Thank you, Mr. McLeod. I’d also like to welcome Mr. Bernhardt into the House with his son. Welcome to the House today, and welcome everybody here. Thank you for taking an interest in our public hearings today.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement. It’s about agricultural lands and the application process. I would like to ask the Minister of Lands again about what role the Lands department is playing in ITI’s Agriculture Strategy.
I would like to know how the two departments are coordinating their efforts so that this strategy actually works and makes agricultural lands easier for our residents to apply for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Lands, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Lands role in that would be to take the applications and go through the process with them. My understanding is that we distribute the application for comments from the local First Nations governments and other people who are involved and we take those comments and decide what next steps we have to do and whether to proceed with the application or not, or if there are other requirements that the applicant has to fill out. Thank you.
What help is available for residents who want to access land for farming and are struggling with the rules and red tape? It seems that the application process is cumbersome with the guidelines and procedures.
What kind of help does the department have with an applicant working through the application process? Thank you.
This is where they would work with the local lands office. If they go in there and seek help we’d be able to assist them in trying to guide them through some of the requirements and the processes of filling out the applications. Thank you.
I’d just like to know, how does the Department of Lands work with the affected First Nations to process potential leases for agricultural lands? Is there a separate process when somebody applies for agricultural land when working with the First Nations as opposed to say industrial development or different development? Is there a separate process when the application is for agricultural land? Thank you.
My understanding is all applications are vetted through a pretty similar process where we do our consultations with the local First Nation government to gather comments and concerns on the project proposal and it usually takes about 45 days to go through this process. So again, my understanding is the application process is pretty well the same. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if the current application process is something that we inherited as a result of devolution, because it seems so cumbersome and it’s a whole different process when constituents throughout the North are applying for agricultural lands. Is that something that can be reviewed as well? Thank you.
I will commit to the Member that I will review with the officials the application process and whether it’s part of our process or if it’s one we inherited and if there are opportunities to review it and make some necessary changes so we’ll be able to assist people out there with their applications. Again, there is always the option of, if they have some questions, to come quietly to our lands office and get some assistance from them. But I will commit to the Member that we will review it and I will report back to committee.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about the potential for the economic resource benefits in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, on the assessment, has his department done an assessment of the oil and gas potential in the Northwest Territories? That is a remarkable resource. Canada right now has 8.8 billion barrels of oil that could be marketed. Has he done any assessment in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been assessments done of the oil potential in the Sahtu and, in fact, in the Northwest Territories. We continue to move forward with the development of an Oil and Gas Strategy for the Northwest Territories. We are also going to conduct some work on the corridor concept down the Mackenzie Valley, communication, energy, transportation corridor. Of course, we’ve had the Mackenzie Gas Project that currently is on the shelf but our hope is that at some point in time Mackenzie gas will see market and we will get it out of the Beaufort-Delta. We have to look at this corridor concept and the fact that it can bring great economic potential all the way down the valley and into the Beaufort-Delta.
From our experience from the oil and gas development, and specifically I now want to focus in on the Sahtu region, has the Minister, through his department, done an assessment on the economic benefits around the oil and gas activity that happened in the last five years?
Yes, we continue to be involved with the Sahtu partnership. I’ve supplied some information to the Member recently about the investment that the government has made in his riding. It is substantial. It covers a number of different departments. While the downturn in oil price has happened, I think now is the time to continue to move forward with the development of our strategy. It’s time to get training put in place for people in the Sahtu and around the Northwest Territories so that when the price does come back and the companies come back and the drilling continues, we will have jobs for people and they’ll be trained to take advantage of those opportunities.
Hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu and in the North here has been highly controversial. The issue of the hydraulic fracking, I want to ask the Minister, in his experience and in his term as the Minister, are there safe regulations right now, today, over the years that we have looked at this new technology in the Sahtu in the Northwest Territories that says, yes, it can be done, we can manage it, we can deal with the risks? Are we dealing with the facts rather than the fears?
Our belief is that, yes, it can be done safely. It can be done, and we’ve seen it done here in the Northwest Territories. I know the Member highlighted other jurisdictions in Canada that have seen great success, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, in using horizontal fracking. We are moving forward with regulations around hydraulic fracturing and we will have the best regulatory response in Canada when it comes to hydraulic fracturing, because we believe it can be done safely and soundly here in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister, given that we know for a fact that in the 1970s there was the first acid fracking in Cameron Hills, and today we are starting to realize that we want to continue doing more research around this horizontal fracking, has his department seen any type of shift in the land or in the area where fracking has taken place where there were downhole injections in the past in the areas that I’ve listed here? Thank you.
Undoubtedly, we do need baseline data, and that is data that will be sought. We are going to continue to move forward with the regulations here in the Northwest Territories. I have made a commitment to the Members that we are moving that forward. That is where that stands.
As far as research goes, we do know what’s happened here in the past. Of course, we’ve got our Devolution Agreement last April. We are now responsible for those regulations and managing the resource development in the territory. We, again, want to have the most robust, sound regulations when it comes to hydraulic fracturing and we will be going out, seeking public input on those draft regulations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement earlier today. I have a very simple question for the Minister of Transportation. I’m sure he anticipates it.
Will he in fact finally address the Highway No. 3 issue between Niven access road and downtown Yellowknife for the safety of our residents during the life of this Assembly? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back in 2011 there was a Public Transit Fund that was given to the city to try to resolve the issue of the crossing at Niven Lake. After carefully examining the project – they were looking at an underpass, actually – after carefully examining that and having some difficulty with getting some land on the Niven Lake side of the road, it was determined to be unfeasible and the money was spent on another transit project within the city. Thank you.
I didn’t hear an answer to my question there, but I haven’t been totally unsuccessful. Over the seven-plus years I’ve been working on this, we got traffic slowed down a little with the new speed limit and we actually got some streetlights. So there’s been a little progress there, which I appreciated. This is over the course of many Transportation Ministers.
Heroes do not grow on trees. I ask the Minister, would he like to be a hero? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I apologize for not answering the question the first time. We have been looking for a solution. It’s a very difficult situation. The thing is that we have to get the people from the Niven side of the road to this side of the road, on this side of the Assembly at some point before they get to the rock cliff on which the Explorer sits, because at that point there’s no more room on that side of the road. So at any time you get walking traffic, people who are walking across the road, which was fairly high speed traffic right up to here – it was 60 kilometres – so the signs were moved to the other side of Niven and the speed was decreased to 45 all the way to the other side of Niven to slow the traffic down. Like the Member said, lights and traffic seem to be as far as we’ve been able to come.
Any time we are encouraging individuals to walk across – it’s not officially a highway, it’s a Yellowknife access road, actually – at any of those speeds, especially in the wintertime and the way they’re facing the traffic, or with their back to the traffic, it becomes difficult. It’s just not a simple solution. We don’t think that putting up flashing yellow lights actually makes it any safer for the pedestrians who are accessing that to come to the city. Our suggestion is that they use an alternative route to get to the city. Thank you.
I realize this is not an easy issue, but I also recognize that there’s been darn little done in the seven-plus years and people are unsafe. So, the opposite of a hero is somebody who fails to act and is responsible for accidents, where people get injured or killed. We already know that not far down the line this has happened already.
Is the Minister willing to accept that responsibility without doing anything? He’s got the experts. I’m throwing ideas out there. That’s fine. If my ideas don’t work, come up with one.
Will the Minister come up with a good interim solution and put things in place to get this done as soon as possible? Mahsi.
Like I indicated, there’s no easy solution. Even if we were to build an underpass, again, that would be fine for individuals returning to Niven because they would be facing traffic and then going under the underpass to get home to their proper side or the Niven side of the road. But that doesn’t solve the issue of the people coming to the city because their backs will be to the traffic. Then, as most people know, the highway becomes sort of a three lane as you turn into the Legislative Assembly and the museum. So, again, that’s a little bit of an unsafe area for pedestrians to be walking.
At this point, I realize that pedestrians are being vigilant to ensure their own safety, and I’m saying that we are looking at the possibility of putting up the flashing lights and the crossing, but we’re not sure that that is the safest thing to do. So, we will continue to look at it and try to come up with a solution. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
I don’t know what to say, Mr. Speaker. What is it going to take? We have a brand new hotel going in this summer; we have the Explorer Hotel being expanded; we have the increasing size of Niven as more and more development takes place there. Somebody is going to get hurt.
When will the Minister fix this situation and protect our people? Thank you.
The solution most likely lies outside the jurisdiction of the Minister of Transportation; however, we will meet with the city. We will talk to our MACA counterparts. If there’s going to be a new hotel built in there, maybe there’s a solution where there could be a trail coming off this end of the Niven Lake development, coming into the area near the Explorer. That’s the only solution.
Any time you start having traffic on a road that has fast-moving vehicles, it is an unsafe situation. It would be similar to just having people walk on the road down Franklin as opposed to walking on the sidewalk. So, what I’m saying is unless we’re able to find room to build a sidewalk on the other side, which would be probably pretty expensive, considering the rock face at Explorer, we would most likely find a solution between ourselves, MACA and the city, which will probably mean a trail. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Justice. Yesterday in his Minister’s statement, he mentioned that we had some individuals who are participating in the Wellness Court. There were five that he mentioned and 13 were actually referred. If five are participating and 13 were actually referred to the Wellness Court, what programs do the five who are participating in the Wellness Court, what kind of diversion programs are they participating in instead of being institutionalized? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you. It’s quite possible that each of them is in a different scenario, and a care plan would be established for each one of those individuals. So, I could get that level of detail for the Member if he so wishes. Thank you.
It just shows anybody who’s having addiction issues or mental health issues that they don’t have to be institutionalized, that there are other streams of helping these individuals out so that they don’t go into the system. However, of the 13 who got referred by the same, and, yesterday, it sounds like there were eight who were institutionalized. For these eight individuals who didn’t get referred through the Wellness Court system, what kind of plan of care is given to these individuals who were referred from the Wellness Courts but didn’t meet the requirements? When they get into the same North Slave Correctional Centre, what’s in place for them so that they can get the rehabilitation services that they need? Thank you.
Thank you. Again, that’s a bit of a level of detail that I don’t have here, but if they are ending up in our facilities, it’s incumbent upon us to have the programs and the services required to treat them when they’re in our facilities and after the OAG’s report, we do have some work to do in that area and I have given my commitment to the House and the Members that that work will continue and that we will have programs and services that are going to address the needs of the inmates that we have in our facilities. Thank you.
In terms of individuals who do fall out of the Wellness Court system or don’t even get to the Wellness Court system, they do become institutionalized and spend some time in the North Slave Correctional Centre, or any of our institutions for that matter.
I was wondering if the Minister had any information on how much it costs to house one inmate per day in the North Slave Correctional Centre. Thank you.
To my recollection, it’s just over $303 per day. That’s to house federal inmates. Our own inmates, the number may be a little bit different, but when we invoice the federal government for housing federal inmates it’s $303.08 a day.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When some individuals commit a big crime, they’ll get put in jail for a very long time. I just did some quick calculations here and at $303 for a year, that’s about $110,000 per inmate within our correctional system, which is equivalent to a job position, possibly a part-time nurse in a community, just to put it out there.
But I want to ask, what is the Minister doing to work in the communities to develop some type of treatment or counselling program, especially in our small communities, to prevent individuals from having to eventually come to the end result, which is being institutionalized in our North Slave centre? Thank you.
Community justice committees have been successful in the communities. Tomorrow, in fact, we have proponents who have expressed interested in the on-the-land program. They will be meeting here in Yellowknife tomorrow. So we’re hopeful that out of this meeting tomorrow we will arrive at a proponent that we can work with that we can see the program get up and running somewhere here in the Northwest Territories. So we are doing that, and we also are looking at mental health first aid for our staff in our facilities. We also have three psychologists on staff in our five facilities across the Northwest Territories and we will continue to provide the required help that the inmates who are incarcerated in our facilities need and deserve. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Ms. Bisaro.
