Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Premier providing clarity on this. It seems like this current federal government is taking a very proactive approach in reconciling with Indigenous governments in Canada and Indigenous nations in Canada. Would the Premier agree with that assessment? Because it sounds like all the funding for self-government in the Northwest Territories is coming from Ottawa regardless of all the top-ups of funding that we need to ensure equity of service. Would he agree that the federal government is fulfilling its mandate towards reconciliation? Thank you.

Reconciliation, we fully support it, but talk is just talk. I guess the proof will be when the money starts flowing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of DOI to better understand the MTS 2017 sailing season. My first question is: how many tugboats did MTS deploy and what were the volumes of fuel and cargo hauled? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I want to congratulate the Department of MTS on the first sailing season of the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Coast. It was a challenge to get that going, but they did a great job.

I can gladly update the House that the Marine Transportation Division reactivated six tugboats this last season. We delivered 37 million litres of diesel fuel, gasoline, jet fuel, and carried more than 10,000 tonnes of cargo freight to the communities for industry clients, which included construction materials, pre-fabricated housing units, heavy equipment vehicles, and consumer goods. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for providing that information. Moving along to see how our new company is doing, here. On the issue and previous discussions, there was the establishment of a marine training facility in Hay River. How many Northerners were trained at that facility?

The previous marine training was run out of the Hay River Friendship Centre. I don't have those exact numbers, but I would like to update the House that the federal government announced just as of February 2nd that MTS, working alongside with us and Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium, have established an announcement where they're going to establish a marine training facility in Hay River, and this will be coming. There was a press release announced by the federal government that they are working particularly with the Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium, who already does this sort of thing in the Nunavut side of the territory. They will be working closely with us and our government to set up a facility in Hay River to be able to address the ongoing needs of people in the fishing industry and the people in the marine side of things in the Northwest Territories.

I'm glad to hear that we're providing benefits with this new acquisition that happened last year and the operations of last summer. My next question is related to, aside from training the workforce, the workforce itself. How many of the workforce were northern NWT residents?

One of the challenges, when we bought these assets moving forward, was to get everything up and running. A part of that would be the HR side of it. On the HR side of it, there was a number of agreements that were in place that had to be renegotiated and MOUs put in place for a collective bargaining unit, so we had to deal with three different types of operations: the Canadian Merchant Service Guild, the Seafarers' International Union of Canada, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Through that, we hired a company called ORSI who facilitated hiring our HR for staffing up the marine side of things. I'm glad to say that we had 141 employees at peak, and out of that, 60 of them were from the Northwest Territories.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is, I want to ensure that the continuation of this operation is being done so that our remote communities in Sahtu could be ensured that we're getting our supplies and dry goods and particularly fuel. In the future operations from last year, is there a financial stability from the earnings of this previous summer's operations, and if the Minister will provide that in a summary of operations financially to this side? Thank you.

As the Member is aware, we've set up a revolving fund to ensure the continuation and operation of this. We will have our first year under our belt. When we have our financial statements done for the year, we will gladly update committee on the first sailing season of MTS. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur Ie President. I mentioned in my Member's statement about the Premier's red alert that there were a number of news releases issued by Indigenous governments raising concerns about the lack of consultation around the red alert. Can the Premier explain why he did not consult with Regular MLAs or the regional Indigenous governments before going to Ottawa to issue his red alert? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. The Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been speaking about the elements of the red alert for two years. First and foremost, on the moratorium, and I have to correct the Member. He said he had to correct me in the media because I made erroneous statements. I think he made an erroneous statement about the moratorium. It's not a five year moratorium. It's an indefinite moratorium and to new offshore oil and gas licences.

So first and foremost about the moratorium, I've been speaking for over a year. The one-year anniversary for the moratorium is December 21st and it has gained no traction from southern or northern media on devolution, the parts of devolution. Devolution was negotiated in 2014. Two years later, we're still waiting for certain elements of the devolution agreement to be acted on. On the programs and services for Aboriginal people, 10 principles came out, and we were not able to get any answers. I met individually with the Aboriginal governments that were quoted and the Gwich'in, and they said that they had not talked to the media at all. So we had an intergovernmental council, and we met, and we now understand each other, that the Aboriginal governments were meeting with the federal government for some period of time without our knowledge or involvement, but we have all agreed we are all going to work together so that programs and services can be fully funded and certainly so that Aboriginal governments can benefit from it, as well, with our support.

I want to thank the Premier for his valiant defence of the red alert. He did not really answer the question about prior consultation, and I will table the news releases from the Indigenous governments in the House tomorrow. In the past, Cabinets retained lobbyists in Ottawa to provide advice on federal engagement. Cabinet currently has a $120,000 sole-sourced contract with communications firm and federal lobbyist Global Public Affairs. Can the Premier tell this House where the idea came from to issue the red alert and what role the lobbyist firm has played in the campaign to date?

Global Public Affairs has been contracted by the Government of the Northwest Territories to help us advance the objectives of the federal engagement strategy. It also provides what we call strategic intelligence on the workings of Ottawa, and it also provides assistance with communications. It helped us release the red alert, which gained some national attention.

Thanks to the Premier for confirming the role that Global Public Affairs has played to date. Global Public Affairs, though, has also represented a number of other industries, organizations, governments in relation to NWT affairs in the past, including Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Inuvialuit Development Corporation, and others. Can the Premier tell us whether Global Public Affairs currently represents any other interests in the NWT and how those roles and responsibilities are kept clear to avoid conflicts of interest?

Global Public Affairs currently does not represent any other clients in the Northwest Territories, and the contractual arrangements clearly provide for conflict provisions so that we have no conflicts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President, and I would like to thank the Premier for providing that clarity on that particular issue, but, given that the Premier has issued a challenge for debate on the future of the Northwest Territories on the floor of the House of Commons in Ottawa, it is surprising that there has been no similar call here at home. Is the Premier ready and willing to have an emergency debate on the so-called Red alert and future of the Northwest Territories here on the floor of this House? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. The Honourable Premier.