Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the question is, "Have I ever driven the road?" Of course, I've driven that road. I live in Hay River. I've been over there probably every month. I see the condition of the road. This Member has asked me questions about the road conditions there before. I've stated in this House the work that has commenced on there around drainage and these types of things and some geotechnical work. That work has been completed. That will feed into what our next plans are to do with that section of highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I, myself, recently made a trip to the Hay River Reserve, and I have noticed, and I think everybody noticed that the ditches, parts of the road have been dug up, and piles have been on the side of the road for some time. In response to my questions from March 12th, the Minister committed to sending engineers to the road this past spring to do an assessment. Has this assessment been done, and what were the outcomes?
I think, instead of beating around the bush, I'm going to go right to the crux of this. The capital estimates have been tabled in the House of the Assembly, and I would be glad for the Member to ask me questions. Deliberation around this section of road is what he is referring to, and I think he will be quite happy to see what information comes out of that.
I'm very optimistic, but I'd like to see at least some action play out maybe by this spring. I'll ask the questions that most Members have on their mind: when will the Department of Infrastructure repair the access road onto the reserve?
As I just referenced in my previous answer, I'm glad to answer these questions when we get into the Committee of the Whole. If the Member wants to ask me specific questions on this section of highway, I think he will be very happy with his answers.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, these are the typical replies and answers that I have received from the Minister of Infrastructure. He's basically deflecting any kind of answers in the hope that he could give to people from the K'atlodeeche Reserve. I've referenced the capital estimates. There's no specific reference to K'atlodeeche Reserve access road. Does the Minister of Infrastructure care about the Dene and the reserve? Mahsi.
I think he is asking my opinion, and I am not going to give him the satisfaction of answering a question like that. I have made it quite clear, when we go to the Committee of the Whole, I want this Member to specifically ask me the question about his section of road, and he will be very happy with the answer that he is going to get. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We seem to be on a roll with the last Minister's responses, and my question is for the Minister of ITI. Mr. Speaker, in the Minister's statement earlier, you mentioned the Petroleum Products Fund will help fund the airlift to the communities of Nunakput and to Nunavut. Mr. Speaker, I believe at this time the Petroleum Products Revolving Fund is a full-recovery system, and these costs may be covered by the customer. What will happen to the cost of petroleum products for Nunakput customers in 2018-2019? In other words, will the cost of gas go up in Nunakput? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think, if the Member is referring to the transportation costs of what it is going to take to get the 700-and-some-thousand litres into these communities, that cost is not going to be added onto the backs of these people in these communities. The process will play out, whatever the POL, our formula, is, to increase or decrease the price of fuel and the price of delivery at the time of delivery of the barges and the price of the purchase of the fuel. That process is still in place, but the actual costs of this extraordinary event to find this fuel is not going to be passed on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That is actually good to hear. I know that the first planes are arriving now, and hopefully that can keep the cost of living down in the region.
Mr. Speaker, I have five constituents who are businessmen, and they will not receive their goods by this upcoming airlift. This means lost business opportunities, due to the fact that they aren't deemed essential goods. What does the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment have to offer small businesses as they are paying off heavy equipment, vehicles, and dry goods for their stores, and also insurance on equipment that they will not receive until the fall of 2019?
The department has a number of mechanisms that we can support business and provide business relief. I would encourage any business that is in this situation being described by the Member to contact our regional office and talk to one of our client personnel. ITI will look at individual applications and present it on a case-by-case basis for assistance under our SEED program.
I appreciate the response. It is good to see that there may be some assistance for some entrepreneurs and some small businesses that could not afford to stay afloat over the 2018-2019 season if they weren't allowed access to any type of assistance.
Mr. Speaker, there are also multiple research programs that run annually in Nunakput, as well as exploration programs on Banks Island. To us, research is important, in traditional knowledge, Indigenous knowledge, and scientific knowledge, and we encourage that in our region so that we have better data to understand our ecosystem. What can the department offer to ensure that scheduled programs may still run through the 2018-2019 season, given the shortage?
In fact, I understand this past year was a record year for research in the region, both national and international researchers. We recognize that these are important economic contributors to the Member's region, but in reality, ITI has little influence on the research schedules. Most research projects are independent in nature and receive logistical support through the Aurora Institute. To date, we have not been aware of any difficulties with research projects in the region, but if there are, we will consider them on a case-by-case basis.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of these research and exploration projects usually fly in their own petroleum in the way of 45-gallon drums. I am hopeful that these are deemed essential, as it employs people in the region.
Mr. Speaker, hotels in Nunakput are at times the only places to house contractors, government employees, and visitors to the communities. How will the Department of ITI ensure that operations such as these important components of community infrastructure remain in operations with the shortage? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am assuming the Member is speculating about the availability of goods and supplies for those operations. Again, we are not aware of this as an immediate concern. We recognize that this is an extraordinary situation that we are dealing with. There is no manual with all the answers, but we are addressing the reality of this situation head-on.
As the Minister of Infrastructure, I assure the Member and this House and the people of Nunakput that we will do what we need to do. I have said that continually in this House. We can't do everything, particularly around a number of questions I always get around Herc-ing vehicles in. We are not prepared to do that. We are trying to work with everybody on a commodity-by-commodity basis and a community-by-community basis, and we will continue to work with this and try to address it the best that we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I was listening to the question period here today, I heard the Minister of ITI respond to the Member from Sahtu about the dollar amount that has been spent in Sahtu. I would like to ask the Minister if he has that dollar amount for the riding of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh also. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have that information right here at my desk, but I can get that exact number for the Member and provide it to him. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In my Member's statement, I referred to some of the businesses that are potential businesses in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. I would like to ask if the Minister would direct the Business Development and Investment Corporation to send business development officers into the communities to meet with the community groups in order to flesh out what other possibilities may exist in the community for small business.
I can certainly have a look at the staff that we sent into the Sahtu region and work with the Member, and what we can do in his region to send our staff in there to talk about what are possibilities of starting up small businesses and opportunities, as well as, as I mentioned earlier in my statements today, to work around the traditional economy and how the hunters and trappers can access some of the SEED money, as well.
I know that the Minister meant Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, but I would like to ask the Minister a question on the number. Earlier the Minister had indicated that there was not enough money to help everyone. That is why I asked the initial question. My question will be: I anticipate that there is not enough money going into business development in my riding, so I would like to ask the Minister, once he is able to provide the numbers, if the Minister would come back to the House for additional funding to support business development in the small communities?
As I have said, this government has spent $17.6 million. The SEED program is $3.8 million. We have Community Futures, which we fund as an additional $825,000. There are a number of programs and suits of needs out there that these people want.
The Member is kind of speculating that he is not getting enough money in his riding. I would have to go back and see what types of applications and what type of dollars have been spent in his region. As I said in this House earlier today, this has to be entrepreneurial-driven. We can't just be throwing money at something and hoping that it sticks. We have to work with the businesspeople in these communities who are future entrepreneurs who want to pursue these types of things, and that is what we are trying to do. The SEED policy is there to help facilitate that, with a number of programs within the Department of ITI, and we will continue to do that. That is the best I can answer the Member's question.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if there is any sort of policy that surrounds employment numbers. In my Member's statement, I referred to the dismal employment numbers that we have in the communities that I represent. I would like to ask the Minister, when spending money from the government for business development, if that is taken into consideration. Are employment numbers taken into consideration when spending money for any businesses in any of the communities in the territory? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That depends on what application, I suspect, you are doing. If you are going through BDIC or Community Futures and you are trying to get a loan to start a company, you have to have a business case to do that. That is relative to, you know, what your business case is going to be and the number of products you're going to be able to sell, and the capital that you have to invest, and the capital that we are going to invest to help support these things. When it comes to supporting the number of people hired in a community, I suspect that, depending on some of our grants and contribution programs that we have, some of those factors are part of the decision-making. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Earlier today, my colleague from Hay River North spoke a lot about red tape and redundancy that we have within the Government of the Northwest Territories. He referenced the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and how they consistently give us failing grades, or an F. I just want to know: does our government recognize this ongoing and never-ending failing grade, or do we just flat-out reject it? You know, this institute comes and gives us this every year. Or better yet, what are we actually doing to identify our own challenges with regard to red tape and the roadblocks that small businesses face within our government? Do we foresee that we have these challenges and are we doing anything about them? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think I referenced the Federation of the Business thing, but I've met with them. They have their opinion on what's happening in the Northwest Territories. My recollection is they use a very small case of data to give us this grade, but we recognize that, as I've said, I'm a small business owner in the Northwest Territories. The one thing that we did that helped to address this is through our BizPaL program. That is a very good program. Online, you can go on there and it takes you through all the licensing and permitting or whatever you need to do to help, especially brand new entrepreneurs, know exactly what they need to do, from workers' compensation to all these sorts of things. It's clearly laid out in there, and I believe that we are doing the best we can to help address this.
"Best we can" is really kind of vague, to be quite frank. If the Minister could please elaborate a little bit to share with us what "best we can" means. What does that mean as it relates to the silos that seem to be kind of structured between various departments that small businesses have to interact with on a daily basis? You know, the business community sees the Department of ITI as their representative at the territorial level. What is the government actually doing to identify the challenges of red tape, bureaucracy, and redundancy, and what, I'll call it, policies, are they developing to help break that down?
This is kind of like our procurement issue. I've never had anyone come and knock on my door complaining about red tape. I'm glad to work with the chair of the standing committee, of SCEDI, and sit down if they have any ideas on how we can rectify red tape within the Government of Northwest Territories. I'm glad to have those discussions.
I'm glad that the Minister brought it up, in fact. Government procurement obviously contributes significantly to the business community in the Northwest Territories. We have raised a number of times concerns around government procurement. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment undertook a survey this summer. We are hoping to put forward a report later to table in the House and share with the Minister and his department about the challenges that we found.
I would just like to ask the Minister: can he explain the processes maybe through which his department engages with the business community to seek out and find out how they can improve their procurement processes and policies?
As I've stated in this House before, we have a number of workshops that we conduct across all regions of the Northwest Territories. I don't have those stats right in front of me, but I notice a significant amount of people who have attended these. We continue to work with the business community. Certain Members in this House have brought up procurement as an issue with me. To date, I still have not had more than probably five complaints from the business community. I'm looking forward to this report that standing committee is going to present to me. I'll gladly sit down and have a discussion with you guys at that time.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we will be happy to work with the Minister and his department when the time comes.
Mr. Speaker, it is Small Business Week. It's a great time to champion local and northern businesses. One of the things that has been identified as a challenge in recent weeks and months is that a number of our standing offer agreements, in fact, have a number of southern companies that are on the list. Northern companies find that to be challenging in order to get access. I appreciate that it's a public offering process, but will the Minister and will the department give some consideration to, let's say, having southern firms must partner with northern firms in order to get a standing offer agreement with the Government of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That's a discussion maybe I'm going to have to sit down and have with the chair of standing committee, because this is something that I haven't found to be an issue. It's a public offering. We have the list. A number of these people are quite capable and, you know, there are some specific things, specific asks, I believe, in that request of stuff. There are certain entrepreneurs in the Northwest Territories who aren't quite capable of doing these specific things. It's a tool that the Government of Northwest Territories has to be able to address some of those situations we have here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, who sets regulations for onshore oil and gas development and aggressively promotes that development. The Oil and Gas Spills and Debris Liability Regulations set absolute liability limits between $10 and $40 million, depending on the location of spill or debris. As I said, the Deepwater Horizon disaster resulted in fines and settlements more than 200 times that maximum amount. I know it's offshore, but onshore can cost us a lot of money, as well. Can the Minister explain why there are these liability caps in our regulations and what public purpose they serve? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to try to do the best I can to answer this Member's questions, because this is a very complicated area within the PRA.
One thing we have to make clear on this is we have mirrored the regulations. That was part of devolution and that's what we have right now. That's why it's clearly stated out there as laid out.
We are working on oil, OGOA; I guess we can call it the Oil and Gas Operations Act. That's going forward. We are having a look at it. OROGO is the other side of this issue, which is handled by the Minister of Justice. From my understanding, OROGO is going out for public consultation at a very high level on this act, on what's going on. There are some concerns there for our department as well. I think some of them are very similar to what the Member is going to raise here today. We will continue to look at it, but the reason that these are there right now is because of devolution, and we mirrored the process.
