Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been asked about this a number of times in the House. Generally, I say that, when there is a demand, there is going to be a supply. The war on drugs has never been won. We have seen it played out across the world over the years. Obviously, what we need is we need people to be able to access help.
That being said, I can't just pass the buck. As the Minister of Justice, Justice does have a role in policing. One of the things that Justice does is work with communities. They create community action plans to identify priorities. However, I think there is more that we could be doing. I am from the same community as the Member. I get those calls from constituents who point out which houses have drug dealers, which ones just got new trucks and when they are going over to the border to grab drugs and bring them back. I am aware that there is an issue, and we need to do more to address it.
I am having those conversations with the department now. I don't run the RCMP; the RCMP are in control of enforcement. What can we do to work more closely with them, and what can we do to support them to help address those issues? I will leave it at that for now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's time to stop discussing the issue. We need to see some action. I ask the Minister if he agrees that people need to speak up more in the communities. What are we doing to provide opportunities for people to report issues related to drugs?
We have Crime Stoppers in the territory. It's a civilian non-profit organization that brings together police services, the media, and the community. It's a place where community members can report crimes that they see and provide this information to police. I know that, when I drive in Hay River, I see a little Crime Stoppers sign. However, I think, like I said, we could be doing more.
When the Health Department runs a new program, you see ads on every single social media platform. You see it everywhere you go. What are we doing to get the word out there that there is this avenue and that people need to participate in crime prevention and reporting crimes? We have lots of comments in here about drug dealers and bootleggers, but the police need evidence to make arrests and, ultimately, convictions. Those are just some of the things that we are doing. What we need to do is make the NWT a worse place to do business for drug dealers.
If somebody reports suspected drug traffickers or drug dealers, one thing they do is they fear for their life, not only for their own life, but for the lives of their family members, as well. What supports are there for people who speak up and are worried for their safety?
I don't have that particular information on hand, but I would be happy to get that back to the Member. It's an important point. If we are asking people to speak up, we want to make sure that they know that they are going to be supported.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reality is that the drug trade is organized, so what is the department doing specifically in response to organized crime? What are we not doing that we need to do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In 2018, the NWT and the federal government signed an agreement, and that was to develop -- it was under the Public Safety, Canada's Guns and Gangs funding initiative. Since that time, money has been coming into the territory that has been funding research for one thing. There have been subject matter experts who have gone into the different communities in Fort Smith and Hay River. They're going to be going to Behchoko, Inuvik, and Yellowknife to examine the issues so that we can help come up with some of these solutions. There's also a budget for community-based crime prevention projects this year, in 2021-2022, and all the communities have been notified that they can submit proposals to create some of these projects. A lot of crime prevention is really community-driven, and we need that community support. We need things to be sustainable. Often, there's one or two people in the community who are really gung-ho, and if they leave or something happens, programs can fall apart. We really need full community support, and through this fund, we're hoping to provide that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I described in my statement the lack of a coherent public registry when it comes to our management of petroleum exploration and development rights. Seven years after devolution and 19 months after changes to the legislation passed, I think the public and operators deserve a lot better. Can the Minister tell us whether she agrees that we can and should be doing a lot better with regard to public access to petroleum rights information? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think this is the first time the Member has raised this concern. I can say I'm right now on the ITI website. I'm searching it and finding that process to be fairly simple. That said, Mr. Speaker, I don't want to continue in circles. I have, after hearing the Member's statement, contacted the department. What I'd like to suggest is that we have the Member sit down with members of ITI to actually look at this website, determine what's not working, determine what could be more clear so that we don't have to keep coming back and having this conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think I've got a pretty good memory, but I don't think I've raised this issue on petroleum rights before. I'm always happy to talk to the Minister. I don't like how there's at least three separate sets of information about petroleum rights on the ITI webpages. Can the Minister tell us whether it's her intention to set up a coherent public registry, and when that might happen?
I was listening earlier to some of the other examples given. I've tried to use some of the other resources that were named and found them very difficult. As I've said, I'm right now looking at the section on oil and gas licences and finding that it meets the needs that I have. I'm in the same situation. Yes, I think this issue has come up generally, that the ITI website doesn't provide sufficient transparency to meet the regulation requirements or the legal requirements that we have. We want to achieve that. We want to be useful to the public. Again, I'm going to suggest that I'll connect with the Member to make sure that we are doing what we can to have a registry that achieves all of the goals that the public needs and that the public has for us.
I want to thank the Minister for that. As part of the first-round changes to our petroleum legislation, we thought we plugged holes like the significant discovery licence giveaways and flipped the secrecy onus to make information public. Further changes were promised including an examination of royalties and perhaps even a legislative requirement for a public registry. Can the Minister tell us when the second round of legislative changes will actually take place and whether a requirement for a public registry for petroleum rights will be part of that work?
There is work, obviously, happening with respect to royalties, more on the mineral resources sector. We're always looking for, obviously, opportunities to ensure that the systems and processes that are in place are working effectively. There's not an intention to review the Petroleum Resources Act again. I recognize that there've been some comments from committee at the end of the 18th Assembly about other improvements that might be available. Again, I'm somewhat in a situation of saying: there's no planned review of the act at this moment. There is work happening with respect to royalties. There is work happening with respect to improving that system, looking at socio-economic agreements, et cetera. If there's more that can be done, again, it may well be that there are ideas that the Member has that would be helpful to hear directly so that I can answer that in a way that is more useful than me saying what is or isn't already happening since I suspect there's more to it than what I may be aware of at the moment.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I recognize I've got a bit of an advantage as I was in the last Assembly. All you have to do is turn back to the original discussion paper on this topic, and it was put forward as a set of targeted changes, that there was going to be a broader review later. I'm happy to talk to the Minister about that.
I was never really in favour of ITI administering subsurface rights when the department has a conflicting mandate to promote resource development. That's exactly the kind of situation the public reviews of the Gulf of Mexico oil drilling disaster said should be avoided. You shouldn't have a regulator also in charge of promoting a particular resource. Subsurface rights administration should be transferred, in my opinion, to the Department of Lands, which is already in the business of managing the surface rights. Can the Minister say why having the same department managing the rights and promoting the industry is not a conflict of interest and when she expects the rights administration will be transferred to another more suitable agency? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
The GNWT is certainly not alone in the way that we administer and manage all of the responsibilities of government, including both promotion of the sector, as well as regulation of the sector. The three territories, to my understanding, have all three very similar approaches in terms of structuring this work. Similarly, at least certainly on the minimum resources sector, Mr. Speaker, there's a similarly even split, between different jurisdictions and managing, again, on the mineral resource sector. I haven't had a chance to review it today for the petroleum resources sector.
Again with respect to having a finance department or an economic development department or a national resources department administering both, that is not an uncommon thing to have a shared responsibility of resource experts doing that work but not necessarily the same people. At the end of the day, though, Mr. Speaker, it's one government, so the entire GNWT is going to be here doing that work, whether it's a different department or a different division within that department, there should be rules and laws in place to ensure that there is no conflict, that we are transparent, and that we are providing accountability in a public forum, whether it's within one department or within different divisions of the same government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral question. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wasn't going to ask any questions today, but I got my answers back from the Minister in regards to medevac in my riding of Nunakput. I'm looking for the Beau-Del. With med-response aircraft and teams, I did ask for the tag numbers on those, identifications for the aircraft that provided services for medevac service. I'm wondering: why do we only have one aircraft in Inuvik and three down in Yellowknife? Usually, they had three into Yellowknife and two in the Delta. We always had a spare aircraft in Inuvik capable of flying patients out when they're called upon. Where is that aircraft, and why don't we have it because time is of the essence in medical problems that we've been having. I know that some of my residents in Nunakput have been waiting eight, sometimes six to seven hours because duty time for the aircraft pilots have maxed out. Starting off, where's the second aircraft for Inuvik? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you. Sorry, I don't have an answer to the question about why there isn't a second aircraft in Inuvik. I do want to say that the average response time is four hours and 31 minutes, so I'm not sure what six or seven hours is about. Thank you.
Yes, average time, four hours, four-and-a-half hours. I had some constituents who had been waiting six to seven hours, so I guess that's one of the long waits that they're having to stand by for. Why isn't there a second aircraft in Inuvik? We have three down here that are used to bring patients to Edmonton. We need a second aircraft in Inuvik. Aklak Air usually had two aircraft when they had the contract. I don't know where med-response comes into play in regard to who owns the aircraft, or are they leasing them. There should be more clarity in regard to where is the second plane.
This is the second time the Member has asked this question. The answer is that I do not have the information. I will find the information and get it back to him in the next session.
Would the Minister reconsider having a second aircraft sitting in Inuvik, either Aklak Air or whatever aircraft provider? They should be looking into having a second aircraft for the safety of our constituents in the Beau-Del as a whole. Would she consider talking to med-response and getting a second aircraft?
I will take that question on notice.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of human resources. First question: is there a system in place to connect Student Financial Assistance and human resources in order to help post-secondary students identify viable career placements within the GNWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Finance as well as ECE do, right now, work together in order to promote the internship program that we have as well as to promote the summer student program that is right now open and to which I am hoping summer students are actively putting their names forward. For post-secondary students who are currently using SFA, they do receive that information about the internship programs and the summer student programs. Again, I'm happy to have any opportunity I have to promote that those programs are now open and taking names. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am happy to help the Minister promote her programs. Can the Minister speak to what career options or programs that are available within the GNWT that are made available to high school students in order for them to plan their careers in the Northwest Territories?
Human resources staff do attend career fairs that happen across communities and attend at different schools in order to promote and make students aware of opportunities in the GNWT. There, of course, are now going to be career counsellors coming out through ECE in the new year to also help promote and assist with different options and make students aware of their different career opportunities. There is the Indigenous Career Gateway Program that looks specifically to Indigenous candidates who might need some support to breach a gap between what is in a job requirement and what their skill set might be coming out of high school, but that's a program that, right now, as I understand, in the last few years, in fact, has grown and is doing very well this year. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it has been a continuous improvement in order to support the continual training and education of students.
Again, the summer student program is open to students who might be going into post-secondary in the fall. I list all these things, and yet I do want to acknowledge that I heard the story that was told by the Member. I am receiving my own inquiries from constituents. We can always do more to promote our programs, so I am still actively looking at what else we can be doing to better improve awareness and involvement of students in our summer student program.
Those were somewhat ECE-related questions, so I think it speaks well to the Ministers breaking down their silos that the Minister of Finance could answer some of that. I appreciate that. My next question is: what incentive does the GNWT have to hire Northwest Territories graduates when the federal funding formula actually encourages the GNWT to hire from outside? I believe we were all told when we came in that one of the best ways to increase our revenues was to encourage more people to move to the Northwest Territories. Can the Minister speak to how this conflicts with our priority to hire more northern students?
I enjoy this question. It's not dissimilar to one that I think the Member has asked previously, and what's interesting about it is trying to figure out whether or not, in fact, the incentive of having more people in the territory should be the thing that we are looking, the $30,000-some that we get from the federal government, when we consider that, for every resident who is here, we have to still provide education and sometimes housing, healthcare services. It's not that we get the free money; we get the money to be commensurate with the programs and services that we need to provide. I certainly don't, in my role as Finance Minister, look at it as a one-for-one connection that, for every person who comes, we get pure, simple money.
That said, growing the population of the Northwest Territories to bring upon economic diversification is a good thing. Growing the population of the Northwest Territories to support our residents is a good thing. Having opportunities for northern graduates to be part of the public service is a good thing. I kind of want my cake, and I want to eat it, too. I want to make sure that we are supporting our northern residents, ensuring that they are having those opportunities, but I don't see that as being a reason to not also bring people to the North to expand and diversify whether it's the economy or our communities.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, like cake, so I hope I get to spend some time with the Minister eating that cake with her. My last question is a slightly different tack. How many employees within the GNWT are on transfer assignments, and while those transfers are taking place, how is human resources and Cabinet ensuring that the backfill is being done correctly and that client service isn't suffering? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I was able to find the first answer, which is simply a number, which is that, as of I believe in February, there were 708 staff on various transfer assignments. As for sort of the more general sense of what are we doing in terms of managing those employees and ensuring that the backfills are done properly, certainly, I have confidence in the people of human resources to be doing exactly that, to be monitoring and managing those systems. As far as being able to provide some background on how backflows have worked and on the numbers, that is one where I would offer to get back to the Member. I suspect there are actually tracking mechanisms in place that I simply don't have access to here, so I will gather that information up and provide it accordingly. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Presently, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is consulting with Ingraham Trail constituents and they are giving them the option of paying $1.7 million to start up providing fire services and, thereafter, $1.2 million annually. I'm a little confused, and in the resources provided, there is no real explanation of what these numbers are, where they came from, or what they're going to get. Can I just have some explanation of what that $1.7 million and, thereafter, $1.2 million would actually be paying for? Is it buying a fire truck? Is it hiring staff? What is that doing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for his question and his constant advocating for the Ingraham Trail. I want to make it very clear to the territory, as well, that Ingraham Trail is located outside of a municipality. It's a cabin built-up area designated now as a recreational area. It is not designated as a hamlet, charter community, municipality, so extending our services outside of the boundary, I'm not familiar with the agreement that they may have had with the city for the years to come. Now, the city has decided to discontinue that agreement for Ingraham Trail.
I want to also just comment and say that, throughout the territory, we do have built-up areas such as these throughout the territory and are looking at providing services to Ingraham Trail. I am very mindful of the time that it would take from Yellowknife into Ingraham Trail to fight a fire. I take all of that into consideration, as well, but just to get back to the Member's question about the funding that he had requested, the $1.7 million, that was a number that was provided by the City of Yellowknife in, exactly, looking for staff and supports and training and equipment, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think the unfortunate reality here is that the residents who built their houses and have lived out there for decades with fire services kind of expected them to continue. Now, the city and the GNWT are in some sort of fight over jurisdiction, and it seems the city wants $1.7 million to accommodate. The loss is really to the people, to my constituents, while this kind of fight between governments occurs. However, I never viewed this as a $1.2-million-annual problem. I thought the city was more in the hundred-thousand-dollar range, that we were going to get this to continue. It is one fire a year. Has the GNWT gone back to the city and made a lower offer? Perhaps we could start this engagement and this conversation at a much more reasonable figure.
Yes, the department did go back to the City of Yellowknife to look at the reduced number and what it would cost for fire services. I also want to elaborate, as well, that we did speak to the community of Dettah as they were interested in providing fire services, as well. However, I just really want to emphasize the distance. The distance, this is a cabin built-up area. I know there are residents at Ingraham Trail, but this is not a community. It is not a disagreement between a municipality and the GNWT. It's finding a solution, an adequate solution, and looking at who are we going to train, who is going to actually offer the services. If we do come to an agreement and if the government had said, "Okay. Here we are. We have money to fund the fire services," there is nobody who wants to provide that service right now. Looking at the City of Yellowknife, it's almost putting them under an obligation, saying this service is required. We are continuing those conversations with the City of Yellowknife, but we are in a really different scenario right now. MACA provides funding to the municipalities. We do not provide funding to cabin built-up areas.
This is stemming from the larger long-standing issues where the GNWT and federal government gave a bunch of people fee simple, they started allowing more and more leases, and they created a cabin built-up area, as the Minister refers to it. However, it is not designated as anything, and people on the trail pay taxes every year and receive no services. They live off grid. They do not receive power, water, or sewer, so it has fallen into this area where, the Minister is completely right, it's confusing who exactly is responsible for what.
However, one of the concerns I have is that the department is going out, and they are consulting that this $1.2 million annually would have to be paid completely by the residents of the trail at a rate of $4,000 a year, which would be higher than the average property taxes in Yellowknife. It will be higher than any other community pays in property taxes. It's a figure that has no basis in how any of our built-up areas work, designated or not. Is the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs willing to pay for any part of an agreement that could be reached going forward?
Short answer: no. We are looking at a possibility and an agreement with Ingraham Trail and continue talks with the City of Yellowknife. We are going out there. We are talking to residents. We are making an effort. However, it is a built-up area; this is a cabin area. We have areas throughout the territory that -- what are we going to start doing? Are we going to be going out to each cabin lease, and are we going to be starting to fight those fires? Looking at this, Ingraham Trail, it's very unique. We are conducting conversations with the residents at Ingraham Trail, and we continue speaking with the City of Yellowknife. I appreciate the Member bringing this up, and I hope that we are able to come to a solution.
