In the Northwest Territories we are working on fracking regulations which will reflect best practices of the industry. We’ve also inherited guidelines from the National Energy Board which deals with hydraulic fracking. In the Northwest Territories’ regulatory system, the appropriate land and water board conducts preliminary screening and our government respects the decisions of the land and water boards. Also, we continue to assess how we best use our new authorities in the Northwest Territories.
I’m very confident that when the draft regulations come out, it will be discussed widely and we will get substantial input. As far as I know, the Government of the Northwest Territories has not violated Section 125 of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. Thank you.
There are provisions made, not as a matter of respect, by these organizations, such as land and water boards, for the Government of the Northwest Territories departments to call for environmental review. It’s not a matter of respect; in fact that provision is there. We can use it anytime we want.
Mark Carney, ex-governor of the Bank of Canada and current governor of the Bank of England, recently stated at a seminar at the World Bank that fossil fuel companies cannot burn their existing reserves of oil and gas if the oil is to avoid catastrophic climate change. We know what this means for our families – it’s happening now – and our children and what this means around the globe to people who do not have all the privileges that we have.
Exploitation of ever more fossil fuels endangers the people, land and water of the Northwest Territories. The recent pullout of industry from the Sahtu for a year or more provides time for thoughtful review. On what basis does this government presume they can do what nobody else has done? Studies come in every day proving impacts; frack without significant and unpredicted indeed would never happen impacts. How can we do this and thus refuse a public review? What an assumption. What a presumption, Mr. Speaker.
I didn’t hear a question there, but I will respond in kind. In our opinion, the Sahtu Land and Water Board dealt with the application. There is no drilling going on anywhere in the Northwest Territories right now. We as a government are developing draft oil and gas regulations that will be put to the public early in the new year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the public will not hear what our presumption is, the basis for our presumption that we can do everything right. The Premier mentioned best practices that we subscribe to. Let’s just look at what best practices have gotten other jurisdictions. California’s pristine aquifers have recently been done in by produced water that supposedly could never enter their portable aquifers that they relied on. Studies now prove that supposedly cleaner fuels produced by fracking like gas and liquid natural gas, which the Premier is pushing for all our communities, have greenhouse gas emissions as bad as or worse than coal. New information is amassing daily.
For my last question, Mr. Speaker, I have to ask this on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories. Why? Why is this government afraid to conduct the required review? The Premier, in his statement today, said it’s not the money. So why are we saying no to our people when so many jurisdictions are realizing the necessity for a reasonable look at the controversial practice of fracking? Mahsi.
When you talk to the industry where bids were accepted for work in the Sahtu that have decided to work elsewhere, when we talked to the industry, they indicated they were collecting baseline information. So if they ever decide to come back north, they will have necessary baseline information that will reflect the best practices of drilling and that before they actually do the drilling, in this case we’re looking at trying to determine the size of the oil and gas reserves that are there, that they will have all the necessary information when and if they do decide to come back. Right now there is no drilling going on anywhere in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in the House I was speaking about the need for the community of Trout Lake and the growing student population about working towards getting a new stand-alone school. The plan now is to renovate the existing community hall.
I would like to ask the Minister exactly what renovations are being planned to the facility in Trout Lake. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With respect to Trout Lake school, there’s been a review undertaken, part of the review of the small community schools. The Charles Tetso School has resulted in a recommendation for renovation and also additional construction, research and support space for the students and also the staff population. That is the proposed plan right now for construction within the community of Trout Lake.
It certainly addresses the short-term need for the schooling situation in Trout Lake. However, the chief, council and residents are afraid of losing their community hall space. They use that same facility six days a week to do their mental health and wellness training when in the community.
I would like to know the long-term plan. Will the Minister move towards a stand-alone school for the community of Trout Lake? Thank you.
In June of 2013, I, along with Minister Beaulieu, Mr. Menicoche and Deh Cho Divisional Education Council and my departmental staff visited the community and the school to have a visual of the reality of what Members have referred to in this House over the years. Due to that fact, there is a planning study that is on the way in 2014-2015 to deal with the part of the long-term plan that the Member is alluding to. We’ve identified a short-term plan to initiate a renovation within the school for additional space that is required, but there is a plan in place where we had a site visit in 2014 and I am working very closely with Public Works and Services, Mr. Beaulieu, on developing project brief that would be used to acquire a schematic design for completion in October 2014. That is the overall goal. Mahsi.
Something was missed and they weren’t aware of the type and extent of the renovations and I think there’s even an addition. The chief and council weren’t informed. I’m not too sure why, but when I informed them that renovations were being done, they were saying we saw some people over there making assessments and that kind of stuff.
The Minister also spoke about a planning study. Is this part and parcel? Was there a team in there to look at the renovations and a separate team actually doing the planning study? Thank you.
Part of the long-term needs of the school and also the community is to develop a planning study. That is part of the process of capital projects that will be identified by each department. So, we need to have a planning study in place and this is a part of May 2014 when my staff visited the community. That’s part of the preliminary discussions that they need to have with the community based on their needs and analysis. So yes, that is part of the community visits that they initiated and there will be opportunities for community members to provide their input as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to hear about moving forward and towards getting a new stand-alone school into the capital projects.
I’d just like to know about the planning study, one that came up, back in Trout Lake and to involve the community and even the whole community, because the community is a close-knit community and they all like to make decisions together. Thank you.
Mahsi. We do appreciate the leadership’s input into the design of the planning studies. So, those are discussions that we are currently having.
As I stated, my understanding is that October 2014, this month, it will be completed as part of our work with Public Works and Services and my Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the project brief that’s been discussed with both departments, along with the leadership’s input. So we’ll take those into consideration as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Because of the policy in terms of values at risk where forest fires were started in remote locations and that don’t pose any danger to human lives or infrastructure or buildings of that nature, they’re left to burn. This summer, well, the beginning of September, I had the opportunity to travel down the Dempster to Trout River and we came across a fire that was just smoldering across Morrisey Creek, and at the same time towards Bouvier Creek there was another fire that was just smoldering and wasn’t being actioned.
So my question for the Minister is: Many people are concerned that the fires will continue to smolder under the muskeg this winter and reignite in the spring. Can the Minister comment on how likely that is to happen? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of ENR, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t quantify how widely it happens, but I do agree with the Member and I’ve seen it myself where there’s smoke coming through the snowbanks even on a drive from Fort Smith to Hay River where there’s been fires. So we know it happens and we’ve mapped the burned areas, but I can’t quantify it to the extent the Member is asking.
Thank you. What we also experienced this summer is we had of course, obviously, frequent highway closures. Of course, we have the main artery between Fort Providence and Yellowknife that of course inconvenienced travellers. If such an occurrence was to happen again, and I hope it does not happen, what would the government do differently? Mahsi.
Thank you. That type of deliberation and review is part of the critical debriefing that’s underway and that I’ve just committed to sharing with committee when it’s done early in the New Year as we look at coming for the winter session. Thank you.
This summer was the driest and the hottest. I think there are some initiatives out there that communities could tap into. One example is the FireSmart initiatives. Usually a good time to do those kinds of initiatives, carrying them out, is during the wintertime.
How can we better prepare our communities for forest fires? Mahsi.
Thank you. All the communities could take a page from the work that Kakisa did to take matters into their own hands as the fire smarted their community, and as they were encroached on all sides by fire they recognized the value of that exercise. So I think communities can look at doing public spaces and then the encouragement for all individuals to get out there with their own saws and chainsaws, as I did my property, where you thin out the trees, you clear out the underbrush, you limb your trees as high as you can, move your woodpile away from your house and those type of things. All will give you a very precious advantage. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs in follow-up to my Member’s statement. How long has the Minister been aware of the situation in Fort McPherson? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We were made aware of it when it was reported that there was some irregular activity going on with some community finances. We were made aware of it, we took the necessary steps that we had to, we appointed a municipal supervisor, and in July of this year we dissolved council and appointed a municipal administrator for the community. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there a limit to the deficit a municipality can incur before the department steps in? Thank you.
Thank you. There is no limit. The situation they faced up in that particular community, the high turnover of SAOs, I think the average lifespan of an SAO up there was, like, six months and no oversight. So that led to some of the problems that they had up there.
With the new accountability framework that MACA has introduced and implemented, we’re believing that’s going to alleviate a lot of that and we’ll be able to identify a lot of potential problems early and take the necessary steps to deal with them. That helps MACA and it helps the community so they’re not so far into a deficit situation. Thank you.
Is the Minister willing to direct his department to work with the hamlet to reduce municipal service rates to levels that can work for everyone? Thank you.
We’ve had a number of meetings up in Fort McPherson. I was up there in July. I met with a lot of community residents. The big concern we heard up there was the rates the elders were paying. We took the necessary steps to reduce the rates for the elders and that was retroactive to April 1st of this year. So we heard what they’ve had to say.
A lot of the issue was the water and sewer, the delivery of water, the water rates were quite low to begin with and they weren’t reviewing them annually and increasing them as their cost of providing the service was increasing. So it went from that to the increase that they had in this past year. So that was a very high increase for a lot of folks up there, but we’ve heard what they had to say and we dealt with the elders’ issue, which we believe from the meeting results that the elders were the most important. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know I’ve been focusing on the water rates, but it’s also affecting the sport and recreation. So I’d like to ask the Minister, will the Minister direct his department to implement a five- to 10-year payback plan on the deficit and not a two- to three-year? Thank you.
Thank you. That would be awfully difficult to do because the sooner that they’re able to pay off the deficit, and they’ve already taken some necessary steps in cutting some of the costs to the community, so we’re seeing an effect of that already. So we believe within two or three years they should have the deficit almost off the books. If we were to stretch it out too long, then that may affect their ability to provide a lot of services in the community and you’re going to have to pay it back at the end of the day. So we thought with the two- or three-year payback, with the number of changes that have been made and they’ve been received, but with the number of changes that have been made, we’re starting to already see an improvement in the deficit and the cost of providing the services to the communities such as the water contract. Instead of doing the water contract in house, we went out for tender and there was significant savings there. It’s issues like that, I think, that are going to help the community deal with the deficit and pay down the deficit sooner. The longer we drag it out, the longer they’ll have the deficit hanging over their head.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to talk to an issue here about one of our facilities. I mentioned it earlier in my Member’s statement about using existing infrastructure for treatment programs. One in particular is a building in Inuvik. It’s the Arctic Tern building. There have been a lot of issues with that, but I know this government has been working on stabilizing the foundation.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services just for a quick update on that foundation and whether it was stabilized or not, and is the building going to be able to be used for other departments?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister responsible for Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The building has been completed. We had form-jacked the foundation. It was completed as of January. We have inspected the building and it’s ready for reuse by another department if need be.
I’m glad to hear that the building is ready for reuse. I know that there was a lot of cost in getting that building up and running.
I’d like to ask the Minister, in regard to that building, how many beds are currently in that building. I know it was used before for a young offenders facility, so I wonder how many beds are in that building that could be used as well.
I don’t have that information with me here. I don’t know how many bed facility that was back when it was used as a young offenders facility, but I can get that information for the Member.
The reason I’m asking is we do have a homelessness issue here in the Northwest Territories, a transitional house issue. We also have an addictions problem, as you heard here today.
I just want to ask the Minister, have any departments looked at grabbing that facility for use, and can he let us know which departments have looked at using that facility that’s going back into the government stock?
Yes, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources new management has looked at that facility for a possible relocation of the Shell Lake operations into the Arctic Tern facility.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we have had questions on this at the beginning of this Legislative Assembly. Did the Minister have any dialogue with the Minister of Health and Social Services to look at Arctic Tern as a possible addictions treatment centre and detox facility?
