Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. O'Reilly on October 20, 2016, regarding the hydraulic fracturing regulatory system.
I have worked with my colleagues in the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources and Lands, given their different roles in ensuring securities are in place for resource development projects. We have also engaged with the Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations.
I would first like to highlight that there is a polluter- pay system to ensure that government is not left paying for cleanups. The polluter-pay principle is fundamental to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and the Oil and Gas Operations Act, which does not place any limits for liability of any oil and gas operator for any damages it might cause.
As you know, the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, or MVRMA, is federal legislation. It established a comanagement system that provides for transparency through public registries, and a process that requires security deposits for land use permits and water licenses to be held by government to cover clean-up if a company were to become insolvent.
Post-devolution, the Department of Lands has established a new division dedicated to ensuring securities are in place to protect the public purse. Oil and gas operators are required to post securities under the terms of their land use permits and water licenses.
Outside the Mackenzie Valley, the co-management system developed for the Inuvialuit Settlement Region is governed by the Inuvialuit Final Agreement and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. This system also provides for public participation, transparency, and financial accountability by operators.
Your questions were largely focused on abandoned wells, which relate to the authorities of the Government of the Northwest Territories Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations, or OROGO.
The regulator is a regulatory authority under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, and therefore part of an integrated resource co-management system established by the Mackenzie Valley. OROGO is an active partner in resource co-management as a preliminary screener and through cooperative arrangements with the MVRMA Boards.
Citizens of the Northwest Territories expect transparency in the oil and gas regulatory system. Section 91 of the Petroleum Resources Act currently puts significant limits on the regulator's ability to disclose information about oil and gas operations in the NWT. Therefore, in 2016, the regulator issued an information disclosure guideline, which requires all applicants to complete an information disclosure consent form, outlining what information they agree to make public and what information they wish to keep confidential.
Since these guidelines were issued, OROGO has received five applications for well approvals and these applications, along with information requested from OROGO, responses from the applicant, and the final decision, are all available to the public on OROGO's public registry.
Under the Oil and Gas Operations Act, operators must obtain an authorization for each activity they wish to undertake and must provide the regulator with proof of financial responsibility in order to receive the authorization. Operators are responsible for cleaning up any spills or debris that occur as a result of operations, including as a result of incidents. Proof of financial responsibility is intended to allow the Regulator to pay for damages caused by incidents, whether or not they were the fault of the operator, up to certain prescribed limits. This could include paying costs incurred by the GNWT for cleaning up spills or debris, if necessary.
The funds accepted as proof of financial responsibility do not limit the total amount for which the operator may be found liable. They are not intended for general site remediation or reclamation, as these matters are the responsibility of other regulatory bodies, such as the land and water boards, and are over and above the amounts collected by these bodies.
Lastly, on the matter of wells that leak after being abandoned, permanently plugged, accordingly to the regulatory requirements, the Oil and Gas Drilling and Production Regulations require that wells be left in a condition that prevents leakage. Consistent with the polluter-pay principle, abandoned wells are the responsibility of the company that performed the abandonment, or any successor to that company.
I trust this provides you with assurance that the polluter-pay principle is already a well-established part of the regulation of oil and gas activities in the Northwest Territories.
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is also looking to improve upon this system. In the mandate of this Legislative Assembly, ITI has committed to developing and proposing amendments to both the Petroleum Resources Act and the Oil and Gas Operations Act. We are currently in the planning phases of this work, and later this year we anticipate public consultation on amending those acts. We anticipate that you and your constituents and citizens from across the NWT will participate in that process to support our work to improve our already robust regulatory system to further tailor it to the unique northern landscape. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very pleased to recognize my wife and life-long partner and number one constituent, Melody McLeod. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Christina Popa. She is the executive assistant to the vice president of Public Service Alliance of Canada. I would also like to acknowledge Mr. Rami Kassem, who has several businesses in my constituency. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Thebacha.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Brad Mapes, former mayor of Fort Smith, who is a chaperone this week for two of our pages, Caleb Brake and Joseph Leguerrier.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to start by welcoming Diana Bui, who is my constituency assistant. It is her first time in the House. I would also like to recognize Erin Curry, who is one of our constituents from Range Lake. Good friend of mine, Alisa Praamsma, her husband, Jack Bourassa. Although not constituents, very good friends I consider close to my heart. Although Rami is gone, I really want to recognize Rami Kassem as well, who is a constituent in my riding. I want to offer my heartfelt sympathy. I am hoping that somehow they will see that love will outshine hate, and not all of us represent what happened. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to take this opportunity to recognize Jack Bourassa from the Public Service Alliance of Canada, as well as Alisa Praamsma. They always make their way here. She's the executive director of the Native Women's Association. They always make their way here to the Legislative Assembly on the important days. I also want to recognize and I'm not sure that they're still here in the gallery, but Shaleen Woodward is a Yellowknife North resident and is the acting deputy minister of DAAIR. I also want to recognize Martin Goldney, who is a Yellowknife North resident, the deputy minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Housing. I'd like to ask the Minister, can the Minister offer any early observations from the survey data? For instance, how many people responded and how would that range across target groups? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As of late last week, we had 1,017 surveys received, which is quite a significant number; however, early in the week we had realized that, when I asked for a breakdown of all of the communities and the amounts of surveys, I realized that some communities still hadn’t received a significant number of surveys. We had agreed, and this will be the first time I'm announcing it, that we actually will be extending the survey for one more month because it is more important to try to get the idea, the solutions, from community people than it is for me to meet a deadline of January 27, so we will be extending it for one month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I mentioned in my statement, many of the people in the communities don’t know where to access this information for the survey. So while the survey is running, how and where could people access this information?
We felt that we did a comprehensive advertising of getting the survey out. We had put it in newspapers, we had put radio advertisements out, we had talked to the local housing organizations and the government service officers, but evidently we still had some work to do. So with the announcing of bringing the survey for one more month, we will be doing more of a strategic radio campaign that we promote it two/three times a week at least. We're going to be looking for times that we know that community people are listening to the radios. We will be promoting it again trying to push our local housing organizations and our government service officers within the communities that were low in numbers that they actually provide more of an outreach support to getting the surveys.
That's a great idea. I think it's very important, especially in Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic, and Aklavik, where the numbers are very low, the numbers that I've seen. You know, we have local radio stations here in the community. You know, I highly recommend the LHOs to go on the air and promote the survey. Also, as I mentioned in my statement, Mr. Speaker, it's very important for our elders, many of them are getting up there in age. We have a high population of elders in my riding. So would the Minister be willing to hire someone to go door-to-door, especially for the elders, Mr. Speaker? If not only for the elders, to ensure that we get their information, what's working and what's not working for them.
I, too, care about elders within our communities, and I also want to get as many replies to the survey as possible; however, for us to hire someone specifically to go door-to-door in communities to solicit the survey answers would be a financially huge cost and, in all honesty, I'd rather put that money that I have with housing towards homes for people versus collecting the data. So I will put a more concentrated effort into the radio campaign. I will let people know that it doesn't only have to be the survey. They can send me an email, they can write a letter, whatever way they can get feedback in. I will ensure that our local housing organizations, our government service officers remind them to get out there to specifically try to get as many seniors as possible. I would also like to ask, like the wonderful lady who said our prayer, to work together with our MLAs. I have been posting it on my Facebook and I am hoping that the MLAs will also help promote the survey through their Facebook or other means that they have possible to get as much opinions as we can.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t agree with the Minister on that one. You know, it's a small price to pay to get a high turnout rate for, especially, a survey of this importance, Mr. Speaker. You know, I'm very disappointed to get that response, but I knew it was coming. Once the survey is completed, what is the Housing Corporation's next steps towards its full policy review and development of a new strategic plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The next steps once we compile the survey results, all of the surveys are entered into what's called the Survey Monkey. Some of the input that has come has been through letters through emails, not all have come through surveys, so we have people actually that are manually entering that data into the Survey Monkey. It will be broken up. The Survey Monkey is able to break things up by communities as the MLAs see when we produced the numbers. It's been able to break things up by if it's a government worker, if it's someone in housing, if it's public housing, if someone in home ownership. We're able to be very specific.
When we get the results, we're looking for solutions. We will be sorting out the policy changes based on, in all honesty, three piles. One pile, easy policies that can be changed without a lot of thought but just makes sense; a second pile that might take a little bit more work; and a longer term pile that might take legislative changes or a potential interdepartmental work, and it'll be put foot to the ground and feet running and we will be pumping them out as soon as possible. Once we get the proposed changes in, I would ask to work with the Members to be able to provide the results before it's finalized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in a previous session I asked the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs about the youth position in the Nahendeh and when it was going to be filled. I was told it would be filled in January. I was assuming it was this January. Well, Mr. Speaker, the time has come and today nothing has happened in my riding. It's been over 15 months, so, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise the status of the youth positions across north? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The status of youth positions within the Northwest Territories: currently we only have three vacant positions. All the other positions are filled. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'd like to thank the Minister for her answer. I already knew there was three, one in Yellowknife, one in North Slave and one in Inuvik region, but there's three other positions that have not been filled and for the most part it's been 15 months. So it's been over a year for some of these, two of them I know of for sure. Can the Minister provide a rationale on why this department has not filled these positions to this date?
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I thought it was Housing for a second. Yes, so we can talk about it. At the beginning, the three positions that the MLA is referring to, we are still working on it, and the reason is because within the Sutcliffe Report there were some recommendations on job descriptions. We also felt it was important, so we consulted with stakeholders in the areas, the applicable stakeholders and the staff to develop more comprehensive job descriptions. Because we are looking at being able to utilize our skills in a more appropriate way, so we're hoping that we can actually have positions that have a little bit of overlap and we can use specialization, at the same time providing them with the skills so that they can transfer into positions more easily.
At this point the job descriptions are completed. They are with the Department of Human Resources, and they need to determine the pay level that these positions will be at. So as soon as we receive them back from the Department of Human Resources, we will be putting them out for competition.
I'd like to thank the Minister for her answer. It's unfortunate it's taken 15 months to do a job description that hasn't even been classified yet on what the pay is going to be.
Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding the department is changing these job descriptions, of both the youth and the sport and recreation position, and combining it to one sort of, kind of, a job description collectively. So what is the rationale behind this change?
As stated earlier, there are a couple of reasons that we're looking at the change. We are looking to be able to utilize the skills and the strengths within our employees in a better fashion so that we can share services. We're also looking to promote a greater range of candidates so that they can apply for positions. We were looking at things such as education, barriers that actually impact people within the Northwest Territories. We're looking at trying to get youth involved in these programs, to promote people within the Northwest Territories to have access to these competitions, to these jobs, and so we were very cognizant when we were developing the job descriptions in looking for ways that we can actually promote more northern youth to be able to access these and that we can use the transfer of skills throughout the programs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for her answer. I worked in the field for 23 years. I understand the importance of the crossover. We did a lot of crossover, so I understand that and I understand the importance of it. I still struggle with why you're changing job descriptions from a youth officer and a sport and recreation one and making it combined to one.
I guess my next question is: Why is the government looking at it? Is this going to be a potential cut? Because now we're going to have two people in the region doing the same, similar, job, same job description, is this something that they're looking at for future cuts? I understand the importance of crossovers, but having two jobs with different job descriptions allows that to happen still. So is this a potential future cut, or is this a better decision for them to do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was no intention during the development of this process that we would be looking at cutting these positions. We value them, as well. A future cut, I can say that within my term as the Minister of MACA I will not terminate these positions. However, I cannot state further than my position. So, there was no intention. I can't give a guarantee forever, but, as long as I am the Minister, that is not my intention. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier.
Earlier today I spoke of the legislative inertia of Cabinet. We are about a third of the way through our term, and only six bills, of limited consequences, have come forward. Can the Premier explain what is going on with the ambitious Cabinet legislative agenda? Merci, Mr. Speaker.
Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through you, I'd like to redirect this question to the Government House Leader, Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it's important to recognize that legislation for the sake of legislation should not be a priority of this Assembly. It certainly isn't a priority of the government. We're actually more interested in making sure that we're bringing forward high-quality legislation that best serves the people of the Northwest Territories and reflects our mandate.
As the Government House Leader, Mr. Speaker, my role is to help shepherd legislation through this Assembly, and, in that role, I had an opportunity to meet with committee early in the life of this Assembly, where I did share a list of potential legislative initiatives for the 18th Legislative Assembly. At that time, I made clear and I'd like to make clear again that this is a planning tool, Mr. Speaker. This is not a defined set or final list of legislation that will be moving forward. This Assembly, as with all previous Assemblies, additional initiatives will be identified and added to the list during the course of the Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, the Cabinet is not experiencing inertia. There is a significant amount of work to be done. The Member has specifically referenced different legislation, particularly around the devolve and evolve. I can tell the Member right now that the Department of ENR will be moving forward with five LPs on significant pieces of legislation. The Member does know and is aware our legislative process includes coming to committee with a legislative proposal, which is a very thorough document or is a very thorough document in the case of large legislation. We'll be looking for their feedback. Once we get their feedback, we'll be moving forward with drafting instructions and moving forward with the legislation that the Member would like to see. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I had hoped to hear from the Premier as the leader of Cabinet on this, but I'm happy to hear from the House Leader. I would have preferred the Premier.
I'm just not talking about a planning document, Mr. Speaker. I'm talking about the mandate that this House agreed to at the beginning of our term, and, in that mandate document, there's a number of legislative and regulatory changes that were outlined, one new Act, 13 amended laws, and at least two new regulations. None of these have come forward to date.
Can the Premier I guess I'm going to hear now from the House Leader tell us how the public should judge performance on this part of the mandate?
The mandate is an incredibly long document with a lot of specific detail, and as a Cabinet, and an Assembly I hope, we continue to be committed to that mandate and are moving forward with those different pieces of work.
Some of these pieces of legislation and some of the work the Member has described is quite large, and, in the first year of the Assembly, we continue to make progress, but we never I don't believe made a commitment to completing all of this work in the first year of this Assembly. I think that would be impractical.
I can tell the Member today, I can tell all the Members today, we continue to move forward on the mandate items, we continue to develop LPs there are meaningful and will address the challenges and issues people of the Northwest Territories are facing. We look forward to working with committee on those LPs and then bringing forward meaningful and welldrafted legislation in the life of this government.
I appreciate the response from the Government House Leader, but we're almost three years into devolution and our government has not changed one word of the mirror legislation that was passed with virtually no public input.
Can the Government House Leader or the Premier tell this House and the residents of the Northwest Territories when we can expect to have any legislative changes to reflect the promises that were made around devolve and then evolve?
The Member continues to refer to the devolution process where we had a number of bills that came forward. That process required us to mirror the legislation that existed, and there was a commitment to move forward from that point to devolve and then evolve. As I've already indicated, we have five LPs coming to committee during this sitting from the Department of ENR which are all devolution-related bills. Massive pieces of work, significant input and work required by the departments to get that work done. Once the LPs are approved by committee, we'll set forth drafting instructions at which point the department and Justice will be developing comprehensive legislation that meets the needs of the people of the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I said it once and I'll say it again, legislation for the sake of legislation is not going to meet the needs of the people. We need to make sure that we're providing high-quality legislation, well-researched, well-focused, and meeting the needs of our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response from the Government House Leader, but I've been waiting for about a third of my term now for some of this important legislation to come forward. Really, waiting to see these legislative proposals that are going to come forward from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
I think what's happening here, Mr. Speaker, is that our government is spending an inordinate amount of time on cost reductions to meet Cabinet's fiscal reductions, slashing public services to fund ill-defined infrastructure projects including department amalgamations that are driven by cost reductions.
Can the Government House Leader confirm that we no longer have the capacity to bring forward legislative changes because of those reductions and amalgamations that were not part of the approved mandate of the 18th Assembly? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to point out that that's purely an opinion of the Member. The departments are working hard to move forward legislation. They understand that a significant amount of work has been done. I've had an opportunity to talk to staff within my department, as well as staff within another department, who are committed to getting this work done. The reductions or corrections that have been done in this public service are done with significant discussion, analysis, to make sure that it does not adversely impact the work that needs to be done by this government.
I respect the Member's opinion. I disagree with the Member's opinion. The work is getting done. We have the staff to get it done. We will get it done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
