Mr. Speaker, the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel in our communities really affecting our people. I really would like to see if our government would be committing to cap fuel prices and increases in our communities because we used to get it at Edmonton rack price so you'd be a year out and it wouldn't really affect. But now that I think they're buying their fuel somewhere else and being shipped around over the top, it might be costing a bit more, I don't know. But is it available or are they willing to work to cap the prices for the coastal communities of Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok, and Paulatuk. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister responsible for Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, indeed the cost of petroleum products has risen greatly across the country and in the Northwest Territories and remote communities are very much affected. Gasoline prices have gone up across Canada on average of 41 cents per liter over the past year. Diesel fuel prices have risen more than 42 cents per liter. And furnace oil prices for consumers have gone up more than 44 cents per liter. Canadians across this country are paying as much as 50 percent more compared to last year.
The department manages the cost of operations to try and limit the rise of prices for consumer but when the cost of fuel products we buy rises, the price of consumer goes up. Unfortunately Northwest Territories is not protected from the impact of national and global fuel price increases. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Ulukhaktok's gas price is $1.94. Sachs Harbour $1.95. Paulatuk, $1.93 or $1.34. Mr. Speaker, this is 50 cents more than anywhere across, like you go in Yellowknife it's 50 cents more back home. People got to live, trying to survive. I mean, not everybody has government jobs back home. We need to try to protect our constituents, Mr. Speaker, in regards to that. MTS I don't think is a makeprofit company because it's owned by the GNWT which I think all that contract that they did get for north warning system, they should be sharing the wealth of it. So in regards to that, I think that something like this, this small for three communities for subsidy, our flyin/flyout community, they should be subsidized a bit and it should be looked at. Is the Minister willing to do, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department cannot subsidize fuel prices sold to consumers through this program. The subsidization is not permitted under the rules of the program. The entire program runs on a costrecovery basis. Each liter of fuel that is sold includes the cost to purchase the fuel from wholesalers, the cost to transport the fuel to the communities, and the cost of commission to two local contractors who sell the fuel. The reason for the rise in the price of fuel lately is because it does cost us more to buy the fuel from the suppliers. This is extremely unfortunate but it is it's not something that the department can affect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with MTS, I mean, with all they're buying bulk fuel. Where are they buying their bulk fuel from. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't know. I could get back to the Member on exactly where we're buying the fuel from. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I bet it's pretty cheap fuel they're buying. So in regards to, because they're buying so much. When you buy that much you get a price, you know, decrease in the price because you're buying bulk. Is it possible, like, the Minister just to look into it to find out. I want to have a breakdown of where the cost is affected in the cost that they're giving it to the communities and if it's possible to get that in writing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think I thought I heard the Member say, you know, asking the Minister if she can look into that and absolutely, that's something I can do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to follow up on my questions earlier this week on the impacts of COVID vaccination policies on employees and contractors who may be unvaccinated if they're working for the GNWT in areas that are under federal regulation. I have additional questions for the Minister of Infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this Assembly what the impacts of federal and territorial COVID vaccination policies will be on employees, contractors, and users of the marine service ferries. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the Member for his questions for further clarification and I hope that, you know, the line of questions actually provide clarification and information for his constituents.
So the GNWT ferries are federally regulated but do not meet the criteria established by Transport Canada. Current federal regulations apply only to vessels that have over 12 staff members onboard the vessel. Currently the GNWT ferry employees and contractors have to follow the GNWT COVID policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the airports division, can the Minister please tell this Assembly what the impacts of federal and territorial COVID vaccination policies will be on employees and contractors at the Yellowknife gateway airport, the regional airports in the larger centres and the smaller community aerodromes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's our understanding that the federal vaccination requirement currently impacts only the Yellowknife airport. It is an evolving process and we continue to seek clarification and understanding of the regulations at our community airports and ferries. Nonetheless, all operations continue to be subject to GNWT requirements. Effective November 15th, 2021, all federally regulated employees, contractors, and other entities at the Yellowknife airport are required to be vaccinated. The federal policy does not allow for accommodations such as wearing PPE and submit to testing. It is anticipated that Transport Canada will announce rules that apply to remote airports. All airports in the Northwest Territories, other than YZF, once they complete consultation and engagements with remote communities and Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, barging is very important to the economy and wellbeing of the NWT. Particularly in Hay River, the community that I, along with the Member for Hay River North, represent. Can the Minister tell this Assembly how the crews working on the tugs and barges will be impacted by federal and territorial COVID vaccination policies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ORC has developed an internal policy adhering to the requirements of Transport Canada. Only vaccinated employees will be hired. This covers all three unions PSAC, SEY and Guild.
Effective November 30th, only vaccinated personnel will be hired for the next shipping season. Southern workers are required to board an airplane. Based on the information gained from the 2021 season, Mr. Speaker, over 90 percent of ORC hires are double vaccinated. Northern workers are required to be vaccinated to gain access to our facilities.
Based on information gained from the 2021 season, like I said we have 90 percent that are double vaccinated. So Mr. Speaker, that's really good news because we've got a lot of work to do in the next sailing season. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And prior to my question, I would just like to ask, you know, people in the NWT that aren't vaccinated to consider getting vaccinated as soon as possible. You know, it will save a lot of headaches for them and allow them to, you know, get on with life in some way.
So, and for the question, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us what the impact on employees and contractors working at the MTS shipyard yard in Hay River will be if they are not vaccinated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, based on the federal regulation requirement, unvaccinated employees will not be hired. This affects northern and southern hires equally.
I do want to add, Mr. Speaker, that COVID19 has greatly affected our lives, our work, and our activities. Getting fully vaccinated as soon as possible is the best thing you can do to protect yourself, the people around you, and help us to get back to a life more like we remember before the pandemic began. Vaccination gives us all an added layer of protection against the virus and helps build our community immunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you Minister. Oral questions. Member of Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for HR. How can the Minister reassure staff at Stanton that it is worthwhile to participate in the current workplace survey being undertaken given the inaction of the government to act on them in the past. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Employee Engagement Satisfaction Survey is actually done roughly every two years, and it was postponed when there was collective bargaining back in 2018 and then postponed with COVID19 so it is actually a regularly done survey.
As for what has been done with it in the past, this is the first one that's coming to me so I can't speak to what may or may not have happened to it in the past, but it's the first one that I'm going to see. And Mr. Speaker, Minister Green and myself have met already before the current crisis facing the obstetrics unit. We have met about what to do to support better support the morale of the healthcare profession in the Northwest Territories. This survey was raised to me as one of the tools that we're going to have so am I very keen to see what's in it. I do encourage the staff to fill it out. And I do really want to promise that we're going to do best to act on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's commitment to look at that and she knows I'll be holding her accountable if nothing comes of it, so.
My next question is what action is the Minister and her staff going to take to ensure that there is enough staffing at the hospital such that workers are free to take their earned leave without guilt, keeping in mind that payouts are not the solution as the nature of the work requires adequate time to recuperate given the trauma that is involved with the work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I sincerely hope that any public servant right now who is tired and exhausted and stressed is not going to stop taking the leave that they need to take. The fact that we're in a crisis right now in terms of the numbers of staffing at Stanton Hospital is not the fault of the staff and I do want them to continue to take their leave. They need to take their leave. The crisis we're in started long before this month and long before last month and, frankly, probably as a result of the fact that people are burnt out and they do need their time. So this is not the fault of staff.
We do want to take responsibility here as the government for it, both myself and Minister Green are looking at this. Again, the Department of Finance is responsible for recruitment. We've seen good success on recruitment in this fall. We've had a number of hires. They just haven't been hired, just some of the critical spots that we needed to prevent what's going on in the obstetrics unit. But there is good results coming of those hires right now. So we're going to continue doing that work continue getting ourselves out there, continue promoting the Northwest Territories as a place to come and start your career and continuing with the graduates out of Aurora College where, again, tremendous results in terms of hiring there.
But, you know, beyond that, Mr. Speaker, there is always more to do. And I have actually been asking in the last few days what other steps we could take with staffing on the human resources side to make sure we're providing the supports to the authority on looking at, you know, who's doing what roles, who's doing what positions, are there maybe other options that can be used to support the folks that are doing the frontline health work. So again, those are things being looked at actively in the moment. We're going to keep working on it until we find a solution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for her thoughtful answer. It's very important for the staff to be hearing from Cabinet that they take responsibility for what's going to on and that there's action that's going to happen.
My next question is what is the department going to do to compensate workers financially for the increased hazard of their work due to COVID as other jurisdictions have? Will this financial compensation be retroactive? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I have enough responsibility but. But, Mr. Speaker, so various forms of this question have been asked I think through the week and, again, I want to ensure colleagues in the room, but particularly the public service, that we do take it very seriously well, two things we take very seriously is first of all the collective agreement and our relationship with the union, which means whatever we're doing in this front certainly needs to involve engagement with the union before we make any policy changes or any proposed changes that would impact on those processes which are so important to us.
We've also been doing jurisdictional scans so we are looking at what's happening in other jurisdictions. We do continue to be the second highest paid jurisdiction for a lot of our healthcare staff. Money isn't necessarily everything and sometimes the situation that we're in can certainly change what's going on in terms of the kind of financing or financial supports people will need.
So we're doing those scans, we're looking at what where we're at, we want to be competitive, and we also want to send some positive messages to our staff. So we are, right now, in real time, looking at whether there's some alternatives but as I have said, there are few things that we need to consider Mr. Speaker, and so that's part of the process we're going through now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a little tip for Cabinet stop saying that the highest wages are being paid in Canada when we have the highest cost of living. Thank you.
Number 4, will the Minister provide details about where the federal money was spent that was intended for frontline workers during COVID. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the COVID money that was received from the federal government wasn't necessarily allocated for employees or staffing or specific to, you know, hazard pay or anything of the sort. There was a number of different very specific pots that we received funding under. I mean, this is what helped pay for our waste water sampling program. This is what helped pay for isolation centre costs. And we've certainly reported on those costs throughout the course of the pandemic. I will commit to getting another update to the House on where the costs have been incurred and on the different funding pools that we have been able to draw from. And so we'll make sure to put that before the House. I would expect we could probably get that before this session's over or soon thereafter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I want to thank her for the invitation that I got to the recent critical minerals workshop. I noted that the workshop was even mentioned in the Premier's sessional statement. Can the ITI commit to producing a public report from that workshop. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am more than thrilled to speak about this. It's a topic that, you know, a little over a year ago when I took over this portfolio, critical minerals, although a huge issue in the world, wasn't necessarily being talked about with the same vigor as it is now here in the territories so I am thrilled to say that we had this workshop. I am very pleased that the Member was able to attend. And most definitely there will be a "what we heard" report.
I am happy we got to the place of having a workshop with such a variety of attendees. But that's just that's really just the first step. So there's definitely going to be a "what we heard" report and it's most certainly going to be public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. The Minister's kind of anticipated my next question which although I specifically asked about a workshop report, not a "what we heard" report but I'll leave that to her. I can confirm that it was an interesting event but the participants came from a fairly narrow range of interests and perspectives. Can the Minister tell us what the next steps are in developing a Northwest Territories critical minerals action plan and how the public will be engaged. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, this whether it's a 'what we heard' or a workshop report, I sometimes don't like to get stuck in the semantics. We're going to have a report of the workshop. We're going to get it out to the public. It's going to outline some of the ideas that we heard from NRCan, Canada, the Government of Alberta, CanNor, the Tlicho government, Det’on Cho, the University of Alberta, Lakehead University, so very much looking forward to getting that out. And, yeah, most certainly. Again, whatever type of title we give this report, that's meant to be a guide so we ultimately have an action plan so that we are positioned in the Northwest Territories to take advantage of the critical minerals ups you know, rising that's happening across the world because we have a lot of those critical minerals here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that but I was hoping for a few more steps in the public engagement. There's probably no doubt that critical minerals could play a positive contribution to greener energy technology to assist with the climate crisis but more work is needed on whether these minerals are the only or best solution. One of the questions at the workshop was whether we could mine our way out of the climate crisis. So I want to ask the Minister, can the Minister tell us what work has been done by this government as to whether we can mine our way out of the climate crisis. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has not suggested that we're going to mine our way out of the climate crisis. In fact the responsibility for climate change, that the climate change action plan sits with my colleague behind me but all of the departments, the LNR department, Lands and Natural Resources and ITI, we are working together collectively to see what opportunities we have to be part of adapting to climate change, responding to climate change, and that's really where the critical minerals part fits in for us, is that it's an opportunity for the Northwest Territories to not only be on the front lines of the impacts of climate change, we can be on the front lines of helping the entire world see change in terms of how we are responding to the climate crisis. The production of minerals graphite, cobalt, lithium these are minerals that are going to be seriously needed in order to meet a lot of the demand for the technologies and that's really the thrust of where we're at now, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I think that the analysis of what contribution critical minerals can play in the climate crisis is essential before we head down a path of providing incentives, subsidies, or concessions. Can the Minister tell us whether there's been a thorough analysis of any subsidies or concessions for critical mineral development now or when and how that work will be carried out? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I mean, one of the major first steps of course of having that workshop, bringing folks together, and now developing and working through the creation of a form of an action plan with public engagement throughout that process. It's certainly been my practice to ask that we continue to go back out to public, to stakeholders, to interested parties throughout many and most if not most or all of the files I'm certainly responsible for. This will be no different.
When we're doing that, that's the time to be asking what analyses are necessary, what steps can be taken, and frankly hopefully to be leveraging the work that's happening in academics, leveraging the work that's happening in the private sector. Maybe not everything has to be done and paid for by the government but maybe we're there to help enable that work and to take average of the work that's already happening. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize that a regular working group has been established to move forward with the Chief Jimmy Bruneau school project. Can the Minister commit to keeping myself, Tlicho leaders, informed on the status and the results of regular working group meetings. Thank you.
