This is page numbers 2821 - 2866 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was agreed.

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Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Twenty-five cents seems a little excessive. It might be more appropriate when fewer people are using bags. Has the Minister ever considered using maybe a tiered implementation starting at a lower rate in the beginning and then maybe moving up to 25 cents as more people stop using the plastic bags and move more into permanent recyclable bags?

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

The purpose of the levy is to be a significant enough deterrent to make people keep in mind as they’re going to go shopping the need to look at alternatives, reusable bags and such. The concern is, in other jurisdictions with the low fee they found that after a relatively short spike people just consider the five cents incidental and it does little over the long term to deter the kind of use that we’re looking at trying to do. The Member sent me an e-mail just before coming into the House with the suggestion about a tiered approach, a phased-in approach, and I’ve already sent that to the department. As we look over the next number of months, we’ll consider that option as well.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I get the intent and actually support the intent, but there are two ways to get into a room. One is to kick the door in, smash it, go running in screaming. The other is to knock on it softly, open the door, and go in so you don’t scare everybody in the room away. I think the way the Minister’s going is the first option and I think it’s going to scare a few people. I think if we were to approach this a little bit slower and go with a tiered approach we might have more buy-in in the long run and less resistance.

I’m asking the Minister if he would commit to actually reviewing the decision and implementing more of a tiered approach so that people have a greater opportunity to become familiar and make some choices rather than being smashed over the head.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

The Member for Great Slave clearly is in a violent frame of mind today. Kicking in the door, smashing people over the head. We’re talking about a 25 cent levy on a plastic bag that some Members have called the bane of our existence. At every community and everywhere I’ve been, people have been pushing us to get rid of them. Sometimes when you knock softly and you open the door a crack and see if it’s okay to come in, people might just tell you to get lost. So this is an issue whose time has come. This is a deterrent. This is a consumption levy. People don’t have to spend 25 cents. That’s a very simple personal choice. But I will commit to the Member, like I said, he sent me the e-mail just shortly before we came into this House, and we will seriously look at that as we roll out the next number of months to get ready for the implementation in the fall.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Justice. I spoke in my Member’s statement about the inability of someone in difficulties with their landlord if they live in transitional housing and their difficulty to have any avenue of appeal that the rental officer can’t handle that kind of complaint or concern. I’d like to know if the Minister is aware of this problem.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Justice

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the Member asked me earlier if there were any issues pertaining to the appeals process, at that point in time I did speak that there wasn’t any application in that respect. I haven’t heard much in that area as we speak. I can certainly double check with my department again to date on where we are on the status.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure whether or not the department or the Minister’s staff are aware of it, but there’s a fairly recent example within the last three months of a renter in a transitional home who had difficulties with the landlord and was unable to get satisfaction from the rental officer. He refused to deal with the problem. I would like to ask the Minister, I realize that amendments to the act are a fairly lengthy process, but I’d like to ask the Minister if he can think of or know of any other possibility that could be instituted in the short term to solve this problem.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Justice

Yes, this process can be quite lengthy. At the same time, I’d like to hear the story behind what the Member is alluding to with this individual, what the status is on that particular case and dealing with the rental officer, because we have to go through the rental officer as well. The mediator. Certainly I would like to hear more from the Member on the status of this individual.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

I thank the Minister for wanting to look into this. I can advise him that he needs to talk to the rental officer, who should be well aware of the problem because he’s the one that refused to deal with it. I appreciate that he’s willing to sort of look and see whether or not there’s anything that needs to be done.

I guess in the long term my perspective is that amendments to the act are necessary and I’d like to know if the Minister will commit to looking into making amendments to the act.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Justice

The legislation came into play just last June. We did make some changes with the Residential Tenancies Act. We will be going through another business planning process. I’d like to inform the Member that we are open to ideas and suggestions. If there are going to be amendments to the legislation, then it needs to come before this Assembly.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for being willing to look at it. Business plans are a long ways away. We’re looking at business plans perhaps in November and before they get accepted and passed through the House, we’re looking at least a year and a half from now. I’d like to suggest to the Minister that we certainly could make amendments to the act a lot quicker than that. So is there any possibility, in his mind, that we could get some sort of an investigation of this problem and a possible amendment in maybe six months from now?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Justice

It hasn’t been a year yet since we’ve initiated this legislation. We’re going through the implementation stages as of yet, and here we are talking about making another amendment to the legislation. We will certainly take that into consideration and review it. As I indicated to the Member, this will be part of the ongoing business planning process. If we need to make changes, we will come back to the Assembly.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about the Northern Development Agency. Six months ago Prime Minister Harper announced during the election campaign that this would in fact happen. It was also mentioned in the Throne Speech in November and more recently in some discussions with federal Ministers. I’d like to ask the Premier where exactly the Government of the Northwest Territories is at when it comes to discussing the location of this Northern Development Agency office with the federal government.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for that question because it does go towards our whole discussion about devolution of authority to the Northwest Territories. In the Member’s statement he highlighted quite a number of things. It further emphasized the fact why we need to get devolution to the North for northern governments to be making decisions about what happens in our front yard, not in Canada’s backyard. So we continue to work with the aboriginal governments and groups along with the federal government on quite a number of issues, trying to see if we can move together on that initiative.

Specifically on the area of the Northern Economic Development Agency there has been quite a number of discussions. Number one, our first role was to ensure that there was a role for the Government of the Northwest Territories. We know this Northern Development Agency is to be focused on Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon. So we want to ensure that we had a voice at the table and had some input. The other area that’s probably more important to the next steps is where is the location. We have had a number of meetings ourselves with the federal Ministers and I’m hoping to have a discussion with Minister Strahl in the upcoming days. We’ve already started making the business case that because of our location central to the North and the economic opportunities in the Northwest Territories, that it makes absolute sense that that agency be based in the Northwest Territories.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I thank the Premier for that. I’m happy to hear that we are having these type of discussions. It’s interesting for me how we get to the front of the line and how we make the case that the Northwest Territories should be the location for this office. I’d like to ask the Premier when the

federal government is expected to make a decision on the location of the Northern Development Agency office.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

With these set of discussions that are happening I’ve been in contact with Minister Aglukkaq, who has the northern file. I’ve been in discussion with her, trying to get more information and we’ll do the same with the call I’ll be having with Minister Strahl about the timing of this and making sure that our business case is being looked at.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I thank the Premier again for that. In some dialogue with federal Ministers in press clippings and whatnot they talk about the development of this Northern Development Agency and bringing in other aspects to northern development under one roof and all in one. In my Member’s statement I talked about this is quite specific, but 29 positions in Gatineau, Quebec, related to oil and gas in northern Canada. Those positions are located in Quebec and I’m wondering what type of discussions our government is having with the federal government to address other jobs as they relate to northern Canada. These bureaucrats in Gatineau have never set foot in northern Canada. They belong here. I’d like to ask the Premier that question.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

When it comes to the federal government and the work they do on behalf of Northerners, whether it’s Nunavut, Northwest Territories or Yukon, that is something that we have pursued quite a number of times and that is, again, one of those areas that falls within devolution. We went through an exercise, or the Government of the Northwest Territories went through an exercise in previous governments to identify all the positions that are in Ottawa or Gatineau to look at their involvement and the decision-making they had within the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut. We identified quite a number of positions and made the pitch to have those positions moved north. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of those that moved north. In fact, we’ve only seen minor incremental increases within the DIAND headquarters or office set up in the Territories. It’s stuff like that that keeps us making the pitch to build our business case and further involve our partners in the North, aboriginal governments to come up with a united front when it comes to the approach of the federal government. I would say in fact that recent calls I’ve had with people like Charlie Furlong, who has talked about the need to work together and come up with a common approach when it comes to engagement with the federal government, and I couldn’t agree more.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I couldn’t agree with the Premier more. Even though we don’t have devolution, these positions, and I spoke of 10 other positions -- a senior advisor, senior analyst positions -- that were posted recently for Gatineau, Quebec, again, these people are making decisions on behalf of Northerners in Gatineau and Ottawa. Even if we don’t have devolution, I think those positions, there’s no reason why they couldn’t be located in one of the three northern territories. So I’d like to ask the Premier if he will sit down again with the federal government and his colleagues in Nunavut and Yukon to come up with a plan to address which jobs are located in Ottawa and Gatineau and get those jobs into one of the three northern territories or spread them out or do something. They do not belong in Gatineau, Quebec.