Mr. Speaker, if it’s Commissioner’s land, I don’t foresee much change. Once devolution happens we’ll still be responsible for that land within the boundary. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, could the Minister explain when and how the City of Yellowknife could apply for jurisdiction over this area and if this could help manage situations such as the one we are faced with today?
Mr. Speaker, we will be more than willing to sit down with the City of Yellowknife and discuss the jurisdiction of the lakebed.
Again, the Member is right; from the correspondence that I have been getting, it is a favoured spot of a lot of people that use the trail. There is some concern, and I have received e-mails directly, about the houseboat that is there. We are looking at trying to, again, locate the owner and have the houseboat removed from the area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope the Minister does understand that there is a standing offer from constituents to assist the Minister. They know where this person is. The Weledeh residents have been asking for something to be done about this all summer, so we have lost a summer of swimming and picnicking and so on. Can we expect it to continue all winter as well?
What is the current status of the process of removing this trespasser? And, incidentally, the log structure that is in the ice just to the North is a dangerous barrier to travel during the dark parts of the winter. Mahsi.
I know there has been an attempt to serve the owner of the houseboat. I believe the sheriff has even gone out with a boat and tried to locate the particular individual. I can assure the Member that we are looking by the end of the week if we can’t serve these papers, then we might have to look at other options. My understanding is that once we do that, if there is a concern that boat is going to be there next spring, to make a bit of a commitment that once we get all the proper work done, then the boat should be removed. If it happens to be this winter, it will be this winter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Human Resources. I just want to talk a little bit about termination of employment within the GNWT because there have been some cases in the Inuvik region and in my community where people have retired or who have resigned from the job position and had trouble getting their ROEs, or records of employment. I would like to ask the Minister, in terms of getting a record of employment, what’s the process. Is there a timeline from when an employee is terminated from a position to the time they can actually get their record of employment to either seek income assistance or some other form of payment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A record of employment is required after many situations. If an employee has interrupted earnings of over seven days, they are required to be provided with a record of employment. When an employee’s salary falls below 60 percent of their weekly earnings, they are supposed to be provided with a record of employment. When an employee declares bankruptcy, a record of employment is required, and there are a lot of other reasons why a record of employment is required.
The requirement is that a record of employment is provided within five calendar days of the last day of the pay period in which they are last paid for, so it’s five days from the end of that. I know the Member and I have had some conversations about this and had shared concerns of constituents that there is a bit of a backlog on the ROEs and we haven’t always hit our five days, and this is important. We have to fix this. The department is looking at their processes right now, trying to identify the barriers on these and barrier on making the five-day commitment, and we’re looking at re-engineering and some streamlining to fix this problem that the Member has brought to my attention. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister did hit a few things on the head there in terms of some challenges that we have in getting these ROEs passed to government employees.
Can I ask the Minister what some of these challenges and barriers are? Would it be dealing with HR training, development? Do we need to put more training within our HR staff or is there more capacity that needs to be in that department such as more personnel to cover such processes? Can the Minister identify some of these barriers and whether or not our HR department needs more human resources themselves or more funding sources? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, at this time we hope that through the review of this process, we can identify and answer some of those exact questions. Right now we feel that we have enough positions established, but we also do have turnover and some vacancies within our own shop and it’s difficult to find people who are capable of doing this work.
One of the real challenges is just the sheer quantity of these ROEs that are required. Today there are about 382 that are required. Between April 1, 2012, and August 30, 2013, just by way of example, we processed 3,653 records of employment. If you break that down to the workday, that’s 10 ROEs a day that this unit is processing. When you actually consider that each ROE involves an audit of the file to verify all sick days, annual days, special leave days, make sure they’ve been paid what they’re supposed to be paid and that all that information is properly tracked so that we can provide an accurate ROE so that the individual can get EI, there is a little bit of time involved for each of these files.
But I get the Member’s point. We do provide training to our new staff that come in. They mentor and sit with experienced staff so that they can become familiar with the processes. Once again, those are the processes we have today and we’re looking at those processes to see if there’s any way to streamline and improve them so that we can meet our commitment of five days after the final pay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is a lot of ROEs that need to be addressed. I understand the Minister has talked about streamlining the process. I’d just like to ask the Minister, for somebody who needs an ROE and requests an ROE maybe for EI, is there any way for a person to get higher up on the list or more of a priority? Is there a process that this person could take, rather than having to wait a period of time to receive an ROE? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, one of the things I encourage all staff to do when they know they’re coming up to the end of their employment is obviously to have a discussion with the benefits officer. If they have a discussion with their benefits officer prior to their last day, they can usually streamline the process a little bit so that people know how urgent it is; this person isn’t going to be having a job, they’re going to be going on EI. I would encourage all employees of the GNWT, when they know that they’re coming up to their end date, to talk to their benefits officer so that we can get these dealt with in a timely manner and have the five-day turnaround so that they’re not affected for EI and other benefits. So, talk to your benefits officer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary again, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know this is my fourth question here, but one in particular was medical termination. When we do have a GNWT employee that does have medical illnesses and can’t continue with their job, can the Minister give me a timeline when somebody who is on medical, when they’re going through their termination, how long is that process to get a person terminated from the GNWT when they’re going through medical termination? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that’s a very difficult question to answer because every situation is going to be different. Obviously, we want to work with our employees and find ways to bring them back into the workforce, rather than having to go to that final step of termination. So we tend to work with our employees, try to accommodate them where appropriate, reasonable and feasible. If all things fail and the person has to be terminated or let go based on their condition, we work with the employee to try and figure out the best way. But at the end of it, an ROE is still five days, so we still have to find a way to make sure that we can get those out within the five days of the last pay period that the employee is working on.
Once again, we’re reviewing the processes and trying to streamline them to make sure that we get these things out when they’re supposed to get out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I’d like to follow up on my statement and ask him some questions with regards to fracking and the requirements that will be required of companies that are doing fracking.
Recently, the National Energy Board put in place new requirements for companies, but I’d like to, first off, ask the Minister… I mentioned in my statement, these requirements don’t force the companies to reveal the components of the fracking fluid, but I’d like to first know from the Minister whether or not the requirements from the NEB and/or any of the requirements that this government is thinking about implementing, whether they would include a monitoring or an oversight of the fracking in the Sahtu. Something similar to the Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency that exists for the Ekati Diamond Mine. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intention is to work with the NEB and with the Sahtu Land and Water Board to look at the new requirements, and review and assess the various proposals and projects as they come forward. We, as well, after April 1st, are in the process collectively of contemplating and planning for what type of regulatory regime we want to have. We want to have a northern-based, northern-driven, northern-controlled regulatory process. We want to make use of the technical skills of the National Energy Board, and we want to be clear, as we go forward, that we have northern control of the process. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for the information. I didn’t hear an answer to my question, so I guess I’ll have to phrase it a little differently.
I’m pleased to hear that the government is going to be working with various organizations. One of the things that is in place is the Sahtu Land Use Plan and I’m not exactly sure how the government will use the Sahtu Land Use Plan and consider that in terms of fracking development. So there’s that and there’s also the question about whether or not there will be an independent environmental monitoring agency such as we have for Ekati. Will there be that for Sahtu? Thank you.
We’re currently in the exploration stage. As we move forward and if the Sahtu oil play proves out and becomes a producing field, those discussions, on an ongoing basis, will be there. In the meantime, there will be monitoring throughout the approved projects, the requirements that they have to adhere to in terms of the monitoring, the disclosure, the information that they have to share, the issue of fracking fluids. All those are going to be addressed in a way that fits industry best standards. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I’m pleased we’re going to try to achieve industry best standards. He’s mentioned several times the word “monitoring” and we’re going to be monitoring, and that’s part of my concern, is the scale of development, the pace of development> I need to know from the Minister how we’re going to determine that, how we’re going to slow things down if things are going too quickly, speed it up if maybe we think they’re not going fast enough, which is unlikely.
How are we going to measure, how are we going to monitor? It goes to my question about an independent oversight agency. Thank you.
One of the functions we are taking over from the federal government that has some funding attached to it is a Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program. We have that venue and process that we will be looking at, as a government, in terms of providing the monitoring that’s necessary. We’ll also work with the land and water boards. At this point, there are no plans for an independent monitoring body at this juncture. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that response. I would urge the government to consider, very seriously, establishing an independent oversight body.
My last question has to do with the fact that we’ve talked a lot about the Bakken formation, the people that visited there and so on, and it sounds as though we are thinking about putting in place the same sort of system that exists in the Bakken. However, the Bakken doesn’t have permafrost and doesn’t have melting permafrost. So what are we thinking about doing differently, to accommodate fracking in a permafrost zone? Thank you.
We are different than the Bakken in many ways. The intensity of development, the speed and pace of development are different; we have a different regulatory regime that requires environmental work to be done prior to any project proceeding. We have a lot of monitoring done in the area of groundwater monitoring and mapping in the area of where they plan to work, wildlife baseline information needs to be taken. We are going to make sure, through the best practices, that we allow and account for what the topography and geography is going to look like, including permafrost. The big issue for us is the different regulatory regime, and the pace and intensity in the Northwest Territories is something we have to control and has to fit in with the broader planning for ourselves as a government and the people of the Sahtu with their land use plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement both yesterday and certainly today, I talked about why Yellowknife is number one and certainly the Northwest Territories is number one when it comes to power rates. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corp what relief he can provide Northerners for power bills. It is well beyond the reach of the normal working family who struggles through this.
What immediate relief can he start doing, especially in the Yellowknife region where power bills are costing people everything? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A point of clarification, for a commercial customer using 2,000 kilowatts in a five-kilowatt demand in Iqaluit and Yellowknife, in Yellowknife the total bill would be $476.53 and in Iqaluit it would be $953.73. Yellowknife to Iqaluit is lower by $477.20. At the residential level, there is a significant subsidy provided to residential power users in Iqaluit versus Yellowknife. Our rates are higher than Whitehorse, but clearly when you look at Whitehorse, they have the majority of their population living very, very close to the city. They have road access to all their communities except one. They have a hydro plant right in the middle of the city, so they have different challenges than we do with 33 communities in 1.3 million square kilometres that we have to manage and provide services to.
So we’ve done a number of things to cushion the rates. We’ve put in almost $34 million to cushion the rate increases, because there had been no rate increases for five years. We’ve spent or we revised our rate structure to, in fact, provide greater relief to small communities where rates were as high as $2 a kilowatt hour. We’ve standardized the rates in the thermal zone and hydro zone.
So we’ve done a number of things and we’re working hard on additional things like liquid natural gas in Inuvik, the use of solar, we are going to work on combined heat and power as we proceed with biomass. So we have some very aggressive plans to bring down the cost of energy in the Northwest Territories.
The only thing the Minister didn’t do there is thank me for giving him such a platform or soapbox to provide a Minister’s statement to in defence.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister used, as a distracting technique, to start talking about commercial rates. I keep talking about residential rates for the working family. As I said, and the Minister did pick up that 1,000 kilowatts is more expensive in Yellowknife than it is in Iqaluit. It is certainly way more expensive, twice as expensive in Yellowknife versus Whitehorse.
What immediate relief can the Minister of the NWT Power Corp do? We engineer the community power rates; let’s do something for half our population. Here is your opportunity. I look forward to the Minister’s answer on that one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do appreciate the opportunity to discuss these important matters in the House with the Member. It’s always an interesting discussion. I have laid out in my previous answer a significant amount of work that we’re doing on the issue of energy and providing a lower cost of affordable energy, not only to residents but to businesses. One of the things we are focusing on, of course, is conservation. We have any number of rebate programs to assist people to convert to energy-efficient appliances, biomass, all the things that will help them save money as they go forward and cut their use of power so that it will save them money.
I can’t be the only one noticing the Minister continues to not answer the question, which is: What immediate response can the Minister, through the department, through that government, do to help the immediate need that everyday Northerners need, which is relief on their power bills? This government wanted to help the cost of living for Northerners and this is something we can do. I will continue to launch question after question on this issue until he does something. What can he do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One second here. Sorry, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins, enough is enough. When you are told to ask the question, ask the question. Don’t drag it on. It’s not Members’ statement time. Mr. Miltenberger, now answer the question for Mr. Hawkins. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will choose my response carefully. In this House where there is sometimes political theatre, the demand for instant, quick fixes, silver bullets may play well on the airwaves, but the Member knows in his heart of hearts – he’s been in this Assembly for a considerable amount of time – that everything takes planning. It takes planning, it takes design, it takes resources, it takes consultation and we’ve been working on these improvements since the last Assembly and we are going to continue to do that. If the Member has a silver bullet that he wants to share with us that is not just putting unaffordable subsidies more than we’re already paying, I would be very happy to have that discussion with him, because we are very open-minded and looking for that type of constructive input. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, we need an answer to this question. Why are engineered power rates okay if you’re outside of Yellowknife but not in Yellowknife? It’s a question of fairness.
Everything about energy provision is engineered. It has to be engineered the proper way; it has to be engineered for efficiency for economy and for practicality. What we’ve done with the rate restructuring was to, in fact, bring a greater clarity, streamlining to the rate systems. Instead of 33 rate zones, we have two. We’ve pegged the rate of residential power across the North to the Yellowknife rate. Yellowknife has some challenges, but we have to keep in mind the whole Northwest Territories and these improvements have benefited all Northerners. Is there still work to do? Absolutely, which is why we’re talking about a five to seven hundred million dollar investment in hooking up the transmission lines to improve our ability to manage and provide electrical energy to our citizens. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I read a statement on the K’atlodeeche First Nation Reserve, so my question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the House on the current status of the KFN negotiations with Canada and the GNWT? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is we are waiting for the KFN to decide which process they will want to follow, whether it’s a comprehensive claim process or the treaty land entitlement process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like to thank the Premier for giving me an update on the KFN. What is the GNWT doing to ensure the federal government maintains its fiduciary obligation on the delivery of programs and services to the K’atlodeeche First Nation? Mahsi.
