I would suggest to the Member that if we weren’t contributing the $13.8 million that we were to cushion the rate increases over the last couple of years and the next coming years that the impact would be dramatically different, and, yes, the Rate Stabilization Fund, which hasn’t had an increase in five years, requires some replenishment, once again, tied to the cost of energy. We are continuing to do all the things that we can, both as the Power Corporation and as a government, to invest millions to branch out into alternate energy, the issues I’ve already answered in the previous question, and these aren’t platitudes. This is cold, hard cash. These are projects on the ground. These are standards that have been changed. These are projects that are meant to achieve the goals of the government and help contain the cost of energy.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister can continue to gild the lily on this problem but it’s not changing the fact that the everyday ratepayer can’t afford their power bills. People are leaving and there’s no way we’re going to attract people here to the Northwest Territories.
The last thing I’m going to say is there’s the old saying, death by a thousand cuts, and I think the everyday ratepayers had 999 of them and they cannot take one more. The question to the Minister is: He talked about the Stabilization Fund, is it not time to continue to focus in on other solutions that deliver immediate respite to the everyday ratepayer who’s just the simple, everyday working family trying to get by? Is it not the focus of the government to ensure that people can survive?
Given the Member’s concern about gilding lilies and dealing with platitudes, I would be very interested to know what specific suggestions that he would have to provide that relief that’s not already being considered or done, and we would give them very serious consideration.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement earlier today I talked about how people in the NWT are concerned about fracking, and my questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Many people are concerned and for good reasons. I would like to know: Has the Minister heard these concerns? Does he understand that people are concerned or that he least acknowledge that they might be concerned?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I am aware that there are a wide range of views about hydraulic fracturing. I’ve been a recipient of some correspondence through the Council for Canadians, for example, expressing their concern. I do read the newspapers, listen to the news, and talk to people, and yes, I have heard some of those concerns and I believe I do understand them.
Thanks to the Minister for that understanding. The petition I’ll be tabling later today, of course, signatures from at least 24 communities including all Sahtu communities and so on. The MVRMA legislation says that any agency of the territorial government can refer a proposed project to a full environmental assessment. We have literally hundreds of agencies, public health agencies, environmental protection agencies and so on, yet none of them referred the previous fracking application for environmental assessment.
Did our government issue a directive or instructions telling all agencies not to issue a referral or did each agency make that decision on their own?
My understanding in regard to the concerns out of the Sahtu about water is the concern is specifically about the water being withdrawn from fish lakes as opposed to being withdrawn from the Mackenzie. I do believe that issue is being looked at and, hopefully, will be addressed.
In regard to was there a directive from government, no, there wasn’t in regard to instructing any agency or part of government to atomically reject or not require environmental assessments of fracking.
I’m glad the Minister understands at least one of the eight major concerns that I read out in my earlier speaking today.
As we all know, devolution will be taking effect as of April 1st. After that date, will any agencies of the GNWT be permitted to make an independent decision on a proposed project or will all decisions be made by the Executive?
The intent is to have a made-in-the-North regulatory regime that brings together the regulatory authorities, both the oil and gas through water and minerals, lands, with ITI, ENR and the Lands department. We intend to be very thorough, very rigorous, and we want to coordinate our efforts. There is going to be responsibilities that require the various regulatory agencies and bodies to respond as regulators. There are going to be some requirements for technical responses. We are going to look very thoroughly at all of those project applications that come in and we will, in fact, provide that rigour and timeliness that we have committed to.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll look forward to that on time. The MVRMA gives criteria for determining when a project should be referred for an environmental assessment. I would assume that we use the criteria listed in the legislation, and I’d be happy to give the Minister a reference to that, clause 125, section 1.
I would assume that we use the criteria listed in the legislation, but to be sure, would the Minister commit to making public the criteria this government and its agencies use when deciding whether to refer a project to environmental assessment even if it’s following the legislation?
Yes, we will provide that information to the House.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up with questions to the Minister of Transportation about my initial concern for my riding and the residents of Fort Liard and reconstruction of Highway No. 7. I know that in this year’s federal budget they have indicated a new Building Canada Plan. It’s $53 billion. I don’t know that they had time to talk with the departments, talk with their federal counterparts, and see just how much of that money will be available for our Northwest Territories government in building infrastructure for our Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government, on the Building Canada Fund, has provided us an indication that they will approve $258 million for the NWT for both transportation and community infrastructure. Thank you.
That’s the exact amount of money I need to reconstruct Highway No. 7.
---Laughter
That’s great news. Maybe the Minister can detail how that $258 million will be broken up – he did indicate I think it was municipalities and transportation – maybe what kind of dialogue and is it $258 million over 10 years. How is that $258 million allocated for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it’s split between the community governments and transportation infrastructure. We have not determined that, but the $258 million has to be leveraged and they are what we refer to as 75 cent dollars so the GNWT will have to come back to the House to get our corresponding share, which would be 25 percent. It is over 10 years, so approximately $25.8 million per year from the federal government to the GNWT. Thank you.
I know that Transportation had an excellent Corridors for Canada III proposal, Building for Prosperity. That was $600 million over a 10-year period and it addressed many of the concerns in each of our constituencies and, in fact, for the whole of the Northwest Territories.
How does that funding impact our ability to follow through with Corridors for Canada III: Building for Prosperity in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Provincial/Territorial Infrastructure Fund request was for $415 million and that was the initial $600 million ask from the GNWT to the federal government. The portion that the Member speaks of where Highway No. 7 would sit was a $415 million request and we didn’t, obviously, get all of that since the entire ask to us was $258 million, so we’re discussing this between ourselves as departments, and also our infrastructure Minister McLeod has been leading some meetings to determine the split between the communities and the highways. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It certainly impacts the well-touted Corridors for Canada III plan of the Department of Transportation. I’m just wondering: What does the department have? Will the department come back for a Corridors for Canada III divided by half proposal? How is the department going to manage all those initiatives? I know we had great discussion in committee and it seemed like a great plan, but now with the reduced amount the Minister has already said he doesn’t know how much he’s actually getting because there are still discussions happening.
I guess the other question, too, if I may, is there any other highway initiative funding that the federal government has that will also help us with the Corridors for Canada III plan? Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, there is another fund. I believe its $4 billion. It’s projects of national significance and we are taking a portion of our ask and looking at it again, and we will be presenting the work that’s going to be needed to build new infrastructure and the project would be the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We’re going to be presenting that to the federal government before the end of this month. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, on the potential of Deline proving their community government initiative tonight. I want to ask the Minister, are there within the life of this government here that Deline, should they be successful – tonight we’ll hear for sure – legislation in place for them to become enacted in legislation as a self-government body?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we’re all waiting with great anticipation for the results of the ratification vote tonight. Once we get the results, we’ll proceed with the next steps. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In the Sahtu they are really excited and they hope they will hear the news tonight.
What are the next steps should the vote be a successful vote?
If ratified by the parties, a signing ceremony will be held possibly this summer of 2014 or maybe sooner. We see an effective date for the final agreement occurring in 2016. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, of course the federal government will also do due diligence on this legislation. Do we have any role in regards to working with the federal government in implementing Deline’s self-government agreement?
The GNWT is a signatory to these agreements and there are programs and services and assets that the Deline community will be taking over, so we will be participating in all aspects of those arrangements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hate to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions today, but I’ll make my questions short and he can make the answers short and we can wrap this up.
I do not have before me the statistics on the incidence of diabetes and pre-diabetes in the Northwest Territories, but I’d like to ask the Minister if this condition is on the rise in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Yes, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, how do our statistics on the incidence of diabetes and pre-diabetes compare to other jurisdictions in Canada? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, diabetes is, from my understanding, on the rise across Canada. We are not unique. Our rates increase by about 200 people a year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Does the treatment and education of people in the Northwest Territories with diabetes and pre-diabetes include an education component? Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. We have a variety of different programs that are trying to start with prevention, Healthy Families, Healthy Choices framework, a number of initiatives geared to educating people about food. I have directed the department to work a little bit more on trying to get some more information on sugar, as brought up earlier by Mr. Dolynny, into that advertising, that prevention works. But we also have professionals in Yellowknife and in communities throughout the Northwest Territories who actually provide services to the individuals, including education and helping people make positive food choices and help them control their diabetes.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That education that is provided to patients who are diagnosed with diabetes, I’m going to ask the Minister if he is familiar with the concept that came out through previous reports to Health and Social Service on the concept of centres of excellence for different types of activities within the health care system.
With this increase in the incidence of diabetes, has any thought been given to a centre of excellence for the education and treatment of diabetes in the Northwest Territories and perhaps could he consider that the Hay River hospital that’s going to be soon moved into a new hospital as a centre for something like that? Thank you.
Thank you. We are committed to working with residents on this particular issue and we’re committed to doing a number of things, including some prevention and direct supports to our residents. We have run a number of pilots in different communities on diabetes programming, but I hear the Member, it’s an interesting idea. I would love to sit down with the Member and committee and get a little bit more input on specifically what they’re making reference to and I would be happy to have some additional discussion on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Yakeleya.
