This is page numbers 4253 – 4284 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 land.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member’s statement on the Enterprise fire tower, my question is to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I think we are all aware of the potential for each season to be fairly unpredictable in terms of forest fire activity throughout the summer. We look towards, especially in the small communities, government infrastructure projects as an opportunity to create employment and also to try and invigorate business opportunities wherever we can.

What are the department’s plans for the construction of the tower in Enterprise? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan is to proceed with the construction of a fire tower at Enterprise in 2014 and look at the decommissioning of the one that is currently in the Cameron Hills that is accessible only by helicopter as a fire tower. It still has a role to play with our communication system, but the intent is to look at the construction of the fire tower this year. Thank you.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

The Minister has indicated that the construction will start. Has a site and contractor for the construction been selected? Mahsi.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I believe a site has been identified, but I don’t have the information as to whether they have proceeded to the point where they have actually picked the contractor for the construction. Thank you.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

I would like to ask the Minister how can local businesses benefit from tower construction and operation if a contractor hasn’t been selected yet. Mahsi.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I will commit to the Member to check where this is in the process, but it would be a case of following and looking for whatever tender documents may come out in the paper and looking for those opportunities. It’s a relatively small contract of roughly $400,000 or somewhere in that range. There will be some opportunity, some of that may be somewhat specialized, but it would be best to check and follow through the public tendering process. I will commit to get back to the Member with details and the status of the project. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

I would like to thank the Minister for committing to following up on details of the construction and so forth.

What would a person from Enterprise need to do in order to work at the tower, notwithstanding that there’s a public process in terms of the tendering, but there’s an interest in terms of the local community being employed. What would a person from Enterprise need to do in order to work at the tower? Mahsi.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Currently, there is an arrangement made with Evergreen Forestry to have the tower that is in the Cameron Hills looked after by one of their members. Once again, I’d have to check the length of that agreement. If there were other interests other than through Evergreen when the current arrangement lapsed, there would be potential opportunity there; or members from Enterprise can talk to the folks from Evergreen to see what their options are. But it’s just one person and it’s through that current contract. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 1990 the founder of Gold Corp – his name is Rob McEwen – knew he was sitting on a fortune of gold but just didn’t know how to get at it. So he changed the world in an extraordinary way by putting the question about how could he get help from the world to find his gold in the ground. It drew out, I think, 110 quality submissions, but it drew out over 1,000 submissions at large. In essence, Mr. McEwen of Gold Corp was saying, I have a problem; can the world help me to find my solution? It was all based on innovation and how he was inspired by a product called Linux software where they went to the world for ideas on how to deal with it.

I have raised the issue of Giant Mine and how we have the arsenic trioxide trapped there and possibly left forever.

The question that now goes to Minister Miltenberger is: Would he be willing to look at the Gold Corp innovation challenge, which they put to the world with a prize dollar out there to draw out innovative solutions on how to deal with the arsenic trioxide that’s being left in the ground at Giant Mine for what is seen as forever?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for sharing the information on Gold Corp. It is a very fascinating read about thinking outside the box and what happened and how successful that particular initiative was. But keeping in mind that this is

ultimately a federal site and they are the major payer, I would be prepared to commit to take that information to the table through the deputy and through the folks that we have working as part of the project remediation to see what the interest is and look at trying to see if there are opportunities here to build off of the success of that example and other ones the Member mentioned like the Linux development where they went to people at large and got very many successful and very good ideas that they hadn’t contemplated.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Publicly, I’ve spoken about numbers of value of prize. It’s not for me to say per se what is the right prize amount, but I think the federal government needs to be a partner in this solution, because as I pointed out, and it’s even been cited by the federal government that it costs $1.9 million to run that Giant Mine site in perpetuity to protect that arsenic trioxide so it doesn’t spill into the environment.

My question now to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources is: Does he see an opportunity here to engage in this broader discussion about a possible solution on innovation with our partners in the federal government, because they’re the ones that will be paying so I think they should be the ones that should be helping to support us on this endeavour that can help the people of the Northwest Territories to deal with this horrible site.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Yes, that would be the whole intent of taking that information and the Gold Corp example forward to the appropriate tables, is to initiate that type of discussion, engender debate and look at options of is there a potential application here in the Giant Mine remediation site.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA. I spoke earlier in my Member’s statement about the excitement of all the young children that are gathered at William McDonald School and the coaches and the officials and the wonderful opening ceremonies last night. Certainly, this indicates to me that these traditional games are getting support by this government and by this Minister.

I want to ask the Minister – it would be nice if we had some of these traditional games – is there a manual out there, a book on the different types of games that are going to be played over the weekend and the meaning of these games? As the Inuvialuit elder said, this was for our survival, and he said teaching behind these games. Is there

something like that for people who want to know more about these games? Is there something out there for us to get?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re proud of our involvement in the Traditional Games. They had the first Traditional Games last year and there was an excellent turnout, from my understanding. I apologize for missing the opening ceremonies yesterday, but my understanding was that this year’s turnout was just as good as last year. The kids had a fantastic time, and this is a great opportunity for them to interact with kids from the other communities.

As far as the Member’s question about a handbook of some sort, I’m not aware of one. I will do some checking and see if one exists. As part of our culture, a lot of our games and that are just orally handed down from one generation to the next. I’m not sure if they’ve been put on paper and maybe it’s about time that was given some consideration. I will find out and communicate that to the Member.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

It was duly noted last night at the opening ceremonies that the Minister was preoccupied, and so that was understandable by the participants.

I guess what I wanted to say was there were so many people out there – coaches and athletes and volunteers – that it would be nice to have some type of a book so that we could start reading about the traditional games, because that’s kind of where things are going nowadays even though they’re handed down orally. We kind of understand that in our smaller communities.

I want to ask the Minister, for the support of these traditional games, is there is long-term funding for supporting these 21 schools that are attending the second, I guess, Traditional Games Championships?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Starting from the 16th Assembly and then Assemblies before, the funding contribution that we make to the youth across the Northwest Territories, I think, is unmatched anywhere in the country. We go a long ways to try and develop our youth, and I think we’ve seen in this last budget that we just debated there was an additional $500,000 that’s earmarked for youth development.

Our youth in the Northwest Territories have a fantastic opportunity. We have some great sporting partners such as the Aboriginal Sport Circle, who I believe are the ones that are putting this event on, and they receive a lot of their funding through the Sport and Rec Council of the Northwest Territories. There is a fantastic partnership here in the Northwest Territories amongst our sporting

community. Our regional folks do a lot of regional games with some of the schools within their regions.

Again, I will maybe have a discussion with the Aboriginal Sport Circle and see if there is any type of manual that exists, and if not, maybe we should start working on one and take advantage of the fact that we have a lot of pioneers, as far as the traditional games go, that are still with us. It’s a good opportunity to put their thoughts on paper and the history of the games.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

The Aboriginal Sport Circle should be getting all our support we can give, even to increase their funding to support all these small communities, communities around the Northwest Territories that bring kids together to learn about the traditional games and, more importantly, to practice them and to get the best out of themselves and for their schools.

I want to ask the Minister, is there a review process, once these games are finished, to say what went well, what we need to do next time, and is there any way that Members on this side could be part of that review, because I have small communities from the Sahtu that are participating in these games this year.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

As far as a review, I’m sure the Aboriginal Sport Circle, when they did the initial games last year, I’m sure when the games were over they had a bit of a debrief amongst their own organization to see what worked well, what could be improved, and I’m sure, as a result of that, there was probably some improvements made for the event this year. An official review, I’m not sure one exists. I don’t know, but I’m sure the Aboriginal Sport Circle has their own internal debrief, and if there’s information that we can gather from that, I can share that with the Members.

As far as the Member’s question on the booklet, there was somewhat of a book, I think, that was made a few years ago on the Arctic Winter Games and the history and that, so again, I will commit to trying to gather that information and share it with the Member.