Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement today. My questions are for the Minister of ENR. My first question: does Aurora Wood Pellets plan to use tree cuttings in the tops in addition to the timber itself to make these wood pellets, or will these cuttings and tops be burned at the sites where they are being cut? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the full utilization of trees on the harvest system used by Aurora Wood Pellets, this level of detail has not been provided to ENR yet. Pre-harvest prescriptions will determine what happens to treetops scattered onsite. As soon as we have more information to pass on and if it is the wish of committee, we can keep them informed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for the answer. I think, probably, the standing committee would probably wish to see that. My second question is: I understand that more than 3.5 million hectares of forest have been burned in recent years, leaving behind large tracts of dry and boreal forest. Of course, much of it is in the South Mackenzie region. Using this timber might be an environmentally better source for Aurora Wood Pellet's operations. Has the company considered this, and, if so, what were the results of this consideration?
Yes, it has been considered. Mr. Speaker, yes, it has been considered. The economic viability and lifecycle analysis reports on utilizing burned wood has been provided to Aurora Wood Pellets and Forest Management Agreement holders where the viability of using burned wood declines over time. It has been considered.
I appreciate the department's thinking forward and actually providing that information. I understand that, as time goes on, these trees decay. My third question is: how did overall greenhouse gas emissions figure into the permitting process for the Aurora Wood Pellets project, including the timber cutting permits? If this impact was determined, please tell us what it is.
Reports have been commissioned by ENR to look at greenhouse gas emissions and the forest industry, the substitution of fossil fuels with wood biomass in the Northwest Territories. They demonstrate significant reductions in greenhouse gas emission when utilizing woody biomass. GNWT sees this industry as environmentally sustainable while also offering NWT residents potential savings on heating costs.
Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer and the department working on this project. My final question is: In regards to wood pellets that are being burned now to heat many GNWT buildings, how are the greenhouse gas savings calculated? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Wood pellets are now burned at many GNWT buildings, but we don't have this information at our fingertips as to the greenhouse gas saving calculated. The information would need to be confirmed. I will work with my colleague at the Department of Infrastructure. If it is the wish of committee, then we will be able to give them an update. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. The Auditor General found that ENR failed to lead GNWT efforts on climate change. The recent Climate Change Strategic Framework and the action plan in response to that continue in that tradition by not proposing any policy, legislative, or structural changes. Can the Minister explain to this House why his department continues to fail in its leadership role on climate change? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I disagree wholeheartedly with the Member. The department has not failed in its leadership role. In fact, we're doing a lot of work. I think the Auditor General even made a comment to the work we did. Some of the work that they were doing was before the work that we did.
We are using the recommendations from the Office of the Auditor General to strengthen our role. They did look at it a fine period of time and did not consider all of the good work that is being done to develop the Climate Change Strategic Framework. The document is a roadmap as to how the GNWT will address and respond to climate change up to 2030.
The department also plays a leadership role in the implementation of the Pan-Canadian Framework for Clean Growth and Climate Change in the Northern Adaptation and Strategy.
Yes, the Minister is right. It was for a defined period of time, put I quoted the Auditor General directly from the report. I wasn't making that up. I want to give the Minister his own opportunity to talk about the good work the department is doing. What specific policy, legislative, or structural changes is the Minister imposing to ensure that his department can fulfill its leadership role on climate change?
Mr. Speaker, we've done a lot of work on this. I believe I've given committee an update on the carbon price. The Climate Change Strategic Framework, I believe, will still need to come before committee, or we could do 11 independent briefings if they choose to, as well. We continue to work on that. We are looking forward to coming forward with some changes and to strengthen our adaptation to climate change.
Well, I gave the Minister an opportunity to provide some specifics on policy, legislative, and structural changes, and he didn't take me up on the offer. When the Auditor General conducted the climate change audit, ENR was down to two staff on this file. How could we allow that to happen?
Can the Minister explain what he's doing to convince his colleague, the Minister of Finance, to secure the resources necessary to properly implement the actions to allow us to meet our international and national obligations with regard to climate change?
It's very difficult getting money out of the Minister of Finance. ENR will be rolling out a proposed adaptation planning program to assist communities to prepare, plan, and implement measures to address climate change. The enhanced program also has a dedicated PY in resources to assist community. Also, as part of the development of a five-year action plan, the department will be looking at what resources are required for implementation and federal funding opportunities. If there are opportunities to access some federal funding, obviously we'll be looking at those. At the same time, we'll be making investments of our own through the GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister for those good-news stories, but he still hasn't talked about anything concrete that he's prepared to do to make sure that his department has the proper authority to take on this leadership role, so let's get really specific here. I do want to say something nice about the framework. It finally sets a target for industrial greenhouse gas emissions, but to continue to send staff to try to secure industry buy-in, that's not the kind of leadership I think we need on this file. Will the Minister commit to an ongoing round table with industry leaders, GNOs, and other stakeholders to help lead the implementation of the Climate Change Strategic Framework? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we have had a lot of work that was done on this, some regional meetings in a number of the communities, as I've pointed out. We've had meetings with industry and gotten their feedback. Again, as we proceed closer to the implementation, it is imperative that I work with committee, provide committee with information, and get some feedback from committee. I can ensure the Member and the public that ENR has taken the leadership role on this and that we want to make sure that we have a product that is best and one we can do for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. MACA offers community emergency planning workshops. How can the communities of Aklavik, Fort McPherson, and Tsiigehtchic work with the department to see these workshops delivered within the next four to six months? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Member's statement, he used the term, I believe it was, "MACA's always there to help." That's his term. I really appreciate that, and I agree. MACA's whole job is to help communities. How do we get the emergency planning into the areas of his region? Simple, we need to get the community government to contact the regional manager. At that point, we'll get a facilitator to come in and help them actually develop or update their community emergency plans.
We also provide tabletop exercises that they can take advantage if they're interested in that, which will help to validate and make sure that they're on track for their plans. I should state as well that we actually were in Fort McPherson last week, and we have just worked with them. They are in the process of drafting their updated emergency plans. We're more than willing to help, and I appreciate the Member's comment.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister touched on this a bit. What other resources can MACA offer to small communities taking on emergency planning?
As well as meeting with the communities face-to-face, we have online training, and that is available to communities. The online training in this case are particular basic emergency management and the incident command systems. Those are the two courses that, actually, we start with to develop community emergency plans. Those are online.
We also work one on one with communities. If they need our assistance, we'll come in and we'll help them either create or update their plans. We have tabletop exercises that we'll go in and we'll actually do a draft emergency plan to make sure that they have the right responses and that their plan is updated. Those are the things that we can do to work with communities. Like I said earlier, just contact the regional superintendent, have the community governments contact the regional superintendents, and we'll be more than happy to help the communities.
When communities work on developing or updating their emergency plans, can MACA act as a liaison to other departments and territorial agencies, for example, to help communities install backup generators in local schools or other gathering centres?
Often, MLAs say to us, "Just say yes." In this case, I'm going to just say yes. We will actually work with them. Part of working and developing an emergency plan is having discussions on what resources are needed and what funding sources they have available. The regional superintendents and the management team will work directly with the communities, and we can also work as a liaison to work with other departments that they may need to access services from. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The answer's yes.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement for the Minister of Lands, the list of Sahtu community engagements of last week's schedule included Fort Good Hope and Tulita. My first question is: are there any plans for similar engagements in the communities of Colville Lake and Deline? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There had been information sessions which have already taken place in Fort Providence on the 19th of February and in Fort Good Hope on February 20th. A meeting was scheduled to be held in Tulita on February 22nd but was cancelled due to a weather advisory. That meeting will be rescheduled as soon as possible. I'm not sure if the department is planning on visiting other communities, but I can certainly take that up with the department and get back to the Member opposite.
I'll go back to my question here. If the Tulita community was cancelled due to, my understanding, that there were some storms there, will that community be put on the list of Colville and Deline for similar engagements? If so, can the Minister provide the proposed tentative date?
As I mentioned, unfortunately the meeting could not take place in Tulita. It is definitely going to be put back on the list, and I will provide the Member opposite with the date once that is ascertained. I can't give him an answer with respect to the other communities, but I know we'll be going back to Tulita.
I trust the Minister will follow up on providing me that information to carry on with the community engagement. After all, there has been quite an investment put into scheduling one.
My next question: will the Minister confirm willingness through the Sahtu Bilateral Agreement dated June 25, 2015 for a joint shared collaboration on land officers?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have the details of the Sahtu bilateral before me, but I could certainly get back to the Minister with respect to that question.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that reply and will follow up. My last question is: will the Sahtu see another round of engagements regarding the proposed multiple amendments to the NWT Lands Act as well as the Commissioner's Lands Act? They're related to the previous questions on that similar note. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand there has been an extensive engagement with the communities with respect to these two pieces of legislation which are being updated. I don't think we were contemplating another round of engagements, but, if we are, I will certainly inform the Member opposite. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I talked about the early results of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot project. Some of the comments from people in the program: "It's given me back my independence," "I don't feel backed into a corner," "If I want to eat, I can afford to buy something instead of going to a food bank or soup kitchen." These are the kind of progressive policies that are moving the working poor forward in the province of Ontario. Will the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment speak to any analysis that his department has done on a guaranteed basic income pilot for the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are aware of the pilot program that's currently going on in Ontario. I believe it started up in June of 2017. The department is closely looking at that pilot program. In the meantime, we continue to make enhancements to our income assistance programs here, in the Northwest Territories. We want to make sure that all of our families, Northerners, do have the basic food and clothing, help them with rent and other expenses. As we are reviewing this pilot project, we're continuing to support our clients who are on an income assistance.
The issue is not: do we support those experiencing poverty through these programs. The nature of these programs are, as one of my honourable friends mentioned, a poverty trap. Once you get in this system, you can't get out. The Minister is clearly looking at this, but does he have any plans to move forward on a guaranteed income pilot project for the Northwest Territories?
As I mentioned, I can't make any commitments until we see the review of these results with the pilot project going on in Ontario. I did look over the program, though, but some of the things that they're doing are things that we do right across the departments with Health and Social Services, with Justice, within my department. One of the programs that we also have, that is similar to what they're doing in Ontario, is with our productive choices program that we have with our income assistance clients. I can't commit to any kind of guaranteed income pilot until we see what's happening in Ontario.
