Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of ENR some questions with regard to my Member’s statement. Forest fires are common occurrences in the Northwest Territories from May to September and can cause extensive damage, put lives in danger and cause health effects.
I’d like to know what the Department of ENR’s assessment and plan is for this coming fire season in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got all the traditional forces together. The fire crews are back on. The fixed-wing resources or assets are there, as are the rotary wing. We have, as well, looked at the meteorological reports. We anticipate, and predictions are, extreme drought in the southern part of the territory, both the South Slave and the Deh Cho. So, we have folks on high alert. We’ve made alternate arrangements for, as well, a DC-6 from Airspray to be available and we will be making use of the MARS agreement, should the need arise over the course of the fire season.
The cool, somewhat damp weather has been a blessing so far, but like everybody else, I watch the weather very carefully and we anticipate that sooner or later the fire season will start up in earnest. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I note that on the NWT fire website that we’ve had four fires to date and there’s two current. One is being monitored, but constituents have been asking. The fires that are being monitored late last year that caused excessive smoke in the communities causing some health effects to the elders, to young people, people with health conditions.
Can the department consider being more proactive in putting out these monitoring fires early? Particularly when there’s so few of them, I’m sure we can use some extra resources and put them out before more heat comes and more winds that cause bigger fires. Thanks.
We proceed by the policies laid out and directly laid out through the values at risk. I appreciate the Member’s concern, because smoke can travel a long way. I will talk to the department about the fires the Member is mentioning, to see what is in fact possible. Thank you.
Earlier in my spring tour as I toured the smaller communities in my riding, the leadership was asking about updating their firebreaks and getting that cleaned up. I’m wondering if the department has been to the communities and are working the communities to update and even clean out their firebreaks so that they’re out of danger. Thank you.
There has been work done through the FireSmart Program. It is not heavily resourced. What we have been doing is trying to work with municipalities, with individuals to make sure they fire smart their own properties, and where there’s an opportunity early in the fire season or when there’s a lull in fire season and if the crews are available, we’ve been putting those crews to work, as well, in the various communities, trying to look at firebreaks and the thinning of brush and the removable of flammable under-forest to help limit the spread of fire. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Just getting back to the health effects of smoke from forest fires, does the department work, say, with the Department of Health with an information campaign so the residents can best be prepared for the fire season? Thank you.
Yes, we will ensure that, as usual, folks are ready. This is the time of year, as well, where there’s a dusting off of emergency measure plans and the need for, as the Member indicated, a communication between Health and fire and in the event of heavy smoke that everybody knows what to do when that situation arises. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment and I’d like to begin by asking the Minister one or two of the questions which I mentioned in my statement, which have been provided to me by constituents and are questions which I would love to get an answer for as well.
The first one from a constituent: How can the Minister add one whole cohort of students – and by that I’m referencing junior kindergarten – and reduce funding to the boards and at the same time still maintain that the boards are able – the Minister is saying that the boards are able – to maintain the same PTR? So we are adding one whole grade, junior kindergarten, we’re reducing funding and apparently still maintaining PTR, which I have great difficulty in believing. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we are rolling out the program this fall, as I mentioned earlier, 22 out of 29 communities are going full force with the introduction of junior kindergarten and the rest will follow a year after and then the third year phased approach.
As I stated yesterday, two days ago I met with the board chairs of YCS and YK1 and we gave them some information that will be a useful part of their calculation of numbers. So we need to have actual, concrete, factual numbers and those are the facts that we want to lay out. The information that was introduced in the media is misleading; it wasn’t accurate information. So, the numbers that will come out early next week will be much different than what we’ve seen based on enrolment. So at that time I will be sharing it with the public. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister for the information. I think I and the public will wait with bated breath to see this new information and see how it’s presumably going to assist the boards. I still have difficulty believing when you take money away that it’s going to make things better.
The second question from a constituent: How can the current level or quality of education be maintained with the slashing of funding to the school boards? Thank you.
When we first introduced junior kindergarten, we worked with the superintendents and they gave us some ideas of how we could mitigate and also work with the existing funding that has been introduced. Based on that, we came up with some numbers, a first and second and third year approach based on the 29 communities and then on to the regional centres and, finally, the Yellowknife school boards. Based on that, I’ve also committed that anything beyond 16 to 1 student teacher ratio I will be subsidizing as a department, as the Minister responsible for education. Based on that, the PTR, that’s why I don’t really want to say much in this House as of yet because those numbers are being crunched by the two senior staff, YK1, YCS and my department as we speak. Mahsi.
I didn’t hear much reference to how this is maintaining the quality or the level of education that we currently have when the boards are losing money.
I’d like to also ask the Minister: It hasn’t been stated outright, but certainly in recent actions and statements by both the department and the Minister, there’s been an indication that there’s a new policy which is being instituted by the GNWT for boards. That seems to be, from what I’m gathering and what I’m hearing, is use your surpluses to fund your budget shortfalls. You’ve got surpluses and we want you to use them up, we’re not giving you any more money until you do that.
I’d like to know from the Minister if this is a new policy on the part of Education, Culture and Employment and are they implementing it on their own, or is it a part of a Cabinet decision? Thank you.
Mahsi. The board surplus is at the discretion of the school boards at this time. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. It’s nice to know that, if I hear the Minister correctly, he’s not going to claw back surpluses, but by reducing funding, that in effect requires them to use their surpluses to fill in the shortfalls.
So I’d like to know from the Minister, in Yellowknife, obviously the situation is different, the Minister is well aware, if he’s forcing the boards in Yellowknife to use up their surpluses, a portion of that is taxpayers’ money. So does he feel that that’s fair in that my taxpayer dollars are being forced to fill in a shortfall that the GNWT is instituting? Thank you.
I’m glad the Member is referring to taxpayers’ money. It is public money, the surplus that’s been accumulated. Some are substantial amounts and those monies should be expended into educational programming, so we support that as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Public Works and Services. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, the high cost of fuel prices in the community of Tsiigehtchic. It’s not bad enough we’re paying $8 per litre of milk, now the price of heating fuel has gone up.
I’d like to ask the Minister: Can the Minister explain the huge increase in the price of fuel for Tsiigehtchic?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The biggest contributor to the increase of heating fuel has been the wholesale cost of fuel. The wholesale cost of fuel over a 12-month period from early 2013 to early 2014 was 20 cents a litre. That is the price increase of the wholesale price when we purchased it Edmonton, and somehow that contributed to, for example, an increase of 17 cents a litre in Yellowknife.
I was actually asking about Tsiigehtchic. I wasn’t too concerned about Yellowknife. The prices here are, I believe, $1.38 per litre. The residents of Tsiigehtchic want to know why they feel the communities are always hit with the highest prices. As well, Tsiigehtchic is on the Mackenzie River system.
Can we reduce the cost by bringing fuel in to the community by barge?
I was just making a comparison to the increase in YK. The Member is right; the increase in Tsiigehtchic, although we purchased the price of wholesale fuel for 20 cents a litre more, we charged 19 cents a litre more in Tsiigehtchic, so we did that by trying to use our Stabilization Fund to hold the price for a few months until the winter season was over so that the individuals in the smaller communities weren’t hit with the high fuel prices that we purchased in January. We held the price using our Stabilization Fund until the end of the winter season so that we would try to somehow keep the cost as low as possible for the homeowners.
One of our priorities for this government is to reduce the cost of living in our communities.
How does the Minister plan to address the impacts of increased fuel prices on the quality of life in our smaller communities?
We do try to buy fuel, heating fuel, motor fuel and gasoline at the lowest possible price. We do make a call on the price of gasoline. We do buy mid-grade gasoline. It’s very important to the communities to have gasoline that doesn’t de-grade. If we buy low-grade gasoline, which is four cents a litre cheaper, the communities also realize that sometimes when we buy a lower grade gasoline there have been issues with snowmobiles and boat motors and so on. When people are out on the land, it’s essential that they have good gas, so we do pay four cents a litre more for that, but we do try to get the lowest possible price. Then we blend the rates and we try not to give people shocking fuel price increases. Even if we are paying those increases, to try to hold the price as much as possible by using our Stabilization Fund.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain some of the differences between the Northwest Territories petroleum products supply and Nunavut’s bulk fuel purchases that have allowed them to stabilize fuel costs while prices in the Northwest Territories continue to rise?
I’m not familiar with the policy that Nunavut employs. The policy that we use is to provide fuel, heating fuel and gasoline to communities where there are no individuals that consider it marketable to be able to sell fuel, so the government steps in as a last resource to provide that service to the individuals. The government tries to come in at the exact cost of fuel and we sell it for the cost of operating and purchasing and transporting the fuel to the community.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement, I talked about the Tulita leadership meeting this past couple of days, and again, I appreciate the Ministers and the Premier making themselves available on the short notice.
I want to ask my questions to the Minister of ITI. Due to the delay in further work and the exploration work in the Sahtu, work will still continue on the Husky road. They will continue doing environmental studies and some seismic work this summer.
I want to ask the department what type of department planning initiatives will continue to ensure that the people in the Sahtu, in the North, that we are ready when work will come up again.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the fact that the leadership from the Sahtu was down in Yellowknife meeting with us, and I understand they were in Calgary as well. It is a pause in the activity in the Sahtu and with that pause we have to keep a positive frame of mind about how things are going to progress there. There are other opportunities, and I know the leadership in the Sahtu is aware of those other opportunities. Our government is committed to continuing to work with the leadership in the Sahtu to see those opportunities realized, and we will continue our best on moving forward with advancing things in the Sahtu to allow people to take advantage of those opportunities as they come, and some are going to be coming sooner than others.
The people in the Sahtu are looking at other opportunities due to the delay in the exploration work. I want to ask the Minister about the other opportunities that we really should talk about and what specifically.
Will the Minister come to the Sahtu to work and meet with the people in the Sahtu to continue this type of dialogue we’ve had in the last couple of days?
Certainly, the future looks very bright for the Sahtu, for the region. I do have plans to travel to Norman Wells and to Deline the middle of June, and I look forward to continuing the discussion that we had recently with the leadership from the Sahtu on how we can work together to advance opportunities that will benefit not only the region but the territory as a whole.
The leadership wants to talk about that we do have a high population of graduates in the next couple of years. We’re looking at the training opportunities and career development.
Again, are there opportunities? I want to ask the Minister, in regard to these, are there opportunities, as the leadership talked about, specifically with ITI to support them to advance these opportunities like the Canol Heritage Trail, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, training institution that we could have in the Sahtu? Is the Minister willing to support the leadership in advancing these types of proposed projects within his department and with the colleagues that are going to be working on these initiatives also?
Again, the dialogue needs to continue and the discussion needs to continue to happen. I know my colleagues, Minister Beaulieu and Minister Lafferty, we need to continue to work together, opportunities to invest in not only in people in the training but also in infrastructure. Those opportunities are before us and we just have to continue to work together. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the concerns that we have also has to do with the geoscience work that’s happened up in the Sahtu.
Is the Minister also going to be involved in some of the leadership, some of the work that could happen that our people also can take advantage of the geoscience work that is going to be happening in the Sahtu?
We are now responsible for that work through the geoscience office here. We will continue to work to best determine how to go about collecting that type of information, cataloguing it and using it to our best advantage. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
