Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that ENR is the project lead on the Giant Mine and is leading much of our remediation work. There is a bit of a conflict of interest when the arm of government that is responsible for oversight and regulating contaminated sites, if I also ask them to advocate on behalf of the companies to capture benefits that they are regulating, so I'd like to understand what our Indigenous ministry is doing to build a remediation economy. My first question for the Minister of ITI is: in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and our post-COVID economic recovery plan, is the Minister willing to make building a remediation economy one of the pillars of that plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Remediation has been, is, and will be an important part of our economy in the Northwest Territories. It doesn't need to be said any differently than that. It doesn't need to be in any way fancier than that. That's just a fact, and we are already doing much work in that regard. I think already, earlier today, another Minister mentioned the importance of training and education in that respect, and there is no reason why, in fact, ENR would be anything other than supportive of that. This is one government, and we are all prepared to support this work and act with one voice. Mr. Speaker, whether it's myself or my colleague who is speaking to this question, we are all enjoined that this is an important area that the Government of the Northwest Territories as a whole needs to be aware of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm glad to hear that, and I hope, in fact, we can have our entire territory speak with one voice. I think a great way to start doing that is that there is currently a petition tabled by our MP for the territory on behalf of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation calling for an apology and compensation for Giant Mine as well as supporting the Yellowknives Dene to develop the skills necessary to work on remediation contracts as well as conduct long-term monitoring at the former site. I think this is a very reasonable petition, a reasonable ask to make sure that we do remediation right in this territory. My question for the Minister is: is she willing to add her signature to that petition?
I think I have learned that, once one becomes a Minister, one kind of ceases to be an individual, and you pretty much stay a Minister all the time. As a result, Mr. Speaker, I think, if the Member is asking if I would personally sign, that is a conversation I am happy to have over a coffee, but I think what the question is: what's the position of the government? Mr. Speaker, the government is also a proponent on this project. We are a co-proponent on the project. What I have done, though, is looked carefully at what is on the petition. Again, with respect to developing the skills necessary, for the Yellowknives Dene to develop the skills necessary, that should be a question that is directed at ECE. I am sure they are listening just as intently as every other department. We have a responsibility ourselves to help support the Yellowknives Dene to have those skills.
Again, with respect to procurement approaches, procurement is the responsibility of the federal government on the Giant Mine project, but we are co-proponents. We are continuing to engage with our partners at the federal government level and to ensure that we are doing everything we can and making sure they are doing everything they can to abide by the socio-economic agreements, to abide by positive procurement practices. To the extent that there are concerns and questions being raised here, there is a responsibility on our end to look at them, to engage with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and that is the route which I will be taking to do that.
I am sorry to hear that the Minister has lost her individual identity. I quite like her as a person, and I was looking forward to seeing that signature. I am glad the Minister mentioned procurement because I think what has happened is that, due to the federal government being in charge of procurement on this, the GNWT has kind of stepped back on the economic recovery role, but despite numerous requests from the Giant Mine Oversight Board to have the federal government kind of understand the North and understand our labour needs, the federal government has also kind of stepped away from capturing northern benefits here. I think a new approach to how the Giant Mine procurement is going is needed. Has the Minister approached the Treasury Board or CIRNAC or the appropriate federal agency about either allowing GNWT to take on a portion of the contracts or getting some northern labour requirements into those contracts?
Again, it is ENR that is the lead on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories in terms of engaging and leading our role on this project but again working closely with ITI. Even before knowing that this might become a topic today, it turns out the Minister of ENR and I had actually been talking about the project and ensuring that he and I would have a chance to meet in the near future to check in on the role of the GNWT, what we are doing to ensure that Northerners are seeing themselves reflected in this project. Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the procurement process here is one that is governed by the federal component, by the federal partners, but, for the moment, the project does have the following targets: northern employment of 55 to 70 percent; a minimum of 10 northern apprentices are a part of the implementation phase; expenditures are supposed to be at 65 to 75 percent. These are targets that were finalized not quite a year ago, and they are being reported on. They are being reported on publicly. There are different phases of the project, Mr. Speaker. There are different opportunities along the way to adjust. Again, not to understate the fact that the procurement process here is a federal one, we are at the table, we are involved, and the Minister of ENR and I are also going to be re-engaging and continuing to engage to ensure that we have our voices at these tables on behalf of Northerners.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank, Mr. Speaker. I will make sure to ask questions to ENR on this matter at another time. Part of the reason for my concern is that I know many of the people on the project team and I know the work they are doing. It's great, but there is clearly an environmental focus there, as there should be within ENR. I question some of the targets in that they are targets; they are not legally binding. They are not the kind of things you would see in a socio-economic agreement, not that the ones the GNWT currently has are binding either. Is the GNWT willing to conduct some reporting of northern labour and the socio-economic benefits? The reporting to date, the Giant Mine Oversight Board has not been satisfied with, and I do not think we have been seeing the economic recovery benefits that we truly should be getting out of this project. Is the GNWT willing to conduct that tracking? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think step one is going to be perhaps to bring back to the House what exactly at this stage is being tracked and to put that forward, to have that presented, so let me start with that commitment. I expect some of these, as I said, are largely publicly tracked. Let me make sure that everything is up to date and public, and we can look at what is being tracked in terms of northern employment; skill level; status, residential status, whether one is a resident of the territories or not; the training components; the number of suppliers; contract dollar value, so on and so forth, all of which is being tracked, and then work back if there is something else within that that is not adequate or not up to task. Again, the GNWT is involved. We are on the Giant Mine remediation team, and so if, as a member of that team, we are being told that the tracking that is happening and the publication that is happening is not satisfactory, yes, I want to make sure that we fix that. I want to make sure that we are fixing the right things. I will get that to the floor of the House, Mr. Speaker, and then we can see if that is not satisfactory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
