This is page numbers 5221 – 5256 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 development.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled

“Government of the Northwest Territories 2013-2014 Annual Report on Official Languages,” and a letter to Mr. Bob Bromley, dated November 4, 2014 regarding a statement in the House on the safety in junior kindergarten.

I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission Annual Report 2013” and “Northwest Territories and Nunavut Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal Annual Report 2013.” Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “2014 NWT Community Survey – Summary of Housing Results.” Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Pursuant to Section 23 of the Official Languages Act, I wish to table the “Office of the Northwest Territories Official Languages Commissioner Annual Report for 2013-2014.”

Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 41, An Act to Amend the Partnership Act, be read for the first time. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Bill 41, An Act to Amend the Partnership Act, has had first reading

---Carried

First reading of bills. Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 42, An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act, be read for the first time.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you. To the motion, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just briefly I want to speak to the principle of the bill. The Residential Tenancies Act, sorry, my apologies.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

It’s first reading, Mr. Hawkins. Bill 42, An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act, has had first reading.

---Carried

Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Committee Report 7-17(5), Report on the Development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development Strategies, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

I call Committee of the Whole to order. We have one item before us today. What is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to consider that one item, Committee Report 7-17(5), Report on the Development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development Strategies. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. We will take a brief break and come back with that matter. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are dealing with Committee Report 7-17(5), Report on the Development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development Strategies. I would first like to go to the chairman of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure for some comments on behalf of the committee. Mr. Hawkins.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Madam Chair. This Assembly’s very loyal and dedicated committee has some opening remarks, and I’d like to now read them officially in the record.

The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure sees the development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development Strategies as major initiatives of the 17th Legislative Assembly. The policy

direction of these strategies and their implementation and action plans will have

significant barriers on the work of the government departments and the economic direction of the Northwest Territories over the next 10 to 20 years.

From the outset, the committee expressed considerable interest as well as criticism with the development of both strategies. The committee’s major concerns were highlighted in its Report on the Development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development Strategies tabled in June of this year. These issues included the short time frame for the development of both strategies, limited public input into the development of the Mineral Development Strategy, and the lack of a thorough response to recommendations submitted by committee.

In tabling this report, it was the committee’s intention to share its experience with the House so that future strategy initiatives may be developed efficiently, collaboratively, and in keeping with the spirit and the principles of consensus government resulting in the delivery of meaningful policies and tangible benefits to all residents of the Northwest Territories.

That concludes my remarks regarding the tabled report, and I am under the understanding other Members may have comments as well.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Further general comments to the committee report? Mr. Bromley.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think my colleague Mr. Hawkins, chair of the EDI, I agree with all the points that were made. Basically, the concerns in particular were emphasized on the development of the Mineral Development Strategy and I think were well laid out in the report.

Just to do a quick review, basically there was a stakeholder engagement panel made up of industrial representatives put together by the Minister. They went out and did consultation. We had serious concerns that the public interest was not represented on that panel and that a lousy job – speaking straightforwardly here – was done on consultation compared to the economic opportunities panel, which spent their full budget doing participation and the panel was made up, of course, of people with expertise in public interest policy. It was an extraordinary situation, I would say, for committee, and on that basis, we contracted the Pembina Institute, selected the Pembina Institute after looking at a number of possibilities based on their record, and they developed a report, entitled “Responsible Extraction and Analysis of the NWT Mineral Development Strategy Panel Report,” which was tabled last October, a year ago October.

Again, that report started off by mentioning first of all…and it was an important time. It was just before devolution, so this is going back a little bit now, and

they recognized that that was an important time to be getting it right and making sure that consultation was very thorough and that public interest was well represented.

When this report was presented to the Minister repeatedly, there was a refusal to consider the points raised in this report, and that was also of significant concern to the committee. The report, as well as noting that it was sort of a pregnant time with devolution just around the corner, they also reviewed the draft mineral development report, in recognizing the 17th Assembly’s vision of a socially,

economically and environmentally sustainable Northwest Territories, and they supported that in their review.

I think the Pembina report presented some very important perspectives including in the area of industry subsidies, need to review economic rent – that’s the capture of appropriate value from the exploitation of public resources by industry; the role of communities, for example, in helping identify the right pace and scale of the exploitation; providing mechanisms for monitoring and enforcing that pace and scale of exploitation; allocation of resources and inspection and monitoring – areas we know are very critical; implications of the NWT Heritage Fund Act; requirements to address reclamation – we know there are serious gaps there; follow-up to environmental audits which are required under the MVRMA every five years and now our responsibility; reviewing alternatives to the free entry system, something we’ve talked about for quite a long time; and completion of the Protected Areas Strategy.

The report, the Mineral Development Strategy, is essentially silent or completely industry directed in almost all of these topics, I would say. We need a critical look when we seek to develop strategies, and especially to be aware of our responsibilities for the public good. I’m not at all convinced we did achieve that with the Mineral Development Strategy, but going forward, committee has thoughtfully presented those concerns and some recommendations to guide future efforts and avoid these pitfalls.

What I’d like to do today is propose committee motions to formalize reports, which are on page 3, and they’ve been formalized with some help from our staff. I’ll just move right into that, if I may, Madam Chair, the first motion?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Bromley, I think what we’ll do is just canvass the Members here and see if there are any more general comments, and we’ll conclude those and then we’ll move to the motions. Are there any further general comments to the committee report? Mr. Yakeleya.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. Looking at the report, it’s a three-page report, and

I’m very interested in this report because the economic and infrastructure report sees the development of the economic opportunities and the mineral development strategies as the 17th Assembly’s major initiative, and more so the implementation of these plans. If you look at it, the report says the next 10 to 20 years. One of the biggest red flaggers that come out of me when I see this report is 20 years is 2035 and that’s close to the year that the federal government is bringing the Northwest Territories housing funding down to a dwindle. Somehow we have to continue with that type of level of funding or we are going to move into more of a homeownership type of programs. We have all these public housing units, public housing that has been almost enshrined into an institution unto itself in the Northwest Territories. We have to pay for it somehow. The programs and services, we have got to pay for it.

We have a wealth of resources here that, I have heard over time, there has got to be a balance. There are some regions that are still in the process of settling or coming to the conclusion to a land claim of jurisdictions, institutions and certainty, and there are other regions that have that already. There are already systems and mechanisms and institutions in place and is enshrined into the Constitution as a constitutional document. From the economic opportunities, we welcome it, we welcome the Mineral Development Strategy and we have some mineral opportunities. There are certainly some of the past remnants that are coming up now in the Northwest Territories, such as the Canol Heritage Trail, where the US government basically said to Canada, are you going to help us or not? But we are going in there, because we have to get that oil from Norman Wells to Whitehorse and further to the United States. When the war was over, they just got up and walked away. Now we are dealing with that through a process, the liability.

Norman Wells also was one of the first significant oil discoveries in Canada, Northwest Territories, and that was done through Imperial and the federal government as to how they put that deal together. Those days are gone now because our region has the mechanism and the means to look at situations that economic opportunities bring to us. So that is one of the complexities.

My whole thing behind the economic opportunities and report is the relationship with the Aboriginal governments. They are major stakeholders in ownership of surface and subsurface lands. That’s our government-to-government-to-government relationship, given that they have a Constitution document, they have institutions such as land and water boards as independent, we have land use plans and we have provisions within a prescribed document such as the land claim to deal with issues. We welcome other opinions, but they are

just opinions for us and not to have a government such as the territorial government override. We want them to work with us.

The region claim has already been set. Let the people within the region that negotiated set their direction. I wanted to say this, that the people that were in these discussions are highly respected, know what’s going on, and that we ask that, through this government, they respect the jurisdiction, the certainty and the boards that we set up to negotiate. There are some very, very capable people and if you ask them to come to the table with us to give us their opinions, then that’s fine, but not for another party to tell us how to live and where to live and how we should live. Those days are gone, all gone. We will work with you.

As I was stating, the economic opportunities are really, really significant in the Sahtu and we have some people that are looking to it as a way to create some economic freedom in our region. We have some people in our region who sit on these co-management decision boards.

Right now we are in a state of doom and gloom. Go to our region right now. Just this past week one part of the hotel shut down November 1st . The owner

packed up and walked away. You know, that’s not good.

We do not want to remain in the poor house. It’s like having a cow but you are buying your milk from somewhere else. That’s not right and that’s what we always stated in our land claim agreement. We know what we’re doing. We know what we are doing. At least allow us the dignity to work towards what we want in the Sahtu. There are provisions; there are things in the report. They should respect that.

There are lots of issues out there and so I want to say that these Economic and Mineral Development strategies, within our land claim we can work with it as long as the Government of the Northwest Territories respects what was fought for, what was negotiated, what was settled, and not to alter, change or to do anything that is going to create hardship within our region.

We have the oil and we can use it, and that I would like the members of this committee to understand. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I have several other Members here for general comments. Prior to that, I will use the prerogative of the Chair to recognize Marc Miltenberger, a constituent of Hay River South, in the gallery today and, of course, the brother of our Finance Minister. Welcome, Marc.

---Applause

Next for general comments I have Mr. Bouchard.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are kind of two strategies that are here. Obviously, there is the Economic Opportunities Strategy and I am pleased with this strategy. Seeing this strategy and seeing some of the implementation, I see it as very conducive to some of the business that is done in the South Slave. I know that they had some public consultation there. In this report, some of the comments are tying the two of them together and I have some difficulties with that because I am obviously supportive of the Economic Opportunities Strategy and a lot of the initiatives that are in there.

The Mineral Development Strategy, on the other hand, my colleagues have expressed concerns with the consultation with the general public. I was there for the launch of the strategy, which was done at a major mining conference. Some people questioned why it wouldn’t have been launched in the Northwest Territories, but when you have the opportunity to launch it in a national light I thought that was a good opportunity to get it out that the Government of the Northwest Territories is looking at doing a Mineral Development Strategy. Should we have done more consultation? Sure. Our committee had a report done by Pembina and we should have had more answers and concerns that were in that report given to us, but we weren’t. That’s the downside of the Mineral Development Strategy.

Going forward, implementation-wise, we’ll have to see what the future brings on that strategy. I know the Minister is committed to some reviews in a short period of time. My comments, Madam Chair, are just the fact that we tied both of these strategies together because they basically rolled out at the same time. I guess I definitely see some of the concerns with the Mineral Development Strategy and where we go to relieve that or make that better the next time definitely needs to be taken into consideration.

Those are where my concerns are. Most of my concerns in this report are directed at the Mineral Development Strategy, not so much at the Economic Opportunities Strategy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Continuing on with general comments, I have Mr. Nadli.