Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that update. But I guess what I'd like to see is the Minister committing to share a little more information with this side of the House, even if there's no progress being made. Like, it's been radio silence, Mr. Speaker, for two months since I last raised this in the House.
So could the Minister commit to regular monthly, maybe quarterly updates, even if there's no progress being made, so I don't have to continually raise this issue in each sitting? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I've stated previously, we receive additional information about the knowledge gap and Alberta's plan to develop regulations, I will share with the MLAs.
To be clear, no discharge of the tailing waters allowed from the oil sands at this time and no decision has been made by the Government of Alberta pursuant to regulations to release oil sands tailing water.
The GNWT understands and shares the concerns with Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, NWT residents, and MLAs on the potential release of oil sand tailing waters and continue to bring their concerns forward to Canada and Alberta.
If the Member wants to get monthly updates, we can't do that right now. We can provide the information. Should the Member, or any other Member, wish to get updates on a monthly basis, come see me, and we'll provide that information, even if it's no response. But we've got a little bit of other issues that we're dealing with right now, and I apologize if we're not being as timely as we can with the response back to the committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for Minister of ITI. That's kind of where the procurement review is falling under.
So with the government undergoing the procurement review, will the Minister ensure that there are mechanisms put in place to benefit northern businesses to the greatest extent possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was really the purpose of the procurement review in the first place, is to ensure that we are maximizing benefits to northern businesses. Some of the challenges of the procurement review include how we define northern business, how we identify northern business, how we identify or define an Indigenous business, and that's why the procurement review has gone through the process it has with a lot of careful consultation across the entirety of the Northwest Territories, including with modern treaty holders and Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister also ensure that all Crown corporations that receive public dollars that we sit in this House do approve must comply to ensuring that they are following the same mechanisms? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are Crown corporations who are not subject to the same procurement rules as the GNWT. For example, the NTPC does follow their own procurement rules. That said, they are guided and fairly closely align with what the GNWT does. So certainly I expect that they will benefit as well from the work that we are doing and can certainly follow my colleagues who are also responsible for the various corporations to see that we are working towards being as consistent with one with the other as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister also commit to ensure that there are processes? We can have all the procurement rules and establish how we are an NWT business, but if there's no reporting or no followup on things that are put on these companies, then if they're not meeting the obligations that we set in this new procurement review, then the review is, in my words, would be worthless. So will the Minister commit to making sure that there are ways to be following up on these mechanisms? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I completely agree. I'm happy to say that vendor performance management has been something that the auditor, or the Office of the Comptroller General has been working on since early days of this Assembly and, indeed, it's one of the areas where there's already been some progress. Construction contracts over $250,000 are already being monitored to ensure their compliance. But as this procurement review goes forward, I anticipate that that system and that process for monitoring will only improve. Obviously once we know exactly what we are going to be monitoring at the final conclusion of the procurement review, we can expand that. But I completely agree that, indeed, we want to be able to do that monitoring to know what we are enforcing to know whether people are compliant and then to also have a better process for a complaints mechanism, that is also included. Completely agree as well that we want to be held accountable and as well as to be able to hold others accountable. So on this point, again, Mr. Speaker, very happy to hear the question and very happy to be able to respond to it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my last supplementary, will the Minister commit if obligations aren't met, that there are penalties going to be put in place so we can ensure that Northerners and northern companies benefit fully in the future? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this too has been the subject of the review itself and is subject of discussion amongst those participating in the various reviews, both during the review formally and since in terms of discussions with businesses and Indigenous governments. There's opportunities both for the potential for penalties. There's also potentially the opportunity for incentives. And I'm not going to commit one way or the other at this point. I'm not going to jump to the conclusion of where the review's going to go other than to say that there does need to be a way by where once an analysis has been done, if someone's not complying with their contracts, that needs to be enforceable. But we also want to be encouraging northern businesses to comply and in fact to even do better, to do a better job of ensuring that they are providing value for residents. That's really been the focus of this entire thing. So in a nutshell, I'm in agreement, and I'm committing to a solution. I'm just not going to jump exactly to what that solution will be at this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Do police officers and those working in the detachment receive Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity training? For example, Government of the Northwest Territories employees take the Living Well Together modules. Can those modules or other Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity training be made mandatory for RCMP officers as well?
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the RCMP are encouraged to complete the Living Well Together training. They are also required to take training called so there's a number of different training opportunities, or rather requirements. One is a Trauma Informed Approach. Another is Cultural Awareness and Humility. Another is United Against Racism. And another is Bias Awareness. And I will say that over the last number of years, the amount of training, particularly related to this subject, has increased. And it's increased to the point where we've added new RCMP officers in the territory because we have so many hours of training that it's taken officers off the job. So there is training. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Has the Department of Justice started working on the plan similar to that I meant to say a pronunciation, not spelling, so I will do it again Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami to improve relationship between Indigenous people and that with the RCMP? And as part of this work, will the Department of Justice be implementing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls final report Calls to Justice? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So here in the Northwest Territories, the Dene Nation and the RCMP have begun working together. They started a pilot project, close to a year ago now I believe, and it's a one year pilot. But that is an effort for some Indigenous leaders, as well as RCMP members, to come together and work together to address some of these issues that the Member is talking about.
The federal government, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Public Safety, have tasked the RCMP to accelerate their reform with a focus on the MMIWG Calls for Justice as well as the TRC's Calls to Action. I've provided policing priorities to the RCMP as well, and they are based on those documents as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. To ensure the safety of Indigenous people and those of police officers, are body cameras worn on police officers? If not, how come? And I know they don't have body camera but can those be made mandatory?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know in Nunavut they started wearing body cameras maybe a year ago, a couple years ago, and they have been testing them out in cold weather to see how they work. It's my understanding that at some point, body cameras will likely roll out for RCMP across the country. And so at that point, you know, then it wouldn't be mandatory.
There are a number of things we have to work out the technical issues, the storage, as in the data storage, and so there's some things that need to be put in place, very expensive things, before we can start doing that. But I expect that at some point in the future that will be happening in the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi. Final supplementary.
Thank you. And I know there are a lot of people that want to know about this, too, as well so can the Minister explain to us what kind of deescalation training do RCMP officers receive? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Without a heads up, no, I can't detail the type of deescalation training that RCMP officers receive but the Commissioner of the RCMP did receive a new mandate letter today from the Minister of Public Safety and in there, there was comments about reviewing that type of deescalation training, to make sure that it is actually appropriate and doing what it is supposed to be doing. But I will provide the Member with a written followup regarding deescalation training. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement today, I spoke about renaming places. And the first one I'd like to ask about is our Heritage Centre, which I believe is timely, as the Prince of Wales, whom it's named after, was just recently visiting it. And Mr. Speaker, I think it's long overdue that we rename this place. And I just don't really believe there's much connection to the Prince of Wales and our history and culture. And as a bit of a sidenote, I note the Welsh independence movement is gaining steam so maybe one day there won't even be a Prince of Wales and we'll just be forced to rename it.
So my question for the Minister is are there any plans or an update on renaming the museum? Perhaps he got to ask ole Chuckie Boy there whether we could take his name off of it while he was here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can do what we want with government owned infrastructure when it comes to naming. We don't have to ask anyone's permission. We pay the bills, we can name buildings what we want to name them.
Any change in name would be tied to some sort of a retrofit of the building, some other changes. There are plans to look at how we can perhaps fund the museum differently. We're working on a revenue study. We expect some renovations, which are required for the building and so any changes would be part and parcel of that. But I foresee that in the not too distant future we'll likely be having this conversation about the name once these other elements start rolling. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that. And I think it's an important discussion to have with the people of NWT. And along those same lines, you know, I think there's been consistent work to stop using the term "slavey", to stop referring to things and, you know, the use of "slave", but obviously our lake, Great Slave Lake, is named after that history. I'm just wondering if the Minister can speak to whether we can put forth the same plan to rename Great Slave Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to commend the Member for the strong antislavery stance he took in his Member's statement.
The GNWT isn't the one who puts forward name changes for a geographical place. We have a geographical name policy, and it states that those changes come from the community. So we actually have received a request from the community to change the name of the Great Slave Lake.
We work with the Geographic Names Board of Canada on that, and there is a process. It involves community consultation, consultation with Indigenous governments, and we are undertaking that now. So the process is well underway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I look forward to the Minister providing a bit of an update on how that naming process goes.
And I guess I'll just carry up the valley, and I'll start with the river named after Alexander Mackenzie. Fine explorer. You know, he did some good mapping. But ultimately his claim to that river is that it wasn't leading to the Pacific. So I'm just wondering if, you know, many of us don't refer to the Mackenzie River by that name. We use Deh Cho already. I'm wondering if there are any plans to remove the Mackenzie River name? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And if the Member doesn't like the "Mackenzie River," he can use any of the other six official names. The Mackenzie River, in 2015, wasn't renamed per se but there were names added to it. So a single geographical feature can have multiple names, and they are all official, each one as official as the next. And so the Mackenzie River does have a number of official names. Can be used in official documents. So that work has already happened. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I think there would be one last step in that perhaps is to just give it five official names and we could knock "Mackenzie" off the list there.
And similarly, I'd propose that for the mountains. I actually don't think many people know that the Mackenzie Mountains is not Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer; it's Alexander Mackenzie, the second prime minister, you know, well known for the Indian Act, an architect of Indigenous people's genocide. So I'm wondering if there are any plans to work with I recognize that one, it borders with the Yukon so we have to work with the Canadian geographic naming people whether there's any plans to rename the Mackenzie Mountains in the works? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And we have the Mackenzie Mountains. There's Mackenzie Islands, Mackenzie Island, another Mackenzie Island. And they're all named after different people. So we have quite a few different features in the territory. We are 1.3 million square kilometres after all, and we can't do everything at once. So we are not in the process of actively pursuing community support for changing names because that has to come from the community. If that came from the community, we would be happy to do that as per the policy.
And I will point out there are over 400 Indigenous names that the department is currently working to make official for different geographical features in the territory. So there is a lot of work happening on this front right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question will be for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Kind of in the line of my questioning with the procurement as the Minister of ITI under the review said, you know, they don't really have a say over what the Power Corp Crown corporations do. Would the Minister be with her board, which is a lot of our deputy ministers that are working in the procurement, would she consider looking at the way that their procurement review is done to ensure that northern businesses benefit from contracts as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can definitely bring that up with the board. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's great news. And I'd also like to ask the Minister if within the discussion that they bring up with the board, you know, making sure that when they do it that the same things are put in place, the review, the followup, is put in place so that way they can ensure that any contracts that are given to corporations that they're following through with the commitments that they make. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that NTPC has different needs, and that's why they went out to an invitational tender. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I fully understand that there's different needs. I've read the policies. I understand the community. I know that there's corporations companies that are in the region that probably could have got the job done months ago when it was first, but that is it why I'm asking for this review to be done because this are things in place within Power Corp within the Power Corp, within the Housing Corporation, that we have locals that can do these jobs and we need to ensure, as a government, that we are putting those things in place, whether they're Crown corporations. These are public dollars given to us. We approve them in our budgets. Will this Minister commit to making sure that there's mechanisms put in place so Northerners benefit? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can look at the results of the procurement and perhaps review and adjust as necessary. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you. And one last request. I would ask that the same penalties be put in place if they don't follow obligations. Would the Minister be considering that as well or bring that to her board when they put it under consideration? Thank you.
