Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I welcome everyone in the gallery today. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. Ed Jeske, a long time educator, hockey supporter from minor hockey to old-timer, and also he now has an arena named after himself. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report that came out in the National Post today reporting that the federal government has decided not to proceed with its investment with the MGP really changes nothing in regards to the need for a comprehensive reply to the Joint Review Panel report. The federal government could reverse its decision at any time or economics could improve for unexpected reasons. The independent analysis and even the comments of the members of the Joint Review Panel indicate that GNWT negotiated a bad socio-economic benefits agreement for our public with the proponents. We even may need to consider renegotiating this agreement, but we can’t do that if the Ministers dash off a blind endorsement of the project. Will the Ministers commit to seeking input and review of Regular Members on the response to the JRP report and recommendations before they announce any firm positions on it? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a couple of Ministers or, actually, a number of Ministers working on this file between the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources and the Minister of ITI. The response will be a joint one put together. The Ministers will be collaborating as well as seeking input from Members on our response.
Just for the record, the article that the Member has raised in National Post is one where it is an article from a reporter. There is no confirmation, in fact, that the federal government has said anything regarding the pipeline itself and where that project is. There are a lot of stories floating about right now. We are trying to confirm just where things are. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate comments of the Premier on the news report and, like I say, I think, regardless of that, that could change any time. So we need to do this work. I will ask again, will the Premier, with the coordinated response of the split personalities of ENR and ITI apparently coordinating a review, as I understand it -- the Minister of ENR for the Joint Review Panel report, the Minister of ITI for dealing with the NEB documents and eventual decision -- will Members be assured of input to our responses? Will the Premier commit to ensuring our input to those responses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we have stated earlier a number of departments involved in this. There will be a government position. We will coordinate that and we will be working with Members as to what gets done. Thank you.
Again, a typically opaque response from the Premier. I will take it, though, as a yes. I would also like to know, will the Minister commit to referral of both the JRP report and the NEB decision for review by Regular Members, commit to forwarding those reports to us for our direct input into the process? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I believe I made a commitment to the Members of this Assembly, through that earlier response, that we will work with Members. It is a coordinated effort from the Government of the Northwest Territories. We will contact Members through standing committees as to the process we will adopt going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Premier Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Speaker, the reason I seek these assurances is because we did such a lousy job in the previous review of the submissions to the JRP panel. I really would like to hear the reiterative responses there. Recognizing that there is always demand on the staff and the expertise and to have a comprehensive and coordinated response, we need to have our staff ready to be able to reply within the time frames available. Will the Premier commit, and what preparations have been made to ensuring that our in-house expertise is clearing their desks and will be able to give a really meaningful piece of analysis and response to those reports? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the Member is entitled to his own opinion no matter where it goes or comes from.
As the Government of the Northwest Territories, the appropriate departments have been involved. We were the best organized, I think many would say, when it came to the hearings. We are involved in the negotiations of the socio-economic agreement. There are a number of fronts we are involved with from Municipal and Community Affairs, ITI and ENR.
Again, the Member is entitled to his own opinion on that. We will coordinate, we will respond and we will engage in Members through that response as we go forward.
I must remind the Member, when we put our budgets together, we propose to put a number of dollars in place to keep us, the machinery, moving, so that the desks are cleared so we have people ready, and at times Members recommend we redo stuff in a very particular area. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Transportation. It is in regards to my Member’s statement and the importance of gravel resources for communities to develop public infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, as a government we have several access programs in regards to the Community Access Program and access road construction program. We have the Tuk access road program. We now have the road in regards to the Dettah upgrade access program. We have the Yellowknife bypass road program. We have tons of programs out there, but it just doesn’t seem like you are able to assist communities to find access to the gravel sources, especially to realize the importance of gravel sources to communities to develop public infrastructure and also about programs and services on behalf of this government.
I know in regards to the Aklavik situation, they have received some money through Building Canada. There are other pots of money out there. We just heard about a P3 fund that is out there. I would like to ask the Minister exactly what can his department do to facilitate with the community of Aklavik to find a way to resolve the problem of getting a permanent access road to the gravel source especially, some 20 kilometres from the community?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raised a very healthy list of projects that we are working on in the Northwest Territories with communities to find either improvement through the Access Roads Program to enhance road systems or, in some cases, to try and find a way to lessen the costs to have gravel into the communities.
We don’t, as a department, have a gravel source program per se. We have really tried to reach out and be creative in a number of situations including the Tuk source 177 program where we were able to access the Building Canada Fund and work with some communities such as Aklavik to do a study that identified the cost, the route and alignment of road that is going to be required to access gravel for that community. There are still other communities that don’t have a readily available supply of gravel. We would like to see if we could do more on that front. We would like to see more discussion through the rural remote community program. We are also exploring to see where we can go for next steps.
The study for Aklavik, something that has been in the works, he mentioned in his statement, for as long as he has been here. Well, that is quite a few terms, Mr. Speaker. I am proud to say the government of the 16th Assembly has finally picked it up and been able to move forward and wants to continue to do so. We are looking to taking the next step, which is the project development report and we have identified it is going to cost a little over $1 million. We are working all avenues to see if we can find those dollars. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister for that answer, but I think the challenge is still there. He mentioned other communities. I know there are other communities that are having that problem, in regards to Tulita and Colville Lake. We are talking about building airports and other public infrastructure. One thing that we are really finding when you go through the capital plan process is solid waste sites for communities. In a lot of cases, the communities have to expand outward, but again you have to have gravel to build these solid waste sites to identify where those infrastructure are going to be built, but, more importantly, skid a road to those sites to develop those areas. I would just like to ask the Minister in regards to the importance of this issue, working with your other ministerial colleagues, can you look at a program to ensure that it is part and parcel of the government programs and services by way of a community access road to gravel source program or whatever you want to name it? Is that something that the government is looking at to ensure that we have a program that’s universal right across the Territories, so all communities can have access to that? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we, as the Department of Transportation and also through my responsibilities as Minister of Public Works, are looking at ways that we can try to accommodate communities with our need to gravel sources. The responsibility, of course, for gravel supply for municipal projects is under the municipality. That’s been transferred over through the New Deal. The money for capital has also been transferred over, so it would be very difficult to see that clawed back so that we can start a new program in that sense. I am very keen to see what the options are. I’m also very keen to move forward and explore what the federal government has to offer.
I am convinced that we can put something together with the community of Aklavik. The report was only completed a few short months ago. We were not even able to consider it as part of this government’s capital plan, because it was already submitted. So we have to find ways to do that. There are some programs out there. There are some other options that we’d like to explore. We want to meet with the community and come forward with a proposal to submit to the appropriate department or the appropriate program. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, one of the findings of the report the Minister mentions is that just on having a permanent access road versus doing a winter gravel haul where you have to build a winter road, an ice road, whatever, is somewhere in the range of 35 to 40 percent savings to government and to the public cost of building capital in the communities. If we can look at those types of savings and look at it in the long term, how much money can we save by simply having access to gravel sources as an illustration of how we, as government, could be doing things better?
So again, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister in regard to the capital cost of gravel, we had a flood a number of years ago in Aklavik where, basically, we had to bring gravel in from Inuvik by barge and it was over a million dollar expenditure. Yet, that could almost look at a major gravel stockpile for Aklavik which will last a couple of years. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, have you looked at the economics in regard to long-term savings of building this road and, more importantly, the long-term savings to government when we’re looking at 35 to 40 percent savings on capital costs because of having direct access to gravel sources?
Mr. Speaker, I think all parties involved, all stakeholders, including the municipalities, have recognized that it’s still cheaper to do an analysis of what the gravel requirements per community are for that year and provide a stockpile versus to try to find 20 to 30 million dollars to build a road. It’s still very difficult to do so. I think there is merit to look at the long term and try to work with the communities, and I’ve committed to do so. I’d like to see that move forward, but at this point there is no program and there is no budget that allows us to tap into for gravel source access roads. I’d like to see that developed. I’d like to have more discussion with the Rural and Remote Communities committee and see where that ends up. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there’s a way, there’s a will and, hopefully, there’s a lot of will on that side of the House, because, definitely, we have to find a solution to this problem. So, again, I’d like to ask the Minister to keep me informed as we proceed forward and try to find solutions to a major challenge for rural and remote communities. I’d like to ask the Minister, when was he expecting to have something going forward, especially in regard to the next phase in regard to the gravel program so that we can, hopefully, see a road built to that gravel source within the next short time? Thank you.
There is certainly no shortage of will on this side, and I’m sure if I did let it slip, the Member would be quick to remind me. The Aklavik road right now, a project description report for that project is something that we want to see move forward. We want to be able to contact the community quickly. There are programs out there like the Community Adjustment Fund that we feel we can tap into. We’d like to package that up into a proposal with a business case and take it to the next steps. We’d like to move that forward as quickly as possible and we’d be very pleased to include the Member in all steps that we take on this project. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources and are in follow up to my statement from earlier today.
Mr. Speaker, home fuel tanks are leaking more and more often and homeowners are increasingly on the hook. I believe this government has a responsibility to inform homeowners and businesses of the increasing number of leaks and the potential financial ramifications. Would the Minister commit to having his department develop a public awareness campaign outlining this issue and encourage homeowners to protect themselves and their property? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge the Member for bringing this issue to light and commend him for his perseverance in pulling this together. He’s come up with an issue that needs remediating. The answer is yes, I will be working to have a public awareness campaign and look at the statistics. There is a need for some type of message to make people conscious, as the Member has pointed out. So, yes, Mr. Speaker.
I must say, I really, really, really like the answer yes. Leaks are becoming more regular. When can we expect this public awareness campaign package to be available for distribution to the public, taking advantage of the fact that leaks are occurring more and more often?
Mr. Speaker, the staff are already at work on this. We’ll make sure that we consult, as well, with the Housing Corporation, because they have a lot of units as well. So in the next number of weeks we intend to pull a package together and map out a work plan on how we want to get this implemented. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask some questions with regard to my Member’s statement and the deficiencies at the Nahanni Butte gymnasium. I would like to ask questions of the Minister of Public Works and Services.
The deficiencies came to light some time in about May or March. Just after the spring thaw, the building started experiencing problems, Mr. Speaker. The community actually waited throughout the summer for the contractor to return and they had not. So on my most recent visit about three weeks ago to Nahanni Butte, they were wondering when the deficiencies were going to get addressed and when this company was going to return. So I’d like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services, what is the plan for correcting the deficiencies at the Nahanni Butte gymnasium? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The quick answer, I guess, is that most of the deficiencies have been addressed. The floor is something we are working to expedite the repairs to. The material is on order. We have a contractor that’s going to be coming to the community and we expect it all to be completed by the end of November. Thank you.
One of the other issues that the community had raised, of course, is their concern that the warranty period is coming soon for the Nahanni Butte gymnasium. Has there been a final inspection or is there going to be a warranty inspection for deficiencies done on the Nahanni Butte gym? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the work that was done was under, as the Member indicated, warranty. There are some deficiencies that have been addressed and there are going to be more that are going to be required. They are going to all be covered through the warranty period. Notification has been provided to the subcontractors of the contractors that were involved and we’re dealing with the issue. Thank you.
So from our exchange, I’m given to understand that all the deficiencies should be completed within the next couple of months, by December. Is that the time frame that the Minister is giving me? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the deficiencies are going to be all completed by the end of November. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would certainly like to see that done by that time, because the community is certainly looking forward to having a full opening ceremony for the building. If we can do it by December, I’d be pleased to see that; even January, Mr. Speaker. But I think the whole thing is our government has to take the time to correct the deficiencies in that building. So once again, I’d like to ask the Minister that we must get the contractor to complete these deficiencies. Thank you.
I’ll certainly convey that to our officials, that this building better be done by the end of November. I should point out, though, the building is still usable and the community certainly can take advantage of it. We are very aware that they were very frustrated with some of the issues that came forward, but we’re working very hard to get it all addressed, for the most part. Except for the floor, I think everything’s done and we will ensure that it’s completed by the end of November. We will inform the Member that we want to move forward and have an official opening at some point. We already deferred it on several occasions, so we’d like to see that happen also. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address my questions to the Minister of Human Resources. I’d like to follow up on his statement from yesterday and some of the questions that I asked the Minister yesterday. In our exchange, I referenced the Employability Working Group and asked the Minister what the group had accomplished. In the results that he mentioned to me, he mentioned a number of things. One of them was that the department has consulted with a number of other different jurisdictions; another one was that they have implemented some sensitivity training. I’d like to know from the Minister what impact this past work has had on the number of persons with disabilities who have been hired in the last little while. How many more persons with disabilities have we hired since the Employability Working Group was established in June of 2008? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated yesterday, it’s not something that we change overnight. It’s a process that takes some time and it’s a matter of working with partners and it’s a matter of changing the culture of an organization. Anecdotally, I know of at least two additional people with disabilities that have been hired, at least one of them has self-identified as disabled. So it’s our expectation that it’s an ongoing process and it will take some time to have some achievable results.
