Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Realizing that we haven't yet had to take advantage of it, I always say that any kind of bill or program or federal investment that puts a stronger focus on the northern needs of the North, we're always in favour of that. So that's one area that for sure we'd like to do.
But no matter what what the outcome of the Bill C245 comes, we are pleased with our relationship with the federal government so far and the accessibility that we have to the officials with the Canadian Infrastructure Bank. So we're not seeing any issues at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Premier for that. Of course, I think that there are some changes required with the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and Bill C245 proposes a compact but focused set of changes to the bank that would clearly benefit residents of the NWT in terms of future funding and a clearer focus on northern priorities.
Has the Premier had an opportunity to review Bill C245, and is Cabinet prepared to indicate its support to federal parties and authorities? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The MLA actually across the hall is really good for working with us and providing questions. So yes, I did review the bill just this morning actually once he gave me the questions, in honesty. But in fairness to the Member, the departments have had the bill for a while and had reviewed it, and I'm not meeting with the Private Member that's bringing it forward but the Minister of Finance is meeting with him this week coming up. So looking forward to see those discussions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Premier for that. Great to hear that we're going to actually reach out and speak to the sponsor. And the over six years I've been a Member, I've never really understood the reluctance of Cabinet to meet and work with federal opposition parties, especially during a minority government, to advance the interests of NWT residents.
Can the Premier tell us whether she has ever met with leaders of any of the federal opposition parties, or their critics, or whether she has any intention of doing so before the end of this Assembly? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We've put a really strong focus in this Assembly on building relationships with all governments, federal governments, Indigenous governments, etcetera, municipal governments. So we've really feel that we have a solid, strong, positive relationship with the federal government as it stands today. If there was a time that we needed to, things weren't getting met in NWT; you bet, I'd be the first one knocking on other doors. However, in saying that, when the election was coming up, the federal election, we did send a letter to all of the all of the parties to say what would you have for the North. But again, Mr. Speaker, so far we've had a very positive relationship with the federal government, and we are expecting that relationship to continue for the term of this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, access to healthcare professionals, family diagnosis and treatment is a paramount to our residents.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister of Health confirm if her department is working on a health recruitment and retention action plan and will it identify why it is that recruitment of professional healthcare workers is proving difficult in the North? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, my thanks to the Member for highlighting this area. Yes, indeed, we are keen to recruit and retain healthcare professionals. We have developed a health human resources workforce plan, which will be made public next month. It's a threeyear plan that looks at a variety of measures to bring to bring healthcare professionals to the Northwest Territories and to have them to have them live here over the long term.
Not only that, Mr. Speaker, I have been successful in persuading my federal colleagues at the FPT health ministers' table to create a national health human resources workforce plan. And so there's work going on in several front to address this issue, which is not unique to Canada or even the Northwest Territories but is, in fact, a global issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister confirm that while waiting on tabling the report, if her department has been considering implementing alternative recruitment methods or providing various incentives to encourage healthcare professionals to move North as it appears that we know that the current system just hasn't been working? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have conducted or the nurses association has conducted a couple of surveys to find out why it is that people are not coming here and not staying here. And certainly, we have heard the cost of living here is an issue; separation from family in the south is an issue; the burnout, which we've all heard about in the healthcare professions, is an issue. The labour pool is smaller than it was. And we've also heard that while we have been a generous employer in the past, the gap between what we offer and what's offered in the south has closed in the last few months.
We did, as the Member may know, create a market adjustment policy to target bonuses for hard to recruit professions. We were unsuccessful in having the union buy into that. But we realize that this this is an ongoing issue, and we haven't given up on looking at ways to increase compensation as well as try different recruitment methods.
One recruitment method that I'm particularly interested in is the possibility of bringing health human resource workers from Ukraine who may be part of the diaspora that is occurring now, people leaving Ukraine because of the war. We're certainly interested in having them come to the NWT with all their professions, including health human resources. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister of Health confirm what options are available to residents outside Yellowknife who cannot access timely medical services in their home community due to physician or staff shortages? Does Stanton have sufficient staff and beds available to take on patients from other communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I heard the Member say in his statement that our health was at risk, and I would just like to say that, in fact, we have the resources to cope with the health care demand as it exists now, both at Stanton and in the regional centres. We have protocols in place that enable us to surge with staff and beds to meet the needs of patients and also to assist the telehealth medical professionals in the regional centres and in the health care centres to treat the residents who come their way. So at this point, while our resources are thin, we do believe that we are meeting the demand that is being presented for basic health services. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister confirm if medical travel costs would be available to residents who travel with or without a referral to Yellowknife or a southern community to seek appointments not available in their home community due to staff shortages? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've had versions of this question recently, and I would like to confirm that medical travel only is paid when the patient has been referred by an NWTbased physician for additional care. And so somebody who decides to jump in their vehicle and drive to Edmonton for a diagnostic or treatment services would be doing so at their own expense. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is party to Appendix C of the Salt River Treaty Land Entitlement claim. That section of the agreement remains outstanding, and trilateral discussions remain ongoing.
Will the Premier commit to working with Salt River and the federal government to address this section of the agreement and ensure that full implementation of a 2002 agreement will be fulfilled and go into full effect? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, the GNWT has been actively working with Salt River and Canada on the implementation of Appendix C. Appendix C requires that all parties establish a trilateral working group to discuss the delivery of programs and services to ensure that the programs are available to all residents, and that includes Salt River First Nation members. So the trilateral working group meets regularly and discusses areas of concern that the Salt River might have with the implementation, as it relates to the GNWT programs and services. In fact, the official steering committee actually is meeting today at 1:30. So they're probably either in a meeting still or just finishing up. So we'll continue to meet and make sure that the implementation it's important that people get fair and equitable services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell us what roadblocks have prevented or delayed the Government of the Northwest Territories from fully implementing Appendix C of the Treaty Land Entitlement claim with the Salt River First Nation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm hoping there aren't any roadblocks at this point. I do know that there was contention over it in previous governments in previous years, and maybe even a bit now, about whose responsibility services are on reserve, because reserves have a special category versus selfgovernments in the NWT. But I think the Member is well aware when she was the Chief, and she brought it to my attention in the last Assembly, and said we've never got a housing program in our reserve since the conception, 50 years Minister Chinna said today. So 48 years then, or something, 46 years. And I have to give credit where credit's due. And so when I heard that, I asked the department why and the Housing Corporation said, because it's a reserve, it belongs on the federal government. But I went to the Premier of the day, Premier Bob McLeod, and I said Premier McLeod, this isn't fair, and he agreed with me, and he said, Minister Cochrane, do what you think is right. So we were the first government, in the last Assembly, to give two housing units, I believe, to Salt River, thanks to the Chief of the day. And that work is still continuing. I believe at this point now we have four that are or two more units that are going in for the 20222023 fiscal year.
As well, we just have a municipal service agreement that's in place to ensure that they get access to municipal services, similar to the community of Fort Smith.
And I think we're just if it hasn't been done, I just signed off on an MOU to look at the enforcement issues that Salt River has as well.
So like I said earlier, we believe in equitable and fair access to programs and services and I'll do whatever I can to make sure that happens. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell us if she anticipates that full implementation of Appendix C of the Salt River's Treaty Land Entitlement claim will be fulfilled in the life of the 19th Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't like to guarantee anything that I can't make sure happens, but I can guarantee that we have the full intent to make sure that the rights that Appendix C of the Salt River Treaty Land Entitlement claim is fulfilled to the best of the GNWT's ability. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.
Mr. Speaker, currently Salt River First Nation does not have a yearly operations and maintenance budget for the upkeep of their reserve.
Will the Premier commit to working with Salt River to advocate to the federal government to address this issue and ensure Salt River will receive equal treatment and levels of funding as other reserves across Canada and the NWT do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a shame to hear that the reserves in the Northwest Territories do not get treated the same as reserves in the south. It's something I do not believe is fair. I will commit that if Salt River Reserve bring forward their questions, their requests for the federal government in this regard, I will carry that forward, as I've carried forward to other Indigenous governments that I've met at the intergovernmental council table and said, let's work together. Tell us what your asks are for the federal government and if it falls within if it's not unethical, immoral or illegal, then we will carry that message forward. So yes, if Salt River brings forward their asks, I will make sure that I carry that ask as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
In my statement, I discussed the fact that China has generally been having a monopoly around some of the critical minerals that we're looking at to go forward in the green economy. Can the Minister speak about whether or not, given the current global situation and China's involvement perhaps with the war in Ukraine, if we're seeing an uptake around interests in our resource sector from perhaps companies that maybe were using China before and maybe now are looking for a more ethical source for their resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I haven't necessarily seen a direct uptake as of this moment although I will certainly say that I'm also keeping an eye on the situation globally and on the demand situation. I expect that we may well start to hear more about this as the coming year unfolds. There certainly have been a lot of changes with respect to well, for example, zinc. A lot of attention being paid in the news around critical minerals and metals, around having access to the minerals and metals that are needed for clean energies. And again, certainly, Mr. Speaker, I don't think there's any great surprise for those who follow the news and articles that a lot of the resources in this area right now are coming from different parts of the world and different countries which, you know, may be facing some significant supply chain issues for a variety of reasons, and that is just one more reason why we are putting ourselves out as being a place that should be the next that should be the next place for companies to be coming in and seeing their seeing investment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister and I are on the same page when it comes to how Canada could capitalize and how the Northwest Territories can capitalize on this situation and improve our economy.
In her response, the Minister brought up one of the minerals, which is zinc. Currently, one of the few projects that we actually have progressing towards an actual mine is the zinc project at the Pine Point being operated by Cisco.
Can the Minister maybe give us a bit of an update on where that project is at through the regulatory process, and do we expect that we will be able to start mining there in time for the predicted peak in 2023 for zinc prices? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we've had the opportunity, in fact, to speak with Cisco, to speak with well, with a lot of our advanced projects just recently during just recently during the roundup that was occurring. I can say that they are right now doing they're undertaking their regulatory process. They are well underway. I understand, in fact, that it's moving along steadily and positively.
And I don't know that they'll be in production, my understanding, by 2023, Mr. Speaker, but it will be within the next two to three or I think the next three years, if I have the date correct which, given what's happening worldwide right now, will hopefully still be ample time for them to capitalize on rising zinc prices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And yes, the original 2023 sort of target was definitely prepandemic times, and of course, I'm assuming everything has been delayed as a result.
I wanted to just move on and ask the Minister around another project that could potentially be very critical for not only Canada's strategy but also for economic development in the Northwest Territories. Given that the Tlicho AllSeason Road is now opened, this does open up an area of resource development around the NICO Mine.
Could the Minister speak to whether or not there has been progress on that project and the development of that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again more good news on this front as well, that, yes, the NICO Mine certainly will stand to benefit from the existence of the Whati or the Tlicho road. I understand that they're in discussions or may, in fact, even have concluded discussions with the Tlicho government with respect to an additional spur road that'll connect them.
And importantly, they've chosen a site in Alberta that will allow them to conduct their own processing. So that, to me, tells a story of multi levels of government all being involved, Tlicho government, our government, and now in Alberta as well and which shows, you know, really, that the resources we have here in the North can benefit and make us a place that all of Canada should be paying attention to because they can have benefits that extend beyond our territories but also at the same time, have those important benefits within the territory. So you know, I think this is really an exciting opportunity as well that's one to be paying attention to. I am hopeful that we will continue to see some good news and that they will, you know well, again, I guess maybe I'll stop there. It's a news story, Mr. Speaker, and it's one that is it's worth being told because it's being done, you know, again in conversation with Tlicho government as well as our government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I also agree with the Minister around this conversation as well. I think there's so many great opportunities there around that these roads, and I've often spoke about how we need to have roads in order to do anything in our territory and, really, it is a basic need that we are lacking.
This may be slightly not the Minister's area, but maybe the Minister could speak a bit about I've talked about linear infrastructure corridors in the past, and one of those would be the transmission line to Whati and whether or not there would be the opportunity to run that along the taser versus across sort of pristine or untouched land.
Can the Minister speak to whether her department or ITI is facilitating or leading discussion around this type of multi department approach?
The reason I ask is that, you know, if we were to run power along the taser and along the highway to get to the taser to begin with, this would allow us to start developing along the highway and along the taser as well as offshoot projects.
So could the Minister speak a little bit to where she sees that going and whether or not she's working with the Department of Infrastructure to facilitate those linear infrastructure corridors? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I'm happy to say that myself and Minister Archie, as the Minister responsible for Infrastructure and Northwest Territories Power Corporation, do meet regularly and are the teams of the departments do meet regularly.
It's not only with respect to the taser and Whati and a connection into Whati; this is something that we're looking at on a much larger scale as well with respect to the Taltson, for example, and ensuring that as the Taltson is moving forward that potential projects around the southern half of the of the Northwest Territories are connected, that they are connected in with what that project might look like, that they have MOUs signed and ready with NTPC, Northwest Territories Power Corporation, so that and, you know, to ensure that we're moving forward in a way that's going to provide the best possible business case to Taltson but also a good business case for those industries and for these projects. And so that definitely is a role that ITI plays as a pathfinder and that my colleague is playing as we're preparing work on the Taltson. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on the rollout of our childcare subsidies.
My understanding is that in order for childcare providers to sign on to an agreement, they have to agree to a 2.3 percent cap on a fee increase.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I recognize that if the goal is to get to $10 day, $10 a day childcare, clearly, our agreements are going to have to put a cap on how much fees can be raised. But I think in a year with record inflation, starting our negotiations at 2.3 percent is putting some day homes in a very difficult position. And I don't know if we want to start year one of a multiyear roll out with such a hard bargaining position.
So my question for the Minister is would he consider increasing that cap to at least be allow more aligned with inflation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We I've stated before that the increase that is laid out in the contribution agreement is 2.3 percent, and if there are legitimate reasons why a business or a childcare centre needs to increase that, we're happy to have those discussions.
I think that a lot of the concerns that we're hearing are increases of 20 or 30 percent from programs that are already at the top end of what is being charged for childcare. So we are accommodating, but we're not accommodating increases that essentially wipe out a reduction in parent fees. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'm looking for a bit more of a commitment on from the Minister and when he says they're happy to have that conversation. I know the 20, 30 percent number can be complicated. In some cases, it's day homes who haven't raised fees in years, and so they're well below their competitors. And in other cases, I'm hearing from, you know, daycares who recently decided to give their staff a living wage, something that we are hoping to roll out in the coming years with the pay grid, but now they're essentially they're taking the step themselves, and they're ahead, and they're concerned that the 2.3 percent is putting them in a position to either roll back the living wage or not sign on to the agreement.
So I guess I'm looking to the Minister for a commitment that exceptions will be made for cases where, you know, a day home hasn't raised fees in years or where, you know, someone has taken the step to already do what we want them do and provide their workers a living wage. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I don't have much more to add than what I've just said in that we are going to sit down with providers who are saying that they need to increase their rates and have those discussions. So I guess if that's what commitment that the Member wants, but to say that I'm going to commit to doing these things that are very specific to each individual provider is just something I I can't make a commitment to something when I don't know what I'm committing to. But those conversations are happening, and we realize that we want everyone on board.
This is a major shift in how things are done. We are trying to roll this out. We're trying to get money in or into the pockets of parents, and it is a learning experience. And so based on the experiences we're having here, we realize that perhaps the plan we have going forward needs to be adjusted.
We have a table with the federal government where we can go back and we can say this has been our experience so far; perhaps we need to move some money around from different places to adjust for the realities that we're facing.
We also have money that we provide to childcare providers from the GNWT, and those programs are all up for they've been reviewed, and we're looking to change those so they work better as well.
So there's a lot of room to move, and we want to make sure that we get money in the pockets of parents and we don't negate those returns that they're supposed to see. Thank you.
