This is page numbers 4803 - 4830 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 funding. View the webstream of the day's session.

Topics

Tsiigehtchic Ice Bridge Construction
Members' Statements

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.

Eulogy for Danny Allaire
Members' Statements

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Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Danny Allaire was born in Fort Simpson on January 26, 1975, to Phoebe and Daniel Allaire. He was raised and lived his whole life in Fort Simpson. He passed away on January 12, 2019.

After graduating high school, Danny worked as a seasonal crew leader, fighting fires with the GNWT and later with the Nogha fire crew.

During the winter months, Danny spent his time on the land that he loved so much. He would trap and hunt at Notana Lake with his grandparents, Gabe and Mary Cazon, and other family members.

In 2000, Danny left for Fort Smith to attend Aurora College, along with his father, Daniel. They both enrolled in the Environment and Natural Resources Program. In 2002, Danny and his dad graduated with honours.

After graduating in the spring of 2002, Danny's career as a wildlife technician began at ENR. Being a wildlife technician for Danny was immensely rewarding, enabling him to travel and study wildlife across the North.

A large part of Danny's work was surveying caribou, bison, sheep, and moose. He was quite proud of his many co-written scientific research papers with his supervisor, Nic Larter, and having them published.

Being the hunter that he was, when somebody asked where all the moose are, Danny's reply was, "In the bush."

He was taught how to hunt, fish, and trap in an ever-revolving traditional atmosphere with teachings from his parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. He caught his first martin at the age of four and shot his first moose at 14.

He was very close to his family, especially his sister, Danita. He was always willing to share his knowledge and pass on traditional ways to his younger cousins.

Danny was an artist. He understood beauty in words and saw beauty in expressions. He loved music, dancing, and laughing with his many friends. He carved, painted, drew pictures, wrote poetry, sang, and listened to music. He was a photographer, always wanting to share the moments he captured.

Danny appreciated relationships, whether it was with the land, family, or friends. There were many weekends when you could have walked up to his house and heard his roaring laughter. If he wasn't laughing, he was singing along to one of his many favourite bands, sometimes off-beat, but that never mattered.

In times of trial and tears, let's remember him saying, "Can't we all just along?" and maybe smile in memory.

The Allaire and the Cazon families would like to thank everybody for all of their love and support in this difficult time. We have all been blessed to know him and share his life. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Eulogy for Danny Allaire
Members' Statements

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Our condolences to the family, as well, and to the community. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

February 11th, 2019

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to a presence in the gallery. I would like to welcome the new NWT Senator to our proceedings, Senator Dawn Anderson. Masi for being here with us.

Also present before us is Mr. David Jones, the Conflict of Interest Commissioner for the Northwest Territories, who has joined us in the gallery today. Later on this afternoon, I will table the Conflict of Interest Commissioner's 2018 Annual Report. Masi for joining us.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nunakput.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I made my Member's statement on Dawn Anderson, our newest Senator, and I would like to welcome Dawn to the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Speaker, Dawn has probably sat in here with the Department of Justice and other departments, and I would like to commend her for the hard work that she does across the territory and across Canada now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Speaker, Paulatuk and Sachs Harbour are ideal locations to monitor winter storms in the High Arctic. Another roof blew apart during this last storm in Paulatuk as the winds reached 140 kilometres.

Mr. Speaker, my first question to the Minister is: how often are community emergency plans exercised and updated across the territory, mainly those in the Barren Lands? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I just want to thank the leadership and the people of the community of Paulatuk who stepped up to the plate during this past weekend, when we had winds that reached up to about 140 kilometres per hour, to take care of our elders, our youth, and those most vulnerable in the community.

Mr. Speaker, the new territorial Emergency Management Act does require communities to update their emergency plans annually. Our staff also do a great job in coordinating and working with our leadership to make sure that these plans are updated on a regular basis and that they actually go through tabletop exercises at the community level.

We will continue to do this, not only with the coastal communities in the Beaufort Delta region, but all of our communities across the Northwest Territories as well as those on the Mackenzie River. We want to make sure that we can prevent anything from happening in terms of emergencies, such as what happened this past weekend in Paulatuk, as well as the other communities in the Member's riding.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

I appreciate the response from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, I strongly believe that we, as an Assembly, should be seeking disaster mitigation funding to help homeowners and the hamlets across the territory to prepare, as weather storms are becoming more extreme across the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, which impacts day-to-day operations and our infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is: how do you plan on building resiliency in communities that face such climate change effects as the number of winter storms increase in the High Arctic?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs will continue to work closely with community governments to update the NWT Hazard Identification Risk Assessment. We will also continue to lobby our federal counterparts to look at increasing funding or continuing some of the funding that we have used in the past years to mitigate any type of emergency situations. We will obviously continue working with our leadership and working with our community members. That will address some of these emergency issues moving forward.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

I appreciate the response from the Minister. It seems like MACA is doing a good job in including the communities. Mr. Speaker, leading after that question, my question to the Minister is: how will MACA incorporate Indigenous knowledge into their local, regional, and territorial emergency planning?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As I mentioned in a previous response, we will look at working with our leadership and our local membership in the communities to address any kind of emergency-management situations and how we deal with those.

Also, with planning community plans, we are going to be working with our community leadership to develop them so that it does mitigate any kind of emergency risks right across the Northwest Territories. Obviously, we have seen over the last few years situations up in our coastal communities that do have an impact. I have brought it up to our federal Minister. I have also brought it up to our national and Indigenous leaders, about such things as permafrost degradation. I talked about coastal erosion, as well as the opening of the Northwest Passage and seeing more vessels coming through, that we need to be prepared for any kind of situation that happens, especially in the Member's riding. I have invited, like I said, our federal Minister to come up and see what we are doing to try to mitigate that risk. I have also invited some of our national Indigenous organization leaders to come see the unique situation of the Northwest Territories, the North, and how we need support on a bigger front. We will, as I mentioned, continue with the membership of the communities, as well as the leadership, who are the experts in this region, in bringing that traditional knowledge into consideration.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That almost answered my last question here. Mr. Speaker, we sometimes see climate change only in the spring and the summer months, during the melt and the thaw, and sometimes when the water levels rise along the Mackenzie River or the Arctic Ocean or other lakes across the territory, but we need to think about the winter, as well, and the large storms that are coming.

I will ask this question anyways, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister consider Nunakput communities that face extreme winds during the winter months to access disaster mitigation funding to protect housing infrastructure and also the municipal infrastructure that is in effect during the winter months?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Currently, the Government of the Northwest Territories does have some applications in place here for the disaster mitigation funding, which are being looked at. We are hoping to get a positive answer on that. I have also, most previously at our federal-provincial-territorial meetings, brought up the concern that we need to continue looking at other sources of funding that will impact our northern communities. I will continue to work with the leadership, our federal leadership, to make sure that they know what kind of funds they can access and work on developing those applications and ensuring that we do have support from our other jurisdictions to support this type of funding moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, based on the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment's public comments on the proposed Mineral Resource Act, I have to ask: has this act been written with the collaboration of all stakeholders, or is the Minister rushing to check off a mandate commitment for the piece of legislation that nobody is happy with? Thank you, 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. That might be his approach, but not mine. From the Government of the Northwest Territories' approach, we have done our due diligence on this act.

As we know, this is probably one of the most important pieces of act coming forward in the 18th Legislative Assembly. We have involved the intergovernmental council right from day one on this thing, along with their technical advisory panel, which is the North Slave Metis Alliance and the Dehcho First Nations, who also attend this meeting. We have met with special interest groups, environmental and non-government organizations, and the Chamber of Mines. We have had public consultation in many communities, with lots of feedback. We had Aboriginal consultation. For the most part, the reason we are bringing this bill forward is that it is part of the devolution process to bring this thing forward, but with all of this consultation that has taken place and in-person public meetings that we have had there is a lot of support for this bill coming forward.

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

I would expect that that response would be what the Minister would say publicly whenever asked, and yet he gave very different comments in the January 30th edition of the Yellowknifer. Can the Minister explain why he made those comments?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I make a lot of comments, just like the Member across the hall here. I have actually used this comment a number of times. This is a very large piece of legislation, that is going to affect a large number of people in the Northwest Territories, from industry to Aboriginal governments, to the person on the street, to the businessperson down the road. When you have that many people involved in a bill that is this important and this big, not everybody is going to agree on the piece of legislation. There might be things in there that we will all agree. No different than this House, this is built on consensus and collaboration with stakeholders in the Northwest Territories. With that being said, not everybody is going to agree on everything at all times, and this bill that is going to be brought forward in the life of this Assembly is going to not be supported by everybody. It is no different than everything else and what we did in this House last week.

We will continue to push this thing forward for the best interests of the residents of the Northwest Territories. I think the department has done a great amount of work that will be represented in this bill when committee takes it on the road.

Kieron Testart

Kieron Testart Kam Lake

Surely, the Minister is happy with the quality of the consultations and is happy with what the bill is going out there. I acknowledge that differences are what makes this House so strong and what makes our society so strong, but to hear that from the Minister makes me question whether he is satisfied with the quality of the legislation. Can the Minister clarify that?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

As I have said in my previous comments, not everybody will be happy with everything in this bill, including me. This bill is built on the collaboration and consensus of the people of the Northwest Territories. I support the bill that we are bringing forward. I believe it is the bill at the right time, for the right industry, that we are doing this through the devolution process. This is a bill that people of the Northwest Territories are clearly interested in. As I have said, this is probably one of the biggest and most important ones in this Legislative Assembly. If the Member does not like the comments that I make in public, that's up to him. I support this bill. We have done our due diligence. We have worked with all of the residents of the Northwest Territories, as I have said, and we will be bringing this forward in this sitting.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.