Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee would like to consider Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates, 2019-2020, with the Department of Infrastructure and Industry, Tourism and Investment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Beaulieu.

Sorry, Mr. Chairman. I missed one. We would also like to consider Bill 32, Naturopathic Professional Statutes Amendment Act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. We will continue after a short recess. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 32: Naturopathic Profession Statutes Amendment Act. I will ask the Minister responsible for the Bill to introduce it. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 32, the Naturopathic Profession Statutes Amendment Act. The Legislative Assembly passed the Health and Social Services Profession Act to enable the Government of the Northwest Territories to regulate numerous different professions under one legislative framework and later amended the legislation to strengthen competency requirements for professionals.

Work has been under way to draft professional regulations to bring the Health and Social Services Profession Act into force. This includes regulations for three groups of professionals; the emergency medical service providers, naturopathic practitioners, and psychologists. We expect that the Health and Social Services Profession Act will come into force later this year with the regulation of EMS providers, followed by naturopathic practitioners, and both will be newly regulated professions in the Northwest Territories.

Some of the Members may recall that naturopathic practitioners were added to the list of professions to be regulated under the Health and Social Services Act in February of 2014. This decisions was supported by requests from MLAs, members of the profession, and by the 17^th Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Social Programs. Regulating a profession helps ensure the safety of the public, as it establishes rules and requirements for how a profession must practise, train, and conduct themselves.

Since naturopathic practitioners are not currently regulated in the Northwest Territories, there are very few parameters for how the profession can practise. Once regulated, naturopathic practitioners would be subject to complaints and disciplines processes if a patient, a member of the public, another professional, or a complaints officer files a complaint.

Prior to bringing these regulations into force, consequential amendments must be made to the Medical Profession Act, the Pharmacy Act, and the Public Health Act. As regulations do not have the authority to amend or repeal an existing act, the department is putting forward this bill to address the consequential amendment required by the new Naturopathic Professions Regulations.

The proposed amendments will:

• allow persons who are entitled to practise under the naturopathic profession regulation to use the title of Doctor or the abbreviation "Dr." in accordance with the regulation;
• exclude naturopathic professionals from the Medical Professions Act;
• replace the term "naturopath" with the term "naturopathic doctor" in the definition of the personal services establishment under the Public Health Act; and
• allow pharmacists to accept a prescription issued by a naturopathic practitioner who is entitled to prescribe a drug.

The change to Bill 32 will not come into force until the regulations have been finalized and are ready to come into force.

This concludes my opening remarks, and I will be pleased to answer any questions that the Members may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development, the committee that considered the bill, for opening comments. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Development concluded its review of Bill 32: Naturopathic Profession Statutes Amendment Act on February 14, 2019, with a public hearing held at the Legislative Assembly building.

Six members of the public were in attendance at the hearing, and committee received submissions from Nicole Redvers, a naturopathic doctor. She expressed support for this legislation and was pleased to see naturopathic established as a regulatory profession within the NWT. Committee agrees and also supports the bill as outlined by the Minister. Individual Members may have additional comments or questions as we proceed with consideration of this bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, chair. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

I would, Mr. Chair.

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today are Christina Brownlee, who is legislative counsel, and Gary Toft, the director of policy, legislation, and communications with Health and Social Services.

Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 32. Is the committee agreed that there are no further general comments?

Agreed. Thank you. Committee, can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?

Agreed. Committee, we will now defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill. Clause 1?

---Clauses 1 through 4 inclusive, approved

Committee, to the bill as a whole, Bill 32?

Does committee agree that Bill 32: Naturopathic Profession Statutes Amendment Act is now ready for third reading?

Agreed. Thank you, committee. Bill 32: Naturopathic Profession Statutes Amendment Act is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 32: Naturopathic Profession Statutes Amendment Act?

Agreed. Thank you, Minister. Our thanks to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Thank you, committee. We will now proceed to consideration of the main estimates, Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates, 2019-2020. Does committee agree?

Agreed. Thank you. We will consider with the Department of Infrastructure. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber? Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Thank you. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is director of Corporate Services, Vince McCormick, of Infrastructure. On my right is Paul Guy, deputy minister of Infrastructure. On my far right is Jaylene Robertson, assistant deputy minister of Regional Operations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Committee, we have agreed to resume corporate management, operations expenditure summary on page 239. Any questions from committee? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When we left off, I think one of the Members was starting to talk about some of the concerns that committee has raised in the past with regard to the centralization of some of our government departments. While it is appreciated that we are building some efficiencies and ways to be effective by doing some amalgamations, the concern lies that, over the years, as we have begun to kind of centralize human resources finance, procurement, and even IT into these centralized government departments, the concern is that a number of the departments and particular regional offices have started to lose the ability to build and maintain the relationships that they have had for a long time with contractors, consultants, and maybe other community partners.

I would like to ask the department, in particular the Minister, because Infrastructure is one of these amalgamation departments and they also seem to be the big spender, I respect and appreciate that, you know, they are tied heavily with the federal funding contributions, and that is well appreciated. I would like to ask the Minister if the department is doing any kind of observation or measuring of what the impacts of these recent amalgamations and centralizations are having on some of the regions and other departments that this department serves, because this is a department that serves other departments of the Government of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't think the amalgamation of these two departments in particular has affected that. We have so many regional people out there who interact with the general public and the contractors on a general basis, that either it be procurement or superintendents who are on the ground that deal with contractors on a day-to-day basis. Nothing has come to my attention that clearly made this amalgamation detrimental to the contracting side of things, as far as I am concerned. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate that that is the opinion of the Minister, and we have seen some concerns from other departments whereby the ability of a department, for example, that used to once be able to put out its own procurement and be able to hire its own workforce, be able to manage its own accounts receivables and payables and its own procurement, it is now a challenge to do that because we have essentially taken are of those abilities and centralize them into -- maybe, I guess, the question is something that I will reiterate again later when we meet with Finance. It might be better suited there. I apologize, Mr. Chair. I am going to defer that question until a later time with the Department of Finance. Thank you. For me right now with the activity of corporate management, I have no further questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Would you like to comment, Minister Schumann?

I guess the one thing I would like to add to that is one thing that we did in this government, too, is we added a whole new region in the Northwest Territories and in the Sahtu, which, you know, there was some strong support from the Member from the Sahtu region to make them their own region. I think, as we are moved forward with five strong regions, the regional support has just gotten better by doing that, as well. That is just an extra comment I wanted to add. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Any further questions, committee? If not, I will read the page. Infrastructure, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, 2019-2020 Main Estimates, $10,715,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Next, we have Infrastructure, programs and services, operations expenditure summary from pages 242 to 246. Any questions? Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note that this activity includes procurement shared services. I would like to know: what funding is being put in place to enhance the department's outreach to clients through procurement shared services to better understand the GNWT's procurement system? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Testart.

If I could just get some information clarified: I heard both 60 participants and 200 participants for the last fiscal year. Which number is accurate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Testart.

I don't know if the department has this information on hand, but what, statistically, does 200 participants represent? How many clients is the GNWT doing business with in a given fiscal year? Is 200 close to a majority, or is this just a sliver of the overall economic field? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Testart.

Thank you. That would be helpful. Can the Minister commit to doing that, and further include to do more of a qualitative analysis of whether or not this procurement outreach is working? It is fine to log participants and meetings, but those are all output-based metrics. If we don't know that 200 participants is statistically important to easing understanding of our procurement policies within the business community, it is just a number. Can the department commit to putting more qualitative analysis towards this exercise and reporting on it annually, either in business plans or some other mechanism that the Minister feels is appropriate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can pull something together for the Member, but at the same time, I think we can offer committee, again, standing committee, we can give them a briefing on procured services and what we are doing and a little more in-detail discussion can take place at that time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.

Thank you. Apart from this kind of standard outreach, what other client-facing positions and programs are supported in this budget? The Minister is well aware that I and others of my honourable colleagues have brought numerous procurement issues to his attention, and he does not seem to be aware of them before they come on the floor of the House. What is the department doing to address that? There are a lot of concerns out there. They don't seem to be reaching the Minister's ears. How is this budget improving either a complaint process or some client-facing service officer who can listen to these concerns and adequately move them up to chain of command so that they can get properly addressed? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member makes it sound like we are in dire straits here in procured shared services, and that is clearly not the case. He and I have argued this on the floor of the House a number of times. The department is working on stuff. We made improvements to the RFP evaluation process. We do mandatory customer service training and fairness advisory training with all of our staff. There are a number of things that we continue to work on, and we continue to evaluate on procured shared services moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.

Thank you. I wasn't asking a policy question, but I appreciate the Minister's comments. I think there is more room to go. Are there client-facing service officers attached to procurement who can listen to concerns from the public directly? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the response. It was very thorough. Where are these positions located? Are they all in headquarters, or are there also regional front-line client service officers? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Testart.

Noticing the time, I will just be quick if you will allow me one more question. A lot of the procurement really depends on local knowledge, knowing who the vendors are, knowing what they offer, and knowing what their issues are. Is the department planning on adding additional front-line officers in the regions, especially the new Sahtu region, the Beaufort-Delta? Is that something that the department will consider? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Next on the list, we have Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the first line on page 243, on air, marine and safety, could the Minister give a little bit of detail on that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that. Four lines down to energy, there seems to be an increase from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020. Could the Minister give a little bit of information on that, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.

The main one there is going to be the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund for $6,746,000. There are a bunch of things that are broken down in there that we have shared with committee: the Government Greenhouse Gas Grant Fund, the Large Scale Commercial and Industrial Greenhouse Gas Grant Fund, incremental Arctic Energy Alliance funding, and Active Forestry Carbon Sequestration, and then there is also delivery of Investing in Canada Infrastructure plan. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that. Getting back to that, you talk about the Arctic Energy Alliance. There's $1.6 million. I know it's run not by the government, but for the government. Mr. Chair, I think a good thing for the Minister and his department to look at is there are other types of alternative energy. When it comes to that, I think the territory, but Canada as a whole, is far, far behind. This is not coming from myself. This is coming from some constituents who complain that the Arctic Energy Alliance, it's an expensive way to hand out efficient light bulbs and things like that. Like, I said, that's not coming from me. I just might be putting a little bug in the Minister's ear to look at that program, and see how we could advance that in the territory. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the things that we did in the last little bit is we did a program review of Arctic Energy Alliance. We've updated committee on that to restructure that, to see that we -- this is a public facing energy efficiency and conservation renewal alternative energy program for the residents of the Northwest Territories. We wanted to make sure that these new programs lined up with the needs of the funding that we received, and we've rejigged a good portion of it. With the additional funding that we've got, we'll be able to expand some of our programs, and I believe that some of the stuff that we've reallocated money to will put pressure on us in the House here because some of these programs are tapped out so early. I think it's a good fit now going forward, and we've got some stable funding for a number of years to help residents of the Northwest Territories to be able to access these programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. That's a good response. On the next line, I know MTS, I gave the Minister a hard time last year on MTS, and I know it's not an easy undertaking to take over something like that, and it takes multiple departments to make it work good, and I commend the department for that, actually. I see that there's no funding for the next couple of years. Coming with that, the cost of fuel has risen up in our region. I'm just wondering if the Minister can shed some light on that, looking forward into 2019 and 2020 and the year after? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason there's no line item here is because it has a revolving fund now, so now, as most Members know, this thing has to run on its own merit, which we've been successful in the last couple of years.

To answer the question about what we're going to do going forward, we've recently sent a letter to committee outlining our services update, what we want to do going forward, and lay out some of the stuff that we've done in the past calendar year with the Marine Transportation Services Initiative. Yes, we were challenged this year, as pretty much everybody knows. I've been asked a number of questions in the House. I've been asked on national television about the circumstances around the sea ice challenges that we've had.

To update committee, the letter that we sent there, we're looking at a number of things to help make the resupply a lot, you know, lesson-learned, I guess, from last year. One of the ones we're trying to do is move up our schedule a little bit earlier in the year to supply the communities. Now, that's easy enough said. That's going to be conditional on sea ice again. We're working very closely with the Canadian Coast Guard to help them with the monitoring of ice, and what kind of services they can provide us with. Also, the other side of it is the fuel supply. Last year, we ran into some conditions with the supplier having the fuel supplied in a timely manner, and these are things that are subject to getting these things to the community earlier than later. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response. Last year was a tough ice year, and Transport Canada forecasts 2019 to be an even worse year. It's good to hear that the Minister is looking at plans to serve the communities, and hopefully sooner, if we can. I know, during last year's sitting, I asked the Minister about plans for Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, and I'm just wondering, I know this is an O and M budget, but I'm just looking to see where they are on that aspect from a 30,000-foot view. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are having a look at Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk from an operational perspective of what we can do in the long-term to possibly help mitigate some of these circumstances that can arise from sea ice challenges, or even fuel shortages. One of the things I think that we need to have a look at, and the department is looking at scoping out, is what infrastructure do we have in place in those two communities, and what would need to be put in there to help mitigate the factor, particularly around the resupply of fuel and the storage capacity that we have in these two communities. That's part of our operational review that MTS is continuing to look at. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. Looking at that, talking about fuel, fuel services and long-term plans, there's a lot of infrastructure up in the North that we don't see as civilians. There are radar sites and other types of infrastructure that need heating and need fuel for transportation. It might be worth something in the long run for MTS to think about that, and possibly take other contracts rather than just the territory on a much bigger, bigger scale as the Arctic opens. I just want to hear what the Minister has to say on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I've been questioned in the House last shipping season about what we were doing around some of this commercial activity that we are doing, MTS is going to continue, of course, to contract with Imperial Oil to supply and deliver fuel to Norman Wells. That's in place, and it is there for a number of years going forward.

We are laying out what our marine charter services and support are going to be going forward, and one of the things that we are looking at is how can we support the federal government with the North Warning Fuel Supply program in the Western Arctic. Those discussions are ongoing for sure.

We are going to probably end up going back to Prudhoe Bay this year. I think we have some interest in delivering some natural gas production models up there. We've got to continue to look at these sorts of things. A lot of people had the confusion last time going around that we are looking after industrial customers without looking after ourselves first, and that's clearly not the case. I've clearly laid that out in our public briefing. One of the reasons we want to get these new double-hulled barges is so we can make fewer trips to service the community. Right now, the way it's laid out with the barges that we have, we've got to make multiple trips to go there. When we get the possession of our new double-hulled barges, the four of them that the tender just closed on here recently that we're evaluating, it's going to help us do the seasonal marine resupply program in a better manner. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's good to hear, actually. Having that little bit of infrastructure could probably go a long way to serving the coastal communities, and even outside the territory, and outside the country. I appreciate the hard work that they're doing as a department to refine something that was working, but barely working by a shoestring. Other than that, I don't have really anything else for this section, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Comment noted. Next, we have Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is related to pages 244 and 245. I notice quite a variety of different programs with budget amounts to them. I recall this government in previous Assemblies conducted a geothermal potential study from the many federal low-emission green funding sources. Have there been any discussions with the federal government to secure funding for a pilot project related to the geothermal? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The short answer is no. A number of years ago, there was a proponent that approached the Government of the Northwest Territories to do something in the NWT, but it didn't turn out to be a viable project. With the technology and with the depths they had to drill, it wasn't viable at that time, but the short answer is no. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. McNeely.

Nothing further there, Mr. Chair. That was just one that caught my eye that could be potential cost-savings for our buildings, as well as subsidizing the private sector buildings. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When you look at our 2030 Energy Strategy, the way that we have laid that thing out, we have our three-year rolling plan going forward. The reason that we have done this is just because of new technologies and things changing out there. More study and more data is needed to better understand the geothermal resources in the Northwest Territories. With that being said, this is a 10-year plan rolled out by the federal government. There may be opportunities to have a look at the geothermal situation in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Next on our list, we have Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to fuel services here, I noticed that, when the Minister talked about MTS, there was no budget line, but fuel services has a budget line. Isn't fuel services a revolving fund, as well? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. McCormick.

Thank you, Mr. McCormick. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister explain when our amortization of the tanks are going to be up? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. McCormick.

Thank you, Mr. McCormick. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to fuel services, I have noticed that we have had problems with MTS, given the High Arctic and that, with the smaller communities just recently, i.e., Wrigley. Has the cost gone up, or is it just because of the delivery costs that we have seen increases in fuel in the smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Thompson.