Debates of May 19, 2011 (day 11)

There have been a couple of cases where we’ve had to go after those that are squatters. We’ve had some complaints from people who hold legitimate leases. We’ve taken action against them.

I have to say that I’ve been very impressed with the buy-in that we’ve had from folks out there. They’ve had a lot of opportunity to come in and legitimize their leases. A lot of them have taken us up on that. I have to say I’m particularly impressed with the folks up in Inuvik at Airport Lake, where every single cabin out there has come forward and gotten applications to fill out.

We see this as a process that’s gone along quite smoothly. Of course, there are some challenges along the way, but I think we’re in a good position to meet those challenges and I think we’re going to be able to, at the end of the day, come up with a good product that’s good for the government and particularly good for the legitimate leaseholders, that way they don’t have to worry too much about the squatters out there. I see this as a process that’s working very well, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the Hydro Strategy and I’m certainly curious, at the very least, as to where the direction is now going with this strategy seeing as there has been a bit of setback with the Taltson expansion as well other issues such as the Bluefish needs almost $40 million investment.

Mr. Speaker, I look to the Premier for some guidance for the House as well as for the public as to where the Hydro Strategy is taking us from this present position as the direction towards the future, noting the concerns I highlighted. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Hydro Strategy is one that encompasses the whole of the Northwest Territories. The Taltson is a piece of it, Bluefish and others. We’re looking at new areas of development. NT Hydro is working on their portion. We’ve been funding this work through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee. NT Hydro, for its part, is working in partnership, for example, with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to evaluate the hydro potential at Beaulieu River, and initial reporting we’re hoping will be completed this spring.

We’ve also hired a firm to help with the land corporations and municipal governments in Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope and Tulita to engage in gathering traditional knowledge on sites of hydro potential. As well, there will be some work done on the Willow or Brackett River near the community of Tulita. Recently it was done there. They’re screening a report there.

Looking at, as well, working with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the work around, for example, the Sahtu land use plan, dealing with some of the hydro concerns or issues there. As well as looking at the multi-year fisheries, environmental and traditional knowledge study of the Great Bear River. As well as dealing with the feasibility of the Fort Liard geothermal, and of course, on the Mackenzie River with the Run-of-the-River Program that we started there last year and continuing this summer. We’re pulling that information together in the hopes that we will be able to have a renewed Hydro Strategy to be able to bring forward. I don’t have a timeline on that, though, as of yet. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the cost of living is a very important issue for me as well as many Members, and I believe that any strides we can make towards the cost of living of Northerners does great things for the, I hate to say it, but the kitchen table economics for the everyday person, and power is a critical component of the cost of living here.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to hear from the Premier as to what focus his direction has provided towards grid expansion or coordination of the territorial power being produced here in the North thus far. Perhaps with the work done on the Taltson to date could lend itself towards building a focus and a mandate towards that type of potential. Does the Premier have a comment or some aspects he’d like to lay before the House? Thank you.

The work that we have done around the Hydro Strategy and, more specifically, on the Taltson, as the information has become available, it’s caused us to have another look at how we would continue with the work that’s been done on Taltson, looking at the grid connections here in the Northwest Territories as well as to southern potential customer base that is there. We know that Alberta is going through quite a process of having to remove its coal generation, so there’s a potentially large client there.

One of the meetings I’ve had with the chair of the corporation, and he shared this with the board, is that we need to look at the work that we’ve done on the Taltson to see how we can expand that work now, is there an economic base to look at the grid connection here in the NWT with a grid connection to southern Canada. It is also an issue that we raise numerous times when we meet with whether it’s western Premiers or the Council of Federation, where they talk about an east/west grid. We also remind them there needs to be a north/south grid. So we continue to work along those ways to see how we can continue to grow that potential.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank the Premier for that particular answer. Mr. Speaker, the potential of southern customers such as Alberta I think is a great area that this Power Corporation should explore, because I think that Alberta has a significant demand of power and we certainly have a pent-up demand of clean energy that we could be selling them that could help sustain our pocketbooks or territorial purse for many years to come.

Mr. Speaker, if it was done wisely, we would have our own Churchill Fall example where Newfoundland provides cheap power…

Do you have a question, Mr. Hawkins?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. But let’s hope it would be affordable.

Mr. Speaker, has there been any work done on that aspect to become a direct exporter of power to Alberta? Thank you.

We have, as I was just saying, had a discussion with the chair of the Power Corporation, and through that board and the NT Hydro Corporation looking at the grid connections and if there’s an economic base for that, that work is starting to be reviewed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Have any customers been identified for that type of potential partnership and does the Premier see an opening to work with the federal government to work with Alberta to create ourselves as the customer of choice, or I should say provider of choice to the province of Alberta, considering their need for clean energy that the Northwest Territories has a lot of? Thank you.

Again, as I was saying earlier, we are aware that Alberta is going through a number of critical changes in its power generation moving away from coal-fired generation, having to replace it with either natural gas generation or clean hydro as a potential. We know that there are opportunities available. We have had that initial discussion to begin looking at that to see if there’s an economic base there where we can open that up, and that would also help us with our industry side here in the North when it comes to anchor tenants.

If there’s that grid connection, that means at times when they don’t need the peak, they can sell power that they purchase from us, as well, in that grid. We’re looking at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has a five-year mandate, and that is to examine the legacy of the residential schools in Canada. Inuvik will host this historical healing moment of our past. We have a lot of GNWT employees who have been impacted by the residential schools and the effects it has caused. I want to ask the Premier how will our government support them in this Truth and Reconciliation event in Inuvik.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of ways we’re supporting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, their work in helping the healing process. Through our workforce, we’re setting up for the volunteer basis that those who volunteer, we will support that initiative. Those who are attending as clients or those who will be attending as delegates, we’ve provided a process for that to occur. In a number of cases, whether it’s office space in kind, as well as trying to help with dealing with the 1,000 potential delegates that will be in the community, we’re helping in a number of ways. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the residential school has been a very tough issue for a lot of communities. The residential school has also contributed to a lot of violence, a lot of addictions and a lot of different forms of abuses in our communities. As a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, in 1998, when I did some of my training, a consultant from Santa Cruz, California, said to me that the residential school was a real festering ground for these kinds of things to happen in the communities. I didn’t understand what he said, not until today.

Mr. Speaker, we know personally that some of these survivors are in jails; they are inmates at the correctional centres. I want to ask the Premier how will he allow the inmates to have the opportunity to participate at this Truth and Reconciliation process. Thank you.

Thank you. The process underway is working with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They’re running and we’re supporting them in their work and delivery within the community. I can’t speak to it and I’d have to find out if there’s a process of if they’ve invited those within our correctional facilities. I think that when you look at the programs and services, that we do provide those who are in the facilities the counselling opportunities, on the land. In cases, we’ve reached out and tried to provide our own counselling over the years.

When this became a growing matter across Canada and the North, a number of departments got together to try and focus some of its programs to deal with those who’ve gone through residential schools. Thank you.

Thank you. It’s my understanding that Education, Culture and Employment has been the lead department to monitor and coordinate the GNWT’s support with the TRC Commission. I want to ask the Premier, through the Department of Education and Culture, collecting the archives and the photographs and putting this historical event together for the survivors and the community, if this even, or this collection at the end of the TRC process, will be made available to all the residents for a show and explain the history to the people at any public venue that could be sponsored by this government.

Thank you. We will, as we’ve done our own work in this, and being supportive of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, we’re going to be working with them to see how we can pool this together and come out with some process, documentation that we can, whether to showcase, put on display, have a historical record of it. We will work with them to see how we can pool that together. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Grollier Hall Residential School, Stringer Hall, opened in 1959. Grollier Hall closed in 1996; Stringer Hall in 1970. The community of Inuvik was part of our family. I wanted to ask the Premier what will he do to help the thousands of students -- there are 2,500 students that attended Grollier, and a number of students in the Sahtu and other outlying communities -- get to Inuvik. I know there’s a limited number. How can we help also with the students, the community of Inuvik, to do this healing? How can the Premier help fund the students to get there?

Thank you. We know that the groups have been working in the North with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and have been looking to get additional support for some of the travel costs. Right now we’re limited to what we can do in in-kind support or with volunteers, with office space, with residential occupancy areas of trying to make some of our facilities open to them. So that’s the extent of what we’ve been focusing on doing.

We don’t have a budget line right now for travel, for example, and we know that a number of groups have been working with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to see if they can expand their program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Environment on Pine Point and the clean-up of that site. I’d like to ask the Minister who is responsible for the clean-up of Pine Point Mines. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

The federal government, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Pine Point is clearly within the Northwest Territories. I’d like to know why that is the case. Why is the federal government responsible for cleaning up Pine Point?

Thank you. Because at this point they are the landlords, it’s Crown land. Should the day come with devolution, that site and its remediation would be dealt with through the devolution process, but at this point they are the landowner and responsible. Thank you.

Thank you. My understanding from the people in Fort Resolution is that the reason that Pine Point is not cleaned up is because Cominco continues to hold a lease in Pine Point. However, that mine has been shut down for 25 years. It only ran for 25 years. So my question is: what role does the territorial government have? The territorial government must have some role, regardless of devolution. Thank you.

Thank you. We played a major role as a government back when the town was in existence. As they dismantled the town and shut down the mine site and people were relocated or left, we played a role in that capacity. The actual clean-up of the site, with the huge pits and the tailings ponds and all the other attendant problems were the responsibility of the federal government. We had a role where we made sure and encouraged them to complete it and conclude it. I flew over there a few years ago and it is still a very visible work in progress, with the pits wide open and work still being done in the tailings ponds. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pine Point used to be, at one time, a great trapping area for many trappers of Fort Resolution. The site has to be remediated. It’s been left, like I said, 25 years. I want to know if this government can do anything now with the discussions on devolution. Can this government do anything at all to clean Pine Point up? Thank you.

Thank you. In the agreement-in-principle for devolution there’s a specific clause in part of the agreement that deals with the whole area of contaminated sites, ones that are currently in existence, ones that may come into existence. There’s been significant work on inventory. There’s hundreds and hundreds of contaminated sites that have to be cleaned up. Many, or most, are on Crown land, some on territorial land, which we are responsible for. Pine Point is on that list, and once again, it’s a list that far exceeds the resources available to remediate all of the sites. So it will be on the list to be dealt with, hopefully, and identified through this process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address my questions to the Minister of MACA today, but in his absence I will address them to the Premier. I spoke in my statement about the NWT SPCA and the fact that this government really doesn’t put any priority on veterinary services and programs for our communities. The NWT SPCA is a possible organization which can be the conveyance to provide some of those services for our communities. So I’d like to ask the Premier what opportunities exist within our government for the NWT SPCA to access funds to help them build and operate an NWT animal shelter. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

I don’t have any of that information available to me at this point, so I’ll have to take the question as notice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

1.

Please provide a schedule showing how often the Housing Corporation conducts assessments on its public housing units to check for mould and other potential health hazards.

2.

Please provide a copy of a policy and detailed action plan of how the Housing Corporation will deal with mould and similar health hazards in public housing units.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8, oral questions.

---Unanimous consent granted