This is page numbers 127 - 164 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd 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 work.

Topics

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

Thank you. It is always nice to work together with the Honourable Premier. I just want to lay out how confusing this picture is to Members on this side of the House. The Premier is responsible for this mandate commitment. The Minister of Health is responsible for the Public Utilities Board. The Minister of Justice is responsible for the Power Corporation. The Minister of Infrastructure is the chair of the Ministerial Energy and Climate Change Committee of Cabinet and is responsible for the government's 2030 Energy Strategy. Finally, the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources is responsible for the Climate Change Strategic Framework. With all of these cooks in the kitchen, who is leading the overall coordination of energy policy-making for this government?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

It is very clear to me. The Public Utilities Board is an independent regulator, but the Public Utilities Board funding is voted on by the Legislative Assembly, through the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs' main estimates. The commitment that the Member is referring to, Commitment 1.4.6 on net metering, falls to the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

With regards to who is leading the overall coordination of energy policy-making for the Government of the Northwest Territories, this is a corporate responsibility led by Cabinet with input from Regular Members, Aboriginal government communities, stakeholders, interest groups, and the general public.

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

The Premier has laid that out clear. I know for a fact that subsection 14 of the Public Utilities Act gives this government the authority to issue direction to the Public Utilities Board. It is not just a funding issue. There is direct policy that can be made, and I sit on the Standing Committee of Economic Development and Environment, and we do not know what is going into these policy decisions. In fact, the last one was dropped on us with little notice.

If policy direction and development is not being shared with Regular Members, and we have to deal with five separate Ministers on various aspects of energy in the Northwest Territories, how is the Premier planning to work with us effectively to guide the Energy Strategy and allow us to have full input to make sure this works for Northerners?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

All Members of this House should have input into the development of public policy. We have procedures and process conventions to ensure that all policy direction issued to the PUB has been shared with committees and has been made public, as well as any future policy direction to the PUB, including the draft Energy Strategy.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to again remind the Premier that, over the life of this government in the last two years, any policy direction to the Public Utilities Board has been shared with standing committees after the fact. We have not been allowed to provide input into these policy decisions. Will the Premier commit to this side of the House today to ensure that the voices of the standing committees and the Regular Members are included before policy direction is given to the Public Utilities Board? Thank you.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Cabinet has directed the Public Utilities Board to consider the following principles when assessing net metering rates: costs should be transparent; costs should be borne by the customers; government customers should not be eligible for net metering; implementation criteria should provide certainty of benefits; and the capacity for individual systems taking part in net metering should be no greater than 15 kilowatts to ensure all residents and businesses should be ensured an opportunity to participate in the program. We will follow convention as per the protocol agreement to make sure that all Members are made aware. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Question 41-18(3): Legislative Progress
Oral Questions

October 19th, 2017

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the midpoint of this Assembly, 33 bills have been passed, compared to 52 in the 17th Assembly after two years. My question for the Premier is: why is the pace of legislative change so slow in this Assembly? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. The Honourable Premier.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are not a factory. We operate in a Legislative Assembly. Legislative proposals and draft bills before Cabinet are confidential documents which I cannot speak to, but we have a significant number of initiatives making their way through the system for introduction in the remaining two years. We had a slow start in year one with respect to introducing legislation due to a number of factors, the late election, and the focus on the development of the mandates by this House, but in year two, we are definitely picking up speed, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

The evidence just does not support what the Premier has said there. We are not picking up speed. We are about to start a three-and-a-half-month recess with one bill to contemplate. One bill. It is not as if this Assembly started from scratch with legislative proposals. In the transition report, there was a section about completing devolution and implementing a made-in-the-North regulatory system. That was available more than two years ago when the Premier was Premier. Why is it taking the government so long to bring this legislation forward for review?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Legislation can take a long time to develop, and we have a number of very large initiatives under way to bring forward in the latter two years of this Assembly. The revised mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories identifies 14 larger pieces of legislation for introduction in the 18th Legislative Assembly that we have been working very hard on.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

I wonder if part of the reason for the slowness is whether there is a lack of capacity among the legislative drafters to produce all the legislation that we have contemplated pursuing during this 18th Assembly. Is capacity the issue?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

At the rise of the House today, we expect that the 18th Legislative Assembly will have passed an additional three financial bills. As the Member indicated, this brings the total number of bills passed by this Legislative Assembly to 36, with another bill introduced and before special committee for review. In past investigations, we have determined that capacity is not an issue, and we will undertake to review that again to ensure that is not the case.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Premier if he will work with the Caucus to convene a short sitting in December so that additional bills can be introduced for review prior to the budget session. Can he make that commitment? Thank you.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Historically, the final two years of an Assembly are often the heaviest when it comes to a government's legislative agenda. The 17th Assembly had a very large number of financial bills compared to previous Assemblies, as well as ten devolution-related bills making comparison to the 18th Assembly difficult. I believe that we are on track to deliver on a fulsome and ambitious legislative agenda for the 18th Legislative Assembly. I am prepared to review it and to see what will be required to make sure that we can complete our fulsome and ambitious legislative agenda. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [No English translation provided.]

Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement I talked about the funding for housing that should be flowing directly to First Nations. I would like to ask the Minister a couple of questions on that. Has the Minister examined the treaties to see what the original agreement on the treaty part of housing indicates, and if not, can she do that? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, that was two questions. I will do my best at answering. I can say that no, I have not examined a treaty, but I can say that the federal government last year gave the territorial government $28,673,000. That is $28 million. That works out to less than a million dollars per community. It actually works out to $868,878 per community; that is less than a million.

The territorial government put in last year $81,702,000, which works out to almost $2,500,000 per community. Statistics show that our population in the Northwest Territories is half Indigenous, half Caucasian. What that shows me is that the territorial government is actually putting in more money towards Indigenous housing. I do not know the stats of Indigenous people in housing programs, but I do know in my past history working with marginalized families that the majority of families that suffer, and I think that might be across, are actually Indigenous. That is not okay, but that is the reality.

What I do think is that the Government of the Northwest Territories is putting in more than its share towards the Indigenous housing in the territories. In fact, we are putting in eight times what normal provinces are doing. Usually, provinces are putting in 1 to 2 per cent of their income. We are putting in eight times that. I think we are doing a lot towards supporting Indigenous housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

I was not going to get into Members' statements here, but Mr. Speaker, my point is I do believe that the original housing has evolved into the NWT Housing Corporation. What was originally on the NWT Housing Corporation, which created 2,000 units that were built under programs that were directly built by Department of Indian Affairs, was given to the NWT Housing Corporation, and that is how the NWT Housing Corporation started. The original intent was to continue to house Indigenous people with the NWT Housing Corporation. It has evolved into something else. I would like to ask the Minister if she can commit to working with the Dene Nation to see where common ground can be reached for funding for housing in the Northwest Territories.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Currently, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation does have a community initiative that we work with municipal and Aboriginal governments to kind of look at how we can work together towards providing more housing in their communities. Quite a few of the communities have come forward and are putting things like land or labour on the table. Therefore, we are putting things like material on the table. I am more than willing to work with any government that is willing to look at a kind of partnership model.

In regards to meeting with any specific Aboriginal government or nation at this point, in regards to the housing, I think it is a little bit premature. At this point, we are still trying to clarify where the Government of Canada is going with the housing strategy. The housing strategy was supposed to come out in November of this year. We were supposed to have a federal-provincial-territorial meeting in November. That has now been pushed back to December. I do know that, in the last fiscal year, there was funding directly provided to the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, which is an Aboriginal government.

At this point, I do not know where the Government of Canada is going to put the housing monies to; so I think it is a bit premature to meet with any Indigenous government until that is clarified from the Government of Canada.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

The NWT Housing Corporation has existed for 40 plus years. I think it would not be premature. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, then, if she can direct staff to do some research on the background of how the Housing Corporation has evolved originally from funding that flow to the Department of Indian Affairs and then eventually to the GNWT through the vehicle of the NWT Housing Corporation.

I recognize that GNWT does fund money that supports the Housing Corporation and that the money flowing from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is combined with that. However, I think the original intent was to house First Nations. I do believe that global agreements --