Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On May 27, 2020, I asked the former Infrastructure Minister about what specific directions were given to our government from the federal government about the Fort Smith airport changes. This Minister told me that Transport Canada provided this direction in a form of updated standards and regulations for airport runways. The former Minister also offered to share these Transport Canada standards with me. My question is: will our current Infrastructure Minister commit to sharing with me these standards, along with any information regarding previous Fort Smith airport runway standards? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Aerodromes Standards and Recommended Practices, which is also known as TP 312, is a public document. As a result of that, yes, I will have my office forward the PDF copy of this Transport Canada document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand the airport runway standards are only changed by the federal government, which is the entity who sets the standards by which airports are designed and operated. Can the Minister clarify whether the Government of the Northwest Territories requested that the Fort Smith airport runway standards be changed, or were the change of standards initiated solely by the federal government?
Changes to the Aerodromes Standards and Recommended Practices are initiated by Transport Canada in consultation with the Canadian Aviation Regulation Advisory Council. They apply to the entire country and are not specific to any airport. Transport Canada works with the International Civil Aviation Organization to maintain global consistency so any airline or pilot proceeding to an airport with Transport Canada certification knows the airport environment complies with both national and international standards and knows what to expect.
Can the Minister explain how often reviews of airport infrastructure are done in the NWT? Are reviews done periodically within a set time frame, or are they done subjectively, based on the decisions of the Minister and the government of the day?
Airport reviews are done regularly, and they are generally done in conjunction with some of the capital planning processes and when the department is planning any major upgrades.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Infrastructure insists that the changes done to the Fort Smith airport addresses both the current and future operational needs of the airport. If that is indeed the case, the Minister explain, then, why the entire leadership of Fort Smith, along with 550 citizens, disagrees with this statement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
People need to realize that the type of aircraft that the airport is certified has not changed. The Fort Smith airport is still classified as a category IIIB airport, which is large enough to accommodate aircrafts such as a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320 series. These aircrafts do not currently land in Fort Smith. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member's statement today was needing help in our small communities for mental health issues. Is the Minister of Health willing to work with us Regular Members and myself, in particular, to get these teams into the communities to assist our local people who need help in our small and remote communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We recognize that mental health is an important and challenging issue. There are, in fact, resources available right in the community. The child and youth counsellor position at Mangilaluk School is filled, and it is available to anyone who needs the help. There are some vacancies in the Community Counselling Program, but we have, as the Member may know, recently taken a new approach to community counselling so that there aren't wait lists.
He mentioned children, and I have a few things to say about children. The kids help line is available to children and youth. It's available by phone. It's available by text. It's available by Facebook Messenger. It's available by live chat online. It's a great resource. There is a lot there for kids. I also want to mention the Strongest Families Institute app. This is something that people can obtain a referral to through the Community Counselling Program. As I mentioned in my statement yesterday, there have been very good reviews about how helpful the counsellors are in that program. The Breathing Room app, which will be next of our five mental health initiatives, will be live on April 1st, and it is specifically for youth with anxiety and depression.
Finally, I want to promote the Nipaturuq magazine, which I sat here and read yesterday afternoon. It comes out of Inuvik. The third issue is all about mental health. It has first-person accounts of how people are coping with mental health challenges and how they are moving themselves into wellness. I don't know where to obtain that magazine from, but I am sure that the people in the Delta are familiar with this literary award-winning magazine produced in Inuvik focussing on mental health at this time. Thank you.
It sounds all good on paper with what we are providing with regards to services. We do have a shortage of counsellors in our community. The one counsellor, she phoned me the other night in dealing with issues coming up in our communities, but I'm not only talking about Tuktoyaktuk. I'm talking about Nunakput as a whole: Ulukhaktok, Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk. We needed a person, like I said, a person to come in or a team to come in to work with the community on the depression, the alcoholism, anything, anything that they want to talk about to get off their chest. We need help. A lot of people, we don't have laptops for everybody. Not everybody has laptops and iPads and access to stuff like that. I really look forward to trying to work with this Minister to try to help our communities.
Helping communities and residents is what I'm here for. I hear the Member when he says not everybody has the tools to access Facebook, telephone numbers, and so on. There are some accommodations available through the health centre with respect to using the phone, as I understand it. Where communities don't have resident counsellors, there is a travelling team that comes in from time to time with assistance and sees people over a more intense period. I don't know if they would consider sending those teams to Nunakput. I am not sure how well-staffed the resources are there, but that's something I could certainly inquire about.
I want to thank the Minister for that. That travelling team that she just brought up, they should be sent into all communities, other than the central locations. The smaller communities are needing it. You know that, Mr. Speaker; you live in a small community. What we have to do is we have to start trying to help them, in regards to trying to heal them and trying to move forward because this COVID-19 has been hard on everybody. I want to thank, again, the Minister, and when are we going to get these travel teams into Nunakput since she brought it up?
I appreciate the question, but I don't have that operational level of detail with me. What I can do, what I said I would do, is inquire about when the travelling teams might be available to go to the communities in Nunakput, and I will do that on an expedited basis so that the Member has that information.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to meet with the Minister in regard to working together for small communities and try to do a plan, like how I used to do it back in the 17th Assembly, bringing people into the community, as an MLA, travelling with them and to assist them and to help them. I look forward to working with the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am always available to the Member for Nunakput. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The Employment Standards Act attempts to carefully balance the rights of workers and the interests of employers. Recently, I had a constituent raise concerns about how a simple complaint has taken more than four months to get sorted out. Can the Minister tell us whether response times are actually tracked for Employment Standards Act complaints, and can he share a summary of that information now? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are service standards that have been developed for the Employment Standards Office, and those relate to how long between making a complaint or an inquiry and receiving a call back. The length of time between a complaint being made and a decision is not something that has traditionally been tracked. There is a wide variety of factors that determine how long a complaint would take to finalize or come to a decision. There are complaints that take one phone call to be decided upon, and then there are complaints that take months. It's feasible there could be complaints that take years because there are so many variables. Sometimes, even the complaint itself, the two parties don't agree on.
That number isn't something that has been tracked. The Employment Standards Office, in 2019-2020, there were 80 complaints received, and there were 119 payroll inspections, which is something they do; in 2018-2019, there were 79 complaints, and there were 80 payroll inspections; and in 2017-2018, there were 103 complaints and 39 payroll inspections. There was an increase in the payroll inspections, and that's because of increase in the NT Nominee Program applications. Those go hand-in-hand. At the same time, there was a vacancy for a year as well as slow-downs because people were working from home, and it's difficult to do investigations that way. There was a backlog that started building up at the beginning of 2020 and was exacerbated by an increase in payroll inspection applications later in the year. That could account for some of these delays that the Member is talking about. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Minister for that information. I was trying to scribble it down, but I'll catch it in Hansard. The Minister did mention that there are service standards for the employment standards section of the department. I'm wondering: can the Minister tell us whether he can share those service standards with us as Regular MLAs and perhaps even post it to the website? Because there is no information whatsoever about that on the website.
Absolutely. It's a public document. I'm sure it's available somewhere in hard copy possibly; maybe it's up in the offices. I'm not sure, but I'll make sure that it is nice and visible so the Member can find it. I will share it directly with him, as well.
I want to thank the Minister for that. It's great to hear "yes" a few times, so I look forward to getting that information and seeing it on the website. There doesn't appear to be any public reporting requirements under the Employment Standards Act, unlike other territorial legislation such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act or other laws where complaints and decisions are made. Can the Minister find a way to make public, perhaps on an annual basis, the response times and other basic administrative information such as the number of complaints and their outcomes under the Employment Standards Act?
I just saw the Member's questions earlier today, and I already started those conversations with the department to figure out if there is a way that we can get that information public.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, and I look forward to a full report from him on how he is going to make that information public. Lastly, though, it's not clear how many employees there are who handle Employment Standards Act administration and complaints and how staffing and resource needs are assessed. Can the Minister explain how staffing and resourcing needs are determined for the administration of the Employment Standards Act? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Just like anything, we look at what's the need and weigh all of the different competing priorities across the GNWT, and we staff accordingly. Right now, there is a manager in the office who is also an employment standards officer; there are three inspectors; and there is a finance, collections, and information officer. In 2020, one of the inspector positions was vacant, and for the last six months or so of 2020, the finance position was also vacant. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that ENR is the project lead on the Giant Mine and is leading much of our remediation work. There is a bit of a conflict of interest when the arm of government that is responsible for oversight and regulating contaminated sites, if I also ask them to advocate on behalf of the companies to capture benefits that they are regulating, so I'd like to understand what our Indigenous ministry is doing to build a remediation economy. My first question for the Minister of ITI is: in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and our post-COVID economic recovery plan, is the Minister willing to make building a remediation economy one of the pillars of that plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Remediation has been, is, and will be an important part of our economy in the Northwest Territories. It doesn't need to be said any differently than that. It doesn't need to be in any way fancier than that. That's just a fact, and we are already doing much work in that regard. I think already, earlier today, another Minister mentioned the importance of training and education in that respect, and there is no reason why, in fact, ENR would be anything other than supportive of that. This is one government, and we are all prepared to support this work and act with one voice. Mr. Speaker, whether it's myself or my colleague who is speaking to this question, we are all enjoined that this is an important area that the Government of the Northwest Territories as a whole needs to be aware of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm glad to hear that, and I hope, in fact, we can have our entire territory speak with one voice. I think a great way to start doing that is that there is currently a petition tabled by our MP for the territory on behalf of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation calling for an apology and compensation for Giant Mine as well as supporting the Yellowknives Dene to develop the skills necessary to work on remediation contracts as well as conduct long-term monitoring at the former site. I think this is a very reasonable petition, a reasonable ask to make sure that we do remediation right in this territory. My question for the Minister is: is she willing to add her signature to that petition?
I think I have learned that, once one becomes a Minister, one kind of ceases to be an individual, and you pretty much stay a Minister all the time. As a result, Mr. Speaker, I think, if the Member is asking if I would personally sign, that is a conversation I am happy to have over a coffee, but I think what the question is: what's the position of the government? Mr. Speaker, the government is also a proponent on this project. We are a co-proponent on the project. What I have done, though, is looked carefully at what is on the petition. Again, with respect to developing the skills necessary, for the Yellowknives Dene to develop the skills necessary, that should be a question that is directed at ECE. I am sure they are listening just as intently as every other department. We have a responsibility ourselves to help support the Yellowknives Dene to have those skills.
Again, with respect to procurement approaches, procurement is the responsibility of the federal government on the Giant Mine project, but we are co-proponents. We are continuing to engage with our partners at the federal government level and to ensure that we are doing everything we can and making sure they are doing everything they can to abide by the socio-economic agreements, to abide by positive procurement practices. To the extent that there are concerns and questions being raised here, there is a responsibility on our end to look at them, to engage with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and that is the route which I will be taking to do that.
I am sorry to hear that the Minister has lost her individual identity. I quite like her as a person, and I was looking forward to seeing that signature. I am glad the Minister mentioned procurement because I think what has happened is that, due to the federal government being in charge of procurement on this, the GNWT has kind of stepped back on the economic recovery role, but despite numerous requests from the Giant Mine Oversight Board to have the federal government kind of understand the North and understand our labour needs, the federal government has also kind of stepped away from capturing northern benefits here. I think a new approach to how the Giant Mine procurement is going is needed. Has the Minister approached the Treasury Board or CIRNAC or the appropriate federal agency about either allowing GNWT to take on a portion of the contracts or getting some northern labour requirements into those contracts?
Again, it is ENR that is the lead on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories in terms of engaging and leading our role on this project but again working closely with ITI. Even before knowing that this might become a topic today, it turns out the Minister of ENR and I had actually been talking about the project and ensuring that he and I would have a chance to meet in the near future to check in on the role of the GNWT, what we are doing to ensure that Northerners are seeing themselves reflected in this project. Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the procurement process here is one that is governed by the federal component, by the federal partners, but, for the moment, the project does have the following targets: northern employment of 55 to 70 percent; a minimum of 10 northern apprentices are a part of the implementation phase; expenditures are supposed to be at 65 to 75 percent. These are targets that were finalized not quite a year ago, and they are being reported on. They are being reported on publicly. There are different phases of the project, Mr. Speaker. There are different opportunities along the way to adjust. Again, not to understate the fact that the procurement process here is a federal one, we are at the table, we are involved, and the Minister of ENR and I are also going to be re-engaging and continuing to engage to ensure that we have our voices at these tables on behalf of Northerners.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank, Mr. Speaker. I will make sure to ask questions to ENR on this matter at another time. Part of the reason for my concern is that I know many of the people on the project team and I know the work they are doing. It's great, but there is clearly an environmental focus there, as there should be within ENR. I question some of the targets in that they are targets; they are not legally binding. They are not the kind of things you would see in a socio-economic agreement, not that the ones the GNWT currently has are binding either. Is the GNWT willing to conduct some reporting of northern labour and the socio-economic benefits? The reporting to date, the Giant Mine Oversight Board has not been satisfied with, and I do not think we have been seeing the economic recovery benefits that we truly should be getting out of this project. Is the GNWT willing to conduct that tracking? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think step one is going to be perhaps to bring back to the House what exactly at this stage is being tracked and to put that forward, to have that presented, so let me start with that commitment. I expect some of these, as I said, are largely publicly tracked. Let me make sure that everything is up to date and public, and we can look at what is being tracked in terms of northern employment; skill level; status, residential status, whether one is a resident of the territories or not; the training components; the number of suppliers; contract dollar value, so on and so forth, all of which is being tracked, and then work back if there is something else within that that is not adequate or not up to task. Again, the GNWT is involved. We are on the Giant Mine remediation team, and so if, as a member of that team, we are being told that the tracking that is happening and the publication that is happening is not satisfactory, yes, I want to make sure that we fix that. I want to make sure that we are fixing the right things. I will get that to the floor of the House, Mr. Speaker, and then we can see if that is not satisfactory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Can the Minister maybe characterize what the decline in mining operations has been in the Northwest Territories due to COVID and maybe provide a bit of an estimate of the total number of companies that are expected to work on their mineral claims this upcoming fiscal year? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
