Masi. I think that was what he said earlier.
---Laughter
Now it is on the record. Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
I’m just going to ask a couple more questions to my favourite new Minister of Transportation. In regards to our conversation today, we were talking about, or our Q and A session here, we were talking about the airports and that. Can the Minister please advise us how somebody from Yellowknife, a duty officer is able to provide good information to the airlines that are outside when he has no experience in those communities?
Masi. Minister of Transportation
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier in the day, we have the 1-800 number that is set up to have contact with the duty officer. That’s normally the procedure for this type of communication. But as I earlier said, they can also go to the regional person and that can be relayed on up to the chain of command. Thank you.
Maybe I’ll get all four questions here. I guess what I’m asking the Minister is: how can a duty officer in Yellowknife have the information to be able to provide the regional services after hours so they can get concrete and safe information.
As I stated, that’s how the system is set up and if the Member is aware of any issues, I’d gladly sit down and discuss them with him. But as far as I know, the 1-800 is working to suffice the service at the airports.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess the thing is the question comes back to, he’s saying it works. We’re hearing, myself, that there’s some challenges out there. My question is again, how does somebody in Yellowknife not in the region, in Yellowknife able to answer questions after hours and on weekends?
But I’m not trying to be rude to the Member, but we do have the 1-800 number and that’s the mode of communication between the airports and the regional centre.
Oral Questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I’m not trying to be rude and I understand there’s a 1-800 number. What I’m trying to find out is does the regional offices provide this information to the duty officer so that he’s able to communicate this information after hours or on weekends or is there another system in place that contractor or the airlines have to contact the local contractor, which is sometime impossible to get a hold of him, especially in the smaller communities, especially on weekends when they’re out on their land doing stuff. Can the Minister please explain to me and the people in my riding, what the process is? Is the information available, do they do reports, do they give that information to the duty officer so he is able when people phone the 1-800 number to get that information to him. Thank you.
As I’ve said, we have the emergency 24-7 number; we have our regional managers in place. If there’s any issues that are brought forward to the 24-7 number, it will work its way up the chain of command to the director, the regional superintendents who are also on constant contact with the regions, be it highways or the Department of Transportation or marine and once those issues are relayed to them, they will definitely be relayed to Yellowknife, and we would deal with it. I’m unaware of any particular issue in any of the regions related to the airports at this time and if the Member would gladly sit down and discuss them with me, we will deal with it.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of the Power Corporation. We know now that the Public Utilities Board denied the Power Corporation’s rate application for a rate increase. I’d like to know, can the Minister tell us what does this mean for the operation costs of NTPC? Will the rate payers or the taxpayers of the territory be expected to subsidize the Corporation further?
Masi. Minister responsible for NWT Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, the Member is quite correct. The Public Utilities Board, PUB, did not approve the Northwest Territories Power Corporation’s interim rate application that was to have come into effect on June 1st. NTPC will reapply for an interim rate, the same 4.8 per cent increase when it submits it GRA later this month with an anticipated effective date of August 1st, 2016. We’re not anticipating much loss or any loss of money in a significant amount.
Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. I apologize. I didn’t give my colleague, the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources any warning of this, but earlier this week, he tabled a response to oral questions where he gave notice about some caribou matters and I wanted to follow-up on some of that. I wanted to ask the Minister, it appears to me that the burden of the management responses to the decline of the Bathurst caribou herd have fallen on resource harvesters. Can the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources tell us what concrete actions have been taken in terms of habitat protection on this side of the border? Habitat protection on this side of the border.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I’d have to clarify the Member’s question, if it’s related to boreal caribou or the Bathurst herd. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, certainly, I’m talking about Bathurst caribou, specifically the Bathurst caribou herd and that’s the herd that was the subject of the response that the Minister tabled in the House earlier this week. That’s what I’m asking is habitat protection on the NWT side of the border for the Bathurst caribou herd.
As many people may not be well aware, the Bathurst herd has a working group that is working on a complete range plan and a recovery strategy for the herd of Bathurst.
I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Out of that working group and range planning exercise that’s going on, can we actually expect that there’s going to be proposals to withdraw lands, protect habitat on this side of the border when it comes to the Bathurst caribou herd because that hasn’t happened so far to date and that the herd is in a bad situation. Are we going to see some specific land protection on this side of the border coming out of that process?
It’s early days for the working group on the Bathurst and other boreal caribou and other things as such, so I suspect that those conversations will be taking place and we’ll be bringing forward the commitments and ideas that these committees bring forward. I cannot tell the Member as of yet if we have any plans set aside for this type of thing.
Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I appreciate the response from the Minister. I guess the reason why I’m pursuing this in the House today is that the Nunavut Impact Review Board announced its recommendation recently that the Sabina Gold Project should not go ahead on the Nunavut side of the border because of its potential impact on the Bathurst caribou herd and its calving grounds. Now, the position of the Government of the Northwest Territories in that proceeding and that process was that we did not want to see any development in the calving grounds of the Bathurst caribou herd. If we’re going to ask Nunavut to take action protecting habitat on their side of the border, what are we prepared to do on our side of the border with regard to protecting the Bathurst caribou herd, specifically habitat. Is there going to be some kind of land protection on this side of the border to help the herd? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Member is right. We have taken a position on the calving grounds on the Nunavut side of the border, but that is where the calving grounds are. On the Northwest Territories side is the range areas of the herds and many herds. Like I’ve said, we’re working with all the Aboriginal groups and stakeholders in this and across many departments and we’ll be developing something coming forward in the plan for the Bathurst and I will be bringing this forward at some time to this Assembly.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just have some questions for the Minister of Justice. I’m just trying to wrap my head around the proposed closure of the law library.
---Laughter
Most lawyers in Yellowknife and the territory, I assume, are employed by the territorial government and they need access to legal materials. Do they already have, does the government already have a redundancy of all these materials that are in the library? Do the departments have full access to these materials already or are government lawyers accessing the law library and using these materials?
Masi. Minister of Justice
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned yesterday, there is very little activity, of any kind at the library. There are very few people, lawyers or otherwise using that library. There has been a change in the way in which lawyers and other research the law and most of it is done online. I believe that when the library was reduced from its very large size to its current size, that some of the historic books were given to archives and some of the other books of interest to the local bar were simply given away to the lawyers. I don’t think the law library is used very much by the lawyers in the government, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
I know that there’s a sign-in sheet so when people come into the library, they sign in. I saw the Minister’s comments yesterday talking about how much it costs, how many books were checked out and I know for a fact that when people go to the law library, they don’t all sign in and I know that when people go there, they might look at books and they might not sign them out, they might use those materials there. My concern is that while there might be a reduced cost to the government here, this reduced access to materials is just going to result in the government having to supply these materials in another way. Provide a library full of materials to the GNWT lawyers, otherwise, the department is going to working without all the information it needs. Has the Minister looked at what costs might rise for the government in terms of procuring those materials in relation to the potential cost savings of closing the library?
Mr. Speaker, a goodly number. In fact, most of the cases and many other analyses of cases are free online through CanLII or some of the other services that are provided to the public and also for lawyers. I have not received or done an analysis as to what costs we might incur should we be provided library-type services on a limited basis, but certainly there would be still a very, very large saving, in my belief, because the current costs which I referenced yesterday are very high, and if there’s a very small kiosk or something along those lines provided with access through the internet certainly there would be a consider saving in any case.
I’m not a lawyer; I’ve done a bit of legal research, though, and I know that I use lots of books, lots of physical books, because sometimes you can’t find that material online and sometimes it’s just… It’s inaccessible. It’s difficult to go through a 500-page book on your computer. I’m just concerned about the effect it’s going to have on the quality of legal work being done, and I’m concerned about the effect on small practitioners because the Minister mentioned that these materials are expensive. Legal books are very expensive. Access to online legal resources can be very expensive. There’s good sites like CanLII which is free, but there’s other sites that aren’t free and they have much more material and stuff as needed. I’m just really concerned that it’s going to affect the sole practitioners. They’re not going to be able to afford to practice here; they might head south. I know it’s difficult to keep lawyers here anyway. I guess I could go on but it’s more of a comment, I guess. Maybe the Minister can put some more thought into this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. I hear more of a comment. I’ll allow the Minister to respond if he wishes.
I was one of those sole practitioners until six months ago and found that certainly buying hard cover books are expensive, but I did have my own fairly modest library. I would note, rather, that at one point the Government of the Northwest Territories had libraries in many of the communities which could be used by the lawyers. Hay River used to have a very extensive library, as did Inuvik. Those have all been closed down. I think that what’s happened is the nature of legal research has changed, so the vast majority of it, as I understand, is now being done online. Yes, there are certainly services like CanLII which are free; other ones such as Westlaw you must pay for, but I think that’s just a part of practising as a lawyer. There are going to be some costs. As I mentioned yesterday and again today, the number of lawyers using the library, the current library, appears to be very small. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled “Northwest Territories Oil and Gas Annual Report 2015” and “Ekati, Diavik and Snap Lake Socio-economic Agreements Implementation Report.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled “Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 138-18(2): Hay River Long term Care Beds.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I’m tabling a document entitled “Change the Story: A Shared Framework for the Primary Prevention of Violence against Women and their children in Australia.” Mahsi.
