Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to talk about agriculture. I know it seems odd now there's snow on the ground, but we need to be ready for next spring. In the summer of 2015, the Government of the Northwest Territories underwent community consultations for the development of the NWT Agriculture Strategy. We're now in the fall of 2016, and so I would like to get an update from the Minister of ITI to see where that strategy is, to make sure that it's ready to be implemented for next spring? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We've had the opportunity to bring the Agriculture Strategy to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, and, based on their review of the document, we are revising the daft presently and putting in their recommendations, and once it's completed the draft will be circulated to other departments and include their internal reviews, and once that's done it's our goal to bring the draft back to committee next month.
Thank you to the Minister. There's been other issues with agriculture in the territory, good issues. Industry is moving quickly. The problem is government needs to catch up. There's been issues with selling domestic meat. We don't have the proper regulations in place. There's regulations in place for the sale of wild harvested meat, but, when it comes to domestic farmraised animals, we're not quite there yet. Is the government doing something to address this so next season in the spring there will be something in place where farmers who wish to have livestock will be able to sell this meat?
During the review of our agriculture strategy, there has definitely been some challenges that were identified in this and one of them was the sale of and safe sale of locally produced meat. We are working on it. We are working with a number of departments, Health and Social Services in particular, to ensure that locally produced food can be sold to the public safely in the Northwest Territories, and I can update the Members now. The Department of Health and Social Services is reviewing its Public Health Act and regulations to address these gaps related to the food inspection, so hopefully by next summer we will be able to sell locally produced meat to the public of the Northwest Territories.
I appreciate that answer, as well. That's good to hear. We have a program, an agreement with the federal government, Growing Forward 2. It matches GNWT contributions 60/40, and it's used to grow the agriculture sector, particularly commercial agriculture. At the current rate of GNWT contributions we're going to miss out on over $1 million of this federal funding. Does the department have a plan to increase its contribution to take full advantage of the federal funds before the fiveyear agreement ends?
The Member is absolutely right. This is a 60/40 plan costshared with the federal government, and the annual contribution last year from the federal government was $732,000 and the GNWT was providing up to $488,000 in this program. The movement of programming dollars to ENR's Take a Kid Harvesting and Take a Kid Trapping programs has negatively impacted ITI's Growing Forward equity funding, so what we've done is ITI is currently checking with other departments such as Health and Social Services and ENR to see if they have any programs that could fall under this funding requirement to help us to build our equity portion for the Growing Forward position. ITI is meeting with the federal government representatives next month to see what additional equity we can be using, and I will gladly get back to the Member on how that works out.
Masi. Oral questions, Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise again. This is the second time this week that this matter has been raised. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation. It's with regard to the safety of Highway No. 4 on the stretch from Niven Gate into town, the fourway stop in front of the Explorer Hotel.
Mr. Speaker, I continue to get correspondence from concerned citizens with regard to the safety of that stretch, and, as most know, now we have two hotels there with visitors as well as higher vehicle traffic in the area. It's becoming really concerning, given that there is no delineations on the roadway whatsoever right now as it relates to painted lines, and, as we're getting into the darker days, Mr. Speaker, this is all very problematic and troublesome as it relates to public safety; and so my first question for the Minister is: first, does the Minister recognize that this is now a commonly used active transportation corridor for walkers and cyclers and the like? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a commonly used area. As I walk it every day when I come to work, I have crossed the highway and I come up the side of the highway and then take the secondary road to the Legislative Assembly. As I have stated in the House yesterday, we are working on this. We've met with the City of Yellowknife, user groups from Niven Lake, and we will continue to meet with them, and, as of even recently today, I've mentioned to another Member from the City of Yellowknife that at our next meeting I will gladly invite all the MLAs from the City of Yellowknife to participate in those talks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Although I appreciate that the Minister continues to give this reply, the meetings are not being productive; and what do the meetings mean, anyway? This is not the city's stretch of road. This is not the hotel's responsibility. This is not the other stakeholders' responsibility. The bottom line is, this stretch of road is under the ownership, operation, and maintenance of the Department of Transportation and it is their budget that needs to be invested in the public safety of this highway. We are putting people at risk. When are we going to stop the meetings and pushing this aside, and when are we going to start to invest in public safety? Will the Minister commit his department to this capital budget in putting in a delineated line where the public can walk safely and ride safely from Niven Gate into town?
As I stated in the House yesterday, we want to move forward with painting the lines on the highway, weather permitting, and this would be including the line along the edge of the highway where people can walk. Weather permitting, we are committed to doing that within the next coming weeks, so long as the weather is there.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. Also in addition, as it has been requested a number of times and now that there is a significant amount of foot traffic, bike traffic, and in some instances, parents pushing strollers, now with the new hotel and seemingly traffic coming in four different directions in and out of the Ledge, in and out of the new hotel, in and out of town, will the Minister make a commitment from his department to put an illuminated pedestrian crosswalk from the entrance to the new hotel across to the Legislative Assembly so people can safely cross that stretch of road?
Hear, hear.
No, I cannot make that commitment here today because I believe, if we are going to do this, this is the same similar situation we had in Hay River. There had to be a traffic study done and bring all user groups together, how we would move forward with this, what type of even traffic stuff we would have to have in place there. There are various things that would have to be considered. But what I do commit to in this House is I would sit down with all the user groups, as I said yesterday, the City of Yellowknife, the Niven Lake working group, Alternatives North, the Yellowknife Members, and bring it back to this House if we need to put some infrastructure into place there.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that response, because it sounds to me like now we might be able to do a traffic study. I'm not sure that we need all of these stakeholders involved to give the approval that they would want one done. I think I can speak freely for them now and say, let's get on with it. Will this government commit do doing a traffic study as soon as possible, meaning immediately? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I've said, we have to include everybody. We're not going to exclude everybody. We have to involve everybody in this process and make sure it's done in a fair and equitable manner and everyone has an opportunity to have input. I appreciate the Member's comments that he'd like us to commit to doing it right away, but there has to be a process in place where everyone can have their input and make sure it's the best decision moving forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today the Minister of Human Resources made a Minister's statement on the Regional Recruitment Program. I have some questions on that. I would like to ask the Minister what the duration of the training would be for 80 per cent of the salary? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Human Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Generally the duration is about one year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister advise the House if it is possible for the duration of the regional recruitment candidates to have their training extended beyond one year, like maybe two years or more, if necessary?
Extensions could be considered on a case-by-case basis. So as they go through the training, if there's a need to extend the training further so that they can work on their qualifications, then it would be considered on a case-by-case basis.
As the Minister knows, I represent Detah and Ndilo. I would like to ask the Minister, for the purpose of this program, is Yellowknife also considered a regional centre that would include all the positions in Yellowknife, not just the regional office? Because of the proximities of the communities I represent, I'd like to know if all of Yellowknife is considered a region for the purpose of the Regional Recruitment Program.
My understanding is that the folks in the Detah-Ndilo area, are they eligible, the short answer is yes, they are.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister indicated that, under the Regional Recruitment Program, that 32 persons would be recruited to GNWT positions. I'd like to ask the Minister if he has a target for how many regional recruitment candidates he would like to have at the end of this fiscal year, and what that target would be? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We aim to support a minimum of 15 each year, no target at the year end. Applications are being received continually over the year, and we would strongly encourage the regions to utilize this program. We feel that there is a lot of value in this program. As Members of this House have heard us say a number of times, we have to start looking at succession planning, and this might be a valuable tool in achieving that. So I would strongly encourage NWT residents that, if they are interested in any particular type of training, to approach HR and the GNWT to see if there are opportunities for that training.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I have some questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation about the sale of the treatment centre on the Detah Road. My first question is: does the sale include both the land and the building? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The building that we're talking about was sold, actually, by the NWT Housing Corporation on August 6, 2015. At that time, it did include both the land and the building. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
How did the NWT Housing Corporation arrive at a price for that land and building?
In 2011, actually, the Housing Corporation had a formal appraisal done of the building and the land.
Right around the time we were elected, so in other words when the Minister was not yet the Minister, the treatment centre sold for almost double the price of the appraisal, which I take to be $880,000. Does the Minister have any idea how the building suddenly gained all that value?
At the time, the appraisal came in at $1.225 million.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister tell us, then, whether the media report of the centre selling for $880,000 is accurate and why and how it came to be sold for that price? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The building actually was zoned as an institutional building which limits the usage and so we had very few people that were interested in purchasing it. We had tried to go to the community. We had offered it to other departments. Selling of the building is actually one of the last recourses, so the price that we did actually sell it for was negotiated with the buyer after being on the market and Coldwell Banker which is our normal real estate firm. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. In each hydro rate zone, which holds the highest rate for consumers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister Responsible for NWT Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, there are of course various zones. I haven't looked into it lately, but I would speculate the Yellowknife area has the highest rates. Thank you.
