Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's response. It's not really the response to my question, but I understand he has engaged with this indicator. I think the fact that there has been no statistical change in the number of hospitalizations due entirely to drinking is a reason to look at new approaches, and one of those is having clinicians do this pre-screening to identify and offer solutions for heavy drinking. Is the Minister prepared to look at this initiative? Thank you.

In the development of the Addictions Recovery Action Plan, this is the type of thing that we need to be talking about. We need to be talking about new opportunities and new ways of doing business. Harm reduction is an evolving and very interesting way of addressing many of the challenges that our residents face, and we need to be open to it.

I don't want to presuppose a solution, but this is the type of thing that we are hoping to see in the Addictions Recovery Action Plan. In short, I am not going to commit to this as an exact model, but this is the type of model we want to look at, but we need to finish our work, frankly. We need to continue to move forward, and our minds need to be open to new approaches. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I spoke earlier today about royalties and transparency around royalties. Mr. Speaker, we know that industry is doing a good job, and they are working with organizations like Publish What You Pay to be a little bit more transparent. We know also that other jurisdictions, provinces, are publishing annual reports on the revenues and benefits that they receive from the mining industry.

I would like to ask the Minister today: will the GNWT publish each year the amounts of royalties and taxes and other payments to governments by companies in the mining and oil and gas sectors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that we do not do that. The complete number is shared as a whole in our books, but this is a conversation since devolution has taken place that we need to have with all residents of the Northwest Territories.

It's a very important one that we have to take. Royalties directly impact the profitability of these mines, and we know we want to get our fair share, but at the same time, we have to protect the industry that we have in the Northwest Territories so that residents can benefit from these economic opportunities. We will continue to look at this as we move forward. It has been separated out of the Mineral Resource Act because we know this is a very big conversation that needs to take place with the residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for his reply. The Minister alluded to the fact that we are undertaking the development of the Mineral Resource Act right now. We have been doing some consulting in regard to that, but more specifically, I am talking about our royalties regime and the taxation regime.

I appreciate that the Minister has indicated that there is some work to be done around that, but I guess the question, then, is: when? When will the government consult with Indigenous governments and the public, for that matter, about the possible change to our taxes and royalties?

We have already had some discussions when we brought the Mineral Resource Act legislation to the intergovernmental council, which looks at lands and resources of the Northwest Territories. The Premier sat down with them, and we have had that discussion. They have agreed with us that we need to pull this out and have a separate conversation about it, and that is why it not a part of the Mineral Resource Act. We want to make sure we get both of these things right, as they are very important to the residents of the Northwest Territories.

There is more than just the royalties side of it. When we have these discussions, people have to look at the whole framework as a whole and consider the fiscal context of this conversation, because there is a lot of misinformation out there. When you start talking about royalties and what these mining companies pay, there is a big difference from one province to province to territory to the other, and there are a lot of things that need to take place.

Again, I appreciate the complexity of this issue. I did not really hear from the Minister as to when they are going to undertake this, but I am going to move ahead for a moment. I think we all recognize that non-renewable resources are very important and the fact that, when we extract them, then that's it. They're gone. I just want to know from the Minister: what work has GNWT done since devolution to evaluate our resource tax and royalty regime to ensure that we are both encouraging development, but also getting our fair share for extraction of publicly-owned resources?

That is exactly what we are doing. As all Members of this House know, we have been moving forward with the Mineral Resource Act since devolution. We want to make this a leading-edge made-in-the-North act that will benefit all Northerners, and in discussions with the intergovernmental council, it was decided that this needs a very detailed comprehensive review of royalty side of things. This is the legislation that we inherited from the federal government. The last time I believe it was updated when it was in their hands was in 2007-2008 roughly. My understanding is most jurisdictions do a 10-year review, but that is not saying that is what we are going to do. We have already said that we want to have a review of this, just that we have separated it out from the Mineral Resource Act, and it has to have its own separate conversation with all residents in industry in the Northwest Territories.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for the additional information. I guess, then, I would like to ask the Minister about how much it is that we are receiving, and does the Minister feel that it is a fair portion? It is estimated that the NWT receives a little over 20 per cent of the resource revenues. Does the government plan to increase the future revenue rates, or do they think that that 20 per cent is fair as is? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can't tell you exactly the percentage that we get. I would have to get the details from the department, but I can reassure Members in this House that we are about right down the middle of the pipe here with the rest of the country, particularly around the regions that surround the Northwest Territories, and as I have said, we have to take into the context, when we have this review, we have to be able to look at the whole picture and bring in everybody to have this conversation, be it, fuel tax, property taxes. The future of carbon tax in the industry. The lack of infrastructure in the Northwest Territories.

We are very fortunate to have the mines that we do have right now, where they can take their commodity out in a suitcase, but as that context rolls out, where do we want to go with this industry in the Northwest Territories? That's a conversation that we're going to have to have in this House, but also with all residents.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my statement, my question today is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on the NWT Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupational Certification Strategy.

Can the Minister confirm if there have been any discussions with BHP, the prime contractor for the Stanton Hospital, on efforts to meet the objectives as set out in the strategy? Masi.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, we did release the Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupation Certification Strategy in May of last year. The implementation of the strategy is being guided by the advisory committee, as well as working groups comprised largely of industry stakeholders, so I think it's about time that we do get an update, so we will be working with the working groups, as well as the advisory committee to get an update, and we'll be happy to share that information with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks for the response from the Minister here. My next question is: in the issuance of the RFP at the beginning of this project, were there targets set to achieve X number of tradespersons within the project?

One of the focuses of the ATOC Strategy is to create jobs for northern residents where opportunities provide themselves, and I think the project for Stanton was a big part of that, or any of our industry opportunities where our Northerners can get jobs in the industry field. Specifically for this Stanton project, I'm not sure if there were targets set, but I can find that out from my other colleagues here and get back to the Member.

The ATOC Strategy, when we did release it, we wanted to increase participation in the skills, trades, and occupations as well as improving completion rates of anybody who were apprentices or journeyman.

I'm glad to hear the departments are working with the other departments on the other side here to try to achieve the goals as set out in the first RFP process during the procurement. My next question is related to hearing the Minister will provide the information: will the Minister also include in the information what was targeted in the request for the RFP and how much it has produced today in terms of apprentice trades accomplishing their hours?

A strong labour market is critical to the NWT's economic future. We know that there are jobs out there. We have projects that are on the go throughout the Northwest Territories, and we want to provide the skills and the opportunities for Northerners to fill those jobs and be certified and be ready when new opportunities come up.

Specifically for that project, like I said, I don't know the numbers or if there were actually rates and targets that were set, but I can find out that information and get back to the Member. With all large projects in the NWT, we obviously want to have Northerners fill those positions, and with the ATOC Strategy, we are making sure that they have the skills that are needed, the training that is needed, so that they can fill those opportunities.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like the Minister to confirm narrowing it down to four different trades, if that information could be included, third- and fourth-year apprentice individuals for electricians, plumbers, and pipefitters, and also include drywallers as well in the report that he's going to provide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Presently, we have about 389 apprentices registered in the Northwest Territories. There are also 92 journeyperson certifications that were issued in the 2015-2016 fiscal year, 73 more in 2016-2017, and 54 journeyperson certificates issued to date in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. We do have some of that information, and we can share that information with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.