Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been working in the area of the Member’s riding on Highway No. 6 for a couple of years now and there’s been quite a bit of work done in that area. We’ve really been pleased with the cooperation that we’ve had from the community of Fort Resolution. A lot of the work has been focused on reconstruction and chipsealing. There are more dollars identified through some internal reallocation for the next coming year that will focus on more of the same. We expect that some of the work in 2011-2012 will be in the area of kilometre 62 and kilometre 67 around Little Buffalo River. We’ll be conducting some engineering activities, some geotechnical assessments. Our plan is to start right away and we should have them completed by March of this next calendar year. Throughout this winter we expect to produce some gravel for this section of road and other materials that will be required for the base of this highway. We should expect to see a tender coming out in early April.
Can the Minister give me a brief update of what’s planned for Highway No. 6 for future years beyond 2011-2012?
That’s a difficult question as there is a considerable amount of work and investments that are required on Highway No. 6. We only have one year left in our term and that’s basically all I can commit to.
The work should continue. We have a plan. We have the resources identified that will be required. It will be roughly around $15 million to complete all of Highway No. 6 and, of course, that will be proceeding as money is available as the next government comes forward and budgets are identified. There is a lot of work that has been done already that will be used as a basis, the engineering and the testing of the road will guide us. That information will move forward as funding is identified in the new government, as I stated previously.
With respect to the work going on and knowing sometimes that projects are bid without a great amount of consideration given to local businesses, can the Minister commit his department to pay closer attention in the area to ensure that as many local businesses and labour can be used as possible?
As with all our projects and the contracts that are out there, we work quite hard to ensure that the community leaders are informed and aware of our plans. We try to get out prior to the contracts being let, to ensure that happens. There’s also that information provided to the labour force and also the contractors in the area and surrounding communities.
We want to continue to work with the successful contractors to ensure that process happens, and that the maximum amount of business opportunities and labour opportunities are provided to the community. Our staff will continue to do that. It has worked quite well.
Of course, any time there seems to be any friction or glitch in the system, we’re always made aware of it from MLAs and other community leaders. It keeps us on our toes and we’re happy to keep working with communities.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Looking at the economies of scale, can the Minister commit to working with the communities so that once the highway from 22 kilometres south, Little Buffalo River to Fort Resolution, has been chipsealed, that the same contractor can continue to chipseal the community?
That again is a difficult commitment to make. We do provide the information to communities, and on many occasions the communities have taken the opportunity to piggyback their initiatives along with what is happening on the highway alongside the community. We’ve had good discussions with some of the communities already about chipsealing and other types of road servicing. We have provided the same courtesy to the community of Fort Resolution and they have taken advantage of it and plan to do some chipsealing in their community. We do provide advice, and technical staff are made available so that the communities can ask questions or help guide and plan what their initiatives are. We’ll continue to support that. As for ensuring the same contractor is going to have the contract next year, I can’t guarantee that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about phase II of the Bourque Report that was commissioned in the early ‘90s on the constitutional issues in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations if he has any indication from a meeting that was held at the spiritual location, the Trappers Lodge here, on this group going forward with a report to come out asking for a look at phase II of the Bourque Report in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work that was done at the Trappers Lodge with prominent past leaders and people involved in aboriginal negotiations and self-government discussions did invite myself and Mr. Miltenberger to drop by for a brief discussion. They pointed out the work they had done together and they were going to submit that report. We haven’t received it. I have put it into our system for review, and one of the things I told them is that we would be prepared to sit down with the regional leaders at the end of November to share their work to see what regional leaders would say about that work.
I look forward to the end results of the discussions with the regional leaders on the report that’s going to be discussed with the Members of this Assembly here.
I wanted to ask the Minister on the issue of the draft AIP, would that agreement then require this Assembly to change the Northwest Territories Act to make the commitments in the draft AIP?
The only changes that would occur in the NWT Act -- and that being under the control of the federal government -- would be following a final agreement signing, that would change things and transfer authorities over. That would amend some of the deliveries. At this point there would be no changes required.
The processes we would undertake following a signing of that agreement, following those discussions and what was agreed to, would potentially change some of our own legislation here in the Northwest Territories as well as those under existing federal control today. Thank you.
Then, Mr. Speaker, it would be beneficial to the Minister, in terms of looking at the report, specifically the phase II of the Bourque Commission Report, in terms of constitutional development, in terms of that could possibly go hand in hand with the draft AIP. Can the Minister then see the beneficial use of looking at phase II of the Bourque Commission Report to support what this government now is wanting to do and they’re waiting for the aboriginal governments to see if they’re on board or not?
Early on in our discussions at the regional leaders table, the idea of a constitution was brought up because the Dene Nation has raised it as one of their efforts. The regional leaders felt that we needed to work on some of our own issues first, and then a constitution would be the overarching piece. As well, when we look at our own history in the Northwest Territories, following the Bourque Report, there was the Constitutional Development Steering Committee that did its work through the 12th and into the 13th Assembly -- I believe those were the dates -- and then the Constitutional Working Group from the 13th into the 14th Assembly. That work occurred as well; in fact, produced a document that was launched in the Great Hall that talked about how aboriginal governments and public governments will work together. So there was that work that was initiated and it did not proceed beyond that point. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I raise this important question because of the posted information on CBC’s website in terms of the draft AIP, that it seems that this government here is working towards legitimizing its government through a negotiated draft agreement and it’s a constitutional issue. I’m asking this in terms of the support to be a responsible government. It’s going to become a very heavy constitutional issue, so I’m asking the Minister, in terms of how do we do this and be open and up front with all people of the Northwest Territories to say this is how we want to become somewhat of a provincial type of government. Would the Minister then look at these types of discussions at the end of November with the regional leaders that are going to be asked to sign onto this draft AIP?
The process we are under does not have to legitimize the GNWT. The fact is, we are, in this forum, elected by our constituents in this forum, and we’re receiving a salary to do the job paid by taxpayers from the country as well as the people of the Northwest Territories. So I would say the NWT Act, although held by the federal government, puts us in place and that’s why we have the pleasure of representing the people across this fine land we call the Northwest Territories and our home. So the work that we’re doing is one that takes the next stage of development of the Northwest Territories and control from Ottawa to the Northwest Territories, which many leaders for decades have been talking about. The process we’re involved with would lead us to the one extra step. The next phase that I would see being potential if we all were able to move ahead these building blocks, would be an overall constitution of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think my question is better presented to the Premier, so I will ask the Premier the question in regard to my Member’s statement.
Mr. Speaker, in regard to statistics that I received at the conference that we held on poverty, it clearly states that the communities I represent, such as Aklavik, where we have 45 percent of the income levels per household is under $30,000, and in Fort McPherson it’s 43 percent. Also, households under $10,000, it’s 16 percent for Aklavik and 11 percent for Fort McPherson. I’m just looking at the unemployment statistics for Fort McPherson that are 45 percent and for Aklavik it’s 35 percent.
With these large numbers which clearly show that we have a problem in regard to economic diversification or development, does the Government of the Northwest Territories look at these statistics when they make decisions such as capital investment or finding ways to stimulate those communities through community initiatives to increase those numbers so that communities are able to be sustainable and give them the opportunity to take part in the northern economy? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The sustainability of our communities is an important initiative. One of the parts of our vision and goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly is to try to create an environment of sustainability. So there are a number of factors that we have engaged with during the life of this government and one of them is going to be the Electricity Rate Review and the adjustments to our delivery of electricity. The other is in the area of the economic side, under the Minister of ITI, has been, for example, the SEED program, the agricultural program, investments being made in that area, as well as the more traditional areas in our smaller communities when it comes to the hunting and trapping basket as well.
We continue to try to improve on that and improve on those numbers as we look forward to how we try to do our business in government. In fact, one of the things we’ve done during the life of this government is establish the Rural and Remote Communities committee as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think one of the biggest factors in the Northwest Territories is we haven’t really made the decision to deregulate government and put government positions in the communities and keep them there and fill those positions. Mr. Speaker, there are some 5,000 positions in the Government of the Northwest Territories which could be put to communities regardless of expanding our programs and services officer positions, wildlife officers, departments such as forestry or looking at areas in regard to the economic development positions in our regions, housing positions at regional centres. We have to reprofile that.
Mr. Speaker, I think it’s important that we, as government, have to look at those types of shifts in government expenditures and making it that is where the income is going to our communities for jobs, jobs, jobs, and good paying jobs, especially government jobs in our communities. Thank you.
The processes we’ve been involved with as the Government of the Northwest Territories during this government and even previous governments to try to create a level of sustainability in our communities looks at those kinds of jobs. There were community transfer initiatives examples that were used and unsuccessful for a large part partly because of the way things were looked at in those days.
We’ve looked at a number of other initiatives ourselves. One of the areas is our program review to see how we deliver those programs and services in our communities and what impact that can have. So there are a number of factors that play into there.
The issue we come to is affordability, and we can even use the Nunavut example. When they designed initially, their government to be more devolved -- and the past Government of the Northwest Territories, which included Nunavut, they undertook that exercise -- they established and planned to reach out and establish departments in other areas amongst their communities. As they initiated that, they found that the costs were extremely high and they were not able to fully deliver on that. We would have to look at... Quite simply, if we were to look at redistributing the employment situation in our existing framework, we would have to look at overall how do we use the revenues that we have available and establish these positions in communities that they are not in today’s environment and where would those additional dollars come from. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, again, I think it’s crucial that this government seriously look at this issue. I will just use a statistic here.
Looking at Yellowknife, for instance, there are some 6,000 households; 6,625. Fifty percent of the households in Yellowknife make over $100,000 in which out of that the average household income is $111,419. Compared to a community of Aklavik which is 220 households, basically it is 9 percent of the households which make over $100,000, which is $44,000.
Again, Mr. Speaker, we talk about the cost of living, trying to find ways to reduce the cost of living. The only way I see us being able to get out of this trap is we have to develop the economics of the Northwest Territories and, more importantly, the resources, which are the people of the Northwest Territories. I would like to ask the Minister, can we look at finding ways to develop economic opportunities in all of our communities, make them self-reliant and offer the people in our communities that opportunity to go to work. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I couldn’t agree more with what the Member just stated about creating a sustainable economic environment in our communities and trying to provide the necessary tools to allow that to happen.
Just the other day, Minister Bob McLeod had responded to some of the initiatives that we are undertaking in our smaller communities through his department to establish subsidiaries. For example, that would bring jobs to the community and maintain some of those jobs. The support we give through a number of other departments, for example, on the traditional harvesting side of the equation and the Education department to try and get as many of our youth trained so they can take those high paying jobs as well. Ultimately, it comes down to trying to have a healthy economy that is driven through that process and not have one that is overly subsidized, and the question then becomes where do we get those subsidies. If we can develop those economies through our resources, we would be able to take better advantage of that and have a more sustainable environment to afford. That is why, for example, we are promoting the changes in the Electricity Rate Review. We are promoting highways that connect our communities and drop the cost of living as well.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hopefully within the remaining year left in this government, we are really able to make a difference in our communities. More importantly, we have to use the tools we have at hand. We have policies in place. We have negotiated contracting guidelines. We have initiatives to stimulate our communities. I believe we have to formulate these partnerships, because the communities are trying to do their part, whether it is the band councils, the hamlet councils, the local government authorities, because they realize the importance of jobs in our communities. Can we get some flexibility in regards to allowing communities to take advantage of negotiating contracting guidelines, sole-source contracting and those communities that have high unemployment, and be able to use those policies to boost those economies and get those people to work and take advantage of the capital investment this government has available to it? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the number of policies the Member just highlighted are policies that will allow us to do just that. That is create, try to help build capacity in the communities so that they can take on more of the contracting that happens in our communities and not have businesses come in from other parts of the Territory or southern Canada. The Negotiated Contracts Policy of sole-sourcing and so on is there to do just that.
We will continue to use those tools where we have capital programs in those communities to try and assist in that building of capacity. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Transportation. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I talked about the Opportunities and Involvement Agreement negotiated by the government with the community of Fort Providence in regards to the termination of the concession agreement for the Deh Cho Bridge Project.
I would like to begin by asking the Minister if he could explain to this side of the House and to the public why was it was necessary to enter into an agreement with the community for $7 million over the next 35 years because of the termination of that concession agreement, if you could explain that to us. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of reasons that we felt it was necessary to sign off on a couple of agreements. The first was a letter agreement and also the opportunities agreement that the Member is raising. Of course, one of the biggest reasons was to ensure that we could continue to work with the community and also apply resources so that the community can stay involved.
It was quite obvious through our discussions with the community that they wanted to continue to be involved with this project right to the end. They wanted to be able to derive benefits from it. As a government, we had our discussions and agreed that should happen. We also laid it out for the Members that we would be signing off on this agreement. It also helped us to access the equity that they had produced for this project. We didn’t want them to fully subscribe to it, as we wanted to move away from the concession agreement. This allowed us to have legal termination of that agreement.
We also were in a position with the agreements in place to address some of the concerns that were in front of us, some complaints that were coming forward. We also avoided the dispute resolution process that would have tied us up. It would have tied us up in litigation for some time. We probably would have had a very lengthy legal battle that would have cost a lot of money. We also were able to move away from a lot of the financial commitments we had that were part of the concession agreement.
Overall, Mr. Speaker, there are a number of reasons, but basically the reasons were to allow the community to stay part of this project and also to ensure that the project would move forward on a timely basis and we didn’t come to a stop, which would have cost a lot of money. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, all along, this project was to be a partnership between the community and the Government of the Northwest Territories. It would seem to me, from what I have seen, the economics on this bridge aren’t good. If it is operating on a deficit basis year to year, I would suggest if the Minister is shopping for new paint, he could find some red paint to paint that bridge because it is going to be mired in red ink for the foreseeable future.
Here we are as a government negotiating a deal with a community to guarantee them $200,000 a year. How is that a fair partnership if the Government of the Northwest Territories, the rest of the taxpayers in the Northwest Territories are expected to pay for that deficit? Meanwhile, the deal negotiated with the community guarantees them a win out of this. Mr. Speaker, how is that fair to the rest of the taxpayers in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am not sure there is a deficit the Member is referring to and if this bridge was clouded in red ink, I am sure the Member has reached into his can of paint of doom and gloom and painted this project that colour on his own.
Mr. Speaker, there is no indication right now that there will be a deficit. The traffic volumes are going to allow for us to accommodate all the debt on this bridge. In fact, if the traffic volumes go up and we start to see more projects come on stream, we will probably have some significant surplus on this that will be applied back to some of the costs incurred and into the government coffers, which will make it a very popular project, I assume. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister could table the last two financial projections on that bridge I had asked him to put on the Transportation’s website the other day, because those don’t paint a very rosy picture of the financial outlook on that project. Mr. Speaker, it is not all doom and gloom. I am speaking from facts his department has in fact given me.
I would like to ask the Minister why the Opportunities and Involvement Agreement is scheduled to begin on April 1, 2012, and not November 1, 2011. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the intention was to have the agreement to allow for a monthly payment during the construction season where we work with the community. They have an office set up to provide us support and to provide us all kinds of responsibilities that help us move forward, including having a presence in the community. Once the contract is done, we would move forward into the new fiscal year with the agreement kicking in with the Opportunities Fund for the remaining 35 years. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the dates have nothing to do with or don’t coincide with when the construction of that project will finally be finished. My belief is it won’t be in November 2011, it will in fact be closer to April. That’s the point that I was trying to make there. I’d like to ask the Minister in closing, what exactly will the community be doing for this Opportunities and Involvement Fund? How are they going to be involved in this project?
Again the Member has demonstrated his attitude to this bridge by his predictions that it’s going to be past the deadlines that we’ve laid out for him. I’m not sure what he’s pointing at and using to measure this with. We still anticipate that this project is on schedule. The steel is en route. There’s a significant amount of steel that’s coming forward for the superstructure. There is the decking that will be following. Also the ‘A’ pylons. We expect the steel for the superstructure will be in place by March of this coming next calendar year. Things are going well, as much as that might upset the Member who has been painting this with his brush of doom and gloom.
We still feel it’s necessary to continue to have the community on side. There is a lot of support being provided. There are issues which probably would have put this project to a standstill if we didn’t resolve them, and we feel we’ve done that. We want to continue that partnership. We want the community to have opportunities to benefit from this project in terms of economics and having some resources to invest in that area.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to follow up on my statement today.
I think the Minister recognizes that we’ve failed many of our Grade 12 graduates in the counselling we’ve provided. When I went to school -- some time ago, I acknowledge -- it was clear there was a matriculation Grade 12 diploma and a vocational and that led to a lot of clarity. Today that’s not true. We have a bolus of students, a bunch of students who are lost in Never-Never Land, needing to upgrade to 6actually pursue the post-secondary requirements they want. I’m wondering if the Minister can tell me if there is a separate fund under the Student Financial Assistance Program for students in post high school upgrading programs or the need to get into those programs. And if separate, can he tell me the amount of those funds?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. A couple of questions there. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As you know, the Student Financial Assistance Program is one of the greatest benefits of all throughout Canada. There is other funding available through DIAND throughout Canada for First Nations students. Dene and Inuit students can apply for USEP funding through that department. That is additional funding on top of the SFA that’s out there.
The Member is referring to upgrading. We currently don’t provide funding for upgrading, but we provide funding for access programs through Aurora College and other institutions, as long as there’s an access program, such as access to nursing, social work, teaching, those types of professions. There’s also ARDA and Income Assistance. That’s another resource that we can provide additional funding from on top of the SFA to meet the standards the students need.
