Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right. Last year was the last time we supported them, but moving through this business cycle, we have no plans on providing funding to APG.

I'd like to thank the Minister for his response on the last question. One of the mandate commitments that Cabinet pushed was to develop a long-term strategy to attract investment in oil and gas. The mandate tracking webpage shows that this item was completed in late 2016, but it still hasn't seen the light of day. Companies are voting with their feet and wallets and leaving. Where is the long-term strategy, and why would we continue to try to attract investment when industry has no interest?

Our territory has considerable petroleum potential, and we have committed in our mandate to deliver a long-term strategy and capitalize on these reserves. With that said, though, this isn't an isolated initiative. It directly links to the important work we are doing as a government in the Northwest Territories. We have the energy strategy, the climate change strategic framework, and we are moving all three initiatives together. This is a shared vision that we have to work towards the new energy climate change strategic framework going forward, and the initiatives that we've signed on to. We are looking at publicizing these three documents, hopefully in April.

Thank you to the Minister for letting us know that this oil and gas strategy is supposed to be made available in April. Clearly, there's no interest in exploration in the offshore. Now, onshore oil and gas. As shown by the demise of the Mackenzie Gas Project and the decision by Husky to not frack any further in the Sahtu, the Premier predicted the end of oil and gas, and even Matthews Energy Consulting says we need to shift our oil and gas focus from exploration to remediation. Will the Minister start to refocus our efforts on oil and gas to remediation and small-scale development that could provide local energy rather than the mega-project approach?

When we bring our strategy forward and table it in the House here shortly, it recognizes that we have to address the needs of climate change. That is the first priority of this government. Also, we've got to take in the current political environment around what we consider moving this forward with the knowledge economy as such, and what advantages does it ensure residents of the NWT. I can reassure the Member for sure, in the strategy when we table it, there is going to be a focus of using local energy for local use. That is one of them, but we still have to have a long-term strategy going forward on how to develop our resources.

Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. That's welcome news from the Minister. I look forward to the strategy. Lastly, in my Member's statement, I spoke about lessons learned from the Mackenzie Gas Project about putting all of our eggs in a non-renewable resource mega-project basket. We learned about trying to cut corners on project assessment; that eventually sort of comes back to bite you. Perhaps the biggest lesson is the need to move past oil and gas to diversify our economy. I would like to know from the Minister: what lessons has he learned from the demise of the Mackenzie Gas Project?

You can answer this a number of ways. I'm going to answer it the way I want to answer it. First of all, the demise of the Mackenzie Gas Project was due to the current market prices of the day. It went from $11 down to $1.90. Market prices dictated that they shut down. At the same time I think some of the lessons learned, and the Premier has talked about this a number of times when we're travelling around is the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, how good that was. It was the heart and strength of that initiative, and it is a landmark partnership that, when we're out there speaking to the public, and travelling around, and doing FPTs, it's a model for future development, not just in our territory, but the country could take as an approach, as to how they can move some of these big, large initiatives forward. The other side of it, too, is the environmental process, how long it's taken. Seven years to get this initiative through is way too long. I'm glad to see the federal government come out with their new legislative proposals or initiatives coming forward with environmental regulations. It's going to be a two-year process, max, on some of these initiatives, and that's going to bring some of these projects forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the second part of my Member's statement briefly talked about accessing traditional Dene treatment or Dene medicine, and there seems to be some confusion on how they can access that when I was talking with the elders in Fort Liard. My question for the Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Speaker: presently it is my understanding that medical travel only covers travel to the NWT borders, when they are accessing traditional Dene treatments. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services please confirm what the process is and how it is done? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, medical travel doesn't actually cover travel for individuals who wish to attend traditional Dene-type healing in the Northwest Territories, or even outside the Northwest Territories. However, the federal NIHB program may actually cover some of the transportation costs, offer individuals to access traditional healer service, but that must be preauthorized by Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, so they need to apply through NIHB. It is not something that is currently covered through GNWT or Medical Travel.

That is really great information to understand and hear. Will the Minister be willing to get that information or show us where we can get this information so that we can share with the residents of the Northwest Territories?

Yes, absolutely. Certainly, and, as a note, we do administer NIHB on behalf of the federal government. We do not make program decisions. We do not make funding-level decisions, but we do administer it, and I do know that staff are happy to help individuals fill out applications if they are interested in pursuing these types of opportunities, either in the North or the South.

I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess I am just looking for: are there some information packages that he can share with us so that we can share it with our constituents?

Mr. Speaker, the information on the NIHB, the Non-Insured Health Benefits, is online. It is available. I am happy to sit down with the Member and find out exactly what he is looking for as far as content and to figure out how best we can flow that information through MLAs on both sides of this House so that our residents who are interested can certainly apply for support through NIHB. As I indicated, they still have to get prior approval, so we can help figure out that process for residents, as well.

Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I will work with the Minister and sit down and talk to him about it to try to get some more information for the constituents. Maybe I will be able to share with other Members who are interested, so I thank the Minister for that commitment.

Has the department, Mr. Speaker, looked at bringing Dene healers up from down south to help residents, especially elders, when it is regarding their concern for their health? I will just leave it with that question, there.

I look forward to working with the Member to help get some of that information. There are, unfortunately, some limitations. I understand that NIHB will only cover individuals as far as provincial boundaries or borders, which actually, I think, goes to the Member's second question.

In the Northwest Territories we want to support traditional healing and wellness. We want to do things differently, and up until now there really has been nothing done to support traditional health or wellness in the Northwest Territories. We are trying to change that right now. We want to have more options for residents, and I think it is really important to recognize all the incredible partners out there who are doing work.

The Arctic Indigenous Women's Foundation is doing really important work to bring traditional wellness and healing to the Northwest Territories. We are working with them by making space available on the Stanton campus so that they can move forward with the wellness compound, wellness complex. We also are working with a group, I believe, in Fort Good Hope to test some models of some traditional healing opportunities in the Sahtu. The Stanton Hospital is getting ready to pilot an elders-in-residence program to bring more traditional healing and wellness.

We have put together a terms of reference in partnership with Indigenous governments from across the Northwest Territories to form a wellness advisory group to provide advice and guidance to us on how we can better incorporate traditional healing and wellness into our system as a whole so that people do not even have to look outside to programs and services in the South, that we can truly be an integrated system here that incorporates both traditional as well as western medicine to provide holistic care for all residents of the Northwest Territories.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there have been a lot of concerns raised by Indigenous activists about the integrity or procedural fairness in our justice system. I would like to ask the Minister of Justice if he has taken any steps to review these concerns and how they apply to our role in the Canadian justice system? Thank you.