Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to recognize Mr. Terry Testart as well. He was in a senior administrator office in Tuktoyaktuk for many years. So, welcome, Terry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I'd like to recognize Ms. Wendy Holmes. She's an awardwinning Canadian agrologist, columnist, author, and speaker. She's here from British Columbia, visiting and helping people in the Northwest Territories, particularly Fort Smith and Fort Resolution, where she visited to better understand the impacts of the Site C dam in British Columbia. Also, I'd like to recognize Lois Little, who is the cochair of the Northwest Territories chapter of the Council of Canadians, who is assisting with her visit. Masi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with weather changing, the drop of water levels, we are seeing the Merv Hardie Ferry on 24hour notice. It is at least 23 days earlier than the 15-year average. I want to recognize and thank the marine staff. They've done a great job of keeping the ferry operational as long as we can and for doing it in a safe manner. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. Can the Minister please advise the House how the department is getting the message out to the residents and non-residents that the ferry is going to be shut down earlier than normal? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and we want to take this opportunity to reach out to the greater Northwest Territories to update the general public on the situation that's happening at the Liard ferry. As most people know, this time of year, the rivers drop off sharply. In the case of the Liard River, generally this time of year when it does drop down, it actually comes back up after a couple of days, but that hasn't happened in the last three days. It's actually at its lowest level, and we're probably operating our ferry presently at the lowest level that that ferry has operated; it's at 1.65 meters as of today.
To the Member's point of thanking the marine staff, they've reduced the fuel storage on the boat, and they've gone to lighter loads to offset a premature shutdown of this ferry to help the residents of his riding. We are monitoring this on a daytoday basis, but one thing that has come to light here, in the last 24 hours or so, it looks like the river levels in Watson Lake have actually come up a little bit, so we're going to continue to monitor this. The weather's supposed to actually warm up a little bit in his region, so that's going to help us with that, as well, but we continue to use all our means of getting the message out there. We have our electric board at Enterprise, we have the electric board at the Yellowknife Junction there, to inform Members, we have our Twitter account, we have our webpage, and we have our 1800 number, and, as well, our staff on the ferries who are continually updating the passengers as they cross the river system.
I thank the Minister for that information. Yes, they're operating the ferries at a level that's even unprecedented, so I'd like to thank again the staff there. Because of the water level dropping in the channel, it needs to be dredged. When you sit there and you look at it and you talk to the ferry and you talk to residents, it needs to be dredged. Is the Minister able to advise if the department has looked into the process of dredging this section of the river?
I looked into this matter, and I was informed by the department that 20 years ago we contracted Cooper's Barging with an excavator to have a look at doing this, and it was very unsuccessful and it wasn't able to be done. Another attempt to dredge this channel would need to involve a number of things, now, in light of the new regulatory system that's out there. We would have to do environmental studies on it, approval from multiple organizations, we'd have to go to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, the DFO, and of course, there's always going to be a funding issue. So, at this point right now, that's where it was on the dredging issue, but, if we were to ever consider this, that's the lay of the land that we'd have to consider.
I thank the Minister for that answer. So, I guess the question is from our riding, and a lot of people use this ferry, so will the department start looking at this option or other options to see it again? Because we're talking 20 years ago, and, with modern technology now and equipment, will the Minister advise this House if the department's looking at that?
There is no feasible option at this time besides dredging, so, if we were to consider this, we'd have to go back and go through all the process that I just laid out in the previous question.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I'd hope they actually would start looking into that and start planning for the future because the water levels keep on dropping and regularly. Yes, we're seeing Watson Lake go up and warming up, but we're still seeing the challenge. With the water levels dropping, and it's occurring on a regular basis, has the department looked at ways to help reduce the cost of living during the ferry shutdown and ice road being built?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continually communicate with all the residents of the Northwest Territories and residents and businesses with these annual shut-downs of these ferries. We know it's interruptive, and we will continue to communicate with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier, I spoke about the tourist boom in Tuktoyaktuk, and my questions are for the Minister of ITI. Mr. Speaker, to make sure that the community of Tuktoyaktuk can continue to provide essential services that are required for the 2019 tourist season, my question is: will the GNWT commit to an RV park or visitors' centre or other infrastructure that is crucially needed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an interesting situation. As we all know in this House, for many of us that follow this file very closely, with the construction of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway, it's brought an enormous amount of people up to the Member's riding. I think the big challenge around the community has been, and I have been up there quite a bit and talked to residents in that area, the amount of influx of people was overwhelming for the community for the most part. We had over 5,000 people, I believe, that came there this summer.
We have had a number of meetings with the community leading up to this for a number of years. We have assisted them with development plans on how they want to address some of these things. You know, we have committed to doing certain things with them. We are trying to do a way-side pull-out right now along the ITH. It's one of the funding things that we are looking at, and we are working with hunters and trappers on that to try to resolve which place they actually wanted. There were three places put forward, and I think we have it narrowed down to two of them.
We committed another amount of funding, somewhere around $42,000, to complete a feasibility study to advance a cultural centre, but I think what we need to do with the community going forward is we need to get back in there and have a conversation of what happened this year with the amount of people that were there, what kind of needs that need to be put into place. A lot of this stuff needs to be entrepreneur-driven. The Government of Northwest Territories cannot do everything for everyone. There's a lot of opportunity around tourism and things going forward. I have had a number of discussions with people around the RV park for Tuktoyaktuk. I have had people come to me and say they wanted to do it, and then they come back and say they didn't want to do it. Then someone else has come to me, and they want to do it. The hamlet was into these discussions, and then they have called off those discussions.
As of late, I have sat down with the mayor, when I had an opportunity on a trip to Inuvik, and had those discussions. We will certainly continue to have those discussions on what we need to address. It's a different situation because most communities are struggling. How are we going to be able to change our economy? We are in a situation in Tuktoyaktuk that there's almost an overwhelming opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that, you know, having an RV park or some sort of infrastructure like that should fall on the departments of the GNWT and ITI and maybe other departments within the government. I think it's only fair, given that Tuktoyaktuk used a lot of their capacity to do what they can to ensure that they did their best, Mr. Speaker. I don't know if I got a solid answer there.
Mr. Speaker, my second question is: will the GNWT fund a full-time tourism coordinator so that additional capacity can be provided?
These positions, we have rolled out. We had three of them rolled out. We had one in Tuktoyaktuk, one in Hay River, one in Deline.
I think the challenge with what the Member is asking us for a full-time coordinator was these were going to be rolled around the Northwest Territories as the demand increased in other communities. This is an ongoing funding, I think, for a little bit, but we're going to sit down and look at which next three communities wanted to apply for this.
I know we're going to sit down with the community here shortly as I have said and all the stakeholders and see what is happening in this past year and what type of assistance is going to be needed, so I can't commit to, if we're going to continue this ongoing funding, but there is ongoing funding for different communities, and, maybe after the discussion we have with the community, maybe I'll have to make a decision that, you know, that Tuktoyaktuk has the biggest need going across the board, that we're going to have to continue to look at their assistance, but I'll have to get more assistance once we have the stakeholder meeting.
It's good to see that the department is going in that direction, where they are consulting with communities and their needs.
Mr. Speaker, the community of Tuktoyaktuk is also dealing with the issue of a funded GNWT economic development officer, the EDO. This position was set up through the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk and there are some uncertainties as we speak. Mr. Speaker, the contract is on a year-by-year basis. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is: can this position come directly through the Government of Northwest Territories like other surrounding communities rather than through the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk?
My understanding on some of these positions like this in some of the smaller communities is we were having a hard time to fill some of these positions, but one of the conditions we took with the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk was, and we give them a significant amount of money to do this on a year-to-year basis, which is ongoing by the way, they have the flexibility to hire the individual they want.
We have had cases where I have had people of some communities come to me and they don't like our EDOs and another community that are assisting them. This gives the community the flexibility to hire the exact person that they want. Chances are, in this case right now, the person lives within the community and is part of the community and has done a great amount of work on this file for the residents of Tuktoyaktuk and in the Northwest Territories.
We have no plans of bringing this to the Government of Northwest Territories. We want to give the communities the flexibility to continue to hire the person they want, to suit their needs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to hear that there are no plans, but, as well, I think, if they do not plan on taking it on, they should fund the position appropriately like other positions that are in economic development or in the Government of Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, what will the Department of ITI do in the upcoming months to advance the tourism development plan for the community of Tuktoyaktuk with the hamlet?
As I have said, in the coming weeks here, we are going to sit down with all the stakeholders in the community to find out what needs to be addressed in the coming months ahead for the next tourist season. During those discussions, the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk is going to have to come up with their own tourist development plan. They have to lead it. They are going to have to own it. They are going to have to need it and put it in place. We are there to assist them to do that, but we are also currently in conversation with CanNor to help develop another tourist development workshop in the coming months.
There are a number of things going on, as I have said. It's a good position to be in, but it's also a challenging one, I think, for some of the community members to take the advantage of these real opportunities that lay there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. [English translation not provided.]
My questions are for the Premier, about the recent NWT Economic Symposium. When the Premier answered questions in the House on March 1st, he said that "the purpose of the summit is to seek input into the writing of the NWT chapter of the Arctic Policy Framework."
Can the Premier explain how this event morphed into a discussion of non-renewable resource development projects in infrastructure corridors? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The economic symposium, or better known as the NWT Economic Symposium, was funded using retained resource revenues from the intergovernmental council, which all intergovernmental council members fully supported. Three participants from each Indigenous government were funded. Many brought additional participants who were funded directly from their intergovernmental offices' budgets.
The costs are still being calculated by the symposium and will be provided once the calculations are done. The Member dismisses the discussions as only being about infrastructure, but the discussions were what was important to the Aboriginal leaders of the Northwest Territories, and I wouldn't belittle those discussions.
Of course, I'm going to take issue with what the Premier said there. I had intended no disrespect whatsoever to our Indigenous governments. I'm talking about the lack of communications about this event with this side of the House. The Premier promised on March 1st that this meeting would be about economic diversification, the meeting would be inclusive, and that experts from various sectors would be involved.
Can the Premier explain whether the symposium was inclusive, with representation from various economic sectors and experts?
Generally, he who pays the bill calls the tune. Along with Indigenous leaders and economic development representatives, there was a facilitator who is an expert in economic research and analysis in attendance.
I would like to thank the Premier for that information. It would have been helpful to have gotten it ahead of time, of course. He said that he would be pleased to discuss the event with committees, and we should at least have a discussion of it, referring to involvement of Regular MLAs in the symposium.
I don't recall any such discussion, and we only got notice of it less than a week in advance through the weekly ministerial activity media release. Can the Premier explain why Regular MLAs were not involved in the symposium, and why he did not fulfill the commitments he made in March in this House?
As I said, the symposium is being funded by retained earnings from the Intergovernmental Council. It was focused on the Aboriginal leaders. The focus of the symposium was seeking input and agreement from our partners, NWT Indigenous governments, that the NWT economy needs urgent attention.
The symposium was in support of implementing the priorities of the Legislative Assembly to grow and diversify the Northwest Territories economy and work more closely with Indigenous governments. It was not about identifying new priorities.
Through the discussion, we identified concrete plans and actions to stimulate the Northwest Territories economy by leveraging the individual resources and authorities of participating Indigenous governments and organizations in coordination with the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Premier for that. The only public information about this symposium is a onepage communique. We have little idea of who was actually there, how much it cost, whether there will be some photo report of this event, and of course, all of this was done with zero input from this side of the House.
Can the Premier table in this House, before the end of the sitting, the cost of the event, a list of participants, and a full report of what transpired to help inform the debate and discussion? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
A summary report of the symposium presentations, discussions, and outcomes are being prepared and will be shared with the symposium participants. This report will also be shared publicly once the participants have reviewed it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up to my statement, my questions are to the Minister of Infrastructure.
Last June, I was very pleased to witness the $140 million in funding that is dedicated to the development of an allweather highway in the Mackenzie Valley. Can the Minister of Infrastructure provide us with an update as to what work is currently being done? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to remind the House that this was a key milestone in the mandate that we secured, so it was nice to see funding for this project.
The funding that has been secured to date will help with the construction of the Bear River Bridge, the planning and environmental studies that led to obtaining permits, the road construction between Wrigley and the newly completed Canyon Creek AllAccess Road, as well as construction to an access road from Wrigley to Mount Gaudet.
Canyon Creek AllSeason Access Road represents the first step in converting the existing Mackenzie Valley Highway winter road into an allweather highway. I am pleased to advise Members that the official opening of this road will take place in November in Norman Wells. More information will be coming shortly on that.
Work is now in progress on acquiring permits for the Great Bear River Bridge. The Department of Infrastructure has been undertaking engagement with communities and residents in the Sahtu region to gain input, to finalize aspects of the project, and working to complete applications for permitting. The department also, so far, has held meetings in Deline, Colville Lake, and Tulita, including a public meeting and separate meetings with the hamlet, and meetings are scheduled later this month with Norman Wells Land Corporation Membership and the public, as well as a public meeting at Fort Good Hope.
In terms of next steps for the environmental assessment development and access road to Wrigley to Mount Gaudet, we are examining options that are available to make the determination of the best approach to proceed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister for that reply. My next question, Mr. Speaker, then: the GNWT already had an environmental assessment under way with this project through the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. What is the plan for continuing with that, what are the next steps, and when can we expect to see the environmental assessment move ahead? If you can condense that into one reply, please.
Masi. There were several questions there. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there were, but I think it is important that we get this information out there.
The environmental assessment process was initiated by the government in 2013 for the full proposed Mackenzie Valley Highway. The proposed project was rescoped in 2015 to focus on the section of highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells. In February of 2015, the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board released its terms of reference, requiring further studies to be undertaken by the department in order to complete the developer assessment report for the environmental assessment.
The Department of Infrastructure is in discussions with staff from the board to confirm options available and next steps in terms of proceeding with the ongoing environmental assessment. Before any final decisions are made, the Department of Infrastructure will also be discussing next steps with the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated and the Pehdzeh Ki First Nation.
Thanks to the Minister for the continuation of where our government was leading off in the past. My next question: I am glad to hear that things are moving ahead. Who has the department met with to date to discuss the environmental settlement for the Mackenzie Valley Highway?
The department staff, as I said, met with the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board to discuss the environmental assessment options. Staff will be meeting with the board of the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated and Chief and Council of the Pehdzeh Ki First Nation next week, as well as officials from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency Northern Project Management office.
These discussions will influence how the department will approach the environmental assessment and the timing of any associated activities, consistent with an overarching objective of proceeding through environmental review and permitting process as effectively as possible, while ensuring all related concerns are mitigated and all required approvals are obtained. A final decision on the best approach will be made in the coming weeks once the discussions have concluded, and that decision will inform the path forward, including next steps and timeline.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
