Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Power Corporation follows its terms and conditions of service with disconnecting a customer account or installing a load-limiting device due to nonpayment. Those terms and conditions are approved by the Public Utilities Board. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, we have a number of individuals who live in public housing, and so they have to pay their bills accordingly and that. Can the Minister please advise, if a person lives in public housing, does the Power Corporation reach out to the local housing authority and advise them of the situation? In other words, if the power is going to be cut or restricted?
Yes, the local housing authorities are made aware of any collection efforts which affect their clients and their assets. This notification is provided prior to any notice being sent out to the clients.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess I'm going to have to, kind of, go with that question here: how do they communicate that with the local housing authority? Is it through email? Is it through telephone? How do they communicate that information?
I'm not absolutely certain the manner in which they do contact the local housing authority or organization. I would expect it would be by mail, but I will look into that further.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, and I thank the Minister for that, and I apologize. It just jumped into my head there, and I appreciate the direct response from the Minister and the commitment. I'm hoping they actually reach out by phone call instead of just by mail. So my last question to the Minister is: does the corporation have a policy that they follow to disconnect the power for good, and what is the threshold for this decisionmaking? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As mentioned earlier, the Power Corporation follows section 16.3 of their terms and conditions, and if I might just refer to that, that states:
"Where accounts are not paid by customer before the expiration of a notice given to the customer pursuant to this section, the corporation may forthwith disconnect the customer from service and may refuse to reconnect the customer for service until the accounts in arrears, a security deposit payable under section 5.7 and 5.8, and a reconnection fee as set out in schedule C are fully paid. As an alternative to disconnection during winter months, the corporation may, at its sole discretion, acting reasonably, install a device to limit the electricity available to the customer."
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I talked about the legalization of cannabis and, in particular, I had a focus with regard to the NWT taking advantage of economic development opportunities and diversifying our economy. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance with regard to the government's plan to create a regime for management of cannabis. I'd like to start by asking the Minister: what economic opportunities to the NWT does the Minister envision for the legalization of cannabis? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, because it is early days, the plan is for the Liquor Commission to assume the responsibility for the importation and sale of cannabis across the Northwest Territories with liquor stores that currently operate under contract to the Liquor Commission. That being said, the Liquor Commission would also consider licensing private cannabisonly stores, once the market is stable with reliable supply chains. That might be where the Member's questions are, where the product is coming from. As part of the “way forward” document that was released in 2017, I believe, we had spoken there about the growing and distribution of marijuana, but that is the federal government. They will be looking after the licensing and the approval for those who want to grow cannabis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for the reply. I mean, it's good to hear that the Minister envisions that there is going to be some future where there is opportunity for potential retail sales. I do recognize that the growing of cannabis will still be under federal legislation. I guess the question then is: we know that it is going to be sold through liquor stores in the meantime, but has the government or will the government, in fact, reconsider this, given the input received from entrepreneurs wanting to get into this business? Can we right now start to give consideration to local opportunities, northern opportunities for retail of cannabis?
I take the Member's point, but the approach is to start cautiously. I mean, this is a new activity, and as I said in my previous reply, there is an opportunity, once we get through this, to have the Liquor Commission looking at licensing retailers for the sale of cannabis.
Again, yes, I appreciate that it seems like there is going to be some opportunity, but it seems to be in the distant future, and we are trying to narrow it down then, I guess. If it is not going to be immediately right now while we are legalizing cannabis, then can the Minister maybe outline when it might be that we can give consideration to this?
The fear here, as I noted in my Member's statement, is that we are going to lose this opportunity. If we wait too long, then the opportunity will be lost, and folks will just find ways in which to acquire their cannabis. Can the Minister please outline for us when this government plans on allowing the public to take advantage of economic opportunities to retail cannabis?
I did point out that you will be able to purchase cannabis legally from liquor stores that are currently under contract with the Liquor Commission, and I did say that we will have a look at the possibility of going out to private retailers. I did not have a timeline on that, and I am not going to give a timeline, but again, because this is completely new right across the country, we want to make sure that we are in a position that we are able to do it right.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I know it is going to sound like I am repeating myself, and I am probably going to get a repetitive answer, but there are other jurisdictions around the country that are already doing this. This is not something that we have to reinvent. Our neighbour, our sister territory Nunavut, is giving consideration as we speak to the privatization aspect of cannabis retail. Will the Minister at least reach out to his colleagues in Nunavut and ask them by what means they are giving consideration to privatizing the sales of cannabis and report back to us? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I did not close the door on the possibility of going out to private retailers, which a lot of these liquor stores in the Northwest Territories are, private retailers, but I did not close that door. I did say we will give some consideration as to a specific timeline. I do not have that, but I can assure the Member that we will be giving some consideration, and to answer his question, yes, we will reach out to our counterparts in Nunavut to see what their approach has been. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I'd like to start with something really simple: can the Minister of Finance tell the public whether our government actually believes in climate change and that carbon pricing is an essential tool to address this threat? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The Member is asking for the Minister's opinion. Can he reiterate the question?
Merci, Monsieur le President. Yes, I can clarify that. Can the Minister of Finance, then, tell the public: what is the position of our government with regard to climate change, impacts on our environment and our people, and whether carbon pricing is an essential tool to address this threat? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the position of the government is, because we see the effects of climate change quicker than the rest of the country, of course we know that is a serious concern, especially up in the Arctic. That is why we have taken steps through the Climate Change Strategic Framework and the carbon pricing paper that we are working on to try and help mitigate the effects of climate change on the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Apologies for not offering the question properly. I appreciate the response from the Minister. He did not really address the issue, though, of carbon pricing as an essential tool. Earlier today I tried to jog the memory of our Cabinet colleagues on the issue of carbon pricing. The public commentary for the discussion paper and survey closed on September 15th of last year. Can the Minister of Finance tell us if and when a "what we heard" report is going to be released and whether the written submissions received will also be released?
We are planning on sharing the information that was gathered. I think we have a briefing scheduled with committee during this session, so we plan on sharing our findings with committee, and then we need to share some of the information we have gathered with the federal government, and then we will be in a position to share with the public as well.
Thanks to the Minister for that explanation. It sounds like there are a lot of things that are still coming, but we actually have a hard deadline we have to deal with. The federal government keeps moving forward with the national approach on climate change that will allow Canada to meet its international obligations. We now have a deadline of March 30th, about seven weeks away, to make a decision about our own carbon pricing system or rely on the federal backstop. Can the Minister tell us how he intends to meet this federal deadline and still include the input of committee, and perhaps the public, on his proposed course of actions?
The Member is correct. We do have a very hard deadline, but we have done a lot of work on this. We do plan on sharing our findings with committee, and one of the challenges we had is that we wanted to get out there and we wanted to get opinions from across the Northwest Territories. Using the federal backstop, we wanted to make sure that the Northwest Territories was wellpositioned to mitigate the effects of carbon pricing on the residents of the Northwest Territories, and I think, through the correspondence and the surveys and the discussions we have had, that we have had a lot of feedback on how people thought it would affect them. I think the sign of a good government is to make sure that we mitigate the effects that it is going to have on the residents of the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks again to the Minister for that, but we do not have a firm schedule from the Minister. He has admitted there is a lot of work that has to be done. We do not even have the results from the discussion paper consultations. He has to work with committee. He says he is going to talk to the public. Can the Minister commit to table a schedule of these sort of consultations leading up to the March 30th deadline in this House as soon as possible? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I am not quite sure exactly when our briefing is with committee. I will have to get that information, and in the consensusstyle government we work in, we want to share our information with committee before we share with anyone else.
We will have that conversation, but I can assure committee and members of the public that this government will be ready by the March 30th deadline. I know the federal government wants the submissions by then. They are going to review them, and then possibly come out in September with some comments on the material that we have submitted.
Again, I will say, at the end of the day, our main goal here is to work with what we have to make sure that there is not a negative impact on the people of the Northwest Territories. We want to let the federal government know of our unique situation up here. We have told them that a few times. Hopefully, they will recognize that and give us some assurance that they will take that into account when they review our document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice. The Finance Minister announced $300,000 to establish a historical case unit within the RCMP in the budget that he presented last week. He said that two of our RCMP and one civil servant will "work to protect the integrity of the evidence in these historical files and to make further advances in solving these cases." Can the Minister of Justice tell us what this means?
Masi. Minister for Justice.
The Member opposite is quite correct. There are $304,000 of funding approved for the establishment of a historical case unit within the RCMP. As the Member alluded to in her question, there are two RCMP members and a civilian involved in this. What they are doing is they are looking through historical cases that fall into several categories. They are going back to 1985, 33 years ago. They are looking at homicides; suspicious deaths; missing persons where foul play is suspected; any missing person where the body has not been located; or when unidentified human remains have been found. That is what they are going to be looking at going back to 1985.
Thank you to the Minister of Justice for that answer. How does the mandate for this unit differ from the day-to-day work of the RCMP in solving crime? What is new?
The main difference will be that this small unit within the RCMP will be looking specifically at these historical cases that remain unresolved.
Can the Minister advise us: of the 63 open cases in the NWT, how many of them have been resolved in the last five years?
I understand that there are 63 open investigations, which I took to mean that those were ones that had not yet been resolved.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi. I appreciate that clarification from the Minister of Justice. Of course, those cases are ones that need to be resolved. I wonder about the rate at which historical cases have been resolved in the last five years and, related to that, how success will be measured in this historical case unit. Mahsi.
As I mentioned earlier, this unit will be dedicated to looking at these historical cases and presumably will be providing me with updates that I could also provide to this House. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I talked about addictions and mental health. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions around the treatment. I would like to ask the Minister if there have been any discussions about re-opening a cultural-based treatment facility in NWT. Thank you.
