Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod.
I was waiting for the Member to raise this. The regs are just being worked on now and possibly finalized. The land withdrawal, I think, expires at the end of March. We’re working, actually, very closely with the YKDFN now. They’ve come to the table, which is huge, because they’ll be able to provide us with a lot of their traditional knowledge. I believe AANDC has come to the table as well, so they’re part of the working group now. Our goal is to still try and have this out by the end of March, is when it expires, and possibly put some lots up for leasing this spring.
Obviously, the last time we came out with it there were very major issues left to resolve, and the Minister got lots of input on that and I know recognized that it was major. I hope that we’re not rushing into this just to meet that March 31st deadline. It would be good to get this done, but I would urge the Minister to make sure that we’ve got public support going forward. That’s one point I wanted to make.
The enforcement, we’ve added into our enforcement. I think we have an extra enforcement person. I will confirm that and provide that to the Member. But I know it was a concern that the Member had raised. I think it was during the business plan review. Then recognizing that we may be getting more responsibility here very shortly, so enforcement is going to be a critical issue. I can assure the Member that that is being worked on.
The familiarity with the area, our folks have done a lot of site visits. I think they’ve had one study done I know on a particular lake, and the turbidity of the lake, how much it can sustain and how much development it can sustain. They have actually done a lot of really good work, because this was an issue that was raised by the Member, and then working with the YKDFN I think is going to go a long way in familiarizing our lands folks with some of their traditional areas and some of their expertise. That’s what we really welcomed when they came to the table, was the expertise that they brought on the different types of land. We did a lot of work as far as the enforcement part and familiarizing ourselves with the lands that we administer. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Chair, I appreciate the Minister’s comments. I’m glad we’re at work on those things. I still, though, am hearing a lot of uncertainty about the regulations and the deadline of March 31st. We don’t want a situation where, obviously, when things come open we’re not ready for it. Is the Minister prepared to extend the moratorium on leasing for another month or two, if need be, to get things wrapped up properly before moving forward? Thank you.
Madam Chair, I appreciate the Member raising that. I will make a determination. The Member is correct; and I have said this a number of times, we need to make sure we get a good quality product before we put it out there. I think I had used that line a couple of times, because we had an extension a couple of times. If it’s a matter of a month or two to make sure that we have everything worked out and everything worked out the way it should be, then I will commit to the Member that I will make that determination close to the end of the month. We’ll be sure that we let the public know right away because there are a lot of folks out there that are sitting and waiting and hoping some land does become available for recreational leasing. We want to make sure that we give them that opportunity, however, understanding that we need to make sure that we get this right. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Chair, thanks again to the Minister. That’s good to hear. I know that I was using the Minister’s words there and he caught that. We want to do a good job. I’m with him there.
We have such a history of unfair and erratic adherence to regulations and inspections and so on that it’s going to be very important to really be on top of things once there’s the new situation goal, which is going to be difficult because people are going to holler a bit. Some may have never seen this before, maybe. Is there a plan to make sure that the public is well aware that this is a new situation? I appreciate that the department has been doing a yeoman’s work in terms of… You know, if we have to, we will go to court. We don’t want to but… I just raise that. It would be good to know. I don’t see any increase in the budget here to speak of; in fact, the opposite. So I am a little bit concerned about capacity here. Thank you.
Madam Chair, as far as capacity part, as I said before, we have added an extra enforcement person. Once we come back in the fall time to do the business plan review with committee, if there’s an opportunity there, if we feel that we’re lacking in capacity, then we will possibly come to committee and get some feedback from committee on that issue.
I’m sorry; I missed the first part of the Member’s question. I think it was just complimenting the department in all the good work that we’ve been doing.
---Laughter
Except listening. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Chair, the first part was recognizing that this is a new deal. How are we going to assure the public and make the public aware from the very start that we are serious, that we’re going to adhere to the regulations? It is not you’re just getting after new people, but there is a lot… I don’t know. It’s a mess out there, as the Minister knows, in terms of whatever regulations you are coming up with, in terms of our history now, but that is the situation to me that has to be dealt with. Thank you.
Madam Chair, I apologize to the Member. I completely missed his first part of his question before. We do have a communication plan again. I think the best thing here is, before we actually start rolling everything out, it might be a good opportunity to sit down with the committee and tell the committee this is the plan and this is our communication plan, because the Member is right, there are going to be a lot of new changes. We need some adjusting by folks out there. I would be more than willing to sit down with committee once we have all of this finalized and give them a quick briefing. I think we had an opportunity to do that a little while back and we had some excellent feedback from committee. I will put that offer out there, that we will sit down with committee and outline our whole plan going forward, including the communication plan and how we plan on dealing with… Obviously, we are going to have some concerns out there on how we plan on dealing with those.
The Member talked about fairness. I think we have proven we will enforce the regulations. Make no doubt about that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Bromley, your time is up. Page 6-29, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, lands administration, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a couple of questions for the Minister. What plans are in place with the community operations of the communities along the Canol Trail shale play that is happening right now in Norman Wells, Tulita and next year I think Fort Good Hope is going to start entertaining some companies to do some exploration seismic work there? How is MACA helping out Tulita and Norman Wells? What type of additional support are we going to get for this department here?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We recognize that there is going to be a lot of activity around the Sahtu. I think our staff can prepare for that. Our superintendents and our regional staff will work closely with communities, probably identify some of the challenges that they may be facing.
Again, we go in there at the communities’ invitation. We work with them very closely on this issue. I can assure the Member that we know. We will have the assistant superintendents in all regions too. I think that will go a long way. We will work very closely with community and do our part in supporting them in getting ready for expansion and all the work that is going to be going on in the region. Thank you.
Madam Chair, the communities have certainly seen the impacts through our boundaries, the roads and the traffic, certainly in Norman Wells. They are starting to realize that this is not going to slow down; because words of the oil companies is that they have encouraging results. So far they are looking at the sites and they are finding it more encouraging than ever. We have a lot of work amongst ourselves to do in our communities. I am looking forward to MACA’s support for additional staff members and additional support for helping us. That’s what I want to ask the Minister, the type of support, even doing an assessment. I remember MACA did a really good report on, if there was going to be a Mackenzie Valley pipeline, these are the impacts it’s going to have on Good Hope, Norman Wells, Tulita, Fort Simpson, Wrigley, right down the valley. I’ve been asking for that report, but I have not yet seen that report. I don’t know if it’s with ITI or MACA or if it’s locked up in a vault. I don’t know. So I’m looking for that report so I can give it to the people and say, well, this was done because of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline if it was going to come down the valley.
We’ve got a bigger project than the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. You’ve got the Sahtu Canol shale play going on here. We’re not talking millions; we’re talking billions. So I want to ask the Minister if that report is public or if I can somehow get it or the communities can use it for planning. They’ve got to start sharing this information, otherwise you’ll have the information but our communities won’t have it and you’ve got them at a disadvantage. So I’d like to see where we can help each other out. That probably needs a bit of tweaking and a couple of more things that need to be added in or taken out, but basically it’s the same. The impacts are going to be the impacts. If we’re going to haul out millions of dollars’ worth of exploration stuff and equipment or start production of the Canol play, then we need to have our eyes wide open. That’s what I’m saying. MACA did a really good report. I remember reading that report. If I knew I was going to be on this long I would have taken it. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the Member’s big concern here is to ensure that the communities are ready for future development and I’ve assured the Member that with the assistant superintendent is a decentralized effort by MACA to get more people into the regions. So we’re looking forward to some of the good work that they’re going to be doing.
Again, we will work very closely with the communities to support them in their efforts to get ready for all the work that’s coming their way. If there’s a role that MACA can play, we will support them, and I’ll make that commitment.
The Member was talking about boundaries. Again, a lot of these issues are community-driven issues and we support the communities wherever we can. Thank you.
Thank you. Maybe I’ll ask the Minister of ITI for that community assessment report. I know MACA has it. I wish I would have kept a copy of it. Anyway, that was the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline. So maybe ITI will have it. I’ll ask the Minister. At another time I’ll ask him for a copy.
So that’s okay. I will work with the Minister, I’ll work with his team on the impacts. I know they’re feeling it now. Again, I was at the Sahtu Dene Council meeting yesterday and the four chiefs were talking about these impacts, and I sat there all day. One of the things that we talked about, and it was because of the four chiefs being there and them having my ear, is them talking about the infrastructure, the water treatment plants, the sewer plants. These are the assets owned by our government and they’re pretty expensive to operate. They’re pretty complex, pretty technical and they were looking for support where the government could work with our communities to look at how best to serve the community. So I appreciate the flexibility your staff has, Minister, and acknowledging the hardship we had in regard to Colville Lake, for example. We don’t need to bring that up, but you guys are working on it in Tulita and Deline and Fort Good Hope.
So I think we need to continue with the infrastructure. The amount of money that the community has, the amount of needs that they have on the roads, dumps, water treatment plants, sewer, other things, we don’t meet all our priorities. So I want to ask the Minister in regard to that, because some of our water treatment plants are pretty complex, they’re pretty expensive, we need to ensure that our communities have enough and sufficient money to operate them. That’s what I wanted to remind the Minister, that if you have a $10 treatment plant, we need to make sure that there’s $10 worth of operating funding, not 10 cents. So that’s something we want to work closely with.
Again, I appreciate the staff working hard with our communities in Colville, Good Hope, Deline, Norman Wells and Tulita on this key, essential infrastructure for our people. Mahsi.
Thank you. I’m not sure about the report. We’ll do some digging around and see if we can find the report. We continue to work with the community governments on their water treatment plants to make sure that they’re adequately funded to operate these water treatment plants. So we’ll continue to do that work. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Committee, we’re on page 6-29, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to say something to the Minister on the community operations. The communities are moving towards being more self-sustainable such as the infrastructure that’s going on in the communities. We want to ensure that this continues on. So I want to let the Minister know that the people in the Sahtu that attended the Good Governance courses appreciated it, and they say that was a real good course. So it’s things like that that help our people. If you bring training programs like that into the Sahtu, they wanted me to say thank you on behalf of the people, the ones I talked to in the Sahtu, which are the four communities essentially. So I have to say that before I forget to say good things to the Minister.
Thanks, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, and we appreciate the Member’s comments. These are good courses and opportunity to bring folks from across the NWT together and talk about all the issues that face their community and try to find some solutions. So I appreciate the comments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Committee, we’re on page 6-29, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, lands administration, operations expenditure summary, $3.047 million.
Agreed.
Thanks, committee. Page 6-30, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, lands administration, active positions. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Very quickly I just noticed Yellowknife is down one and we were just talking about it being one up for the enforcement positions. So I just bring that to the Minister’s attention. So somehow there must have been a cut of two positions for us to still have an additional in enforcement. If there’s any light to be shed on that, I’d welcome it, or later. Whatever serves. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod.
Thank you. I appreciate all the Members supporting their colleague. It shows up in the regional office. So it wouldn’t show up in the headquarters. It shows up in the regional office. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Committee, page 6-30, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, lands administration, active positions. Any other questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 6-33, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, sport, recreation and youth, operations expenditure summary, $5.200 million.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Pages 6-34 and 35, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, sport, recreation and youth, grants and contributions, grants, $100,000, contributions, $3.357 million, total grants and contributions, $3.457 million.
Agreed.
Page 6-36, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, sport, recreation and youth, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Page 6-39, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, $78.956 million.
Agreed.
Pages 6-40 and 6-41, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, regional operations, grants and contributions to community government, grants and contributions, grants, total grants to community governments, $55.682 million, contributions, total contributions to community government, $15.472 million, total grants and contributions to community governments, $71.154 million, total other contributions, $1.125 million, total grants and contributions, $72.279 million.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 6-42, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, regional operations, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Pages 6-44 and 6-45, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, work performed on behalf of others.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We’ll return to page 6-7, Municipal and Community Affairs, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $98.786 million.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Are we agreed we are concluded Municipal and Community Affairs’ budget?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Thank you to the Minister, thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
Our next department is Justice. We’ll start on page 9-7. I will first go to the Minister of Justice to see if Minister Abernethy has any opening comments. Minister Abernethy.
Today I am presenting the main estimates for the Department of Justice for fiscal year 2013-2014.
The department’s main estimates propose an operations expenditure budget of $116.8 million. This represents an increase of 2.7 percent over the 2012-13 Main Estimates. There is just over two million additional dollars to ensure core programs and services have sufficient resources to operate, with the majority of these funds targeted at policing and collective bargaining increases. These main estimates also propose $837,000 to fund initiatives that will enhance and expand service delivery to the residents of the Northwest Territories.
The department’s mandate is to ensure all residents have access to justice, including legal aid, the courts and their alternatives. We continue to work to build a system of justice that is open, accessible and responsive to the needs of the people we serve. We support families when they are in conflict or personal crisis and help them as they work toward successful resolutions. The department is also responsible for serving and supporting the administration of the courts.
The bulk of our resources go towards maintaining core programs and services the people of the Northwest Territories rely on. These programs are efficient and effective. We support this Assembly’s vision of strong independent people who are safe and secure in both their communities and their homes. We provide safe and secure custody of offenders and community supervision to support rehabilitation and reintegration into communities.
Whether it is a youth in trouble with the law, a victim who has been assaulted, people who need lawyers, families who need help working through separation or divorce, or an offender who needs the proper supports to make better choices, we are there to assist. As the bulk of our staff are located in regional offices, we are close to the people we serve. However, we don’t do this alone. We have strong partnerships with NGOs, community justice committees, community and Aboriginal governments and our colleagues within the GNWT to ensure our services are integrated.
The Department of Justice is just completing the first year of the 10-Year Strategic Plan. This plan established broad strategic directions for the future focus. As a companion document and to increase accountability, in the fall of 2012 I tabled the 5-Year Implementation Strategy outlining specific actions and timelines for the department.
The Department of Justice also provides services to government. These include the provision of legal advice for all departments and legislative drafting, the provision of policy advice and support on ATIPP matters, and the services provided by the Aboriginal consultation unit. While these areas may not be clearly visible to most, they provide the backbone to a strong and effective government and are in addition to our program and service work.
As I have mentioned before, providing these services and programs during times of fiscal restraint remains challenging. The justice system is experiencing pressures similar to those confronting other departments. Socio-economic factors contribute to a crime rate that continues to be the highest in Canada. At a time when resources are limited, it is vital that we not simply react, but take the time to fully investigate and plan for sound policy decisions that are also fiscally responsible.
We are working towards this by proposing investments in areas to support this Assembly’s priorities. New in this year’s main estimates are resources addressing the impact of resource development:
The Sahtu is experiencing economic growth due to exploration for oil and gas. Last winter, the justice system experienced a strain on policing resources in both Norman Wells and Tulita during the seismic exploration and preliminary drilling phases.
We must increase our services in this area, as we know that with additional development of this magnitude comes a requirement to mitigate some of the associated impacts by providing both policing services and services to victims. Accordingly, we have included in this budget an additional $157,000 for one additional RCMP member and $90,000 to establish a Victim Services Program, both in Tulita. This additional funding will contribute to our goal of safer communities.
Additionally, we are implementing a program at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre to provide an alcohol and drug treatment program. At the present time, we are providing a Pre-Treatment Healing Program by a traditional counsellor. By combining this program with specific programming for substance abuse, we expect to see success. Our statistics tell us that the most frequent need for NWT offenders is to address issues associated with abuse and addictions from drugs and alcohol. In this budget, we have identified $339,000 for this very important program.
The department’s programs and services also provide the GNWT with modest revenue of $14.3 million or 12.3 percent of Justices’ expenditure budgets. These revenues are either generated through cost-sharing agreements with the Government of Canada for Access to Justice and Youth Justice Service, Exchange of Services Agreements for housing federal and Nunavut offenders, or through the collection of fees and fines in legal registries and the Territorial and Supreme Courts.
I am optimistic we can work with the budget we have developed. I look forward to continuing to work with Members to make a difference to the people we serve. Thank you for the opportunity to provide an overview on the department’s 2013-2014 Main Estimates. I look forward to discussing it with you in more detail. Thank you, Madam Chair.
