Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Public Works and Services.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the follow document entitled “North Slave Resiliency Study Final Report.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Tabling of documents. Item 16, notices of motion. Item 17, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 18, motions. Item 19, first reading of bills. Item 20, second reading of bills. Item 21, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters with the Member for Hay River North in the chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the Committee? Mr. Beaulieu?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we wish to continue on with the consideration of Tabled Document 50-18(2), Main Estimates, 2016-2017. Mr. Chairman, we would like to continue our deliberations on the Environment and Natural Resources, and time permitting, get into Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree? We will continue consideration of the document after a short break. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

I will now call the Committee of the Whole back to order. We will continue with our consideration of Tabled Document 50-18(2), Government of the Northwest Territories Main Estimates, 2016-2017, with the Department of ENR. Minister Schumann, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber? Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister Schumann, would you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you. To my left is Susan Craig, Director of Finance. To my right, immediate right, is Ernie Campbell, deputy minister, and to my far right is Erin Kelly, assistant deputy minister.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Welcome back, witnesses. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a few remaining comments on the corporate management activity that we agreed to yesterday. Therefore, I seek unanimous consent to return to page 87 in the ENR estimates. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to page 87.

---Unanimous consent granted

You may continue, Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, today there are or have been, since it's late in the day, 300 children in the Somba K’e Park here, in Yellowknife, for World Oceans Day, and the reason that they're there is because ENR has a public education program that is aimed at teaching children and people of all ages about the different aspects of the ENR mandate, such as wildlife, water, environmental protection, and so on. To that end, I'm very dismayed by the proposed loss of the part-time public education specialist in the department's field support unit, which we spoke about yesterday when we were going through the corporate management section of the plan. The loss of this position goes to principles that we do not want to see front line positions cut, especially a cut in headquarters which has repercussions for the whole of the NWT, and so, to that end, I am wondering if the Minister will consider reinstatement of that position. Therefore I have a motion that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to reinstate funding in the amount of $21,000 for the proposed elimination of the public Education coordinator position in the field support unit under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources under the corporate management activity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Green. A motion is on the floor and is being distributed now. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Ms. Green. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I know that when the business plan came forward to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, I'm pretty sure I asked about this position, and I was told by the department that they have other folks that would pick up the work that this position would normally carry out, and I was a bit skeptical about that. I've known the people that have been in that position probably for most of the time I've been in Yellowknife, which is close to 30 years, or that have been involved particularly in that field. They do very important work. I'm not sure if the MLA for Yellowknife Centre talked about the Tundra Science Camp that's run north of Yellowknife, where community elders come in, and there are scientists there, as well; there are some wonderful sharing experiences that take place with youth, as well. That work is largely coordinated by the education specialist position and is something that I'd really like to see continue. I do support this motion, and I would urge, certainly, all the MLAs on this side of the House to support it and Cabinet colleagues, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. To the motion. Minister Schumann, would you like to speak to the motion?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to speak to this based on the comments that the House has received. Upon reviewing all our positions for this up-and-coming budget session, we reviewed these jobs, and, previous to the proposal of the reduction of this one position, we had one and a half positions within our department for this specific need. What we propose is we've eliminated the half-time position and, with decentralization, we've actually created one whole new complete position for this in the South Slave, so we have more people serving in this capacity than we did previously. We're actually going to have two full-time people committed to this versus one and a half. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. To the motion. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for clarification, are Members able to question the Minister at this point, relative to his comments, or is that not correct at this point in time?

Procedurally, I'm being told that's not allowed, Mr. Vanthuyne. We can only speak to the motion.

Thank you. So in the spirit of understanding what the Member is presenting in the motion is, what I would believe all of us want as it relates to making sure that the programs that are relative to those positions are still going to be fully delivered, what I'm understanding now from the Minister's comment is that the capacity within the department to continue to fully bring these programs forward and deliver them successfully is going, in fact, still be able to do, that they're still going to be able to do that. I guess I'm just wondering at this point what the presenter of the motion may have further comments in that regard now, having heard from the Minister. That'll be my comments for now. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. To the motion. Minister McLeod.