Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier and it gets back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about a federal parliamentary standing committee that came to the North. They visited all three northern territories. They were here in Yellowknife on November the 19th and 20th of last year. They looked at the areas of aboriginal affairs and northern development, they were here talking about potential barriers and solutions to economic development in the Northwest Territories and, as I stated in my Member’s statement, Mr. Speaker, I found it quite out of the ordinary that I had to find out about this committee coming to Yellowknife via a third party in Ottawa. The government never let Regular Members know that this committee was coming and didn’t invite any of us or have any discussions with Regular Members about the presentations that they presented that day to that committee. I’d like to ask the Premier why that was. Why didn’t the government seek the input of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure before those presentations were made to that standing committee? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Notice was given, a day before mind you, it was a little late for the input, but a notification was sent out to Members about that, which included the comments of the three departments that were going to be made. We were given five minutes each and as the Member would be familiar, their processes are much stricter than our processes, where a speaker is requested and given a timeslot, the idea of the subject area they’re interested in, and five minutes. The area that I had opportunity to speak on was the aboriginal affairs intergovernmental relations piece, in which I did bring up devolution, which means drawing of the authorities and the positions to the North, as well as the Mackenzie Gas Project, self-government issues in that area.
The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources shared on his concern about being a Member for so long and the regulatory issues that we’re faced with and those pressures and needing to draw those down.
As well, the deputy minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment went on on a number of the economic issues and challenges we face, as well as some of the potential solutions that were there and involvement of the federal government to discuss the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, transportation initiatives, tourism. So within the five minutes we were allotted each, we had to cover a broad area and we did so and we forwarded that information on to Members. Thank you.
I guess oftentimes I get a little bit sceptical, but I mean, I asked for the presentations before they were made to that standing committee and I hazard to guess whether the government would have even let us know had I not inquired about it. It might have just happened and Regular Members might not have even known about it. One day’s notice for, like I said, over a dozen influential MPs visiting our city and in an opportunity to get out and see those proceedings and interact with these Members of Parliament is an opportunity that I think should have been given to Members that were in Yellowknife at the time or they could have come into Yellowknife at the time.
I’d like to ask the Premier, and again, I’ve got a copy of his speaking notes from that presentation. I don’t see anywhere in there where it says anything about relocating jobs. He talks about devolution, yes, but not about relocating jobs from Gatineau and Ottawa to the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Premier what follow-up has the government done on that presentation with the federal government and when is the last time the Premier has been in Ottawa. Thank you.
Thank you. I know the Member is interested in travel routines and accompanying Ministers. Maybe we can include him on our next trip. We’ll see about that. The issue, more importantly, is the follow-up from there. Now this is a federal standing committee that sets its own criteria, that puts its own program in place. We don’t influence that, we were just asked to make presentations. They posted publicly their events. We got the information to Members, yes, the day before, but it was a slight oversight on our part.
Follow-up to the meetings we’ve had, we follow up specifically on our initiatives that departments have forwarded. So the Minister of ITI has had numerous trips and meetings with federal Ministers, whether they’re phone calls or through their staff, through tourism agencies and so on.
For myself under the travels I’ve done to Ottawa, the opportunities I’ve raised, I recently had a meeting with the Prime Minister to talk about the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline, for example. An initiative we had prior to that with myself, Minister Michael McLeod, Minister Robert C. McLeod on the stimulus package and the work that was happening there and that kind of work, and there’s many meetings following up. For example, Mr. Speaker, at the regional leaders’ table we’ve talked about a re-engagement of devolution and resource revenue sharing, which again includes bringing authority and positions to the North. So there’s ongoing work on a regular basis on numerous files. Thank you.
The reason I ask these questions is because, really, as a Regular Member you don’t see much proof that the government is pursuing ideas or issues that are brought up by Regular Members. Just yesterday I had an exchange with the Minister of Justice about the possibility of a penitentiary being located in the Northwest Territories and some substantial investment of federal dollars here in the Northwest Territories. I’m talking about the possibility of a university, an increased military presence here in the Northwest Territories, and those northern development jobs that are located in Ottawa.
Who is in charge of those files and when are those types of issues raised with the various federal Ministers? Obviously from the discussion I had with the Minister of Justice yesterday, they fall on deaf ears and they don’t get raised with the federal Ministers.
One of the things that was said early on in the life of this government is we need to be clear and we need to be strategic and go and work on specific initiatives. Previous governments have been known to go down there with a wish list that was a mile wide and a foot long type thing. We needed to narrow it down and focus on specific areas. We shared that with Members. It was around the Mackenzie Valley Highway and the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline and expansion of our hydro. Those are the main issues that we’ve been focusing on and putting our energy into.
If we’re aware, for example, that the federal government is going to expand on its penitentiary system, we would be aligning ourselves to make sure we’ve got the foot in the door to tell them about the opportunities we can avail of them to give them indication and our numbers and opportunities there. That was in fact done a number of governments ago, and I know this because I’ve been around for quite a number of years when the government was talking about expanding its penitentiary system. We can’t go down there with a list of items and constantly add to those lists because we need to build a business case. If we know there’s interest there, we’ll go after it. We’ll continue on that pursuit.
The main files that the Members are aware of are, again, around the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline issue, the Mackenzie Valley Highway and the Taltson system. We’ve got an ask there, we continue to work that. In fact, one of those things have just come to fruition where we’ve cost-shared the dollars on PDR of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. That’s the farthest any government in the history of the Northwest Territories has gone on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Let’s start recognizing some of the work that we have done.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t mean to downplay the significance of the things the Premier has suggested such as the expansion of the hydro, the Mackenzie Gas Project, devolution, the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Those are things that are important. Make no mistake about that. What I’m saying is that just because we’re focusing our efforts on that, we can’t let other opportunities pass us by. We always have to be looking for opportunities for federal investment in this Territory. If we are too much into the tunnel vision, we’ll miss opportunities. That was my big fear. I just wanted to ask the Premier, with the various federal Ministers, if he could at least raise this issue. It doesn’t take much to raise an issue with a federal Minister or make a phone call or write a letter.
I think in addition to the work that we’ve done on those big files, and Members have just worked through our capital files and capital budget where we’ve had the largest budget in the history of the Government of the Northwest Territories on our capital program; cost-shared dollars with the federal government on the number of plans. We’re one of the most advanced jurisdictions on working with the federal government on those stimulus plans and implementation of that.
On the additional areas, if we’re aware that the federal government is getting information or preparing for expansion of its programs and services, we’ll be ready to line up there.
On the specific issue of a potential penitentiary, we’ll follow up and I’ll find out if there’s an interest on the federal government’s part to expand that program area. We’ll gladly look at doing that.
Let’s recognize, as I believe the Member has done, we’ve worked with the federal government very well in the area of the stimulus plan, whereas our capital plan for 2009-2010 is in the area of $460 million; the largest in the history of the Government of the Northwest Territories. We’re getting it done.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
