Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Infrastructure. Just in a couple of days, thousands of people will be in Hay River, and a lot of them will be travelling to the Hay River Reserve, via the smooth and cool natural ice road, but of course, right now, spring is coming. People will be converging in Hay River. The whole world will be watching. No pressure to the Minister, but what is the status of plans to repair and resurface the access road to the K'atlodeeche First Nations community at Hay River? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, in 2010 there was a major reconstruction on this section of road between the highway and the Hay River Reserve. We continue to have issues with this moving forward. There are continued drainage issues along this road that we are trying to address. We have done a significant ditching program this past summer, last year, to address some of this, and we are looking at how we will continue to improve on it. We have had to return some of the chipseal to gravel to address some of the issues on this section of road, and we will continue to have a look at it going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One role that I understand that the Minister takes quite seriously is public safety. My next question is: what is the Department of Infrastructure's assessment of the safety of the Hay River Reserve access road?
As I have said in this House a number of times, safety is our number one priority. This section of road is regularly maintained by the department. Repairs and drainage improvements are done as required. We will continue to assess this road as we move forward, as I have said, and we will make sure that it is open for public use and that it is safe.
Just recently, the Minister had indicated that there were some funding commitments from the federal government in terms of the transportation corridor. I want to understand: what barriers, if any, stand in the way of getting this work done?
I don't think there are any barriers in the way. We need to assess what is going on. We are going to have our engineers go in there this spring to have a look at this and assess the problems that we are having with this section of road. We are going to do a topographical survey of this section of road to help identify what we need to remediate this section of road, what efforts need to be put into it, and what challenges we have on ongoing maintenance going forward. Once we have the engineering people go in there and have a look at it, then we will see what we are going to do going forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for clarifying a few things. My last question is: what steps has the Minister or his department taken to resolve this matter with the Government of Canada and their obligations to the K'atlodeeche First Nations? Mahsi.
I believe this section of road is our responsibility. It's through a transfer agreement that was signed in the early 1990s that this section of road was turned over to us, so it's our responsibility going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions, Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It is to do with the elders' home heating subsidy, which is a great program. Elders have the options to either receive home heating fuel or cord wood or a combination of both, whichever the elders prefer. We have been having challenges with payments in Fort McPherson for the people who are providing cord wood for the elders. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: will the Minister enter into an agreement with either the band, the designated Gwich’in organization, or, if it's in Aklavik, the Aklavik Community Corporation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The agreement would be to provide payment of those bills to the people instead of going through ECE's process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have very well-trained client-service officers in all of our communities, and they do updated training on a yearly basis. Every community has a unique situation, and I understand the situation in McPherson with the payments and some of the suppliers not getting paid on time. That is something that we can take a look into, but, at this moment, what we will do is we will make sure that the client-service officers in the community are aware of this situation and that we will touch base with them to make sure to see if we can be a little bit more efficient.
I have had constituents waiting up to two to three weeks, you know. They have been patient, but especially at times during Christmas, we have had challenges finding people to actually provide cord wood because we had hardly any snow before Christmas and it's very challenging getting out there. So, those people who did come forward, many of them had to wait until after Christmas to actually get paid, which is very unfortunate because of, especially, the times back home where there is hardly any work. So, I know in the past, when I was the chief of Tsiigehtchic, we had an agreement with ECE to pay those people who provided this service to our community and then those organizations have that flexibility to invoice the department at a later date. So will the Minister ensure for next year that they enter into agreements with those communities to provide that service?
I do understand that some of our suppliers, especially when it comes to wood, use their own gas, their own time, their own machines to go out and cut the wood and that they incur expenses, as well, in terms of us getting them their payments. I cannot comment in terms of the individual cases that we have with some of our clients, but, come April 1st, we are we are making some enhancements to the Senior Home Heating Subsidy, and we will look into such an agreement. If the Member said that he did have an agreement previously, in previous governments, we can take a look at those options and look at them into the future.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I have switched this up a little bit. I did give the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources a heads-up. Earlier today I spoke about the poor efforts by the federal government to incorporate specific northern benefits targets into the contracting for the Giant Mine remediation. So I would like to know from the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources: what is he prepared to do to ensure that NWT, Ndilo, Detah, and Yellowknife residents and businesses benefit from the more than $1 billion Giant Mine remediation? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Members are aware, the contract, the main construction management contract, was awarded in December of 2017. The Departments of ITI, ENR, ECE, and Infrastructure, we have an interdepartmental working group. We have had some updates from the Giant Mine remediation project team on the procurement and the socio-economic issues, specifically with terms of reference for the main construction contract in addition to any other tendering documents. We have had opportunities to provide some input into the contract documents but not on the federal government process. Being early in the awarding of the contract, we will continue to work with the main construction manager to ensure that there are opportunities for northern workforce and northern skilled people to be working on the project.
I would like to thank the Minister for that response. The federal government, though, just does not seem to have any policies or ability to require northern and Indigenous benefits targets in the contracts for the Giant Mine remediation, so can the Minister tell us whether there has been any consideration given to flowing the work and/or funding through GNWT to better incorporate such benefits targets?
The Indigenous involvement in the project is considered through the use of the Aboriginal opportunities consideration within the federal government processing system, and we will have to work with the contractor to the ensure that they recognize that there are a lot of folks up here who can do the work and try to utilize them. I think it would be beneficial for the project and beneficial for the locals.
As far as flowing the money through the GNWT, I mean, it is a federal responsibility, the cleanup of Giant Mine. I take the Member's point, though, where we would be much more recognizing of the fact that we need a lot of northern involvement. I can assure Members that we have had some updates from the contractor. I am sure, as we go into the process, we will have more updates from the contractor, and we will continue to make our views known. I am sure, it just being awarded so recently, there is still some work they have to do in identifying potential businesses that they could utilize during the construction of this or the remediation work that is going on. As we become updated, I will keep the Members of this House updated, as well.
I would like to thank the Minister for that. I am just worried, though, that, with the $600 million contract already out there, that this is starting to slip away from us. So, later today, I am going to table a letter from the Giant Mine Oversight Board that is quite critical of the current approach on socio-economic benefits by the federal government: there is no overall plan; engagement is encouraged instead of real targets; non-Indigenous Northerners have not been included in the approach to date; no economic impacts are predicted; and so on, but, perhaps most importantly, a collaborative consultative process is recommended to develop a socio-economic benefits plan. Does the Minister support a broad consultative process to develop a socio-economic benefits plan for the Giant Mine remediation project?
We are always supportive of anything that allows us to take advantage of northern business opportunities. The Giant Mine remediation is very complex in operations, so, as I said before, we will work before with the main construction manager. We will make our views known. I am sure they are doing their due diligence now. If there are opportunities to utilize northern businesses as part of the remediation, then it would benefit both the project and the northern business. Again, we realize that there is a lot of money that is being put into this remediation, and I will assure the Members that, between me and the Ministers of ITI and all other departments in the interdepartmental working group, we will reach out and see if we can get some information as quickly as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to thank the Minister again for that response, but, you know, this remediation project is clearly the beginning of a lot more work that is going to happen here. Clearly, there is an emerging remediation economy that, given the requirements of the devolution agreement and new accounting practice where containment sites are entered into public accounts as liabilities until they are remediated, I am wondering what our government is doing in terms of things like possibly reorienting the Mine Training Society towards remediation. What are we doing in terms of trades apprenticeships and so on? Can the Minister tell us what the GNWT is doing to get better prepared for the coming environmental remediation economy and how we can better get prepared for all the remediation work that's about to begin over the next several years? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
The Member's point is well taken. We do recognize that there is a remediation economy that is coming. I think we have seen a demonstration of that on the Canol Trail, for example, but that one, too, they brought, I believe, a southern company in, and that was through the federal government.
We have to ensure, and as much like HazMat remediation in units that were built a number of years ago, we see that as another economy because the Housing Corporation unfortunately can't take down a lot of their houses until they have HazMat remediation. I do know a few businesses that have taken some HazMat remediation training, which is good. I think, as we get into more of the environmental remediation, the remediation type work, we should encourage more business out there to seek the expertise that they can take advantage of all the work, because I think I heard the Member say at one time there were like 700 sites that may need to be remediated. We need to position the people in the Northwest Territories and the business in the Northwest Territories. I think it's a broad discussion we need to have as a Cabinet if there are any training opportunities that we could possibly have or people taking across the Northwest Territories, so it is a whole new economy, and I think we need to position ourselves and our people to be the ones that are best prepared for it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have a few more questions for my colleague, the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. I heard her say that the campaign schools were being offered by the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs in the short term. I'm wondering if she has prepared over the long term to commit to taking the campaign schools back to the Status of Women and asking them to re-tool the content so that it reaches people who are running for all orders of government? Thank you.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated earlier, we are just in the stage of renewing it and making it fit the people more appropriately. We will be doing an evaluation at that point, where we will be deciding what we are going to do with it. I also want to say, though, that we are looking at expanding it so that it can meet more of the needs of people and addressing municipal Indigenous governments, for example, but also the budget, we want to make sure that we can do it the most cost-effective way to be able to reach the most communities. It's important. These are important schools. They actually make a difference in women's lives. We are looking at it from not only one aspect, but from many aspects.
Once we are finished that work, I would be more than interested to work with the Status of Women to actually see if they can take this on again because, as I have stated many, many times, my understanding is that the Status of Women has a defined role and part of that is supporting the Minister of the Status of Women. It would be just logical, Mr. Speaker, that they would assist me in that work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister's answer. Where I'm coming from is that I think, as a matter of principle, we don't want civil servants to train future politicians. We want that to happen at arm's length. The Status of Women has have lots of experience in this area, and I think that, once they are back up to speed, they should be the go-to group.
Now, there was a review of the campaign schools in 2017. It has never been made public. Can the Minister commit to making it public?
I won't make that commitment at this time. I need to go back and look at it. The review that we did was internal, and it wasn't actually done under my direction. It was just an employee who offered to assist us with that, so I have to go back and look at it to determine if that was a formal report or was that just a volunteer who was assisting us with looking at making the campaign school better, so I'm not sure if it was a paid position or just a volunteer.
To refresh the memory of the Minister, this work was undertaken by a member of the Department of Executive. She was the paid government employee working on the evaluation of the campaign school. I wonder if the Minister could take that into account when she's asking the question of her staff about making the report public?
Absolutely, I will take that into consideration. I just want to note that a lot of people who work for the government actually have a real concern. They want more women in leadership. My understanding, and I will check on that because I may be wrong, is that the majority, I think all of them except for my special advisor, actually were not paid for any of the work that they have done for the campaign schools. It's tended to be on the weekends on our own times, so I will confirm if that is true, because it's important to note. If it is not true, I will come back to the speaker and stand up formally and make a formal clarification.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me make a clarification of my own: the evaluation was completed by a by a member of the Department of the Executive and Indigenous Affairs. I'm not talking about the staffing at the campaign schools.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering, given the fact that the Minister is encouraging the council, working with the council, directing the council to refocus its role, whether she plans to consult the public about this refocus and whether there will be an opportunity for people to give their views on the Status of Women Council and its mandate? Thank you.
I think that being accountable to the public and having the most input from the public is advisable. I don't want to make it a public show. What I will do, though, is I will commit to doing a survey to find out, and hopefully from all residents, but especially for women. This is the Status of Women, so trying to get a gender-based viewpoint on what the women residents and young girls and women residents of the Northwest Territories feel that we should be doing as the Status of Women, I will commit to doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2017-2018"; and "Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2017-2018." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to table the following document. It's from the Giant Mine Oversight Body. It's a letter dated February 23, 2018, regarding social economic issues, and it's to the Deputy Director, Giant Mine Remediation Project. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Pursuant to Section 14 of the Indemnities, Allowances, and Expense Regulations of the Legislative Assembly and the Executive Council Act, I hereby table the Statutory Declaration of Principle Residence of the Member for Nunakput, dated March 1, 2018.
