Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on the hydraulic fracturing in the Sahtu.
We have certainly heard Members from this side talk about going into the Bakken and seeing the activity. In North Dakota there were guns blazing toward hydraulic fracturing, so I want to ask the Minister in regards to what we saw in southeastern Saskatchewan and in North Dakota. What are some of the big differences between what is happening there and what potentially could happen in the Sahtu in regards to the jurisdictions and regulations?
Mr. Speaker, what we heard resoundingly in both southeastern Saskatchewan and North Dakota is that if people could do it all over again, they have the ability to plan and get ready for the development. That is what we have here. We have an opportunity. We have some time on our side. There is an application here to hopefully drill and frack two wells this coming winter here in the Northwest Territories.
I believe we can balance protecting the environment with advancing the economy here in the Northwest Territories and getting people the jobs and opportunities that they require. We have to have an economy here. It is going to be, one way or another, born out of resource extraction, whether it is oil and gas or whether it’s mining. We can plan and we can prepare ourselves. I think that is what we have certainly on our side here. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, certainly I said earlier, I was in Norman Wells over the weekend and people there are ready to go to work. They know what fracking could come to if we don’t do it properly. They know the work is there and they are willing to work and there’s excitement in the region. Certainly, there are issues that Members have talked about that we need to look at.
I want to ask the Minister in regards to doing it properly, doing it right and doing the best they can. We have an opportunity to work in this area here. Is the Minister working closely with the National Energy Board since they will become one of our key authorities on hydraulic fracking, that we can do it properly in the Sahtu with the National Energy Board?
Mr. Speaker, we probably have some of the most stringent regulatory requirements in North America here in the Northwest Territories. Nothing is going to happen unless it is regulated. Certainly after devolution, we will have a regulatory authority here in the Northwest Territories. It remains to be seen exactly how that is going to look. We continue to work towards that.
I want to give the Member and others the assurance that this is not going to be the Wild West with wells being drilled everywhere. We don’t have the issues that they have in North Dakota with a myriad of different land owners and land tenure arrangements. It is pretty straightforward here in the Northwest Territories when it comes to land ownership and opportunities. We can certainly scale and pace this development in the Sahtu according to our needs and the aspirations of the people of the Sahtu and the people of this territory. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the Members around this table here talking about hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu region. When I was in the Sahtu over the weekend, people in the Sahtu will determine if they will go ahead with hydraulic fracking or not. The people in the Sahtu will decide just what type of scale it will be at.
I want to follow up with a question from my colleague in terms of public engagement in hydraulic fracking for the people of the Sahtu on environmental, social and economics. Would the Minister work with Members on this side in regards to putting on a government public forum that we can have an all-out, good educational discussion on the impacts of hydraulic fracking?
Mr. Speaker, we can certainly look at that. I would be more than happy to discuss the opportunity with my colleague Minister Miltenberger of ENR and set out to get some more community workshops and exercises like that underway. One of the things I think will also go a long way to helping community members understand the process is – and I believe the Member saw a big display case which showed a well being drilled and then going out horizontally and explaining the process of hydraulic fracturing in layman’s terms – I think if we put that in the local language and also in English, and put these display cases showing the hydraulic fracturing process, put them in either the band hall or community hall in the communities in the Sahtu, I think this will go a long way. If you can visualize what it is, how it works and read it in your own language or English, I think that will go a long way to helping as well. We are looking at opportunities to partner with industry to help us get these display models in communities across the Sahtu. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if he and I could go into the Sahtu this winter when Conoco is doing their testing of the hydraulic fracking, if he and I can go into the Sahtu and visit when they are doing their hydraulic fracking. At the same time, we could have a public meeting in the Sahtu in regards to this operation.
Mr. Speaker, there is probably about 75 million reasons why Conoco does drill those wells in the Sahtu this winter that I can come to the Sahtu with the Member. Certainly, I know industry has been open to getting visits to well sites, allowing people onto their working areas to show them the process, to show them how it works. I must say we had an opportunity near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, to get out on a well that was being fracked. I must say, it wasn’t very exciting. Some of the pressures were going up and the lights were flashing, but certainly the earth wasn’t shaking. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today about the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre in Hay River on the K’atlodeeche First Nation, I have some follow-up questions for Minister Beaulieu.
Treatment of addictions is a hugely important issue in our territory. We need to use our resources in the most effective way possible. With the closure of the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre, which I believe cost around $2.2 million to operate, the majority of that money was spent on goods and services and the employment of Northerners. If we are forfeiting that, I would like to have the Minister explain for us and for the public so that we are assured that what the alternative is in fact the best and most efficient opportunity for the actual people with addictions. We are losing something in the North with the loss of the treatment centre, so we want to be assured that the alternative is in the best interest of the clients. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money will remain in the treatment of individuals within the Northwest Territories and some of it will be used to develop a youth program which is starting this week. This week we are meeting with the first opportunity to do a youth pilot program in the Deh Cho, so some of our staff are going to go over there. Some of that money is being used to treat individuals that are going out for southern treatment. We are looking at developing on-the-land programs. Again, some of that money is going to developing some on-the-land programs – in fact, we are piloting three of those programs this year – and some of it will go to mobile treatment. The majority of it, with the exception of the money that is needed to continue residential care for people in the South, will be spent in the North. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is very good to hear. That is a very good answer. In terms of the southern treatment residential placements that the Minister has referred to, maybe he could elaborate a little bit for us on the diversity of the location and the type of specialization that these facilities could offer clients. How accessible are these going to be? What kind of waiting times, or are these going to be readily accessible for our northern residents? Thank you.
The four residential treatment facilities that we contract with in the South, one is sort of a culture-based residential treatment that’s been in existence for many years, a very successful residential treatment facility, and that is in Edmonton. There are two in Calgary; one is a residential treatment facility for women and the other is a residential treatment facility that we thought had a lot of success. Another one is in Nanaimo, British Columbia, which is another treatment facility that we selected that we thought had good successes in the past.
The process of getting out to those treatment facilities has been streamlined considerably. Previously to get into Nats’ejee K’eh, you had to be going through counselling for approximately six weeks, then, after that, wait for the next intake. Most of these programs have weekly intakes and we’re trying to connect to the very next intake, once a person presents themselves as needing treatment. Thank you.
Thanks again to the Minister on that elaboration of what the other options are for residential treatment.
With the re-profiling of these monies that have gone traditionally into the treatment of addictions, what would be the process or the dialogue that would take place with respect to the actual facility of what was in Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre? Is there a possibility still that that infrastructure can be utilized in, perhaps, specialized treatment, if not residential, some kind of a facility? What’s the process? Who’s going to be involved in that dialogue and is there a possibility that that infrastructure can be used again under the umbrella of treatment for addictions? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it is certainly possible that that facility could remain with the department and be used for some form of residential treatment or support treatment overall across the territory. We are going to be having those discussions with the K’atlodeeche First Nations. It is on the reserve there, and that facility, at one point, was something that they had lobbied for, brought onto the reserve and initially was mostly a cultural treatment facility before it became a medical treatment facility. So there’s a possibility that we may run mobile treatments out of there. It’s also possible to train councillors in a facility such as that. All of those options are still open for ourselves and anybody else who’s going to be involved in building the future for treatment in the Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Interjection
That’s fine. There are only two women; it’s hard to keep us straight.
---Laughter
Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for that response. I had mentioned in my Member’s statement that we were disappointed that the sort of affected… This is a territorial facility. I understood that probably if it was ever re-profiled, it would continue to be a territorial piece of infrastructure. We were disappointed when the MLAs for Hay River and the MLA for Deh Cho weren’t really part of that.
As these discussions proceed, and certainly with all due respect to the K’atlodeeche First Nation because it is on their land, is it possible that we could be included in that dialogue at some point to share our thoughts? And the Standing Committee on Social Programs as well? We would like to be a part of that. We found out after the fact of the closure. We would like to get in on the ground floor of the planning, if that facility is going to be reutilized. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, certainly that is possible. We would be pleased to consult with the Members that are affected; in fact, all Members, since it is a territorial facility. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wanted to follow up with questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services on the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre.
Until the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre is reopened or another homegrown facility is established, can the Minister of Health commit to streamlining the process for entry into southern residential treatment programs? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly that was one of the earlier objectives when this facility, Nats’ejee K’eh, closed, that we attempt to streamline the process for any individuals who are wishing to go for treatment.
As I indicated earlier, we believe that once an individual presents themselves as needing treatment, we are trying to get into the very next facility of their choice on the very next intake. Thank you very much.
My question is to the Minister once again. There has been some discussion in terms of on-the-land programs and what it may mean. Perhaps the Minister could tell us the philosophy behind the on-the-land programs, especially the plans and the status of such an initiative. At what point would the Minister be able to explain to this House how an on-the-land program would work? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, on-the-land treatment is something that was called for by the communities. I do believe that the philosophy of the on-the-land treatment is to get people to go back out on the land for healing. A lot of the Aboriginal people who called for this felt very connected to the land, so we’re trying to develop a philosophy around that type of treatment.
Also, in order to gather more information and develop a program, we have hired an individual who will be specifically working on this project, on-the-land treatment, and we’re also piloting three on-the-land treatment programs that would be either coming in the spring or some time soon. We are working on piloting those programs, and we’re going to use the materials from that pilot in order to develop a larger, more comprehensive on-the-land program. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for providing that answer.
What would be some of the features in terms of developing an on-the-land program? Would it be a philosophy that’s based on the AA program? Would it be a philosophy that’s based on First Nations affinity to on the land in terms of the environment? Could the Minister explain? Mahsi.
Thank you. Certainly some of the discussions that we had early on in the development of on-the-land has been that people have called for an AA-based type of program, then starting that on the land and then using AA as an aftercare program. However, I’m not sure if that’s going to be something that will be encompassed out on the land at this point.
At this point, I think the majority of the on-the-land program will be based around the connection the First Nations people have with being out on the land, and using that, I think, as the basis for developing the program. I’m not sure we would have specific counsellors out there, but I do believe that is going to be all part of the program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of listening to the Minister indicating that there are three on-the-land programs that might be piloted, is there a timeline in terms of when we can expect those pilot on-the-land programs to commence? Mahsi.
I don’t have the specific dates on that with me, but I would be more than willing to provide that to the Members across the floor, on where the programs will be piloted and with whom the programs will be piloted by and when they will be piloted. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance some questions on public accounts practices within this government.
Would the Minister of Finance, maybe just for education purposes, let me know what his perspective is for the purpose of having public accounts within this government? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The role of public accounts is an important one. When I became Finance Minister, there was a significant delay in reports being done. The public accounts had sort of fallen out of attention and I made it a point, as the Finance Minister, to meet with the Auditor General, along with the deputy minister. We made the commitment that we would pay attention and we would reinforce the importance of time of reports, that the public accounts was an important function, and then the Legislature, as well, took it upon themselves and the committees to take a much more active role. Some of it had not been done for some time. So, between us we’ve created a renewed emphasis and political commitment to make this part of the budgeting process an important one, and that we’re working hard and we’ve shown success in terms of getting reports done in a timely way. The committee has taken their new authority and they’ve renewed their interest and they’re now taking a much more active role, all of which can only make for a better total budgeting practice. Thank you.
Thank you. I do appreciate the comments that the Minister has made to committee. On my desk I have two public accounts documents that were tabled in this House on February 18, 2013, when we were actually going through our main estimates at the time in terms of making decisions for the ‘13-14 budget. We are spending those dollars right now as we speak, but once that budget process was done, we didn’t get a chance to look at how other dollars were spent in previous years. I’m assured by the Minister that he is trying to get these documents done as soon as possible, but from the recommendations from our last report, what has the Minister done to ensure we do get these financial statements from the government and from our boards and agencies in a timely manner before we sit before our main estimates practice again? Thank you.
This is a process that has some history to it now, as I’ve indicated in my previous answer. I’ve taken this on, along with the deputy minister of Finance, as a critical issue. It’s been pointed out clearly by the Auditor General that we were lacking in this area and we acknowledged that. So, we have the political commitment. We have been working with all of the boards and agencies and government departments to make sure that they know that there is an emphasis on this particular function and that these reports have to get done. We’ve met with chairs and board presidents to make sure that they are clear on this message. It’s been put into people’s job expectations on how they’re going to be measured in terms of the success of their accomplishments of their duties over the year as another way to move this process forward. As I’ve indicated, we have collaboratively and collectively shown some success here. Thank you.
Thank you. We have a tough job here as legislators to ensure that dollars are spent and accounted for and that we’re spending dollars in the proper way, and with a budget and increasing our debt wall, we can spend dollars in a more efficient way. But with that said, we’ve got to understand where those dollars are being spent in the previous year and the years before.
Is there any process in place right now from the government’s point of view for any of these boards or agencies that we work with that don’t get their reporting in on time? Are there any penalties or consequences for them not putting their reporting in on time that helps us make our decisions a lot easier and a lot better for the taxpayer and the residents of the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you. The biggest tool we have is the ones that we are applying and showing progress with. It has become more and more visible as the committee has taken a more active role in reviewing public accounts. Those that are not derelict, but those that are late, those that are tardy, those agencies, boards now have to suffer the scrutiny of not only the Minister of Finance but also of committee, the public, and we’ve put a value on this process. By putting that value on the process we are, over time – a fairly short period of time – getting all the involved boards, agencies and government departments to recognize that this is something they have to pay attention to and give due diligence and attention to.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do commend the work that Government Operations has taken and the initiatives that they’ve taken since being more trained on public accounts.
With that said, is there any type of training that the Minister in terms of Cabinet has for their own departments on making sure dollars are spent properly with keeping them accountable for the work that they’re doing as well? Thank you.
We have to look at the consolidated public accounts process as part of the overall budgeting process where we do business plans, we do reviews, main estimates, and where we spend a full year either getting ready for the budget or cleaning up after the budget and then having a short, very, very short pause before we renew that process.
Once again, we have skilled, trained staff. We have qualified managers and we now have, of course, this clear political direction from this body, from the government, that public accounts have to be paid attention to and it has to be given its due. We are doing that and we have folks that are trained to do this. As the Member has indicated, committee members have had special training, as well, in their role as legislators overseeing this process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions about nursing services in the community of Wrigley. When the highway was first opened up, there were two nurses in Wrigley only because there was increased development expected from traffic, et cetera, in the community of Wrigley. Since then, the two nurses have been removed. They have been removed for well in excess of 10 years now. But now, again the community is faced with the pressures of development as traffic and business increase due to the development in the Sahtu.
I’d like to ask the Minister, where is the department in planning to restore two nurses in the community of Wrigley. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
