A motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Thompson
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on this change to the mandate. When we talk about emergency shelters, they are needed in some of the territories' remote highways and winter roads. It was a big concern in my riding. It’s a safety issue. People could die from exposure after breaking down on the highways. There have been comments that cell service has improved in the Northwest Territories. However, in some of the remote highways in the Territories the cell service does not work. Travellers travel vast distances in extreme weather conditions. Cabinet must understand the risk and hazards people face travelling in and out of our small remote communities, including people who bring in goods and provide services. Emergency shelters should be strategically located where most needed. Emergency shelters need not be expensive or fancy, just effective. This is cheap insurance. Maintenance is minimal, but a little bit is necessary.
Cultural issues: Northern people have a tradition of helping those who break down on the land and along our roads. This would help us do those things. Making our highways safer will ultimately increase tourism and travel in our territory. Some of these remote highways are not paved or chip-sealed like the one coming to Yellowknife and Hay River. We need to be respectful of this and ensure we provide a safe place for people, especially on the gravel highways. As well, when you deal with transportation and travelling on these remote highways sometimes you don't see people for long periods of time. This is the reason I'm asking to have this added into it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. To the motion. Mr. McNeely.
Mr. Chair, I also support this motion and want to share some of the experiences. As you know, the Sahtu region is remote. It is only accessible in the wintertime. It is only accessible by cold weather travel over compacted snow. This system, North Wrigley, totals 765 kilometres, and you can imagine yourself isolated without access. In most cases, the average traveller doesn't have cell communication, because they can't afford a cell package or a satellite package, so we’ve had numerous close calls, close instances, and even some cases where tragic death has occurred. These shelters do play a vital support to the travellers in case of an accident or incident with the vehicles, and it has happened. You can imagine yourself in this remote area travelling and encountering motor problems. You will be very happy to know that you just passed a shelter and you can walk back to that shelter and get heat and comfort. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. To the motion. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our territory is endowed with scenic territorial parks in all its five regions. The government has committed to providing quality public tourism facilities at territorial parks throughout the Northwest Territories. These parks are great assets for tourism and many tourists make use of the services and facilities provided at these parks. Currently, we maintain 35 territorial parks including 14 wayside or day-use areas which are established to provide for the enjoyment or convenience of the travelling public. Many of our wayside parks are situated around areas of scenic value or points of interest along highways. We continue to improve the territorial parks experience and annually invest funds to maintain and/or upgrade facilities. The government does not currently have plans to establish any new wayside parks or build any additional buildings and territorial wayside parks due to little demand, nor is there O and M to service existing wayside parks infrastructure. Our tourism road traffic occurs predominantly during the summer months. The large majority of users during the winter months are residents or commercial traffic, not tourists travelling to the Northwest Territories.
As a government, we are committed to improving and modernizing our parks infrastructure and we’ll continue to invest in maintaining existing parks. To help ensure the safety of the travelling public, the Department of Transportation of the Government of the Northwest Territories has added additional pull-outs along the highway system and made improvements to existing pull-out areas.
These pull-outs allow travellers to rest, stop for personal health issues, and enjoy their surroundings safely. The department constructs and maintains pull-outs with the intention of having one major rest area every one 150 kilometres along the highway network and a pull-out every 50 kilometres. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is responsible for wayside parks, which are established to provide for the enjoyment or convenience of the travelling public and around scenic points of interest. The departments do not have any plans to build any emergency shelters along highways due to the costs of construction and associated ongoing O and M requirements, as well as the limited demand for shelters. In the past, we have had emergency shelters and it promoted vandalism and other misuse of the shelters so Mr. Chair, I would like to move an amendment to the committee motion. If I could read it out, I will proceed to do so.
Proceed.
That Committee Motion 518(2) be amended by deleting the words “erecting emergency shelters along remote highways”. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To the amendment of Committee Motion 5-18(2). The motion to amend Committee Motion 5-18(2) is in order. It is being distributed. The motion to amend is in order. To the motion to amend Committee Motion 5-18(2).
About some of the rationale for moving this amendment, and we have had experiences with our toilet facilities and also in the past, as I mentioned, with emergency shelters, so we have those kinds of concerns, Mr. Chair. I would also call for a recorded vote on the amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To the motion to amend. Mr. O'Reilly.
Mr. Chair, I am going to be voting against this amendment. As a resident of Yellowknife, I have travelled a number of the highways in various seasons for work purposes, holidays, and so on, and certainly, our family has a much better piece of mind travelling along those roads and seeing emergency shelters, knowing that if we ever had to use them, they were actually there and available. It's not just folks from the small communities, but even for people from Yellowknife, it's created, I think, a better sense of safety and peace of mind knowing that those sort of facilities are there, so I am going to be voting against this amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
A recorded vote has been requested. All those in favour, please stand.
Mr. McLeod – Yellowknife South, Mr. McLeod – Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Schumann, Mr. Sebert, Mr. Moses, Ms. Cochrane, Mr. Abernethy.
All those opposed, please stand.
Mr. Blake, Mr. McNeely, Mr. Testart, Mr. Nakimayak, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Thompson, Mr. O'Reilly, Ms. Green, Mr. Nadli, Mr. Vanthuyne.
All those abstaining, please stand. The results of the recorded vote are seven in favour, ten opposed, zero abstentions. The motion is defeated. We will now go back to Committee Motion 5-18(2). To the motion. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I too would like a recorded vote as well, please.
Question has been called. A recorded vote has been requested. All those in favour, please stand.
Mr. Thompson, Mr. O'Reilly, Ms. Green, Mr. Nadli, Mr. Vanthuyne, Mr. Blake, Mr. McNeely, Mr. Testart, Mr. Nakimayak, Mr. Beaulieu.
All those opposed, please stand.
Mr. Moses, Ms. Cochrane, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. McLeod – Yellowknife South, Mr. McLeod – Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Schumann, Mr. Sebert.
All those abstaining, please stand. The results of the recorded vote are ten in favour, seven opposed, zero abstentions. The motion is carried.
Carried
We will continue our discussion of the section, “Economy, Environment, and Climate Change.” Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a further motion I would like to bring forward to change the mandate. I move that that Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of Government of Northwest Territories 2016-2019, be amended on page 13 by deleting the words “develop an integrated comprehensive approach to the management of contaminated sites include prioritizing, sharing of responsibility with other governments, collaboration with other governments, and monitoring,” and inserting the words “develop an integrated comprehensive approach to the management of contaminated sites including prioritizing, sharing of responsibility in collaboration with other governments, monitoring, and a sound financial security system to prevent public liabilities.” Thank you, Mr. Chair.
A motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The important addition here is the words at the end to focus some attention on not just managing contaminated sites, but actually preventing them from happening in the first place. That’s really the purpose of financial security system. Earlier today in my Member’s statement and through questions, I raised a number of issues around the importance of this, and what happens if we don't manage our land and water carefully. We can incur huge liabilities that can cripple us financially. We don't have nearly the room of the federal government to absorb those sorts of costs, so fine for us to manage sites, but let's make sure they don't happen in the first place. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. To the motion. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think we need to keep in mind with all of this here going on, that there are other Aboriginal governments of the Northwest Territories that we have to consider when looking at mineral claim stakes, oil and gas developments. I’m kind of leery about the wording of this as it may scare away business opportunities in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am aware that the Member who spoke previously may have some concerns around this, but I think the idea here is that we would, of course, as a government actually work collaboratively with Aboriginal governments and co-management bodies to ensure that we do have a sound financial security system. I hope that provides some assurances. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. To the motion. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In a sense, I agree with the Member for Frame Lake, but then again we spoke earlier on this as well too and I had mentioned that the Member may be carrying baggage from five or 10 years down the road so we need to look forward, making sure that we're okay and not making decisions from the past today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion, Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I take the point of the Member for Nunakput, that some of our most contaminated sites were established at a time when environmental regulation was not as rigorous as it is today. Having said that, however, there are still a number of sites that are being established now that are not fully secured financially against future liability, and given the cost of operating in the North and the cost of remediating contaminated sites often in remote places, it's essential that we have the means to provide clean up in the event of the company leaving or going bankrupt. I do not believe that this will be a disincentive to invest in the Northwest Territories, because I think that sound financial security is required everywhere that mining takes place. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Green. To the motion. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to both Members from Yellowknife for their comments. In my region there are mineral claim stakes that are outstanding and so we negotiate fair agreements with exploration companies. I believe that what we have in place is sound, and I also believe that moving ahead with negotiations for other sites, I think we have a good system in place that will still be effective in negotiating impact and benefit agreements and other agreements with exploration companies.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. I'm going to call on the mover of the motion to conclude debate. I will allow another comment from Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to make one more reply to Mr. Nakimayak. The mineral staking and the negotiation of impact and benefit agreements is at the other end of the spectrum in mining development: It's the front end. What we're talking about here is the back end. When the ore is done and the mine is closed, we're talking about what happens next, so there's no reason that this policy would stand in the way of anyone staking a claim, or in fact developing a mine if the claim was proven to be beneficial. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Green. I call on the mover to close debate.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't think I have anything further to add at this point. Thank you.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
We will continue our discussion on the “Economy, Environment, and Climate Change” section. Are there any comments? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a further motion to amend this section of the mandate, if I may. I move that Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of Government of Northwest Territories 2016-2019, be amended on page 13 by deleting the words “We will develop options for the implementation of the next five-year action plan for the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program.” and inserting the words “We will support the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program, CIMP, and respond to recommendations in the Northwest Territories environmental audit for improved environmental management.” Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What this change is all about is to I think just shift the focus a little bit, not just from developing a five-year action plan for the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program, but supporting the program as a whole. It's part 6 of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. This was part of the integrated resource management system that was negotiated through constitutionally entrenched land claims agreements to make sure that we understand what the health of our ecosystems is, but also to look at how the different components of that integrated environmental management system are working together. As part of the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program or part 6 of the act, there's also a Northwest Territories environmental audit. As I said earlier, those different parts of the integrated system work together and look at the health of our ecosystems.
The environmental audit is carried out every five years. It's a very, very important part of how we take care of our environment and our lands and waters, and there is an arrangement with the Inuvialuit to work with the Inuvialuit Regional Council so that they can be part of the environmental audit as well. That's the mechanism that we should view any changes through for the environmental management system. They should really be focused through the audit, and a very important part of that audit is to make sure that our territorial government actually responds to the audit and that folks are all working together. I think this is a constructive change and I look forward to support from the Members on the other side. Thank you.
