Merci, Monsieur le President. I attended a socio-economic forum on December 5th, 2022 put on by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment as part of its work to review socio-economic agreements. The GNWT has six such agreements in place covering large resource development projects. These negotiated arrangements provide for commitments around employment, training, contracting, monitoring, northern preferences, and more in unenforceable agreements which are apparently the main tool for benefit retention. These agreements could become legal requirements for larger mining projects that anticipate spending $75 million and create more than 250 personyears of employment over five years.
The socio-economic forum was attended by about 50 participants. There was a very narrow crosssection of stakeholders, mainly ITI staff, mining industry representatives, and a few Indigenous government staff. I raised the issue of more inclusive participation in this event many times over more than two years. For example, on February 26th, 2020, the Premier, on behalf of the ITI minister said, in this House, "we will engage with all applicable stakeholders in this work."
Despite my repeated attempts, no one from the Northwest Territories Association of Communities, Status of Women Council of the NWT, Chambers of Commerce, NGOs, the Northern Territories Federation of Labour, or even Aurora College, was invited. ITI hired a facilitator from Victoria, British Columbia for the event. It is not clear why DPRA, who prepared an extensive review report on the Socio-economic Agreement Program, did not make the presentation on their own; rather, we got ITI providing its interpretation. And that full report, only released quietly after the event, clearly shows that our approach to socio-economic agreements has failed to maximize benefits.
Small groups were formed to answer a set of questions, predetermined by ITI, that had little resemblance to the research undertaken and the opportunities to improve benefit retention. In my view, this event was poorly designed and organized with a narrow crosssection of stakeholders, workshop materials were not made available until shortly before the meeting, and the full report only released after the event.
The next steps are not very clear, Mr. Speaker. Will there be any public engagement on this work to improve benefit retention, a mandate item for this government? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Hay River South.
