Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Northwest Territories Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations Annual Report 2017-2018." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, monsieur le President. I have three documents I wish to table today. The first is a letter from the Giant Mine Oversight Board to the federal Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs and our Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, dated May 24, 2018, regarding Giant Mine remediation socioeconomic strategy.
The second document I wish to table, Mr. Speaker, is a copy of Bill C-262, An Act to Ensure that the Laws of Canada are in Harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as passed by the House of Commons, May 30, 2018.
The last document, Mr. Speaker, is a letter from the president of the Union of Northern Workers to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and our Honourable Premier, regarding Dominion Diamonds layoffs and contracting out, dated May 28, 2018. Masi.
Masi. Tabling of documents.
Colleagues, I wish to table a discussion paper entitled "Temporary Special Measures to Increase Representation of Women in the NWT Legislative Assembly." This paper explores a number of positive actions this Assembly could take to meet its targets of increasing the representation of women in this House to 20 per cent by 2023 and 30 per cent by 2027. I am tabling this paper today in the hopes that it will initiate a public discussion about the role of women in public office in the Northwest Territories, particularly leading up to the next general election.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, the following motion:
WHEREAS the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) project is the largest infrastructure project completed to date by the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), with a cost of more than $300 million;
AND WHEREAS the ITH project was undertaken by the GNWT as a negotiated contract;
AND WHEREAS construction of the highway was initiated by the previous 17th Legislative Assembly;
AND WHEREAS cost and contract considerations during construction resulted in changes to the project's methodology;
AND WHEREAS there have been unplanned closures during the first year of the operation of the highway;
AND WHEREAS it is in the public interest to ensure that large infrastructure projects are well-managed according to best practices, deliver good value for money, and that any potential improvements are identified for future projects;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the 18th Legislative Assembly request that the Auditor General of Canada undertake a special audit of the ITH project and report thereon to the Legislative Assembly;
AND FURTHER, that the Auditor General assess project control, administration, and the long-term implications of related financial arrangements; value for money; reporting; and adherence to the standards for contracting and procurement;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Auditor General investigate and consider any other factors that, in his opinion, are relevant;
AND FURTHERMORE, that all employees and officials cooperate fully with the Auditor General in providing all appropriate documents, papers, and information;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the GNWT inform all relevant contractors of the nature and purpose of the special audit;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Auditor General be requested to complete the audit as soon as practical and provide a report to the Legislative Assembly;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Speaker formally transmit this motion and the content of our proceedings today to the Auditor General for his consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I make this motion today to address, as I said previously, the largest infrastructure project completed to date by the GNWT.
As many Members of this House and the public know, I'm a fan of public accounts, and in particular the public accounts role that our Standing Committee on Government Operations plays here. Often times, we will receive reports from the Auditor General and look into how the government is managing projects or managing departments or managing policy issues that are important to the public's interest. In this case, we are talking about a significant expenditure of public funds, both on the part of this government and the part of the Government of Canada. I think it's important that we take a look at those, the contributing factors to this project.
I want to be clear that I'm in no way questioning the integrity of the construction process, the methods of procurement, and the reporting to date on the ITH project. My concern, again, is to take a look at this $300 million project that is the first of its kind in the world, and certainly in Canada, and to find the best practices for this kind of procurement and this kind of construction that we can use to apply to other projects, and not just here in the Northwest Territories, but in our neighbouring territories as well, Yukon and Nunavut.
With this government's stated strategic goals of building numerous transportation corridors, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the road to Whati, the Slave Geological Province, these all will take significant expertise, and it is of interest both to the public that we know that the ITH project is not just a portion of that vision of a coast-to-coast-to-coast highway network, but we can learn from it and use it to apply broadly to public works projects of a similar size. Further, that our committee be given the tools, information, and resources to really look into how we best manage these projects and ensure that Northerners maximize from the benefits.
I see this as one of many infrastructure projects that is deserving of special attention through the Office of the Auditor General or through a concerted effort by standing committee. The new Stanton Hospital project comes to mind someday in the future, and of course, if we are to complete the Slave Geological Province road, these are all areas that I think are worthy of this level of inquiry. So the intention with this motion is to signal to the Auditor General that this is of interest to Members of this House, and is of an interest to Northerners. We want to ensure that these projects are well-managed, that we can learn as much as we can from them after they're completed, and that we ensure good value for money for major construction projects.
Again, this is the largest infrastructure project completed to date by the Government of the Northwest Territories. So, again, my interests behind this motion are signalling quite clearly to the Auditor General that the honourable Members of this House are very much committed to value for money, good project management, and ensuring that our future transportation corridor projects are successful, by learning best practices from a thorough review of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway project. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. To the motion. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm honoured to second this. I've seen the government with the Deh Cho bridge, and they audited that, and they came out with a good report, but also the Minister here in this House here said that, most likely, this will be audited, and I think we need to audit it.
I honestly think that we've heard the value of the importance of this project, and I think it was a good project that had a big benefit for the Inuvik and BeauDel region, but again, the importance of it is to audit this project. I will also say that we need to do the Stanton Hospital that's going to be coming up, the Mewati road, and if the Mackenzie Valley Highway ever gets built, I would say audit that as well.
I think we need to make sure that we're doing things right. I honestly think we need to look at it and show the best practices out there, because I think the government has done some really good things with it. You know, you look at the various people who are doing research on it. You know, people who are engaged, and it has a huge impact, as the Minister has said here, coast-to-coast-to-coast. It's connecting the community of Tuktoyaktuk to the rest of Canada, and this is an opportunity, but I think we just need to be able to do this, make sure it's audited, make sure it's done right, and to be able to show success of this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. To the motion. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks, colleagues, for allowing me to share my views on this motion here. In my previous life, I was extremely, I would say, happy to hear that the parties behind this piece of infrastructure did their many efforts in securing the necessary funds to not only create employment, but create access. In my view, and I have a similar project under way in my riding, which is incomplete, this motion refers to a project that is not complete. You've got security requirements through the whole back of contractual arrangements which protects you in reviewing the deficiencies come the audit time, which is provisions of the contract or arrangement. So I foresee this as putting the cart before the horse. So given that and my previous experience, I don't think I can support this motion at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. To the motion, Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we know, this road was billed as an all-weather road, and it was a road in which the GNWT has invested a substantial amount of money. Where we're at today is a road that's been closed for more than two weeks. Twenty-nine per cent of the total road length is slated for substantial improvements, and a very small segment of five-and-a-half kilometers has been the pinch point of not being passable. I think that we need to get to a full understanding of how this road went from being completed, according to the Minister's messaging, to being substantially complete, to being closed. I think we need to understand how this project, the learnings from this project, could be applied to other road-building projects that the government has in mind. I think that the value for money proposition is a very important one, and so I think that this motion gets at some key issues that are important to not only this road project, but future planned infrastructure projects. As I said earlier, I will be supporting it. Thank you.
To the motion. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would support the motion. I'm interested to see what would happen as the result of a third party looking at this project. Of course, my background is that I was heavily involved in the construction of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway as Minister of Transportation in a previous government, and it would be interesting for the Auditor General to look at the project and identify what had happened as a result of negotiations that had occurred between Cabinet of the last government and the Regular Members. I would like the Auditor General to look at the impacts of employment, employment that was created as a result of a negotiated contract. A negotiated contract was done between two of the largest construction companies in the Beaufort Delta and the Government of the Northwest Territories. It showed the results; I know that the Members from that area had recognized the positive impact of that.
Many times since that point, we have asked this government to consider negotiated contracts and the positive impacts of a negotiated contract. I think what would happen is that that particular contract would be, as people indicate, proof in the pudding that, when you negotiate a contract and you look at hiring high numbers of individuals from the area, you can see the results of it. I support that because I want to see, I want the Auditor General to tell us, what had happened, what went wrong that the road is not usable, but what are also the positive aspects of it, what had to change during construction. The Auditor General will be able to indicate what has changed during the construction in order to end up with this result or whether or not this was something was not possible to change the outcome because of what it was constructed on.
At the time of the construction, it was indicated that there was never any type of highway ever built on alluvial ice in the whole world, and we had individuals from other countries who came in and actually paid for researching sections of this highway during this construction so that they could look at it and how the material was put down, what material was used, what material was good, and so on, and what material failed. So I would support this for the benefit of the Northwest Territories to be able to see best practices on that highway. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing to hide. There should be nothing to hide from the government, and there should be nothing to hide from the people of the Northwest Territories, so I support this motion. Thank you.
Masi. To the motion. The Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the only thing that I will add, really, is that, when we come into this House, there is a lot of expectation that all Members in this House will have some answers, and it's projects like these that we have a history of the public raising a lot of questions and we do not seem to have the answers.
The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment has had discussions at length amongst ourselves with regard to project oversight and to what degree would we be impactful in putting some limited resources toward trying to provide various degrees of oversight so that maybe we could validate some of what the government does when it's related to these projects and thereby provide significant answers to the public at large. We are troubled to do that. We are not technical professionals by any means, and, when we reach out to research and our staff, they do not have that capacity, either. So, using a third party who can put fresh eyes and ears on a project of this nature and provide us with lessons learned, that will be valuable not only to this government on working on projects going forward but also to answer some very serious questions that the public has had over the many years, so I will support the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. To the motion. The Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, the committee was supposed to have a public briefing on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway, and I was hoping that would happen before this motion so we would have a better sense of whether or not the timing is right to make this motion. I see in here it calls for the audit to be completed as soon as practicable, and I know that, the Auditor General's office, you are not going to meet a smarter group of people, and so I think that, if we make this recommendation, they will know the right timing.
Regardless, I think, if this motion fails, I have a feeling that the Auditor General will look at this project anyway because it is such a massive and such an important project. I think it's prudent, considering our future plans. We can learn the best practices, what went right, what went wrong. It will also help address a lot of the questions I have been asked by my constituents about the road.
You know, I know that it's been heavily audited. The feds put a lot of money into this, and they have been paying attention to what has been going on, but that information is not public, so I think that that is something we need, as well. Being part of the Government Operations Committee, I see the value that the Office of the Auditor General brings to the territory when it reviews things like this. Like I said, they can tell you exactly what went wrong, what went right, and ensure that, going forward in the future, we make better use of every dollar that we spend. So I will be supporting this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. To the motion. The Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I am going to be very short. I support the motion. I had a chance to see part of the road at the end of April, and I have had constituents raise issues around this with me, and I think it's time that this audit take place at the appropriate time, and I will be supporting the motion. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. To the motion. The Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am going to speak a little bit about my region. Mr. Speaker, this project hired hundreds of people from Nunakput as well as the Mackenzie Delta region. A project like this will likely get audited, like the Deh Cho Bridge, like the Yellowknife Hospital. I think, seeing my colleagues here who put this motion forward, to me, looking from the outside in, it questions the integrity of the contractors and it questions the integrity of the Department of Infrastructure, the Department of Finance, and all the moving parts for something like this.
Mr. Speaker, when a project this big happens, it's not one or two people. So I see, pointing the finger at everyone around us in this room, I think the Members need to understand that this is a new gravel road; it's built on permafrost. Somebody mentioned something like it's the first project of its kind in the world. I think one of the Members stated that, you know, it's like putting the cart before the horse, as well as many other things, Mr. Speaker. I think, I believe, that this road will get audited, and I think that we should give it time. Although, the motion put forward, it may not be in this Assembly; it may be in the next Assembly, Mr. Speaker. An audit was done a couple of years ago on this, and I think we can make strides to get access to that information, which will help, as well. Too, the Auditor General may have access to that.
Mr. Speaker, I think that doing something right now on a project that is unfinished is a waste of people's time and resources who are still working on this project. I think it will even imply more cost to the project. So I will not have much to say, but I know that our colleague the Minister of Infrastructure will have, so I am going to say that I do not support this motion as it is right now. You know, sitting here as an MLA, I think we all know that an audit is going to come down the road, but, at this time, it questions the integrity of the contractors and the people of my region, so I will not support this right now, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Masi. To the motion. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway was one of the largest construction projects undertaken by the Government of the Northwest Territories, and it was completed for the most part on time and on budget. Although the terrain on which the highway was constructed is challenging, the design, planning, and construction of the highway were all conducted by a team of experts. Overall, the highway has been performing as expected. The first winter season of operation was successful, and the highway experienced an average of 60 to 70 vehicles per day.
The contractor is addressing some work not completed last season and the deficiencies from the final inspection, which include final embankment compaction, surfacing gravel on select sections, and work around bridges and culverts such as rip-rap installation and painting. This work could not have been completed prior to freeze-up last year and has carried forward to this summer. These are all normal kinds of works to complete a major project, and there is a budget available for this work.
This project has been undertaken in an open and transparent manner and had significant financial, environmental, and operational oversight by numerous federal, territorial, regulatory, and other agencies. Members of the Legislative Assembly and the public have been kept fully informed on the progress on environmental and regulatory review and permitting, procurement, construction, and operations. Several strategic oversight committees were set up to ensure proper management throughout the project. These included a departmental oversight committee that met on a weekly basis, frequent reports to the P3 and Infrastructure deputy minister's committees, regular updates to the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway ministerial oversight committee, regular written in-person briefings from Members of the Legislative Assembly, and frequent progress reports provided to the public during peak construction periods. The departmental project oversight committee reviewed issues including construction progress, environmental compliance, budget, potential emerging risks, local employment, local spending, and training updates, and also identified items that required action.
Infrastructure Canada staff were part of the monthly project meetings involving the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Inuvialuit Land Administration, contractors, regulators, an independent engineer, and also interested parties. The project involved every significant regulatory and permitting oversight. The Department of Infrastructure was transparent in monitoring its commitments and tracking our progress to meet our environmental assessment commitments, and were publicly available on the project website. The department also met twice yearly with all regulators as part of the corridor working group, another requirement from the environmental assessment.
The Department of Infrastructure followed regular GNWT contracting procedures and adhered to Cabinet decisions on this process. The necessary regulatory permits were obtained with the support of the Inuvialuit Water Board for water licences, and the Inuvialuit Land Administration for quarry permits and land use permits. The Department of Infrastructure actively tracked all identified risk elements of the project with a risk matrix that was updated on a regular basis.
Environmental risk were managed in partnership with the Government of the Northwest Territories departments and federal agencies, including the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Environment and Natural Resources, who monitored the project for wildlife, and federal departments of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment and Climate Change Canada. In total, 235 environmental commitments were tracked and reported throughout the project. An agreement management committee with representation from Infrastructure Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories was established to administer and monitor the contribution agreement. This committee met twice per year through the duration of the project to review project status and ensure compliance with the agreement.
An independent financial audit has been completed annually to ensure revenue and expenditures are in accordance with the federal funding agreement. In addition, the annual audit by the Office of the Auditor General of the GNWT public accounts included the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway Project.
Payments from Canada were based on milestones. If Canada was concerned about project management, payments would have been withheld or held back and not released. Infrastructure Canada is now conducting a joint audit and evaluation of its programs, and will be reviewing the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway as part of this audit. This will be conducting site visits to Yellowknife, Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk in June of this year, and will speak to the Government of the Northwest Territories and community representatives to review the benefits to communities of this project.
Federal officials indicated that this is one of the most highly monitored and transparent projects they have ever seen, which speaks to the level of oversight that is being committed to the project. Given the high level of the project oversight, the Department of Infrastructure does not believe a special audit will have incremental value, and there are other higher-priority issues the auditor general could look into. However, if an audit is undertaken, the government is very confident that these audit results will be positive. With this, Cabinet will not be supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the motion. I will allow the mover, the Member for Kam Lake, to make concluding remarks on the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and thank you very much, honourable colleagues, for your comments, your thoughts.
Mr. Speaker, right off the bat, I am disappointed to hear from the honourable Minister of Infrastructure that this is not something that the government is in a position to support. I just want to be clear that to people who may be concerned about the potential cost of an audit like this: the resources of the Office of the Auditor General are independent of this government and this government's budgets, and indeed, the prerogative to even accept this motion, should it pass, would be up to the auditor general, as well. As an independent audit office, they are able to choose their own work and pursue their own reviews.
As some of the honourable Member mentioned, the value of a third-party audit really speaks for itself. We, as a standing committee, have reviewed several performance audits and, of course, the annual report on the government's public accounts, which we reported on earlier today. This is an opportunity to have an independent, fair, and transparent process that looks at all aspects of the project. The honourable Minister spoke that the Auditor General has reviewed the financial performance of the ITH project in the public accounts, but that's just an accounting exercise, a financial audit to make sure it meets accounting standards. It is not a performance audit.
The words spoken today in support of the motion were very clear that there are things we can learn from this project. While I have full confidence that the Minister and the department he represents in this House, and further, the contractors who are working on this project and our federal partners took this very seriously, and worked diligently to ensure it met all of the standards they laid out for in the agreement, having a third party verify those results just will further strengthen the case for transportation corridors. When the government is undertaking major transportation corridors in highly expensive regions of Canada, and asking the federal government to pay for them, why not have an independently verified audit of one of those projects to back up our business cases? This is not an attack on contractors, an attack on governments, or an attack on infrastructure projects. This is in support of those projects so we can find out the best practices for projects like these and ensure we can continue to deliver on projects like these.
So I don't agree with the Members who have spoken in opposition to this motion, saying it will reflect poorly on the people involved in this project. That's not what this is about, Mr. Speaker. This is about good value for money and best practices, and I believe that we will be able to achieve that better with a third-party independent review than with our own internal processes.
The strategic oversight committee the Minister spoke of, they are internal to government. They do not produce things that are publicly transmitted unless the Minister chooses to make them public. At this point, we've heard progress updates about the project. The highway, I might add, is closed today due to operational concerns, so people are asking questions. This is an attempt to resolve those questions and to show that the Minister's confidence in this project and that everything was done properly is, in fact, correct.
I urge everyone to support this, and I urge my colleagues across the aisle to change their minds on this. Mr. Speaker, this project was also initiated in the 17th Assembly, and a peculiar feature of our unique form of consensus government is we don't look backwards into the full range of operational details that previous Assemblies initiated, which is another reason this is calling for a special audit, to look into something that wasn't properly in the mandate or the responsibility of this 18th Assembly.
The Minister held a grand opening, and the project was substantially complete. There's enough there to start looking at it. Further, the motion does not call for an immediate audit. It calls for an audit when is practicable, as has also been pointed out, so to Members who were concerned that we are putting the cart before the horse, the motion clearly states that time should be taken until all the facts are known, and all the details can be produced by governments, to be reviewed by the auditor general.
Furthermore, why don't we just undertake it with our own committees, Mr. Speaker? Well, this project overlaps the mandates of two of our standing committees, and as a result, it would be very cumbersome to try to fit that into the standing committees' normal area of review. Furthermore, the scale of such an audit, or such a review, would stretch the resources of this Assembly, which should be properly focused on policy development, policy review, and legislative review, as well.
So, rather than take away from our own internal resources, we are calling on a third party that is independently funded to provide the kind of oversight that the project of this scale and this magnitude deserves.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to conclude by saying that the concerns that we have all heard as Members perhaps can be responded to by the Minister or by his staff or even by Members of this House. We just need that certainty that comes from an independent third party audit that will ensure we have the best possible facts, evidence, and best practices and good value for money so we can continue to build these projects to justify the investment or to make our investments more attractive to build critical transportation infrastructure from the federal government and continue to do our due diligence as legislators to work with the Office of the Auditor General and review these projects as they come forward.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That concludes my comments in this debate. I would like to request a recorded vote. Thank you.
The Member for Kam Lake, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, the Member for Nahendeh, the Member for Frame Lake, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, the Member for Deh Cho, the Member for Hay River North, the Member for Yellowknife North.
All those opposed, please stand.
The Member for Nunakput, the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha, the Member for Mackenzie Delta, the Member for Sahtu.
Masi. All those abstaining, please stand. The results of the motion: eight in favour, nine opposed, zero abstentions. The motion is defeated.
---Defeated
Motions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 20, Ombudsperson Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 20 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
