This is page numbers 3905 – 3976 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 year.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just before Christmas the governments of Canada and the NWT accepted the recommendations of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board regarding the plan to deal with the arsenic at Giant Mine in Weledeh. Today I rise to recognize their decision and point out that this is an example of the current regulatory system functioning in the way it should, functioning in a way that produces the best result for people.

The Government of Canada and GNWT finally have a plan for Giant Mine that makes sense. Previously, they claimed that the frozen block method was the

final solution that paradoxically would keep the arsenic contained for an infinite period of time as long as they maintained the system. To the public, especially groups like the Yellowknives Dene and Alternatives North, this was unacceptable. Thankfully, the City of Yellowknife was listening and used the legislation to trigger a full environmental review. The review board subsequently held hearings and heard the public’s concern.

Recognizing that the proposed plan was only a short-term partial solution, the board refocused Giant Mine on an interim solution with stipulation with continuing research towards a complete solution within 100 years. In addition, the project will be subject to independent public oversight, similar to that for diamond mines.

With appropriate support, our environmental review process clearly can work. When federal and territorial proponents insisted they had a fine plan, the public review process forced them to think things through more carefully. Subsequent amendments sealed a much improved plan and a much more sensible mindset. With full understanding, we now also know we must never put ourselves in this situation again.

As we institute devolution, the travesty of the Giant Mine legacy is a front and centre reminder of what happens when we naively let resource extraction proceed without careful oversight to clean things up along the way. An important reminder as in just weeks we will assume clean-up responsibility for all operating mines in the NWT.

I would like to thank all who were involved in getting the Giant Mine Stabilization Plan in the Weledeh riding back on track. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Dredging Of The Hay River
Members’ Statements

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the days get longer and the spring comes closer, the community of Hay River needs to prepare again for break-up. As usual, I need to stand in front of this House and dredge up a similar statement that I’ve made about dredging the Hay River, the requirements that are needed in the community of Hay River for dredging.

This dredging is required for industry, it’s needed for the commercial fishery, it’s needed for recreational use and also needed for the public safety. As breakup goes on, if we dredge the Hay River there will be more capacity for that water and ice to flow through the community, making the community safer.

I’ve been here for three years and I’ve had to make this statement and make this request to the

Department of Transportation that we need to figure out a solution to the dredging issue in Hay River.

We now have a new Minister of Transportation and I’m looking forward to some questions with him and hopefully get some more results for the dredging of the Hay River. Thank you.

Dredging Of The Hay River
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 21, 2013, then Minister of Human Resources made a statement in this House that the Government of the Northwest Territories signed a memorandum of understanding agreement with the Union of Northern Workers. The agreement outlined procedures for employees to safely disclose allegations of wrongdoings within the government, known as the Safe Disclosure of Information, and the MOU was to take effect April 1, 2013.

Some of these highlights included providing employees with access to an independent mechanism for them to confidentially report situations where the employee in good faith believes that there has been a misuse of public funds, an illegal act, gross mismanagement or a substantial and specific danger to health and safety or to the environment. Also, it talks about providing employees, who in good faith make such a report, protection from reprisal by the employer ensuring that the interim provisions are not preventing an employee from accessing or fulfilling any obligations under any existing legislation, policy, process or collective agreement provisions, which provide a mechanism to address the employee concerns. There are other provisions to this agreement that have taken place and they just went through the first year of this agreement.

Our GNWT employees are our most valuable resource and the majority of them do work on the front lines. They’ve seen firsthand the operations of government departments and also the work that goes on within these departments. We want to encourage them to let us know what’s happening, both good and otherwise, who in good faith believe a wrongdoing has occurred and can bring those allegations forward freely in a confidential and safe manner.

The agreement also states that employees should never, ever fear reprisal from their employer by doing this and I support them in doing so. That’s why we went ahead and supported this agreement when we were discussing it in the 17th Assembly.

Finally, the Minister stated in his statement that there will be a safe disclosure coordinator as well

as a safe disclosure panel and that they would report annually. I look forward to reading this report, but in the meantime I will have questions later today for the Minister of Human Resources to get an update on how this project has gone this past year since its inception on April 1, 2013. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, I’ve stood up in this House a few times to express my concerns about the mines not meeting their socio-economic targets, especially in the area of jobs. But rather than wasting today’s time and certainly the public’s time, I’m hearing Minister Ramsay defend why they continue to have failures in certain areas. Let’s build upon what we know and let’s turn it into a success.

Everybody in the Assembly here knows that mines perform a regular performance reporting and they write out and explain where they have met their key targets and components on the socio-economic agreements and those are between the government and the mines. These reports are publicly available, if you can find them somewhere buried in a website or whatnot, and they do even track trends and certain other items. But let’s use this opportunity not just to talk about trends, let’s build it into a measure that’s meaningful that people can start to understand it. Let’s use these annual reports to publicize clearly, meaningfully in a format that all Northerners, the everyday person can see and understand. We can do business not only better, but we can finally show them we are doing business, which would be an interesting shock.

This government measures, from time to time, culture, community, family, individual well-being, traditional and non-traditional economy. We even look at things such as net effects on government and sustainability. We can do it, so let’s start doing it now.

These are all very important things, but how do we know the mines are living up to their commitment, the ones that they contractually are bound to do that we sort of negotiated, but of course, we have no enforcement tool. Where I’m going with this is maybe it’s time that we start publicizing through a regular occurrence once a year, I say if we put in the newspaper in a simple format with some charts, some graphs and explain mine number A, agreement on employment, they’re meeting these targets, and we can demonstrate that to Northerners.

Quite often a Northerner will come to me and say, you know, the other day my family and I came from

Edmonton. We got on that plane and we didn’t know anybody on that plane. Are they all mine workers? Are they hiring any Northerners at all? I think that’s a fair question, because a lot of Northerners think that none of those jobs are going to Northerners who actually live here.

What can we do? It’s time that the government starts publicizing mine commitments in the newspaper once a year, show people through graphs, statistics and black and white facts. Are they meeting them or are they not? Some are doing a great job and some are not.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the wake of accepting the meagre budget for the Mental Health and Addictions Plan, reluctantly, I must add, I have decided to give this topic a bit of sunshine today.

We have heard, been reaffirmed and even guaranteed by the Minister of Health and Social Services that our residents today are in better care in their most desperate time of need. We are told that in 24 hours or less if you come forward with addiction issues you’ll be whisked away to one of four out-of-territory fabulous resorts where you’ll be given state-of-the-art care, and this is all being done at huge savings compared to what we were offering at Nats'ejee K'eh.

Many of us from the Social Programs committee have visited the Poundmaker’s Lodge in St. Albert, and I agree, there appears to be a successful addiction treatment centre there. But, in reality, are there savings, or should it be about savings? Are we spending the right amount of budget dollars as we did before in addictions or are we spending more? Clearly, addictions, especially alcohol addiction being the number one social issue in the North, is it getting the right investment? I mean, surely this government must be spending enough money to remedy this huge social epidemic.

Well, we know that from past budgets Nats’ejee K’eh received a little over $2 million a year in funding, so we must be at least spending this or more to treat addictions. No? I mean, we waited over two years for mental health and addictions plans from this government, so we must be serious about investing some money to take a bite out of addictions, right?

Let’s take a look at the budget of this long-awaited Mental Health and Addictions Plan, shall we? On-the-land treatment program, $900,000. Check. Children and Youth Resiliency Program, $500,000. Check. Four lofty contracts for out-of-territory

provincial treatment program, $1 million. Check. Cha-ching! It comes up to $2.4 million. Ironically, slightly more than we were given annually for Nats’ejee K’eh.

Where is the bit and the bite? Where is the real investment with addictions? Sadly, these numbers speak for themselves. When this government spends more in building one kilometre of new highway than dealing with the number one issue plaguing our generation, this is more than shameful. It’s embarrassing.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In August 2012 I went to Fort Reliance and met a retired RCMP officer named Garth Hansen who was looking for a lady that had saved four kids from a burning fire way back when he was a member in Reliance and Lutselk'e about 50 years ago.

Today I would like to pay tribute to this one amazing hero that he was looking for. I speak of Celine (Nataway) Marlowe, the wife of George Marlowe, the mother and grandmother of many in Lutselk'e and other communities in the Northwest Territories.

On New Year’s Eve 1960-61, Celine, before she turned nine years old, saved the lives of four young children from a house fire in Snowdrift/Lutselk'e. This act speaks of the kind of person Celine is today. Celine acted bravely and is a true hero. Today there are people walking around Lutselk'e because of this act of bravery.

Celine received the highest honour awarded for bravery in the Northwest Territories issued by the RCMP. Celine was the second person in the Northwest Territories to receive this award since 1993. The other person is now on the Nunavut side.

On January 14, 2014, the retired RCMP officer that nominated Celine, Garth Hansen, who was at the RCMP station in Lutselk’e/Snowdrift or Reliance at the time of the house fire, actually was stationed in Reliance and then was in Lutselk’e during Christmastime. Along with some high ranking officials from the Northwest Territories, including the chief superintendent and two of the other high ranking officers, gave this award to Celine Marlowe. Presented by the RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to Celine (Nataway) Marlowe for her dedication and bravery in rescuing Peter Abel, Dorothy Abel, Gilbert Abel and Raymond Abel from a disastrous house fire which destroyed Joe Fatt’s home on New Year’s Eve in 1960-61 in Snowdrift, now called Lutselk’e, on the north arm of the Northwest Territories. Her immediate response

encouraged a nine-year-old, actually before she turned nine, to save the lives of her friends and brought great credit to her community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery, Mr. Blake.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Itai Katz who is one of my constituents from Tsiigehtchic. I’d like to welcome him to the gallery. Thank you.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Bromley.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Chief Edward Sangris of the Yellowknives First Nation, Detah. I know he’s got a very busy schedule, so it’s great to see him in the House today.

I had the opportunity to meet Itai Katz from Tsiigehtchic just before session here. That was the first time I’d met him. I welcome him to the House. Of course, he’s the spouse of the famous Alistine Andre. I’d like to recognize her. Mahsi.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Item 6, acknowledgements, Mr. Bouchard.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Jim Thomas was born at 2 Island, 32 miles below Fort Simpson, on February 25, 1924. He has lived all his life in the North, from Fort Chipewyan to Fort Providence to attend the residential school. In the 1940s he worked underground at Ptarmigan Mines until he was transferred to Con Mine. Later, in the 1950s, he also found work on the drilling rigs when oil companies were exploring for oil and gas. In the late 1950s, he was working on building the road to Kakisa.

In the 1960s Jim called Hay River his home. He worked in many different capacities, as a firefighter, a captain on an NTCL tug boat, to a corrections officer and a fisherman on Great Slave Lake, but the land would always have his heart, and that is where his true talent shone.

Jim's sense of humour for everything in life always brings a smile to people who know him.

In the 1990s Jim became very involved in the Dehcho Process. After the West Point First Nation got recognition of band status, he sat on council as an elder at the local level and as an elder advisor to the Dehcho leadership table. With all his wisdom,

he shared what he learned as a child to the leaders then of the treaties and what they stood for.

I am happy to recognize Mr. Jimmy Thomas on his 90th birthday. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment replied to one of my questions by stating: “If there is an asbestos issue, then we would be proactive and work with the Department of Public Works and Services and put in mitigating measures to deal with that. At this point, it hasn’t been brought to my attention if it is an issue.”

I’d like to know, since my exchange with the Minister of Education last week, if the Minister of Public Works or any of his departmental officials supplied information to the Minister of Education about asbestos in the Moose Kerr School. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the information has been exchanged between officials of Public Works and the Department of Education. The assessment of Moose Kerr School did not identify any asbestos-containing materials. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

I will continue my questions to the Minister of Public Works. Last week the Minister of Education mentioned that a major renovation was made to the Moose Kerr School in 1999. A number of upgrades were subsequently made to the school between 2008 and 2012.

I would like to know if any asbestos issues were encountered in any of these upgrades. Did these upgrades include abatement or mediation of asbestos-containing materials? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Several years ago some officials were inspecting the school and they had identified materials in the crawl space of the school that they figured could possibly be asbestos. The department took a closer look with experts and determined it was not asbestos in that basement or in the crawl space of that school. That was the only place it could have possibly been identified. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

As I mentioned last week, as well, most of our buildings, their life expectancy is 35 years, yet Moose Kerr School is 45 years old. When will this school be replaced? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.