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.

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

February 7th, 2019

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the visitors in the gallery. [Translation] We have Dolphus Nitsiza in the gallery. I would like to thank him. [Translation ends]

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River North.

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

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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. She came back. I would like to recognize my constituent and my girlfriend, Ms. Chantel Lafferty. I would also like to welcome back, again, my aunt and my constituent, Ms. June Simpson. 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

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 on, a lady by the name of Lena Schofield, who was part of the development of the Yellowknife Inuit Katujjiqatigiit, which is an Inuit organization started up in Yellowknife to help Inuit who don't live in their land claim regions with funding, so that some kids can play hockey, play soccer, attend sports, and things like that. I just want to welcome Lena if she is still around. Also, Mr. Speaker, to my high school buddy, Mr. Dolphus Nitsiza, welcome and quyanainni, 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. Member for Deh Cho.

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Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

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Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to recognize two Pages, but unfortunately they are somewhere in the building. I wanted to recognize two students from Chief Sunrise School, Allora Cayen and Keyarah Yakinneah-Sabourin, and also their chaperone, June Simpson. I would like to welcome them to the House. Mahsi.

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. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.

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

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Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize a couple of Pages who have joined us here today, Corbin and Aeva Grace Dempster. Thank you for all the work that you have been doing for all of the Members of the Legislative Assembly. I hope you enjoyed your experience and promoting the program to your fellow colleagues back in Inuvik. Welcome and thank you. 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. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the Wolf Harvest Incentive Program by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. My questions are for the Minister of ENR.

Mr. Speaker, there are harvesters who harvest wolves in the territory, and sometimes, rather than bringing them to ENR, they would like to sell them to a family member so that they can make crafts and sometimes clothing. Mr. Speaker, I think what my question is: are harvesters who sell their wolves to private members in the community still eligible for the prime fur bonus incentive from ENR? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to be eligible for the prime fur bonus, their fur needs to be sent to the fur auction and must sell for over $200. Then it would be eligible for the prime fur bonus. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

I appreciate the response. There was a bit of confusion of maybe communications in some regions of the territory for that. Mr. Speaker, that leads to my next question: will the Minister extend the enhanced wolf harvest incentive program to the rest of the barren-ground caribou herds across the Northwest Territories?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The wolf incentive program is being run as a pilot project this year, this winter, to support the conservation and recovery of the two specific barren-ground herds, the Bathurst and Bluenose-East. We heard from our travels around the Tlicho a couple of weeks ago that many of the people there and a lot of the elders felt like the caribou were one of the main, or they took a fair share of the caribou, and they wanted to know what our plans were in trying to deal with that. This particular program is a pilot program that is aimed at those two specific herds for now.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

I appreciate the response. Pilot programs like this are definitely a good indicator of what we need to do looking forward and definitely a good opportunity to look at other herds.

Mr. Speaker, grizzly bears and eagles are also a contributing factor of declining caribou herds during the calving season. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister consider co-management with Indigenous groups to better monitor barren-ground herds during those fragile times?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Absolutely. In my conversations with a lot of the Aboriginal leaders that I have been speaking, I said the only way this is going to work is if we work with our Aboriginal partners. We have a number of programs that we are trying, but we have been working very closely with them. We are trying to monitor the herds. We have a couple of programs that are out. One is Boots on the Ground. Another community has Moccasins on the Ground, I believe. We are looking to expand on those programs because what we heard in our tour again was the fact that maybe you should send these monitors out two times a year, once during the winter and once in the summer. I thought that was great advice, so we are looking at that.

I have directed the department to come up with a plan and identify some sources of funding and where we can access those from. The program is well received. We had a great presentation on the Boots on the Ground program during the tour that we had. We had some great video footage, actually, and I am going to see if I can find that video footage and post it somewhere where folks will have access to that footage. I found that footage that we watched, I think, was very helpful and it kind of demonstrated the value of the monitoring programs.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Herbert Nakimayak

Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that response. It looks promising and, as we move towards co-management, self-government, and our own self-determination, it looks like we have something to work with, and I think this is something that we can improve upon as we move forward.

Mr. Speaker, grizzly bears also play a huge role during the calving season and definitely the numbers around the communities in the Northwest Territories have been rising from reports from harvesters and even community members, and bears coming into the communities during the summer and fall season. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is: will the Minister look into better incentives for barren-ground grizzly bears in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The GNWT, we currently don't have any specific incentives for the harvest of grizzly bears in the NWT. Again, we will work with our co-management partners and see if we can come up with initiatives towards that if we find that they are a threat. As part of the monitoring program too, we are thinking that they would be able to monitor the number of grizzly bears that are actually following the caribou.

One of the stats that I found quite alarming when we were doing our tour was the fact that I think they followed them and they did the calf count at a certain time of year, and I believe they did a calf count again in the fall, and it was down by almost 80 percent, I believe, so the calf survival rate was very low and a lot of that. It showed right on the video where the wolves in the video were actually stalking the caribou. At the end of the footage, it showed a wolf actually walking away with a calf that it took out of the herd. So we feel that, through enhancing our monitoring programs, we would probably be able to be of a little more of assistance to the caribou and try to control the predators. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I made a Member's statement about homecare and was going to ask the Minister of Health questions on homecare, but the Minister of ITI trumped my Member's statement with the Taltson statement, so I have questions for him. I would like to ask the Minister of ITI if, during any Indigenous engagement, he would present the idea retrospective environmental assessment from their original project at Taltson. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I clearly laid out in my Minister's statement today, there are one or two things that we want to do. One of the first things we need to do is dust off some of that old work that has been previously done with the Indigenous partners that they had at the time, the Deze group. There has to be a significant amount of work that has to be done, the technical aspect of it, as well as the environmental assessment part of this that has to be revitalized, so we are going to be looking at all those things.

As I have said, we want to ensure that all the previous engineering and design work is up to date and that baseline work is where it needs to be in engaging with our Indigenous partners that are affected. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

In case in the Deze daze it hasn't been covered, I would like to ask the Minister if he is prepared to review all of the processes of approval with the original project back in the 1960s.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I don't think there is a need for us to go back to the 1960s. I can see where this line of questioning might be going, but, you know, back in the day when they built the Taltson project, that was a federal initiative. They were in charge of land and resources in the Northwest Territories at that time. We have since just passed devolution and we are moving forward with our legislation to address these things, but I don't think there is a need for us with our Indigenous partners moving this project forward to go back to the 1960s.