Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no bias in the system. The whole intent was to create a system that was more even and less complex, hence the thermal rates and the Yellowknife rates. One of the big factors in Yellowknife and Hay River, plus a couple of small communities, is there is another power distributor, NUL. While we provide and sell power at wholesale rates, the provider in these communities adds their own costs on top of that, which is why there is such a distinct difference, for example, between Hay River and Fort Smith, why there is such a distinct difference between the power rates charged where the Power Corp does a service and where NUL does. There is no bias in the system and we try to be even handed and fair as possible. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the average working family, or I should say the everyday working family does not believe the Minister in that regard, because if you lower the cost in every community, generally speaking of course, but you do nothing for the largest populated community, that does seem to be perceived as bias.
What is the Minister willing to do to help strike away some of that perceived bias but with this suggestion? What is stopping this government from doing an analysis in a comparative sense lowering the cost of electricity in Yellowknife in a similar fashion as he has engineered the power rates outside of Yellowknife? Thank you.
In point of fact, yes, we have pegged the residential rates in the thermal communities to the Yellowknife rate. So I’m not sure what the issue of bias would be when we are using Yellowknife as a benchmark. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister knows very well that power rates are based on what it costs to deliver power. In these communities, that’s why some of them unfairly, of course I recognize the problem associated why some of the power rates are outrageously high, but yes, they pegged them to the Yellowknife costs, but yet all they did was keep and maintain the Yellowknife cost as it ever increases but we lowered everyone, so we in de facto subsidize everyone at the Yellowknife rate, but he’s done nothing for 40 percent of the population, so there lies the question.
What is he willing as the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation that follow with all the money, all the technology and all the staff to come up with solutions, not us simple MLAs that just working a day job every day trying to do our best. What is he, with all the resources in his hands, willing to do for customers that represent 40 percent of this territory? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it’s a good thing that the Member in fact has a day job, because if he had to sing for his supper, it would be a long time between meals.
---Laughter
Order! Order!
In fact, the thermal communities’ residential rates are pegged to the Yellowknife rate. There are no other subsidies in the hydro rate zone. I would be happy to have a more detailed discussion. If there is some work we can do and reviews of rates and information we can provide to the Member that would answer some of his questions and show him that there is no bias, I would be happy to have those discussions with him. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will fully agree with the first part of his statement about the singing and going hungry, but I do not agree with the second part. The last part, I will take him up on his offer of sitting down and talking to me.
Quite frankly, I’m asking the Minister to do an evaluation of what it would cost to bring the Yellowknife rates down to what is considered normal and comparable. We have subsidized and engineered the power rates in all the communities. Yet, at the end of the day, we don’t seem to do anything for the largest community that is trying to get people here. They are leaving because of the cost.
Would the Minister be able to do an evaluation of that? Let’s compare it to the Fort Smith region, which has some of the lowest power costs in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
I just would need some clarity from the Member on what he means by normal and comparable. If he wants to compare it to the Fort Smith rates, we’d be happy to lay out the price breakdown. I will indicate clearly right now one of the big costs that Yellowknife has, that Hay River has and Fort Smith doesn’t have, is the franchise arrangements and costs that flow from that arrangement that communities make on their own call, because of their franchise fee, and we can show and we will be happy to lay that out for the Member to the cent, to the kilowatt hour and have a discussion if that would address some of his questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Premier about decentralization. First I just wanted to highlight the NWT. Of course, we have one major city here in the NWT. We have about five or seven regional centres and the rest are communities. Right now devolution has been regarded as the biggest achievement thus far. We’re seeing some discussion in terms of devolution, so there has been a lot of heavy lifting. At the same time, we are burdened with heavy responsibilities. I’m going to ask the questions, but I don’t know if I should expect a shuffle or a dance, but I will try.
Of the 90 positions already decentralized, how many are targeted for communities outside of regional centres? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe any are targeted. Thank you.
Thank you. That’s disappointing. Can this government help a community like Fort Providence and recognize it as a regional centre so the community is able to benefit from decentralization? Mahsi.
It’s more than just asking to become a regional centre. It has to make sense, it has to be feasible and there has to be a good reason for doing so. We have five regional centres that have been established strictly for administrative purposes. In the past, we’ve looked at establishing regional centres to coincide with land claim agreements, but we found that not to be feasible at this point in time. In order to establish Fort Providence as a regional centre, we would have to have some rationale for doing so and also primarily how much it would cost. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do appreciate the Premier being straightforward in terms of perhaps relaying or at least lessening the hopes and aspirations of small communities, basically saying that cost is a big factor at this point.
When can small communities realistically expect the benefits of decentralization? Mahsi.
The Member will be very pleased to know that this government has a plan and a vision for the future and part of that plan is decentralization of positions from the larger centres to the smaller communities. We will be having a housing capital plan so that we will build up to 100 housing units in the small communities. We also have a plan where we will establish offices so that we can decentralize positions to the communities. We have set up ourselves so that we can develop that plan and that vision over the next two years of this government, where we will identify those positions and divisions that will be decentralized. We will be able to tell each and every one of the Members which positions and when we expect them to be decentralized. Everybody will have a plan. Everybody will be happy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is: Would there be any positions decentralized to Fort Providence? Mahsi.
There’s no song and dancing here. There will be positions that will be identified. As we develop our plan, we will identify those positions that will be decentralized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are going to be on the Mental Health Act. I welcome the Minister and the department in the work moving forward. On the Department of Health’s website, there are four discussion papers and the government is asking for feedback by December 10th.
After the feedback has been given to the department, what is the timeline to get an LP, legislative proposal, to this government for review? Does he have a timeline getting the LP to this government, so we can move forward on this act? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his question and I also thank the Member for encouraging residents of the Northwest Territories to get involved and bring their thoughts and concerns about the Mental Health Act to the department. This is a significant act. It’s a very old act, as the Member has identified, and it’s going to take a bit of time to work through the whole process and make the changes necessary. But without input from committee and without input from residents of the Northwest Territories, it is impossible. So we need the time, Mr. Speaker.
I will commit today to have the LP and act come to committee and follow the normal process by fall next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We’ve got about six weeks, I’d say, less than six weeks to get feedback on these discussion papers on a very important act that’s going to affect all residents of the Northwest Territories.
If the Minister and his department don’t receive sufficient feedback in that amount of time, December 10th, would the Minister be willing to extend the deadline to access feedback on the discussion papers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is the first round of collecting information after the discussion items and discussion papers have gone out. After that, there will obviously be some initial work on some drafting and working on the legislative proposal. From that point, we will be seeking input from stakeholders from across the Northwest Territories and move forward to the point where we’re closer to being ready to go forward with an LP and discussion with committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Outside of the Northwest Territories, I know other jurisdictions across Canada have some very stringent, very strong mental health legislation.
Is the Minister willing to look at other jurisdictions across Canada to mirror some of that legislation and things that could work in those jurisdictions that can also work here in the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In the reworking of this act, we will absolutely look at legislation from other jurisdictions. I will not commit to something that I have not read, but if there is something identified in other jurisdictions that consultants show will work in the Northwest Territories, we’re certainly willing to look at it. At the same time, the government has already done a significant amount of work on this over the years. There’s been report after report after report on mental health and addictions and other issues. We’ve got the information and it’s time to actually start doing something.
As I’ve indicated, we will come forward with the Mental Health Act, barring any unforeseen circumstances or barriers, within the life of this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did take a look at those discussion papers going forward on this Mental Health Act. I know Members on this side of the House have asked for a wellness court to be brought forth in this government.
Would the Minister be looking at possibly incorporating some type of wellness court provision within this legislation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We’ve already committed to move forward with a wellness court here in the Northwest Territories. We hope to have the beginning aspects of it by April 1, 2014. Having said that, I’m not sure we actually need to incorporate it into legislation. It may be something that we may benefit from doing, but it would be impossible for me to say at this time without us finishing our analysis. So I will certainly have the departments, both Justice and Health and Social Services, look at it to see if it’s appropriate.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement, I have some questions for the Minister of ITI. Can the Minister provide the production numbers for this year’s summer production on the Great Slave Lake commercial fishery?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the past 20 years, the amount of fish taken from Great Slave Lake would amount to about 2.2 million pounds. In the last number of years… I think the Member asked for last year, the total exported from the NWT in thousands of pounds was 1,038, so that would be 103,000 pounds.
As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I believe that this is an important asset for the Northwest Territories, and a commodity. I’m just wondering what the department has done to invest in the NWT commercial fishery to assist those people in the industry.
On an annual basis, we have a program that supports fishers here in the NWT. It amounts to about $225,000 a year, broken down into a number of program initiatives. But this summer I appeared before a parliamentary committee on fisheries, and basically spelled out to them the importance of the fishery on Great Slave Lake here in the Northwest Territories. I gave them some historical perspective on the fishery, where we wanted to see it go and how important it was for us to reinvigorate the fishery on Great Slave Lake.
Through the work of the Economic Opportunities Strategy that we’ve just tabled in the House this week, it squarely pointed to the fact that we need to do more with the commercial fishery here in the Northwest Territories. I have committed to putting a lot of effort into reinvigorating the fishery on Great Slave Lake. We need to find some funding. There are a couple of key areas: We need a new processing facility in Hay River. We also need to put some money into an aging fleet that’s out on the lake. Thirdly, we need to find some more people that are interested in getting into the business of fishing on Great Slave Lake.
It’s a great resource. It’s underutilized. We also need to find a way to get that product here in a domestic capacity, into stores and onto people’s kitchen tables here in the Northwest Territories.
The Minister indicated he has been working and talking to people in Ottawa. I’m just wondering what he’s been doing as far as with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation and their monopoly that they have on the operations, and have there been any discussions about opening up the borders and opening up marketing opportunities for the fishers that are producing.
We have had discussions with FFMC as recently as earlier this year, and we see the relationship with that organization as being the key to getting a new fish processing facility into Hay River. We believe that working with them, there has been a changing of heart with the fishermen in Hay River. They’ve wanted in, they’ve wanted out, they’re back in. We do believe that there is some utility in us maintaining that relationship with that organization.
But, again, I think that’s good on the export side, but we’ve got a domestic market here in the Northwest Territories that, again, I think we really need to find a way to get fish from Great Slave Lake into stores around the Northwest Territories. With a new processing facility to be built in Hay River – and we’re going to try to find the funding to allow us to do that – I think we can certainly have the best of both worlds and be exporting fish from the Northwest Territories and supplying the domestic market here at home.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister indicated the production numbers, and those numbers are quite a bit lower than we actually have the capacity to have as a sustainable quota. We have two million pounds, I think, per year where we can actually sustain that product, that volume every year for years to come. The indications are that we’re well below that quota, and what is the department doing to get more fishers into the industry, get the productivity of the current fishers up and increased, we know that that group of people is not getting any younger. How is the department encouraging investment in that industry?
It’s been a difficult task because of fuel prices and the price of fuel for fisherman to get out on the lake. Also, with the increase of the Canadian dollar against the American dollar, it’s had a big impact on what prices are paid for that fish. But, again, I’ll point out the fact that we do have a support to fishermen program here in the Northwest Territories. It’s $225,000. There’s a Fish Harvesters Support Program, a Commercial Fish Harvesters Support Program, Fish Harvesters Expansion Program, a Fish Harvesters New Entrance Support Program, and also some core funding that we’ve also provided to fishermen. We are very much interested in supporting the commercial fishery on Great Slave Lake. We will continue to do, and as we move forward with the Economic Opportunities Strategy, our intent is to really put some effort and try to find some money to reinvigorate the fishery on Great Slave Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Two hundred and thirty two days ago and about 16 minutes ago, I brought questions to this House regarding caribou management. With the imminent passing of the Wildlife Act before us, there are still questions that remain regarding the number of caribou tags for resident and commercial outfitters, and it needs clarity here in the House.
My questions today would be for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. If the Minister can give us maybe a brief update on what is the status right now with the resident hunter tag allocation for this upcoming season.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
