The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Justice.

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And of course the new day program ended. It was not renewed by the Department of Justice, and so I'm glad the Member today read one of the Minister of Health's old statements and not one of my old statements from last term about the new day program.

I think that -- so the program has ended, but the money is still there. And so what the department has done is looked at other ways to utilize that money. We found that the new day program was not working for the Northwest Territories for a number of reasons, and we didn't want to continue down that road. But we have intimate partner violence rates that are ten times the national average, and so something needs to be done.

There was a 2017 study done by the Aurora Research Institute, and what they concluded and what they recommended is that we explore community-based programming. And so what we have done with that money is we put out a request for proposals, and communities were able to put forward proposals for a portion of that money to run programs out of their own communities.

Initially, the proposal called for, I think -- you could request up to $40,000 for one year. There was limited uptake on that, and so some changes were made. It was increased to $70,000 a year, and we opened ourselves up to multiyear agreements. So that's where we're at. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Minister might remember I already used his words against him in February of this year.

Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to how many or which communities are taking part and what the total budget is now for the program. Thank you.

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The funding is still $290,000 a year. The funding has been fully allocated for this year and for next year because of the multiyear agreements.

So far, we have three-year agreements with the Gwich'in Tribal Council, the Friendship Centre in Behchoko, and Liidlii Kue First Nation, LKFN, and those are each $70,000 a year for three years. And then the Sambaa K'e First Nation we have a $70,000 a year agreement for two years with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering how the department will evaluate the success of these new programs that are providing support in their communities? Thank you.

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And evaluations are something that we really learned to value with this funding because some of the issues that the department ran into early on with the new day program was the inability to really evaluate outcomes and how well it was working. And so all of these contribution agreements here require that there be reporting. There will be some short-term measures, so just things like the participation rates in the program and the feedback from clients. But we also require some more long-term reporting. And I will follow up with the department to ensure that we do have some measures that are going to be sufficient so that we know whether or not this money's actually being well spent. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the strengths sometimes of really good reports are error evaluations, are the anecdotes that come with them so the real life experiences of people in communities. And so more outcome-based and not just output-based as far as, you know, number of people that participate in workshop, number of workshops delivered, and so forth. And so I'm wondering if the Minister is willing to commit to sharing these evaluations with the Standing Committee on Social Development as they're available? Thank you.

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I agree with the Member about the types of evaluations we need do. Just because you deliver something doesn't mean it's working. So I will commit to share whatever we can share. I'm not familiar with the particulars of the type of information that will be used in these evaluations, and I don't want to overcommit and share sensitive information that really shouldn't be shared. But I want to make sure that there is oversight of the funds the GNWT are spending. And so there will be some information that will be sufficient for that purpose that I will share with the standing committee when it becomes available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the ITI Minister who seems to have the lead on our remediation economy. In my statements in May, October, February, and again today, I noted the potential for literally billions of dollars of federal investment across the northern territories as part of an accelerated program on contaminated sites remediation and economic recovery.

It's now clear that my calls to action or my offer of assistance have ever been taken seriously. But can the Minister provide an update on the status of this work to secure accelerated federal investment to build a remediation economy? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of ENR is the lead for the remediation economy. They are the ones that are responsible for preparing a draft discussion paper. The fact that that paper is being prepared right now should be well known at this point by committee Members. Fortunately, Mr. Speaker, the Department of ENR and ITI actually meet regularly. There's a number of initiatives where the two departments are working quite closely together in addition to which there is an assistant deputy minister that also is working in this area of remediation. And so I'm certainly able to respond as I am not entirely sure where the rest of the questions will go. I can again assure the Member, assure this House, that that discussion paper is underway. It will go through its usual processes of approvals through Cabinet and sharing with the committee.

As for the potential of billions of federal dollars, I would love to know that there are billions of federal dollars that are so easy for the picking. I have, in the past, responded at some length about the efforts that I went through, the multiple letters and emails and context I went through, to see if we could get ourselves into the federal program that was announced for British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. That program, however, was quite specific to orphaned or inactive wells that have no owners. We've gone through our process. We've tried to provide all the information necessary. And quite simply put, the situation, the wells that we have here have owners and they will not be eligible for that program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. And clearly, the approach we've taken to date has been a dismal failure. From what I've seen, we continue to pitch this investment as a way to bail out the extractive sector. Federal support is not a way to backtrack and pollute our pace or absolve the private sector of its liabilities.

So what assurance can the Minister give me that we're going to change our bailout approach and start to make a pitch for an accelerated northern contaminated sites remediation program? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.