, which I encourage. I think we should put that kind of decision making into the hands of our people. The problem being that we must have policies, as well, because once you open that door of discretionary decision making, it can go far afield and afar awry if it is not handled properly, that kind of authority. But, Mr. Speaker, too many times I hear on certain policies that there does need to be some common sense applied. I would like to ask the Minister responsible, is there a policy in place now that would allow people at the local authority level to apply for a waiver, for a variation of a policy to accommodate a certain housing need in a community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as I know there is not an actual policy in place, but the Member is right, there are times when some common sense decisions need to be made. As a corporation, we are going to have to take steps to ensure that the LHOs have the authority to make decisions like this when the need arises and not make it as widespread as the Member mentioned. Thank you.
What happens sometimes is the LHO makes a decision within the policy guidelines, the constituent is unhappy, they go to their MLA, their MLA goes to the Minister, and then from the Minister’s office goes a decree of some kind to address the situation one way or the other. It can be demoralizing or demeaning to the authority who has been given the decision-making mandate to then have the Minister dictate down to them. I would rather see a policy in place where the people of the LHO can appeal either to the Minister or president or somebody so that request comes from them when they see an opportunity to vary a policy in order to accommodate a constituent. It is a subtle difference but I think it is important to the people on the front line. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is something that we will have to try to put together so the authorities… And I hear the Member’s point, because we do get a lot of calls in our office, folks across the Territories that aren’t happy sometimes with some of the decisions that are made. You can’t fault the LHOs, because they are following policy that is set out by us. If there are opportunities to make small changes to policy that will give them that ability to have some flexibility in some of the decisions they make, then maybe appeal to headquarters or appeal to the Minister too, in certain cases, then that is something that we should have a serious look at. Thank you.
Some of the areas that I know, from having been an MLA for a long time, which come up are issues around residency, emergency shelter issues, issues of rental arrears and perhaps very, very old outstanding arrears for damages, situations where a senior may be in a home, in a subsidized housing unit and they temporarily need someone to stay with them who may be working but they need their support and care in the home for some reason. Those are the kinds of things that are real life kind of human issues, and yet I don’t want people to feel that they have to go through a big appeals process, that they have to go straight to the Minister’s office. If they could have that established working relationship with the LHOs and the local boards and they could reason with them and then have the opportunity for the boards to advocate for them, I think it is much better if the policy could incorporate those kinds of issues. Could the Minister respond? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we are always looking for ways to improve policies and update them to meet the needs of residents. Some of the feedback we get from the Member goes a long way to bring some of these policies forward. That is something that we can do to improve the service to the clients, is to incorporate some of the changes mentioned by the Member, then we will take that into consideration. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
I just want to be absolutely clear that as Members we are all about accountability, policy and process. I just want to make it absolutely clear that my comments or questions today in no way are meant to be disparaging toward the good work of the front-line workers and the LHOs and also to the people at the headquarters in the Housing Corporation and the hard work that they do. I just want to be very clear that this is just something about just making it work a little better. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I didn’t hear a question there. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about the Mackenzie Gas Project.
I have been a Member now for over six years. I know the government has put a tremendous amount of resources into this project from a staff perspective and also monetarily. I think the government is on the right track. The Minister is on the right track. I know he is doing some good things. I agree with him. I don’t think we can allow anyone to underestimate the importance that this project has to our economic well-being going forward.
Mr. Speaker, there has been much discussion lately about the importance of the federal government to provide the necessary financial commitments to see the Mackenzie Gas Project become a reality. I am wondering if the Minister is aware of the status of those negotiations between the proponents and the federal government.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to the honourable Member for travelling with me to Calgary.
---Laughter
MLA Ramsay for travelling to Calgary with me. It reinforced to the oil and gas industry executives the importance that this government places on the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline project. I think this is a very important question, because I am getting concerned that too many people think that this pipeline is a sure thing now that the Joint Review Panel report has been released. It is an important step, but there is another important step which is the fiscal arrangements. I often refer to what the United States government is doing. The United States government has given unequivocal support to the Alaska Pipeline. They have passed bills providing loan guarantees up to $40 billion for the Alaska Pipeline. It is supported right up to the White House. President Barack Obama has indicated that he likes the jobs, he likes the benefits from the Alaska Pipeline and also the safe, secure supply of Arctic natural gas. So our government has provided qualified support. Our Canadian government has indicated that it supports the project subject to an environmental review, subject to the regulatory review and subject to fiscal arrangements yet to be negotiated.
Minister Prentice before, early in 2009, said he would have a fiscal arrangement in place before the Joint Review Panel report was released. In December he said he didn’t have a deal and that he didn’t know when he would have the deal and that he would be continuing to work with the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline proponents.
So I still firmly believe that this project is very important to Canada and I believe that Canada will see it in the same way. I think that the Mackenzie Pipeline project can be a legacy to this federal government and that the negotiations are continuing. There is a Throne speech that will be coming out in March and we’re still very optimistic that the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline will receive approval.
I thank the Minister for that and it’s interesting that he cites the American experience, because there has been a reluctance here in Canada for the federal government to state that it will create a fiscal environment that would allow the project to be built. I’d like to ask the Minister how is our government lobbying the federal Cabinet to get the Mackenzie Gas Project directly on the front page of their briefing binders on the first thing they look at when they go to Cabinet meetings, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you. Our government has been very active in promoting a Mackenzie Pipeline. We have done a large amount of work outlining the significant benefits, not only to the Northwest Territories but to Canada. We pointed out to different provinces that the largest beneficiaries would be the provinces of Alberta and Ontario. Our Premier has met with the Prime Minister on a number of occasions. I know a number of our Ministers, every time we go out to Ottawa we take the occasion to talk about the pipeline. The pipeline is our biggest priority and this is something that we want the rest of Canada to realize, that the Mackenzie Pipeline has very significant benefits to all of Canada and we see it as a way to kick-start the economy, and I think that some positive messaging in the very near future would be very beneficial to the Northwest Territories and the rest of Canada.
Thank you. I’m wondering if the Minister has any indication on when the federal Cabinet may be making a decision on the fiscal arrangements with the Mackenzie Gas Project and between now and then what effort is our government going to do to get to Ottawa to reinforce the fact that we cannot go on without this project. I mean, it’s the future of our Territory economically and socially, opportunities for our people. There’s so much here at stake, Mr. Speaker, and what are we going to do between now and then to get that message out there? Thank you.
Thank you. We have been meeting with the federal Ministers. We’ve also been meeting with the oil and gas industry executives and we’ve been discussing how we can work more closely together.
One of the messages we get from the federal government is that we need to speak with one voice. Also, we’re hearing: where is the chorus of support from the Northwest Territories? They say, “what are you hearing from certain individuals or organizations that they support the pipeline,” but we don’t have the whole Northwest Territories indicating their support for the pipeline. So I think that we recognized that the next two months are probably very critical to a decision on the fiscal arrangements. So I think that’s something that we are concentrating on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister, I know he talked about not having the support here and I talked earlier in my Member’s statement about a motion that I’d like to bring forward at some point in time, but what does the Minister feel that we can do as a government, as a people here in the Northwest Territories, to get that message through to the federal government that we need this project here in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you. I think that if we can somehow get the federal government to recognize that all of the people in the Northwest Territories support the pipeline and feel it’s an important project and priority for this government and Territory, that that would go a long ways. Also, I know the 15th Assembly had passed a motion in support -- I think it was unanimous support -- for the Mackenzie Pipeline and I think that probably would only help to reinforce it if this 16th Legislative Assembly did the same. Thank you.
