Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke about Enbridge and the communication process, and so I am asking some questions of the Premier. Does the government have a protocol or a policy in place to communicate with Regular MLAs when it comes to challenges such as the pipeline shutdown and that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to report that we do have a process convention on communications between Cabinet Ministers, standing committees, and Regular Members. This was approved by caucus, and it sets out the obligations and requirement around information sharing on all Members of this House. While there are provisions for sharing information on emergencies that the Government of the Northwest Territories is responding to, it is silent on the subject of sharing information about nonemergency situations or information about the activities of a body other than the Government of the Northwest Territories, like a private business.
Having said that, with respect to the example that the Member used, on the pipeline shutdown, the senior vice president of Imperial Oil did phone me to advise that there would be a temporary shutdown of the Imperial Oil operations in Norman Wells because of issues with the pipeline going across the Mackenzie River. I asked him if I could share this information with the MLAs, and he said there would be no problem with that. He asked for a slight delay until he contacted other communities and Aboriginal governments. So within a couple of hours, all of the MLAs were advised of it.
We also have other reporting. We have the NWTNunavut oil spill response line. I believe MLAs can be put on that line, but that is something I will have to concern. Also, I believe the RCMP has some arrangements with Aboriginal governments to advise them of incidents. That is another thing that we could look into. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Premier for his answer. That is very helpful as we move forward. I guess the next part I am looking for is: is there a specific department that is responsible for that, or is it each department has a protocol to get that information out there?
The process convention provides that MLAs representing communities or regions affected by an emergency will receive summary operational reports on emergencies that the Government of the Northwest Territories is responding to. It further provides that reports will be provided by the responsible Minister for situations involving one department, and by the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs for situations involving multiple departments.
I also received information from Enbridge, and they stated that their protocol is to inform the government immediately and maintain regular contact with communities, government, and regulators and regular contact during any incident. I can assure the Member that we make MLAs aware as soon as we are made aware.
I thank the Premier for the answer. It kind of answers my third question, but is there a timeline out there that they are able to communicate to the Regular MLAs?
Under the process convention, the government has committed to providing it to MLAs as it becomes available. As soon as we get the indication that is public information or that we are free to share it with the MLAs, whether they have any restrictions on the information but generally we share right away.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier for that answer. I guess there is, again, a little bit of delay in getting the information out there, and I appreciate the Premier explaining the process here today in the House. Has the government looked at how information gets out there and how we can improve this information to get to the people of our regions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process convention that we have may be amended at any time at the agreement of caucus, the executive council, and the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning. We would be happy to consider recommendations for amendments at the appropriate time, and as the Member knows the "Moccasin Telegraph," I guess, as some people refer to it, is a lot faster than any convention, so we will try to take that into consideration. Also, we are prepared to check to see if any reporting -- like for example the oil spill lines, I do not see why MLAs cannot be added to the list and you know eliminate bottleneck so that they are advised at the same time as we are. So we are prepared to be able to look to see if there are lists like that that can be changed to accommodate in the interests of having everybody know on a timely basis.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
