This is page numbers 6883 - 6924 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 6th 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 fund.

Topics

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Environment with regard to the proposed amendments to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. I know the Minister mentioned that this government is requesting three additional changes to be considered in light of what’s being recommended by the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board and also the other boards and agencies. I think the big issue or challenge that we face is that as the Northwest Territories I don’t think it’s the fault of the board. If anything, the boards are doing what they’ve been told, but without having the adequate resources to do their jobs. Especially integrating land and water management systems and looking at the timelines for consultation of which we have 42 days to deal with a Class A and 15 days for Class B licences. Yet there are regions in the Northwest Territories that don’t have land claims, regarding the Tlicho and Dehcho and the South Slave. Without having the appropriate

structures in place it is a challenge on different regions.

I’d like to ask the Minister what we are doing with regard to the government’s suggested changes to find ways to integrate these different systems to streamline them so they’re more workable.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This issue of regulatory reform and changes to the process have been under discussion now for many years. Our request to the government, to Minister Duncan, has been that there be no changes initiated now that we’ve signed the agreement-in-principle so that the devolution process can take place, and then at that point, once there’s been a transfer, if there are changes necessary to sign on by Northerners, that Northerners would have that right and authority to make those changes, whatever they may be, should it be so determined by Northerners.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

I think one of the fundamental elements that are missing, especially in the majority of the region which there’s only one region that has a land use plan through their land use planning commission planning process, which is the Gwich’in Settlement Region, but again that whole system of land use plans is a tool that can be used by the different management authorities to help them and assist them in making those decisions.

I’d like to ask the Minister exactly why it is that this government is not supporting land use plans where they’re presently being integrated, and supporting the Dehcho and Sahtu in integrating their land use plans into the system.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

In fact, the Government of the Northwest Territories strongly supports the idea of land use planning. We are working as a government on our own land use framework that will get our thinking clear as a government so that we can be as constructive and supportive as possible at the various tables. We are involved at the various tables right now. The key for us is to make sure that we have an organized, coherent message and plan going forward. We recognize the distinct importance of the land use plans. That’s why we’re doing things like the Water Strategy. That’s why we’re doing things like improving our legislation to deal with species at risk and the Wildlife Act, is to be able to, within the broad land use planning framework, have the tools necessary to make them work.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Another area I think has to be clarified is the whole area of inspection and enforcement. That’s the part that falls below the waistline when it comes to actually getting the work done. A lot of times the blame goes to the

regulatory boards, which they don’t have that authority. That authority is with Indian and Northern Affairs. I’d again like to ask the Minister, with regard to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, that’s another area I feel has to be concluded and fulfilled. I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s had discussions to ensure that component is looked at in regard to the government’s suggested amendments.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

That and a number of other issues have been discussed. The money that was identified to do things like cumulative impact studies and assessments. The main fundamental concern is that there be no significant changes, or changes of any kind while we’re in an election process. Now, since we’ve signed the AIP and we’re in a transition phase where we’re going to be taking over from the federal government that there not be any significant changes until that process is concluded so that it will be Northerners that will decide on what changes are necessary, if any, once that process is complete.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I noted earlier in my comments, the government is suggesting looking at three additional issues for consideration. Can the Minister elaborate on those three particular areas for consideration for changes in the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act?

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

I’ve indicated what our request to the federal government is. There has been a number of initiatives underway. There has been our view, starting back with Mr. McCrank. There’s been the federal government at work. We have pressed the federal government Minister Duncan to hold off on any changes to the regulatory regime while we have these other processes underway and given the fact, as well, that we are going to be soon in the middle of an election process. At this point that is where we are with the issue of the regulatory reform and any proposed or possible changes.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and are in follow up to my Member’s statement earlier today.

On March 23rd I attended a meeting between

industry and government on the NWT film industry,

and at that time the GNWT, or the department committed to a number of items with respect to the film industry. One of them was to encourage greater cooperation between ITI and ECE, one was to dedicate some seed funding for film and media arts, one was to invest in a website, one was to invest in the formation of an association for the industry, and one was to establish a mandate for the NWT Film Commission. I’m happy to say that most of this has been done by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and I’m very happy with the progress.

I do have a couple of questions. I know that a website has been developed. I have had an opportunity to go on line and see it. It’s really quite good and it is early days. My question is, at the beginning stage of this website development, I’ve gone in to look at it and in one section it’s called Suppliers Guide and it basically outlines all the different organizations that are available to help the filming industry. Animal handlers, carpenters, caretakers, directors, equipment rental, these types of things. I’ve gone through and opened each one of them up to see what’s on there. Right now, unfortunately, it appears that all of the people identified within these lists are from Yellowknife, which is great, but a film industry for the Northwest Territories is supposed to be NWT-wide. I’m curious; is the department committed to going out to the other communities and regions of the Northwest Territories to gain some professionals that are providing these types of services and get them included in this territorial website?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are talking about an NWT film industry, so it’s our intention to go across the Territories and we’ll probably do it on a regional basis and update our website as we go along.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I was hoping that would be the answer and I encourage the Minister to have his staff at the Film Commission start to go out and research the other communities. I do know that there are a lot of filmmakers in the other communities, people who can do duplication and things like that.

The other area -- and this is an area that came up an awful lot during the consultation -- was the relationship between ITI and ECE and how these two departments really need to work together in order to really enhance the film industry in the Northwest Territories. They do have similar mandates, but they do have different mandates. I’m wondering what the department is doing to encourage their relationship with Education, Culture and Employment with respect to the NWT film industry and arts in general.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We do work very closely with the Department of Education. As a matter of fact, our offices are right next door to each other so we interact on a regular basis. We work together very closely on a number of these strategies. We developed the NWT Arts Strategy and we all participated at NWT House. We’ve been working on a cured show, and it is our intention to work very closely on promoting and developing the NWT film industry. We will be meeting as we go forward and work together to promote this.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

One of the items that was discussed at that March 23rd meeting was the

possible need, or need, in fact, of an industry association. At that time there was a lot of talk about the department working with some key individuals in the film industry that exist today about trying to find a way to create an industry association in the Northwest Territories. I was wondering if the Minister could tell me if there’s been any progress on that front.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I would say that without the involvement of the different filmmakers we would never have gotten this far. They have been working with us every step of the way. Now that we’ve identified funding, they’ve been working with us to develop the criteria. Certainly I would want to continue to work with them and I would certainly like to see such an organization be developed, so we’ll work on that area.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Minister. Clearly it’s the commitment of the film industry, representative of the film industry and the departments of both ITI and ECE that have led to the success in this area. One of the areas that they talked about or the Minister has touched on is the funding that is now available to the film industry through SEED. It’s $100,000, which is, clearly, great. I’m wondering what kind of mechanism they have to assess the value of those dollars that we’re spending, how we’re going to track those dollars to make sure that they are in fact bringing back benefit. Is there any plan in the future, if we can prove clear benefit to increase that money so that we can get greater benefits?

I believe, personally, that $100,000 spent by the GNWT in the film industry will allow us to help the industry circulate hundreds and hundreds of thousands if not possibly millions. So I’d like to see in the future that increase, but before we do that, I’d like to know if there’s a mechanism to assess the effectiveness of that spending.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

In the past when we looked at developing the NWT film industry, we had concerns that we wanted to make sure that the Northwest Territories benefitted. Through the work

of the consultant, we were able to identify that NWT filmmakers were causing the Northwest Territories to benefit to the order of magnitude of $9 million, and that was without the government investing any money.

We do have the approach to collecting this information. We’ll continue to do it. We will collect it on a regular basis. It’s our intention to continue to invest, and invest more money as we go along and as our government financial picture continues to improve.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the importance of preschool. I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. There seems to be a lot of people not only in the Territories but outside the Territories, in the country, that believe in the positive impacts of preschool. I’d like to ask the Minister if his department has done any studies or reports or looked at any sort of best practices to look at the success on high school graduates as a result of preschool.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With respect to preschool in the Northwest Territories, there has been some work in different areas such as the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. We visit all forums and all regions in the Northwest Territories. We’ve heard from people the importance of having these early childhood development programs. Not only that but there’s also a framework that has been in the works since last year, the Early Childhood Development Framework for Action. The report is currently being drafted. With that in mind, there is all this different research that has been initiated and part of the discussion will be within this framework as well as the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. Those are the tools that we will be having for the next government to consider. Mahsi.