Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this moment, no, but it will be something that we will have to look at addressing and providing. I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but we only have so many resources within our department to provide the services, but it is something that we have taken into serious consideration, that, when ATIP goes through, we are going to be one of the partners at the table that is going to be providing the training for our municipal governments. We will definitely be doing that. I just want to assure the Member that it is something that our department will be undertaking. Thank you.
Debates of Feb. 27th, 2019
This is page numbers 5085 - 5134 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. View the webstream of the day's session.
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Shane Thompson Nahendeh
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have heard the Minister beat the dead horse, but this is a new thing that we, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, are imposing onto the municipal governments. I appreciate the Minister, understanding that we have short resources and that, but we have to make sure that we are prepared. I am hoping, and I am going to take the Minister's word for it, that we are actually going to start looking at this, to develop a course that people are able to take. That will be my last question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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The Chair R.J. Simpson
Just a comment from Mr. Thompson. The Minister would like to respond. Minister.
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Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will continue to work with the Department of Justice to address some of these concerns and look at how we can offset some of the training costs. Thank you.
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The Chair R.J. Simpson
Thank you. Municipal and Community Affairs, directorate, operations expenditures summary, $3,805,000. Does committee agree?
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
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The Chair R.J. Simpson
Thank you, committee. Please continue to the next activity.
Activity 4, pages 342 to 345, public safety. Mr. Vanthuyne.
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Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the department if they could maybe provide us a little bit of insight on communications as it relates to emergencies or safety matters. In 2014-2015, we had very significant forest fires. I just remember at the time that, between MACA, ENR, who would be responsible for fighting the fires, and then, say, Infrastructure would be responsible for highways and what-have-you that might be inhibited by the fires. It was often a bit of a challenge to understand who was leading communications and how communications were being done. Can the department maybe explain a little bit about what their communications plans are when it comes to emergency response? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the comment, because one of the things that we are really focusing on is community emergency management plans and making sure that our communities are doing an annual practice. We are also working with the federal government on some of these disaster mitigation plans, looking for funding to push through that, really, based on the region where the emergency might occur. We work with our superintendents. We do have staff, who Members met when we did our 911 presentation the other day, who are on top of things. As a resident of the NWT, and as the Minister responsible, I am pretty confident that we do get the information out to all of our communities that are experiencing any type of emergencies. We work very closely with our superintendents, and we do have a strong response.
The main thing, and something that we are going to be focusing on, is the emergency management plans with our communities. We do have communities that are at flood risk, but also, you never know when we are going to get big fires like we did in 2014. I think it was an interdepartmental focus within that government to get that information out through Twitter, through Facebook, as well as on our websites, and I think we all saw that information. For a little bit of further detail, maybe I will ask Mr. Schauerte to add a little bit more.
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Schauerte
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In addition to the answer provided by the Minister, following the 2014 wildfire season, we did do an after-action review out of that event. One of the major things as it relates to communications coming out of our analysis of that event is that we have worked very closely with corporate communications and the Department of Finance to establish a protocol around how communications would exist in the event of an emergency. Very clearly, until an emergency event occurs, communications for all of the respective mandate areas are the responsibility of individual departments. Using the example provided by the Member, the Department of Infrastructure would have responsibility for road notices or any of those kinds of things. Once an emergency event has occurred and we are in the process of declaring a state of emergency, then our emergency management organization kicks in under the territorial emergency plan, and it is then that organization which will coordinate communications on behalf of our government in an integrated consolidated fashion so that, when we are in an emergency event, we are speaking to one voice about all matters related to government services. So it really is, the trigger point or the key is, whether or not a state of emergency is declared at that point. That is when MACA would take the primary role in communications. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kieron Testart Kam Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask about the consumer affairs program. Can we get a bit more detail on how this appropriation supports consumer rights in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
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Schauerte
Municipal and Community Affairs administers the Consumer Protection Act. The role of the department really is a role of advocacy. We do encourage consumers to raise their own complaints around how they may be treated within the business community or how they might have financially been impacted. When a resident reaches a point where they feel that they may not be able to address a consumer issue on their own, the department could certainly have some kind of role where we could have some kind of a negotiated process between the person who may be bringing an issue forward and the vendor or the person whom they might have an issue with. We don't have any binding authority under the Consumer Protection Act to regulate in this area or to render judgment one way or the other, so, really, our role is in terms of advocacy or negotiating some kind of mutual agreement between an individual resident or a vendor. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kieron Testart Kam Lake
Thank you for that thorough description. I appreciate having a clear understanding of it, but what kind of advocacy is done, then, if as you said, there is no binding authority in the act? I mean, if a consumer feels that they have been treated unfairly, what can they do? Thank you.
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Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is something that we can really put some more work in. I'll just asked my deputy minister here, but what I can't provide Members is the amount of consumer affairs concerns that we have had, how they have been dealt with, and then also making sure that we can, I guess you could say, do more of an advocacy role on our websites and through our regional offices.
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Schauerte
Certainly, as the Minister suggested, we could continue to provide more communication about our role. I think, in respect to the question raised by the Member, I would cite one example that our consumer affairs office did when concerns about gas prices were brought to our attention in the department. Through that consumer affairs unit, we undertook an analysis of gas prices in the Northwest Territories, in market communities. We did see that there were certain vendors who continued to keep their gas prices at the same price forever, regardless of what they might have been paying for the commodity, and so you really wondered about whether or not there was an active market economy going on where you would expect gas prices to fluctuate. As a result of our investigation in this area, we went and met with a number of vendors, and we specifically talked to them about how they set their gas prices. It was actually an interesting example of having the government go and meet with vendors. We actually started to see fluctuation within the gas-price markets as a result of our intervention in that case.
Sometimes, it is as simple as the government asking questions and raising concerns on behalf of the resident that compels the vendors to perhaps adjust how they are setting prices or things like that, so that is an example, Mr. Chair, of how we would apply advocacy on behalf of a resident. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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