I appreciate the response. Pilot programs like this are definitely a good indicator of what we need to do looking forward and definitely a good opportunity to look at other herds.
Mr. Speaker, grizzly bears and eagles are also a contributing factor of declining caribou herds during the calving season. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister consider co-management with Indigenous groups to better monitor barren-ground herds during those fragile times?
Absolutely. In my conversations with a lot of the Aboriginal leaders that I have been speaking, I said the only way this is going to work is if we work with our Aboriginal partners. We have a number of programs that we are trying, but we have been working very closely with them. We are trying to monitor the herds. We have a couple of programs that are out. One is Boots on the Ground. Another community has Moccasins on the Ground, I believe. We are looking to expand on those programs because what we heard in our tour again was the fact that maybe you should send these monitors out two times a year, once during the winter and once in the summer. I thought that was great advice, so we are looking at that.
I have directed the department to come up with a plan and identify some sources of funding and where we can access those from. The program is well received. We had a great presentation on the Boots on the Ground program during the tour that we had. We had some great video footage, actually, and I am going to see if I can find that video footage and post it somewhere where folks will have access to that footage. I found that footage that we watched, I think, was very helpful and it kind of demonstrated the value of the monitoring programs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that response. It looks promising and, as we move towards co-management, self-government, and our own self-determination, it looks like we have something to work with, and I think this is something that we can improve upon as we move forward.
Mr. Speaker, grizzly bears also play a huge role during the calving season and definitely the numbers around the communities in the Northwest Territories have been rising from reports from harvesters and even community members, and bears coming into the communities during the summer and fall season. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is: will the Minister look into better incentives for barren-ground grizzly bears in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The GNWT, we currently don't have any specific incentives for the harvest of grizzly bears in the NWT. Again, we will work with our co-management partners and see if we can come up with initiatives towards that if we find that they are a threat. As part of the monitoring program too, we are thinking that they would be able to monitor the number of grizzly bears that are actually following the caribou.
One of the stats that I found quite alarming when we were doing our tour was the fact that I think they followed them and they did the calf count at a certain time of year, and I believe they did a calf count again in the fall, and it was down by almost 80 percent, I believe, so the calf survival rate was very low and a lot of that. It showed right on the video where the wolves in the video were actually stalking the caribou. At the end of the footage, it showed a wolf actually walking away with a calf that it took out of the herd. So we feel that, through enhancing our monitoring programs, we would probably be able to be of a little more of assistance to the caribou and try to control the predators. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I made a Member's statement about homecare and was going to ask the Minister of Health questions on homecare, but the Minister of ITI trumped my Member's statement with the Taltson statement, so I have questions for him. I would like to ask the Minister of ITI if, during any Indigenous engagement, he would present the idea retrospective environmental assessment from their original project at Taltson. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I clearly laid out in my Minister's statement today, there are one or two things that we want to do. One of the first things we need to do is dust off some of that old work that has been previously done with the Indigenous partners that they had at the time, the Deze group. There has to be a significant amount of work that has to be done, the technical aspect of it, as well as the environmental assessment part of this that has to be revitalized, so we are going to be looking at all those things.
As I have said, we want to ensure that all the previous engineering and design work is up to date and that baseline work is where it needs to be in engaging with our Indigenous partners that are affected. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In case in the Deze daze it hasn't been covered, I would like to ask the Minister if he is prepared to review all of the processes of approval with the original project back in the 1960s.
I don't think there is a need for us to go back to the 1960s. I can see where this line of questioning might be going, but, you know, back in the day when they built the Taltson project, that was a federal initiative. They were in charge of land and resources in the Northwest Territories at that time. We have since just passed devolution and we are moving forward with our legislation to address these things, but I don't think there is a need for us with our Indigenous partners moving this project forward to go back to the 1960s.
Maybe a simpler task would be to look at the history of Taltson River and how it related to the people that were living off the land. Would the Minister be prepared to have his department look at the history of what happened on the Taltson River prior to the construction of the Taltson River dam?
As I said, we are working with our Indigenous partners. We have also had the prior history with the Deze group, who also supported this project going forward. I have had engagement with all three Indigenous governments on the funding announcement. They are willing to participate in this. We will be going out and engaging communities on these projects and Indigenous organizations to ensure that their participation and partnership is going to help us empower this project, and we will work on that basis going forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if he would be prepared to share the findings of the Indigenous engagement for the money that was issued from the federal government for that purpose. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit today to share those findings with the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
I'm not sure exactly what the Member is asking. We did the federal announcement. Prior to the federal announcement, I gave the Indigenous governments a heads-up. In fact, I even flew to Edmonton to meet with two of them and have discussions about them supporting this project and how we want to work on this thing going forward. There seems to be a lot of goodwill in the room on this project, and that is why we are moving forward on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. In my statement, I spoke about the cynical box-ticking exercise that the Minister has undertaken to engage NWT residents on the question of a sugary drink tax. My question for him is: why is consultation happening now, when your only remaining budget has already been tabled? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, respectful of the process that this Assembly undertakes, we have decided that we are going to go out for a consultation like we normally do when we are presenting these types of new initiatives and get feedback from the public, which we take very seriously, and that will give us an indication of where we need to go moving forward.
My question is why the consultation on this issue is happening now, when there are no more budgets to come in this Assembly.
Regardless if there is any budget coming forward or not, we still need to do the consultation because what people out there say is very important to us, budget or no budget session anymore.
My next question is: what is the end result of this consultation going to look like, then? Is it going to be something that is added in a supplementary appropriation? Is it a recommendation to the 19th Assembly? What's the point?
I wish I knew what the future of this particular consultation would look like. I would buy lottery tickets for tomorrow. The work needs to be done and, much like the work with the formula financing a couple of Assemblies ago, that was going to be quite an undertaking, so it was decided that they would do the work before the end of the Assembly to determine exactly what the gap was and how it might be utilized going forward. So that work was done, and I see that as this, as well. We will do the work now. There will be an opportunity to, if the work is done quickly enough, maybe come forward with the request. We do not know that until we hear back from the people of the Northwest Territories. Having failed that, then it may be a recommendation to the 19th Assembly, but we won't know until we hear from the people and we can conclude the consultation.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my last question is: what efforts is the Minister going to make to engage residents of the Northwest Territories by giving some profile to this consultation on the Department of Finance website?
I take the Member's point. I will follow up and ensure that this is given the attention that it should be getting. I do know from being in a couple of places that there were some signs going up in the communities as to consultations that were happening there. I have seen some early indication of some of the consultations that are going on in the communities, some of the comments that were coming out. Obviously, they were in the paper, and because you mention the word "tax," everybody always says, "Well, I am opposed to any type of new tax." We will always have comments like that, but this is a consultation. We are very interested in hearing what the public has to say, and then we will put a plan together going forward. I take the Member's point, in response to her question. I will follow up and make sure that this is given the attention that it deserves. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are going to be for the Minister of Health and Social Services again in regard to the regional wellness councils. Mr. Speaker, it's great to hear that the councils move their meetings to communities in a region, and it's been very helpful. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of community awareness of the meetings. Can the Minister advise us what the council does to advertise their meetings and how do they encourage public involvement in these meetings? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will answer the question, but before I do so I just want to take this opportunity to apologize to the Member. Yesterday he asked me some questions on the regional wellness council and gave me an example, and I responded that I had responded by way of email. It turns out that email was in my draft account and I had never actually hit "send," so I am embarrassed, and I really apologize for giving that wrong information. This morning, I did send the Member an email with the correct information. So I do apologize for the confusion and the frustration that response yesterday may have caused.
When it comes to regional wellness councils, they are required to make sure that the public has timely notice of the date and times of meetings. Advertisement for regional wellness council meetings is usually organized by the regional wellness council through the authority that they are responsible for, so it may look different in every region and community, depending on what the best means of getting that information out is. I know in some cases it's posters. In some cases they have gone to local radio. There really is no one method for getting that information out. I do hear that there may be some concerns. I will certainly talk to the department and get them to work with the authorities to see if there are better mechanisms to get information out to support our regional wellness council to make sure that these meetings are well-attended.
Before I go on to my next question, I appreciate the Minister for the correction in our communication. These things happen all the time, so I greatly appreciate him making that announcement here.
My next question is: do the regional wellness councils have agendas that have spots to allow public involvement in the meetings? If not, will the Minister and the department work with the NWT Health and Social Services and have it as a standard part of their agenda?
The regional wellness councils approve their agendas for every meeting, so there is an opportunity to make amendments. Typically, the meetings do not have activities to have sections for public input, but that does not mean they can't. So, if the regional wellness council wants to open the floor to take questions or comments, that is certainly something they could do on a one-up basis. I am not sure that it would occur on every agenda. It's really up to the regional wellness councils. We do not want to be too prescriptive on what they are discussing. We want to hear from them.
Having said that, Mr. Speaker, attending the regional wellness council meetings is not the only way to get information. We anticipate and we expect that the regional wellness council members are going to be hearing from their community members, people in their communities, in and outside of those meetings. So there are lots of opportunities for them to get input from their communities and filter it into the system so that we can make good decisions.
I thank the Minister for his answer. Yes, it's important if we are going to be having these meetings in communities that there is some avenue for people to participate in it, and I thank the Minister for that. So I will be able to share that with my constituents and talk to the regional councils about that, and I appreciate that each agenda and each organization has different ways of different things. My next question is: are stats such as walk-ins, medevacs, training, and development plans shared with the regional wellness council members when asked and, if not, why?
It's my expectation that those will be shared when requested by the regional wellness councils.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I greatly appreciate that answer. I look forward to working with the regional councils because they have been asking me for that information, so I greatly appreciate the Minister with his answer. My final question is: can the Minister explain why the council is not able to hold meetings without having a chairperson in attendance? Do they not have a vice chairperson identified when they do this process?
Mr. Speaker, I attended a meeting with the leadership council in the spring, and one of the issues that the board members actually brought to my attention was that in our current setup there was no possibility for deputy chairs of the regional wellness council, which meant it was sometimes difficult to hold meetings. Two things have to happen. There has to be the chair, and there has, and there has to be quorum.
At that meeting, I actually directed that the Department of Health and Social Services work with the territorial authority to amend that so that we can actually have deputy chairs appointed. I also asked the board members to work with the members to select the deputy chair from within their own ranks. I understand that a number of the Regional Wellness Councils have already identified individuals to be deputy chairs. Others haven't at this point, but they certainly have the authority to select and appoint a deputy chair. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le president. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I certainly gave him a heads-up about this first question I want to ask him. Can the Minister tell us the maximum annual value of rough diamonds used for manufacturing here in the Northwest Territories, and what that figure is as a percentage of total production in that year? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I can't answer part of his question because it is considered proprietary, because there is only one manufacturer. What I can tell the House is the producers make available 10 percent of their production by value to the manufacturers. Over the past eight years, only an average of 0.6 percent or $10.6 million annually has been used by the manufacturers. That's one of the reasons you could see why we took this initiative to change this policy.
Thanks to the Minister for that. Wow. We're not using very many of those diamonds that are supposed to be made available. I know that the changes to the Diamond Policy Framework are relatively new, but can the Minister tell us how many approved NWT diamond manufacturers there are now and if any new ones have applied under the new policy framework?
There are currently two. We've got Almod Diamonds, Limited, who recently was approved as our latest one. Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd., who operates uptown. These two are both actually working at updating their business plans to meet our new matrix. Also in response to this news when we announced this policy, I want to let this House know that these amendments were positively received. We've had preliminary discussions with two more international manufacturers who are interested in setting up here, and additional discussions with diamond brokers and industry experts who represent other manufacturers have also got hold of the department.
I'd like to thank the Minister for that, telling about the new interest. In my statement earlier today, I said that there is a lack of transparency around this new framework. The valuation matrix is nowhere to be found on the ITI website, so I hope these two new companies were able to find it somewhere. There doesn't seem to be any monitoring framework or public reporting under the new framework. Can the Minister explain how potential manufacturers can put together an application without knowing how they will be ranked or rated?
The development of the approved diamond manufacturer application process is a lengthy collaborative process. ITI has determined that discussions with the interested manufacturers and brokers are most effective when changes to the DPF are represented in a manner that clearly outlines the department's new amendment in investments requirements. This methodology allows the manufacturer to better understand the environment and the key investment drivers. Following these preliminary discussions, ITI has shared the matrix with others, and relayed the information to recent interested parties. I can also at this time commit that we will post this online.
