Thank you for that commitment, Premier. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. And look, no disrespect to the deputy minister; I know he's very hard working, I just need to get a political commitment from my colleagues across the aisle.
So I'm a bit surprised to hear that nobody really knows if we actually have a formula for calculating this on an annual basis and that it's not reported annually. So my suggestion, recommendation, is that whatever the formula is, that it should be transparent and that it should be recalculated on an annual basis. And I imagine that this is something like, it was done in 2014 with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities. There was a 2019 sort of update or reassessment but I think it still used figures from 2014. So I don't think we've actually got a transparent way and an annual reporting of what that gap is. And I think that's part of the problem with having a vague target like this of $5 million. Well, $5 million when and where and so on. So that's all a recommendation that we need to have a formula. It needs to be transparent, and it needs to be reported on annually so at any point in time if federal dollars fall from heaven or some other funding comes free, then we know what the gap is and how we can start to better close that. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Those are comments, and if the Premier cares to respond that will be great. Thank you.
Premier.
Mr. Chair, well I do know that Municipal and Community Affairs does keep track of the capital amounts that they get from the federal government. The difficulty with having a formula, Mr. Chair, is that the years back, and I can't remember what year it was, but the GNWT did a good decision in my opinion, was they signed what was called the new deal, which meant that city municipalities were allowed to define their own, what they wanted to do instead of the GNWT telling them what to do. But when the the bad point there's always good and bad with everything and what happened that with that that wasn't so good is that instead of saying you have a community of 500 people so within that community, like it was before, you can have an arena of this size or a gym of this size like we do for some things, we allowed the communities to do what they wanted. Some communities made great big recreation centres that all of a sudden put it out of out of whack. You know, 500 people and you got a rec centre that meets the needs of an Olympic team. That's the reality of what happened. So how do you make a formula that addresses that? The only way we could address that, in my opinion and that's because I used to be the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. The only way we could address that, in my opinion, would be to do the research every single year which is not financially feasible to do either, and a bit disrespectful. So I don't think that we're going to be able to come up with a set formula, Mr. Chair, because of the because of the new deal and allowing municipalities to do what they want with their money. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just very quickly, it was done in 2014. There's no reason why it can't be done again. And as I understand it, it has to do with an asset base that changes in value over time and I don't think it's rocket science to recalculate that. It was done once or even calculate it once or twice, or do it on some sort of regular cycle. But to just keep reverting back to 2014, that's not good enough. Thanks, Mr. Chair. And I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions on reduce the municipal funding gap? Oh sorry, Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. I just want to make sure committee is aware or the committee here is aware that we are reviewing it this year. We are working the NWTAC on this exact issue right now. So we are reviewing it.
Also I want to advise committee that I'm I have had a conversation with the president of NWTAC. We are looking at a triterritorial meeting with the three ministers and the three NWTACs, their equivalents in the Yukon and Nunavut. We are trying to work on scheduling that meeting and going to the federal government as a triparty approach to it. As well as they will be reaching out to the Premiers' offices to try to meet it at that level as well. But they they're just talking about that right now. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions on reduce the municipal funding gap?
Seeing none, Committee, we'll move to pages 28, 29, strengthen the government's leadership and authority on climate change. Questions?? Ms. Nokleby.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the items here is to work with the national and international organizations to advocate for the consideration of our unique perspectives on climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation.
I'm concerned when I look at the strategies on the government's website that a lot of talk there is about adaptation but there's not a lot there around the mitigation part of this work, and I'm worried that, again, we're being reactive instead of proactive. And I understand now, from my time with the Minister of ENR at COP, around, you know, the difficulties and from the time in the House here, the difficulties around us mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in the territory. However, maybe can the Premier speak a little bit to whether or not that work is being done, if we are heavily I mean maybe just some thoughts what she thinks about the mitigation versus adaptation and then perhaps I'm guessing I'm going to be hearing from the Minister instead. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Premier.
Chair, that'll go to the Minister of ENR, Minister Thompson.
Minister Thompson.
Yeah, so the mitigation there is very much the federal government's being the lead working with them, and I say when the lead, they've given us a lot of the money that we are dealing with it.
What our biggest challenge is right now is the adaptation. They don't like, they haven't even developed an adaptation national strategy on it. So we're trying to work with them. So we've been able to access money, whether it's from various departments that help with the mediation of this very difficult issue that's impacting us for numerous years. So, yeah, we are there is money there. We're working with them on it. But it's the adaptation that we see that is our shortfall right now. And because the federal government has not developed a national strategy on it yet, they are just in the process of it so we've been working with our federal counterparts and our provincial counterparts on that. So hopefully that answers what she's looking for. Thank you.
Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.
I think that just kind of emphasized what I was saying, is that the focus seems to be on adaptation and nothing around the mitigation part, and I guess where I'm going with this is I'm always this comes back to the conversation about putting the money upfront in order to do things right to begin with so that we're not then playing catch up later on. That's exactly what mitigation is. You know, I had mentioned around the flooding last year that I had been hearing for years about erosion of the banks of the river in Fort Simpson. The Minister's well aware himself. And so therefore, you know, nothing was really being done or discussed to prevent that occurrence from happening. I never saw rip rap, things like that. There wasn't talks about protective measures within the Mackenzie. And I'm not saying that maybe those aren't feasible but this is where I get worried that we're not being proactive and we're not looking at mitigation and building that into our process now so it's not something that we have to come back to later. I think a good place for this to sit and needs to be maybe better emphasized is within the Department of Infrastructure with our new builds and our new plans around that, our building maintenance, all of that. And I guess I'd just like to hear a commitment maybe from the Premier and the Ministers that there is going to be a greater look and they will personally look into what's being done under mitigation and emphasizing that more within the departments. I think it is a piece that's missing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to turn that to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Minister Thompson.
Minister. Thompson.
Okay, yeah, so the thing is is that we are dealing with specific situations. We are looking like IE the Tuk situation, we are looking at how it's impacted. We're working with the municipal governments to see if there's funding through mitigation. The federal government has a lot of money in mitigation. They do have a lot of money. What I'm saying is sometimes it doesn't fit into our scope of things. We have been at the table. We've been asking them. We work with Infrastructure on these things. Again, we are the lead on this but we work with our departments. We meet at the national table. We meet at the federal minister when myself and you were in COP, I had the opportunity to meet with the Minister from Ontario, and we were actually talking about mitigation and how it how the funding works and how it and, again, it was about our argument is about per capita does not work for us. We our situation, we only have 40,000 people but our situations are more unique. And so it was again educating and trying to work with them as well as working with our federal counterparts when I had the opportunity to meet with the climate change ambassador, we talked about that as well. So, yeah, we are working on it. I'm more than willing to work with my colleagues on it. To make a long sorry. My longwinded answer, yes, I'll we're working on it. Thank you.
Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.
Thank you for that. I guess I'm going to try this from a different approach.
So we all know that if we can reduce our fuel consumption, we're going to save us money. So I think where I'm looking to see a commitment is to build out the capacity within the Government of the Northwest Territories to do mitigation because as I listen to the Minister speak, what I'm hearing is we're focused elsewhere, we are other things that we are having to prioritize because of need, and that a lot of that is being directed by the federal government. And as well too, it's very hard for us to drop our fuel consumption given our specific needs. However, again being proactive, if we could build capacity in the mitigation part and start like we do for many other like, areas that span all departments and having those people strategically within departments, we will save ourselves money in the long run and we will save ourselves grief in the long run, and perhaps then we become a forerunner and the federal government wants to give us more money as a result of doing well. So that's where I'm looking is just to a commitment to look into increasing the capacity within the GNWT for the mitigation piece. Thank you.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think what I'm hearing the Member saying is that it's bigger than just the Municipal and Community Affairs. It's like an allofgovernment issue. I always like to get federal money. So what I can commit to is that I will I will bring it to a committee of Cabinet, I think the Member knows that, and so that we can have a more fulsome discussion as Cabinet to look at what we can do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for that commitment, Premier. Ms. Nokleby.
I'm just going to run with that commitment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Questions? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So on February the 9th, 2021, it's over a year ago, the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources announced that the terms of reference for the NWT Climate Change Council were finished. Council seems to have met a few times but I don't even know who sits on the council. There's no web page. There's no nothing in terms of products, communications. Is there actually a climate change council in place? And who sits on it? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's for the Minister of ENR, Minister Thompson.
Minister Thompson.
Yes, the committee, they're the council sits and it's Indigenous leadership. It is a committee of theirs, and we work with that committee. It is not a sub part of, you know, government. It is a climate change council that we work with. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister for that. Could there not be a web page or some information about the council made available? Like, who sits on it, even maybe the terms of reference somewhere. Is there a work plan? Are there technical committees or advisory committees that have been set up? There's just total absence of any information whatsoever about this body that's supposed to be leading some kind of climate change initiatives. So can the Minister make a commitment to get that work done? Because nobody knows what's happening. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister Thompson.
Thank you. We will reach out to committee and try to get this information there. We're not going to do the work. They it's been done. We are working with them. I need to really stress we are working with the climate change council. They are not a subdivision or a thing of our government. When I say that, they are an entity on themselves. We are working with them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, just I wasn't clear on what the Minister's proposing. Is he can tell me privately what's going on which is you know, maybe I can get more information out of him by wandering down the hall but there's nothing to the public, and I guess that's my concern and issue is what you know, can the Minister work with the council somehow so that people even know who sits on this, what they're doing. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister Thompson.
That I can do. Thank you.
Thank you for that commitment. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I'll be asking the Minister about this in May/June. So head's up. I expect to see something done publicly on this before May/June. And especially if it's reported in this mandate thing as progress report as something being done.
I want to move on though. Today the federal government announced a new climate change target of 40 percent reduction from 2005 emissions by 2030. That's an additional 10 percent from even what the panCanadian framework says.
So what is happening in terms of our own failed Climate Change Strategic Framework and Energy Strategy that is based on a you know, the panCanadian framework, which our national government has now moved beyond? Is this new 40 percent target going to be incorporated into our work? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just learned as well that the federal government just released the new reduction plan today, and my understanding is they're going to be briefing the provinces and territories tomorrow. So until we get a full briefing of that, I can't make the commitment of what that looks like because I don't know. So what, again, I can commit to is that we do have a committee that looks at these things. And so the same committee that I said I'm going to bring mitigation to, at the same time we'll bring the new federal guidelines to and get back to committee, whether that be a briefing to standing committee or what it may be, then we'll do that at the same time. But I can't commit on something I don't know yet. I've been sitting in the House all day. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Premier for that. I'll be raising it again in May/June to find out, you know, if we're going to actually move beyond the 30 percent target ourselves. And I've suggested that we need to have at least netzero by 2050, that's the emerging global target if we're going to try to save this planet. But I'll have more questions in May/June then for the Premier and the Minister on this. That's all I have for now. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Questions? Are there any further questions on strengthen the government's leadership and authority on climate change?
Seeing none, Committee, we will move to page 30, ensure climate change impacts are specifically considered when making government decision. Questions? Questions? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I know I've raised this before. There's some sort of Cabinet guideline or I don't think it's fair to call it a policy document but can the Minister tell me or somebody tell me whether that's actually been published and made available to the public at this point? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to turn that to the secretary to Cabinet. Thank you.
