Mr. Speaker, there is no role for the members of the regional wellness councils to provide information to MLAs. The regional wellness council members exist to provide input and guidance on the delivery of services at authority level, and they provide that information both directly at regional level but also through the leadership council up to the board. I do, however, encourage engagement among MLAs, community members, and regional wellness councils, given the shared commitment to improving health and social services in the Northwest Territories, but the regional wellness councils do not report to MLAs.

Having said that, I think the Member is aware that we have a protocol established within this Assembly that, if he or any Member has questions related to health and social services, those questions should be directed to the Minister and the Minister will respond within five days where appropriate and possible.

I appreciate that answer from the Minister. I am well aware of that process, but I am trying to get that information out there and understand the roles and that. So the Minister said that we go through the department to get the information through him, and the standard timeline is five days, so why does it take longer than that in some cases?

Mr. Speaker, there is no such thing as black and white in many of the things that we do. Many of the questions that come to me from MLAs are very complex in nature and require expertise at the front-line level, which requires us to go through our staff to the deputy minister's staff, to the authority's staff, to the front-line providers who are the ones who can provide us with that information. I do my best to endeavour to provide the MLAs with indication if answers are going to take longer than the standard five days, but in some situations, given the complexity and scope of the questions being asked, of course they take longer than five business days.

I thank the Minister for that answer. Yes, I understand it takes longer than five days, so I am just going to give you a scenario. I asked a similar question that a regional council asked, and I was advised that I have to wait until the regional council gets this information. It's more than 30 days. It's a meeting that is going to happen in the springtime. So can he please explain to me why that information has to be shared with the regional council before coming to us?

I would strongly encourage the Member to check his e-mails again because I do believe I followed up on that when he raised these concerns. Our intention is not to wait to provide that information to the regional wellness council first. Our intention is to get that information available to both parties who ask, which are MLA and regional wellness council, they both asked the same information, but to get to the information as soon as we can. However, at the same time, Mr. Speaker, I am strongly encouraging the Member to attend the next regional wellness council, where staff from the department will be coming to provide a comprehensive presentation which will likely be far more involved and encompassing than a written response. So, no, Mr. Speaker, we are not intending to wait 30 days to get him the information. We will get it to him as soon as is possible, but we do encourage him to attend the regional wellness council so that he can partake in a much broader discussion.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will actually table the response from the Minister. It did say longer than 30 days. I will table the whole discussion there. Mr. Speaker, so the Minister is inviting me to this meeting. I greatly appreciate it, but the regional council has asked: will the Minister attend that same meeting so that he can explain everything to them, as well? So I appreciate his invitation. I gladly accept it if it fits into my schedule, but I am hoping the Minister will be able to attend that meeting, as well, so that he can hear the regional council's concerns, as well.

I love the Member's passion on this file. This is a file that I have some passion for, as well. I do encourage Members to attend regional wellness council meetings. They are public. Anybody can attend them, and there are usually great discussions to these. So, please, all Members, attend your regional wellness council meetings.

Mr. Speaker, I did attend a meeting with the leadership council in the spring, and the leadership council did express some concerns with how information is flowing to and from regional councils. At that time, I committed to the chairs that I would attend each of the regional wellness council meetings in each region, so at least one in each region, to have an opportunity to have those very discussions with the regional wellness council members. So far, I have been able to attend two. One of them had to be by telephone. I am not going to promise to attend that one meeting, because I do have a very full schedule, but I have made that commitment to all the regional wellness councils and I will live up to it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, we want to work with the Member and the leadership within the Sahtu region to identify some of these core needs. As I mentioned, I did table a document yesterday that shows that we are doing a variety of initiatives and programs throughout the Northwest Territories to address our core needs right across the Northwest Territories. We did send staff in to Deline. We are working with Deline right now on a community housing plan that will help identify the priorities that are needed for that community. We are more than willing to work with all of our Indigenous governments and communities across the Northwest Territories so that, at the end of the day, we do have community housing plans for every community in the Northwest Territories. I am committed and willing to work with the Member and the leadership from the Sahtu. I know we are looking at having some meetings in early April, and I am committed to looking to see if we can do a little tour, give a little information.

As I have said in this House, as well, we are looking at doing an Indigenous housing summit here in Yellowknife, and we will be inviting leadership as well as administration to come attend that meeting so that we can give the information out but to also hear some of the concerns from our leaders and our community members as we move forward in our housing strategy. I look forward to working with the Member to address those.

Thanks to the Minister for that reply and that commitment. That is very gratifying to hear. When I review some of the programs available in designing a home, I come to realize that there are many options of energy-efficient programs. Will the Minister commit to providing some information on, say for example, showcasing a home with the energy-efficient programs offered by the Arctic Energy Alliance, as well as the programs designed for the Housing Corporation, so that the end result would be a nice product that is low in energy cost and designing that home with the local corporations?

Definitely. That is one of our priorities and one of the things that we do want to address. With public housing units, obviously, the NWT Housing Corporation also takes care of some of the utility costs, and anything that can help us reduce the costs in terms of energy efficiency, that money will go into more programs and services within the NWT Housing Corporation.

We want to work with our leadership. A good example is with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, and this is something that we will highlight. Any programs that we do have within the NWT Housing Corporation, we will be addressing them. We will be sharing them. We will be educating our leaders and our communities during that Indigenous Housing Summit, and we will make sure that all of that information is given out to our leaders and our partners and stakeholders.

Thanks to the Minister for that reply. My next question is: the Housing Corporation has a secured 10-year strategy. As part of that discussion on taking that strategy and applying it to some of the Sahtu communities or all of the Sahtu communities, and the other communities, for that matter, will that strategy be passed on to the other communities over the territory?

As the Member knows, and it has been said in this House, it was said in the sessional speech, we do have a national housing strategy, and the funding that we did receive in that, collectively within the federal and territorial government, is going to be $140 million over the next 10 years.

On top of that, as we mentioned, we also did make an announcement of the co-investment fund where we did get a carve-out of $60 million. That is very flexible in how we run that program. That program, in particular, we have been really sharing with our leadership and our partners. We are trying to get that funding out to all of our partners across the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to share that. That is something that we will highlight during our summit as well. If we do get into the Sahtu region, if we do a tour, we will share that information.

We are working with CMHC, as well, with their SEED funding to address getting some proposals brought forward, but I am willing to work with the Member and his region, as well as the leadership, on getting this information out to all communities across the Northwest Territories.

I thank the Member for bringing up these very informative programs that we need to address. We have about eight months left in this government, and the more contribution agreements that we can get signed, the more deals that we can get signed in terms of working with the partners to address the housing need, I am definitely in strong support.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In conclusion here, I will just point out to the Minister some of the logistic arrangements in preparation for our discussion and tour coming up here. Two of the Sahtu communities are only accessible during the winter road season, and the other ones that live along the river bank are resupplied biannually. That helps with the logistics and mobilization of materials and planning. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. That was more of a statement to the government. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources on the crisis of the Bathurst caribou herd.

I want to again thank the Minister for taking me along on the community visits. I thought that the community visits were a very good idea. I just wish that they had happened before the submission with the joint proposal, the management proposals for the two herds. I would like the Minister to explain why there was no consultation on the joint management proposals, before they were submitted, with the Tlicho communities, Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and even the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was glad that the Member was able to attend these sessions with me, and as I said in the sessions, I thought that it was very important that Regular Members come and listen to some of the concerns that the communities have firsthand. Again, I appreciate the Member taking the time to visit the communities with us, and also the Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh on our trip out to Detah. They had an opportunity to hear firsthand some of the concerns that the community was sharing.

We had a lot of community membership show up, we met with the community leaders, and my understanding is that we were taking a lot of this information, and then we had representatives there from the Wek'eezhii Land and Resource Board, as well. My understanding was that we were going to make these rounds and then make our submission. If that wasn't the case, I will confirm that, and I will follow up on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for that. I can give him my assurance that those joint management proposals were sent in, in some cases, before we met with the communities. They were good meetings. I just wish that they had happened sooner, and I understand there is some urgency with this issue.

I have looked at these joint management proposals, and there doesn't seem to be any specific measures or actions related to habitat protection. There are just some further measures or restrictions on harvesting. I wonder: can the Minister explain why the joint management proposal for the Bathurst caribou herd does not contain any specific measures or actions for habitat protection, things like mobile caribou conservation measures, offsetting and compensatory mitigation, or even land use planning?

The Bathurst joint management proposal includes a clear recommendation that the collaboratively developed Bathurst Caribou Range Plan be finalized and implemented, and work to develop the plan was initiated by ENR in 2013. The Bathurst Caribou Range Plan includes the measures you have mentioned, including the mobile conservation measures, offsetting and participation in environmental assessment, and land use planning throughout the herd's range in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.