Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. There are well-established processes within all of the public service that allow people to report wrongdoing to their supervisors and managers. There are also processes in place that allow for whistleblowing through an agreement that we have so far. There are different ways that people can go about reporting what they perceive to be wrongdoing, and certainly, Mr. Speaker, all unionized employees are encouraged to engage in their unions, specifically to corrections.
Mr. Speaker, this is a challenging work environment, which is why already, earlier in January, we established a connection, a working group between justice and human resources section. They do have a work plan in place. There were some delays in terms of some of the rollout that was expected to happen this spring and some of the responding measures that were expected to happen this spring, but I did check back in with corrections, and it is my understanding that they are now back on track to have some very specific human resources work done so that they can continue to improve that workplace for its staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As a former Chief, I've seen first hand the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples by the RCMP, the courts, and the corrections system. As mentioned in my statement, I have seen countless cases of police brutality, along with more severe punishments for Indigenous people and greater rates of incarceration for Indigenous people, too. My question is: does the Minister believe that a review of our courts, corrections, and policing systems are needed in the NWT, and, if so, what would that look like?
Earlier today, a number of MLAs spoke very passionately about systemic racism, its presence, and its reality in Canada and in the Northwest Territories, and no department is immune to that. The Department of Justice isn't immune to that. As far as a review, an overall review of corrections, courts, policing, no, Mr. Speaker, in my view, that's not the direction that we're intending to go right now. It doesn't mean we don't have a lot of work to do to improve the systems that we are within. There are certainly a lot of efforts underway already to increase engagement with individual communities, with Indigenous communities, to reduce the over-incarceration of Indigenous people, to improve the connections between RCMP and Indigenous people. This is something that is really system-wide, Mr. Speaker, and at this point, it's not a review. I think we've had a lot, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Missing and Murdered national inquiry, and frankly, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People is going back to 1996. We know what the solutions are. They are out there. We just need to start acting on them. Mr. Speaker, what it's going to look like is that we have to start looking very meaningfully at what those recommendations are and start to actually take some steps to achieve them.
In a recent CBC interview, the Premier discussed potential ideas to help improve the RCMP and its relationship with the communities it serves. With respect, Mr. Speaker, I want to recall some previous conversations with the justice Minister regarding a lack of enforcement on drug dealers and of the RCMP interactions regarding concerned citizens. I was told repeatedly that the RCMP is a separate entity and that it's arm's length from our government. My question is: since our Premier and our Member of parliament are now weighing in on RCMP activity, can the Minister clarify what role and responsibility our government holds in preventing the use of excessive force and police brutality in the Northwest Territories?
The RCMP are the police force in the Northwest Territories by virtue of the Territorial Police Services Agreement. That is an agreement that we have through the federal Department of Justice, given that, indeed, the RCMP are a national police force. As such, we don't have operational control over their operations. We don't necessarily have the right or ability to direct, for example, who is hired, who is placed where, or how investigations are conducted. That said, Mr. Speaker, we do have the ability, through that agreement, to do what is called the Minister's police priorities. We do support having the RCMP in the communities, acting on those priorities to have community policing engagements.
While we are not directing the operations, we do have a role in engaging and directing the overall direction of the police within the Northwest Territories. As far as continuing to hold the police accountable, all are a number of avenues that individuals can take to report behaviours that are inconsistent with the values of the Northwest Territories, values of Canada, and values of the charter. I would certainly encourage anyone to continue to use those avenues, and we will continue to use our avenues to engage and ensure the priorities of the RCMP match up with the priorities that were espoused here in the House.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a recent interview, the Prime Minister said he would be seeking feedback from all Canadian Premiers about how to improve policing across Canada. My question is: what recommendations, if any, will our government be giving to the Prime Minister about how to improve policing in the NWT and reduce police brutality on residents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I believe our Premier's already spoken quite forcefully about the importance of this initiative and about the importance of looking for options to increase trust between law enforcement and citizenry. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of programs already underway and initiatives underway, not the least of which is the First Nations' Policing Program, which, through a lot of advocacy through the Department of Justice, they have been able to add five positions to a regional cohort here in the Northwest Territories with the hope that, with more people on the ground, more officers on the ground, it will better allow them to engage with communities and have presence in the communities.
Mr. Speaker, though there is much more that we can do in my view, in my view, again, as I've said, there are recommendations within the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. There are recommendations in the TRC. We should be looking at those recommendations and being strong advocates with our federal partners so that they are acting on them and so that they are helping us to fund the actions that are being recommended. Mr. Speaker, I will be taking, certainly, another look at them and looking at where we can help advocate for those changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The questions will be for the Minister of health. Over the last few days the community of Hay River has been swirling with rumours that the NWT border is going to be thrown wide open as of Friday and that anyone will be able to enter the NWT. It's going to be a free-for-all. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services please outline what is going on with the border at this time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have come to the realization that the border restrictions we had in place were restrictive and possibly in contravention with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it relates to mobility. We have adjusted our policies accordingly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister confirm who will be allowed into the Northwest Territories under the new border rules? Can anyone just come in to the NWT now? Is it going to be a free-for-all, or do we have different people identified?
The new order is primarily focused on people who are looking to move into the Northwest Territories and are starting or looking for a job in the Northwest Territories and students who may want to study at a post-secondary institution. Leisure travel in the Northwest Territories is still prohibited. If you do not have a job offer, a letter of acceptance from a post-secondary institution, or a signed-off statutory declaration along with an approved self-isolation plan from Protect Northwest Territories or an exception for a family reunification visit for compassionate grounds from the Chief Public Health Officer, you will not be allowed to travel further in the Northwest Territories.
Can the Minister tell me how allowing more people into the NWT will keep the people of the NWT safe? That is a big concern in the South Slave, and I would like a nice, concise answer to that question.
The one thing I do want to make clear to your constituents and to the residents of the Northwest Territories is that the requirement is: self-isolate for 14 days in a designated community is still in place for the revised order for residents returning to the Northwest Territories and for people looking to move into the Northwest Territories. Once a person is in the territories, it's very clear that the Chief Public Health Officer's authority to restrict travel in the Northwest Territories is in play. If you do not have an approved self-isolation plan in place, you will not be allowed to travel further in the territories. If your proposed self-isolation plan is not approved and you cannot come without an acceptable alternative, you will be expected to do your 14-day self-isolation in one of the four GNWT-operated self-isolation centers. Residents will be kept as safe as they are now. It's not a free-for-all at the border.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is good to hear. It does, however, bring up another question. In the past, I have raised concerns over the number of staff that we have to enforce the rules that we have in place. I would expect that we will need more boots on the ground to ensure that everyone who enters the NWT adheres to their approved self-isolation plan with these new rules. Can the Minister assure this House and my constituents that we have enough staff at the border working at Protect NWT to do the job properly and keep residents of the NWT as safe as possible from the threat of COVID-19? If we do not, will she commit to adding more staff? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's a concern for me, as well, as Minister. I can tell you that we are actively looking to replace some of the border staff. Some of the border staff are having to go back to their home departments and do their regular job as we loosen restrictions in phase 2, especially if the summer is here. We are actively looking at hiring and training sufficient staff to man the borders for Protect Northwest Territories using a combination of redeployment of existing GNWT employees, summer, term, casual employees. It is a high priority for myself and the office of the Chief Public Health Officer, and we will do what it takes to make sure that we have adequate staffing levels to keep the Northwest Territories safe as we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral Questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier. Throughout the pandemic, the Regular Members have struggled to receive timely, complete, accurate, and fulsome information about different aspects of the government's reaction to the pandemic.
Once again, we have done our major learning from the news sources: first CBC, and then Cabin Radio. What we now know is that the public health order is going to be changed. I am unclear, first of all, why this wasn't announced in an orderly way, meaning a news release with advance notice to the Regular MLAs and a news release that is released to the public. What we have now is a really confusing mishmash. What was the thinking behind the way this news was released? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I first want to state that the Chief Public Health Officer has the autonomy in order to make orders, and it is really important that, in the act, it says that people can't interfere with her orders. We have to be very careful, as politicians, that we are not imposing on her and making her feel pressured within that. We have been meeting with her as regularly as possible and talking to her about our concerns.
Mr. Speaker, our Chief Public Health Officer is not a politician. She is trying her best to protect the safety of people. She has made commitments, and I think that sometimes, when she is on the media, she kind of gets caught off. I get caught off. I have been in this House for four and a half years, and I still get caught off-guard. I can't blame her for that. The idea was that it was supposed to go to standing committee on Thursday. I think that we are still scheduled to present to standing committee on Thursday, and then it would come out, but she did get hit off-guard by the media, and so she did say that new orders would be coming out. She hasn't defined what they would look like yet, and so I am hoping that that will be shared with the Regular Members on Thursday when we meet with them.
I do apologize if communications aren't as we wanted it to be. Again, we are all still learning within this process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Premier for that response. I am not talking about the CPHO or challenging her autonomy. The remarks were remarks that you made on CBC and then were quoted by Cabin Radio. It's nothing to do with the CPHO.
I am still not clear why this has all been advanced in a way that has created a lot of confusion. For example, what the Health Minister just indicated is not what was in the remarks from yesterday. It indicates that there are still going to be restrictions, that, although there will not be any limit on mobility rights, you still have to fit within these specific classifications in order to come here. What can the Premier do, Mr. Speaker, in order to clarify the situation before Thursday?
Thursday is coming up pretty fast, but if the Member wanted to meet with me after session, I am more than willing to meet. You can give me a call any time. Again, I apologize if it was my comments on CBC. This issue with the border and mobility rights is something that we have been discussing in Cabinet for the last little while. It is an issue. We didn't really come to any firm conclusion. We were just talking about up right until, actually, this morning, we were still talking about this issue.
The Chief Public Health Officer did come out and say that there was going to be a change. When I do media, Mr. Speaker, I would really love if the media just gave me all their questions in advance, and I could be preparing all the answers, but that isn't my reality. Often, they will say that they are going to ask me questions, and then the questions come. For example, today, I did a media this morning, and they asked me four questions that were just totally irrelevant to each other. That is how media works. I do apologize if sometimes I don't give the notice that I should. I will try to get better in the future.
Thank you to the Premier for that answer. It is my understanding that this isn't a CPHO order at all. This is something that was decided by Cabinet and that, in fact, the borders are not fully open. They are only open to certain types of travel. The Health Minister just said that leisure travel is prohibited, so that means that people who were planning to come here as tourists are no longer going to be allowed to come here. This is the source of the confusion when it comes out in dribs and drabs through the media.
Again, we are trying to work closer with our Chief Public Health Officer. Oftentimes, orders will come out, and we are still trying to figure out what that means for us, as well. The border closing wasn't something that was actually designed by Cabinet. That was something that we were looking at the order and deciding, because we have a challenge about the mobility aspect.
If you look at the Public Health Act, under section 11.1(b), it says the Chief Public Health Officer, and excuse me if I paraphrase, may make any order that they consider necessary to protect public health. If, in the opinion, on reasonable grounds, that the order is necessary to decrease or eliminate the health hazard -- sorry, I was reading the wrong part. In 33.1, during the state of public health emergency, the Chief Public Health Officer may, (d), make orders and provide direction restricting travel to or from any area within the NWT.
The order was made by the Chief Public Health Officer. Cabinet was trying to talk about what that order meant. Again, on the legal advice, not recommendation advice that we had gotten, we were discussing what that meant about making orders within the NWT. Those were the discussions that the Cabinet table; it wasn't the orders of the Chief Public Health Officer.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Premier for that answer. Mr. Speaker, I would like to challenge the Premier to have a news conference tomorrow with the Chief Public Health Officer to explain all of this to the people of the Northwest Territories. Thursday is, in fact, still two business days away, and I really feel that we need this clarity now about who can and can't come, who is paying for the self-isolation, when this is going to take effect, and so on. I would appreciate the Premier making that commitment. Thank you.
I think that all of us in this House would like clarification on the orders and how they stand. I can't commit to having a press release on it tomorrow. The reason is because there are many Ministers. It's myself, my schedule; the Minister of Health will be there, her schedule; and the Chief Public Health Officer. We did make arrangements already. Our press release will be on Friday. It is already scheduled. At that time, we will be answering any questions and clarifying the new orders as they come forward, and I suspect that we will get questions on the border and hopefully clarify that, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. There have been public reports that the Alberta provincial government and the Alberta energy regulator have unilaterally decided to reduce water monitoring as a result of the pandemic. The quality and quantity of waters flowing into the NWT from Alberta are supposed to be protected by a Transboundary Water Agreement. Can the Minister confirm whether he has received any notice of reductions in water monitoring from Alberta under the Transboundary Water Agreement? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT was notified of a temporary suspension on March 30th by the Alberta government and the federal government. As well, at the end of April, the Alberta government had reached out to us. On June 1st, the bilateral management committee had a meeting and representatives of Alberta provided an update. We have also received correspondence from the Alberta government on monitoring as of June 3rd. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Minister for that information. We were actually given notice almost two months ago, more than two months ago. Can the Minister explain what kind of reductions in water monitoring have taken place in Alberta and what their impacts are on the Northwest Territories?
Both Environment and Climate Change Canada and Alberta Environment and Parks temporarily suspended long-term quality monitoring across the province as a result of public health and safety concerns related to COVID-19. The suspension includes long-term monitoring on the Slave, Athabasca, and Peace Rivers. It also includes sites on the Athabasca River and its tributaries, which are part of the Oil Sands Monitoring Program. All compliance monitoring is still occurring.
On June 3rd, Alberta Environment and Parks indicated that it has been requiring PPE and developing a protocol to resume routine water quality monitoring in June. Currently, Environment and Climate Change Canada has not indicated when federal government water quality will resume.
I want to thank the Minister for that. I don't think that was actually good news for us, being downstream of Alberta. Can the Minister, though, tell us what action he has taken to protect NWT waters and residents from the reduced water monitoring in Alberta?
In response to concerns about flooding in Fort McMurray in late April, ENR began collecting water samples from the Slave River twice per week from the town of Fort Smith water treatment facility on May 1, 2020. ENR plans to continue this monitoring until mid-June 2020. These water quality samples are being analyzed for nutrients, salts, metal, hydrocarbons, and bacteria. This monitoring has not identified any concerns with water quality in the Slave River to date. ENR staff have completed a prior risk assessment to ensure that annual transboundary water quality samples for the Slave and Hay Rivers can occur this summer safely to reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19. ENR will reach out to the communities regarding proposed monitoring and research activities in their area when COVID-19-related risks can be addressed.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. It's great that we've increased our monitoring while Alberta continues to reduce theirs, and that there is some kind of risk assessments that our staff have done. It would be great to see that. Can the Minister, though, tell us whether he has taken some serious action, like invoking the dispute resolution provisions in the Transboundary Water Agreement with Alberta, and, if he hasn't invoked the dispute resolution process, why hasn't he done that? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
The GNWT has not, I repeat has not, invoked the dispute resolution provisions of the agreement. Instead, NWT interests on prioritizing transboundary monitoring has been communicated at technical ADM, DM, and ministerial levels directly and through the Bilateral Management Committee. The agreement provides for either government to implement urgent activities that are necessary to protect public health or public safety without delay. The agreement requires that data and information be shared and consultation commences as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Honourable Premier. The Chief Public Health Officer's sole concern when issuing orders is public safety. At the start of the pandemic, her experience in exercising her powers was invaluable. However, as the pandemic wears on, government must balance the interests of the immediate public safety with the longer-term interests of continued education and economic recovery. What I would like to know is: how will the GNWT balance these issues with the CPHO's powers as this pandemic wears on? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was trying to remember the name of the framework that we just provided to standing committee less than a month ago, I believe, although my time is running into each other. We identified early on, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit us, that we were facing not only a public health crisis, but people were saying an economic crisis, and I saw a social crisis coming, as well. So we had businesses that were closing. We had people who needed places to live. We had addiction issues, mental health issues, serious issues going on, and so right away we said, "What are we going to do about it?" So we presented to committee and we said we were going to do a framework. We're going to have a team of MLAs with Ministers feeding into it from special committees, feeding into it from the business sector, the social sector, and the Indigenous governments, so that we can actually have all of the opinions from all of the sectors and come out with a plan that addresses all the social and the economic and the health needs of residents of the territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
