Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Strategic Initiative Committee on Refocusing Government. That’s Minister Miltenberger.
In my Member’s statement from earlier I spoke of my support for this initiative if done properly and if thoroughly examined and analyzed. I think there is room for improvement. However, I do have some concerns about the process that is currently at play. I’m just wondering if the Minister could comment on the intent to use the one size fits all approach with boards across the territory.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.
First let me indicate in this House that I look forward to having the Chair of EDI and the Chair of Social Programs hopefully come on board as fully participating members on this very important committee so we can in fact do all of the work.
The issue that the Member raised of one size fits all. There are some fundamental principles we’re moving on, but we recognize that we’re going to have to tailor circumstances to each of the regions. For example, we recognize that the North Slave, which comprises mainly Yellowknife as well as Lutselk’e, has some unique challenges. They’re complex in a different way from most other regions. We’re recommending that we take a two track approach. We believe that we can look at most of these other regions and move ahead, but in Yellowknife we have to take the time to look at all the complexities that are there to make sure we are making the best and most informed decision, tailoring the requirements to those realities.
I thank the Minister for that. I do look forward to working with him on the Refocusing Government committee when the time does come. I guess what I’m seeking today is just reassurance. It sounds like the Minister is understanding the intricacies of the various regions across the territory.
I wanted to ask: before any implementation is undertaken on the board reform, will the Minister convey all the concerns that have been expressed to him and his staff? They’re going out and shopping this around. There are going to be concerns out there from stakeholders. Will those concerns in their entirety be shared with Regular Members, Mr. Speaker?
What is being proposed and worked on by the refocusing and the strategic initiatives committees will be, in my opinion, the single biggest piece of restructuring we’re going to do as an Assembly in terms of government and how we deliver services.
Clearly, with the Members and the Chairs coming on board as fully participating members, they’ll have access to all that information. We intend to fully brief committees as a matter of course as we proceed with the work that’s necessary as we move down the implementation path. There’s work we’re doing right now. While we have timelines, we have a lot more preparatory work to do, recognizing that this is a very complex undertaking.
Again, I thank the Minister for that. In the decision-making process, from a public standpoint, the public wants to have some reassurances as well that their concerns are going to be addressed — the board Chair in Yellowknife and even outside of Yellowknife. I just wanted to ask the Minister again: in the decision-making process, what is he doing to base a go/no-go decision on in terms of board reform, and are we going to be able to debate the pros and cons of such an initiative publicly, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Speaker, we’re proceeding on the assumption, clearly, that we have hundreds of boards in the Northwest Territories in the area we’re talking about. Just between health, education and housing we have 70 boards. We’d like to streamline that down to be more efficient.
Over time we let things develop, often in an unplanned way. We intend to work closely with you folks in committee and all its members and committees of Regular Members to hopefully reach a consensus at the end of the day for a plan that’s going to allow us to rationalize, as the very first step towards boards and agencies across the Northwest Territories focusing on this social program area, and come to an agreement on an approach that will make sense and that we can hopefully implement during the life of this Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that the Minister understands the intricacies and the complexity of this issue. It sounds like he will be willing to work with Regular Members to move this along.
I guess the last question I’d have, Mr. Speaker, is in terms of a timeline. Obviously, this is something we’re going to want to try to get done by the end of the life of this government. Can he share with us a timeline on the implementation of this?
Mr. Speaker, we anticipate that we’re on about a 12 to 18 month planning frame here, in addition to the work we’ve already done. To get us ready to have all the work done, as the Member’s indicated, there’s a whole host of things we have to look at in terms of assessment. There’s legislation. There are a whole number of things we’d have to be clear on, sort out, put in the proper sequence, do the appropriate costings and all the other impacts that we have to do. So it’s going to take some time. We’re going to be working through it through the life of this business planning process for ’09–10 and on, probably into the subsequent year.
That work is underway, and we look forward to the full briefing of all the committee members here in the next week or so.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned in my statement that I discussed P3 projects, and it is extremely important, in my view, that we be adequately prepared for P3 projects more and more as we go forward with our infrastructure plans. We’re going to need partners to provide us with the financial assistance in order to get these projects done. A perfect example is that cited by Mr. Bromley in his statement earlier today.
I’d like to ask the Premier — or he can refer it to whichever Minister is the appropriate one; I’m not quite sure — to explain where a P3 policy sits on the priority list for this government and for the Premier and Cabinet.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We place in a high priority area, as the Member has pointed out, the fact that we have to look at other avenues of dealing with some of the larger initiatives that we are looking at within the Northwest Territories. I committed to having the P3 policy review put in place. Deputies met a number of months ago. In fact, I’ve had meetings as well and invited a firm to come up North to sit down with us to begin looking at a P3 process.
I thank the Premier for that answer. I was going to ask him where we were at, but he’s already answered my question — and good for him.
I guess I would just like him to confirm that currently we do not have a document in place that outlines the process that would be followed for a P3. It sounds to me as though it is in the works, so I’d like him just to confirm that.
Mr. Speaker, we do have a policy. It is a very old policy. We recognize that. We’re looking at other jurisdictions for policies they’ve put in place, and that’s why the review is going forward. We will have deputies meeting again on this later on this month. As I’ve stated, I’ve also invited a firm that has much experience in this area to sit down with us to look at development in this area.
Thank you to the Minister. I’d like to know if he can give me any kind of an idea of the timeline of when this process will be done and when we will have a revised, renewed and revitalized policy in place.
Mr. Speaker, we’re trying to, as I stated earlier, go through this initial process. Any policy work we would do we would bring to committee for review and testing if, in fact, we’re heading in the right direction. We’re hoping we’ll be able to bring something forward during this winter. I don’t know if we’d call it the winter session, but at that point, we’ll try to bring something forward to Members for review.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks for the answer. I think I heard the Minister say he’s going to look for input from Regular Members. I guess I would like to have him formally commit to or to formalize his answer that, yes, he will ask for input from Regular Members in terms of this particular policy for P3 projects.
Mr. Speaker, we will do that as we do with any policy work. If we’re to change it, we’ll work with the appropriate committee to have input and give us feedback. So we will be doing that, yes.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address my question to the Minister of MACA with regard to community preparedness.
I was recently in Nahanni Butte, and I had a couple of constituents ask about their firebreak. It hasn’t been worked on for some time. I’d just like to ask the Minister: does that program still exist?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven’t been briefed on that particular issue yet, but I will let the Member know that I will get a briefing on it, and I will be in a better position to answer his question.
Thank you very much. I think it sounds like the Minister took that question on notice there, Mr. Speaker. But just some of the further questions I’d be interested in are: what is the process to access this program; is there still funding available for this year, and if there is, can we access it as soon as we can?
One of the things I do not intend to do very much is take questions on notice. I will commit to be briefed on a lot of the material that Members are bringing forward to me, including the questions brought forward by the Member for Nahendeh. I will get briefed on it, and like I said, I will be in a much better position to give a very good answer.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 8 I talked about the importance of traditional foods and how the high cost of living is impacting the practice of harvesting traditional foods. I would like to follow up my statement today with questions for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House what programs, if any, this department currently has in place to assist subsistence hunters, not trappers, with traditional harvesting activities?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories has recognized the importance of traditional harvesting activities for some time now, and we do have a number of programs in place. Over the course of the past ten years or so we also had the Western Harvesters’ Assistance Program, which is a $15 million matching program that is available to every aboriginal government organization in the Northwest Territories. We do also have the Harvesters’ Assistance Program, a total of $1.5 million, which includes funding for local wildlife committees, Community Harvesters’ Assistance Program and Harvesters’ Disaster Compensation. We also have the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur program, which provides assistance to trappers, and, of course, the Take a Kid Trapping program, which introduces youth to living off the land.
Mr. Speaker, this is fairly specific. I am talking about hunters. The high cost of gas is having a huge impact on many families, and the traditional practice of harvesting traditional foods from the land is being threatened. Would the Minister commit to looking at how the department can assist subsistence hunters to offset the high cost of gasoline as soon as possible?
Mr. Speaker, we do have the Community Harvesters’ Assistance Program, which can be used for deferring some of the costs of living off the land. I do know that the last time there were any changes to the program was at least three or four governments ago. So I will be quite prepared to review this area.
Mr. Speaker, I’m glad the Minister is prepared to review this policy. The high price of gas is having an immediate impact on our harvesters. We have mineral exploration resource development, hydro expansion, tourism; even global warming has an impact on wildlife. My Tu Nedhe riding is being hit from all sides. I would like to ask the Minister if he will commit during the review to help develop a traditional harvester strategy for Tu Nedhe communities.
Mr. Speaker, I do know that in the past we have worked with the community of Tu Nedhe to develop a community development strategy. There are lots of resources around Tu Nedhe in areas such as wildlife, forestry and so on, so we’d be quite prepared to work with the community to develop such a strategy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Draft NWT Hydro Strategy.
Document 103-16(2), Draft NWT Hydro Strategy, tabled.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, October 17, 2008, I will move the following motion:
Therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that the following Members be appointed to the Board of Management of this Assembly: Mr. Jackie Jacobson, Member for Nunakput, and Hon. Jackson Lafferty, Member for Monfwi; and further, that the following Members be appointed to the Board of Management as alternate members: Hon. Robert McLeod, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, and Mr. Kevin Menicoche, Member for Nahendeh. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you Mr. Abernethy. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, Ministers’ Statement 80-16(2), Tabled Document 93-16(2), Bill 15, with Mr. Krutko in the chair.
I call Committee of the Whole to order. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, Minister’s Statement, sessional statement; Tabled Document 93-16(2); Bill 15. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee wishes to continue on with the Northwest Territories Capital Estimates, 2009–2010.
Does the committee agree?
