Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you again to the Minister for that reply. I like her enthusiasm and definitely the excitement that she has about accreditation and, in particular, she mentioned about accreditation that could be awarded to those not just in the North, but outside the North, possibly outside Canada. Our post-secondary strategy must be central to provide better services and opportunities for our own young people, but a further advantage of a polytechnic university will be its ability to attract people from outside the North. I'd like to ask the Minister: what does the Minister envision in a strategy for attracting interest and participation from around Canada and other parts of the world? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
When I was travelling to the three communities three or four times, I had heard from staff and from students, et cetera, that they want to have great programming and that we need to have programming for northern students. People were a little bit concerned about national and international students, but it's a good thing. The reality is that our numbers in the Northwest Territories will make it challenging if we didn't look outside of the Northwest Territories.
I want to emphasize, the post-secondary that we provided in the Northwest Territories has to be for northern people based on Northern needs, and specializing the Northern strengths. That will define who we become, the courses that we offer. No sense doing everything. Like I said before, define what our strengths are. Once that is done and those programs are actually developed so that they're based on best practices, that they're quality programming, then, at that point, we need to do a serious student enrolment management plan that we actually look at, not only getting students from the Northwest Territories, gauging them, keep them in courses, but also looking nationally and internationally, because not only do we need to promote what we have the strengths of the Northwest Territories, but we also need the numbers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Question 750-18(3):
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, I have been hearing rumours and concerns about the MTS fuel resupply from last year. It is my understanding that some of last year's fuel supply that was delivered to the shipyard in Hay River is apparently bad fuel. I'd like to ask the Minister of Infrastructure if he can tell us what happened in this situation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, this is true. Some of the fuel that was supplied last year did not meet the specification required by Infrastructure. This, I do know, because we had to reject it and it had to be returned to the refinery at the supplier's expense.
I'd like to ask the Minister: whose responsibility was it for the bad fuel that was supplied to the communities?
It is the supplier's responsibility to meet the terms and conditions of the contract, and within that contract, supplying fuel at the appropriate specifications.
In light of the fuel supplier's responsibility in providing fuel that did not meet the specifications required by the department, I'd like to ask the Minister: what sort of recourse is available? Will the GNWT be able to be reimbursed for the cost of the fuel and for sending it back?
The Department of Infrastructure did not pay for any off-specification fuel that we received, and the supplier arranged for the recovery of the off-specification fuel at their own expense and took it back.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for providing this information and clearing up some of the concerns and issues that I've been hearing. Finally, given the importance of fuel supplies to communities, what lessons has the Minister learned from this experience to help avoid a similar case in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Department of Infrastructure, due to what happened last year, has actually asked the supplier to avoid these issues going forward by asking them to increase their inspection of their fuel-testing regime before the fuel is delivered to us. We've been working with them on that, and asked them to do that. We will continue to independently test the fuel received from our supplier to ensure it meets our required specifications. The department has also initiated a delivery risk management initiative that will involve staging one year's consumption volume of fuel in surplus capacities at NTPC's tank farms in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. A plan is in place to establish the strategic reserve of fuel during this year's shipping resupply. Those are some of the things that we have worked on from last year's lessons. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. In my statement earlier today, I itemized some reports about reimagining the design of a new or redeveloped visitors centre here in Yellowknife, the former Northern Frontier Visitors Centre. I pointed out the Minister's statements that redesigns were being commissioned in 2017 and that there was a recent RFP or something, again, to do more design. Before we go out with this new call for designs, can the Minister explain what he intends to do with the first two sets of designs? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Normally I credit the Member for doing his homework, but there were three designs, actually, that we have received on this. I'm just teasing him. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We received three concept designs as part of this planning process, and through that, we want to go to the next step to develop a schematic design over the summer in 2019, but this is going to largely depend on some of the technical work that has been recently wrapped up on this building. We are waiting to hear back on these geotechnical and structural reports. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Minister for correcting my notes here. They have three sets; that is a lot of designs to work with, then, but it looks like we are going to be going out for some more. When is the decision actually going to finally be made about either resurrecting the current building or knocking it down?
I am glad that the Member asked the question that way. As I have said, this geotechnical report and structural engineering review was conducted, again, this year. We had the original one, and we went out and did the work to stabilize the building. We have done a couple of things since then to make sure that the building doesn't get too out of whack.
We already know that we have never met the inspection to be able to have people in there. We went out to the design concept. We got them back, but before we push that any further, we have to see what these reports come back and say about what can be done with this building. My concern is: is it going to be to a point of non-repair? Do we have to knock this thing down? I think that the reports that we are going to get are going to give us a little better of an idea of what is going on.
From some of the discussions that I have had with my department, I would say that things are not looking very well on saving this building, just to get that out there. I think that it is going to look like it is in a condition that could be very expensive to fix this thing up, but I have to wait until that report hits my desk here in the next coming weeks, and then we are going to have to update this House on what we are going to do with this building moving forward. I don't want to get too deep into long-term plans until we know if this thing is even viable to fix.
I want to thank the Minister for sharing that information. I hope that he is going to share, maybe, a summary of the geotechnical report with myself, as this building is my riding, when it is completed. The other key unknown here, of course, is the role of the City of Yellowknife in promoting visitors services. The Minister once told me that "we are working with the City of Yellowknife to determine the long-term model delivery of the visitors information centre." Can the Minister update us as to what sort of discussion there has been with the City of Yellowknife in providing proper visitors services here in this city?
Our department and our officials are in constant contact with the City of Yellowknife with what is happening at the visitor information centre. One of the things that has happened since we shut down the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre and moved it over to city hall. I took a lot of questions in the House about how that is going to work out. Things with the city have moved along quite well.
One of the things that has happened since we have closed down the visitors centre is the number of tourists who actually went to the city's tourists information centre has almost doubled. The department was kind enough to actually give me those numbers. In 2018, when we shut that thing down, there were roughly 7,000 people who went to the City of Yellowknife tourists information centre. I see the number is written down; it is actually 7,105.
In March of 2019 -- and this is a surprising number; and you heard me talk about this in my statement the other day, how much tourists have impacted them, particularly around the aurora viewing -- in Yellowknife, the number of visitors who actually visited the new centre in City Hall is 12,991 people. There hasn't been a whole lot of noise in the Legislative Assembly about the number of people and how the services are going. I think that things are going quite well with the city and how they are handling these things. We are working with them closely. They are trying to put together an advisory committee on how they are going to see the future of this thing working out. I know that our officials have talking extensively with them, because we have a number of ideas that we want to work with.
As you all know, we passed a levy in this Chamber so that the city could actually do that stuff, and we want to see an opportunity for them, moving forward with their bylaws, for how they are going to levy these funds. Maybe it is going to be to support visitors services and, also, the DMO. Those discussions are ongoing with the City of Yellowknife. The City of Yellowknife is the biggest impacted region in the Northwest Territories based on the successes that we have had around NWT tourism. We are going to continue to work with them.
As I have said, the building is another situation, and that is going to feed into how we work with the City of Yellowknife going forward. If we end up ripping this building down, the 19th Legislative Assembly is going to have to make a decision about how we are going to move forward, working with the City of Yellowknife, based around infrastructure and what those needs are going to be. Our capital plan on that is going to be our fiscal reality in the 19th Legislative Assembly. There are a lot of different questions that are going to have to be answered.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that long explanation of what is going on. The reality, of course, is that our government continues to spend more on a visitors centre in Dawson, Yukon, than we do here in Yellowknife, which is the capital.
The Minister trotted out some great numbers of the increases in visitation at the visitors centre in the basement of city hall. As the Minister well knows, I helped drag him through the visitors centre when we were coming back from lunch one day. I think that the city is doing a good job with what they have, but they clearly don't have enough. What is the Minister doing to set this up for the next Assembly so that we actually can make a proper investment in promoting tourism here in Yellowknife, given the huge growth in this sector that the Minister himself just talked about? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I am not even going to go to my notes first here. I am going to address some of the comments that the Member has made. I am the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I represent all residents in the Northwest Territories, not just the City of Yellowknife and not just the tourists coming to the City of Yellowknife.
What I don't like about the comments that the Member made is that it is kind of "us versus them," the Beau-Del region versus Yellowknife, because of the money that we have spent in Whitehorse. We are trying to address and diversify our economy across all regions of the Northwest Territories.
The City of Yellowknife has clearly been the biggest benefactor of tourism in the Northwest Territories, and I dare any Member to stand up in this House and contradict me on that. That is not the case. As I have said before in this House, we are doing almost too good of a job because we are a victim of our own success, but this is what we are going to do forward, and that was what the Member's question was.
Under Tourism's 2020 strategy, we will invest more than $1.5 million this year in the development and delivery of funding and programming to strengthen our tourism products and capacity of our tourism operators. The growth of tourism, particularly through the life of this government, confirms that our approach of supporting and growing this sector of our economy is working. That was clear from the numbers that I said in the House yesterday.
As Members may be aware, we are about to begin the process of evaluation of our current 2020 strategy in the interest of developing a follow-up strategy and building on the success that we have seen. Our process will include engagement with tourism stakeholders and operators and will help us to identify the projects and priorities, not just for Yellowknife, but for the full territory. I look forward to having the Member's contributions to this process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 100(4) and to have Committee Report 16-18(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of Bill 29: An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The Member is requesting unanimous consent to waive Rule 100(4) to have Committee Report 16-18(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of Bill 29: An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act moved to Committee of the Whole.
---Unanimous consent granted
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents entitled "2017/2018 Annual Report - Northwest Territories Agricultural Products Marketing Council"; "NWT Oil and Gas Annual Report 2018"; and "Annual Report 2018-2019 NWT Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Health and Social Services Northwest Territories Help Directory 2019."
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, "2030 NWT Climate Change Strategic Framework 2019-2023 Action Plan." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Tuesday, June 4, 2019, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife North, that Tabled Document 442-18(3), 2030 NWT Climate Change Strategic Framework 2019-2023 Action Plan, be referred to Committee of the Whole for consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Tuesday, June 4, 2019, I will move that Bill 57: An Act to Amend the Employment Standards Act be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The committee would like to consider Committee Report 16-18(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of Bill 29: An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act; Bill 29, An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act; and Bill 35, Supply Chain Management Professional Designation Act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
