This is page numbers 3267 - 3290 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. With calls across the country to return land to Indigenous governments and really at the heart of our standing land claims is a question about land. I was hoping the Premier could provide some insight.

Assuming we ever do settle the outstanding land claims, what percent of land in the NWT would we expect to remain public land versus private land? And I know that can be a hard question so perhaps some clarifying on surface or subsurface or what the general percentage has been in settled areas. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Honourable Premier.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. As the Member stated, it's not an easy answer. It would be easy to say 10 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, but it's not as easy as that. It all depends on the difference negotiations. So I'm going to try to explain some of it and of course offer a briefing to standing committee for more technical if they wish that, but the comparison of land quantum in claims can't be looked at in one area because there's negotiation process. Some take more cash, some takes more lands, some take more subsurface.

The other consideration we have to take when we look at settled lands and non-settled land is land that is publicly administered by the GNWT, land administered by municipalities, land that's owned in fee simple, land that's administrated by the federal government, and land that might be part of a national park or other conservation area. So, again -- and the other thing that's really -- comes into play as well is when some Indigenous governments in their negotiations are looking at exclusively Indigenous governments, which means only settled claims for their people, members of their people, and others are more inclusive in their provisions so they want to provide services to all the general public. Of course, all those factors have to be taken into consideration.

So, again, we're really flexible within that, depending on the needs, the region, the communities. Also overlapping lands. There's a number of lands where it's not just one Indigenous government; it's multi-Indigenous governments that have claims in for those lands so all that has to be taken into consideration. So there's no one size fits all.

But I think that it is worth noting, Madam Speaker, that in the NWT, our agreements are among the largest in the whole of the country in terms of land quantum, and I think that's where we are in regards to working with Indigenous governments in the NWT, is very progressive and sets an example for the whole of Canada and perhaps the whole of the world. So, again, it's not as easy an answer as I'd like it to be but if -- we will offer standing committee a briefing on it as well, a technical briefing. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand that it's complicated. I guess part of the concern I hear from Indigenous governments is it's the only reason we have the land is devolution before and, you know, I think there's been a lot of criticism about having a third party at the table. And I guess my question is now that devolution is a bit of a defacto completion, is the agreement to sign on to devolution, and I think probably more importantly the corresponding royalty split, a condition for any future land claims as far as the GNWT is concerned?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I know that Members don't like me to - us to say no in the House, but no, is not a condition of settling land claims. Land claims are separate. So devolution is a table. Many members have -- there's a mixture. Some have land claim settled, some have self-government settled, and some people are in the process and some are not even wanting to. So the devolution table is a table for all people to share royalties, to talk about land and resources and how we co-develop acts and regulations going forward, and every Indigenous government is welcomed to come to the table. Thank you.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would also appreciate any insight to whether we have updated our self-government mandates. My current understanding is that there's hundreds of pages which form the self-government mandate. There's a chapter on every single topic imaginable from health to education to government services. I mean, I have never seen any of this but I'm wondering if, given devolution, given the commitment to UNDRIP, whether a full rewrite of looking at all of the self-government mandates is occurring or has occurred? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. A full rewrite of all them, you're right, it's a very big document; I think close a thousand pages and there are chapters on each area. The Member is correct in that as well. So it's not as easy as -- we're not looking at rewriting the whole thing. What we are looking at is building trust and being more transparent in this government. I know that the federal government does share their principles and interests around negotiations, and so we're saying why wouldn't we. You know, we do need to look at things like comparability, fairness, etcetera. But those things should be shared publicly. We take a lot of hits in the House. We take a lot of hits in the NWT saying that we're not reasonable, we're not fair. And so I do think, Madam Speaker, that by sharing our principles and interests of the mandates will actually outline that to people, and people know what they're dealing with. It's better for all of us going forward. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Madam Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would really appreciate if we shared some of those principles. I feel like asking questions about something I can't see is a bit of a search in the dark.

One of our commitments is to implement UNDRIP. To date, this House has seen no regulations. I don't believe there's been a single Cabinet policy change and certainly no legislation has changed to reflect UNDRIP. So my question for the Premier is what has been done to implement UNDRIP to date, or what are we doing to implement UNDRIP? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think that the implementation of the United Nations declaration was a priority of this government, and I take it to heart. Many of the chapters within the declaration talk about "this shall be done by Indigenous people", and so I've taken that to heart, and I think that all Indigenous governments agree with me 100 percent. So right as soon as we began, we -- one of the finer things that we've done in this government, that we've never done before, we've always had the intergovernmental council that looks at land and resources. That was the last government's initiatives. However, this government has brought forward more. We have two other tables that we work with - the Modern Treaty and Self-government table and the Council of Leaders, which every Indigenous government sits at. So within the Council of Leaders where all governments are, they've insisted that we tackle the United Nations declaration. They're not waiting for the Legislative Assembly. They're taking it to heart, that this is about them.

So within that, within the Council of Leaders, there's what's called a secretariat. And so it's a working group, members, officials from all governments. We are one member of that council so we have one official. Every Indigenous government has an official as well. So that working group of officials has just recently established -- they brought it forward to the Council of Leaders table which was two weeks ago, I believe. Life goes fast. And the Council of Leaders have supported the recommended approach on the next steps to implement the declaration.

So four key points that the Council of Leaders have agreed that we will work towards is.

  1. The co-developing of a law that implements the United Nations declaration in the Northwest Territories;
  2. To establish a memorandum of understanding with Indigenous governments towards the development of the law;
  3. To set a timeline for this work; and,
  4. To provide the ability for Indigenous governments to continue to make recommendations towards implementation.

Madam Speaker, what I will commit to as well is as that work progresses, we do already have a Member that joins us for that work but I will commit to making sure that all Members are kept up to date with the works. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Madam Premier. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, on correspondence with the former of Minister of NCPC regarding a regional superintendent in Fort Smith, he stated twice, A regional approach to supervision for multiple functions is not considered best practice in the utility industry.

Can our current Minister elaborate on this response and state what the "best practice" in the utility industry are according to government data? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So the structure of a government department and electricity utility are very different. What makes sense for a government may not be appropriate for operational companies such as NTPC. In electricity utility, it is not best practice from an operational or safety perspective to establish one individual, such as a supervisor for all workers in a regional office, as that individual may not have the required knowledge or skill set to effectively lead the various roles and functions within that office. Every utility is structured differently but most utilities in Canada are based on functional responsibility rather than a geographic location, which is how NTPC is also structured. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Madam Speaker, the former NCPC Minister said in a July 24th, 2020, email that the NTPC superintendent position never existed in Fort Smith despite the contrary, because I'm aware of a Fort Smith resident who was the former superintendent for NCPC for nearly 20 years. Can the Minister explain this discrepancy of information? Was there or was there not a superintendent in NCPC in Fort Smith at one point? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. There was a previous manager of operations and maintenance position in the hydro operations division that was based in Fort Smith. It was not a superintendent role as that was not part of NTPC's corporate structure. NTPC recruited for the manager position when it became vacant but it was unable to recruit a qualified candidate. As the Member pointed out, we have talked on numerous occasions about the Fort Smith NTPC positions, and she has sent emails on the subject. As these emails basically reiterated her positions from our conversations, I did not reply.

I can advise that with our reorganization of human resources in the South Slave, due to the purchase of the Hay River franchise there will be a manager position in Fort Smith. However, there will not be a superintendent position. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Minister. Supplementary, Member for Thebacha. Member for Thebacha. No more questions?

---Laughter.

---Applause

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

All right. Order. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Oral Question 853-19(2): Immigration Strategy
Oral Questions

December 2nd, 2021

Page 3271

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Madam Speaker, it's my understanding that the NWT immigration strategy from 2017 to 2022 is a carbon copy of the Yukon's immigration strategy. So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to why the Yukon is doing so well at filling their nominee program quota compared to the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister responsible for ECE.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So the Yukon's immigration strategy is from 2010. That's when it began. Ours began in 2017. So I would hope that with an extra seven years, they have learned lessons and advanced a little further than we have. And I wouldn't quite say that the strategies are carbon copies, although there are similarities given our similarities with the Yukon. I would say that we do work with the Yukon. We work with Nunavut as well. And we see what has worked for them because they do have a more advanced immigration environment in the Yukon, and we take those lessons and we can apply those to our jurisdiction. So while it's not a carbon copy, we do like to take inspiration from their successes. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and my apologies for calling you Madam Chair. Madam Speaker, my second question for the Minister, and I'm happy that the Minister spoke to working with the other territories and taking from lessons learned from the other territories.

Given the success that Yukon has had with their nominee program and the potential for the territories to further work together, will the Minister commit to discussing the potential for an Arctic immigration strategy with Ministers responsible from all three territories? Thank you.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So there is a Northern Immigration Summit where Nunavut, the Yukon, and the NWT get together with IRCC and they discuss the environment and ways to improve immigration services and, frankly, get more immigrants to the Northwest Territories and the other northern territories. And so through this work, we do work with our neighboring territories. And from this work, there is also a new position that is being funded by immigration -- Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada to coordinate these efforts even further. So it is a pan-territorial position to help coordinate the efforts of the three jurisdictions. So while I can't commit to an Arctic immigration strategy, we are getting the tools in place to ensure greater cooperation between our jurisdictions. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I'm wondering if the Minister can clarify what the role of that person would be as far as working with industry stakeholders in the Northwest Territories.

One of the things that I'd asked for in my Member's statement today was more of an active role on the part of the GNWT to actually find out what is the biggest challenge for our industry leaders in the Northwest Territories and help them fill those positions. So I'm wondering if this position will fill some of that role, or if that is something that I would still need to pursue ECE to do. Thank you.