This is page numbers 4521 - 4570 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

Louis Sebert

Louis Sebert Thebacha

Thank you for the question. I haven't looked at the forms myself, but certainly I will have staff or myself look at them. If they need to be modernized, perhaps we can provide some assistance in modernizing them. I realize many of the forms that are used in the judicial or semi- or quasi-judicial area are outdated and are in need of improvement. I am committing to look at those forms. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I referred in my statement to the inability to match up the public reporting of royalties by fiscal years with the value of mineral and oil and gas production by calendar years. Since the royalty amounts of all resource products are lumped together, you can't disentangle the amounts received for individual commodities. Will the Minister commit to begin to disclose publicly the royalty figures for each resource commodity, using the consistent reporting period similar to the value of resource production as used by the NWT Stats Bureau? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we have mirrored legislation from the federal government through devolution, and we do not currently allow this disclosure. That is what he is clearly asking for. I will note to the Member that the information is currently available on a company-by-company basis on NRCan website that was developed to support the federal excise industry transparency act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I guess we still have to rely then on the federal mirror, whether it is ESTMA or the stuff that we have in place. That is just not good enough. Cabinet has made much of its open-government initiative, yet the most basic revenue figures for judging management of our resources can't be found. Will the Minister commit to reviewing his public reporting of resource revenues and set up a clear and accessible public record for reporting resource revenue information, yes or no?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

When we developed the associated regulations for the mineral resource sector, intent is to bring information required for public release in line with the federal excise industry transparency act. I think the Member is going to be quite pleased with that. Transparency on both finances and materials are signature of our oil and gas legislation review, and our "what we heard" report for that project outlines our commitment to those principles.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I would like to thank the Minister for that. We are getting closer. In my statement, I said that, if NWT were a country, it would be the second-richest place in the world on a GDP-per-capita basis. We certainly don't seem to lack the capacity to generate more revenues. The report that I am going to table today also says that "more aggressive fiscal and royalty rates" are something that we can do, so how does the Minister plan to work to incorporate more transparent and accountable public reporting of resource revenues in the proposed Mineral Resources Act and the amendments to our oil and gas legislation?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I would say that the Government of the Northwest Territories is quite committed to that. The Member is quite aware, as I have said in this House before, that we mirrored the regulations; we are moving forward with both of these acts to move forward with the regulations probably in the 19th Assembly, especially around the royalty regime and that and any regulations. So we are quite committed to doing these things in consultation with all residents of the Northwest Territories and our partners at intergovernmental council. We continue to work on that.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister for that, but I am hoping we do not have to wait until the 19th Assembly. Cabinet has failed to make any substantive changes to the mirror legislation we inherited at devolution more than four years ago. Cabinet has rejected something as basic as a public review of the adequacy of resource revenues, despite making cuts to programs and services in the last three years. Can the Minister explain how our government can possibly convince the federal government that we can and should assume any further responsibilities for resource management with that kind of a track record?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I want to be quite clear. Our government is on track to deliver these changes by the end of this Legislative Assembly with a number of pieces that we are working on. We believe the federal government believes in good legislation. With that being said, I think with respect to that fact, to get legislation right takes an appropriate amount of time, and we will continue to work on that, and I think that will help strengthen our case with the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Minister of Education did a Minister's statement on the response to Aurora College foundational review, and in there she talked about that the associate deputy minister will guide the college in the formation into a polytechnic. Among the first steps will be including an overall vision for post-secondary education in the North. Can the Minister please advise: is this the direction of the department and Cabinet as we move forward, that this associate deputy minister will be the one coming up with the vision? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The territorial-wide vision is actually a political decision that will be made, but it's really important; we actually want the associate deputy minister of post-secondary renewal to be with us during that process because that person has to understand really clearly what the vision is, because the next step from that is to be able to do the post-secondary vision based off of the territorial vision. So it's a political decision, but that person will be helping to facilitate it.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I appreciate the answer from the Minister. How long is this going to take, then? If we are talking about a vision, and I strongly believe we should be starting that here in the House, talking to committee and other Members to see where it is, but when will we be able to have this person in place to start this process?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

The competition for the position closes at the end of this month, and then we will be starting the interview process as soon as that's done, so we are assuming that the person will be hired before the end of this calendar year.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I appreciate the Minister giving us that answer, and I am looking forward to the end of the calendar year so as we can move forward. I guess we wait a little bit longer. A little bit of time shouldn't hurt us. So the next question I have for the Minister is: what's happening to the advisory committee? When will that voice, the voice of the Northwest Territories, be brought back?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

In the government response that we tabled yesterday, it was stated that the advisory committee to the regional board will be set up and an advisory committee, or senate, or whatever we call it, will also be set up. One is to have regional representations from all of the regions in the Northwest Territories. The other one is to actually provide expert advice to the administrator on specifics regarding the post-secondary education. Those two boards, committees, are very critical, so they will be one of the first priorities. We did commit to that at least in the first two years, but I am hoping to get it done in the next fiscal year.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the Minister's commitment in moving forward, because that is very important. Those two committees are very important. The advisory committee has a regional and territorial voice, and then the academic advisory council, that there is new, something that's new, and I think it would be very beneficial as we move forward through our post-secondary. So in the meantime, what is going to happen? Who is going to replace the advisories? Is it still going to be the public administrator? Is that person still going to be in place, being the voice of the NWT at this time?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

The act does state that we have to have an administrator in place, so that position will stay until we get the new advisory committee initiated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the honourable Minister for Economic and Natural Resources did a Minister's statement on the 2018 wildfire season. I appreciate the work that the department is doing, but I do have some questions for him in regards to our staff going out of the province and that. Can the Minister advise us on how those costs are recovered? I believe I have heard of a program, MARS, and if he could just give us a further update on what that program is about? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.