This is page numbers 5713 - 5790 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 women. View the webstream of the day's session.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Reports of standing and special committees. Item 5, returns to oral questions. Item 7, acknowledgements. Colleagues, at this point, I am going to call for a short break.

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The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Colleagues, we left off after acknowledgements. Next on the orders of the day is item 8, oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. I understand that she is taking the lead today on questions about the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry. The recommendations in this report, all 231 of them, are wide-ranging and involve almost every part of society and government. I am wondering what kind of an approach the Minister is going to take in analyzing and responding to these recommendations. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for the Status of Women.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, recognizing that I haven't read the report at all yet, what I am basing my comments on are the recommendations that I heard at the presentation yesterday in Ottawa. What I will be proposing to my colleagues is that we take an interdepartmental approach, that every department have someone on it, and we look at each for the recommendations. Not only would we be looking at an interdepartmental approach, but we also need to work nationally across Canada to work with other provinces and territories and the federal government to review them, to see what we can do independently, as provinces and territories, and also what we will be doing nationally. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you to the Minister for that response. The report, of course, I don't expect the Minister to have read it; it is 1,200 pages long. Even the executive summary is 120 pages. One of the things that the report is very strong about is that Indigenous people be part of developing solutions to the problems identified in the report. I would like to ask the Minister how Indigenous organizations will be involved in responding to the report and implementing the recommendations.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

We are working with the Northwest Territories Native Women's Association, so we will be working closely with them. They have been involved in the hearings. They have been involved in the inquiry from the very beginning. It would totally disrespectful for us not to include them in our work. The Northwest Territories Native Women's Association represents all Indigenous women in the Northwest Territories.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

One of the things that is really clear about this report is that the recommendations involve all of society and not only women. I am wondering if the Minister will also consider involving Indigenous governments and organizations, such as the intergovernmental council.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

I was negligent in my answer before; Native Women's will be an active partner, but we also have bilateral agreements on any issues that affect Aboriginal governments that they are part of the work that we do. We will commit to actually involving them as well.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is, of course, this House is scheduled to break this week, and then resume sitting on August the 12th. I am wondering, by then, the last sitting before this Assembly adjourns, what the Minister will have in hand by way of a response, so in three months from now. Thank you.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

At this point, I can't really give a timeline. I would love to be able to say that we will have a report response back by the end of this Assembly. That would give me great pride as an Indigenous woman to say that. I have to respect the process. It took years for the Commission to actually come up with the recommendation in this inquiry. It would be very disrespectful of me to push this forward and have something done just because I wanted to have it in this Assembly. In saying that and recognizing that we will be working with Indigenous governments and the Native Women's Association, that we need to take the time necessary, I can't give a timeline on that. It would be the time necessary to review it, to be comprehensive, and to provide a thorough review of the recommendations and a response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like a few of my other colleagues today, I have some comments and questions about wildfire season. Hay River is not that far from some of the major fires we have seen down in Alberta. We have had a dry winter, and we have a lot of summer ahead of us. A lot of people are concerned about what this summer is going to be like. I have some questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources regarding fire smarting, regarding where people can find information and things like that. My first question is: what GNWT programs are there, or even federal programs that are available to help municipalities, Indigenous governments, even individuals FireSmart their communities and their homes? 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. The Department of ENR has specific funding available each year to support communities with their FireSmart activities. MACA and communities are also able to access fuel-tax funding to support specific mitigation efforts. ENR is currently assessing other federal funding programs, which may also provide FireSmart or wildlife risk-mitigation funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

I think that those funding pots are very important. Maybe in the future we need to look at expanding them because prevention is often cheaper than cleaning up the mess that a fire can cause. I would like to know: when the fires were going on, they are still going on, I guess, in Alberta, I was looking at a bunch of different websites to try and out information about who was being evacuated, where the fires were, what the fire danger was. There are a lot of places to look, and it is not necessarily easy to find all the information. I would like to ask the Minister if he could let us know where the public can find out information from the GNWT about wildfires and other emergency situations.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

ENR has in place a variety of ways to inform the public on wildfires. Some of these include the main GNWT Public Safety and Emergency Services website, which includes links to wildfire updates and wildfire information, ENR's NWT Wildfire.com Facebook site, and @NWTFire Twitter account. The public can also email questions to [email protected] or call the NWT Fire public information hotline. One of the things we heard about of the report of the fires we had a few years ago was the government's communication and getting information out to those who are affected. I think we have taken steps to improve that. If there are more ways we could improve our communication with the public, we would welcome any comments and try and incorporate them into our ability to keep the public informed as to the fires.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

The GNWT does have a lot of good information out there. That is why I wanted the Minister to summarize it so we could know where to look. It can be difficult to pinpoint it. One of the things I would like to suggest is perhaps an app. I know Alberta has the Alberta Emergency app, which I downloaded to keep up with what was going on with the forest fires. It pushes alerts to your phone when there is an emergency. I know we have the cell phone emergency alert system that pushes very urgent messages to your phone, but this app that Alberta has pushes maybe not such critical alerts to your phone but ones that are still important. Has the department considered something like that? Have they considered developing an app because everyone has cell phones? I think it would be a great way to keep the public informed.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I think the Member's idea has got a lot of merit to it. I had heard from some family members who are living in Alberta who actually had their phones go off when they were issuing a warning on some of the smoke. That has a lot of merit. I can assure the Member and Members of this House and the public that ENR will look at a way we can incorporate that into our communication, as well, because as the Member said, everyone has a cell phone. If we could incorporate that, I think more people will be informed.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I actually have to credit the youth parliamentarian from Hay River. She brought up the idea of an app for mental health, and I have been trying to apply the idea of apps to everything, now. My last question here: I believe that, in some jurisdictions, the governments use the courts to go after people who they find out are responsible for starting wildfires. They go after them for costs. Now, I know if we go after someone who doesn't put the fire out and who starts the fire, we are not going to get the costs recouped that the GWNT had to pay to fight the fire, but it would be a good deterrent. Does the GNWT have that power, or would it consider implementing a policy like that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Again, with the number of forest fires we have had already in the last little while, I think we had about 14. I think well over 90 percent of them were caused by humans. There is a lot of merit to that. I know in the current Forest Protection Act, it doesn't have any provisions for cost recovery. However, the current act allows for the department to issue fines for anyone who contravenes the act. Currently, I think the fine is set at $1,000. The proposed new Forest Act, on the other hand, does propose cost recovery provisions similar to other Canadian jurisdictions. We are aware of that. Once the Forest Act is re-introduced and debated, we will have that provision in there. A thousand dollars does seem like a fairly low amount, which may cost the government millions of dollars to fight and put people and property at risk. It is something that the government will look at. If we need to, we will incorporate that. It is unfortunate that we have to legislate good behaviour. 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. Thank you to my colleague from Hay River North for asking that line of questioning. I will be asking my questions also along those lines. My questions will be to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I spoke earlier today with regard to it being forest fire season. I do have a number of residents who live on Ingraham Trail. Of course, it is that time of year when they get very nervous and are concerned about their safety. Mr. Speaker, with numerous abandoned fires being found and reported on, we see this on social media, I would like to ask the Minister: has the department stepped up monitoring and enforcement of fire safety regulations on the Ingraham Trail or in all of our territorial parks for that matter? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.