This is page numbers 6187 - 6288 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 public.

Topics

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for the reply. I guess that, lastly, I would be looking towards opportunities where we could solidify and ensure a little bit more as it relates to local hiring and local training. Is there a way in which we could add a feature into negotiating P3 contracts that would ensure that we are going to hire locally and that have the opportunity for those operators to train people locally for the jobs that are coming forward after a P3 has been awarded? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

As I said earlier, we do want a lot of the benefits from these projects to go to Northerners, be it training, business opportunities, job opportunities, and it is expected in our negotiations with the proponents that these are built in so that Northerners will benefit from the money that the government spends on a lot of these infrastructure projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister responsible for ECE. As I mentioned, there is no childcare in Fort McPherson at this time. I would like to ask the Minister: how much funding is available for childcare, for setup and operations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is funding available, and we are trying to get people to know that, so I am glad to actually answer that on the floor. We have start-up funding, and it goes up to, I believe, about $25,000 just for starting their business up, and then we have health and safety funding on top of that. That is up to $10,000, and that is for making sure that you have the proper things, fire extinguishers, et cetera, that you need to actually provide services in a daycare.

We will work with any daycare provider that wants to be licensed. We need more, and we will provide whatever services that we can to support licensed family homes or centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

The Minister answered a part of this, but I will ask it anyway: is the department willing to work with a provider in the community to start a daycare before the school year begins?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Absolutely, yes. We want daycare providers in every community. Fort McPherson does have the Aboriginal Head Start currently, but it is only a couple of hours every day and it's not enough. One of the big things we need to do, though, in every community, because every community is different, is find out how many children might be interested. That's the critical question. Does it make sense to open up a centre if you've only got two or three kids in a community who might want daycare, or does it make sense to promote a licensed family home? We are more than willing to go in to work with their community to figure what would be best for the situation.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

There is a big demand for childcare in Fort McPherson. A lot of people want to get back into the workforce. We are always trying encourage, especially women, to come back to the work force. I would like to ask the Minister: can someone start off out of a private home if there is no space available?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Yes. As a mother, even as a social worker, I think I would advocate to maintain that as it is. There are a lot of people. We do want people licensed. The ideal world would have licensed family care homes. We have grandmothers, and we have mothers, and we have like people, our sisters and stuff who are providing really good care. That means to me, as a mother and as a woman, that we need to be flexible in how we do that, so we don't penalize people for being unlicensed, but we do have additional support and financial support for people that are licensed. Anyone out there who is not licensed and figures that they could use the additional financial support, contact ECE. We would love to help you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, monsieur le President. In my statement earlier today I noted that the publicly available end-of-life obligations for Cameron Hills fields seems to be over $12 million. Even if the Minister did not provide that information when I asked back in June, can the Minister tell us who provided that information on the end-of-life obligations for Cameron Hills, as found in the creditor protection proceeding, and how it was calculated? 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. I can tell you that no GNWT department provided any input into the figure provided in the list of creditors. I am therefore unable to provide any information about what this figure includes or how it was calculated.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I want to thank the Minister for that information. I'm not sure how I can find out, but yesterday this House rolled back provisions for mandatory financial security in the Public Land Act. Now, I'm here to talk about what seems to be a shortfall in financial security for Cameron Hills. Can the Minister explain whether this apparent shortfall in financial security for Cameron Hills is going to leave taxpayers on the hook, as the owner is in creditor protection?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I am unable to speculate on the outcome of the creditor protection process as the matter is the subject to the proceedings under the Companies' Creditor Arrangements Act. I can confirm that Strategic Oil & Gas is required to submit a revised closure and reclamation plan to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board today for review and approval. During the review of that plan and upon its approval, financial security will be assessed to ensure that security held by the Government of the Northwest Territories is sufficient to cover the work required to remediate.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I want to thank the Minister for that. That is exactly what I said in the House earlier today. Unfortunately, it comes a little bit late, as the company is now in creditor protection. This happened again under our watch. Can the Minister tell us, though, whether there is any way we can turn the liabilities from Cameron Hills field back to the federal government under the Devolution Agreement?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

Under the Devolution Agreement, the Government of the Northwest Territories released the federal government from historic liabilities for sites that met criteria set out in the agreement. Factors considered were whether the site went through a modern regulatory process, compromising environment assessment regulatory and decision-making, including decisions around securities and in material compliance with the authorities. Prior to devolution, the Government of the Northwest Territories conducted due diligence on Canada's listing the sites, and could find no evidence that the Cameron Hills operation did not meet the criteria. Therefore, the site was listed as a release site. The Cameron Hills site met the criteria, and is therefore considered a release site. Therefore, under the terms of the Devolution Agreement, meaning the Government of the Northwest Territories does not appear to be able to turn the liabilities back to the federal government.

The Government of the Northwest Territories has written to the federal government outlining the situation at Cameron Hills, and the Government of Northwest Territories actions in relation to protecting taxpayers from liabilities in event that there is another mechanism to have Canada take on some responsibility.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. It sounds like we are clearly on the hook now, and this happened post-devolution. I don't know, Mr. Speaker. Our government really doesn't have a very good track record in terms of managing resources in the post-devolution world. In an unprecedented move, a Minister turned back a decision on a water licence, and then, following a request by a diamond company, unilateral changes were made to measures arising from an environmental assessment of the Tlicho all-season road. There are financial security gaps for Canton, Prairie Creek, and now Cameron Hills. Can the Minister tell the House how this government can possibly convince the federal government to turn over the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act in light of this poor resource management track record? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

The MVRMA system provides a transparent process to review closure plans for sites and updates securities as required, and as such, a process is under way for the Cameron Hills site. The Government of the Northwest Territories has confidence in the modern system as it was envisioned in the claim and implemented through the MVRMA and institutions of public government, and we'll use all tools at its disposal to protect the public interest.

Our technical experts will continue to participate in the ongoing process by the Land and Water Board to review the closure plan and associated securities for this site. The Devolution Agreement provides for the review of the transitional provisions related to the MVRMA following the [microphone off]. Pursuant to the Devolution Agreement, the review will be conducted by the parties to the agreement, and this review is expected to commence early in the life of the next government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral question. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this sitting the Minister of Justice spoke about the transition of SMCC, the correction centre there, to a therapeutic model based loosely on, or rather inspired, I guess, by the Guthrie House model in Victoria. I think this is one of the most exciting things that is happening right now in corrections, if not in the entire government of the NWT.

We realize that we can't just send people into jails and expect them to come out fully rehabilitated and ready to integrate into society, and so this is an attempt to address some of those issues. It's a short time frame that people are in correctional facilities in the territories, so that is one of the challenges. I just want to get some information from the Minister about how they are addressing that challenge.

I would like to know what type of education is going to be provided to inmates attending the therapeutic model in terms of getting them ready for work, because a lot of people, they just need basic work skills. They need to know that they have to get up on time to get to work. They need to know how to punch a time clock, and that kind of stuff. Can the Minister please explain, or give us some details about, the type of education that is going to be provided in the therapeutic model? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Justice.

Louis Sebert

Louis Sebert Thebacha

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are certain steps that have to be developed in the therapeutic community at SMCC and, of course, these are being worked on. There are such things as developing a classification criteria for residents, inclusion in the program, contingency planning, and off-grounds activities, developing lesson plans for orientation and pre-treatment healing, and also developing a structure for educational and locational programming. That is part of the therapeutic program. However, I do not have more details than that, but we do recognize this is an important part of the program.