Debates of October 13, 2004 (day 19)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in my Member’s statement, I talked about the historical event or gathering of the Dene elders and youth at the Tsuu T'ina Reserve outside of Calgary. It has been prophesied and told by elders how people at one time separated and how there will be a time when we come together as one people, as Dene people. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask a question to the Premier. He noted that earlier he received a letter seeking some support for an elders’ gathering outside of Calgary. Also, letters went to the MLAs of the Dene ancestry. I want to ask the Premier if he would agree to sponsor the Dene at the international youth gathering outside of Calgary as requested by the letter that was sent on October 5th. Thank you.

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

Return To Question 210-15(3): Gathering Of Dene Elders And Youth

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think there is hardly a week that goes by that we are not asked as a government to sponsor something outside of the Territories. I am sure that there is hardly a day that goes by that we are not asked to help out with an event in the Northwest Territories. We certainly give priority to events in the Northwest Territories. When it comes to events outside of the Territories, we look very carefully at them. Mr. Speaker, I only received a couple of weeks ago just a very brief letter from the people organizing this event, which I have no doubt is very important to them, but there is not enough detail to be able to respond quickly to it. I have passed that on to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. At this point, based on the information that arrived to me, I have difficulty supporting this kind of general request for an event down in Calgary. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 210-15(3): Gathering Of Dene Elders And Youth

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I heard many times the Premier speaking about the values of having a united voice about issues concerning the North, given that a substantial portion of the North is of Dene ancestry and this gathering is a Dene gathering of all the people of North America and requires some support from this government. Also, the Premier indicated that the financial restraints make it difficult for the Premier to commit. Would the Minister commit to looking at supporting the 2006 International Dene Gathering? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 210-15(3): Gathering Of Dene Elders And Youth

Mr. Speaker, certainly, I would consider the one in 2006 where we have some notice. We have some time to answer questions and see what the agenda is, who is participating, who else is contributing funding. That kind of thing I would certainly look very carefully at. When we get these last minute ones, it is very difficult for us to justify spending the money. I would really appreciate information quickly on the 2006 proposed event. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 210-15(3): Gathering Of Dene Elders And Youth

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Dene people throughout the Northwest Territories, I thank the Premier for supporting this at this time. Would the Premier commit to supporting the second phases as soon as we get the information to his office to start circulating it amongst the Dene governments? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 210-15(3): Gathering Of Dene Elders And Youth

Mr. Speaker, I would like to see the information and what the expected results would be, what the dollars are before I commit. I certainly encourage Members who have information on the second phase to get that information to us and I will look at it with my department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 210-15(3): Gathering Of Dene Elders And Youth

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the elders have given us their guidance and wisdom in our path in life and what we choose to do. I would ask the Premier if he would reconsider in terms of offering some support to this international gathering for this year. I know they have asked for a specific amount, but I am not sure what the exact amount is, but I think it would be good to have some signal from this government to offer some support to the elders who are gathering down in Calgary. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 210-15(3): Gathering Of Dene Elders And Youth

Mr. Speaker, I would need more information because what I have received so far is just information that Dene elders from across North America and youth and others are gathering on a reserve outside of Calgary and asking us for $15,000, I believe it was, to send some drummers to this event. I don’t know anything about the event. I just need more information, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Justice. In my riding in the community of Fort Simpson, it was brought to my attention that the court worker position has not been filled for quite some time and what they typically would do is they would bring in another member from a community like Hay River. Recently, they haven’t even been doing that, so my question to the Minister of Justice is when will they be looking at filling the court worker position in Fort Simpson to address the justice needs of Fort Simpson?

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Justice, the Honourable Charles Dent.

Return To Question 211-15(3): Court Worker Position In Fort Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t know. I will have to take the question as notice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier, in follow-up to Mr. Braden’s questions with respect to comments that the Premier recently made that were attributed to him in the media. I will just paraphrase; it was to the effect that without a resource revenue sharing agreement with Ottawa, the pipeline would not go ahead. I have to tell you I was somewhat surprised to read that, given some of our previous discussions, but I was pleased because I made it very clear in other communications with the Premier that I believe that for us to proceed without our rightful share of the royalties from our non-renewable resources is not a good deal for the Northwest Territories. Having said that, I also want to clarify that I am not against the pipeline. I am pro-development, but not at any cost and without the kinds of benefits in place for northerners that need to be in place before we proceed. Mr. Braden raised a good point when he said the diamonds are going out, the gas and oil activity is marching on and what incentive does the federal government have to come to the table to have the royalties discussion with us. What do we have at our disposal to bring them to that discussion? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Return To Question 212-15(3): Incentive For Devolution Negotiations

Mr. Speaker, while it’s true that the federal government can probably just go ahead and permit the building of the Mackenzie pipeline in spite of concerns, objectives or issues that are raised in the North, they can expropriate land and do what they feel is in the national interest. That is not the way the federal government wants to do this. That is why, Mr. Speaker, I understand that Minister Anne McLellan has been given the lead on this one. She is to work out a way to have the pipeline move ahead with the support of northerners. So what does the federal government want? They want our support as northerners. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that the Prime Minister very much recognizes the importance of the North, and the Northwest Territories in particular, to all Canadians. He wants to see that pipeline go ahead. He does not, from his words to me, want to see it go over in spite of objectives from us. The only thing we have is our support. The federal government could license it and just run right over us if they wanted to, but I don’t believe it will go that way.

I am also, Mr. Speaker, very much in support of the pipeline, but the same as Mrs. Groenewegen, I am not in support of it at any cost. There has to be a benefit to us. It’s our future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 212-15(3): Incentive For Devolution Negotiations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Premier for that as well. I guess I am just not as optimistic as he is, given the federal government is holding all the cards on this. I just can’t think of a reason why they would want to be nice to us. It sounds like it could proceed over our objectives anyway. I know you said they don’t want to, but the fact is it could. So I think we need to assure northerners how far we are prepared to go to protect the interest of the Northwest Territories in this scenario.

The Premier referred to an interim agreement on resource revenue sharing and also the fact that there was supposed to be a meeting of the Aboriginal Summit this week, but it couldn’t take place. Does the Premier then have a clear mandate from our aboriginal partners, our leaders, our grand chiefs, chiefs, to proceed to negotiate an interim agreement with the federal government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 212-15(3): Incentive For Devolution Negotiations

Mr. Speaker, I don’t yet have what I would consider to be a clear mandate from all the aboriginal leaders to negotiate a final interim resource revenue sharing agreement. I do have the majority of aboriginal leaders onside with the concept. They were going to get together for two days this week to work out more of the detail and I was going to meet with them on Thursday evening, myself and Minister Roland. I understand that that meeting now is postponed probably until next week.

Mr. Speaker, I want to work in partnership with the aboriginal leaders in pursuing this. I don’t want to just have our government go ahead and sort of bowl over the aboriginal leaders, any more than we want the federal government to do that to us. So I want to work with them, I want to move this quickly, I am keeping the aboriginal leaders informed of everything that I am doing and hopefully we will continue to have their support because I think we all, in principle, agree with the need to have more revenues stay here. We don’t want to have to wait five years for that to happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 212-15(3): Incentive For Devolution Negotiations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Premier is absolutely right, we do not want to wait five years. There is no sense in closing the barn door after the horses are already out and I am just afraid that there is a stampede in a certain direction here. I am not consoled or assured that we are going to capture the benefits from the resources for our people and, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Premier if he could commit to this House and to the public that getting this agreement in place as soon as possible is his number one priority as the Premier of this government; that in fact other things of lesser importance could be set aside so that he could focus his attention, I would almost go as far as to say exclusively, on getting this deal done. It is of paramount importance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley

Further Return To Question 212-15(3): Incentive For Devolution Negotiations

Mr. Speaker, I agree with Mrs. Groenewegen that this is of paramount importance. I can assure you that it is the number one thing that I wake up thinking about in the morning and that I go to bed thinking about when I go to sleep. It is very critical for us that we have the pipeline. First of all, we have got to have the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. If we diddle around and the Alaska pipeline goes first, we will all have nothing in terms of resource revenue from that.

So we need to negotiate with the federal government an arrangement that doesn’t see the roughly $23.7 billion of government revenues all flow or largely flow to the federal government and the other provinces who supply material. Mr. Speaker, out of every dollar that is spent or that is received in government revenue, in a study that was done for us by Wright Mansell consultants in this business, shows that we get roughly four cents on the dollar right now to keep in the North. That is not a fair deal and, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that this is the most important thing on my agenda. While I have lots of other things to do, I will continue to see that this one receives priority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 212-15(3): Incentive For Devolution Negotiations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to hear that commitment and I hope the people of the Northwest Territories are listening to that because the Premier says that we need the pipeline, and we do need the pipeline, but we do not need it under the current regime of the agreements that we have with Ottawa at this time. Is the Premier prepared to talk tough? At one time, before the application was filed, I was hearing from some people that it’s a sensitive time, we don’t want to scare them away. But this pipeline is going to do nothing but cost us money if we do not have our rightful share of the resources and royalties from it and the benefits from it. It’s going to cost us money, there is no sense in bragging about a pipeline if it’s going to put us into debt and put us into the hole and have a negative impact on our people. So I just want to ask the Premier, is he prepared…Don’t be worried about offending the producers and offending industry. Is he willing to talk tough on our behalf on this particular subject? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 212-15(3): Incentive For Devolution Negotiations

Mr. Speaker, I can assure this House that I will talk tough on it, the Finance Minister will talk tough on it, and our government will talk tough at the same time. We are not ones to issue hollow threats. We will negotiate, we will negotiate strongly, but if it comes down to it, then we have to be tough with the federal government if it goes there.

I know, Mr. Speaker, that the Prime Minister’s eyes are very much on the North. He has talked about working with us on a vision for the North, on developing a northern strategy. So I like the signals I hear coming, and I am sure that we can be tough and be good negotiators who come up with a deal that everybody can be happy with and is not going to jeopardize the pipeline. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier, the Honourable Joseph Handley. My question is with regards to where the implementation strategy is for the vision for the arts. During the business plan, the Department of RWED, as well as the Department of Education, had requested our support for these projects. So without giving us details, I am asking the Premier where the implementation of the vision for the arts strategy is. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The questions are relating to issues that came up in the business plan reviews, so the Minister is not responsible to go into any detail on that, but Mr. Handley did you want to respond? Mr. Premier.

Return To Question 213-15(3): Implementation Of Vision For The Arts Strategy

Mr. Speaker, I certainly don’t want to get into discussing what’s in the business plan, but I can say that the standing committee has asked for a briefing on it before we release any information and we have, I think the Ministers responsible, Mr. Dent and Mr. Bell, have asked for some time. So we will work with the standing committee first. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 213-15(3): Implementation Of Vision For The Arts Strategy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and it was not my intention to go into the details of what was discussed during the business plan, however, we have been asked to support a plan that they have promised to deliver and the Department of RWED had promised to deliver this summer. The Department of Education has been responding and that’s why I am directing my question to the Premier rather than trying to nail down two Ministers by them pointing at each other. So, therefore, I reaffirm to the Premier – it’s almost like a double jeopardy here – I reaffirm to the Premier, when will this art strategy be released to the public and to Members so we all know what’s happening? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 213-15(3): Implementation Of Vision For The Arts Strategy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, all I will say is that the standing committee, AOC, has asked for a briefing on this strategy before we release it and we are waiting for AOC to give us a date and a time for that briefing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today with a question for the Premier, the Honourable Joseph Handley.

Mr. Speaker, what is the total cost to date that the GNWT has invested: in studying environmental impacts, feasibility, or costs; analysis development of any business plans; contributions to other parties involved; or, finally, by any other means that are directly related to the construction of both the Taltson and Bear River dam projects? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. I have a written question addressed to the Honourable David Krutko.

My question is for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation:

What is the appeal process for potential and existing clients?

Is this appeal process independent of the Housing Corporation?

Will the Minister provide any legislation to improve the appeal process if it is not working?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my written question is to the Minister of RWED. The Northwest Territories was built on a traditional economy by trappers. These trappers have supported many interest groups, such as the Hudson Bay Company, government agencies, churches, etcetera, in the communities.

How many full-time trappers are there in the NWT?

How many part-time trappers are in the NWT?

How many trappers are there in each of the regions?

On average, what does it cost to trap full time and part time?

What is the average income per trapper, either full time or part time?

What types of assistance are provided to trappers in the NWT?

How are the trappers being compensated for “potential development” in their area of livelihood and what is the process for compensation?