Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right I have Mr. Mark Warren, deputy minister of lands. To my left, I have Brenda Hilderman. She is the director of finance, Department of Lands.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Warren, Ms. Hilderman, welcome back to the Chamber. Nice to see you folks back here again.
Committee, we’re going to go to general comments. Is committee prepared to go to detail? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m looking forward to learning more about how the department is coming along. A new department here. I know last time we looked at the department and its budget, it had some interesting inspections. I’ll be asking questions about inspections again, and I know that the department has been doing a lot of work on that. I’m interested in how we’re filling those positions and so on. I was concerned at the time, because although we were thumping our chests about the five new inspector positions, we had actually conducted fewer inspections than the federal government had, and we know their record and what that’s costing Northerners and Canadians.
I’m also happy to see the investment in the liabilities and financial assurances division. Again, we’ll look forward to asking questions when we get to that division and seeing how that’s developing and what sorts of evaluations are in place.
The positions for a new coordinator, legal advisor, obviously there are some things happening with the intended changes, the Mackenzie Valley intended amendments to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and so on. I’ll be interested in what sort of impacts that might have on the department in its coordinating role in a review of the environmental aspects of development and initiatives.
I’ll leave it at that. Maybe just on the funding to help diversify and help grow the economy, I guess I would be interested in a little bit more about the Western Arctic Centre for Geomatics in Inuvik and what exactly they’ll be doing. Again, just by way of advance notice, I don’t necessarily need responses to these until we get to the divisions where these will come up, but I appreciate the opportunity just to thank the Minister for his comments and say he had lots of interesting things to point out and I will be looking forward to learning more about those.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I’ll allow Minister McLeod to comment.
Actually, Mr. Chair, the Member, I think, said he would save his questions for detail once we get to those specific areas, so we will look forward to having the discussion.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. General comments? Is committee prepared to go to detail?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will defer page 325 until after consideration of activity detail. I’d like to turn your attention to page 326, revenue summary, information item. Any questions? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are two numbers here which caught my attention. The first one is $225,000 for non-renewable resource revenue. I thought that those revenues were collected under ITI so I would like an explanation of why this amount is here. Then under general revenues, the lease figure has gone down considerably from 2014-15. If I could get an explanation for that as well.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Deputy Minister Warren.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Firstly, to the question of the $225,000 for royalties, last year we didn’t have the information from AANDC on what kind of royalties that could be expected associated with quarry royalties, so sand and gravel and that kind of stuff. This year we’ve had some royalty information come in on that so we’ve managed to be able to make a projection of around $225,000. So far this year we’ve actually exceeded that amount quite substantially because of the Gahcho Kue Mine.
The decrease in revenues was associated with no longer having the one-time payment that came from AANDC associated with the leases that were transferring over from AANDC to the GNWT with devolution on April 1st, so they made a one-time payment to us as it happened partway through the year.
To go back to the non-renewable resource revenues, the deputy minister mentioned quarries. Is that the only things that this revenue is coming from, because the text says minerals, oil and gas royalties. I’m not quite sure if it’s just quarries or if it’s minerals, oil and gas. If it’s all of those, it seems awfully low.
Yes, it is for quarry royalties associated with those activities. It’s specific to quarry royalties, so sand and gravel.
I guess I would just suggest that perhaps the definition be a little broader or a little more specific next time.
General comment there. Minister McLeod, go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’ll make that commitment to make it a little… Again, this is 11 months into the process so we’re just figuring out how we go about our business plans and presenting them to committee, but we will make that commitment to be a little more specific going forward.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Committee, we’re on page 326, revenue summary, information item. Any questions? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to complete for my mind, unless quarries are gravel that is being called minerals here, maybe that’s the issue. If that’s the case, understood. Would we ever expect any oil and gas royalties in this division? I guess I’ll ask the question.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We will capture that for the record. I will turn it over to Mr. Warren.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, we wouldn’t expect in this department any oil and gas revenues. This is strictly for sand and gravel royalties.
Thank you, Mr. Warren. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you. That clears that up and I understand that minerals would include the aggregate resources, so that explains the quarrying revenues here. I’m a little surprised. I believe I heard the Minister or the deputy minister say that there were more substantial revenues even in this fiscal year. I’m curious about why that doesn’t show up in the revised estimate. Was it a matter of timing with respect to when this was put together? Maybe I’ll ask what that amount is up to now just so we know.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. With that, I’ll go to Ms. Hilderman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is correct; it was timing. When we became aware of the amount of the quarrying and the final inspection, it was after the estimates were determined.
Thank you, Ms. Hilderman. Mr. Bromley.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Is that all we know that there will be royalties or revenue there, or do we actually know what are revenues are so far this fiscal year?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Ms. Hilderman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, so far this year we do have $856,000 in quarry royalties.
Thank you, Ms. Hilderman. Committee, we’re on page 326, lands, revenue summary. Questions?
Agreed.
Page 327, active positions summary. Questions?
Agreed.
Page 329, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, $4.056 million.
Agreed.
Agreed. Page 330, corporate management, active positions. Questions?
Agreed.
Page 333, informatics, operations expenditure summary, $7.119 million. Mr. Bromley.
Is this where we would see the Western Arctic Centre for Geomatics in Inuvik? If I can get a little explanation that way I see this centre for about exactly what that will be doing, how it will be serving our residents and maybe are we getting any federal support for that? I’d like to ask that question. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Warren.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Western Arctic Centre for Geomatics is going to be an expansion of the Geomatics Centre that is now based in Yellowknife. It’s able to do that because of the Fibre Optic Link that’s going into the valley. Prior to that, we wouldn’t have the ability to transmit the kind of data that is associated with geospatial data, which is big data. It’s also taking advantage of the opportunities associated with the space agencies and their desire to see value-added industry added in the North. If we can establish the platform for them to take advantage of what is being introduced through the space agency, they made commitments that they will work with us to build an industry there.
I think the Members are well aware of the kind of industry that has been seen in other jurisdictions such as in Kiruna where they created a multi-million-dollar industry with several hundred jobs associated with the movement of this big data largely because they happen to be in a convenient geographical location for the satellite station. We’re trying to capture and build on that. We’re working with Aurora College. We’re also working very much with the federal government. The federal government has provided funding up front to do the feasibility study on the Western Arctic, and that was the basis for moving forward. They’ve also made commitments going forward to help provide support both through open data sharing and also through in-kind support. We meet with them on a very regular basis related to this project.
Thank you, deputy minister. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the deputy minister for that information. As we staff these people – and I see looking ahead we will probably have a few employees there – do we have those sorts of skills in the NWT workforce, or will there be a training component to this to try and bump the opportunities for local residents? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I like the Member’s point that we have to view this as an opportunity to train a lot of Northerners to take advantage of some of these positions that are going to be open here at the Geomatics Centre, also with the fibre optic line and the possible satellite receiving station up in Inuvik. There are going to be many more opportunities there. I think there’s a huge opportunity here to work in partnership with Education, Aurora College, to ensure that some of our residents have a new field that they can possibly graduate into, because there will be a number of positions that should be available. If we can train Northerners to take advantage of these positions, then I think there will be huge benefit to having all of these types of development in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Chair, that’s all I have, but just following up on the Minister’s remarks, he has my point in spades. I think it would be great if he came into committee with how we will be achieving that, the plan that we’re going to put in place to get that. That’s all I have. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I’ll take that as a general comment. Committee, we’re on page 333, informatics, operations expenditure summary, $7.119 million. Agreed?
Agreed.
Page 334, informatics, active positions. Are there any questions?
Agreed.
