This is page numbers 4757 - 4776 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 going. View the webstream of the day's session.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I greatly appreciate that answer. I look forward to working with the regional councils because they have been asking me for that information, so I greatly appreciate the Minister with his answer. My final question is: can the Minister explain why the council is not able to hold meetings without having a chairperson in attendance? Do they not have a vice chairperson identified when they do this process?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Mr. Speaker, I attended a meeting with the leadership council in the spring, and one of the issues that the board members actually brought to my attention was that in our current setup there was no possibility for deputy chairs of the regional wellness council, which meant it was sometimes difficult to hold meetings. Two things have to happen. There has to be the chair, and there has, and there has to be quorum.

At that meeting, I actually directed that the Department of Health and Social Services work with the territorial authority to amend that so that we can actually have deputy chairs appointed. I also asked the board members to work with the members to select the deputy chair from within their own ranks. I understand that a number of the Regional Wellness Councils have already identified individuals to be deputy chairs. Others haven't at this point, but they certainly have the authority to select and appoint a deputy chair. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le president. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I certainly gave him a heads-up about this first question I want to ask him. Can the Minister tell us the maximum annual value of rough diamonds used for manufacturing here in the Northwest Territories, and what that figure is as a percentage of total production in that year? Mahsi, 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. First of all, I can't answer part of his question because it is considered proprietary, because there is only one manufacturer. What I can tell the House is the producers make available 10 percent of their production by value to the manufacturers. Over the past eight years, only an average of 0.6 percent or $10.6 million annually has been used by the manufacturers. That's one of the reasons you could see why we took this initiative to change this policy.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that. Wow. We're not using very many of those diamonds that are supposed to be made available. I know that the changes to the Diamond Policy Framework are relatively new, but can the Minister tell us how many approved NWT diamond manufacturers there are now and if any new ones have applied under the new policy framework?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

There are currently two. We've got Almod Diamonds, Limited, who recently was approved as our latest one. Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd., who operates uptown. These two are both actually working at updating their business plans to meet our new matrix. Also in response to this news when we announced this policy, I want to let this House know that these amendments were positively received. We've had preliminary discussions with two more international manufacturers who are interested in setting up here, and additional discussions with diamond brokers and industry experts who represent other manufacturers have also got hold of the department.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I'd like to thank the Minister for that, telling about the new interest. In my statement earlier today, I said that there is a lack of transparency around this new framework. The valuation matrix is nowhere to be found on the ITI website, so I hope these two new companies were able to find it somewhere. There doesn't seem to be any monitoring framework or public reporting under the new framework. Can the Minister explain how potential manufacturers can put together an application without knowing how they will be ranked or rated?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

The development of the approved diamond manufacturer application process is a lengthy collaborative process. ITI has determined that discussions with the interested manufacturers and brokers are most effective when changes to the DPF are represented in a manner that clearly outlines the department's new amendment in investments requirements. This methodology allows the manufacturer to better understand the environment and the key investment drivers. Following these preliminary discussions, ITI has shared the matrix with others, and relayed the information to recent interested parties. I can also at this time commit that we will post this online.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the Minister for that really helpful commitment at the end. The matrix that is used to evaluate the proposals is finally going to get posted to the website.

Over the last 20 years, our efforts to establish and maintain a viable secondary diamond industry have been a failure. Would the Minister agree that the easiest and best way to retain benefits is to ensure that we would collect a fair royalty for the extraction of diamonds and other minerals and that this should be accomplished through a public and independent review?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

As the Member knows, and I've said it publicly, I've said it in committee, this government is committed to looking at all the taxes that are around the royalty regime. We made the decision to put that up to the 19th Legislative Assembly. Our department, I've directed them, and they have already started to do some of the legwork that is going to have to be needed to be done in the 19th Assembly so we have a full comprehensive review of what is all included in this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. Earlier today the Minister of Infrastructure spoke eloquently about the transformational energy that the Taltson hydro expansion could offer the North. I spoke earlier about a new idea that SSI Energy presented to our committee with regard to a concept for district energy systems that could really be transformational for remote communities on thermal energy. I'd like to ask the Minister, simply: has the Minister seen the presentation? Has he watched the video from SSI Energy to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I have. I've actually had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Jeff Philipp and Mr. Cadwell, I believe, and he discussed his idea with me at great length here about two weeks ago.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

That's good news. I appreciate that the Minister has seen the presentation and has met with Mr. Philipp. That said, Mr. Philipp publicly stated in the presentation to our committee that his company would supply, fund, and guarantee such a system. I'm wondering if, in the Minister's discussions, did they have an opportunity to talk about any potential partnerships to invest in and put in or install this type of a system into any one of our thermal communities as a pilot project, even?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

First of all, I'd be very curious to see reaction from committee when Mr. Philplipp did his presentation. As we all know, he's a very high-energetic guy. I call him the Elon Musk of the North. He has a lot of ideas. He's got a lot of stuff going on there.

In our discussions with Jeff, there are a few things that he wants to try to accomplish all at once, and I suggested that we need to piecemeal this a little bit if we're going to even have a look at this thing. He wanted to know who he needed to talk to within our department, and I directed him to our energy division to sit down and have those discussions with them. One of the things I was a little concerned about was which community he wanted to do it in, and maybe we should have a look at a, bite off a little smaller piece somewhere else, but he's adamant that he thinks he wants to do it within his community of Fort Providence. He's been asked to task my department to have those discussions and see if there's anything even possible.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Well, it sounds a little bit promising. I wonder if the Minister, knowing that there are many communities that have these large generators of which a number of them are scheduled at some point in time in the future here to be replaced, will the Minister work with his colleagues, in particular the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation or in his capacity as chair for Ministerial, Energy and Climate Change Committee-of-Cabinet, have a discussion about the opportunity of replacing one of these large generators with this multi-small-generator system that is being proposed by SSI Energy?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

That's why I've actually asked Jeff to go talk to our energy division to have a look at what's possible. I'm not saying we're not going to do it. The whole idea of our action plan and our 2030 Energy Strategy is we have a three-year action plan, and we know technology is going to change significantly over the next 10 years on how we're going to address the greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the Northwest Territories, and Jeff has a great idea. I've asked him to have a serious chat with our department, and when I get the feedback from that, we could seriously have a look at this thing as viable and looking at changing out something in one of these communities if it's going to work.

At present, right now, we're still moving forward with our plan around wind and solar and biomass and LNG and the Taltson and variable speed generators in different communities. We will continue to work on that. I am not saying we are not against this project. We will certainly have a serious look at it.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do truly appreciate the intentions that the Minister has, and it seems that they are well-meaning and that we are heading in the right direction.

The district energy system that was proposed is certainly a game-changer unto itself, but a portion of that district energy system consists of these new super batteries made of graphene. These being used unto themselves can be used for multiple purposes; the Colville Solar Project, the Inuvik Wind Project, even remote mines. Would the Minister make a commitment to at least have the energy division look further into the use of these new graphene batteries? They alone could be used for multiple purposes, not having to change over small communities to whole new entire system, but just the use of these graphene batteries alone. Will the Minister commit to having his energy division look at little more into the graphene batteries? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I am well aware of these batteries. Jeff actually met with me probably almost a year ago and had a discussion around these things. I think he has become now the actual Canadian supplier for these things. I don't think he has actually sold any quite yet. He is working on a number of initiatives right across the country on what he is trying to do.

We are having a look at these things. They have not been installed anywhere in Canada yet, but we have to have a serious look at how we are going to tackle these battery situations across the Northwest Territories, particularly around the wind and solar aspect of it. Most of these systems need a battery. The Member is well right that these things load up and keep power a lot longer. They can't freeze these things, so we have to have a serious look at it, and I have directed our energy department to have a look at it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.