Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank all of the Members for their general comments in regard to ITI’s budget. I’ve made a number of notes. You’ll have to bear with me as I go through a number of the points that the Members made.
A number of Members covered some of the same topics, so I’ll try to get to everything. Hopefully I don’t miss anything. If I do, it could certainly come up under detail if Members have specific questions.
The first issue that was brought up was the cost of electricity and what we’re doing about it. I think we really need to look at bringing down costs system-wide. We’re looking at hydro developments, biomass, LNG, and those costs have to come down. Through MECC, the Government of the Northwest Territories continues to invest in programs to help residents and businesses reduce their own energy use and I think that has to continue to happen.
On the subsidy program, what are we doing at the end of the subsidy and what is our plan? The Territorial Power Subsidy Program, administered by the Department of Finance, has been in place for years, and subsidizes community residents to the Yellowknife electricity rate for the first 1,000 kilowatt hours in the winter and 600 kilowatt hours in the summer. This program is an electricity subsidy and supports our principle of a comparable level of access to affordable power for all NWT communities. That’s currently at $9 million a year.
Through the Department of Finance, there’s also a four-year subsidy to mitigate the impacts of the general rate application filed by NTPC. This subsidy is temporary. It was put in place to avoid rate shock to our residents and businesses and that totals $34 million over four years. In general, mitigating energy costs will be a key issue that will need to be
addressed in the Energy Plan. Currently, this plan is under development. I’m looking forward to working with all Members and through MECC, Premier McLeod, as we develop the Energy Plan for release later this spring.
The next item that came up was the closing date for parks. This is an issue that was brought up by a number of Members last year. Certainly we’ve taken a look at this issue. ITI will make adjustments in park openings and closings to ensure that these do not fall on weekends, so I think that issue has been addressed. There is no plan to change the 2013 park season opening or closing as they fall on a Wednesday and Sunday, respectively, this coming season. I want to thank the Members for bringing that issue up.
On to the next issue, and that was the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. The question was, why are we giving money to the APG. Work on the project is continuing to maintain compliance with a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the National Energy Board, including the requirement to fill updated capital cost estimates and report back on progress to a decision to construct by December 31
st of this year. The partners are continuing to
meet their funding obligations for existing access and benefit agreements and maintain their Inuvik office. As a result, the APG still has work and financial requirements to discharge during 2013-14. The GNWT provided an annual contribution of $300,000 in 2012-13 to meet administrative requirements of this corporation. The GNWT has been in discussions with the APG regarding a reduced allocation for the upcoming fiscal year, pending receipt of the APG work plan for 2013-14. Any reductions will be redirected to support preparations for other petroleum resource development in the NWT and particularly the Sahtu and Beaufort-Delta regions.
On to SHOMP and the funding. The program was always intended to provide temporary relief for outfitters and allow them to develop options other than caribou hunting and restrictions on polar bear exports. To date, ITI has provided over $1.8 million to this sector for relief. The budget proposed is $300,000 of funding through this program for 2013-14. We will be reviewing its contribution programs to tourism industry operators to ensure that our programs best meet the needs of the tourism industry and support this government’s goal of a strong and diversified economy. I certainly think we need to really take a look at the future of the Sport Hunt Outfitter Marketing Program as we move forward. I know questions have come up in the House that dialogue has to continue with the outfitters and with this government.
On to Come Make Your Mark Campaign, and if I could, I’ll give a bit of a status update and info on success. There have been a number of questions
about the Make Your Mark Campaign. In the three years that the National Marketing Campaign has been in the marketplace, results have indicated that new skilled workers, families and taxpayers have already moved to the Northwest Territories. Key results to date attributed to the National Marketing Campaign. Activities include over 50,000 website hits and thousands of people inquiring and requesting further information about living in the Northwest Territories. While tracking the exact number of people who have relocated to the NWT because of the Come Make Your Mark Campaign is challenging, we do know over a dozen people have moved to the NWT as a direct result of the campaign.
As far as future investment, late August of 2012, a survey was sent to 1,000 of the people who have indicated an interest in possibly moving to the NWT. This survey was designed to determine the reasons people would or would not move to the Northwest Territories. The results show that jobs, money and career advancement were the main attracters to the NWT, while the perceived high cost of housing and food, as well as concerns about the availability of health services are the main detractors. Northern businesses were also surveyed in August of 2012. They indicated that filling a vacant job was their primary concern.
On to some future plans, building on the success of past campaigns and introducing some of the new research findings, the Come Make Your Mark Campaign will be launching a campaign targeting people living in the greater Toronto area and post-secondary institutions that have a high number of NWT students. This campaign will launch shortly and focus on an updated website that features skilled and professional jobs available in each NWT community. The site will also highlight the benefits of working and living in the NWT, including higher average salaries and tax benefits, real estate costs comparable to other areas in Canada, shorter commute times, opportunities for career advancement and modern recreation and medical facilities. The site will also respond to common questions about living in the NWT such as housing costs, access to fresh food, availability of health services, quality of education and transportation. Each NWT community will also be profiled. Any interested NWT business, NGO or governments would be welcomed as partners. As partners, they can post their job openings on the Come Make Your Mark Campaign and on campus promotions for students. This will help drive people to the website to view information about working, living or visiting the Northwest Territories.
The next subject matter was NTPC. The Government of the Northwest Territories is the sole shareholder of NTPC. As such, it can definitely issue direction to the corporation. Strategic direction was last formally issued to NTPC in 2002.
This issue was addressed in the electricity review undertaken during the last government, and the NWT has committed to implementing a formal accountability framework with respect to the corporation, and this includes letters of expectations and regular meetings with MLAs. This is another issue that will be reinforced through the Energy Plan.
On to the issue of the positions to Hay River, some of the questions were about when the jobs will be relocated to Hay River. The aim is to be operational in Hay River as of April 1
st or as soon as possible in
the new fiscal year. The vacant positions will be advertised for competition early in March. The positions will be staffed as soon as possible and training will commence immediately. Public Works and Services is managing the office space requirements in Hay River. I know some Members had talked about an analysis of why this was done. The department and the government were acting on the direction of this House that were looking for departments to look at their operations to see which components of the operation could be relocated outside of Yellowknife. After I’m done with my comments, Madam Chair, perhaps I will get Deputy Minister Vician just to go through some of the detailed analysis that was done on the relocation of these positions to Hay River.
Just an update on the Mackenzie Gas Project, work on the project is continuing to maintain compliance with the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity issued by the NEB, as I mentioned earlier. We are going to continue with our funding for the APG as we move forward.
An issue that was common to many Members was the increase in marketing money for NWT Tourism and I’m very happy to see that in the budget this year. I have been, and always will be, a big supporter of tourism. I have a big background in tourism and I do believe, going forward, we are going to find more funding for marketing tourism here in the Northwest Territories.
The $600,000 is a start, Madam Chair. There’s $600,000 slated for next year, with that money getting to $1.2 million the following year. So that is certainly in the right direction. I appreciate the support of Members looking to add to the marketing dollars that we have here in the territory to market and promote the tourism product we have here and the great scenery, events and everything else that makes us the Northwest Territories. Again, I thank Members for their support in that.
Just talking a little bit about tourism marketing, marketing is a part of a number of factors that attract tourists to a destination. Again, there are tourism products, accessibility, world events, people look at exchange rates, the weather, but you have to have marketing. If you don’t have marketing, nobody is going to know about your
territory, what you have to offer. Promotion and marketing are key to all of this. We are conducting an ad tracking study of this season’s Arctic Air commercials and print campaign and we should have the results of that survey sometime this fall. NWT Tourism also measures its success in terms of the number of people who request information, jump from their website to other operators’ websites and other indicators that their marketing efforts have attracted the interest of potential visitors. All of these indicators show positive trends and I think the added marketing dollars are going to go a long way to increasing those trends.
There were some questions on the SEED program. The SEED budget for 2012-2013 was $3.991 million. This includes funding specifically for arts and fine crafts, $125,000; the film sector, $100,000; and the Prospectors Grubstake Program, $50,000. The SEED policy programs continue to be very well subscribed. In fact, in 2011-2013, fiscal SEED policy budget of $3.991 million was oversubscribed to just over $4 million.
I want to get into a subject that, again, a lot of Members touched on. It’s something I feel has great promise here in the NWT for us, and that is agriculture and fisheries. We’ve had some real good success on the agricultural front. One of my proudest days as Minister was the day we opened the egg grading facility in Hay River and we got a tour of the facilities there with the chicken barns. It’s amazing what can happen here in the Northwest Territories when you really think about having all these chickens producing 3.2 million eggs in the NWT. Going into a grocery store here in Yellowknife or other communities and being able to buy eggs produced here in the Northwest Territories off the shelf; that says a lot. We need to get more of that happening here in the NWT. I think we have a lot of promise. I’ve been up to Norman Wells and saw Doug Whiteman’s potatoes there, and he’s also branching out in other areas and we wish him well in his pursuits.
MLA Bromley talked the other day about composting. We have to have flexibility in our programming to allow for activities such as composting and even livestock, for that matter. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. It was mentioned previously in this House about the Growing Forward 2 funding that we signed off in Whitehorse at the agricultural FPT last fall. We are still negotiating the details of that agreement and, certainly, I think we’ve got lots to look forward to when it comes to getting money into people’s hands here in the Northwest Territories that can do something with it and grow our agriculture sector.
On the fisheries front, I’ve mentioned this before and I’ll say it again, over the next two and a half years one of my primary goals as Minister is to see the fishery on Great Slave Lake get turned around
and sent in a positive direction. I really want to put a lot of effort into seeing this happen. I know how important it is to the community of Hay River, and even here in Yellowknife, to see that happen and we are going to continue to meet with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. We’ve met with them previously. I do believe there are ways we can work together to ensure that the foundation is there for success for the fishery to come back to what it once was on Great Slave Lake. We have to get a lot closer to the quota that is available there, and I do believe that working with the fishermen, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation and our government, if we put our effort into it, I really do believe that we can make some positive progress there for the fishery.
I know MLA Yakeleya talked about Great Bear Lake as well. That is some very good trout from Great Bear Lake. There certainly has to be a market for that trout somewhere. It is a fantastic fish.
The next question was on the permafrost scientist position. I just wanted to give a bit of an update on that, if I could. The position was included in the 2012-13 budget, as Members are aware, and I was pleased to provide committee with the review of the issues related to the staffing of that position and the stationing of the position in the geoscience office. The position has been filled and the incumbent will be starting at the beginning of April 2013. So we are very happy about that. I think it’s a position that’s going to serve us very well.
On energy, there was a question about water monitoring in Kakisa, why are we doing this. The purpose of this program is to understand the flow rates and volumes of the river and its hydro potential. The community has expressed an interest in understanding the potential of the Kakisa for electrical power generation and we haven’t got a specific proposal that has been developed.
I think it was MLA Yakeleya who talked about the Canol and what are ITI’s plans. We cannot put a full marketing effort behind promoting the trail until we can fully establish the Canol as a territorial park. I know the Member and I have had many discussions about this. We have to have appropriate park infrastructure such as river crossings, emergency shelters and remediation of hazardous waste. That work has to be completed and we have to continue the dialogue with the leaders in the Sahtu to continue to move that project forward. However, the trail still receives notice from extreme outdoor adventure types, and NWT Tourism recently supported an extreme mountain bike crossing of the trail, a sport that leaves virtually no environmental footprint. The experiences of these bikers were featured in Explorer magazine this fall and will bring attention to the Canol Trail in the future. So that was some good news.
I want to touch a little bit on the Inuvik gas situation. The GNWT continues to work very closely with the town and the joint venture companies on a solution for Inuvik. This is something that we’ve been discussing through MECC and through the community of Inuvik. In fact, there was a meeting just this morning with the mayor, the SAO and representatives of the companies. MECC is going to continue to provide the committee with updates on the progress of this critical issue.
Also, there was some talk about tourism promotion in other regions. I think that’s certainly something that I support and I know Members of this House support. NWT Tourism promotes tourism throughout the Northwest Territories. ITI certainly supports those efforts as well. NWT Tourism supports travel, trade, and media visits to all regions of the Northwest Territories. They offer co-op advertising opportunities to all tourism operators throughout the NWT.
The 2013 Explorer’s Guide promotes each region of the NWT. We expect that with increased funding, NWT Tourism will increase its regional marketing efforts.
As far as community operators, they continue to provide excellent products. For instance, this summer Deline will be hosting four trips of one-week duration that will provide visitors with a variety of experiences in the community and on Great Bear Lake. These trips will be booked in advance and sold to Europeans and southern Canadians who will be paying a lot of money for this experience. Grey Goose Lodge will be the coordinator and host for this experience, and it’s marketed through NWT Tourism. That’s just an example of how NWT Tourism helps regional operators like Grey Goose Lodge in the community of Deline.
There was some talk, also, about some film incentive options. ITI and ECE are committed to supporting the healthy growth of the NWT film and media arts industry and we will continue to work with industry to ensure its future development and growth. ITI is working closely with the Department of Finance and reviewed possible film incentive program options for the NWT with specific consideration of the following three options: implementation of film rebates, implementation of a film tax credit system, or increased dedicated funding through the SEED policy. We’re going to be continuing to move that along. The purpose of the Film Tax Incentive Program or Film Rebate Program would be to assist the film industry in lowering the cost of productions, thereby making NWT a more attractive industry location. As a result of this analysis, it was concluded that the best approach is to provide funding to non-NWT film industry businesses to undertake production in the NWT would be a Film Rebate Program rather than a film tax credit system. ITI will be reviewing this
option further with the intention of pursuing a proposal through the GNWT business planning process, so Members can look forward to that coming through the business planning process later this year.
There have been a number of questions in the House with regard to BIP. In my almost 10 years here, there have always been questions in regard to the Business Incentive Policy. A significant review was undertaken just a few years ago and the most recent changes to the BIP were brought in back in the fall of last year in response to feedback received from business associations, other stakeholders and the public. I have indicated a willingness, and I will again say this today, to work with SCEDI and Members. If they feel a review is warranted of the current Business Incentive Policy, I’d be more than happy to sit down with Members and discuss how this review could be conducted and what exactly we would like to be targeting.
Everybody that is a Member of this Legislature wants to see any and every dollar we can stay here in the Northwest Territories. We have to try our best to ensure that happens. If we didn’t have the current Business Incentive Policy today and tried to bring in something similar, we couldn’t bring in policy like this today. It’s there, we can fine tune it, we can review it again if that’s what Members want to do, and from what I’m hearing, I think that’s what the Members would like to see done. I’m, again, willing to listen and work with Members to see that happen.
With Mr. Dolynny, a number of things that he touched on, the first I just want to reiterate something and I’ve made a couple of statements just recently on the Economic Opportunities Strategy, the Mineral Development Strategy, and other Ministers have made statements as well. All of these have to come together. It’s imperative that all the work that the government is doing is going to come together, it is going to be weaved together. We fully expect that to happen. There are a lot of balls in the air, there is, and we’re doing a lot of work. We can’t be doing work in isolation of one another. It all has to come together. I am very optimistic that we can arrive at an end product that is going to bring all this together and chart a course for the future of the territory.
Also, on to the diamond file, I agree with a lot of what Mr. Dolynny had to say. I think we had the title here in Yellowknife of Diamond Capital of North America. We produce 15 percent of the world’s total production of diamonds. My goal as Minister is to get the secondary industry back here into the NWT, for it to be successful, for us to protect the brand like the polar bear. I think we’ve made a number of decisions recently that are going to lead us in that positive direction. We continue to have discussions with other companies, looking at setting up factories
here in Yellowknife. Our primary focus today, though, is to get the two factories on diamond row back up and running, and there are agreements, through the sale of those factories, that are going to put the polar bear back in the global marketplace and that’s very exciting for the NWT. It’s an iconic trademark and it’s something that I think is going to do very well once it gets back out into the marketplace. We’re very optimistic about how that’s going to work for us.
On the SEAs, we continue to meet with the mines. There was an MOU that’s expired. I believe that was from 2008. We continue to meet with the mines. I recently had a meeting with Minister Lafferty and Minister Beaulieu. It’s not just ITI. We have the responsibility for the SEA itself, but this touches a lot of other government departments, especially Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment. We take those SEAs very seriously. We try to work with the mines. They have provided a tremendous amount of business opportunities here to the NWT. They are the backbone of our economy here in the NWT, they provide jobs. We need to work with them.
On the training and development side it is a two-way street. Government certainly has a responsibility to have the training and education, and on the social side of things trying to get that positive messaging out to communities so people can be employed at the mines. We continue to work with them. I think that’s the best approach, is to continue to work with the mines so that they know what page we’re on and we know what page they’re on. It is certainly advantageous for the mining companies themselves to have employees that live here in the Northwest Territories. They fully acknowledge that. They need that workforce and our role as government is to help develop that workforce. That’s something I think we can certainly make some strides on.
We continue, through Minister Lafferty, to have discussions with Nunavut and the Yukon Territory on a pan-territorial Mine Training Strategy that is going to, hopefully, soon deliver some sizable dollars to the three northern territories for mine training. If you look at what’s happening in the Yukon and Nunavut and here in the NWT, those dollars are much needed, those training components are very necessary for us to get a workforce developed here in the NWT and the other two territories as well. We have to continue moving forward.
The Mine Training Society here in the NWT has been very successful. I was just on a trip last summer to Prairie Creek where there was a number of young Aboriginal folks from Mr. Menicoche’s communities in Nahendeh that were employed at Prairie Creek who were getting those on-the-job training experiences. It was really nice to see the
smiles on their faces. That’s what this is all about, is we have to train people, we have to get them those types of opportunities through mine training and other training initiatives. I know in the Sahtu with the oil and gas, the Norman Wells Land Corporation has been very out in front of it and taking the initiative to get out and get a training program put in place. Those things pay huge dividends for us as a territory.
Mr. Menicoche had some concerns with the tourism budget as well. I appreciate the support. I believe we just got a letter off to Mr. Menicoche on the Big River Man. We will certainly get Mr. Strel in touch with the ITI office in Fort Simpson and, with any luck, we’ll see him swimming the Mackenzie River. Kevin will have to swim with him.
Mr. Menicoche also talked about the Deh Cho loop. I know there’s a big connection with the state of Highway No. 7 and whether or not people actually go on that loop. That’s not something that’s lost on me or the government. We have committed $1 million this year to Highway No. 7 and $3 million ongoing. We are going to put some effort and capital dollars into Highway No. 7. Tourism is going to be a big part of that. I thank the Member, also, for his support and the Member’s support of the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
The next Member was Mr. Bromley. I guess I could start with fracking, as I haven’t mentioned that one yet. I’ve covered a lot of other areas that the Member covered. On fracking, I appreciate the Member’s views on this and my belief is we can arrive at the guidelines working with the Minister of ENR on a safe practice. We are going to get Members to an actual fracking site. We hope to do that in April. There are plans being put together as we speak to make that happen.
The other part of that, I think, is very important. I’ve talked to Mr. Yakeleya about this. We need to get the Aboriginal leaders from the Sahtu to see not only a well that’s being fracked, but also in discussions with some of the Aboriginal leaders in southeast Saskatchewan and North Dakota that have had businesses start up and be very successful because of the economic activity in southeast Saskatchewan and into North Dakota. That’s the type of dialogue I think we need to see happen. There are tremendous opportunities but the Member has concerns about the environment, and rightfully so. We have to make sure we get this right. We believe we can get it right and we will get guidelines. We have the report coming back from the SCEDI’s report on fracking that was presented last year. We will have a report coming back to the House during this session, so the Members have got that to look forward to. That will all help lead us toward guidelines for the use of hydraulic fracturing here in the NWT.
I think a number of the other topics were covered. Oh, yes.
On the BIP office, I have talked about the BIP office but for the detailed analysis. When I’m concluded, I’ll have Deputy Minister Vician talk about the analysis that went into relocating those positions to Hay River.
I, again, appreciate Mr. Hawkins’s support for NWT Tourism and marketing the Northwest Territories. The branding continues on multiple fronts across the NWT with tourism itself, Spectacular NWT, we’ve got the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program, the NWT Arts brand, Made in the NWT with the chamber, certified diamonds, the polar bear diamond and the Come Make Your Mark Campaign. So we are branding, and I understand what the Member is talking about, but we continue to look at multiple fronts on the branding of our products and we will continue to do that.
Perhaps there I know I am a bit long-winded, but I wanted to make sure I try to touch on everybody’s concerns and I probably missed some, but I’m going to go to Deputy Minister Vician. Maybe he can be a bit more concise on some of the analysis.