This is page numbers 4719 - 4756 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th 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 project.

Topics

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

As the Government of the Northwest Territories we are keenly interested in working with partnerships out there and expanding our hydro, for example. I think the Member can, although we said earlier that he has spoken on a number of occasions around the Hydro Strategy and alternative energies and has not seen any fruition, I would say, to take a little bit of claim here. We over the next number of years are going to invest $60 million in alternative energies, run-of-the-river technology. So we’re starting to move in that direction. It is a slow process, granted, but we are in fact moving in that direction. We’ll continue to have that direction. I will send a message back to the board that they need to in fact engage with these partners, potential partners and potential customers, for replacement of our diesel facilities. That they continue that as well as our Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course the last two points we’ve raised means that they could operate together with an alternative routing to provide both for the diamond mines and these other customers in a way that would join the grids and we would enjoy those benefits.

My last question is related to the diamond mines. We’ve recently had occasion to meet with some of the companies and we’re pleased to hear that they’re extending their mine life considerably as they find new reserves and come up with lower cost means of production. This provides again a window of opportunity that might add a little tolerance to if this sort of approach did take another six months in the process.

How much have the diamond mines lives been extended, does the Premier know, in the last two or three years? My impression is it’s quite considerable and would reflect positively on the power agreements that we’re working on establishing.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

I don’t have that information offhand, but my understanding -- and we’ll provide the accurate information from Minister Bob McLeod’s office -- for example is that Diavik is talking in the neighbourhood of 20 years. We’ve got Gahcho Kue about to potentially come on-line, which was a whole new mine. We have BHP that is the shortest mine life right now. And Snap Lake’s underground operation I have yet to get the information there, but 12 years, as I understand. If we were able to provide a cheaper form of energy that could potentially grow, that’s something that we hope to achieve through this process and is one of our goals.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 8, written questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the Order Paper.

---Unanimous consent granted,

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask questions to the Minister of Transportation in light of the Minister’s comments to the Deh Cho Bridge that we’re out of the water. I think we’re out of the water and may be high and dry on the land, but we’re moving on. I want to ask the Minister about the Deh Cho Bridge situation. There are other bridges to be built in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister, once we’re done -- hopefully we’re done dealing with the Deh Cho Bridge issue here -- that we can focus and concentrate on other bridges in the Northwest Territories. Would the department consider looking at a strategy as to how do we start looking at the other bridges in a serious manner such as the one we’ve been dealing with on the Deh Cho Bridge in terms of having it completed so the people in the rest of the Northwest Territories can also have bridges to cross?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Right now we still continue to work on some of the Mackenzie Valley bridges through the Building Canada funding. I think we are going to have to see the Deh Cho Bridge come to a conclusion and regroup to see and revisit the concept of P3 to see if that’s still something that the Members of this House would support. Failing that, I guess we would have to wait for the federal government to provide money to build the bridges.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

If we stay on target and time frame, the completion of Deh Cho Bridge will be November 2011. I hope between now and 2011 the department can give some serious consideration to looking at the other bridges and thinking outside the box, as the Minister says, and being innovative and creative. How do we put together some bridges like the Peel, the Bear, and Liard bridges that need to be looked at? We still need to have a P3 concept proposal in front of us to approve it and go ahead with it. Certainly we have learned a lot there. I’m just asking the department if they would begin some initial discussions on concepts and how do

we go about, with the help of Members on this side, to have bridges in the Mackenzie Valley.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

I’m glad there are still some fans out there that support the concept of P3. I still think it is a mechanism and tool for us to look at ways we can approach some of our infrastructure that doesn’t involve the federal government coming forward to fully fund a project. We need to do that. We have to take stock of how things have transpired over the last while with the Deh Cho Bridge.

We have certainly a number of bridges out there that would need to be built over the next while. The Liard, and the Peel and the Bear are all part of that, Bosworth Creek. We need funding for those projects, and I think some of those may be included as part of the assessment of the work that’s going to be done through the project description reports that we have embarked on. We’ve signed agreements with the Inuvik-Tuk people and the PDR work is already completed there and the report is available. The Gwich’in has just recently signed an agreement with us to do a lot of work on the lands that they represent. The Sahtu has also moved forward to do some work on a PDR. The Deh Cho has indicated they want to have some discussions on a portion of the Mackenzie Highway, PDR work that needs to be done in the area that their traditional lands are on.

So we would anticipate that that would include bridges and infrastructure that would allow a Mackenzie Valley Highway to be built, so those things would be costed out and those things would be included as part of the package. There are other projects, of course, such as the Peel that is outside of the Mackenzie Valley Highway system and the PDR work that’s being looked at. So I think we have to try to be creative as we move forward. There’s not a lot of room when it comes to projects of that nature and that size, and we have to be able to either attract federal dollars or look at the P3 type where there’s a partnership arrangement. Those things have to be considered and that’s what we have to look at as we develop our new plans. Thank you.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister, in light of what he said, will the department, sometime within the life of this government, come forward with a bridge strategy in the Mackenzie Valley in terms of the bridges that I listed off, come to us and we could have some discussion and know, hopefully, that we can put as much energy as we have done into the Deh Cho Bridge into the other bridges that we need in the Northwest Territories?

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Mr. Speaker, we have put a lot of energy in bridges and upgrading our highways outside of the Deh Cho Bridge. The Deh Cho Bridge, of course, has received most of the

attention, but we did a lot of work on the Bear River Bridge, for example, right to the point of where we’re ready to do construction. However, we failed to attract federal investment and the project was priced out of our budgeting ability.

We have, to date, I think, built 39 bridges, mostly in the Member’s riding, so we have put a lot of attention, and, of course, not all of it is recognized and given credit for, but we are working hard on bridges. There are still, I believe, five major bridges that have to have some kind of a strategy included. I can’t guarantee that’s going to happen in the life of this government. Some of it is going to be included in the project description report studies that are being done and those could take up to two years. So there is a time factor and, of course, our term is going to be up in two years. It will be close. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the Minister to certainly have a drive with me on the Sahtu goat trail there and look at our bridges and see what type of repairs and work that needs to be done on them.

Mr. Speaker, again, if the department then would look at the P3 policy -- I know it’s somewhere within the House here, in the committee -- in terms of having that established. We’ve certainly got to look at some creative and innovative ways to start building some of these major bottlenecks into the Sahtu region or the Gwich’in or to the Deh Cho, Nahendeh, sorry, to capitalize on the wealth and the economics that the region could offer to the Northwest Territories. Right now it’s certainly been lacking in terms of what we can contribute to the rest of the GDP in the North here.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

I have driven on the road, the Mackenzie Valley, all the way to Norman Wells, a beautiful, scenic ride, a smooth ride. I didn’t see any goats, Mr. Speaker. However, it is a nice ride and there are certainly bottlenecks along the route. There are places that a bridge would address a lot of the concern and extend the season.

The Bear River is a challenge every year. It’s an area that has overflow; it’s an area that takes a long time to construct an ice road. There is a very large detour that we have to build annually and it’s costly. So I would like to be able to, at some point, come forward with some more information as we compile all the work that’s been done. Some of the economic assessments on this highway and others have proven that it’s very beneficial to improve the infrastructure. It lowers the cost of living and it certainly generates a lot of employment and economic opportunities. So that’s something we have to pursue. We are at a point where we have to

upgrade all our strategies and that’s what we’ll be embarking on. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement wherein I spoke about the Medical Travel Policy and some of the issues around non-medical escorts. I’d just like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, maybe she can remind the public some of the details around the Medical Travel Policy and non-medical escorts, because that’s where I seem to be having the issues. Just as a starter, Mr. Speaker, perhaps she can detail some of the Medical Travel Policy guidelines. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our Medical Travel Policy allows for our residents to be provided with one escort. Sometimes it’s because the patient needs physical support or mental support or language support. So that is the policy we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

With regard to the non-medical escorts, who makes the actual call to have the non-medical escorts accompany… In the two cases that I spoke about in my Member’s statement, there were spouses there, Mr. Speaker. So who would actually authorize or designate these non-medical escorts to travel along with the spouse in the medevac plane and/or immediately soon thereafter? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Generally speaking, it would be between the patient or the patient’s immediate family and the health care professional on the ground. They would talk about the need for a person to be medevaced, whether it’s Yellowknife to any other places, for what reason and that there would be all the people involved working together.

The situation that the Member described in his Member’s statement, I don’t want to get into the details of it, and I do not know the details other than what he said. But I would like to say that in certain circumstances, the medical personnel on a medical flight may say either they don’t have room for any other person than the patient or it could be a medical situation where any other non-medical person could interfere with the treatment that the patient has to receive. I’d be happy to follow up with the Member on details if he wishes to share that privately. Thank you.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

But still, like even if there’s no room on the medevac, you can still designate a non-medical escort. What that designation does there, Mr. Speaker, is it authorizes expenses to be covered for the spouse. Because in these two cases they travelled after their spouses. Their first thought, of course, is the care and concern and the health of their spouse, and the second one is now they’ve got all these out-of-pocket expenses, which they now have to worry about. My issue is that the spouses were not designated as non-medical escorts right off the start there, Mr. Speaker. I am not too sure why this is. The injured spouses were incapacitated. They didn’t understand forms. They were heavily medicated. In fact, the doctors were wondering where the spouses were. My issue is that this is becoming more and more of a trend, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister to see if she can make an inquiry about it, or was there a policy change that we are trying to save money by not sending non-medical escorts, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, there have not been any changes to the Medical Travel Policy. The policy is that we do provide an escort for eligible patients. In normal circumstances, the health care professional would consult with the family to see who is the best person to go. Going by the description of the situation, it might have been a situation where the medical staff had to respond right away to send this person and that is probably why that is how that person was designated. Thank you.