Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Welcome to everyone in the gallery today. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to acknowledge Mathew Anikina, Debbie Gordon-Ruben, Marion Green, Vanessa Anikina, Kristin Green, Lena Kotokak and Dwayne Illasiak for being selected to represent the Northwest Territories at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and the Paralympic Games as Inuit demonstrators.
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are around my Member’s statement in regard to working in conjunction with Government of the Northwest Territories departments and municipal governments to ensure that we are able to take advantage of federal program dollars, but, more importantly, to assist communities where they don’t have capacity by way of having the technical capacity of engineering technicians to basically deal with people that have planning backgrounds, regardless if it’s looking at the scope of work that has to be done, developing the proposals and whatnot.
So I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs exactly how can communities access these program dollars and get assistance from the GNWT, especially when you talk about positions such as the capital technician positions in the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, to work with communities to assist them whenever we develop these types of proposals to take advantage of federal funding. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is always willing to work with the communities and at the community’s request, we’ll go into the community and work with them in identifying some of their projects, and some of the financing options, and some of the technical options that are available to them. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister exactly what is the process for a community to access these individuals, the people in the department, so that they can come into the communities, help them develop these proposals, take a look at the problem, regardless if it’s shoreline erosion or structural challenges that we’re facing, regardless if it’s permafrost or dealing with those systems in our communities. I’d like to ask the Minister what’s the process a community has to access these individuals in the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Mr. Speaker, the community would make a request to the department and just ask them to come in and work with them. Once they’re there, they’ll assist them in working on a proposal for the community and possibility a scope of work if it’s within their technical expertise. They’d be willing to assist them in financing options and just getting their proposal put together so it’s ready to go if any funding pots become available. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, one thing that we found with a lot of the federal funding is they’re time sensitive in which you, basically, have to have what they call shovel ready projects, and again, because of the short time frame that we’re looking at, that we have to be able to streamline the process so that we’re able to take advantage of these timelines. So I’d just like to ask the Minister again, exactly who is the contact person that these communities should call? Should they call the regional superintendent or call the Minister’s office, call the deputy Minister’s office? Who is the person that’s at the front line that they should first make contact with?
Mr. Speaker, the people would contact the regional superintendents of MACA in the five regions that are out there. They, in turn, will discuss with their staff and see who would be going into the community to assist the community with their proposal. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, again, I’ve phrased this issue in this House in regard to the Aklavik situation in regard to the shoreline erosion that has basically come to the surface because of the inspection that was done by the community which realized that this project has to get some attention.
So I’d just like to ask the Minister here today if he can have someone go into Aklavik and assist them in regard to trying to pull this thing together. They’ve got numbers out there, they’ve provided some information to the different Ministers, myself, but, again, it’s not good enough. We have to do more to ensure that those reports are pretty detailed and they are able to pass the checkmark of meeting the federal government standards. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, can he give me assurances that we will have people in the community to assist on this particular project?
Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member that I will pass that information on to the department and see if we could have somebody go into the community of Aklavik and work with them on their issue of the shoreline erosion. There is some historical data that they could probably use and help them put a proposal together so they have a proposal that’s ready to go, should some more funding become available.
There are always different pots of money out there that we’re always attempting to access with the federal government, so if we have the proposal ready to go, that’s the first step and then should funding become available, we have something to submit immediately. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my statement from yesterday and my priority mentioned today of early childhood education to the Minister of ECE.
Pediatricians in B.C. are ready to adopt the recommendation that children under the age of two not watch any television at all. This is already recommended by the pediatricians in the United States. Apparently problems that are linked to television viewing by the very young include obesity and an increase in violent activity, but, most importantly, two hours of screen time daily will cut brain development by an estimated 15 percent.
Now this is a remarkable report, quite recent, and it points out the need for strong communication with parents to inform them of the health risks and concerns. Is the Minister aware of this concern and is he notifying the public about this opportunity to support their children? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware of this particular issue that’s before us within another jurisdiction, but surely we can have our department look into that information in the B.C. jurisdiction. Mahsi.
I appreciate that openness on the part of the Minister. I did find out about this from a concerned resident and I’d be happy to forward that information to his system with that.
Can the Minister outline for me how the department does keep parents directly informed of good child care and rearing practices in general? Thank you.
Through education awareness within the schools or the child care development programs, the facilities, we do have various qualified caregivers. Not only that, we do have coordinators at the community level and even at the regional level that can surely share that type of information. Whether it be pertaining to children under the age of two or over the age of two, there are all kinds of programming that is out there.
So that information is shared broadly throughout the Northwest Territories. So we continue to depend on our workers at that level, at the community and regional level. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
That’s sufficient for now. I’ll look forward to further work on this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources and are in follow-up to my Member’s statement from earlier today.
In December, the Minister responsible for ENR and the Premier will be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference. This is a significant conference, with potential to keep the 2012 Kyoto protocols, which are to prevent climate change and global warming, on line and possibly develop new more reasonable climate protocols. In light of this, will the GNWT lead by example and establish more aggressive targets for greenhouse gas emissions throughout the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would argue that as a government and as a Legislature we are leading by example with the $60 million Alternative Energy Program that we’ve committed to, with the work with biomass and hydro and wind. And we, as well, through our Joint Climate Change Committee, already agreed and will be bringing back the current Greenhouse Gas Strategy for review in anticipation of looking at the next iteration of that document with an eye towards internal targets, as well as we’re going to double-check the legal authority we do have for any kind of decisions that could possibly be made outside of the community boundaries. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for that response. In my statement I did mention that in many ways we are leading by example. Currently the GNWT has placed a 10 percent reduction on greenhouse gas emissions for internal operations, yet the GNWT does not have emission reduction targets for the NWT as a whole. There is some reference to controlling emissions, but without significant measurable reduction targets, there is no incentive for non-government interest to meet any targets. Would the Minister commit to updating the existing Greenhouse Gas Strategy and establish strong science-based targets for the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In my previous answer I indicated that the Joint Climate Change Committee had identified that as a priority and we’re going to be bringing back the current Greenhouse Gas Strategy and taking a look at it and start putting the process and pieces in place to look at developing what is going to be the next edition of the updated Greenhouse Gas Strategy. Thank you.
Once again I’d like to thank the Minister for that. I look forward to seeing that document when it comes forward.
As we move forward...
Going forward.
I have talked to some constituents and other interested parties who have suggested that the GNWT’s target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations by 10 percent below the 2001 levels by 2011 lacks some ambition. That we’ve pretty much actually attained these reductions and suggests that the lack of ambition reductions -- which, you know, ambitious reductions I mean challenging reductions -- limit the long-term value of the Greenhouse Strategy itself. Would the Minister commit to review the internal reductions targets that we currently have and establish more ambitious internal targets which demonstrate a significant commitment to reducing emissions within the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, everything we do that takes us from where we are to greater reductions is a step forward. It may not be as great as some people would like, but we have made significant strides. I’ll point again to the $60 million we’re committing to alternative energy. We did a presentation where the Public Works folks laid out a long list of government facilities across the land that are going to be converted to biomass, with the thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas reductions. We’ve committed, as well, and I have done it now with the last two questions, that we’re going to be looking at revising and updating the Greenhouse Gas Strategy that’s currently in place, recognizing that a lot has happened since 2006. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary. Thank you. Honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For as long as I’ve been in Hay River, and I’m sure for many years before I got there, there have been very strong ties between what was called the Hay River Reserve, the K’atlodeeche First Nation and the town of Hay River. These two communities are located on the east and west sides of the Hay River. Mr. Speaker, there has never been a permanent link between these two communities and when there is no ice road in the wintertime, it requires the residents to travel many miles, clock many miles to travel back and forth between these communities. People from across, as we fondly refer to it, attend school, they attend church, they have family, we have families that live on both sides of the river and yet there has never been a permanent link to make the distance between these two communities more affordable and, I guess, easier to get between.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation, to his knowledge, has there ever been a study or a costing done of what it would take to put a permanent bridge between the communities of the K'atlodeeche First Nation and the town of Hay River? Thank you.
Good question.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, I believe, and I’d have to check with my colleague from MACA, but I believe the municipality did a costing and an assessment of putting a bridge between the two communities. Thank you.
And the costing was done.
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Yeah, a bridge would be helpful. I’m not too sure, thinking back to whether or not there was always political agreement about whether such a bridge would impact the residents of the Hay River Reserve in a way that they wanted at the time. So I’d like to ask, when was the last time that question was posed to the people of Hay River and the K'atlodeeche First Nation? Thank you.
The Member is talking about a community in my riding, so I guess I’d have to say it’s been posed a number of times directly to me as the MLA for that community. I don’t believe the Department of Transportation has ever done an assessment of what it costs to build a bridge between the two communities. It’s viewed as a municipal piece of infrastructure at this point. I’d have to confirm that, of course, but I have not seen any information aside from the discussion we had some time ago when I was first elected as an MLA to the Deh Cho, that I’ve seen some documents I believe were put together by the municipality who paid for...the Town of Hay River, I should say, that paid for the research. Thank you.
So what would it take to get such a bridge back onto the agenda? I guess if you’re saying it’s not a piece of GNWT infrastructure, obviously it’s not something that the taxpayers of the two communities could take on. What options are there open to investigate further the idea of building this link between these two communities with traditional and very longstanding ties to each other? Thank you.
My own opinion on this, of course, is that it would take a coordinated approach between the two communities. I know, and have heard from the K'atlodeeche people, and there’s been a number of requests at public meetings to try to see if there is any merit in having a piece of infrastructure built between the two communities. We have not seen any coordinated effort between the two communities to come forth jointly, and I think we’d have to involve other departments to see if we can find the resources to assist or submit some type of proposal that would identify the cost and type of infrastructure that would be required. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It takes resources to build the ice bridge every year and to maintain that bridge. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation who pays for the building of that ice bridge and the maintaining of it over the winter months. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I believe the cost is borne by the two communities, cost-shared. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
