The Member raises a good point. If I could point to the work done by the Porcupine Caribou Management Board where they, over a number of years, came to an agreement on the very issue and process that the Member has so astutely suggested as a way forward, which is to agree on numbers that are triggers to certain kinds of action. If they get low enough it triggers a ban. Once there’s an improvement to a certain number, it triggers certain specific conditions. If it gets healthy enough, then there are no specific harvest restrictions. What has precluded us from doing that is being able to work through with all the various co-management boards in the settled area and in the unsettled claims to come up with a management plan with those same kinds of triggers, and to do that you need, of course, your first solid baseline of information, in terms of your herd numbers, so you know where you’re starting from and what you’re going to need to go forward. The Member raises a point and we do have a model that, I believe, we should all be looking at and that’s the good work done by the folks managing the Porcupine caribou herd.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to first thank the Minister for that lavish praise and, of course, if he wishes to further gild the lily with how great I am, I would be willing to accept it.
When can we expect these particular numbers before us so we can have them for good discussion? The outfitters are feeling left out. Resident hunters are concerned. I support the return of full hunting for First Nation people, their opportunity.
The point is, when can we get the numbers out for discussion so we know what we’re working towards, because right now everyone’s in the dark and we want to be part of the solution while the government appears to be the problem.
I’m more than willing to lavish praise where it’s due, with exception, possibly, of his work in progress of his Movember efforts. I know he will keep at it. He’s got a few days yet to fill in all the blanks.
In my statement I laid out a process, and we’re going to follow that through with the Wek’eezhii board and the unsettled claims areas and work through to lay out the management plan. We know it’s good for the current year. The broader issue of coming up with the same type of management plan that the Porcupine Caribou Management Board has developed, I think that is something that all the boards and settled claim areas and unsettled claim areas will be looking at because it is a good model to emulate.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let’s take a look at this glowing good work that the Minister refers to. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. The summer of 2010, the Minister reports the Bluenose-East was at 100,000, at or near record numbers for this herd. The hunting seasons of 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013 and now we’re talking about 2013-2014 are going by, have gone by, with no resident quotas. The Minister says these numbers give us an opportunity to open discussions. Well, they gave us that opportunity two years ago and now we’re talking four years of missed seasons. These numbers give us an opportunity to open discussions about an unrestricted Aboriginal harvest as well as the possibility of considering a limited resident harvest on this herd.
My first question is: When is resident harvest of any barren land caribou herd unrestricted for resident hunters?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have, in the Northwest Territories, an agreed-to process for the management of wildlife in settled claims. That process is going to be involved with the Bluenose-East and involves the Tlicho, Sahtu and Inuvialuit, which are all public boards. They are going to be working with the department and we’re going to be reviewing those numbers. We’re going to be looking at pressures and going through that process. They will come back to myself as Minister and to the department with their recommendations.
The Minister refuses to answer. I will answer for you. Never. Resident hunters are never allowed unlimited harvest on barren land caribou. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, it’s simply the way it is. The season has been closed – that is zero harvest for resident hunters – for years now for all barren land caribou for resident hunters, except possibly the Porcupine. What has been the Aboriginal quota on the Bluenose-East caribou this year?
I apologize to the Member. I didn’t clearly understand the question. In terms of the unlimited resident harvest, the most that we’ve ever had, that I’m aware of, is five tags per resident hunter. The voluntary harvest that was in place for the Bluenose-East was in the neighbourhood of about 2,800 animals a year.
I continue to make my point. Meanwhile, the Minister keeps the season closed for resident hunters while we’re at record numbers here with this herd. How, in this time of total caribou deprivation for resident hunter families, can the Minister restrict resident hunter quotas to zero for years and years?
In the Northwest Territories we have a process in terms of how we prioritize access to wildlife and caribou in this case that has its basis in the Constitution where we talk about the Aboriginal rights to harvest for Metis, Indian and Inuit people. We have a list. When there are restrictions, Aboriginal subsistence harvest gets protected and we work our way down from commercial harvest to resident harvest, and then the last to be protected at all costs is the Aboriginal subsistence harvest. That is the basis that we have made all our decisions on, and that is what guides us in our decision-making process throughout the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Gobbledy-gook. Why can the Minister not work management authorities now and get a resident quota in place for this season? Record numbers of caribou, unlimited Aboriginal harvest, how about 10 tags for resident hunters?
Gobbledy-gook implies that it’s unintelligible and no one can understand what I’m saying. I think the Member can understand what I’m saying, he just doesn’t like it. So let me repeat the issue. We have a process in the Northwest Territories and across the land. There has been pressures on the herds. There have been decisions made by the management boards that we have agreed with, that have put restrictions on almost every herd. Some of them there are total bans, way up north. On some they’ve, like the Bathurst, there was a requirement from myself as Minister three years ago to make a decision, which we did, because of the plummeting numbers. We’ve indicated that there’s enough good news here that we’re going to go forward through the processes that are there, in place in the Northwest Territories, to review those with an eye towards seeing if there is a sustainable harvest for Aboriginal hunters. As well, can we at the same time manage the herds to sustain a possible resident harvest? We are intent to look at that in specifically two areas, the two herds: the Bluenose-East and the Beverly-Ahiak herd.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Finance for some… Actually, I had a constituent that works for First Nations in my riding and that constituent actually came to Yellowknife and rented a hotel room, but wasn’t able to get a government rate. She had asked why we don’t get a First Nations rate.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance how the government gets a government rate at hotels here in the Northwest Territories or throughout Canada.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a process based on volume, large organizations, governments, corporations, traditionally go to airlines, in some cases they go to hotels, and they negotiate these types of rates that are accessible and a benefit to folks when they are travelling and in some cases with government, even when you’re just travelling on your own, if you’re an employee you can also use the fact that you’re a government employee. So that’s a negotiated arrangement with the different hotel chains and motel chains in some cases.
I guess the point I was making and failed to say was the First Nations, thereby First Nations government in our Northwest Territories and throughout the Northwest Territories we, of course, respect our First Nations partners and governments. How can we work with the hotel associations or our government to ensure they are included and get a good corporate rate, because they’re flying into Yellowknife and travelling throughout Canada, as well, to conduct their business just as we are.
I understand that in some cases the Aboriginal governments, the Dene Nation or other Aboriginal governments would negotiate their own rate, be it with airlines or with hotels where they are patrons on a steady basis, or in some cases, up north where they actually buy and own the hotels, they have that advantage. If the Member is suggesting that we somehow partner up, I’d be glad to get the information and review the issue with Finance and the Member to see what’s possible in terms of that kind of arrangement. I don’t know if there’s any kind of group rate that the First Nations or Aboriginal governments could be included in, but I’d be willing to commit to talk to Finance and the Member about that.
I certainly look forward to that information. As well, some of our small communities, too, are technically a municipal government as well. Can he also look into that aspect of it as well?
I’ll commit that we look at all levels of government: municipal, Aboriginal, as well as territorial.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask a few more questions of the Minister for Health and Social Services. I would like to follow up on some of my previous questions.
My first question was, we have established a territorial respite care plan, from what I understand, and I asked the Minister for an update, but now I’m asking when that plan is going to be rolled out.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan will be rolled out once we are able to get our business case to the business planning process.
We are in the business planning process right now, and I think the Minister is well aware of that. We have a business planning process every year.
I’d like to know from the Minister where respite care and the territorial respite care plan sits in the priorities for the department. Is he negotiating with Finance to have the respite care expansion start in ’13-14 or are we talking ’20-21?
For this planning cycle, for this current business planning process, we are not bringing any new initiatives into the mix, but we are reviewing requests through our presentations to the Standing Committee on Social Programs. After our request on the Standing Committee on Social Programs, we review what they come back with. They write a letter back to the government indicating that these are the areas they want us to look at. We would then examine that and go through the process. But I don’t think respite care was a part of anything that came back from Social Programs. But we are moving through the process. I suspect that the next business planning process would have respite in it.
I’m still struggling to get a year out of the Minister. If the Minister wants us to indicate to him that respite care is an important priority, then I’m certainly sure that the standing committee can do that for him. I asked where it sits in the priorities for the department, and I don’t think I really heard an answer.
Again, I would like to know from the Minister… He says that there are no new initiatives. This plan is already in progress. I don’t think it’s a new initiative to expand a plan, but I’d like to hear from the Minister, if that’s the government stance, that an expansion of any plan that’s currently in the works is a new initiative. I would like to have that confirmed.
The expansion of a program beyond what the approved program would be, would be considered a new initiative. Even though we have midwifery currently operating in one community, should we expand the Midwifery Program and the plan to expand the Midwifery Program to a territorial midwifery program, and also some midwives in Hay River and so on, Beaufort-Delta, that would also fall under new initiatives. Yes, they would be considered new initiatives if they’re expanding upon what is approved.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. My last question, I guess, goes to… Now I’ve totally lost my question and I’ll have to go to the one that I didn’t intend to ask.
The Minister talked about home care and that respite is available through home care. I’d like to ask the Minister if families needing respite care are using home care without any further resources added to the home care services in the communities, is that not just going to overwhelm the home care staff in our communities because they’re now providing home care for adults as well as home care for disabled persons?
The home care services that are being provided through the authorities and the communities will make a decision on whether or not they’re available to do respite services. All indications are that if respite services are needed in communities where we don’t actually have a respite program, that home care would be able to handle the extra workload of doing respite care, but through an approved process, that they would be able to handle respite care that was needed by individuals at the community level.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I was in Fort Good Hope, the elder Thomas Manuel asked about the conditions of our fish and our food, and he wanted me to ask the Minister of ENR if there is anything in the plans that would see a laboratory in the Sahtu region because of the recent increase of the exploration and the development and new laws coming through Ottawa. Any types of plans in place for a laboratory that would check on the fish or the animals that we’re eating since the scare of the XL Foods that has happened down south? He wanted me to ask the Minister that question.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What is in the works is a territory-wide, community-based water monitoring system that we are in the process of setting up with the ENR and the communities and the Aboriginal government so that, in fact, we can start addressing some of those very concerns that his constituent Mr. Manuel raised.
Some of our reports say that about close to 70 to 80 percent of our foods come from the land, and so we have a fundamental right, or we want a fundamental protection of our foods that are on our land. That’s why the elder asked if there is any type of plan where they would check on the fish and check on the animals that we eat.
I want to ask the Minister, would he also look within his federal counterparts if there are any types of plans in place that could be placed in Fort Good Hope.
We’re working on this initiative with the communities, the territorial government. We have a lot of interest by a number of very committed NGOs, as well, that are very interested in this whole idea of community-based water monitoring to establish the baseline of information to be able to make the determination in the area that the Member, once again, has raised as a concern that have been brought to him by his constituents.
In northern Alberta it’s been announced that there are high levels of mercury in the moose and the waterfowl tests that the people are hunting down there now. Slowly that will come up in the Northwest Territories. Because of the new laws that are coming up North here, we in the Sahtu, and especially elders like Thomas Manuel want to ensure that any type of protection that we have such as establishing a laboratory in Fort Good Hope or in the Sahtu that would give some early indication that we better pay attention to what is coming down into our air, our land and water. I ask the Minister for any types of reports recently that showed if the high levels of these types of toxins are in our animals.
One of the most obvious areas that we want to monitor, of course, is the water, the Mackenzie, which comes through Great Slave Lake which in turn goes through the Slave into the Peace-Athabasca. There are monitoring efforts being looked at all the way from northern Alberta down right to the Arctic Ocean.
We are committed to this community-based water monitoring initiative that will give us that baseline information that will allow us to check the water, fish and sediments. It will also allow us for some of the airborne pollutants, as well, that we can hopefully measure.
If we are going to track the issues that are in the mercury, for example, the other heavy metals and all polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and acetic acids and all these other exotic substances, then we need to have the ability to have that community-based water monitoring. That’s our starting point and our commitment. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC). Please provide:
information on the cost of legal advice incurred by the WSCC in the past four fiscal years;
information on the costs incurred by the WSCC for legal advice on individual case files in the past four fiscal years; and
information on the cost incurred by WSCC in support of its presentations before appeals tribunals in the past four fiscal years.
Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Dolynny.
