To the Minister: I guess, is there no intention, then, to increase the number of communications personnel straight across government? I’m gathering, then, that there is no increase of personnel within the Department of Executive. But with this change in communications strategy and staffing, will there be an increase in the number of PYs required for communications?
The complete review and dealing with the communications review that was undertaken wasn’t completed in time for the business planning process, so if there will be further increase requirements it would be done through the supplementary process.
Thanks to the Minister. When can we expect to know, I guess, the results of the review, first of all, and then following on the results of the review, when would we know whether or not there’s going to be a supp appropriation coming forward?
I don’t have the details of the supp review. When that information is made available to committee, we’ll know at the same time.
The Minister said supp review. Now I’m a little confused. I guess I’m wanting to know when the evaluation of the communications review will be done and when the government will know whether or not we’re going to increase our communications personnel which would then require an additional supp. Is this weeks or months or years that we’re talking?
I expect it will be probably a week or so, or weeks, I guess, to be specific to your question.
Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister mentioned the transfer of the NGO Stabilization Fund being proposed. Is that relevant to the directorate, or perhaps I could have some advice on what page that would appear.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That would be in the MACA business plan details.
It was profiled in the Minister’s remarks today, so somewhere there’s a missing $350,000 here from the budget, I would assume. But it is a proposal and I guess I’ll just go ahead and talk about it a little bit here.
I am a little bit uncomfortable with that. The thing about the Executive is that they do deal with all aspects of government, as do non-governmental organizations. They deal with all areas of government and some non-government areas, of course. But MACA has, in the past, mostly focused on sport and NGOs that work in sport, so I think we would be losing something in the transfer from Executive to MACA. We have had some communications between Members and committee and the Premier on this, and I think that’s a good process to have. As I’m sure the Premier knows, the voluntary sector is an extremely critical part of good governance and it’s very appropriate to have that in a department that is playing a leadership role for the government. It brings that recognition to it. By shifting this to MACA it puts a different light on it and so I just wanted to express that.
I’d appreciate any response, obviously, on this, but that’s not something I support. I don’t know where others are on that, but I hope there’s room to talk about that and discuss that before we go ahead with it. I’ll leave it at that.
The rationale for putting it in MACA is the fact that MACA deals with all government departments, they deal with volunteers and they’re the lead on volunteerism, and they do have more capacity and more knowledgeable staff that deal with volunteers. It was seen to be a much better fit to have it in MACA than for it to stay in the Executive.
Those remarks don’t fit with any of my experience whatsoever.
I’ll take that as a general comment. Committee, we’re on page 135, Executive, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $6.121 million.
Agreed.
Page 136, directorate, grants, contributions and transfers, total grants, $150,000.
Agreed.
Executive directorate, active positions. Questions?
Agreed.
Page 139, Ministers’ offices, operations expenditure summary, $3.471 million.
Agreed.
Page 141, Ministers’ offices, active positions. Questions?
Agreed.
Committee, we’ll go back to page 127. Executive, total department, $11.335 million.
Agreed.
Does committee agree we’ve concluded… Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn’t have a chance earlier to say how important this single window service is to the communities. I know some of the Members may have some in my ridings. Especially in the small communities, it really helps our elders and people that don’t know what kind of programs are available in our smaller communities.
I just want to thank the Minister and Cabinet for moving forward with this initiative. I know we did a pilot project, and seeing how successful it is and winning an award, I hope in years to come this continues. I look forward to hopefully one day have this as a full-time position in the communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. I’ll take that as a general comment. Committee, we’re on page 127, Department of Executive, total department, $11.335 million.
Agreed.
Committee is agreed we’ve concluded the Department of Executive?
Agreed.
Thank you. Premier McLeod, thank you. I’ll get the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses out of the Chamber. Thank you.
Thank you, committee. We will now go to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and I’ll go to the Minister responsible. Minister Miltenberger, do you have general comments?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do. I am pleased to present the 2015-2016 Main Estimates for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Overall, the department’s estimates propose a decrease of $112,000, which is less than 1 percent over the 2014-2015 Main Estimates.
These estimates continue to support the objectives of limiting expenditure growth in order to sustain the long-term sustainability of the fiscal framework.
Highlights of the proposed estimates include:
$1.5 million for the continued implementation of the Water Stewardship Strategy, including the implementation of transboundary water agreements with British Columbia and Alberta and the negotiation of similar agreements with the Yukon and Saskatchewan;
$2.3 million for traditional economy programs, including the Community Harvesters Assistance, Disaster Compensation, Western Harvesters Assistance, Prime Fur Bonus and Take a Kid Trapping. These programs were transferred from ITI to ENR for increased program alignment.
$954,000 forced growth for the fourth year of the Collective Agreement;
$249,000 for the creation of a new hydro geologist position to review water licence agreements, undertake groundwater studies and assist in implementation of transboundary water agreements; and the transfer of four laboratory technician positions at the Taiga Environmental Laboratory from Aboriginal Engineering Limited to the Government of the Northwest Territories.
The proposed Department of Environment and Natural Resources Estimates continue to support the priorities of the 17th Assembly. Specifically, activities in support of these priorities include:
protecting and regulating the use of onshore territorial waters, mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts, improving environmental stewardship and maximizing benefits from industrial development;
working collaboratively with Aboriginal governments and communities to ensure the sustainable use of our resources through the development and implementation of national and territorial management plans and recovery strategies for species at risk such as boreal caribou, polar bear and Peary caribou; implementation of the new Wildlife Act and regulations; and continued support for wildlife co-management regimes and sustainable forest management;
development and implementation of a Northwest Territories-wide electronics recycling program;
coordinate GNWT participation in the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, a major international scientific initiative to look at how climate change may affect our physical, biological and social environment through the large-scale application of space-based technology. This initiative will provide landscape-level predictions of how a changing climate will impact our water, forest and wildlife resources as well as our infrastructure and communities.
provide support and assistance for Aboriginal corporations in Fort Resolution and Fort Providence to participate in the development of a wood biomass industry in the North;
finalize a multi-partner range plan to manage the cumulative effects of human disturbance on the range of the Bathurst barren ground caribou herd;
work with Aboriginal governments and co-management partners to implement a management plan for the Bluenose-East caribou herd; and
continue to train community residents to test for basic water quality parameters, dissolved hydrocarbons and metals at one or more of the 42 community-based water quality monitoring sites in the NWT.
In these and other ways, our department continues to pursue an aggressive agenda to ensure the sustainable use of our natural resource and protection of the environment.
That concludes my opening remarks.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Do you have witnesses to bring into the Chamber?
I do, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger, could you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Ernie Campbell and Ms. Susan Craig from Environment and Natural Resources, the deputy minister and finance.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Committee, we’ll open up the floor to general comments on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. General comments. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments. This summer we had extreme fires here in the south, but in the coming summer I’m hoping to see more of our fire suppression crews in all the communities, especially in the Delta. We cut back over the last few years from Tsiigehtchic and other communities, Fort McPherson as well. I know we’ve really downsized over the last 10 years here. We used to have a lot of crews in many of the communities. I hope we do the same training as we usually did every spring and have people on hand and trained up in case of emergencies like we had this past summer.
Also, it’s good to see the Take a Kid Trapping and Prime Fur Bonus moved back to ENR. It was a concern that was raised that it was a part of ITI in the past.
Also, just moving forward, I know one of the communities would like to see their part-time position moved to full time. Right now it’s a part-time position. We just got a new facility there and people would like to see that position moved to full time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his comments. In regards to the fire crews, I’ll let the deputy speak to that.
As well, I appreciate the comments about the Take a Kid Trapping. Those programs will continue to provide a high level of service in that regard.
In regards to the half-time position, at this point there are no plans to increase that to a full-time, but we will make note of the community’s interest in that area and will ask the deputy to speak to the fire crews. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I’ll go to Deputy Minister Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Regarding fire crews, that is an area that we’re looking at, at this time, as part of our review of the 2014 fire season.
In regard to training, the commitment is there to start the training early this year and build on the training that we did last season. Last season we trained between 500 and 600 firefighters. Again, we are going to continue the effort earlier than usual in the upcoming fire season. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Campbell. Mr. Blake.
Just on another note under the biomass, we have been working with the community of Fort McPherson quite a bit over the last couple of years and made a lot of progress. They are looking forward to building on that and possibly tie in other buildings within what system they have and also we can upgrade to maybe more systems. Is the department willing to work with the community? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’re very interested in pursuing biomass initiatives. There are those projects underway in the community, as the Member indicates. As we achieve success, we’re interested in looking at those. There are other ones with the Willows and waste heat. I commend Fort McPherson, as well, for their initiative. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Next I have Mr. Nadli.
