Mr. Speaker, an interest we always have as the Government of the Northwest Territories is seeing a successful venture happen and the benefits staying in the North. As we develop this and bring this back to Members, we hope we can lay out how it’s coming together.
One of the issues with the P3 process — even the federal government and other jurisdictions have had to wrestle with this — is that a true P3 would put the majority of risk on the private sector. As a government we would have to see how far we go that way. One of our exercises in our last initial round in the late ’90s, I believe, was to try to pull some of that control back as a government, and that skewed the process a bit. Again, as we come forward with that, we’ll be glad to share with Members what work has been done and continue to work to revise it.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would concur that with the P3 projects, whether it’s the Deh Cho Bridge or the Taltson Hydro Expansion or whatever it is we’re talking about, certainly our government has taken the majority of the risk. Therefore, I think we should be in a position to make up the rules. I’d like to ask the Premier if he would also agree to try and engage northern industry in any policy that’s developed, to ensure we have something very concrete when it comes to maximizing the benefits to Northerners through northern participation in any major capital infrastructure project.
Mr. Speaker, for any changes we’ll make or look at making, we’ll be sitting down with Members to look at what work has been done. At that point we’d be prepared to expand that further to our business community and people across the North. We need to sit down and come up with a bit of an action plan looking at where things are coming together, sharing that with Members and then discussing the next steps from there — much the same process we will be following with the Business Incentive Policy work.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of ITI. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I spoke of the fact we have had diamond mining in the Northwest Territories now for over ten years. I feel it’s long overdue that we take a look at our policy, our objectives and a strategy to deal with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. As we see other jurisdictions across the country — Saskatchewan, Ontario and perhaps Quebec — developing potential diamond mines, there’s a great risk that these other jurisdictions are going to pass us by.
The first question I’d have for the Minister is: why can’t the Government of the Northwest Territories get access to the 10 per cent of rough, and why does it need to be 10 per cent? Why can’t we look at even 15 per cent or 20 per cent and set up a diamond exchange here in Yellowknife instead of Antwerp or London?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With regard to access to diamonds, since the diamonds were first discovered the diamond industry has been one of the big success stories for the Northwest Territories. We’re now third in the world in production of diamonds, behind Russia and Botswana. We’re even ahead of South Africa. Part of the issue is that we are a territory, so the federal government owns the resources.
The problem we had as a government was how to receive benefits from the diamond industry itself. The government of the day was able to successfully negotiate with the diamond companies, which was unprecedented at the time. Since then, we’ve seen that other sovereign countries have started to follow the process we’ve been taking.
The industry provides 10 per cent of the allocations for manufacturing in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, my fear, again, is that we don’t have — and I know the previous government got rid of it — the Diamond Division at ITI. I’m not sure exactly why that happened. Here we are on the verge of other jurisdictions developing mines, and we need to review where we’re going with diamonds and with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. Again, I don’t understand why we can’t get that 10 per cent and then divvy it up amongst local cut-and-polish plants here in Yellowknife, and we could also open up a diamond exchange.
Once you have the diamonds, people will come. There are examples of this across the world: New York, Tel Aviv, Antwerp, London. If we don’t do this, it’s going to end up in Toronto, and that would be a shame. If there is a diamond exchange in Canada, it belongs here in the Northwest Territories.
The Government of the Northwest Territories’ diamond policy framework was established in June of 1999. This policy facilitated the development of a diamond manufacturing industry in the Northwest Territories. Certainly, the policy needs to be reviewed and updated. As a government we will be reviewing the current strategy. We are quite prepared to look at the suggestions that have been made by the Member and work very closely with the standing committee so we can improve and update our diamond policy.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with the Minister and the department on developing the strategy and reviewing the policies that are out there.
Yes, we are third in the world in terms of production. I was a city councillor here in Yellowknife in the late ’90s, when the gold mining was falling out and the diamond mines came in. Diamond mining does add a tremendous amount to the economy here in the Northwest Territories. We can’t underestimate that, but I do believe we should be getting and receiving more. The federal government doesn’t want to come to the plate in terms of resource-revenue sharing.
The next question I’d like to ask the Minister is: if the federal government isn’t going to address resource-revenue sharing, will the government entertain an effort to take an equity position in resource development, specifically in diamond mining?
An equity position in a diamond facility is certainly something we’re prepared to look at. We know other provinces have done that in different sectors, and this is an area we can look at. I believe it would have to involve stakeholders in the diamond industry, but this is something we are prepared to look at.
We’re prepared to look at any options that would improve and increase the benefits to the Northwest Territories. One of our primary objectives is to see the allocation for the Northwest Territories being fully utilized in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With other jurisdictions moving forward — and I mentioned Saskatchewan with Fort à la Corne and the Ontario Victor Diamond Project in northern Ontario — time is of the essence here. I don’t think we can wait another year before we develop a strategy and a plan and policies on where this government is going to go.
I’d like to ask the Minister: what is the strategy in terms of a timeline to address policy issues surrounding diamond mining in the Northwest Territories and the government’s role in that?
We will be working in the next few months or so to lay out our approach to how we will be undertaking this review and how we will be laying it out over the next year. My plan is to take this approach and discuss it further with the standing committee.
I should also point out that we’ve been working very closely with other jurisdictions that have diamonds, and we’ve been able to share the benefit of our expertise with our sister or brother diamond-producing provinces. I really think that with this review we will be able to take a very creative look at the way we deal with diamonds in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions of the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
I spoke yesterday in my Member’s statement about the difficulties encountered by regional boards in providing housing for their teachers or ensuring that their teachers have adequate housing. They have sent a letter to the Minister. It describes the need for available, adequate and affordable housing, and it talks about housing shortages, substandard and unsafe living conditions in housing and exorbitant rents.
I’d like to know if the Minister has any plans to tackle the housing problems these education boards encounter year after year.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, this is one of the key areas we are focusing on as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment: to find suitable and affordable housing units for staff, especially for teachers coming to the North. We certainly want to welcome them with open arms. One way of doing that is working with the various organizations in the community, most specifically the LHOs, the NWT Housing Corporation at the community level and the Department of Human Resources.
We are developing a strategy. I myself, the chairs of the five regional boards, including Yellowknife, and the superintendents are putting a package together for us to look at options of moving forward on a long-term basis. I believe we are making good progress for short-term and long-term goals. Mahsi.
I was very glad to hear the Minister finally mention the education boards. He mentioned a lot of different organizations and finally mentioned the boards that he is consulting with as well. That’s a good thing.
The Minister has received a letter from the regional boards, and there are a number of recommendations in that letter for the Minister. On a similar vein, I’d like to know what action the Minister is planning to take to address these suggested options, apart from meeting with these board chairs.
Mr. Speaker, we did meet with the Deh Cho superintendent, who is coordinating for the superintendents, and also with the chairs of the respective regions’ education boards. We met a couple of weeks ago. They proposed three or four options for us to consider, but we wanted to deal with the immediate issue at hand: the new recruits and the returning teachers coming to the North, especially in the isolated communities that may not have housing units.
We’re going to work closely with the Housing Corporation to identify vacant units that can be made available to the teaching staff. That is one area where we have found possible solutions. The superintendent also gave us the option of moving forward with the long-term plans. We are making progress in that area and working closely with the education boards and with the department as well. Mahsi.
I appreciate the information from the Minister that the short-term plan is going ahead. I would like to confirm with the Minister that the short-term plan is basically referencing August and September of 2008. Could he confirm that for me?
Mr. Speaker, we are wrapping up our process of recruiting teachers and principals for the North. We’re focussing on their arrival, whether it be August or September, possibly mostly in August, when they arrive before school starts. That’s a short-term solution we are identifying. The long-term solution will be in the next few years. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s good to hear, and I hope we can find a solution for housing in every community that currently has a problem. One of the options suggested by the boards in their letter was to allow regional boards to have the same authority as the local Yellowknife board and that they be given the authority to acquire and dispose of real property.
I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not this is something the department will or can consider and when we might expect to see a change in the legislation before this House.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This option was just given to us recently, so we need to sit down as a department and go over the options. Certainly, it will be presented once we move forward. There’s still ongoing discussion within my department. It hasn’t moved forward because this will be a long-term solution. Once we’ve made a decision, we’ll certainly come back to the committee, possibly the Social Programs Committee, that deals with our ECE department. At that point in time we’ll certainly be sharing that information with the committee. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since it’s our last day before we sit again in October, I want to use this opportunity to question the Minister of Transportation on dust control, because in October we won’t have to worry about it.
The Minister has heard many times from myself and my colleague from Mackenzie Delta on the need for dust control on the Dempster Highway. I’d like to ask him if those decisions to apply dust control are made at the regional level or from headquarters.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Regarding the issue of dust control and some of the issues on the highway transportation systems, certainly the regional offices have some say in terms of moving projects forward. They certainly come up to the headquarters level. At the headquarters level we have discussions in terms of funding allocations and priorities in the areas where we have to look at reconstruction. From there we make decisions, and we provide that back to the regional office in terms of the projects that go forward.
I’d like to ask the Minister if the regional office does submit budgets to headquarters, and in those budgets do they earmark particular money for dust control.
Mr. Speaker, the Member is right. The regional offices submit certain projects to go forward. When it comes to the headquarters level, we certainly have some discussion and forward that to the regional office for approval of certain projects based on funding requirements and priorities in our transportation system across the North.
Obviously, the Minister has heard our concerns in this House. The travelling public in the Beaufort-Delta have expressed their concerns to us, to the Minister, to the regional office. There’s a disconnect somewhere; somebody is not getting the message, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to ask the Minister if his department or headquarters would direct the regional operations to earmark a particular pot of money for dust control, so we can have more than 100 feet of dust control on the Dempster.
I have driven the Dempster; I know what the Member is talking about. I certainly made the deputy and the regional office aware. We have set aside a certain amount of money in each of the regional operations. They forward their requests and know that the regional office in Inuvik has indicated it’s very high on the list in terms of the issue of improving the dust-control budget.
We have increased the budget based on his recommendations — not to the amount I know the Member would like us to. However, I made it clear to the deputy that I would like to see the Dempster Highway receive more of the dust-control revenue. It’s a major reconstruction, so I made it very clear to the department that I’d like to keep the focus on this issue — as the Member has talked about — on the Dempster Highway, in terms of dust control.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a concern, because I’ve seen rocks flying. I’ve seen rocks exploding windshields. It’s a serious concern to the travelling public of BeaufortDelta.
The Minister stated that the department does allocate money for dust control. I’d like to ask the Minister, just in closing, if his office monitors the amount of money that is spent on dust control, and the amount of work that was done on the dust-control situation on the Dempster.
Mr. Speaker, I share the concern with the Member, because as I’ve said, I have driven the Dempster Highway. I know what the people there are faced with.
We certainly monitor our dust control in terms of the Dempster Highway. We’ve continued to increase the budget. I would like to see the budget increased to satisfy the people who drive the Dempster Highway. I’ve again asked the department…. If we were to find some additional dollars, I’d certainly like to have the Dempster Highway looked at as one possibility in terms of putting money into it to deal with the dust control.
Just for your information, dust control up there for the North is very expensive. We’ve estimated it at $5,000 per kilometre, as opposed to the southern parts of the Northwest Territories, where dust control on gravel is about $1,500 per kilometre. We have to somehow deal with some of these costs.
I do share the concern with the Member and look forward to working with him in terms of how to deal with this issue.
Thank you, Minister Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement where I spoke about ignition interlock devices. A constituent from Fort Simpson recently advised me that Alberta is instituting theirs beginning July 1. In the 15th Assembly I did raise it in this House with the Minister of Transportation then. I’d just like to know how much work is being done with the ignition interlock device issue within our government and within the Ministry of Transportation.
The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, the Member has raised a very good point. The Member has also spoken very strongly in terms of this issue.
Certainly, safety is our number one concern. I want to say that we’re working on a program called the problem drivers program. We are looking at implementing this program, building the business case for it, and one of the components is the ignition interlock device. We’re coming to the point now where we’d like to see if this program could be implemented in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you very much. I’m very glad to hear they’re seeking not only that but other alternatives. I’d just like to know once again: how soon are they looking at implementing such a program? And do interlock devices require separate legislation, or will they be including that in any amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act?
The ignition interlock device — we certainly want to implement it as soon as possible. Our department right now is building a business case in terms of federal regulations and our Motor Vehicles Act amendments. We’re looking at all of this. Hopefully, we’ll have this together, and hopefully, we can implement this program as soon as possible.
Certainly, we’ll notify and work with all the Members in terms of how soon we can get this device on the road. We look forward to discouraging drinking and driving on public roads for the safety of our people.
I’m just concerned that if the department puts it off too long and tries to encompass the many, many changes that are contemplated for the Motor Vehicles Act, they’ll just push the date back for this. I’m just wondering if they’ve examined the possibility of doing separate legislation just for this alone.
With our assessment in putting forward a business case, it is the department’s view that if we can do it as soon as possible without other types of amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act, we will certainly do it. We’ll look at our existing legislation and look at how soon we can implement this program. I believe we can do it as soon as possible.
Certainly, we’d get back to the Member in terms of putting this program in place right away so that we will discourage drinking and driving and keep our roads safe.
If the Minister can provide any of the details he’s talking about, or any documentation, that would be helpful to me and my constituents. Certainly, he’ll have my support in moving this forward too.
