Thank you, Madam Chair. I will make a commitment that I will get the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to start the discussions with municipalities and hamlets throughout the Northwest Territories because, even though it is a territorial issue, we are not talking wolves or caribou, that is ENR, we are talking domesticated animals that have been not cared for properly, is usually what happens with that or, in my case, not keeping them inside enough and being let go. That is an issue, a discussion that should be happening between the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and municipal governments. I will make a commitment that those discussions will be taking place in this Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Just while we are on this Extraordinary Funding Policy, part of the problem is there is no policy. This was raised in the last Assembly. We had some one-offs that made their way mysteriously into the Executive and Indigenous Affairs budget. When is this policy going to be finished? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know that people are trying to nail down timelines. I would like to give timelines. However, I am also conscious of the amount of workload that we have to take on. What I commit to is that it will be done within two years, but, in the meantime, any extraordinary funding that comes across my desk as the Premier will be scrutinized. Perhaps I will even extend it to offering standing committee an explanation of the requests so that we can do this together as a team, which we should be doing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I recall seeing in the last Assembly a policy that was virtually finished. I think all it needed was somebody to sign it. I am going to leave that with the Minister. I don't think it needs two years. It was already finished. She just has to probably pick up the old document, reprint it, and sign it. I want to move on to the single-window service centres. I think the last one that was established was in Jean Marie in 2018-2019. It doesn't look like there is anything in this budget for another community. Is that the case? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have money internally. We are looking at the twenty-third one. The region that we are looking at is the Deh Cho. That is still in negotiations though. We are planning on implementing a twenty-third single-service window. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Can the Minister point me to what line item on page 115, where I would find that increase of one PY? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. You won't see it in these mains because it is not an increase. It has actually been there on the books for a number of years. It is just a matter of implementing that program. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to thank the Minister for that. I want to move on to the Office of Devolution Initiatives. In her opening remarks, she mentioned that one of the purposes of this office is that they are assigned the lead of a review of the NWT Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement transitional provisions as they relate to the MVRMA. I think that I understand what that is about, but what is our objective in that review? What are we trying to accomplish? Thanks, Madam Chair
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Martin Goldney.
Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Those discussions are intended to review the transitional provisions of the devolution agreement, with the expectation that we can come to an agreement with the federal governments and our Indigenous government partners on the best place to have the legislative authority for the MVRMA, or further consideration of whether more authority should be delegated to the Government of the Northwest Territories, recognizing that responsibility for lands and resources, for the vast majority of those lands and resources, has transferred. The intent of those discussions is really to determine: are we best set up to reflect that reality? Do we have the authorities in the right place, recognizing that the goal of devolution was to have the people of the Northwest Territories better positioned to make the decisions? It's important, though, to add that the MVRMA is unique in that it also governs decisions of the federal government as they relate to lands and resources, as well. We are just looking at a conversation with our Indigenous government partners and the federal governments; do we have the right balance and the right governance for lands and resources under that piece of legislation? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Goldney. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I figured that that was the kind of response I was going to get. We have some delegated authority under the MVRMA. Presumably, the objective here is to increase the delegated authority and/or give us some ability to change parts, perhaps, of the MVRMA ourselves. I'm not opposed to that in principle, but I think that it has to be approached very carefully, and it is going to require the support of the Indigenous governments.
I think that there is the mistaken belief that, if and when GNWT gets control, we could just higgledy-piggledy start changing things. That's not the case at all. These are constitutionally entrenched provisions. They cannot be changed unilaterally, and Mr. Harper's government got themselves in very hot water over this. In fact, it ended in litigation with the Gwich'in Tribal Council and the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated; they took the federal government to court and stopped some changes to the MVRMA.
I think this has to be approached very, very carefully, and I have every confidence that the deputy minister is well aware of this and understands this, but that is not very well-communicated to our public, who think that, for whatever reason, or some segments of the business community think, that things take too long to happen and so on. You can't just start going in and changing things. How are we going to communicate that to the public and the business community, and build confidence in our environmental management and resource management system? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This work is not being done alone. The Member is right; we need to do this with our Indigenous governments. This work has been at the intergovernmental council table that all Indigenous governments who have signed on to devolution are part of, and it's still open to other Indigenous governments who wish to sign on. This will not be a unilateral decision based on the GNWT.
I heard the Member's concerns about making sure that it is communicated properly. Out of respect for the Indigenous governments that sit at the intergovernmental council, Madam Chair, I will bring the Member's concerns to the table. I have stated at that table that the Government of the Northwest Territories is one seat at that table. We are no longer the controller; we are one seat, one member. Because I have made that commitment to the intergovernmental council, it would be inappropriate for me to sit here, Madam Chair, and make commitments on behalf of them without their permission. It would be totally hypocritical of me. What I can commit to, though, is to bring the concerns about the need for communications, because I agree that we should be communicating better, to the intergovernmental council and take their feedback on how we should be communicating. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. I don't want to go off on a long tirade here, but if we want to convince the federal government that we can actually do a good job managing our resources, we have to do a lot better. We've had devolution in place for five years. There were some legislative changes made in the last Assembly, and we improved a lot of that legislation as it went through the Regular MLAs, but there is a number of things that have happened: Cantung went into receivership; we were on the hook; we were able to offload that back to the federal government; Cameron Hills; the Tlicho All-Season Road, the review board gave a scathing indictment of our participation as a government in that proceeding. We had a manager in charge of that project write to a Minister while it was in a consult to modify a process; totally inappropriate.
The only work that we have achieved in the last Assembly on financial security was rolling back mandatory requirement for financial security. We're going to have a very tough time demonstrating that we can responsibly manage resources in this jurisdiction with that kind of stuff happening. We've got to fix this. That's what I have been harping on for the last four years, and I am going to keep doing it in this Assembly. We've got to fix that, if we want to convince others, the federal government, the Indigenous governments, that we can actually responsibly manage resource development.
I see that my time is up, Madam Chair. That's my rant for the day, but it'll keep happening day after day until we fix this system. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I didn't hear a question in that; I'll take it as a comment. Thank you.
Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Mahsi cho, Madam Chair. Just going through, I have a quick question about the expansion of our Single Window Service Centres. It looks like it's going to be coming out in three phases. It affects two communities in my riding: Deninu Kue and Lutselk'e. It looks like it's going to be rolled out in three phases. Can the Minister just explain to me what phase 1, phase 2, and phase 3 are, just to give us a little bit of understanding of what that is? Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Myself and my department are a bit confused. If we're talking about the Single Window Service Centres, it isn't a phased approach, Madam Chair. We are just waiting to open the doors to negotiate with the Indigenous governments. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
No, my mistake. I guess, what I was referring to there is that it looks like there is going to be some work with the federal government. I just wanted to actually maybe ask the Minister how this is progressing along and what our end goal is here, working with the federal government for our Single Window Service Centres. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The Single Window Service Centres used to be just services that were provided by the Government of the Northwest Territories. In recent years, I think it was just in the last year, if I'm correct, or the last two years, the federal government has asked us if they could be a part of that picture, as well, because not only do our small communities not know what services the GNWT provides, they don't know what the federal government provides, as well. They are actually a partner in the services that are available that the service centre windows have access to. The federal government right now, currently, is not at every one of the 22 service windows. They don't all, actually, have the federal component in that, but I am more than willing to have negotiations with the federal government, if they're listening, to broaden that, because I do think it makes sense. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to get some clarity on that, and I think I got my answer. Mahsi cho. Mahsi cho, nothing further.
Thank you. Are there any further questions on the directorate? Seeing no further questions, please turn to page 115, Executive and Indigenous Affairs, directorate, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $6,588,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, we will move on to the executive council offices on pages 118-120. Questions? Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. The first line item on this page is Cabinet communications and protocol, and we fielded questions earlier from the Member for Yellowknife North in regard to communication. On a previous page, there was a line item for corporate communications, which outlined about $1,500,000, and then the section we were just in, under regional operations, it stated that one of the responsibilities of regional operations was also to provide an open line of communication between the regions. I’m just wondering: within these three different line items, how do they work together, and how do they support communications for the Government of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I did have to get clarifications. I was just aware that there are only two. There’s the Cabinet communications and corporate communications. I was wondering where the regional was coming from, but I think I understand. The difference is that the corporate communications is really departmental-focused, and working with the regions to actually, hopefully, get good news out there to deal with things, advisories to the public, that kind of stuff. Cabinet communications, Madam Chair, is more focused on Ministers and Cabinet. To be blunt, trying to get us out of trouble, a lot of times, trying to be proactive in some of the initiatives that Ministers are doing, proactive in some of the priorities, the mandates, et cetera. They work together because, if you don’t, if Cabinet is on its own without working with the corporate communications, then you have Cabinet in their communications saying one thing, "We’re going to paint the sky blue," and, if we don’t get that down into the level of corporate, then they’ll be saying that we’re going to paint the sky red. It’s necessary. They’re two separate. One is for Cabinet, one is for departments, but we are trying to work together. In fairness, again, I’ll go back to our communications. It’s something that’s been identified as an issue. We’re just at a new government. We’re just realigning on how best services will be provided in our communications as we go forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I really appreciate the Premier’s response. The last line item there is travel. Travel in 2018-2019 was at $82,000, and then, for main estimates this year, it’s at $420,000. Is that because it was leading into an election year? Thank you.
Thank you. Ms. Kennedy.
Madam Chair, in 2019-2020, a change was made. Previous to 2019-2020, departments were responsible for Ministerial travel budgets. In 2019-2020, we established a budget in the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs to pay for Ministerial travel, so that’s the difference.
Thank you, Ms. Kennedy. Are there any further questions for executive council offices? Seeing no further questions, please turn to page 119, Executive and Indigenous Affairs, executive council offices, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $4,466,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to Indigenous and Intergovernmental Affairs, pages 124-127. Member for Thebacha.
