This is page numbers 2493 - 2524 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 care.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for asking me this and giving me a chance to clarify. There has been a lot of chatter about this lately. For those of you who pay attention to what is said in this House, it's been almost one year to the day that I've been talking about renewing the curriculum in the Northwest Territories. This discussion has been ongoing.

After our report from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada saying that we need to do something with our education system, we started looking at every single aspect of what we do, and renewing our curriculum was one of those things that we wanted to look at. However, we have not made a decision. We are nowhere near making a decision. We are in the very early stages of seeing what is out there. Alberta is renewing its curriculum now. B.C. has a modern curriculum. The Yukon uses that curriculum. There are other curriculum developments across Canada, and it's incumbent upon us to ensure that whatever curriculum we use is right for the people of the Northwest Territories. As I said, Alberta is renewing their curriculum, so one way or another, we're getting a new curriculum. We need to do our due diligence, but we are a ways away from making any sort of decision. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

I hope that comment about paying attention wasn't directed at me.

---Laughter

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Mr. Speaker, I'll ask the Minister: why is ECE changing the NWT curriculum, and how are those changes made? Will there be opportunity for input from the public or the partners?

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

As I stated, we are always looking at our curriculum, always looking at what is new. There're people in the department who, this is their job. They focus on curriculum. As I said, given the Office of the Auditor General results as well as our own results as well as the fact that we know we need to do better, we wanted to look and see if, perhaps, adjusting our curriculum is a way to do that. There're a lot of options. Looking forward, we could stay with Alberta's new curriculum. We could create a partnership with another jurisdiction. We could, perhaps, use K to eight of one jurisdiction and then use nine to twelve with Alberta. There're a lot of opportunities here. We just want to make sure that we are doing what's right for the students of the Northwest Territories. Ideally, we would be able to develop our own curriculum, but the fact is, it's too costly. It would be well beyond the reach of this territory. In other jurisdictions, their curriculum development shops are huge, and we just don't have that.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

My third question, I guess he answered part of it: why can't the NWT just develop our own curriculum, but it sounds like it's too expensive. Why do we have to partner with another province besides the fact that we're talking about money?

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

We have to partner with another jurisdiction just for that fact that it is too expensive. That is not to say that we do not have a lot of our own curriculum. We have a junior kindergarten curriculum that is really world class, and other jurisdictions in Canada have approached us about it. We have specific courses developed in the Northwest Territories, things like Northern Studies 10. We are working on Northern Studies 20. We have science courses developed in the territory, the Our Languages curriculum. We do do a lot. However, to develop an entire curriculum, the assessments that go along with the curriculum, for example, the diploma examinations that we have now, it's just well beyond our reach, and financially, it's just not doable.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will ask the Minister: when will a final decision be made, and then, when can we expect the new curriculum to roll out to schools? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

We cannot do this alone. We are so early on in this, we have not reached out to the education bodies yet, to the Indigenous bodies, anything like that, so we are starting that process now. We have done a lot of the leg work, but there is still much more to do. The decision would come in the summer at the earliest, and if we were to adopt a new curriculum, it would not be rolling out until 2022. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. Earlier today, I discussed how predator-control measures for the Bathurst caribou herd were ineffective and the lack of progress on habitat protection while the Slave Geological Province road continues to steamroll right along. Can the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources tell us what specific actions have been undertaken in the last year to protect key habitat for the Bathurst caribou herd? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for giving me these questions ahead of time because it's going to be pretty detailed on this one here. The range plan made nine recommendations to manage total disturbance on the range of the Bathurst caribou herd and to reduce and manage impact on the caribou and the caribou habitat. We are working on all nine recommendations and have begun. Habitat conservation is recommended in the Bathurst range plan, specifically in areas of importance to the caribou to maintain migration routes, such as key water crossings and land quarters. ENR is supporting Indigenous governments and organizations to document these key habitat features and to provide them for consideration.

As I said previously in this House, Mr. Speaker, we will continue to work collaboratively to identify appropriate legislative tools to advance the establishment of conservation areas, and we have established a new fire crew in Wekweeti to allow faster response to fire on barren-ground caribou winter habitat. We have established a caribou guardians program as also recommended in the range plan. Significant work has continued to develop a network of community-based programs that will monitor and report on caribou habitat. Mr. Speaker, it's all part of the picture. It's our wildlife. It's the conservation of our management of legal hunting, respectful hunting, the wolf program, and our habitat. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I want to thank the Minister for his Minister's statement there. No. Look, I do appreciate the work that he and his staff are doing on this. I just wish it was a little bit faster. I described some of the actions and tools that are supposed to be taking place as part of the implementation of the Bathurst caribou range plan, and the Minister himself mentioned the cumulative land disturbance framework. Can the Minister tell us whether this framework has been applied against the proposed Slave Geological Province road, and if so, can he share that analysis with MLAs and the public?

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I will try to keep my Minister's statement short on this answer here, but we want to make sure we get that detail and that information out there. The framework was applied against the proposed Slave Geological Province road. A technical package was supported with the Bathurst caribou range plan, and yes, we will be able to provide is to SCEDE.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I appreciate the Minister's short answer yes there. That was great. The Minister obviously knows exploration and development in the range of the Bathurst caribou herd is probably at an all-time low since the 1980s as a result of the pandemic. Now would seem to be a great time to finally develop and implement mobile caribou conservation measures that would provide temporary habitat protection, so can the Minister tell us about the status of the promised mobile caribou conservation measures and when we can expect to see them finally implemented?

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

ENR will finalize the framework by this summer. A draft framework has provided guidance to a pilot project that was done in collaboration with our industry partner, Aurora Geosciences. Because of COVID, we had to do a desktop exercise. The outcome of the project was the need for an operational guidance document, and we are working on developing that with Aurora Geosciences. We plan to test this operational document this summer.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I look forward to seeing the results of that. Of course, what elders and biologists alike say is that we need to permanently protect key habitat for barren-ground and boreal caribou as part of a balanced program. With low levels of activity and interest, we have got things like land use planning, but we also need other forms of permanent land withdrawals or protection. Can the Minister tell us what our government is doing with regard to permanent protection of key habitat for the Bathurst caribou herd? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Key habitat is identified through a collaborative process with our Indigenous governments and organizations, and it helps us identify key areas that could be considered for habitat protection under the wildlife act. ENR has a series of workshops with partners to identify and prioritize areas of protection, and we are completing input from our partners and will collaboratively work on the plan to clarify key areas to be considered for habitat protection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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 for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister tell me how patients get from the health centre to the medevac flight in communities with no ambulance service? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I am sure the Member can appreciate, with 33 different communities, there are a number of different ways of getting there. One possibility is local emergency service providers, such as the fire department or the RCMP. In some places, there are ground transportation contracts that are available through a competitive bid. In some cases, community governments provide that service, and in some cases, in fact, people do it themselves with whatever equipment they have available. Thank you.