I'd be prepared to look at that, but, obviously, we've gotten to a lot of issues with the fact that we need to protect the government's investments, and if we make progress payments without the necessary securities, then it might put us in a difficult situation. Certainly, now that the Member has raised it, even though I do not know if it is a committee concern, I am prepared to look at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I made a Member's statement on the doctors and how only 45 per cent of residents in the Northwest Territories had regular doctors, explaining the problems with that, while the rest of Canada is averaging over 80 per cent. I would like to ask the Minister if he can tell this House if the department is still trying to hire doctors to live in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are committed to trying to fill all of our physician positions with local practitioners rather than locum practitioners. We run about a 23.6 per cent vacancy, and we continue to recruit pretty much all the time. That is both for the GPs and for the specialists.
We do recognize that it is a challenge. We are trying to do a few things differently that will hopefully help us improve some of our numbers. One of the things we have done is we have recently talked to the University of Alberta about running a medical residency program here in the Northwest Territories. We are somewhat early days in discussion on that, but we think there is a real opportunity to get some of the students up here to do some of the residency placements. Hopefully, they will fall in love with the place as much as you and I.
That is good news about the residents. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister can tell us if the communities of Hay River, Forts Smith and Simpson, Behchoko, Norman Wells, and Inuvik have local doctors? What is the percentage of local doctors, the vacancy rate, in those communities?
Mr. Speaker, we have most of the positions filled in Yellowknife. We do still need some locums to cover time off, sick time, annual time, those types of things, and people do come and go, so there is turnover in Yellowknife, as well. Beaufort Delta and Inuvik, right now we are pretty fully staffed. I believe there are five physicians out of five up there on a permanent basis, but, you know, any one of them could leave at any time, so we must continue to recruit, even when positions are filled, just to keep the awareness up.
When it comes to Norman Wells, Forts Smith and Simpson, we have reoccurring locums, so individuals who come back on a regular basis, but do not permanently reside. When they are not there, we do have to rely on other short-term locums. We continue to recruit in those areas, as well. Hopefully, when we open the Norman Wells Health Centre, that might be a bit of a draw for somebody who might want to come and be part of that new facility. We will continue to recruit at the same time.
In Hay River we have, I think it is, three permanent physicians now, but some of the them, I think, are already at a percentage of a full FTE, so we still have some locums there, as well. We will continue to do everything that we can to promote this beautiful territory, the great jobs that are here, and an opportunity to come and work with our residents from across the territory.
I would like to ask the Minister if there are any doctors living in Yellowknife who do most of their practicing in one of the other communities I mentioned in my previous question?
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we moved to a single medical system here in the Northwest Territories, even though we have individuals located in different communities. We do have physicians who will travel to other communities. Some of our communities, as the Member is aware, do not have permanent physicians, some of our smaller, more rural communities, so doctors will travel to those communities, but not just doctors. We have community health nurses and advanced practice specialists who have additional training. They can do some things like suturing and some level of diagnosis based on formulary and other work. We have other professionals come out, as well. Yes, doctors do travel to communities throughout the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if there is an actual plan to be rolled out. The plan I guess I am referring to is -- I do not know what it is called, but I am kind of calling it a territorial doctors pool. Is there an actual plan? I know that, when we try to hire doctors, some doctors do not want to live in the small communities because of services for their children, and services for children are just not in in the small communities.
Yellowknife can provide almost all the services, so, as opposed to using locums, is there an actual plan to build a territorial doctors pool here in Yellowknife that will actually work maybe half-time in Hay River, as an example, or half-time in another community? Thank you.
That is actually one exact model that has been discussed previously, and we have explored it. We do have some of our physicians who can go out and provide time in other locations. There has been talk about expanding the pool in Yellowknife so that we can do that coverage rather than rely on locums. We still have trouble recruiting physicians, so we continue to try to figure out how to move that, roll that forward. In the meantime, we continue to provide that distance care.
One of the things that many of the doctors have approached us on, as well as practitioners throughout the system, and we have looked at other systems, are some changes to our primary healthcare model to change it more to a team-based approach where there are groups of physicians, nurses, social workers, counsellors, who are working together in teams or pockets who can provide coverage and care to different groups throughout the Northwest Territories. It is a model similar to the one that was put in place in one of the Indigenous health authorities in Alaska. So we are looking at that right now to see how that might be something that we could roll out. Since we have moved forward with health transformation, now is the logical time for us to look at this more comprehensively, build upon primary healthcare to provide overall, collaborative, integrated, team-based care to residents of the Northwest Territories. That pool would fall in there, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are not on the procurement zombie. They are for the Minister of Lands. Earlier today, I spoke about the recent acquisition of the mineral rights for the abandoned Ptarmigan Mine and the problems this may cause for remediation of this site and perhaps other contaminated sites. Can the Minister of Lands tell us the current status of remediation at the Ptarmigan Mine? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can advise that, while no reclamation or remediations have started at the site, the GNWT did complete a Phase III Environmental Site Assessment and remedial action plan. This work was done in preparation for meetings with the federal government to determine respective liabilities with respect to this site, and I can advise that GNWT officials, I think from Lands and ENR, met with Indigenous and Northern Affairs representatives to discuss the outcomes of the Phase III assessments and remedial action plans that were completed on that site and some other sites in 2017. The GNWT is specifically reviewing the Ptarmigan file to determine how best to negotiate the associated liabilities and costs.
We have done some risk mitigation with respect to the site, including placement of signage to restrict access, erecting a fence surrounding the main structures, placement of a gate, and placement of boulders and ditching completed at another access point, so that work has been done, but no reclamation or remediation activity has actually taken place yet.
Thanks to the Minister for that information. Can he tell us, then: have there been any cost estimates prepared for the reclamation/remediation work at Ptarmigan Mine? How much is it going to cost the taxpayers to remediate this site?
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I can advise that we are still in negotiations with respect to that matter, the situation as to who will be responsible for the liabilities. I believe that I did correspond with the Member opposite. An estimate for the Ptarmigan Mine remediation outlined a cost in excess of $4 million.
Again, I would like to thank the Minister for that information. It's not clear how TerraX was able to acquire the mineral rights for the Ptarmigan Mine while it's under remediation, but this would seem to complicate these efforts, as exploration may interfere with the need to restrict access to the site. Drilling and sampling and trenching, that could disturb tailings, covers from vegetation efforts and so on.
I would like to know from the Minister: does GNWT, and/or the federal government for that matter, withdraw the mineral rights for sites that are under remediation such as the Ptarmigan Mine site, and if not, why not?
With respect to the site referenced by the Member opposite, the Ptarmigan site, mineral rights, rather, were issued prior to devolution by Indian and Northern Affairs, which was responsible for subservice rights and tenure. I understand, under the devolution agreement, our government has to respect existing interests at the time of devolution, including mineral interests that existed at the Ptarmigan site.
Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I appreciate the answer from the Minister. I can tell him, though, that the mineral rights had been withdrawn underneath Giant Mine, so I don't know why we don't ensure that mineral rights are withdrawn for sites that are being remediated or under consideration for remediation. I want to move on.
TerraX indicates in its news release that it has no responsibility for environmental contamination or remediation of the Ptarmigan Mine site. Can the Minister tell us whether TerraX was given any kind of an indemnity or release by GNWT or Canada in acquiring these mineral rights, and how the company can make such claims in its news release? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I also had the opportunity of looking at the press release, which does contain the line that TerraX has no liability for any remediation of the previous mine site. I can advise that this government has not given an indemnification.
I cannot speak for what the federal government may have done. I do know, however, that press releases by public companies have to be very careful in their assertions. All I can say, again, is that we did not indemnify them with respect to those liabilities. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I mentioned I was going to be talking about procurement for the P3 projects that this government seems to be leaning more towards in the process of tendering. My question to the Minister of Finance is: can the Minister confirm the GNWT's P3 policy allowance for NWT vendor preference within that policy? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the P3 policy was enacted in May of 2011. I'm not sure the whole contents of the particular policy, but I do know, when they're putting a proposal together and it is presented, there are a number of factors that are taken into consideration. One is choosing a successful proponent. I would have to confirm it, but I think the question that the Member asked would be one of the items that they look at.
The driven approach for the P3 public/private partnership initiatives is to incorporate a P3 corporation, which this government has done. On our general tendering process, previous governments have incorporated the BIP policy to allow northern preference in giving that extra advantage to the local seasonal operators of our business community. In the concessionaire agreement that follows as part of the P3 initiative or tenement process, can the Minister confirm whether there's a BIP similar allowance in that concessionary agreement?
I would think not. The P3 projects that we do bring forward are usually very large projects that exceed the $5 million limit.
Will the Minister share some of the information on the highlights of the process for the P3 tendering process within the RFP?
I'd be happy to, if Members have questions on the P3 process. I would be happy to provide a briefing to the Members or I could have a conversation with the Member from Sahtu. We believe that P3 projects, we've had three of them: one is in the operations phase; one is in the construction phase; and one is actually in the procurement phase. Then we have three that we are looking at a feasibility study/business case for them. We'll continue to provide Members with regular updates on the P3 projects as we go forward.
Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you. I look forward to the information on the process and the schedules from the Minister. Mahsi.
I take that as a comment to the Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure with regard to procurement. A few more around procurement.
Mr. Speaker, I worked for the Housing Corporation for a few years, a number of years ago. Honestly, I was in the department that dealt with procurement on a regular basis. I recognized on an ongoing basis that there were some flawed processes. There was nothing wrong with admitting that, and that there is a need for continual improvement and review in order to improve these process.
Maybe what I'll do is I'll start by asking the Minister: first of all, does he believe that the GNWT procurement practices are fair to begin with? Better yet, what practices does the GNWT incorporate to make sure that our procurement policies are fair? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Premier said earlier today, they believe this is one of the best policies we have in the Government of the Northwest Territories, and that is BIP. That's one of the first ones in the procurement process that helps Northerners be able to participate in a way that recognizes the high cost of operating in the Northwest Territories and being here. As I said earlier today, we have the community engagement process that's involved in the RFP process to help businesses when they're bidding on the process to add onto BIP, to give them more points basically for northern labour, northern materials suppliers, these sorts of things, with a huge community engagement criteria. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Let's take it another step. I mean, we heard earlier today that a number of MLAs have heard from constituents, in particular businesses in their constituencies that feel that at times things are maybe not as fair as they ought to be. I would like to ask the Minister: if a vendor feels that a procurement policy wasn't fair, what kind of measures does the government have that a vendor can maybe make an appeal, or is there a committee in which a vendor can voice a complaint and be heard?
Yes, that's a great question. Back in 2010, the Auditor General did a review -- or 2009, I believe it was -- did a review of the department. It was brought forward at that time that we should have a vendor complaints system. That was incorporated in 2010. Since 2010 until December 31, 2017, we've had 22 complaints through that process, and only two have ever found merit.
It seems to me they actually are hearing the voice of business after all. It turns out there is a venue in which they can hear some of these complaints. The question becomes: does the public know well enough that they have this option and that there is this portal or this venue in which they can share complaints? Quite frankly, what we are hearing today is that a number of them still haven't been heard.
The Premier alluded to earlier that he is asking us, if there are concerns, to bring them forward. They would be happy to address them. I am wondering if the Minister of Infrastructure once again will turn that around and reach out to the people and hear from them rather than hearing it through MLAs? Will the Minister please undertake a review and do a public consultation to hear what the public has to say about our procurement policies so he can hear it first hand?
As I just mentioned, since 2010, we had 22 complaints. That is in eight years. Two had merit. For example, this year, the last calendar year, we have 362 contracts go through Infrastructure. That is not counting the contracts awarded by Infrastructure on behalf of other departments. Put this into context, we had 362 contracts valued at $136 million. As I have stated in this House, I have had two or three people come directly to me about the process and complaining about it. The vendor complaint process clearly shows there is not an issue. Twenty-two people complained since 2010, and two have had merit.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure. I want to get into this issue of payment and prompt payment in particular. I have previously raised this issue in the House. There is movement in our country on making this process fairer, more transparent, and more timely for subcontractors and businesses who benefit from government procurement, especially in the construction industry.
Three of the sections set out in Ontario's new Construction Lien Act set out that the owner's payment obligation is transferred down to the contractor. The contractor's obligation is then transferred down to its subcontractor. The subcontractor's obligations are down to their subcontractors. In a sense, when payment is received, it moves down the chain, and there is a legal basis for it to move down the chain. We don't run into payment issues of people down the line. Has the Minister completed his review of that legislation? Thank you.
Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct. He brought it up in the House last year. Since then, the Department of Infrastructure has introduced a prompt payment issue to the Procedures Working Committee. They are having a look at this thing. Ontario has just recently passed this prompt payment legislation. They are the only ones in Canada who have done it. The federal government is having a look at doing this. We are continuing to monitor both of them moving forward.
At the same time, we have also reached out to the Construction Association of the Northwest Territories on prompt-payment issues. They never got back to us on if it is an issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
