Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I spoke to earlier today, one of the critical challenges for resource development in the NWT is lack of transportation infrastructure. In recent years climate change impacts are affecting that infrastructure through melting permafrost and shortened winter road seasons. Infrastructure challenges increase cost to families and business, as we know. They also add costs and challenges for the resource sector which compromises economic growth in the territory. I'd like to ask the Minister of Transportation what his department's plan is for addressing the challenges to transportation infrastructure in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. Minister of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation is committed to addressing NWT's infrastructure deficit and improving the level of services provided by the NWT transportation system. The department has recently released a 25-year transportation strategy entitled “Connecting Us,” which will guide the actions, and maintain and improve existing infrastructure, expand the highway system to better connect communities and support economic development, and modernize transportation programs and policies to improve service delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I know that most of us in here are aware, but in the interest of informing NWT residents, has the Department of Transportation identified which new road projects will be priorities for this government?

NWT's transportation strategy identifies three priority transportation corridors which the department is making an effort to advance. The first one is the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the second is the Tlicho all-weather road, and improved access to the Slave Geological Province.

Can the Minister of Transportation tell us why these three corridors were chosen to be priorities?

“Connecting Us,” the department's transportation strategy, identifies the long-term plans for the transportation system, so that the system can support and enable economic development. The strategy identifies three strategic transportation corridors because of the benefits that construction of all-weather roads in these regions will have on NWT residents and long-term economic stability. The Mackenzie Valley Highway will connect several communities to the public highway system, providing transportation efficiencies that will result in a reduced cost of living for residents. The highway will also provide access to a vast wealth of petroleum reserves in the region which could be tapped into to boost and diversify the NWT economy. Replacing the existing winter road would help us adapt to the pressures of climate change, which are reducing the window of access into the Mackenzie Valley. The Tlicho all-season road would also improve access to communities in the region, resulting in lower cost of living. The road will support future development of the NICO-based mineral project and encourage further investment in the region. Lastly, the Slave Geological Province continues to be a major contributor to the NWT economy. Providing all-weather access into this region would help the NWT reach its full potential by supporting further mine development projects.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Lastly, I would like to know how the Department of Transportation is working to identify funding for these important construction projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The department is working closely with the federal government on funding of submissions for the NWT under the New Building Canada Plan to fund new road projects. A detailed business case was submitted to Canada in August 2015, requesting funding to begin construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells. We are still awaiting a response from the federal government regarding this request. In addition, the GNWT submitted a proposal for the Tlicho all-weather road to the P3 Canada Fund for round 7 of funding consideration. We were informed that the project was screened in. At this time, we are working to provide any additional details that our federal counterparts may require as we await final decision on this project. The departments of Transportation and Finance continue to work on P3 business case's assessment to determine optimal routing for increasing access to the Slave Geological Province. Planning work underway includes detailed road analysis and cost estimates, and will provide information so that we can maximize long-term opportunities for Northerners.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When I checked the GNWT phone directory listing on our website, there's no longer a director for the liabilities and financial assurances division, and only two staff: a project assistant and a specialist. It's not clear what is going on with the staffing of the division. Can the Minister of Lands tell us whether people are leaving this division and why, and what are the plans to fill those positions? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. Minister of Lands.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Lands is less than two years old and the financial liabilities and financial assurance division was added after the creation of the Department of Lands. Turnover and staff departures and difficulty recruiting these highly-specialized positions are just some of the challenges that the organization has faced since start-up. Despite that, we have moved quickly and the Director's position now has been filled on an acting basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of the purposes of the liabilities and financial assurance division within the Department of Lands was “lead and coordinate short and longer term policy development concerning the government's management of securities.” Can the Minister of Lands indicate whether any policies and/or guidelines have been completed since the division was created last year, and table such documents in this House?

A significant body of work was completed by Queen's University which provided the building blocks for the development of guidelines. There are draft guidelines currently under internal review and discussion, and we need to take into account the distribution of decision-making authorities in the NWT between resource management boards and various GNWT and federal departments. It will be incumbent on us to get these guidelines right so that they are accepted, endorsed, and found to be practical and useful by all parties. They must be grounded in operational realities and reflective of the GNWT's risk to all tolerance towards securities. We cannot afford to get these wrong and therefore, we’re taking measured incremental steps to get them right.

I just want to better understand the slow progress on the establishment of this division and the critical work that it's starting to get place. I believe the Minister may have partially answered the question here, but can the Minister of Lands describe what the barriers are for this work and what the Department of Lands is doing to get this important work back on track.

I take a different view of the progress of the liabilities and financial assurance division. In less than two years, within the department, we have successfully established a new unit that was not contemplated at the time of devolution. This unit has so far managed a significant body of work from Queen's University and commenced work on the policy foundation that will guide them through future operations; supported the GNWT in decision-making on an innovation form of $253-million security for Ekati; completed an initial scoping study of Cantung issues that prepared the GNWT on managing issues going on in North American Tungsten insolvency proceedings; and developed an internal tracking approach to ensure whole-project tracking of securities. These are just some of the accomplishments of this unit in a very short time period.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to again thank the Minister for his response. If he took the impression that I don’t believe the division's actually doing anything, I do understand that there is a lot of work that's underway, but we just had a $4.5 million special warrant that was necessary to deal with the closure and reclamation of the Cantung Mine, There's some unreconciled liabilities associated with the Prairie Creek property and other sites, so I just want to get some further assurances from the Minister of Lands that our financial security systems are working. I wonder whether there's a work plan that he could table in this House for the division.

The $4.5 million special warrant allowed the GNWT to take the necessary action to transfer responsibility for the closure and the reclamation of the Cantung Mine to the Government of Canada. Both Cantung and Prairie Creek are legacy sites that were not regulated under the modern regulatory and approval systems that we have in place today, and furthermore, they were managed by another level of government with a different level of risk tolerance than the GNWT. In the case of both Cantung and Prairie Creek, the GNWT has protection from liability through the Devolution Agreement. We can't change the past, but we can and have learned from it, which is why the GNWT is carrying out work on securities and the development of systems and guidelines.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To follow up on my Member’s statement here today, I have some questions for the Minster of Human Resources. In the past, government departments have identified potential summer student positions and the process has been started. Right now, there seems to be a delay, so I would like to ask, can the Minister tell us what the department's plans are in rolling out summer jobs this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.