This is page numbers 2637 - 2658 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 community.

Topics

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Just to comment on my reply, the application was supposed to be submitted to deal with the rising waters in Hay River, to deal with the residents that would be affected by the high water levels. MACA continues to support the community. We have just had a meeting with the Town of Hay River. I will follow up with the Member.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Can the Minister confirm if MACA will have any representatives in Hay River during breakup to ensure that decisions are timely and that support is there?

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

My staff will provide support as we do have a regional office in Hay River, and we do have one in Fort Smith.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the issues that came up last year is that any residents who were relocated during breakup, I think most of them came to Yellowknife. We have Fort Smith with accommodations close by. I would like to see us utilize those services, as well. I like to keep things in the South Slave, if we can. I am hoping that the Minister will allow people to have an option of where they want to go if they are required to evacuate. If she could just comment on that, thank you.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Municipal and Community Affairs works very closely with communities with their emergency management plan. If this has been identified, we will be working closely with the community. I have been given a briefing that we are going to be experiencing high water levels throughout the Northwest Territories, so we will be working closely with the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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. I have some questions for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on significant discovery licence for Husky Oil. There was supposed to be a notice issued under Section 18 of the Petroleum Resources Act when the Minister issues a new significant discovery licence. I can't see such a notice for this licence that might have replaced exploration licence EL494. It is also supposed to be published in the Gazette. I looked at the most recent for March; it's not there either, but there seems to be kind of a placeholder document on the ITI website that indicates that significant discovery licence 153 may have been issued on March 16th. Can the Minister confirm whether significant discovery licence 153 was issued to Husky Oil on March 16th? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Significant discovery licence 153 does cover a portion of the former EL494, which is for Husky Oil Operations, and that was issued on March 16th. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I want to thank the Minister for that. It came about a week after I first raised the issue in the House. Can the Minister tell me whether there are any terms and conditions in that significant discovery licence, because it is not posted to the website, that require any work to be undertaken as part of that significant discovery licence or any rental fees?

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Again, when the request is made, there is no discretion on the Minister to issue the licence. I did, in fact, what was required, which was to shall-issue the licence. That was what was done. As far as the rental fee structure, as previously noted, again, in this instance, the advice was received in the context of, again, a situation where I have no discretion to issue the licence. With respect to a rental fee structure, there was none in the original call for bids or exploration licence documents. As such, the advice I have received and that I have relied on is that we will not be putting any one particular new rental fee structure in on this particular licence.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I want to thank the Minister for clarifying that. There are no rental fees required in this new significant discovery licence. She referenced how she couldn't do it back on March 9th, and I want to quote from Hansard: "There is not a fair opportunity at this stage to be imposing items that weren't there previously." Saying that, gee, we didn't ask for it or it wasn't asked for during the call for bids, so we couldn't' include it now, well, Mr. Speaker, I actually went and did some digging. I found the call for bids, and I want to quote from this. I'm going to table the document, and I did provide it to the Minister ahead of time. There is one quote from the call for bids for this area, and it says as follows: "Rentals may be payable on lands included in a significant discovery licence."

There, we have it, Mr. Speaker. The call for bids that went out included this clause that said, "You might have to pay some rental fees." The Minister had an opportunity to carry this through from the exploration licence into the significant discovery licence, and she didn't do it. Why didn't the Minister include this rental fee in the significant discovery licence that was just issued?

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Again, the issuance of the licence is non-discretionary, so there was no discretion to issue the licence. With respect to adding terms or conditions, under the new act, there are some provisions where there may be some additional conditions required, with the agreement of the proponent, and that was not an approach that was decided to be used in this case. Again, this is a situation that will not be occurring in the future. This is one of the last, if not the last, occasions where a proponent that existed under the previous regime is being brought into the new regime. I sought the expert opinion of the department, which included them seeking legal opinions from the Department of Justice, so in part, what I think I'm hearing is that I should go back and get a second opinion or a third opinion or a different legal opinion. At this point, the opinions that we've received in this context, again, unique at this stage and unlikely to be repeated, were to proceed as we have, and that is what we've done.

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. The difficulty is our government now is going to lose $21 million in potential revenue because the Minister would not carry forward the rental fee from the exploration licence into the significant discovery licence. That's $21 million that we could have collected on this that we just gave away. The Minister talks about how she got some kind of legal opinions that told her she couldn't do it, so I'd like to ask whether the Minister can share that legal opinion, even if it has to be shared on a confidential basis, with this side of the House. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

I am not going to be in any position to share a confidential legal opinion. Typically, sharing one's legal opinion waives legal privilege over it, no matter what efforts one might make to say that it's confidential or otherwise. My understanding is that that is a fairly common position to take, and that's the position we'll be taking. 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 just have one question. I would ask the Minister of Infrastructure if she agrees that it's important, especially for her department, to visit all the communities, to talk to businesses, to talk to residents, and find out what's going on. I would ask her if she would be willing to come to Hay River for more than an hour, spend a couple of days there, and go around and meet with some of the businesses in Hay River? I know that the ones that she did meet with previously were very appreciative, and I know there are a lot of them asking me when she's coming back. I'd like to be able to tell them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Infrastructure.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, on my way back from Fort Smith, I took the opportunity to drive Highway No. 5 to be able to have a look at the highway from Fort Smith to Hay River, and I was able to spend the night and fly out the next morning. Within that hour, I was able to spend time with the Member and his buddies there having breakfast, so I see where the Member is coming from in terms of going back to the community and being able to speak with some of his constituents. I will work with the Member to come up with dates to be able to come back to the community. I just came from there a couple of months ago. I spent a couple of days, and I spent some time with the Member, toured MTS, went and looked at some of the Power Corporation facilities. Yes, I will work with the Member to be able to figure out a time when I can go back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Item 8, written questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and relate to vacant housing units.

  1. Can the Minister provide, as of March 31, 2021, the number of vacant housing units by program, by community; and
  2. For each vacant unit, as of March 31, 2021, can the Minister state how long each has been vacant?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Mr. Clerk.

Deputy Clerk Of The House Mr. Glen Rutland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to Written Question 25-19(2) asked by the Member for Nunakput on March 10, 2021, regarding medevacs in Nunakput.

Later today, at the appropriate time, I will table a breakdown of air ambulance transports, by community and calendar year, for the last four years. Please note that some numbers may be different than previously indicated as they have been updated to ensure appropriate patient outcome and transport outcomes were included. These totals do not include scheduled, non-emergency transports.

The Northwest Territories health and social service system does not report on specific event-related delays. An inter-facility patient movement transfer matrix guides the triage and prioritization of patient movement between facilities within the NWT. This matrix takes into consideration:

  • Facility capacity issue: a transfer that is given preference depending on medical resources available at sending site;
  • Deterioration risk: a transfer that is given preference as deferral or delay of treatment/intervention could have significant impact on patient's health; and,
  • Weather considerations: a transfer that may require earlier intervention depending on upcoming weather systems.

In the Beaufort-Delta, the response time between confirmation that a medevac will be activated and medics arriving at the patient's side for transport varies depending on the final destination. It takes a median of four hours and 31 minutes to transport a patient to Edmonton; three hours and 39 minutes transport a patient to Yellowknife; and two hours and 55 minutes to transport a patient to Inuvik Hospital, including the time it takes for the plane to arrive in the community. If there is a concern about medevac response times or the transport quality, the NWT Health and Social Services system has quality risk managers in each region who report issues and review quality assurance processes.

The air ambulance service provider has been contracted to provide coverage for the entire NWT. The provider has bases in Yellowknife and Inuvik. The contractor provides medics and planes to support patient transports. In addition to these daily operational resources, there is a contingency plan for additional resources to ensure critical transports are fulfilled when needed. To protect the privacy of our air ambulance providers, we are unable to release the information related to tail registration numbers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.