Thank you. The work that we do on an annual basis around business planning and budget development takes into consideration our revenue sources, the fluctuation in those revenue sources, whether it’s own source or transfers from the federal government. We’ve had a commitment by the Prime Minister and Minister Flaherty from the federal government that the transfer agreements that have been signed will be honoured. That does not mean that dollars outside of those transfer agreements that are funds that are identified to be sunsetted will be reinvested in and those are the areas that we’re all across the country paying attention to see what impacts may flow down the line across our Territory. But the revenues, the planning all takes into consideration the flow and I’m sure Minister Miltenberger can give much detail on that as we prepare to go into the budget process itself. Thank you.
The Member from the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask some questions to the Minister of ENR, Mr. Miltenberger, in regard to the study on the Bathurst caribou herd. I want to ask the Minister has his department, along with other independent consultants, done an in-depth study on the impacts of the diamond mines that were opened up in the North part of this region in terms of seeing if that had any impacts on the migration of or the breeding or anything that has to do with the caribou?
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Work has been done to get the most accurate survey results we can for the Bathurst. Each diamond mine is required, by their operating licensing work that they commit to, to look at the impact that they have and sort of try to minimize any disruption to the wildlife in the area, including the caribou. That would take into play BHP, Diavik, as well as Snap Lake. Thank you.
Thank you. Does the department have a before and after report as to the impacts of the caribou? There are thousands of vehicles that go up to the diamond mines each year. They are doing a lot of blasting in those areas and there’s certainly lots of disruption in terms of the natural lifestyle of the caribou. Has the Minister shared that with this House? I haven’t seen a report in terms of the possible impacts of this diamond mine on the caribou.
What we know with considerable certainty is from 2006 to 2009 the Bathurst herd numbers diminished from 120,000 to the neighbourhood of 30,000. We know, as well, with some considerable certainty that there’s a considerable number of variables, climate change, resource development, hunting, ease of access...(inaudible)...species, changes to climate, permafrost, those type of things that have all combined to have an impact on the herds, not only the Bathurst but herds across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Miltenberger listed a number of factors to the decline of the caribou. I would like to know about the impact on the caribou. Does the Minister have any information in terms of the calving of the caribou? Has this had an impact on the calving of caribou?
We’ve accumulated since 2005 a considerable amount of information on nearly every herd now, with the possible exemption of the Ahiak, that looks on cow/calf ratio, bull/cow ratio, general health of the herd, calf survival, all those types of things. We gave an overview to committee earlier this week. If there is a wish for more detailed survey information, we’d be willing to provide that. Thank you.
Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We certainly did receive a briefing from the Minister and I hope the Minister would make that briefing public so we could have the public look at it. Does he have a record of all the outfitters in this area that will be impacted or have been impacted in regards to this caribou herd and the impact of the outfitters taking the prize bulls in terms of doing part of their business? Can the Minister share that also with the Members?
All the information that we shared with committee has been shared across the North, around all the involved and affected aboriginal governments, stakeholders, when it comes to the Bathurst herd. But the work done, the work that was overviewed, by the ENR staff, that’s all information that we make the point of sharing because it’s such important valuable information for making decisions.
We also have, between ourselves and ITI, a very good idea of all the outfitters and the tags that they’ve used and that information as well, I believe, has been shared. But if the Member would like us to provide that again, we would do that. Thank you.
The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t know that question period was going to be extended today, but I had so many questions after my question to the Minister of ITI after I sat down that I have to ask more questions. His answers actually gave me more questions. I am still shaking my head, because when you look at the royalties issue and the federal jurisdiction on oil, gas and minerals, if that was an argument not to help find power supplied to keep secondary processing over the rare earth minerals in the Northwest Territories, then we wouldn’t put any money into the pipeline, we wouldn’t put any money into the diamond mines. I mean, I don’t even know how much, if you had to add up how much money this government has spent to try and get benefits from the diamond mines, the efforts that they made, because it still benefits, it’s still employment, it’s still industry, economy. It’s still all those things in our communities. So that thing about federal jurisdiction and royalties is still stuck in my mind here.
This is not a good answer. We’ve got an opportunity here. Of course, we can’t compete with what Saskatchewan might offer in terms of power, but if the processing is done in the Northwest Territories versus Saskatchewan, there’s the whole savings of hauling all that product, hauling all that ore, someplace else for processing. I mean, that has to come into the play of the discussions and the negotiations.
But, Mr. Speaker, this is a mine that has a potential life. I mean the diamond mines. I have no issues with this government supporting industry of any kind; the non-renewable resource sector, please don’t misunderstand. I have no issue with this government supporting industry of any kind, the non-renewable resource sector. Please don’t misunderstand; I have no problem with money being spent in it. But now here’s an opportunity for some of the communities that have been on the periphery of some of these big... The pipeline’s not going to flow through Hay River. The diamond mines are not going to be in Hay River and Fort Resolution. We need something; I’m sorry. Part of the country. I need to hurry up here. Given the projected life of the rare earth minerals, the opportunity there, I hope that the Government of the Northwest Territories can have a say in whether or not we can provide economic power to that processing plant. Would the Minister agree with me?
The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I agree with most of what the Member said, but I would like to point out that the comparisons with the diamond mines, the reason we focus on value added is the fact that that’s the only way we can get benefits from development. The royalties go to the federal government, so if we want any benefits, we focus on the value added. With the diamond mines, through the environmental assessment process, we got the regulators to agree with what we were doing to provide for value added. I expect we would do the same thing with the Avalon project once it goes for regulatory review.
Now, what has been talked about with Avalon is they are looking, in addition to the mine, that they would have a hydromet facility in the Pine Point area. That would provide for something in the neighbourhood of 50 jobs plus a whole bunch of investments. My understanding is the communities of Fort Resolution, Hay River, and Fort Smith have already given their support to this project. What we need is a business case. We need to know what the benefits are and with that we can come forward and get the necessary approvals so that we can support it.
In order to diversify our economy I think it would be great if we could have a project where we could sell rare earth minerals and lithium and all of these kinds of minerals. Certainly I’m very pleased that the Member is supportive of our government investing in those kinds of things. When it comes time to identify resources, that would be very helpful.
Avalon Ventures’ Thor Lake Project environmental assessments, a lot of that work has already been done. It happened very quietly, but much of that work has already been done. I think it’s up to our government to invest the resources. When we see an opportunity, we have to be proactive. We have to create that business case for why we should be supporting this.
Going back to the previous set of questions, the Minister answered that in terms of the excess power generated at the Taltson now, the Minister said something. I want to know who has jurisdiction over it. Is it NTPC? Has it been turned over to some other entity? I want to know who has jurisdiction over that excess power.
And here’s another thing. The Minister said something about we can’t hold power or reserve power for something that might come to fruition. Well, if we’re holding that six megawatts for the diamond mines, isn’t that exactly what we’re doing? I didn’t really understand that and I’d like clarity on that.
The NWT Power Corporation owns and generates the power. What I was talking about was, based on the current schedules, it’s basically who comes first.
What is being done currently today, as we speak, to be proactive as a government to look at the potential economic benefits of the Avalon Ventures play at Thor Lake to have this Territory recognize the maximum benefits from that project? What is this government doing right now to put together an assessment of those benefits?
We’ve been involved in a number of meetings with Avalon. We have sent a representative to a conference in Washington on the benefits of rare earth minerals. We are looking at their energy requirements. We will be co-hosting a conference with CanNor to discuss the value-added opportunities.
So rare earth minerals are something that’s fairly new. We don’t know a lot about all the different value added, but we will be working with the federal government to identify value-added opportunities and, of course, we’ll be working with Avalon as well.
Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that we need to take a very similar look at the rare earth minerals as we did with the diamonds. They weren’t mining diamonds in Alberta or Saskatchewan at the time that we got into it here. I don’t think that they will find a deposit such as has been identified here in the Northwest Territories in any other jurisdiction any time soon that I’m aware of. So we have a unique opportunity of something that is located in the Northwest Territories that I would like this Minister to commit to the House that we will place the same emphasis and priority on maximizing benefits to Northerners from that resource as we have on diamonds and other natural resources in the Northwest Territories.
I’m quite prepared to commit to that because we do that as a matter of course. Certainly this is an area where we want to see development proceed and certainly we’ll work very hard to make this happen.
The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I was speaking to the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding some services and medical travel services that we send people to Edmonton. Of course I’m going to stay away from specifics because I know there is a small group of people. That said, I don’t want to try to identify them for privacy reasons, obviously. But there seems to be a bit of a number building that people go out for the specialized medical service. I’m wondering what the process is for the Department of Health and Social Services to start saying we should be bringing these specialists up and holding clinics here in Yellowknife and start tracking that process.
The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Generally speaking, there is constant review and monitoring of services that we need in the Northwest Territories, especially in specialist services. Often they are sent out if the services are not available. If there’s a possibility that benefits could be had by having the specialists come up, then that is also done. So that’s an ongoing, day-to-day business that the Stanton Territorial Hospital and the medical professionals and the administrators engage in.
I appreciate the Minister trying to stay away from specifics as well, only to avoid identifying the individual constituents, because there are only a few. She says there’s an ongoing day-to-day process. What type of strategy does the Department of Health and Social Services have, say, for example, if we’re always sending people to Edmonton to get an ear checked, a specialized service? Or for example, if we’re always sending people to get an eye specialization. Those type of things. What type of monitoring process do we have set up and organized that someone tracks this and says, well, we’ve sent 23 people out to 23 different individual medical travel processes and all to one doctor. Does the department make recommendations up through the system and say maybe it’s time we start bringing this doctor here to the Northwest Territories and providing that service? Do they have that type of process? If they do, would she provide me with some information as to the layout of that?
I’d be happy to make that commitment to provide the Member with what process is followed in reviewing special services.
The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to conclude my questions on the Joint Review Panel report to the Minister. We’ve heard some of the questions that my colleague Ms. Bisaro has raised and so on; the 3 percent cap in the future. Many of the items in the recommendations are costly to the government: establish landscape thresholds and limits of change, arrange management plans and monitoring for Barren Land caribou, grizzly bear, polar bear and so on, land use plans, timber feasibility studies, training programs, drug and alcohol abuse treatment programs and facilities, et cetera. Often very tight time frames to respond and get these things in place. Very costly. So I’m wondering if this government has initiated discussions with the federal government to start nailing down some of those extra resources. The 3 percent cap we’ve got for next year and on into the future, how does that relate? Related to all this is, will this be part of the discussions with Minister Strahl this weekend?
The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those are all good questions that need to be answered and that we’re going to be considering. No, we’re not anywhere near ready to have talks outside of government. The work is barely a couple weeks old and we have a lot more to do.
I understand that. They have a very aggressive time schedule and I’m hoping we’re able to meet that. These are big questions and we’re going to have to be light on our feet here. Thank you for that information.
Does our government intend to participate in the National Energy Board final argument public hearing on the Mackenzie Gas Project scheduled for April 2010 in Yellowknife and Inuvik? If so, again I’m wondering how we will be involved.
The reason I’m asking these questions beyond the time frame is the order of events that happen is critical through transparency. I think the final deadline for government response is something like June, whereas the public has final arguments in April. So it’s essential that we give the public the opportunity to participate in our response or perhaps request that the public have another opportunity to participate and respond after government responses have been submitted. For now, though, do we anticipate participating in those public hearings in April?
The government was involved in the process up to this point and will continue to be involved fully in the process as we bring it forward to conclude the regulatory process.
So I will anticipate that the government is planning to present their positions in the final arguments at the April public hearings. I’d just like confirmation on that. Thank you.
Yes, the Member can anticipate that.
The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a couple questions for the Minister of MACA regarding the freezing of the issuing of leases out in the area of Banting and Walsh lakes. This is an issue that the Minister is quite familiar with. He had met with several members of Yellowknife to hear the concerns of our constituents about squatters out there causing problems with people with legitimate leases who have applied for them properly, waited for the approval process, and then built their recreational properties. The freezing of any potential lease applications I think is a good step. I know several Members had brought that concern to the Minister and at the time the department wasn’t interested. I’m certainly glad to see that they are following that certain request to help develop a plan out there for recreation saturation, et cetera. At the time several people, there were a few incidents of squatters out there and I thought the government’s policy was that if you had a squatter out there who was not an approved lease, I think is the proper term, they had to remove their cabin or establishment and then apply. But as I understood it, they were either waived or told to just apply and don’t worry about removing your temporary recreational property. In the freezing process of issuing leases, has the Minister caused the squatters to go back, remove their recreational camp or cabin, and have them apply for the process fairly like everyone else did and then build after that?
The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was an opportunity for those who were out there squatting to legitimize their leases. That was the Interim Trespass Enforcement Strategy. But we’ve withdrawn that now and we are taking measures to deal with the squatters out on Commissioner’s land.
If I heard the Minister correctly, he’s suggesting that the government is enforcing that the squatters now remove their recreational facility, if I may define it -- I don’t know what they put out there -- and had them go through the normal channels like everyone else. Is that the case? Because that is the concern from constituents in Yellowknife Centre who have cabins out there.
They were given an opportunity to legitimize their leases. We had a lot of people come forward and do that. The ones that didn’t, we are taking action now to deal with them. These are folks that don’t have the land tenure and were just putting their buildings anywhere out there. We are taking steps to deal with that. This is part of the new recreation policy framework that we’re working on that should take steps to address all these issues.
It sounds like good news. I just wanted to be clear on the squatter problem. Does the department have a zero tolerance policy on the squatter problem? So in other words, if someone builds a cabin out there, the stance from the department is consistent and clear, which is that person or family has to remove that cabin then apply and then see where the application goes at that time. Or do they just let it sit there and say, apply, we’ll figure it out and if your application approves, we’ll leave you alone?
Our primary goal here is to have all the folks who are considering putting buildings out there to have land tenure and then that would not be an issue. Those that do not have land tenure we are taking steps to address that and deal with the situation.
