Thank you, Ms. Green. Would the Minister like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate all the comments and suggestions that I have received over the last two days, especially in the areas of homecare, antipoverty, and youth mental health and addictions. These are areas that are clearly in our mandate, and I would suggest that there is no disagreement with anybody on committee that these are areas that we have to invest in and make sure that we are doing more and better work moving forward in this Assembly. You know, to repeat myself, it is completely consistent with the mandate that we have accepted as the 19 Members.
Having said that, as we accepted our portfolios and moved forward with the work of government over the last 14 months, I have been pretty clear that we have some timelines that we put in place in order to do the meaningful work necessary to help quantify and express how to enhance areas like homecare and youth mental health. I believe, and I think everybody in this House believes, that we are going to have to make additional investment in this area. I am simply saying that we are not done the work. The timeline was not to have the work done at this point, but to be ready to make some informed decisions for the 201819 budget instead of the 201718 budget.
I hear the Members. This has certainly, I think, been heard by all the Cabinet Members. I have indicated that, if we make more progress than we hoped or planned and I am certainly prepared to push the department to move at a faster rate we are certainly willing to explore the possibly of a supplemental, but that would have to be supported by Cabinet, FMB, and the House. At this point, I still feel that it is a little premature to be putting money into these areas without a concrete, wellinformed plan. Getting the money and having nothing to spend it on, that we have not done and planned for, might not give us the results we want, whereas allocating the money appropriately based on a plan could give us real positive results moving forward.
So I don't disagree with anything I have heard. I think it has been well articulated. I think the passion is there. I think the Cabinet has it. We just feel, in these particular files, that we just need a bit more time. This budget isn't the one. The next budget is the most appropriate place to make these investments moving forward.
Once again, I thank committee, and I look forward to continuing to work on these files to make improvements for residents of the Northwest Territories today, tomorrow, and into the future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Next I have Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I had a couple of questions on page 155 about revenues. I am just wondering: is this where we find the federal revenues that help us with healthcare? Given that these main estimates were prepared quite a while ago, does this reflect the reduced payments that we are going to receive from the federal government as a result of signing off on the recent healthcare agreement? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. We're referring to the total revenues on page 155, and then there is a little more detail on page 156, for those following along at home. Minister, would you like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this revenue summary does not include the Canada Health Transfer. That Canada Health Transfer money goes into general revenues of the Government of the Northwest Territories, of which we receive over $440 million to provide health services. It also does not include new money that may be coming from the federal government based on these agreements, because we have not actually signed agreements on those.
What you will see, I think towards the back of the document, at 185, is a list of work performed on behalf of others. That is where those numbers will show up once an agreement is signed and we know what dollars are going to be flowing. It will change every year because we understand the money is going to go up, level off, and then drop over the 10year period. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, I guess I will have to ask that question when we come to the Department of Finance departmental budget. I am just looking at a couple of other things here, chargebacks and contract services. There are some changes here between 201617 and 201718, and I am wondering if the Minister and his staff can explain the reduction in the chargebacks, and then there is a fairly significant increase in contract services? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I read fairly well, and I understand words, but I don't see anything on this page making reference to that. What page is the Member referring to?
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. It is page 155, the one that we were just talking about. If I may, thank you, Mr. Chair, if he looks under the expenditure category, chargebacks is the fourth line. The sixth line or whatever is contract services. There is a reduction in expenditures under chargebacks and a fairly significant increase in contract services, so if I could get some explanation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am happy to go back and go through each of those lines, but this is a consolidation page of all the other pages that we've gone through, and when we were discussing the other pages many of the Members asked questions of why did this go up or why did this go down and we answered a number of those questions at that time. So to answer that question, we'd probably have to go back through the departments because every division, every section, is having some increases and decreases as a result of forced growth, new initiatives, and those types of things. This is purely just a summary page of all the amounts that we've already discussed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the answer. I just have one other question on 156, if I may. It says regulatory revenue, and then there's professional licence fees and environmental health fees and vital statistics fees. What's our sort of regular cycle for reviewing these and whether there should be any sort of increases even to keep pace with inflation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we're committed to doing these reviews every five years. The last review was done in 2013, so we anticipate the next one will be 2018. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. I see nothing further from Mr. O'Reilly. Do I have any further questions or comments? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that committee defer consideration of estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. There is a motion to defer. The motion is on the floor and is being distributed. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
Committee, the consideration of this department has been deferred. I want to thank the Minister and his witnesses. Sergeant-At-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Minister, please take your regular seat. We will continue on with, as agreed, our consideration of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Does the Minister have any opening remarks?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm pleased to present the 2017-2018 Main Estimates for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Overall, the department's estimate proposes a decrease of $4.4 million or 7.3 per cent over the 2016-2017 Main Estimates. These estimates continue to support the GNWT's objectives of ensuring a strong sustainable future for the government and its programs by effectively managing expenditures due to limited revenue growth. The 2017-2018 Main Estimates include an increase of $124,000 from the 2017-2018 Business Plan Review by Standing Committee in September.
This change is primarily due to the reinstatement of the proposed reduction to contribution funding for community transfer initiatives totaling $110,000. The mandate of ITI is to promote economic self-sufficiency through the responsible development of the Northwest Territories mineral and petroleum resources; the development of natural resources industry, including agriculture, commercial fishing, and the traditional economy; and the promotion and the support of tourism, trade and investment businesses in manufacturing and secondary industries to create a prosperous and diverse and sustainable economy for the benefit of all NWT residents.
ITI's 2017-2018 Main Estimates include budget reductions totalling $2.6 million. The department will look for ways to be more effective and efficient with the funds that it has available to ensure programs and services are providing the best value for money for our residents and our businesses.
The 2017-2018 Main Estimates also include new funding, specifically:
$132,000 to establish a new full-time tourism development officer position for the North Slave region. This increase is in response to the growing number of tourism operators in the North Slave region, supporting the 18th Legislative Assembly's priority to lead economic diversification by investing in tourism.
$132,000 to establish a new full-time investment and immigration officer position. This investment directly corresponds with our mandate commitment to increase the number of immigrants working in the NWT and increase investment by immigrants by implementing an immigration strategy that prioritizes streamlining application and processes, increasing awareness to immigration programs, and consolidating our administrative supports.
$51,000 to establish a full-time territorial parks maintenance officer position to allow for winter use of our parks. The position is currently only a seasonal position. The department's 2017-2018 Main Estimates continue to support the priorities of the 18th Legislative Assembly's.
Specific activities in support of these priorities include:
$4.79 million in total for the Tourism Product Diversification Program, Community Tourism Infrastructure, Tourism Industry Contribution, and Tourism Skills and Development, which aim to support tourism operators and product diversification and expansion into growing markets, contributions to municipalities, NGOs, and Aboriginal governments and organizations to support tourism through infrastructure contributions, NWT Tourism and the development of youth mentorship and community tourism coordinators.
$3.87 million for the support of entrepreneurs and economic development, which provides a wide range of assistance to businesses and individuals to support and stimulate business development and diversification. It also supports community-based initiatives that stimulate the local economy.
$3.64 million for the Business Development Investment Corporation and Community Future Contributions to support the economic objectives of the GNWT by encouraging the creation and development of northern businesses.
$1.59 million for community transfer initiatives which provide funding for economic development officer positions in NWT communities.
$850,000 for the Northern Food Development Program and Growing Forward 2 to expand the agriculture sector and remove barriers to creating employment and facilitating the development of a northern food production sector. These initiatives provide support to the commercial producers of northern fish, meat, and other food products for sale and consumption in the NWT.
$155,000 in contributions for the marketing and promotion of the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur.
$225,000 for contributions to support commercial fisheries by offsetting high freight or production costs.
$400,000 for the mining incentive program that provides contributions and support of mineral exploration in the NWT.
$100,000 for Aboriginal mineral development support which assists Aboriginal organizations to prepare for and share in the benefits of the mineral development in their area.
That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Do you have any witnesses you would like to bring into the Chamber?
Thank you, Minister. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses to the committee.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Julie Mujcin, director of finance for ITI, and on my right is Tom Jensen, deputy minister of ITI. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. We will begin with opening comments from committee. Committee members are allowed 10 minutes each for their opening comments and then, after the committee has spoken, the Minister will be given 10 minutes to respond and then we will move into the activities. Do I have any general comments on ITI from committee? First I have Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to open up with some general comments. You know, I think that if we're to just maybe touch on a couple of highlights. Of course, I think all of us here believe that clearly the Northwest Territories has some incredible economic development opportunities, especially going forward when we look at the potential for exploration and mining. We also want to look at the potential that we have as a territory to diversify our economy and take advantage of traditional economies that we've once upon a time had robust results from; fisheries is a good example.
We also have, of course, before us many challenges: the high cost of living that keeps increasing; the high cost of power production that we have in this territory; and, of course, the limited road infrastructure that we have. We have also these challenges that are before us in terms of continuing to modernize legislation and whether that's on lands or resources. We also, of course, have world markets that we have to compete with when it comes to a number of our resources that we have available to the world.
Low commodity prices right now are having a major effect on, in particular, the oil and gas industry in the Northwest Territories, and we see that now throughout the Sahtu and the Beaufort Delta, and this is all leading to the opportunity for our small communities, and it's our small communities that we need to create jobs for.
Further, as it relates to potential opportunities on some work that we've done recently. Of course, the near opening of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway and eventually the road to Whati will also present some pretty good economic development and some good diversification opportunities. We need to create some certainty and public confidence in our regulatory system, as I touched on before, and it's not only to do with major project approvals but it's also to do with how we allow our new up-and-coming entrepreneur and business opportunities to take place, and, of course, supporting mineral claims and exploration opportunities.
Lastly, I think one of the things that I want to touch on is that this government, and in particular this department, needs to make investment to improve the climate for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and one of the main focuses in that area is going to have to be with regard to reducing red tape and redundancy. So those are just some of the general observations and opening comments, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Next I have Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that this is a good example of one of our budgets where we see a lot of numbers in the Minister's opening comment that have been unchanged for many, many years. The SEED Program, the Mineral Incentive Program, these are very useful subsidies to industry that remain stubbornly resistant to investment from, again, a government that's primarily driven by fiscal reduction targets and fiscal strategy rather than investment in growth, which is the source of the great budget debate we find ourselves in.
There are some troubling cuts. There are cuts to the Business Development and Investment Corporation in the amount of $477,000; reduction to community futures contributions of $42,000. These functions are crucial to front-line business support and supporting entrepreneurs and providing them the support they need to access capital, access opportunities for themselves and by extension create jobs in our communities. In particular, the Community Futures Contributions, dollar-for-dollar, those are high-impact investments and we've seen the success of those funds used very effectively in Indigenous communities. So why we are looking at rolling back some of those, I don't understand.
The SEED Program as well, it's a very useful program. It has a great deal of subscribers, and yet we're not looking at increasing it. The Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning has suggested an increase of $1.2 million in order to support the needs of a diversified economy.
One of the things we hear from entrepreneurs, from our constituents, and even from the department in business plan review is that there is not a lot of capital to go around and in times of economic recession or decline, government increasingly becomes the primary source of capital and access to those funds that can make diversification possible, and we need to do more. We need to do a better job of making those funds available so we can start to see that diversification which has been a long-stated goal of previous assemblies and is a goal of this Assembly.
You know, we're just skimming the surface, and what we are recommending as a committee is to do a bit more than that. To put a bit more capital out there for our entrepreneurs to access and, as my honourable friend mentioned, cut the red tape on business and increase the amount of loans that entrepreneurs can have access to.
I think we've seen incredible growth in tourism as well, and this plan has a lot of investment in that sector, and that's good, but we can't forget about manufacturing, we can't forget about agriculture, we can't forget about our creative fields such as the film industry. There have been a number of recommendations around film and increasing the Film Rebate Program and creating the capacity for Northerners to produce their own films; not just be a place where films are shot, but actually set up a bit of an industry. That may seem daunting, but again, if we work with our industry partners and provide them with the tools and resources they need, I think we could start to see some of these industries take off in very surprising and very fruitful directions.
Something that I often talk about, the Mineral Incentive Program is an incredible program for, again, giving some much-needed capital to junior miners. We hear Ministers of ITI talk about this often, that this is a great program, they're very proud of its success, and yet we do not invest in it. It has remained unchanged.
Our neighbours in the Yukon have a very similar program, except it has an advanced projects category and is currently in the range of $1 million of available funding, and ours is $400,000. So the committee is calling for an increase to top that up to a million dollars and to look at how best we can make those increased funds available to those engaged in exploration activities.
If we want mines, mines take 10 years, Mr. Chairman, and if we want to see new mines, then we need to encourage their exploration. We had a Cabinet attend the Roundup in Vancouver, which I think gives industry very strong signals that the North is interested in this field and wants to be open for business. Now we need to back up that investment with our policies and by making more resources available. Nothing sends a stronger signal than putting mineral incentives into our budget, and ultimately that's where I would like to see this department, in particular, focus its efforts on developing a strong plan for growth that's based on the grassroots and what we do best. We know there's proven success in mining. We know how to work in that industry. We have a lot of expertise inhouse to develop that industry, so let's do that, but let's also focus on putting more resources into diversifying our economy. It's not going to happen by itself and, if it is a political goal of this Assembly, it's time to inject the capital we need to make that diversification happen.
So I'm looking forward to discussing this department in-depth and to making further recommendations around the committee's recommendations towards this department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next I have Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Like my colleagues, I, too, want to talk about the need for economic diversification. It is in our mandate, yet there are no increases in economic diversification in the ITI budget. In fact, there are several cuts proposed. If you look at the budget overall, even in the Minister's opening remarks, this is a budget that overall is going to be cut, the department, by 7.3 per cent, $4.4 million. This is, I guess, driven by Cabinet's fiscal strategy.
In terms of economic diversification and business support, there is a 17 per cent cut in grants and contributions, and that is largely made up by a 15 per cent cut to the Business Development and Investment Corporation, and I have to wonder whether this is really a prelude to getting rid of the corporation. Is that what the intention of Cabinet is and the Minister is, to get rid of this entity that helps with economic diversification and business support?
Regular MLAs, we have asked for that particular cut to be rolled back. We have also asked for cuts in community futures to be rolled back.
Then, where is the real investment in economic diversification in this departmental budget? Where is the agricultural strategy? Where is the money to back that up? We are still waiting for that. We have offered comments on that. We are still waiting for this agricultural strategy, and there is no new investment of money in this departmental budget around agriculture.
Where is the manufacturing policy that has been promised by this department? It is in our mandate, as well. There is no new money for manufacturing policy implementation or an action plan. So there are just no additional investments in real diversification in here. Regular MLAs, we have suggested that there be an extra $1.2 million into the SEED program as one way to help spur further economic activity here in the Northwest Territories, promote economic diversification and support businesses. That is the kind of direction that my two previous colleagues have talked about, as well, but, in this department, in this budget, the main estimates, there is very little real economic diversification effort that is being expended.
I will have some other issues, Mr. Chair, that I will raise as we work our way through the main estimates for this department. One that I am concerned about is the slow pace of legislative changes. I have been on record in this House as talking about how not one word of the devolution mirror legislation has been changed in three years. This department is responsible for a number of important revisions to legislation that are supposed to be brought forward.
Recently, the request for qualifications on a Mineral Resources Act has been made public, and it looks like we are not going to get that, or the latest that we will get a new Mineral Resources Act is March 31, 2018, and we are contracting out that work, so I really have to question what kind of capacity we have within the department to bring forth these legislative initiatives. I expect further delays.
There is also in the business plan supposed to be -- or the department is supposed to be looking at legislation for geothermal energy, and I will have questions for the Minister around the status of that legislation. There is also an oil and gas strategy that is supposed to be developed. That hasn't come forward yet. What is happening with offshore negotiations as a result of the federal government's decision to prohibit any exploration in the offshore for five years? We will have some questions for the department on that.
Lastly, Mr. Chair, I will have some questions with regard to the Environmental Studies Revolving Funds and its governance and how the money is being expended there. It is an interesting model, set up in legislation, and there are some interesting comparisons between that and, wearing a different hat, the Minister is talking about Yellowknife Airport Economic Advisory Committee that is done through terms of reference rather than legislation. This fund and how it is governed and so on might be an interesting example for the Minister to take away and have another look at, as well.
So, Mr. Chair, in conclusion, this government talks a lot about economic diversification but does not deliver with this budget and the funding for this department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, look forward to the activities of this department and focusing on the programs identified within this department and comparison to what we have existing in the Sahtu.
If you were to take away industry, which industry is gone, for example, and take away government capital projects, you virtually have nothing, so you are kind of depending on the initiative, marketing initiatives, of this department as one component and relying on this department for diversification and marketing initiatives and supports to the existing enterprise, which is hard enough in our area, operating within an isolated seasonalaccess community.
Quite a bit of our businesspeople and leaders do rely on the activities of this department's plans financially, fiscally, over the next 12 months, so I, too, would like to get on to business here and review this file and this department so we can move on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Let's get on with business. Minister Schumann, do you have any responses to the general comments from the Members?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I think I want to get right into it. It sounds like they have got a number of questions, so let's do it.
Thank you, Minister. The department begins on page 189. As is our custom, we will defer the total department until after consideration of the activities. The first activity is corporate management, and it begins on page 197, continuing until page 199. Members can make comments, ask questions, about this activity. Please indicate which page number you are talking about before you discuss it so we can all follow along. First, I have Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have some questions about the organizational charts on 190-191. Is this the appropriate time to talk about those, or will they come at the end when we look at the departmental total? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I believe the appropriate time would either be during the final, when we are looking at the departmental total, or they can be addressed, if there are positions under corporate management, if you would like to address that part of the organizational chart within the corporate management sections, the Minister could probably answer questions about that. All right. Thank you. Do we have anything further? Corporate management. I will give committee a moment. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just in terms of corporate management on page 197, we have three communities that are borderline caught in between two districts, either Fort Simpson or Hay River. So just for the record, I just wanted to come to an understanding from the Minister of his perception in terms of which office would preside over delivering services to Fort Providence, Kakisa, and Enterprise, whether it is the Dehcho office out of Fort Simpson, the district office, or else the South Slave office based out of Hay River. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That would be serviced out of the Hay River office. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to clarify the Minister's reply. If I understand him correctly, for the three communities, including Fort Providence, Kakisa, Enterprise, they are serviced out of Hay River. Am I correct? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's correct. It would be serviced out of the Hay River office.
Mr. Nadli, go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a last question: the Hay River Reserve, would they be serviced out of the Fort Simpson District Office or else the Hay River South District Office? Thank you.
