Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I regret that the Minister has had a full glass of mumbo-jumbo for lunch and we are not getting anywhere with trying to understand how to preserve the strengths of this program within the time that is still allotted to it. It's not too late to have the remaining staff start working on how the implementation of the reports' recommendations could happen, and so what is standing in the way of this? It cannot be the hiring of this associate deputy minister. He is working at too high a level to start worrying about which elective social work students are going to be taking. So, once again, I would like to know from the Minister what she is going to do to preserve the strengths of the program in the short term. Thank you.

It is well-known that my degree is also in social work, and I have a personal commitment. The Social Work Program is also identified in our Skills 4 Success in the top 10 positions in the Northwest Territories coming up, but I need to put aside my personal biases. This needs to be a review that is done by the person who is the expert, and that will be the associate deputy minister of post-secondary renewal.

There are things, yes. The current staff that are in the Social Work Program can help with program curriculum, but can they build the relationships with universities across Canada? Is that the role of a professor, to go about and look at the different universities, the different options, and then decide the best path forward? I beg to differ, Mr. Speaker. I believe that is a higher-level position, to be able to build those relationships.

Both reviews, both the Aurora College Foundational Review and the social work review said, "Build relationships with post-secondary educations." That is the first step. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier in his role as Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs.

During my statement earlier today, I questioned the likelihood and safety of offshore petroleum development and production. Does the Premier have any confirmation that such offshore development is going to take place in the next few years, and if so, can he table it in the house? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. The Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is industry interest in the oil and gas resources in the Beaufort Sea. There was evidence of that when industry successfully bid $2.3 billion worth of work, and also, we know that there are recoverable estimates of seven billion barrels of oil and 82 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the offshore.

However, at the present time, with the current moratorium, all activity and interest is on hold until there is certainty. If and when the moratorium is lifted, companies will make decisions on whether or not and when to conduct future exploration and development. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Premier for that. Of course, there hasn't been any drilling since 2006, but a lot of resources will need to go into negotiation of this multi-party offshore petroleum resource co-management and revenue sharing agreement. Can the Premier describe how our government is preparing for such negotiations and what the costs will be?

In 2014 the Government of the Northwest Territories met with Canada, IRC, and the Yukon to look at initial discussions around interests to inform Canada's mandate development process. We also had some preliminary discussions with Newfoundland and Labrador to start a process of information-sharing around their experience in the offshore. However, with the announcement of the moratorium, we haven't done any further work. We will be seeking a contract negotiator with expertise in oil and gas. Committee has requested a briefing to provide input before the Government of the Northwest Territories finalizes its negotiating approach, and I would be pleased to provide a briefing to committee.

I would like to thank the Premier for that. It sounds like we really haven't done much work on this over the last while. I certainly don't have any objection in principle to the negotiation of such an agreement and revenue sharing, but of course, it doesn't seem like there is going to be much development in the foreseeable future.

Can the Premier tell us what the role is going to be for Regular MLAs in developing the negotiation mandate and how he intends to keep us informed?

As I indicated, we will be asking for a time slot to brief committee, and committee will be involved, like they are in all of the other process of this government.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I look forward to that briefing, of course.

I was very pleased to see that the Premier has agreed to a science-based life cycle impact assessment review of the Arctic offshore rights issuance moratorium every five years that will take into account marine and climate change science. This raises the question around why Cabinet has refused to carry out a similar review of onshore hydraulic fracturing. Can the Premier explain this inconsistency and when the public can expect a public review of onshore hydraulic fracturing? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

There is no onshore hydraulic fracturing going on, so there is nothing to review.

The science-based review of offshore development was a federal decision that accompanied their decision to put a moratorium on all gas licensing in the Arctic. We made it very clear that we didn't support a moratorium, and we agreed to participate in the review because we felt that would be one of the ways to work to get rid of the moratorium. We are very pleased to see that the federal government has agreed to start negotiations on devolution on the offshore.

Also, on the offshore, we have a strong legislative and regulatory framework to oversee oil and gas development, and they are subject to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and the Mackenzie Valley EIRB. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow up to my Member's statement, I have two questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: how is the Housing Corporation planning to increase housing stock in the Mackenzie Delta communities over the rest of the 18^th Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As all Members know, we do have a capital plan that we do follow. One new initiative that we are doing is the community housing plans, as I have mentioned numerous times during this session, that are going to help identify where our needs are.

Last week I talked about some of our core need progress that has been going on. Our work with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation is helping address those needs, as well. We have been meeting with the Gwich'in Tribal Council to see how we can work together to address these issues, and we will continue to have those in place as we move forward, but the community housing plans are going to help us address some of those and how we, as a government and as a corporation, spend our capital dollars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My next question asks maybe a little too much detail, but I will ask it anyway. I am a Member of the Standing Committee on Social Development, and that committee has often spoken with the Minister of the territory's long waiting list for housing. I want to ask the Minister: how many people have been on the waiting list for more than two years?

The Member is right; it is pretty detailed. I will have to get back to him on that question on how many people have been on the waiting list over the last two years. It could make a lot of work for some of our employees, but we will get that information for him.

We do know that it is a long waiting list right across the Northwest Territories. We are trying to make an indent into that and working our partners, such as ECE, working with Infrastructure, going through our capital plannings, but most importantly we are still continuing to work with our federal counterparts to nail down a bilateral agreement and looking at funding.

As the Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh mentioned earlier, there were some northern housing funds that I believe we got shortchanged on, and we want to address that so that our residents of the Northwest Territories, and us as a government, and our Indigenous governments get the funding that they do deserve to address our housing needs right across the NWT and in our communities.

I know we will see a number of changes over the next year, as I know there are a number of units that have not been completed yet but that are being built at the moment, but I would like to ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, we need to represent these residents stuck in the housing limbo with some viable options. How will the Housing Corporation take action to rescue these residents from the waiting list?

I agree. As Members of the Legislative Assembly, we all have these issues of people who are on the waiting list. We also, like I mentioned, have a good working relationship with the Department of ECE. We have a lot of programs in place, such as major retrofits. We have had good partnerships with the Salt River First Nations, the IRC, the Fort Good Hope band, and we want to make sure that we address that waiting list. Our Northern Pathways to Housing is another good initiative in transitioning some of our homeless people into more public housing units. We have got a long list of work that we are doing to address core needs, but there is that waiting list that we do need to address, as well as, and we want to make sure that we are trying the best that we can.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.