This is page numbers 6757 – 6826 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.

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Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Today I rise to acknowledge and congratulate my constituent Mr. Gino Pin on his being inducted into the Order of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Pin is an architect of considerable renown, who has been living, designing and building in Canada’s North for more than 35 years. In fact, this House is a sterling example of his fine work.

Mr. Pin has received many design awards and was named “Northerner of the Year” by UpHere Magazine in 1992. Mr. Pin has made significant contributions to both the quality of life and the esthetic environment of the Northwest Territories. He is considered by his peers to be the pre-eminent architect north of 60. He has also been an outstanding mentor to upcoming architects and has embarked on a dedicated effort to address the fate of our homeless here in Yellowknife.

He is truly deserving of the highest honour this government can bestow, and I invite all Members to join me in congratulating Mr. Pin for his many achievements and for his recognition received today. Mahsi.

---Applause

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to acknowledge Mr. Gerald W. Kisoun, known to most as Gerry, on being recognized as a recipient of the 2015 Governor General’s Polar Medal Award. Mr. Kisoun was recognized for his outstanding contribution to promoting Canada’s North and its people.

His mother, Bertha Allen, received the Governor General’s Northern Medal in 2008 for her support of equality for Aboriginal and northern women, particularly their inclusion as government decision-makers.

Mr. Kisoun is a true role model for his family, his friends, the community of Inuvik and all Northerners.

I would like to congratulate and acknowledge Mr. Kisoun for all of his hard work, commitment and dedication to the people of the North. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ITI. I talked about the potential in the Sahtu region with our human resources, our people and with the resources in our lands.

I want to ask the Minister, has he had an opportunity to look at the opportunities of the economic potential in the Sahtu region with our people in our lands? Does he have a quick snapshot picture of what’s there?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got a great idea of what’s in the Member’s riding in the Sahtu. Over the past four years, we’ve spent $8.5 million in funding in the region. We’ve got the greatest potential, of course, with oil and gas and the resource assessment that was done in the central Mackenzie Valley, indicating that there’s close to 200 billion barrels of oil and the benefits, and the development of that could mean potential business opportunities and employment opportunities for residents in the Sahtu.

We also had seen a great advance in agriculture in the Member’s riding. I know Mr. Whiteman is back at potato farming this year and there’s a number of others in communities in the Sahtu who are getting into agriculture.

We’ve also seen an advancement on the traditional economy. Harvesting furs continues to be a source of income in the Member’s riding. I believe in the Sahtu we’ve got close to 100 trappers in the area and they harvest some of the best fur in the Northwest Territories.

We also have to look at tourism and the opportunities tourism is going to provide. The federal government is going to be moving forward with the cleanup of the Canol Trail. Some of that work has started. As the Member knows, earlier this year we had 18 local residents employed on the cleanup. The $800,000, or close to $800,000 flowed through the Department of ITI and we’re happy to see that work start. The federal government indicates it’s going to take up to five years to clean up the Canol in advance of us fulfilling a commitment in the Sahtu Agreement to turn that into a park, and we fully intend on doing that as soon as that trail is remediated. Thank you.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you. The Minister clearly laid out the amazing potential we have in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister, has he and his officials looked at one area that he hadn’t mentioned today, which is the Selwyn-Chihong Mine that’s at the Yukon/Northwest Territories border? I understand this mine is going to go into production. There’s close to $1 billion worth of work there, potentially with 850 workers during the construction phase and around 450 permanent workers to operate that mine.

Has the Minister looked at how we can match the young potential workers in the Sahtu with this upcoming mine that is close to $1 billion worth of operation?

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

The Selwyn-Chihong Project, which straddles the Yukon-Northwest Territories border, holds great promise and great potential not only for the Sahtu, but for the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. It is a world-class lead-zinc deposit, as the Member indicated, with somewhere around 800 to 850 permanent jobs. I know the company has been into a number of communities in the Sahtu. They’ve been talking to the leadership in the Sahtu about potential IBAs and other opportunities for the Sahtu when it comes to the development of that project. We’re very excited. Initial mine plans had the company looking at mining on the Yukon side at first, but it looks as though the company is going to be mining potentially on both sides of the border, which bodes well for the Northwest Territories and this is a great opportunity for us.

Also in the area of mining, we’ve had some great results from our NWT Geological Survey that would indicate that there’s gold and tungsten in a number of the stream sampling programs that we had conducted last summer. So there’s great potential in the Sahtu for mining. Thank you.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Certainly, that raises our hopes in the region. I want to ask the Minister, has he been working with his other colleagues with regards to bringing in some much needed skill development, trade development, in regards to, for example, the Selwyn-Chihong Mine operations, bringing in some type of trades program with the Mine Training Society to look at how do we tap into these young resources of workers in the Sahtu region to increase our viability to be in the mine and not have situations where we see where we fly in miners to take the jobs from our Sahtu people, our northern people?

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Because of the exploration and the little bit of drilling that happened in the Sahtu a couple of years ago, there are folks there that are trained. But the Member’s correct. I mean, we have to be ensuring that the young people are ready for the jobs that are coming, whether they’re in oil and gas or whether they’re in the mining sector. We continue to work closely with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. I know the Minister had a statement earlier, Skills 4 Success. We’ve got the Mine Training Society of the Northwest Territories, as well, and we have to do everything we can as a government to ensure that our folks are ready to take these opportunities and run with them. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to just ask the Minister about the traditional economy. Now, that’s the backbone of our people. It was a way of life until we started to look at the European value of exchange. The economy is still strong. Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope have the best fur harvesters in the Northwest Territories.

I want to ask the Minister, is his department working with the trappers in the region, specifically around Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake, in regards to seeing that this tradition is continued to be passed on to the younger generation? The best furs, I may say humbly, come from the Sahtu region, specifically in the Gahcho area.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

We continue to work with ENR on the traditional economy on the area of trapping. As I mentioned to the Member, there are currently approximately 100 trappers in the Sahtu. We actively support the marketing of the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program. Over the past four years, they’ve averaged about $370,000 per year in fur sales and an additional $84,000 in fur bonus and grubstake payments to trappers. Over the four years, the total for Sahtu trappers is nearly $2 million, so it’s a tremendous opportunity. This money goes directly back into trappers’ pockets and back into local economies in the Sahtu.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can I seek unanimous consent of yourself and the Members to return to item 5?

---Unanimous consent granted

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I am honoured to stand here today to congratulate and recognize Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred and Lucy Jackson. Mrs. Lucy Jackson was the recipient of the first Order of the Northwest Territories, and accompanying her is her good, full-time, wonderful husband, Wilfred Jackson. Thank you.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery (Reversion)

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 7, oral questions, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement on policing in Tsiigehtchic, we had a strong presence of RCMP in Tsiigehtchic in the early 1900s, yet here we are today, 2015, with a core presence in the community. We’re going backwards, Mr. Speaker. We should have a detachment in the community at this time. We had one in the early 1900s, as I mentioned, 1920, in Tsiigehtchic. We had special constables in every community, Fort McPherson, Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic, the list goes on. Yet today there’s not one special constable in any of those communities. More needs to be done in this area. You know, it’s Aboriginal policing. We need to start encouraging our youth to join the force and have detachments in our communities. So I have questions for the Minister here today.

How many times have the RCMP spent the night or even overnight in Tsiigehtchic over the summer? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for raising the concern about policing in Tsiigehtchic once again on the floor of the House today. The number of patrols that we saw into the community of Tsiigehtchic between January and July 2015 from the RCMP detachment in Fort McPherson were 37 patrols, and I want to thank the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. We’re moving forward with plans to have an increased police presence in the community of Tsiigehtchic. We’re going to be sending officers in there to spend two days and one night a week, which means that for up to eight days per month they will be in the community of Tsiigehtchic. Suitable accommodations have been identified, again through the Housing Corporation and we thank them for their help in that. This will begin in December of this year. The community will see this increased level of service by the RCMP. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

That actually answered my second question here, but my third question is: What are we going to do in the meantime? You know, we have freeze-up underway here. We have about three to four inches of snow in Tsiigehtchic at the moment.

What is the detachment going to do during freeze-up? Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Operationally it would be as usual. Again, we are looking forward to December when we can increase the level of service to the community of Tsiigehtchic. I should mention, as well, that between January 1, 2015, and up until the end of July 2015, there were 40 calls for service during that period of time in the community of Tsiigehtchic. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

I would like to ask the Minister, when will they start encouraging our youth to join the force, whether it be through special constable that was practiced in the early 1900s. It seems they’ve done away with that here today. This is a great opportunity. I recall even in the mid-1990s many… I believe even you were a special constable, Mr. Speaker, at one point. We need to start encouraging this practice once again. Will the Minister ensure that that happens? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I’m very glad that the Member has brought this up today. We need to be encouraging if you know young people in the community who are interested in a career in policing, they can identify themselves to the detachment or to the RCMP here in the Northwest Territories, to “G” Division. We would certainly like to hear from them.

We’ve had trouble in the past getting interested persons to take the training. We continue to work with the RCMP in identifying young people who can take the training and become members of the RCMP. I’d encourage all Members, again, if you know young people in your community, it’s a great career and I’d encourage them to approach the RCMP. Thank you.