This is page numbers 2121 - 2162 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 health.

Topics

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

I think I have learned that, once one becomes a Minister, one kind of ceases to be an individual, and you pretty much stay a Minister all the time. As a result, Mr. Speaker, I think, if the Member is asking if I would personally sign, that is a conversation I am happy to have over a coffee, but I think what the question is: what's the position of the government? Mr. Speaker, the government is also a proponent on this project. We are a co-proponent on the project. What I have done, though, is looked carefully at what is on the petition. Again, with respect to developing the skills necessary, for the Yellowknives Dene to develop the skills necessary, that should be a question that is directed at ECE. I am sure they are listening just as intently as every other department. We have a responsibility ourselves to help support the Yellowknives Dene to have those skills.

Again, with respect to procurement approaches, procurement is the responsibility of the federal government on the Giant Mine project, but we are co-proponents. We are continuing to engage with our partners at the federal government level and to ensure that we are doing everything we can and making sure they are doing everything they can to abide by the socio-economic agreements, to abide by positive procurement practices. To the extent that there are concerns and questions being raised here, there is a responsibility on our end to look at them, to engage with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and that is the route which I will be taking to do that.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

I am sorry to hear that the Minister has lost her individual identity. I quite like her as a person, and I was looking forward to seeing that signature. I am glad the Minister mentioned procurement because I think what has happened is that, due to the federal government being in charge of procurement on this, the GNWT has kind of stepped back on the economic recovery role, but despite numerous requests from the Giant Mine Oversight Board to have the federal government kind of understand the North and understand our labour needs, the federal government has also kind of stepped away from capturing northern benefits here. I think a new approach to how the Giant Mine procurement is going is needed. Has the Minister approached the Treasury Board or CIRNAC or the appropriate federal agency about either allowing GNWT to take on a portion of the contracts or getting some northern labour requirements into those contracts?

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Again, it is ENR that is the lead on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories in terms of engaging and leading our role on this project but again working closely with ITI. Even before knowing that this might become a topic today, it turns out the Minister of ENR and I had actually been talking about the project and ensuring that he and I would have a chance to meet in the near future to check in on the role of the GNWT, what we are doing to ensure that Northerners are seeing themselves reflected in this project. Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the procurement process here is one that is governed by the federal component, by the federal partners, but, for the moment, the project does have the following targets: northern employment of 55 to 70 percent; a minimum of 10 northern apprentices are a part of the implementation phase; expenditures are supposed to be at 65 to 75 percent. These are targets that were finalized not quite a year ago, and they are being reported on. They are being reported on publicly. There are different phases of the project, Mr. Speaker. There are different opportunities along the way to adjust. Again, not to understate the fact that the procurement process here is a federal one, we are at the table, we are involved, and the Minister of ENR and I are also going to be re-engaging and continuing to engage to ensure that we have our voices at these tables on behalf of Northerners.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank, Mr. Speaker. I will make sure to ask questions to ENR on this matter at another time. Part of the reason for my concern is that I know many of the people on the project team and I know the work they are doing. It's great, but there is clearly an environmental focus there, as there should be within ENR. I question some of the targets in that they are targets; they are not legally binding. They are not the kind of things you would see in a socio-economic agreement, not that the ones the GNWT currently has are binding either. Is the GNWT willing to conduct some reporting of northern labour and the socio-economic benefits? The reporting to date, the Giant Mine Oversight Board has not been satisfied with, and I do not think we have been seeing the economic recovery benefits that we truly should be getting out of this project. Is the GNWT willing to conduct that tracking? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

I think step one is going to be perhaps to bring back to the House what exactly at this stage is being tracked and to put that forward, to have that presented, so let me start with that commitment. I expect some of these, as I said, are largely publicly tracked. Let me make sure that everything is up to date and public, and we can look at what is being tracked in terms of northern employment; skill level; status, residential status, whether one is a resident of the territories or not; the training components; the number of suppliers; contract dollar value, so on and so forth, all of which is being tracked, and then work back if there is something else within that that is not adequate or not up to task. Again, the GNWT is involved. We are on the Giant Mine remediation team, and so if, as a member of that team, we are being told that the tracking that is happening and the publication that is happening is not satisfactory, yes, I want to make sure that we fix that. I want to make sure that we are fixing the right things. I will get that to the floor of the House, Mr. Speaker, and then we can see if that is not satisfactory. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Can the Minister maybe characterize what the decline in mining operations has been in the Northwest Territories due to COVID and maybe provide a bit of an estimate of the total number of companies that are expected to work on their mineral claims this upcoming fiscal year? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All but one of the three diamond mines obviously remained in operation, and as of last month, the third one has come back online. The major contributors to our mineral resource industry have managed to operate through COVID-19, through strenuous efforts undertaken to be compliant, to protect their workers, which I really cannot understate. As far as the exploration side, Mr. Speaker, we have six advanced projects, all of which have been at least partially if not fully active. It's the smaller explorers and the smaller exploration companies who have, as I believe the Member noted in her statement, really struggled more. Now, of course, there is an exemption for mineral resource sector workers, and some have been able to operate. That certainly is one area that has struggled in the last year. That said, for 2021, Mr. Speaker, we are expecting higher levels of activity. In particular, there is a gold operator in Sixty North Gold Mining. They are a small-scale operator, but they are mobilizing to be ready to go for 2021. We are expecting an uptick in the next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

I'm not going to say it's good news, but I am glad to hear some people are still working. We have been hearing from companies that there is still a gap in the relief for some of the exploration companies that are required to do work on their claims to prove their claims, including drilling. Will the Minister commit to waiving all of the mineral claim work requirements for the upcoming years until COVID restrictions are lifted?

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

At this point, relief on work requirements on the mineral resource claims or mineral claims is enacted up to March 31st of this year, 2021, so quite a large number, I think just under 200, in fact, have benefitted from that, from that relief. At this point, Mr. Speaker, there is not, as I understand it, necessarily a need for blanket relief. Many have been able to continue to do the work on the claim. What I will say is: we are going to look at it, and what we are looking at is whether and to what extent we can be doing some case-by-case relief for those who legitimately cannot get to their claims and cannot get work done on their claims. I will make that commitment to look into it and to see where it goes and get back to the Member on what the conclusion of that is.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

I thank the Minister for the pseudo-commitment to that. I will probably follow up myself and just explain a little better what gap I am talking about because I do have some specific items to discuss. My next question is: what is the future of claim relief? What is the department going to do to ensure that, once restrictions are lifted, we are supporting our mineral exploration sector to get back to work?

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

[Microphone turned off] ...number one, again looking at to what extent there can be some case-by-case relief in terms of the work requirements, but really could not agree more that we have good success right now with the diamond mines and really exciting early-stage exploration projects coming on, early-stage projects coming online. We do need desperately to get the exploration sector going and have it active. There is money out there. It's starting to look around to where to be spent, and we would like to see it spent in the North. This is the place, in my view, to spend it for exploration, so one of the big areas is the Mining Incentive Program. We are, again, offering that program in 2021-2022. We are seeing increases to the program again and looking to bring in those applications for that kind of support. There were some modifications made for COVID-19 and looking at what we can do to try to make that program more available, more flexible, considering some of the constraints that the exploration companies may be operating under. Again, last one on that one, Mr. Speaker, we have really excellent pathfinding services within ITI to help those early exploration companies, which are often smaller companies, to ensure that they have the supports that they need to follow the regulatory processes here, understand them, and be ready to roll when they get here.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do agree with the Minister that the department has some really great staff to help out with the exploration industry. What I didn't hear the Minister say was that she is going to be a real loud squeaky wheel with the federal government to get more money for our mineral exploration sector, so I will just take that as a given, and I will continue to work with her on that. My last question is that it is my understanding that a critical minerals and metals action plan is being developed for the Northwest Territories. Can the Minister comment on the timeline for the completion of this plan and any others that the department might be working on with Indigenous organizations or governments? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

I have used every platform I think I have had in the last several months to talk about critical minerals and why the Northwest Territories needs to be on, and is on, the value chain for critical minerals, and why everyone should be paying attention to that fact, to federal partners all the way through exploration companies. We have extremely good critical mineral resources here in the Northwest Territories and an extremely good place for those who are particularly looking at green energy. This is the place where you want to come because of the ESG factors, environmental, social, and governance factors. This is the place to go. I have been saying that loud and clear on a number of fronts; now I get to say it here, so thank you to the Member for giving me that chance.

More specifically, right now, Mr. Speaker, we are part of the federal government's Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan, one of which is a component involving critical minerals. Specifically to the Northwest Territories, we want to align with that plan. The federal government has started it. We are looking within the next year, within roughly the next 12 months, to have our own plan in line with what's happening with the federal government so that we can best utilize whatever resources they might put towards their plan but, in addition to that, Mr. Speaker, continuing to work with regional governments so that there can be regional mineral development plans. There are resources within ITI to support regional governments who may want to develop their own plans, and that is a great opportunity for them to learn about the industry, to make themselves accessible to the industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to talk about mining but in a different context. This question would be for the Minister of ITI, and I would ask the Premier not to jump up and try and answer. Can the Minister of ITI provide an update on where the department is with providing toilet facilities for truckers and visitors travelling Highways No. 1 and 3 as fuel and freight is heading to the mines? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, I read quick, but I don't read that quick. As it is, Mr. Speaker, the Member had asked me this question, or I think I had overheard him asking this question to the Premier, and so I have gone of my devices to inquire with the departments. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member there is a plan. I don't have the details in front of me fast enough to read it, but there is a plan. We are going to work with Infrastructure in order to ensure that the toilets and outhouses are being cleaned regularly. I will provide the details of that plan to the Member in writing, Mr. Speaker.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

This comes up year after year. I am sure that, next year, we won't have to have this discussion because there will be a plan in place. I hope that, every time the Minister walks by a washroom, she thinks about it. I thank her for her answer.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

I also don't want to have to answer questions about outhouses for rest of our tenure here. As I said, I know that Infrastructure and ITI have been working together for years. It's not a new problem. It has become acute, given what's happening with COVID-19 and some of the restrictions put on those who are such a critical part of our supply chain. I can assure the Member they are being cleaned every two weeks. We are looking at whether or not that needs to be increased. Again, as I said, with COVID-19, I have had it confirmed to me that we are going to have, between ITI and Infrastructure, an assessment done on patrolling the facilities to ensure that they are maintained to the standard that they should be for their use.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

The type of facilities we have, I think, are inadequate. It just seems to be in January, February, and March, when the trucking season and material and fuel is going into the mines. Just to show some respect to the people who are travelling the highways and trying to provide us with the services that we need is to look at a different type of facility that actually has some heat in it and has somebody cleaning it, as well, on a daily basis. I would ask the Minister to commit to at least taking a look at some other options that we could possibly use that would make it a little more comfortable for the people using them.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

As it turns out, some work has been done in that regard. A permanent heated type of facility would be about $150,000 per unit, and we have right now about 10 pullouts from the border to Yellowknife. We are looking at $1.5 million, Mr. Speaker, which may not seem significant, but is not insignificant and would certainly have to go through the budget planning process. Whether there are other options, I will certainly inquire to see the extent of the inquiries that we have made and whether there is anything else that can be done. Not to make light of the whole situation, these people are working in our supply chain. They are providing an essential service. I certainly do take seriously that they need to have a dignified way of doing this essential work that we are asking them to do.