Mr. Speaker, I’m glad that the Minister will get that medical travel staff to engage in discussions. When can the Minister initiate such an action and start discussions for us with the Hotel Association, or is he looking for alternate places where people can sit and relax for the day while they are waiting for their late evening flights? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I can request the information back from the department to have that discussion with me by the end of next week, and then within the next couple of weeks, if something can be established and that the medical travel people think they can make some headway with the hotels to establish this into their policy, then we will try to have it done within the month of November. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased that the Minister is willing to do that. Will the Minister advise me when they begin those discussions? I will certainly share that with the constituents travelling from Nahendeh. Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we can keep the Member advised. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions regarding Quebec’s Plan Nord, not specifically about it but what the Premier can do in regard to a Northwest Territories plan North. Although I tried to make a little spinoff of The Raven, which is written by Edgar Allen Poe, about the plight of Members trying to get the issues and the ears of the government, Plan Nord by Quebec is built around four major objectives which ensures the well-being of northern development for Aboriginal people in communities, achieve the immense economic potential of Quebec’s north, make the North accessible and, finally, protect the environment.
With these types of tenets that are very important in principles of Quebec, not unlike the Northwest Territories, what does the Premier think of the concept of the idea of us finally developing a plan North which would build some certainty of both the industry and, of course, environmental protection? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity to discuss Plan Nord with Premier Charest before the last election where he lost the election. We discussed the elements of Plan Nord. He was very excited about Plan Nord. He saw it as the way of the future. But in discussions with Premier Charest, it quickly became obvious to me that without devolution, and recognizing that Quebec is a province, unless we had control or we had the ability to make decisions on land and water and development of resources, it would be very difficult for us to implement something similar to Plan Nord. Also, we are waiting to see whether the new Quebec government will be continuing with Plan Nord or changing it or not continuing with it.
I think that there are so many elements of a plan that I like. I will pay them the ultimate compliment by saying that we are going to steal as much of this plan as we could. I think we are developing quite a number of initiatives and strategies. I think we will be able to come up with our own plan Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer from the Premier. I thought it really spoke to, sort of, the position at large.
It is difficult to jump into something like this without having control of the lands and whatnot. If he learned a little bit about Plan Nord, what you will find is it also is complicated with tax incentives, which is a challenge for us without devolution. It is never too late to start planning for tomorrow, especially in partnership with our Aboriginal governments that we are equal partners in the future of the Northwest Territories.
Does the Premier himself see a chance for us to get something on the discussion agenda with northern government partners, the Aboriginal governments, about developing a plan North in the Northwest Territories speaking of the values of the North, as I mentioned earlier? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this is something that we are working on from a number of fronts. First and foremost, we are working with our Aboriginal government partners, obviously, on devolution. We have been able to develop an Aboriginal Engagement Strategy where we are working very well with our Aboriginal governments. I think that we are starting to develop a common vision and understanding for going forward in the North.
As a government, we have a host of strategies that we are working on, including the Economic Opportunity Strategy, a Minerals Development Strategy and the Transportation Strategy. We are developing energy plans. At the end of the day, we will pull all of these together and we will have plan Northwest Territories where we will all decide to get in the same canoe and all start to paddle in the same direction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I certainly like what the Premier said. The only thing I would change, of course, is to define this more as a roadmap or blueprint towards the northern future that we all share an equal investment in. When I say that, I don’t mean just Members, I also mean Aboriginal governments, as well, because they are our partners into the future of the territory.
Does the Premier see in the short term a chance to bring all of these strategies together in a blueprint document? Whether it is called the Northwest Territories plan Nord or by any other name would certainly be welcome. Does the Premier see an opportunity to start to sew this future together as a forward plan type of thinking? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is our plan. Ultimately, we will pull all of these strategies together. We have put in place the framework so that we can all work together. That is what we are trying to develop through Section 6 of the Devolution Agreement-in-Principle. We will have the benefit of all of these strategies that we will have input from all of the different sectors and stakeholders of the Northwest Territories and governments as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier knows better than anyone, by all means, through my experience with him, seeing him in charge of many portfolios over the years, as well as his experience in public service, he would be able to say, to some respect, that history is always curious about getting into an area without a plan, and it makes it challenging whether it’s taxation plans, whether it’s land use plans and, again, mining strategies as you add all these things up together, hydro strategy, et cetera.
Does the Premier see in the foreseeable future some type of document we can get out there to the rest of Canada and the world as we court further investment in the Northwest Territories, a chance to lay something out as a blueprint, and when would we see this? Thank you.
Thank you. I guess that’s the rationale behind a number of these strategies, is that we want to make sure that industry and other potential investors know that we’re a responsible, mature government that can make decisions, and that we will have a very smooth transition through devolution and that they will have a very clear understanding of where we’re coming from in areas like minerals development, economic development, the land use and sustainability frameworks amongst others. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I talked about the wonderful achievements of the Northern Youth Abroad Program. In some respects it provides an eye-opening experience for the youth of the Northwest Territories.
My question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. How has MACA supported the Northern Youth Abroad Program over the past 15 years?
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We recognize that investment in our youth is in an investment in our future, and to that end I think, with the support of the Legislative Assembly, we’ve contributed much funds to the young people in the Northwest Territories and given them an opportunity to broaden their horizons. The Northern Youth Abroad is a classic example of that.
Over the last two or three years, we’ve had 63 young people go through the program; I think 49 in the Canadian phase and about 14 in the international phase. We contributed, through our Youth Core Program, $100,000 to Northern Youth Abroad. As well, ECE makes a contribution to that as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I think it’s very commendable for the department and this government for providing financial support for the Northern Youth Abroad. How else has the Department of MACA supported the Northern Youth Abroad Program? Mahsi.
Thank you. The Northern Youth Abroad Program, as these young people are ambassadors for the Northwest Territories, we see many of these young people moving into our Youth Ambassador Program, which is a great program that’s also funded by MACA. So it gives them a really good experience, and we continue to do what we can to support them financially so they have an opportunity to see the rest of the country, as well as the rest of the world. Thank you.
Thank you. What is MACA doing to ensure all recreation leaders and youth centres in the North have information about the Northern Youth Abroad Program? Mahsi.
We have youth workers in all the regions in the Northwest Territories and part of their duties would be to try and keep the communities updated as much as possible on the programs that are available to the youth as well. We have a website and there’s an excellent youth website that they can go on to see what programs are available to the youth.
The department does a really good job on trying to get as much information out there so we can access applications from all over the Northwest Territories, and I think we’re starting to see an indication that youth out there are being reached because we are getting applications from every region in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The success of the program is clearly evident. Would the Minister be willing to do further work with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to ensure that the Northern Youth Abroad is promoted in schools across the NWT, especially in the small, isolated communities? Mahsi.
Thank you. In this day and age of electronic communication, I think that it’s a lot easier to reach all those across the Northwest Territories. Pretty well everyone is on the computer and has access to the Internet, but I will work with my colleague, the Minister of Education, and our own youth workers to ensure that we get all this information out to all the schools across the Northwest Territories so youth out there have an opportunity to access our programs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier. I’m following up from my Member’s statement when I talked about the need for the establishment of an ombudsman office.
I want to say I appreciate the response from the government to the motion that was passed in June, but I do wish that it had been a little more definitive. The response to the motion talks about a review being underway, and I also appreciate that the government is doing due diligence in looking into things, but I hope they are looking at not only maybe adding to what we have already, I hope they’re looking at collapsing a few things.
So I’d like to know from the Premier whether or not there’s any consideration by the government, as they do this review, to collapse some of the current appeal boards and tribunals and bring it under one office, hopefully an ombudsman office. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all with regard to the ombudsman office, we’re reviewing the legislative base rights as well as all of the different avenues there are currently for which people that have issues can have them addressed, and we will take what we find and we will see what is the best way forward we would go without reinventing the wheel. If we take that approach, it depends what kind of wheel we’re going to use as some of the wheels cost $900,000 and other wheels cost $10 million. So we would certainly look at finding out what we think has to be done, and if it means perhaps we’d also look at what existing programs we have that could be rolled in. Of course, we would bring it forward to committee or Caucus to seek their input as well. Thank you.
Thanks to the Premier for those remarks. I guess I would like to advise the Premier that there’s one other wheel that he forgot to mention, and that’s the Yukon’s wheel and it’s only $600,000. So I don’t think we’re going to go anywhere near $10 million.
I mentioned gaps in my statement. There certainly are gaps in what we currently have, and specifically I’d like to mention a gap I believe exists for residents who encounter a problem with a government staff person. So I’d like to know from the Minister what currently exists for clients of GNWT services – and that would be our residents in most cases, sometimes an NGO – for them to lay complaints about service that they have received from staff, or in regard to staff actions or ethics. Thank you.
I guess those are the kinds of areas where we’re doing further analysis. I think there’s a number of avenues. I think the average citizen, if they’ve got a complaint, they usually phone their MLA or they’ll phone the Minister in charge or they’ll contact the Premier’s office. I guess there are other avenues like legal recourse and so on. So there’s a number of different avenues and I guess those are the kinds of things that we will be doing the analysis on, in addition to all of the best practices that we’ll be reviewing. Thank you.
Thanks to the Premier. I appreciate that the government is going to do a full examination. I would hope that’s what we would do. The Premier mentioned that people can talk to their MLA, they can talk to a Minister, they can go to court. Court is not an option. In the minds of most people it’s not financially feasible for them. I think going to your Member of the Legislative Assembly takes out any element of fairness or impartiality in many cases. I appreciate they need to be considered, but I hope they are looked at with an un-jaundiced eye.
I would like to ask the Premier – there is no indication in the response to the motion when the government review would be done – if I could get an answer to that.
I guess within the context of the 120 days that we are required to respond, that didn’t get us enough time to respond. I fully expect that within six months we should be able to respond.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks, Mr. Premier. My last question then goes to if we have a review that’s done in the next six months or so – and I think that’s a reasonable time frame – I’d like to know from the Premier if it’s feasible that we could expect the establishment of an ombudsman office within the life of this 17th Assembly.
I guess that will be based on some decision points that we will have to come to. I guess to me the most obvious one will be if we see fit to proceed with establishing an ombudsman office, would it be established as part of the Legislative Assembly or would it be an officer of the Legislative Assembly? If we make it as part of the government, that would be defeating some of the objectives that have been described in why we need an ombudsman office. I see some decision points that would have to be made. Also, if at $600,000, if that’s what Yukon is, and assuming we follow the Yukon model, where would the money come from? We would have to make that decision as well. Conceivably it’s doable before the end of the 17th Assembly, but there will be some decisions that have to be made.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the pleasure earlier today to talk about NWT films and, more importantly, the NWT Film Commission. I want to make sure, on record, to say that they are doing a great job for local residents and businesses. Their website is actually a great tool. It points out SEED money and a lot of opportunities in links in the industry to get our local industry up and running. But if you drill down a little further in the website, it talks about the mandate of the NWT Film Commission and it points out awareness of promoting the NWT to national and international film markets. Is this enough? Are these words enough? My questions are for the Minister of ITI.
Can the Minister tell us what he and his department are doing with the information gathered with the recent NWT Professional Film Forum? His department was present. His department was listening and taking notes. What does the Minister plan to do with this information?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I share the Member’s enthusiasm when it comes to the future of the film industry here in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has gone a long way to getting us where we’re at today. We’ve established the website. We’ve established the Film Commission here.
The Member talked about his participation in the NWT Filmmaker and Producer Forum that was held earlier this month. We had helped out with hiring a facilitator for that event. The report and the Member talked about a number of ideas and issues that came up through that forum. We’re interested in getting that report from the consultant. Once we get that report, we are also working with our partners at Finance on a joint working group to try and look at possible incentives for the film industry here in the Northwest Territories. We’re anxious to see the report. We’re anxious to move forward.
We’ve gotten some really positive feedback just lately from producers that are filming here in the Northwest Territories and we really do believe that we will continue to see films being produced here in the Northwest Territories and continue to see that positive feedback. On our website, we’ve seen 1,800 hits just since the website’s been put into service in July of this year. We’re doing our best.
I appreciate the Minister’s enthusiasm. I think everyone in the Northwest Territories shares that enthusiasm. If we’re truly going to support the business of professional filmmaking in the NWT, we need to start treating this as a business. The GNWT needs to look at the proper infrastructure and the proper investments to help offset the very expensive budget costs of bringing film crews, bringing equipment and production into the Northwest Territories.
What are the Minister’s specific actions that he’ll be undertaking with himself and his department to deal with these so-called costs to the professional, national and international filmmakers?
I think we’ve done a lot with the website. We’ve got a number of times on there. We’ve affiliated ourselves with the Association of Film Commissioners. It’s an international organization that gives, when we use their logo on our website, us instant credibility to the industry world-wide.
As I mentioned earlier, we are working with and we have worked with ECE. We’re working with Finance. We’re trying to find a path forward. We believe that once we do get the report from the consultant that took part in the producer forum, we will be able to chart a course forward and identify areas where we feel we can improve on.
Certainly, the Member and other Regular Members, when we do start taking those next steps forward, we certainly will be looking to Members to share where we’re going next and their input will be valuable in that approach.
I do share the enthusiasm with the Minister. As we learned in my Member’s statement today, the premise of creating our own infrastructure in terms of new jobs and new opportunity and to ensure the future in our films could start with Aurora College, the Department of ECE, and proper investments from ITI in the creation of such concepts as film cultural consultants and creative staff writer courses. These positions were singled out as being imperative for professional film producers to tell their stories, to understand the land and its people, and to preserve our northern culture accurately. This, of course, was topped off with companies such as Omni Films offering a joint mentorship to advance the spectrum of this new emergent education. Would the Minister commit to work with his fellow Cabinet colleagues, his department, the Department of Finance and the industry to create this opportunity for these new positions?
We’ve been doing all of this on what amounts to a shoestring budget. Certainly, if we are going to move forward, we’re going to start talking about positions. We certainly need to look at finding some additional funds to make us get to where we need to go.
I’d like to, again, chart that course for Members, work with Members, and we want to make sure that we do this right, that we take advantage of the opportunities that are out there.
Again, the Member mentioned Omni Films. That’s been a company that’s done work here in the Northwest Territories. We need to keep getting the positive message out that the Northwest Territories is a place where people want to produce films. They want to come here and do the work. That’s something that we have a reputation for right now. In this industry your reputation means a lot. It means everything. For us, it’s very important that we maintain that good reputation, and by putting some programs in place, by looking at an implementation of film rebates, implementing a film tax credit system, or increasing a dedicated amount through the SEED program, we have to look at everything. I think we will look at everything and we’ll get this right.
