Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take a moment to recognize and remember my constituent and neighbour, Romeo Berube. He passed away suddenly at Stanton Territorial Hospital on December 5, 2019, at the age of 82. Romeo is predeceased by his adored wife, Angeline Mercredi, and will be dearly missed by his seven children, Margaret, John, Fred, Charlotte, Gladys, Yolande, and Darryl; 12 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; his three sisters and their families.
Romeo was originally from Ville Marie, Quebec, and his family moved with him to Yellowknife in 1972. He dedicated many years to working at Con Mine and Giant Mine.
A true gentleman, Romeo was always willing to help those around him, and, as my immediate neighbour, I can attest to that, as well. He was passionate about volunteering as ambassador at the Yellowknife Airport, where he had the opportunity to meet new people.
Romeo was a jovial character who loved to laugh and to make his family and friends smile. He wasn't weighed down by the struggles of everyday life; rather, he embraced it. He always enjoyed socializing and was often seen at the local stores, coffee shops, or banks, chatting with everyone.
Romeo will always be remembered and forever missed by his family and friends. There will an announcement about the celebration of life to come. Thank you.
Members, please join me in welcoming Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford, former Commissioner, Speaker, Member, Minister, SergeantatArms, and honorary Clerk of the Table.
Also, Members, with us today is Mr. David Jones, the Legislative Assembly's Integrity Commissioner. Welcome.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize three Pages from Yellowknife Centre who are helping us this week: Ms. Juniper Falvo, Madison Mobach, and a return appearance by Desiree Pitt. I would like to thank the Pages for all of the work that they do for us. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Next, we have the Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. Tony Whitford, who is sitting next to my mother, Kam Lake resident, Carole Tetlow. I would also like to thank her for teaching me the importance of building up people in communities with our hearts as our compass.
I would like to also recognize Sir John Franklin High School students, young women, and Kam Lake residents, the ridiculously talented Lana Saunders and, also, smart-as-a-whip Adrienne Lam, who are working as Pages today and paving their own path to becoming future leaders.
I also notice a neighbour of mine, Sara Minogue, sitting up there, and also Kam Lake resident Sarah Kalnay-Watson, who is also a constituency assistant for Yellowknife South. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize my constituency assistant, Loretta Rogers, who travelled with me this week. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize someone who, as we've just heard, is always looking out for me: my mother, Ms. Betty Lyons. I would also like to acknowledge my constituent, Ms. Donna O'Brien; and, of course she's back, my sweetheart, Ms. Chantelle Lafferty. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This constituent is going to have to forgive me with the pronunciation of her name. I'd like to welcome Emilie Tourangeau, the communications officer for College nordique francophone, for being here; my constituent, thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Ernie Daniels, First Nation President for First Nation Finance Authority for Canada.
Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a few people in the gallery, as well: my wife, Betty Lyons, who travelled here with me for this; and my daughter-in-law, Chantelle Lafferty, hiding over there; and a friend of mine, Donna O'Brien. As well, I'd like to recognize Mr. Ernie Daniels, who I haven't seen in years. It's nice to see you again. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two visitors who are visiting from the Association des colleges et universites de la francophonie canadienne, an organization that works with francophone colleges and universities across Canada. I would also like to recognize my constituent, Ms. Josee Clermont, from the College nordique francophone.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Welcome if we missed anyone in the gallery today. Welcome to the Chamber, and I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It's always nice to have an audience with us today. Thank you. Oh, sorry, Member for Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not available.] Masi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I am really concerned with our airline services that we're having back home in the Delta. Since this merger came online with Canadian North and First Air, our cancer patients and medical travel patients have been having a really tough time getting out of Inuvik. Today, seeing as a community I represent, Paulatuk, is having five people on standby, I am calling out the airline, Mr. Speaker, in regard to getting aircraft and adequate services provided to these people who are travelling for cancer, cancer patients for either surgery or treatment, and any others, because everything is done in the south and we have two days' travel just to get to where we're trying to go.
Mr. Speaker, I am asking the Minister of Health, Ms. Minister Thom, to see if she could work with me to get these airlines sorted out for medical travel for the Beaufort-Delta and Nunakput riding that I serve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last of the one flights a day to Inuvik has made it more difficult to book travel. Medical travel is a live issue and we are working to mitigate the impact on medical travelers. We are working with Stanton Clinic to ensure that there is sufficient time to process travel requests to make the specialist appointments in time, checking with airlines to see if travel is available for the required day, and booking a day earlier, if needed.
People are not getting bumped. There are unrealistic expectations that people travelling on medical travel can somehow bump other paying passengers on an over-subscribed flight. I have instructed the Department of the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services to make the best efforts to ensure our residents are accommodated and have enough notice to make flights and necessary household arrangements to attend medical appointments outside their home communities.
To our residents, please bear with us as we work to improve medical travel and make it easier on you to meet your medical needs. There will be hiccups along the way, and we ask for your understanding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's pretty dire, I guess, in regards to when you're travelling. When we travel down here, since the last two months we've been here, I've been travelling on that 14 times. Every time, you're seeing somebody in the airport actually being physically taken off the flight, being removed. I'm asking the Minister: would she call a meeting, I guess, with all the transportation providers that provide service to this government, to call them in and try to work with them to try to get adequate aircraft and try to get our patients out of our ridings to where they are travelling for their appointments?
Like I mentioned, medical travel is a live issue, and, again, our department is working to mitigate the impact of medical travellers.
I'm going to call out the airlines. I want adequate service provided to our residents of the Beaufort Delta. I guess from outside Yellowknife, the Sahtu, Beaufort Delta, my riding of Nunakput and Aklak Air, also. Today, I had five passengers on standby out of Paulatuk. That's not right, Mr. Speaker. They have to have adequate aircraft to provide the service that they're providing, and people are missing appointments, now. What are we going to do?
Our department is working hard with the airline companies to ensure, on our side of the department, that we give sufficient notice so that the airline tickets can be booked in time. We don't want to see our medical patients being bumped off the airline, so we are doing the best that we can.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. The last Assembly passed legislation for a Northwest Territories Carbon Tax. Despite detailed questions, the regulations to implement the Carbon Tax were not shared with Regular Members, but came into force on August 29, 2019. I have a number of questions for the new Minister of Finance on the implementation of the NWT Carbon Tax. Can the Minister explain how, if, and when guidelines will be established for the approval and payment of emission reductions grants to large emitters, and will these be shared with standing committee in draft form? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The regulations are being currently drafted by the Department of Finance, but also in collaboration with other departments. As they are going through that process, I can assure the Member that, indeed, draft guidelines will be shared with the committees for review. While I don't have a deadline for that, I am expecting that that should be in early 2020 and, at that time, I would be happy to join in terms of making myself available, as well, to the Member in order to participate in the review of those draft guidelines. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad to see that the spirit of collaboration is alive and well in this House. For the record, the large emitters in the Northwest Territories, as set out in the regulations, are Diavik Diamond Mines (2012) Incorporated; De Beers Canada, Incorporated; Dominion Diamond Ekati Corporation; and Imperial Oil Resources NWT Limited. Could the Minister tell us whether there have been any discussions between large emitters and Finance officials on the Carbon Tax and its implementation, and would the Minister provide this Assembly with some details?
I can say that there have been some discussions on some level, certainly before the Carbon Tax became law and mostly with regard to the structure of the Carbon Tax regime itself, not necessarily with the implementation of the program or of the draft guidelines, so I'm not sure that the discussions that were had are necessarily going to the substance of the matter that is at issue presently. If there have been any further discussions more recently, I would certainly endeavour to inquire about that, but to date my information is that the discussions were prior to the implementation.
I want to thank the Minister for that information. It's great that some of these consultations took place before, but I think we need to start that ball rolling again. Will this Minister begin consultation with the public, other sectors, and Regular Members throughout the implementation of the NWT's Carbon Tax?
I'm sure, as the Member is aware, there certainly were other consultations that were conducted during the development generally of the Carbon Tax program. These included, of course, both in-person and online consultations. The Annual Report on the Northwest Territories Carbon Tax will be tabled annually in the Legislative Assembly. That certainly does provide the Members of this Assembly with the opportunity to review the implementation and to inquire as to that implementation. In addition, the Northwest Territories Climate Change Strategic Framework itself also commits to an annual emissions tracking system and reporting, which is to be done in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada. I would expect that that item will also be coming before the Assembly in due course, Mr. Speaker, and provide the Assembly with the opportunity to ask questions of it.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi. Oh, sorry, supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I guess we're all a little bit rusty here today. I want to thank the Minister for that response. She talked about annual reporting, which is great, and that's what I want to get to next. One of the reasons I voted against the Carbon Tax last Assembly was the total absence of accountability and transparency in implementing the legislation and the inability of Regular MLAs to propose any meaningful changes. The regulations that were quietly introduced on August 29, 2019, do not set out or require any form of public reporting on significant matters such as how much carbon tax is collected, what it's used for, and whether it's actually effective or not. Can the Minister explain to this House what public reporting will be undertaken on the collection, use, and effectiveness of the Carbon Tax and, if not, why not? Thanks, Mr. Speaker.
My understanding at this stage is that the type of public reporting that the Member may be inquiring about is still part of the system that is being developed with respect to implementation, and, as I mentioned earlier, the draft of that will be shared with the committee in due course, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] When students go for training, how can we work with them? I'd like to ask the Minister of Education regarding this question about training. [Translation ends] How do we celebrate those who are successful in their programs? Masi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank my colleague for the question. I would also like to congratulate, myself, Ms. Doreen Arrowmaker for her achievement of achieving a master's degree. You know, with this portfolio, that's the goal, to get our residents educated.
The Member brings up a good point: are we keeping track of who is educated? If we don't know, how do we bring them back here? We do know what programs our residents are taking, if they are receiving SFA. We know what institutions they are attending. Outside of that, we don't have that ability. If someone just goes off to school, there is no way of knowing. However, we do try to attract our students back, as well, with our SFA. We have great loan repayment incentives, zero percent interest on loans and increased remission rates, and a northern bonus, as well. So, while we're not where I think the Member would like us to be, we're getting there. It's somewhere that I want to get to because, when I was on that side, I was asking the same question. People are going out and getting educated; 80 percent of the jobs, almost, by 2030 are going to need a post-secondary education, so how do we get those residents? This is something I'm working on, I'm committed to working on, and I look forward to working with the Member on this.
[Translation] A lot of students are going to school. Do they have any problems accessing programs? Maybe that information should be more available to people. [Translation ends]
What kind of statistics does the department have on the success of our northern Indigenous students at post-secondary? The reason I'm asking that is we need to somehow track these students so we can attract them back to the Northwest Territories. It's something that has been a real challenge over the years, and I believe that this is an area that we need to tackle as a department.
I don't have those numbers at my fingertips. I can say that Aurora College, however, has recently implemented a new student information system that can track that type of information, and finally in the North we have that capability. It was a long time that we weren't able to do that at the college, and so, in the last two years, we've achieved that. The department has actually come a long way in terms of the statistics that it collects and the information that it has to analyze, and so I think that we're moving in that direction. Unfortunately, I don't have those numbers on me right now. My department might not like me making work for them, but I commit to getting that information for the Member.
Masi for the commitment. You are a good Minister so far, to start. Good answer. Mr. Speaker, [translation] when students go to college, we want everything readily available for them and we also want them to return to work in our communities, so how many of them are in college? I am asking the Minister of Education. [Translation ends] I am going to reach out to the post-secondary students to provide them opportunities, such as jobs, internships, on-the-job training, and most especially in the small isolated communities that my colleagues over the years have demanded, even in, still, the small communities, create opportunities for these students to return to their home communities for their education, so what have we done as a department to date on this particular area?
I know there is an internship program that the GNWT had through the Department of Finance, I believe, but the Member is right. We need to do more, I think.
One of the first things I talked about when I got this portfolio was the need to be better communicators and do a better job promoting education and promoting the North as a place to come back to. We need to reach out to our students. We do that through Student Financial Assistance. They have a great advertising program. When I was in school, I always knew when my payments were supposed to come and when my application was supposed to be in, and we need to extend that. We need to let people know our students who are away know that there is work for them back here. The Northwest Territories is still the land of opportunity. You know, that is why I came back. I have said in this House many times that, when I was in law school, that would have been an opportune time for the GNWT to reach out to me and talk about some of the opportunities that there are in the North. That is one thing I am working on, and I look forward to making that happen.
