Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I am quite happy to confirm while the carbon tax itself remains for us a commitment under the panCanadian framework of clean goals and climate change, that's the federalbased system and that's why we have to continue to adapt ours. In the online annual report that is put out by the Department of Finance on carbon tax, in the message from the Minister it does quite clearly, say from me, the carbon tax is intended to encourage carbon conservation and the substitution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
So, Mr. Speaker, that's quite clear. There's a number of other. I took the chance to have a quick look at Hansard just to make sure I'm being very clear. And it is important that people realize no one likes paying more taxes, no one likes the carbon tax, but there is a reason behind it. I want to find solutions that will reduce carbon taxes in the North because so that we have less reliance on fossil fuel use. That's the point of the carbon tax, is to get people off fossil fuels. And, Mr. Speaker, again, I realize we all know that that's difficult in the North but, nevertheless, on another occasion I had the chance to say we don't want to be on fossil fuels; it is not helping the climate. It's expensive. It's not the way of the future.
Fundamentally, this is what we need to do. So semantics or not, Mr. Speaker, we do need to find a pathway off of fossil fuels. And the last one, just to make sure that we're very clear, Mr. Speaker, I think it's when we had some federal Ministers visiting us here, we want them to see the lack of alternatives. If there's federal money that it can start to come here so we get off fossil fuels. We need to do that for climate change reasons. We need to do that for the cost reasons, and we need to do it because it's the right thing to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year the Lutselk'e Dene First Nation purchased the Frontier Lodge just outside their community. It's a lodge that will be able to provide employment, training, and opportunities for the First Nation. And it's managed by Corey Myers who is the general manager for Frontier Lodge and already, as you know, the lodging industry here in the Northwest Territories is full swing right now, and I just want to mention that the you know, the lodge, Cory Myers, received a letter from the health and social services department talking about the current water system they have is no longer acceptable by the GNWT.
Mr. Speaker, we want this is a concern to the chief and council in Lutselk'e, and I know Mr. Myers has been working diligently with the Minister of ITI and they've been making some good progress in some areas, and they have a real good relationship. But right now as it is, it's concerning now that the lodge is, you know, may be forced to either close if, you know, the system is not upgraded right away. And we need to take a look at a system, and we need to either need to work together with Mr. Myers, chief and council, ITI, and the health Minister Ms. Julie green there, and if we could work together trying to figure this out so that, you know, some of these barriers we could work around and still provide, you know, employment and training to our people in our communities.
And so anyways, I just wanted to maybe just ask some questions to the Minister.
Can the ITI Minister tell me how many remote lodges were told that they must significantly upgrade their water treatment system before being granted essential operating permits? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Deputy Premier.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to redirect the question to Minister Julie Green. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Deputy Premier. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, water regulations are under the Department of Health and Social Services. It's my information that the environmental health officer has been working with the Frontier Lodge to resolve the issues around permitting that have arisen, that this work has been ongoing for a year, and that what we're trying to achieve here is public safety. We're not trying to put anyone out of business or to inconvenience. We actually regulate collaboratively, if you will, with the operator to ensure that it's a resolution that is feasible and practical. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister, health Minister Julie Green. I guess my question would be to her again now is, you know, in terms of can you also explain what have changed since last summer when Frontier Lodge was granted their food establishment permit that makes their existing water treatment system inadequate now? That being a question to the health Minister. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the regulations haven't changed in more than a decade but the information available about the water system has changed, and that's why we're at a different footing now than we were a year ago. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Minister. Mr. Speaker, other remote lodges continue to operate with their existing water treatment system. Can the Minister explain why Frontier's not being given the same opportunity? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's true that some small lodges are exempt from the water system regulations; however, Frontier is not a small lodge; it's more the size of Blachford Lodge, and so the water system requirements are different for Frontier than they would be for a smaller lodge. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister provide a reasonable explanation for the lack of consultation with remote lodges with no communication between her department of health and department to properly assess the impacts of these changes to regulations before health and social services started enforcing the new water treatment standards? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, the regulations themselves haven't changed, and the department is working with the operator to resolve the situation around the permits. And so I encourage the MLA to transmit that message to the operator. I certainly don't want to see them lose a season of business. I went there last year I don't think the Member was there, but I went there last year on a retreat and it certainly is a very nice place to be, and I think that this is a problem that can be resolved so that others can enjoy it as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are about water but in a different area. I am going to ask the ITI Minister about the fish plant.
So given that we've heard a lot about the impacts to Hay River and the South Slave with the fires and the flooding, can the Minister speak to what is being done to support the fishers to ensure that there is enough production of fish to go through the plant and not make it a folly? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Fish Revitalization Strategy from back in 2017 speaks to these exact challenges. Unfortunately, rather than seeing production go up from the time of 2017, production has only continued to go down. We are nowhere near hitting our quota on the lake, and it certainly is going to impact the fish plant. There's no secrets to that, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we need to work with the fishers. We want to ensure that they know that we're working actively to make sure that we are not going to remain under FFMC forever. There's different pathways to get there, Mr. Speaker, and I've asked to make sure that we have one available and ready to go. We've been hoping the federal government would help us provide that path. It hasn't happened. So we're going to have to chart our own way through.
In the meanwhile, Mr. Speaker, we continue to provide direct supports to the industry. There's shipping and freight supports. There's SEED money to support having infrastructure available, new boats, etcetera, to support some of those costs. And, Mr. Speaker, again, but really, it's wanting to ensure that there's well, there's an entire commercial fish program, Mr. Speaker, that has different supports available to them. Perhaps I'll stop there lest I go too long but I do want to acknowledge that we certainly are aware of this and want to ensure that the commercial fish production, any subsidies are tied to ensuring that we're getting those production numbers up. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister being brief. There's been a lot of Ministers' statements in QP today.
My next question has to do with that support for the fishers. It's my understanding out of a recent meeting, there is a long list of unmet obligations by the Department of ITI with respect to the fishers and the fish plant. So can the Minister speak with what is being done to meet those action items that were discussed with the fishers and ensuring that they have a healthy fishery? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was recently in Hay River. I attended there with the deputy minister and assistant deputy minister. We sat down together with fishers and with representatives from the Tu Cho. It was, I believe, a very productive meeting, Mr. Speaker. It gave us the opportunity to have action items.
Mr. Speaker, I think we need to I want to be realistic. I know that the fishers have also been evacuated from their homes, from their communities and from a critical time when they should be preparing to open the summer fishing season. That certainly is has no doubt interrupted some of the back and forth necessary to move forward. But that said, Mr. Speaker, I know there are funds available that we were alerting our colleagues in Hay River to around training, to ensure that they can bring new fishers on, mentors on, and we're going to work with those interested to see that those funds can be available, that they can apply. Normally this would be an application to ECE. In the circumstances, Mr. Speaker, we're going to try and make we're going to ensure that we can support people to have those applications done so that they're ready to hit the water. And, Mr. Speaker, I'm following on those action items myself. It's not been it's not been that long, and there's been an evacuation, but as far as making sure that they're going to be moving forward, Mr. Speaker, that is why they are reduced down to an action item list that gets passed around between the parties. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm not sure I would have called that answer brief, but I do appreciate the Minister's response.
Can the Minister tell me whether or not she thinks it's appropriate for her staff to be going outside lines of communication and contacting fishers directly? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I don't know what the lines are of communication that look to have been breached but, Mr. Speaker, the job of officials in ITI is to be in direct contact with fishers all around the lake. And I would expect them to continue to be in contact with fishers all around the lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
I find that quite an interesting answer, Mr. Speaker, given that I've been cc'd on the correspondence between the Minister and the fishers regarding this exact situation. There is a line of communication that comes from dealing with entities that have executive directors, that have managers, etcetera, and to go outside of that to other people within that organization, to circumvent or undermine the leadership, is inappropriate, Mr. Speaker. The Minister needs to get her staff under control. I will leave it as a comment. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. I'll give the Minister an opportunity to respond.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of confidence in the staff of ITI. They are dedicated to the fish revitalization strategy. They are dedicated to the relationship they have with fishers and dedicated to the relationship they have with fishing organizations, including the Tu Cho and including the fish federation. So, Mr. Speaker, I will on behalf of all of the staff, and the public servants who may have been listening just now, I do want to say that I have confidence in their skills. I want to encourage them to continue working in this industry, and all of us are going to be on the path to revitalizing the industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, I'd just like to remind you to respect the rules of the Chamber. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my original questions were geared for the MACA Minister, and unfortunately, or fortunately, for him, he's not in the House for the next couple days. However, I do have questions for the housing Minister.
I understand there were several public housing units operated by Housing NWT on the reserve on KFN, all who had to evacuate. My question is what arrangements were made to accommodate these evacuees to find suitable temporary accommodations in other communities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for his question. We do work with the emergency management team as well. So with those evacuees for public housing on the K'atlodeeche Reserve, they were encouraged to come here to Yellowknife to the emergency centres. And with that, we did follow up with the public housing tenants as well, and we're trying to find suitable accommodations for their return back to K'atlodeeche. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. At the point of evacuation and the days leading afterwards, there was no messages or messaging to the public renters on available accommodations or what Housing NWT was going to do to accommodate finding them suitable units, and many were, you know, handicapped and many were elderly, and there was many women that were pregnant at that time. So I'm really wondering how Housing NWT missed that boat. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member as well that, you know, I just want to really elaborate that we were dealing with an emergency for Hay River and K'atlodeeche. I did work with the MACA Minister, as well along with my colleagues, to look at what how would we be responding and how would the residents of Hay River be taken care of. They were encouraged to come here to Yellowknife and further looking at their suitable accommodations here.
Unfortunately, we didn't look at the available public housing units here in Yellowknife as well too, but we are working directly with those tenants as they return back to the community. We do have ten federal housing units that are available in Hay River today. We are working with the community to look at the allocations of those units. And I will look at further updates for the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. What I'm getting at there is that the renters in the housing public rental units on the reserve are the responsibility of Housing NWT in the Northwest Territories, and not go for any other community. And I'm wondering why was there no provisions made to pay for accommodations like hotel rooms and their meals while they were temporarily removed from their public rental units? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I really want to just really include that we are a part of emergency management throughout the Northwest Territories, and we respond as one government in supporting this initiative through MACA.
Right now, we are in the conversation with the communities as well too and looking at what are we going to be doing for housing replacements in K'atlodeeche, also looking at our affected clients, both in Hay River and K'atlodeeche. We do have access to federal units right now, but we are looking at the ongoing conversation with the chief as well, what are we going to be doing and how are we going to be responding, are we going to be putting new units on the ground, are we going to be looking at the federal units that are currently there. This is a further discussion that we are having at the community level. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. And mahsi to the Minister for those answers. There have been about four of the public units that were burnt and also five seniors’ homes on the Beaver Road. I'm wondering what are Housing NWT's plans to replace those units moving forward? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working directly with the emergency management and also with K'atlodeeche as well and looking at to finding further solutions to replace those units. There's actually ten units that have been affected. I'm not too sure of the condition and if we've actually lost all of those units or if there's just severe damage to them. But as we go forward, I will provide those updates to the Member. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to following the best practices of other jurisdictions and ensure that the ownership of all privatelyheld corporations is made known through access through the corporate registry search? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So corporate registries is publicly available. Anyone is able to search the corporate registries. It's a free search. For a fee of $4, anyone can then get detailed access to reveal who are the directors of that corporation, but the corporate registries does not keep a list of the shareholders of a corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason why I ask that is that because in the NWT we have a good system in place, you know, for societies. But when it comes to corporations for profit, we don't have any information. We don't know who owns what businesses, etcetera, and there's no requirement. And I just wanted to know why, you know. So what is the purpose of keeping this information private? How do we ensure many of these business owners or these businesses are truly living and working in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So corporate registries is responsible for extraterritorial registration, so companies from outside of the territory who want to do work in the territory, as well as corporations in the territory. So that information, like I said, it can be publicly found. The directors, you know, the location of the office, so things like that are publicly available. If a municipality, an Indigenous government, is having difficulties, the Department of Justice is more than happy to help. If the Member has a specific issue that she would like to raise, she can send me an email, with some details and we can discuss it. I might not be much help here on the floor right now. I don't have details of the concerns that she's raising. I will say I'm not the most familiar with the Business Corporations Act. It's been a while since I've read it and I will say I have not read it in full. So it's difficult to sort of get perhaps the detailed answer that the Member is looking for. But, like I said, if they're running into roadblocks, we're happy to help. And so I encourage her to reach out. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will take him up on his offer and meet with him to discuss this further. So no more comment. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
