This is page numbers 4891 – 4922 of the Hansard for the 17th 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 health.

Topics

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

With the government and with the contributions that have been happening in the Sahtu with regard to the funding and the specific sites, I want to ask the Minister, given that Imperial Oil’s 10-year water application licence is going through, they are going to take out billions of litres of water, run it through their system, bring it back, pour billions more back into the Mackenzie River that will flow down towards Fort Good Hope and Tsiigehtchic and the other communities along the river system.

I want to ask the Minister, knowing this and knowing that 720,000 tonnes of hazardous material was dumped in Great Bear Lake when they had the mining operation, now we are talking about the new oil and gas exploration happening in the Sahtu with these hazardous waste materials or the hazardous waste materials that are on our lands, is there any type of discussion with this government here talking about a hazardous waste site in regard to monitoring just environmental hazardous sites such as the water and the land?

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

There has been some activity in terms of working to acquire lease land near the community of Norman Wells to put in a waste treatment site in anticipation of the need that may come with oil and gas development. It is a very big issue. The idea of having a proper waste treatment facility would be a great asset to the Sahtu and to the Northwest Territories. Most jurisdictions now are not very receptive to having wastewater and other substances imported into their jurisdictions for treatment, so there have been some initial discussions. It’s something I know that industry is interested in as well as is the government, ENR, ITI, Lands. It would all be seen as a next step in terms of being able to better manage the impacts of whatever oil and gas development is going to evolve in the Sahtu.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister inform the House and inform the

people in the Sahtu as to when will the baseline studies of the water use or the water monitoring in the Sahtu, because there are concerns about groundwater consequences of the technology of hydraulic fracking.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

There have been hundreds of thousands of dollars put into baseline work. We know that we need it on a regional basis, but clearly, we’re looking at starting near where the proposed activity, or potentially, will be. There has been work ongoing over the last couple of years, and that work is slated to continue as we work to get that critical information not only on baseline for water, groundwater, surface water but also for wildlife.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up with some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on my Member’s statement today. I’d just like to ask the Minister, seeing as it’s our first year of the Junior Kindergarten program and next year we’re going to be going into phase two where we’re going to be taking the Junior Kindergarten program into some of the regional centres such as Inuvik, I’d like to ask the Minister has he consulted with the DEAs and the DECs as well as other private daycare facilities and businesses on how this Junior Kindergarten program is going to affect especially the private daycares? Has he done that consulting and has he talked with them? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On the second phase approach, when it comes to regional centres on the deliverance of Junior Kindergarten, there’s going to be a lot of engagement that is happening right now. I’ve already presented to board chairs; district education councils and also DEAs are aware of that as well. They’re in line for a second phase approach, also the daycare operators. The Children First Society is part of the process. We’ve invited the daycare operators, I believe the beginning of last month, to have a workshop, and it has been very successful to date, just to deal with the outcome of the JK. Not only that, as we move forward, having an engagement of these various organizations is very critical and we need to involve the community members, the community organizations as we roll out the program in the regions. Mahsi.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

The workshops sound great to the daycares. Members, committees have heard about all the good work that would come out of Junior

Kindergarten. We heard all the statistics and research. What I’m trying to get at here is whether or not the daycares have expressed concern that when we incorporate Junior Kindergarten to the regional centres that there’s going to be all the four-year-olds moving into the schools, which would result in lost revenue for the daycares. It’s not only going to happen in Inuvik, it’s going to happen in all the communities that have daycares. It’s going to happen here in Yellowknife as well.

Has the Minister heard those concerns, and is the Minister willing to make it optional, as well, for the regional centres and the city of Yellowknife to implement Junior Kindergarten like he did in the first phase, making it optional? Thank you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi. As I stated, there will be various forms of engagement with the organizations at the regional level. This is the second phase approach when it comes to delivery of Junior Kindergarten.

My understanding is that my staff will be meeting with the Children First Society and the community of Inuvik on the specifics of Junior Kindergarten program delivery, I believe, within the next couple of weeks. So there will be a full-blown discussion of any concerns, issues or ideas, suggestions that will be coming forward by operators and community members. Mahsi.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. A couple of years ago, this government contributed funding to the Children First Centre in Inuvik to early childhood development and to give these children a place to learn and to be educated. Then two years later we say we’re taking all the four-year-olds out, possibly.

Would the Minister be looking at creating some type of provision within the Junior Kindergarten program where the funding that goes to the district education authorities be flowed through to the daycares and the daycares get the funding so they open up spots for people in the community with children who are four years old? Would he look at a provision in the Junior Kindergarten program for the funding to get flowed to the daycares? The businesses would stay open and kids would have a spot to go, rather than going to the school. Thank you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

As I stated, not only Inuvik but in Yellowknife, as well, there’s been engagement with the daycare operators and we continue to provide funding, whether it be the daycare operators, the Aboriginal Head Start program. There’s other early start programming that we will continue to offer. This week my staff will be in Inuvik and highlighting some of those areas of opportunities. Also, if there are concerns brought to our attention, then we need to follow up on those concerns. This will be a second phased approach. So we will re-evaluate our first approach of 23 communities, the pros and cons moving forward, what have we learned, so we don’t reinvent the

cycle within the second and third year approach. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the four-year-olds go into the school system and educators who went to school to be educators now take on an extra responsibility for these four-year-olds, has the Minister created some type of training program, looked at supports that are needed for these educators? Has he approached the kindergarten educators and given them the support they need, the training that they need and the materials that they need to ensure that this Junior Kindergarten program is successful, stuff that daycares have? Thank you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi. Those are particular programs that will be in place. We have provided the training program for the teachers in the springtime and also late fall for those individuals that didn’t partake in the training when we first initiated it in the 23 communities. When it comes to the second phase of the regional centres, most definitely. Those particular trainings will be delivered to those teachers that will be delivering JK in those communities. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of ENR. As you heard earlier, there are a lot of concerns about low water levels, especially up in the region of Beaufort-Delta, Mackenzie Delta, and a lot of this when we’re travelling throughout the river system what we notice is there are a lot of beavers in the region, but the price on the pelts are so low that nobody is trying to trap them.

I was wondering if the Minister is open to putting a quota on the beaver in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We, of course, would be interested to talk to the Member more about his thoughts on that. We have co-management boards we’d want to talk to and other involved stakeholders. So, of course, we’d have to look at the financial implications, but we could talk further with the Member about it. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

It’s pretty clear that the population has skyrocketed, and I’d like to ask the Minister

what steps his department is doing to ensure the beaver population is controlled. Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

We deal with the beaver as we do with any other animal under our Trapping Program. There’s a price that’s there for fur, and people are encouraged and we support trapping and all the trapping initiatives to make sure that we do have folks that trap and that they pass those skills on to the children. We don’t have a specific program specifically targeted at beaver. We do have some special attention paid to wolves, trying to encourage folks to harvest them and receive some benefit from that.

The Member made a comment about the populations skyrocketing. I’d have to check that with our staff, of course, and see in fact if that’s the case and where.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague’s questions about gas. I guess one of the questions that I have to the Minister of Finance is the taxation side of gas.

What percentage of gas prices is the taxation on it?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.