Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, on correspondence with the former of Minister of NCPC regarding a regional superintendent in Fort Smith, he stated twice, A regional approach to supervision for multiple functions is not considered best practice in the utility industry.
Thank you, Member. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So the structure of a government department and electricity utility are very different. What makes sense for a government may not be appropriate for operational companies such as NTPC. In electricity utility, it is not best practice from an operational or safety perspective to establish one individual, such as a supervisor for all workers in a regional office, as that individual may not have the required knowledge or skill set to effectively lead the various roles and functions within that office. Every utility is structured differently but most utilities in Canada are based on functional responsibility rather than a geographic location, which is how NTPC is also structured. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, the former NCPC Minister said in a July 24th, 2020, email that the NTPC superintendent position never existed in Fort Smith despite the contrary, because I'm aware of a Fort Smith resident who was the former superintendent for NCPC for nearly 20 years. Can the Minister explain this discrepancy of information? Was there or was there not a superintendent in NCPC in Fort Smith at one point? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. There was a previous manager of operations and maintenance position in the hydro operations division that was based in Fort Smith. It was not a superintendent role as that was not part of NTPC's corporate structure. NTPC recruited for the manager position when it became vacant but it was unable to recruit a qualified candidate. As the Member pointed out, we have talked on numerous occasions about the Fort Smith NTPC positions, and she has sent emails on the subject. As these emails basically reiterated her positions from our conversations, I did not reply.
Thank you, Minister. Supplementary, Member for Thebacha. Member for Thebacha. No more questions?
Laughter.
All right. Order. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Oral Question 853-19(2):
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Madam Speaker, it's my understanding that the NWT immigration strategy from 2017 to 2022 is a carbon copy of the Yukon's immigration strategy. So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to why the Yukon is doing so well at filling their nominee program quota compared to the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister responsible for ECE.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So the Yukon's immigration strategy is from 2010. That's when it began. Ours began in 2017. So I would hope that with an extra seven years, they have learned lessons and advanced a little further than we have. And I wouldn't quite say that the strategies are carbon copies, although there are similarities given our similarities with the Yukon. I would say that we do work with the Yukon. We work with Nunavut as well. And we see what has worked for them because they do have a more advanced immigration environment in the Yukon, and we take those lessons and we can apply those to our jurisdiction. So while it's not a carbon copy, we do like to take inspiration from their successes. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, and my apologies for calling you Madam Chair. Madam Speaker, my second question for the Minister, and I'm happy that the Minister spoke to working with the other territories and taking from lessons learned from the other territories.
Given the success that Yukon has had with their nominee program and the potential for the territories to further work together, will the Minister commit to discussing the potential for an Arctic immigration strategy with Ministers responsible from all three territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So there is a Northern Immigration Summit where Nunavut, the Yukon, and the NWT get together with IRCC and they discuss the environment and ways to improve immigration services and, frankly, get more immigrants to the Northwest Territories and the other northern territories. And so through this work, we do work with our neighboring territories. And from this work, there is also a new position that is being funded by immigration Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada to coordinate these efforts even further. So it is a panterritorial position to help coordinate the efforts of the three jurisdictions. So while I can't commit to an Arctic immigration strategy, we are getting the tools in place to ensure greater cooperation between our jurisdictions. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I'm wondering if the Minister can clarify what the role of that person would be as far as working with industry stakeholders in the Northwest Territories.
One of the things that I'd asked for in my Member's statement today was more of an active role on the part of the GNWT to actually find out what is the biggest challenge for our industry leaders in the Northwest Territories and help them fill those positions. So I'm wondering if this position will fill some of that role, or if that is something that I would still need to pursue ECE to do. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I don't have the details about what that specific role would do. I believe it's to more coordinate efforts between the three jurisdictions and the federal government. But I will follow up with the Member on that.
But I will say that ECE and ITI do some of the work that the Member is talking about. Last night there was a session that was coordinated by ECE's immigration staff, as well as IRCC, to reach out and have those discussions with employers, and I think there was 14 employers who registered for the session.
There's also stakeholder meetings at the Yellowknife immigration partnership, the Francophone immigration network. There's meetings with the settlement providers on a regular basis. As I mentioned, we have the Northern Immigration Summit, and there's also international forums that ECE participates in to get our strategy and get our name out there to people outside of the territory and outside of Canada. So that work is being done.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the work that is being done by ECE but as it stands right now, many businesses in Yellowknife, particularly, are spending tens of thousands of dollars to help bring newcomers up to the territory and to help them through the immigration process. And so one of the things that has worked for other jurisdictions are certain exemptions that are particular or community specific. And so by working with industry leaders, we can find out what those exemptions are and go and communicate those to the federal government. So that's what I'm looking for, is more of a systemic change in how the North welcomes newcomers.
My last question, Madam Speaker, for the Minister, is will the Minister of ECE work with the Minister of ITI to consolidate immigration efforts within the Government of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I will say that our immigration strategy is a strategy for 2017 to 2022, and so it ends next year. So the work to renew that will necessarily involve meeting with industry stakeholders, meeting with employers, and determining what we can do to address any of those systemic or systematic barriers that they are facing. So I can definitely commit that we are going to do that work.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
