Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. Mr. Speaker, it's well known that the Power Corporation was asked and chose to bid on the Hay River Franchise Agreement. My question is how has the Power Corporation made the determination knowing that they could potentially change the relationship landscape, the business landscape as it relates to power in the Northwest Territories?
Can the Minister explain the rationale behind NTPC, a Crown corporation, going into direct competition with the private sector? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for NWT Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, as is well-known, the franchise in Hay River came to an end and the Town of Hay River, on its own, decided that it should seek bidders for the franchise. One of the bidders was of course the Power Corporation itself. I think there were actually two other bidders. The town accepted our bid, and our sole goal of this was to provide power at a lower rate to the citizens of Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This leads to my second question then. I would like some clarification. What is the Power Corporation's vision for its relationship then with private industry and Aboriginal development corporations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, our vision, the vision of the Power Corporation, is to be provider of choice to our customers, a valuable partner to industry and Aboriginal groups within the Northwest Territories. So that is the vision of the Power Corporation.
I'm getting flat answers, quite frankly, but I'm going to take this in another direction, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the briefing on Wednesday, the Power Corporation president alluded to work that's being done on energy options for communities. Could the Minister provide some detail on this planning and the rationale for coming up with these options? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. The Power Corporation is involved in the development of an energy plan which has been spoken of several times in this House, so we are committed in the Power Corporation to, as I say, look at new ways of providing power, keeping in mind our vision of supplying power to communities at the cheapest, affordable and safest rate. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
The president said that there was going to be specific options that communities were going to be able to consider. Can the Minister speak more to the options that the communities are going to be able to consider, and can the Minister describe a strategy for public consultation and involvement as these options are being developed?
Mr. Speaker, this is all tied, of course, to the strategy to which groups will be invited to participate including NUL. So we're hoping to get a broad discussion about where the Power Corporation is going. Certainly, we are looking at more inventive ways and cheaper ways and more energy-efficient ways of delivering power to the Northwest Territories. That remains our goal.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The element of surprise is well and true today. Mr. Speaker, recently the Yellowknife Catholic School Board has gone to the press and expressed their frustrations with additional pressures being placed on the district schools by the implementation of the Junior Kindergarten Program, and in the words of the school board, “we want to make sure that we're providing the best and the best school for our kids.” Right now they're looking to appropriate some portables from the YK1 School District. Has the Minister had a conversation about these resource needs and how does he plan to address it? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and we did see the concerns in the press earlier this week. I can inform the Member that we do have two schools that fall under the Yellowknife Catholic School Boards that offer programs from kindergarten to Grade eight. The school in particular that he's mentioning does have a utilization rate of 79 per cent and at 85 per cent then we start looking at extensions as well as renovations. Now, the other school that they have has a capacity rate of 58 per cent.
We will have conversations with the superintendent how to address those concerns from the Yellowknife Catholic School Board, but there's two schools that are in Yellowknife that are currently offering K to 8 programming and both of them are not at the utilization rates at the moment, so portables at this time I can't see being an option as it results to JK, but we will speak with the superintendent of Yellowknife Catholic School Board should one of the schools get to a utilization of 85 per cent or near there, and then we can start coming up with some unique and innovative solutions so that students that are under the Yellowknife Catholic School Board system can assure that they have a safe and healthy environment to get the education they deserve. Thank you.
I just wanted to ask the Minister some questions about those numbers on capacity. This is of course the Ecole St. Joseph School which is in my riding of Kam Lake, and the school board is reporting 522 students for 90 per cent capacity for the 2016-2017 enrolment year. The Minister's quoted some other numbers. Can he explain the difference between the school board's numbers and the Minister's numbers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The numbers that I have stated that the school in question is at 79 per cent, so we'll have to follow up with the superintendent and have our staff speak with the superintendent to make sure which numbers are correct. The numbers before me are 79, and if we are at 90 per cent and we are over utilization capacity, then we'll have to speak with the school board.
I appreciate the Minister will do some research into this. I think the bigger issue here is with the roll out of junior kindergarten, it seems that many of the school boards, both in YK1 or YCS, are feeling additional pressures, and I would like to ask the Minister if the department will be providing additional resources above and beyond what they currently receive to accommodate these new students and these new resource pressures on our schools.
That's exactly what we're doing with this survey. As I mentioned in this House during this session. We also got a motion that as passed earlier in the week supporting the roll outs of a junior kindergarten and making sure that those surveys that addressed the concerns that are brought forward will be meeting the needs of the school, and we're having our engagements with the schools and the communities to ensure that they have the resources needed to implement junior kindergarten.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, I wasn't sitting in this House on the last Assembly, but I did pay attention. I feel like some deja vu. The last time this was attempted, surveys were sent out, consultations were done, and a plan was still adopted that left many schools outside of the ability to provide exactly what the school board is looking for, which again, Mr. Speaker, is providing best resources and the best schools for our kids which is exactly what we and the department agrees with and what the resolution puts forward, but to get to there we need a clear and costed plan and resources committed to this.
Will the Minister commit to providing that costed plan to this side of the House and to school boards that takes into account this gap in resources that the schools are asking for? Thank you.
The gap in resources, I'd like to hear if it is anything specific. We've been out engaging, we've been hearing the responses that needed to be met. We've addressed those needs and the concerns, but for the gaps I'd like the Member to let me know where they are rather than some of the projected numbers where I actually have some of the actual numbers in front of me. We're still putting that plan together as the motion said earlier this week. So in two days, I don’t think I could get a plan together from what the motion said, but we will have that in time for implementation in 2017-2018.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I spoke about the Jean Marie and their willingness to become more energy efficient. I applaud them for doing this great initiative. Mr. Speaker, I was a little surprised to find out that communities can only generate 20 per cent of their own energy power from solar panels and stuff like that. This is a good step towards our mandate, but we need to do more especially for the smaller communities.
We need to help them become more energy efficient and the cost of living can go down. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation please provide this House, does the corporation have a policy that states it's only 20 per cent? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for NWT Power Corp.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I can advise that there is in fact a 20 per cent cap. This was developed as part of the NWT's solar strategy and it was imposed for technical reasons to ensure the electricity remains reliable. More than 20 per cent solar makes the system unstable. Now, in Colville Lake it is about 20 per cent, but that was only after some very expensive batteries and sophisticated load control were installed at the power plant. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, during the presentation this week we heard from the Power Corporation and Colville Lake was promoted as, you know, a good model out there and we're leading the world at it.
So, Mr. Speaker, is the corporation willing to work with the smaller communities to increase this so that -- or come up with the strategies that they can increase this strategy?
Yes, certainly, Mr. Speaker, as the Energy Strategy rolls out we'll certainly be looking at options. As I said, the 20 per cent figure is just to ensure reliability in the system. As mentioned, you can go above that but it becomes incredibly expensive and involves very substantial subsidies. Thank you.
Again, I talked about the public meeting we had in Colville Lake being presented there as the ideal model out there. Is the Minister able to work with the corporation or direct the corporation to come up with a better storage operation that can be used in these smaller communities?
Certainly as the Energy Strategy unfolds we are going to be looking at new technologies. We are, in the corporation, always interested in looking at newer technologies that are more energy efficient and so on, but for now this 20 per cent cap was imposed for reasons of efficiency and safety.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his answer. When he talks about this 20 per cent for solar energy, is that just the cap for solar energy or is it for geothermal, wind, hydro or whatever the community is able to generate electricity? So could the Minister please explain that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question and --
---Laughter
-- logic would tell me that we would have to have a cap on 20 per cent on non-traditional sources of power, because the whole point of limiting it to 20 per cent was to allow there to be efficiency within the diesel system. So I imagine that 20 per cent cap would apply to all non-diesel sources of power.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Speaker, my first question is: through the Take a Kid Trapping program we have seen project as diverse as canoe building and caribou hunts. My question is how broadly is the Take a Kid program applied? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
This is a great program and I do know from experience that schools all across the NWT take advantage of this program. It was designed to introduce NWT youth to traditional lifestyle practices for hunting and trapping, fishing, outdoor survival and canoe-making as the Member has alluded to. It's also very good for their instructors or their teachers as well, because that introduces them to some of the traditional lifestyle that we practice up here, so it's a valuable program and it has tremendous uptake across the Northwest Territories.
I appreciate the response, and I see it working very well in my region. Mr. Speaker, my second question to the Minister is how are participants required to demonstrate the funding that is used for its intended purpose and report on the results of programming?
Each Take a Kid Trapping project, they're required to submit a report with financial statement included. All of the individual project reports are then rolled into the annual Take a Kid Trapping Report.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my third question is: how does the government ensure that this program continues to be delivered in schools throughout the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Speaker, through our partnership between ENR, MACA, Health and Social Services and through the work of our HR field staff, we work with schools and harvesters throughout the region. I think one of the things we do is to ensure that this program continues to run and that they continue to receive the funding that they do from the different departments in this government. So it is a valuable program and I think it's one that has been funded very well and well taken advantage of by schools across the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Member for Nunakput.
Thanks for the response; it was exactly what I was looking for. It's good to see cooperation and coordination at work in our programs, especially with elders and youth.
Mr. Speaker, I just have more of a comment, but more of a question, my last question to the Minister: can the Minister share some examples of projects undertaken in the most recent fiscal year. Quyanainni, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in the last year we've had over 40 schools across the Northwest Territories take advantage of this program. We've had about 1,500 northern youth who were educated in some type of aspect of trapping and traditional way of life. One of the examples would be the JBK Elementary School in Fort Smith. They've been participating in this program since it started in 2002 and they had a winter camp in Thebacha and exposed students from K to 6 and staff over the course of eight days to trapping and other harvesting techniques.
Also, Colville Lake is another good example. They have a fully integrated approach to their program and they have Living on the Land as part of the everyday school life with the program running as a main feature of education over the past 12 years, so there's a couple of examples. Again, the Take a Kid Trapping Report that is usually tabled would have more specific examples across the Northwest Territories, but I think that's a good example of how it's utilized across the NWT.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I talked about early childhood development and the impacts of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. I'd like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he could update the House on what activities or what work has been going on at the national level in this area of FASD? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
