Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask a question to the lead Minister of the gas issue in Norman Wells. DPW I believe is the Minister working with the town. I want to ask the Minister if the Premier communicated to him that the town council had requested some participants to be involved in their committee that looks for long-term solutions on the conversion of alternative heating sources and if the GNWT is going to play an important role in part of the town committee and this gas issue.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of natural gas supply in the municipality of Norman Wells has been a concern raised by the community for quite a few years now, as far back as the 14th Assembly. It became a very serious concern as Imperial Oil had indicated during the life of the 15th Assembly that they would be shutting down their supply. After a lot of discussion, which included ourselves and the Premier of the day, the company decided that they would supply another four years. So we’re on the second year of that commitment and we’re continuing to look at the long-term solutions with the municipality.
The community has done a lot of good work. They have been very proactive. They have engaged consultants and some technical expertise from our departments. I think they are moving at quite a good pace. There have been proposals submitted. There are options they have to work on, however, those haven’t been formalized and that work will continue. The Premier has conveyed the discussion that he has had with the municipality with our department.
The Town of Norman Wells wants to have the GNWT part of their committee, to be involved, not just to report to them when they’re asking for a report or update. I want to ask the Minister again, is the government actively involved in the committee as one of the committee members looking at this solution to deal with the supply of alternative source heating for the community?
Within our government we have the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee and through that committee we’ve set up a subcommittee that involves many of the departments across our government that deal with this issue that Norman Wells is facing. The chair of that subcommittee is the regional director. He’s in contact with the community on a regular basis. We have people in attendance at all the meetings that they have. I think they had one yesterday. We had our assistant deputy minister there, along with other government representatives. As to whether they sit formally or have been incorporated as part of the municipal committee, I can’t confirm that. I certainly would have to follow that up.
The town has indicated that when they go to a propane solution for the heating of the community and the residents, they would look towards millions of dollars to be invested to bring in the propane tanks and converting the whole town to that source of heating. I want to ask the Minister if he’s going to bring forward a discussion paper to this government or the next government to look at helping the Town of Norman Wells with the financial assistance to help the residents and possibly the businesses to look at converting some of their stoves, fridges, washers, dryers, furnaces, to help them with the stress of finding this new source of heating.
The community of Norman Wells has not reached that stage where they have put a price tag, nor have they reached the point where they are deciding, or in a position to decide, whether they are going to go with propane or heating fuel. There is a lot of discussion that has to take place. There are some proposals on the table with a price tag on it. There are other factors that have to be considered. The proposal that has been presented to the community does not include the residents, does not include some of the commercial buildings. There has to be further analysis and we’d have to decide on next steps from that point on.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just recently the pipeline has sprung a leak in Alberta and just outside of Wrigley. Now there’s an emergency to the town of Norman Wells and looking at an emergency situation here. I’ll ask the Minister if his officials are in the community as we speak today, looking at how they can deal with the issue of helping them deal with this emergency. As noted by the MACA bureaucrat that this wasn’t considered an emergency, our mayor wasn’t very happy in Norman Wells. I want to ask the Minister what he is doing to look at the emergency issue in Norman Wells as we speak today on the leak of the pipeline in the valley.
It’s not within my area of responsibility to declare emergencies within the municipalities. That falls under a different department. I can confirm to the Member that we have been actively involved with the municipality. We have people on the ground. Our assistant deputy minister was in Norman Wells yesterday. We’ve had some good discussions. Imperial Oil was also at the meeting. Enbridge Pipelines was also at the meetings. There is a lot of concern within the municipality as the Plains Midwest Canada Pipeline sprung a leak and it had impacts that affected the community. We thought those issues would be resolved as that piece of pipeline was repaired. The request was placed with the Alberta Government to put the pipeline back on line. We have since, very recently, been made aware that there is a further pipeline leak just outside the community of Wrigley. Enbridge has engaged their staff. They’re on site right now. NEB has sent representatives and they’re looking at finding solutions to deal with that. That has compounded the situation in Norman Wells.
Imperial Oil has informed us that they’re putting further tanks on line as they need to be able to store the crude that they produce as the natural gas is a by-product of their production of crude. They’re putting two tanks on the line. We expect one to be in service today and another one tomorrow. Both would allow for another additional week of supply. We calculate that there would be roughly five weeks of supply in the system, and we’re also looking at a synthetic natural gas conversion unit which mixes air with propane that would carry us through. There’s one in the municipality that’s being tested today and there is another one that is being dismantled in Calgary that will be brought up if required.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I was speaking about highway infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. In the last Conservative budget they did speak about $150 million investment in the Northwest Territories. However, I’m of the opinion that it should be for the whole of the Northwest Territories. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier how does this Government of the Northwest Territories plan to respond to the results of the recent federal election and their budgeting process.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Deputy Premier, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must humbly ask the Member to repeat the question. I was otherwise occupied and didn’t catch the question. I will either answer it or I will refer it to the appropriate Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Repeat your question please, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier, given the results of the recent federal election that’s all over with now -- we have a majority Conservative government -- I’d just like to know how our government plans to respond to the results of the recent federal election and their budgeting process. I understand that the old budget that they released in March is now dead. We’ll be looking at some new budgeting figures.
Once again I apologize to the Member for not catching the question the first time. It’s a very good, important question.
In the life left in this Assembly we have a number of priorities, as I indicated in my fiscal update. One of the key ones for us, of course, is going to be to get clarity on our borrowing limit. We also, like other jurisdictions, would like to know what’s going to be in the budget. We understand that they’ve committed to taking $11 billion out in terms of their efforts to fight the deficit and debts that they have as a federal government. We hear already that programs are being affected in the North because of that, so we have to track that very clearly, because it’s going to impact our ability in a whole host of areas depending on what those cuts are.
I know the Premier has already been in contact with Ottawa about establishing contact and opportunity to sit down with Prime Minister Harper. As well, as soon as the Cabinet is announced, Ministers here will be as well doing that with their counterparts. Either the Ministers will be confirmed or there will be a change in portfolios. But regardless, as soon as confirmation is there, we will be moving to have that discussion with the Members that are going to be responsible for those federal portfolios. Thank you.
The Deputy Premier did well in answering those questions, and that’s exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for how is our government, how is our Minister going to engage with the new federal government to let them know our needs, especially our infrastructure needs. So just with that, Mr. Speaker, how is this government going to engage with the federal government to get resources for our NWT highway systems, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
One of the strong messages from Prime Minister Harper, when he was here, as reiterated by Minister Bob McLeod, was his commitment to look at a package that will assist the pipeline, but tied to infrastructure and other supports. So that will be one way. We all as Ministers have our work that was ongoing with the federal government that was put on hold as a result of the election. Indications from officials that we’ve been in contact with indicate that they’re still waiting for their confirmation by the Prime Minister of who’s going to be Cabinet Ministers in the government, and at that point things will start rolling again. We have all the issues we have had on the table prior to the election we will re-engage on. As well, we will be tracking some of the changes now that there’s a majority, what that may mean. There’s been a clear focus on deficit reduction. We have to find out what that will mean specifically. So we recognize that there’s going to be a turning away from stimulus to looking at deficit reduction and trying to balance the books. So we have to recognize that we’re not going to see $1.1 billion over the next three years anytime soon. So we’ll do all that work that I’ve just outlined. Thank you.
I think it’s very important for us to get in early and meet with the new federal government, and I would like our government to have a strategy to plan to be down there, our Ministers to be down there, our Premier to be down there, and let him know our infrastructure needs. The Conservative government had high commitment for our rural and remote communities and I would like our government to convey that as the federal government begins their process on working on their new federal budget, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier his strategy with regard to that, as well. Mahsi.
We are fully committed to that process. We have a Federal Engagement Strategy that the Premier has laid out. We will re-engage as soon as we know who the players are going to be to in fact do that. We have four months left.
I indicated one of the keys for us going forward to manage our own affairs is going to be the clarity and the conclusion of the committed to process to resolve the borrowing limit. The broader issue of the federal budget, we will be there… We have to be very strategic in our asks. We can’t go there with a long list. We have to look at what our one or two or three top priorities are going to be. But we take the Member’s concern and we will be pushing to make sure the Northwest Territories is considered front and centre. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. That’s exactly what I’m urging this government to do, is as we’re meeting for the next couple of weeks in their Cabinet strategy sessions, to put that on their agenda just to see how it will all unfold. I too am looking forward to whoever the Ministers are, because then we’ll exactly know who’s got experience in the North and who can hear our specific needs here in the Northwest Territories, especially with rural and remote communities and our aging highway infrastructure systems. So that’s why I would like our government to make it a priority as they develop their Federal Engagement Strategy for this new government. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I don’t know if I heard a question there. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to support what the Member’s saying, as well as to indicate one of the other things that I think everybody’s keen to do, is to forge a stronger working relationship with our Member of Parliament to use all the tools in the toolboxes that are available to us collectively to push the agenda of the North. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like earlier today, a number of my colleagues both had statements and asked questions regarding the closure of the Edmonton Municipal Airport and the planes being diverted to the International Airport. As such, I think they thoroughly thrashed around the concerns about being involved in the process of the advisory committee.
I think the next phase of this particular problem, really we should use this as an opportunity and perhaps maybe a call to action to address how we run our medevac system, Mr. Speaker. Our health system would issue a tender and have protocols developed as well as internal ones, whether it’s with health boards, whether it’s health centres, on how medevacs are called, as well as things like, for example, specs of airplanes, whether they’re using props or jets, examples like that, Mr. Speaker.
My question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is as such, Mr. Speaker: will the Department of Health and Social Services do a review on how we run our medevac system from the moment somebody comes in from a health centre that needs to be addressed through the medevac protocols and then the issues of the call to the delivery of them into the health service in Alberta? Would he be doing any type of review as I’ve sort of described? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When you look at the 18 recommendations, there are some very specific ones. Some of them will have technical impacts, logistical impacts. We are going to be looking at all of those. We are going to be doing the program as well as sitting down with the current provider for medevac services to look at any technical questions that may result. There are things that relate to the amount of gas, sites that are going to be used, the need for cross-training of crews. There’s a whole host of areas that have to be looked at carefully. So, yes, this report will necessitate a review of how we do business from start to finish as it pertains to medevacs.
I did have a chance to read the report and I was really glad that the Health Quality Council did it, and I want to commend them on their work and effort as well as acknowledge the staff from the Department of Health and Social Services on being involved on the ground floor to make sure our input was taken. But the report recommendations really focus on, in my view, is to once the plane gets to Edmonton and how they address those particular areas. My area of interest in my line of questioning here today has more to do with our internal process, the ones we can control and dictate. Like the old saying goes, you can point one finger but you’ve got three pointing back at you. This is our chance to look at these types of protocols we run within our own system. As I was trying to say earlier, instead of spec’ing in the contract that goes out to tender a prop plane, we can insist upon a jet plane, staffing levels, readiness awareness, things of those types of designations, the ones we can control outside of that.
Mr. Speaker, that’s the type of exchange I’d like to have here today and certainly that’s, hopefully, the type of observation and review that the Department of Health and Social Services… So I ask it in that direction, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister of Health and Social Services issue some type of instruction to review how we do our medical travel protocols? Thank you.
If the Member has specific concerns in the North about how we provide those services and if he’s suggesting, for example, that we change the specifications and require jets versus any kind of prop fixed-wing plane, that’s a discussion we have to look at. Everything has a cost, as well. We’re trying to manage our expenditures in this area and this is an area where the costs are constantly increasing, so we’d have to be very careful and clear. If the Member has some specifics that he thinks are worth review, I’d be happy to have that discussion with him. Thank you.
I want to thank the Minister for that particular answer. I think he knows exactly the concern I’m on, and I think I recognize that in his response from the last questions.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if I need my fourth question. My third one will quite simply be: would the Minister be willing to have a meeting with some of the industry reps from the medevac community? Again, if I could coordinate them in a very succinct way that had solutions to fine tuning our medevac process or system, would he be willing to sit down with them and discuss these types of issues and perhaps maybe we can find a nicer way, more efficient way? And recognizing cost is always an issue. That type of discussion. Would the Minister be willing to sit down with me and a coordinated group to, again, very particularly look at these issues to see what we could do to help? Thank you.
Thank you. There was just a meeting earlier this week among the providers, ourselves, the Health department, as a government, about issues pertaining to medevacs. As the Minister I would want to have an opportunity to talk to the deputy and to our own officials about what transpired in that meeting so that we’re not inserting ourselves into a process that may be well underway in dealing with a lot of the questions the Member raised. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was just hoping for a yes, he’d be willing to do that. But, actually, the Minister is correct about that last meeting, because I did bring in an industry rep a week ago just to talk about medevacs in general, and I was well aware of that particular meeting. Perhaps maybe what I could do is ask the Minister to commit to bringing me up to speed as to the information done in that dialogue with the group that take care of medevacs and to see if, once we digest that, there’s some input that can be offered, because I think the medevac community wants to be involved in the solution. The Minister is correct; cost is always a problem, but I don’t think it’s the one that should block us from the right decision and I want to ensure it’s productive. So I’ll ask the Minister to commit to bringing me up to speed as to what happened at that last medevac meeting. Thank you.
Thank you. I will commit to update and I will do that through the Social Programs committee, and I am happy to have any discussion with the Member that he thinks is necessary. But I will look at the results of the meeting and I will share that information with the Social Programs committee. As well, I’d be happy to have any kind of further discussion that the Member may require. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d once again like to applaud the Minister of Health and Social Services for directing Stanton to establish an external review committee to conduct an independent review of the Leishman incident based on the motion that we passed in this House earlier this calendar year. I think it’s a great step.
I do have a couple of questions, Mr. Speaker, specifically with respect to the external review committee itself. I was wondering if the Minister could give me a bit of an idea of how many members are on this committee and what are their qualifications to conduct an investigation of this nature. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Michael Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we’ve done is bring in one very qualified individual, working under the guidance... They will have their arm’s length ability to do the work necessary, but brought in to work through the department. His name is Dr. Douglas Perry. He is a practicing emergency medicine physician, a senior health administrator from Alberta. He’s served as a senior provincial clinical advisor with Alberta Health and Wellness. He also has emergency medicine practice in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton. Thank you.
Thank you. So it sounds like the committee is one person, which is fine. That’s acceptable. I’m still happy that it’s getting done and it certainly sounds like this individual has a lot of qualifications. Has this individual conducted investigations of this nature in any other jurisdictions that we know of? Thank you.
Thank you. I understand he has engaged in this type of review before. I can’t tell the Member exactly where, but that’s one of the reasons he was asked to do this. Thank you.
That’s good news. That’s what I was hoping that we would actually hear. I guess my next question that follows in line is do we have a bit of a timeline on how long it’s going to take for this review to be done. This family has been waiting for a while and it’s something that happened well over a year ago, actually over two years ago now. So I was just wondering if we could get a bit of a timeline of when we can expect to see some results from this investigation.
I would hope to have this concluded by the end of June. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question, I indicated and I understand the nature of the Evidence Act and how information is intended to be kept confidential certainly with respect to what any doctors or nurses will indicate during this investigation, but during my statement, or sorry, response to the motion, I indicated that, based on what I know and what I understand, I don’t believe it was a human error, I believe it was more of a policy issue and a protocol issue within the hospital. Under the Evidence Act we can’t be told anything that is done or said by the health professionals, but I’m curious why we can’t get information with respect to protocols. If there are protocols that are in error or insufficient, should that information not be available to us so that we can help make decisions in the best interests of the people of the Northwest Territories? So I guess I’m getting at the recommendations and how we get to those recommendations. Do we get to hear some of those pieces or those findings? Thank you.
Thank you. I’ve already committed to share the results of this review with committee. We’ll look at what those recommendations are, what they say and, as well, we’ll be able to review what he proposes as a response. We also indicated that we will have a separate meeting with Mrs. Leishman to as well review some of those findings with her, as well, so she can have some closure to the circumstances that she has been dealing with. So we will share that information with committee. Thank you.
