Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask some questions to the Premier in regard to the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement. In our agreements we have institutions, we have set up institutions that would bring some decision-making authority and control within the Sahtu. Now with devolution and Mr. Bromley’s questions on the environmental assessments and stuff like that, will our institutions still be restricted because of the institutions that we set up? We have set them up for a reason and for a purpose. Will these institutions still be in place or is it the GNWT’s intention to take over these institutions and not follow authorities set by our land claims?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We were participants in the negotiation of land claim agreements and we certainly stand by what was negotiated. The Devolution Final Agreement provides for non-abrogation of treaties or land claims. We have that language throughout the Devolution Final Agreement where there will be no negative impacts on those areas. Where or if it ever happens then what’s in the land claim would trump what’s in the Devolution Agreement. Thank you.
Over the years of hard work that the people have set, that institutions set out our own rights within our own land claims. Now we also have our own land in the Sahtu. Is that also in the type of response I get back from the Minister that the Sahtu people are making decisions on their own lands, through their own institutions and that’s the process that will continue? Is that what I’m understanding from the Premier?
Thank you. That’s the whole premise of the agreement under the Intergovernmental Council that the Aboriginal governments that have land claims, who are the largest land holders in the Northwest Territories – I think together they hold about 193,000 square kilometres of freehold land – the way we see it, the management regime is that each Aboriginal government would manage their own land that they own and we would work together to provide for best practices and some consistency across the Northwest Territories. Together we’ll all manage the land in the best interests of all the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you. I recall from the days of negotiating we want more land, that’s what we kind of negotiated with the two governments. So I want to ask the Premier within our land claims, the constitution, the protective document that sets up certainties, securities, institutions in the Sahtu, is it the intention of the territorial government to work with the Sahtu people through their institution to look at issues in a way that satisfies the people of the Sahtu, such as the operations of the oil and gas explorations, using the hydraulic fracking, that due diligence is followed and all the concerns that we have heard are followed, investigated, looked at and reported so that any application isn’t taken for granted, but each application would receive a thorough body of due diligence?
Thank you. We had a meeting with our Aboriginal government leaders on March the 7th where we discussed the Intergovernmental Council and the proceedings and all of the different leaders all raised some of the issues of concern to them. Certainly, the Sahtu Secretariat leadership expressed issues that they are interested in and together we’ll work to deal with these issues. I don’t recall, I don’t think fracking was raised, but there is a body through this government that will deal with it, as the Minister of ENR has indicated would be coming out with a document on that as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Premier, when does it become the tipping point for any region that outside influence will have an influence in the Sahtu region? If it’s our decision through our institutions and our land claims that we are to make decisions based on what we have set up, when does there come a point where, okay, we need to look at other areas where people outside the Sahtu will start to influence and start making decisions for the people in the Sahtu?
Thank you. I believe we’re already seeing that happen and I think that we will continue to work with the Sahtu leadership to try to work with what the people in the region want to see happen. I think that’s the way we will approach and that’s the way the land claims have been negotiated and settled on a regional basis. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in this session I brought up the issue of unresolved property damages in Yellowknife, Behchoko and Detah in the wake of an extended power outage that took place on December 29, 2013. Mr. Speaker, I brought to the floor information regarding millions of damages, which was echoed also by the media. Unfortunately, I was trying to get some more information here for the public and I was put on notice, which means I was shut down for asking more questions. So I asked the Minister to table a written response to what happened, what was the chronology of events, which was then later tabled to the House.
So, I have questions that continue that journey with the Minister responsible for NTPC on what was tabled. Clearly, within the framework of the chronology, there was some faulty equipment in this outage and that was kind of echoed also by the Minister in other dialogue that we had during this session.
Can the Minister indicate to the House here was this equipment repaired and to what cost? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If it hasn’t been all done, it will be done. I haven’t got the final costs yet.
As we indicated a month or two ago here, well, at least six weeks ago, we had millions of dollars of damage anticipated with this. Can the Minister indicate whether his office or NTPC have performed a full cost accounting on this recent power outage to evaluate the extent of the current and potentially future damage caused to residents and businesses, and if not, why?
We have looked at the impact and cost of the event, the weather event that triggered this cascading of events resulting in a power outage. We’ve had this discussion in the House. We have our policies and approaches to responding to acts of God. Where there are situations where we are responsible for because of our actions or things that have happened that come back on us, we have looked at that approach, as well, but the broad-sweeping assessment that the Member has asked about hasn’t been done that I’ve seen.
This is clearly the point of my argument here. If we don’t know what the damage cost us, if we don’t know what the damage cost taxpayers, how do we know the severity of the situation?
Can the Minister indicate if the concept of an income-tested contingency fund for disaster relief directly associated with such things as extended power outages at extreme cold temperatures has ever been discussed by this government, and if not, why?
No, it hasn’t, and because the position of the government at this point is that what is currently in place is sufficient.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Giving the word sufficient to some of the residents of the Northwest Territories saying you’re stuck with the bill, I don’t think is sufficient. Given the reported damages of almost over $2 million, and given the fact that we’ve heard that faulty equipment was to blame and that the equipment was not working properly, according to what was tabled in chronology, and given that the government has not performed any cost accounting with the recent disaster, how can the Minister sit here in the House and indicate very little to satisfy the public’s outcry for financial help? What is this Minister prepared to do to mitigate the situation?
The Member makes a lot of assertions and a lot of statements that he cites as fact. There was an initial event, a weather event that initiated the cause. We’ve looked at that. We’ve set out an extensive review to make sure we improve our services and our communication, but we have existing processes in place to deal with circumstances related to those types of outages. We’re going to continue to work on our quality assurance and our communications and improvement to services including a $10 million battery that would potentially level out and give us 15 minutes time to adjust to power outages. I can stand here quite easily to discuss those types of things which are, in fact, facts and reality.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you for recognizing me, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of Human Resources. I won’t go on at length, but we all know about the 1,150 vacancy snapshot information provided by the Minister a few days back. We also know, and I’ll remind the House, that the Finance Minister is being quoted quite eloquently about the 571 jobs they’re pursuing. Mr. Dolynny put on the record today that, of course, he made note that the Department of Health and Social Services has now suspended their human resource campaign to get more people there.
My question for the Minister of Human Resources is: How will the Department of Human Resources actively be pursuing people to fill those much needed health care professional positions that we need in all our northern communities if this government is now leaving these positions at bay? How do we fill these vacant positions and what positions are they?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Human Resources continues to work with all of the departments in pursuit of filling all of the vacancies that can be filled. We are in the stage of running through various competitions. I had indicated in the House several times that at one point when this question was asked, of the 571 vacant positions that we were actively trying to fill, we had filled 165 of them. Of course, since that time there have been more vacancies since there’s a turnover of about 10 percent, so there are new people coming in and people leaving this government all the time.
On the website it says recruitment and retention programs are being suspended effective immediately.
What is the Minister of Human Resources doing to ensure that this is not happening across the departments, across this government? Are we putting Northerners at risk? What is the Minister of Human Resources doing about this?
There are no freezes in hiring. The government continues to hire. We continue to work with the department. The Department of Health and Social Services has a strategic health Human Resource Strategy that they are working on. That portion of the recruitment team was moved from Human Resources back to Health because they are the experts themselves in filling health human resource positions. That is not something that we are doing across the board. There are no freezes by any of the departments right across government. We’re continuing to pursue to fill vacant positions.
Perhaps my interpretation of suspended immediately is much different than the Minister of Human Resources. How does the Minister of Human Resources stand there and say it’s business as usual if the website itself says, and it’s current, that it’s suspended immediately?
How is the Minister of Human Resources doing his job if he’s giving us one answer one way and the facts lay before us that say they’re not recruiting? Are Northerners put at risk? Will the Human Resources Minister account for that?
If the Member is referring to a website from Health and Social Services then that’s, as I indicated, a separate strategy. That doesn’t mean that the other 13 departments across the GNWT have suspended recruiting. We are continuing to recruit staff using the same strategies that we have in place to continue to recruit. What the Member refuses to hear is that in the last 12 months… In a 12-month period we have about 1,600 to 1,700 staffing actions, so if we’re suspending things, then how do we manage to achieve 1,700 staffing actions?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t care if it’s a team effort to answer the question. The point is the questions need to be answered, and the question is this: How many vacancies do we have out there that are not being filled? We’ve all heard this great number of 1,150 positions been vacant for various reasons, 571 actively pursuing. We have a website now that says, by the way, hiring practices are now suspended.
How many positions are out there vacant, not being pursued, and are we putting Northerners at risk whether in a big community or small community? We’ve got people fighting for people in their communities. Get those jobs out there. How many?
I don’t know that we’re putting any Northerners at risk. What we’re doing here is we’re trying to fill the jobs. I’ve explained in the House that there are various categories. Of the 1,150 positions effective October 31, 2013, they are in various categories. I could read off all of the various categories, but one of the categories that the Members were interested in was the 571 positions that we’re actively trying to recruit. For other reasons, some vacancies are there. Some are difficult to recruit, so they are filled with a casual. There are all kinds of other reasons. Some are empty positions, some are dormant positions, some are positions filled by transfer assignments, some are positions vacated by a transfer assignment, some are filled by contractors and some are filled by contract employees. There are all kinds of categories and I’ve explained that in the House. The Member refuses to hear it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE):
What is current ECE policy regarding income support clients who fail to comply with ECE guidelines? Specifically, what is the policy around “cutting off” income support to clients as a way to enforce compliance?
In the last three years, how many income support clients have been cut off from income support, for how long and for what reasons?
In the last three years, how many income support clients who were cut off had children in their care?
In the last three years, how many single parents were cut off from income support for failing to take their ex-partner to court to seek child support payments?
For comparison, in the last three years, how many clients of income support have managed to rise far enough out of poverty that they no longer required income support for at least one year?
Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Hawkins.
WRITTEN QUESTION 16-17(5):
17TH ASSEMBLY DIRECT APPOINTMENTS
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier. Please provide a current list of all direct appointments from the beginning of the 17th Assembly to today’s date, including the following information:
Cabinet approval date;
position;
department;
community; and
name of individual appointed.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition with the matter of referring any further horizontal hydraulic fracturing applications to environmental assessment.
Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 327 handwritten signatures and 463 electronic signatures, for a total of 790 of Northwest Territories residents from at least 24 communities. The petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories exert its authority from the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act to refer any further horizontal hydraulic fracturing applications in the NWT to a full environmental assessment that includes public hearings. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pursuant to Section 32(1)(2) of the Financial Administration Act, I wish to table the following document, titled “List of Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1 to December 31, 2013.” Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a snapshot of the Practice North Department of Health website in reference to my Member’s statement and oral questions earlier today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Yakeleya.
