This is page numbers 4111 - 4162 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 know.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you. I just want to make sure committee is aware -- or the committee here is aware that we are reviewing it this year. We are working the NWTAC on this exact issue right now. So we are reviewing it.

Also I want to advise committee that I'm -- I have had a conversation with the president of NWTAC. We are looking at a tri-territorial meeting with the three ministers and the three NWTACs, their equivalents in the Yukon and Nunavut. We are trying to work on scheduling that meeting and going to the federal government as a tri-party approach to it. As well as they will be reaching out to the Premiers' offices to try to meet it at that level as well. But they -- they're just talking about that right now. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Are there any further questions on reduce the municipal funding gap?

Seeing none, Committee, we'll move to pages 28, 29, strengthen the government's leadership and authority on climate change. Questions?? Ms. Nokleby.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

March 29th, 2022

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Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the items here is to work with the national and international organizations to advocate for the consideration of our unique perspectives on climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation.

I'm concerned when I look at the strategies on the government's website that a lot of talk there is about adaptation but there's not a lot there around the mitigation part of this work, and I'm worried that, again, we're being reactive instead of proactive. And I understand now, from my time with the Minister of ENR at COP, around, you know, the difficulties -- and from the time in the House here, the difficulties around us mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in the territory. However, maybe can the Premier speak a little bit to whether or not that work is being done, if we are heavily -- I mean maybe just some thoughts what she thinks about the mitigation versus adaptation and then perhaps I'm guessing I'm going to be hearing from the Minister instead. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Premier.

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Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Chair, that'll go to the Minister of ENR, Minister Thompson.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Minister Thompson.

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Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Yeah, so the mitigation there is very much the federal government's being the lead working with them, and I say when the lead, they've given us a lot of the money that we are dealing with it.

What our biggest challenge is right now is the adaptation. They don't -- like, they haven't even developed an adaptation national strategy on it. So we're trying to work with them. So we've been able to access money, whether it's from various departments that help with the mediation of this very difficult issue that's impacting us for numerous years. So, yeah, we are -- there is money there. We're working with them on it. But it's the adaptation that we see that is our shortfall right now. And because the federal government has not developed a national strategy on it yet, they are just in the process of it so we've been working with our federal counterparts and our provincial counterparts on that. So hopefully that answers what she's looking for. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.

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Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

I think that just kind of emphasized what I was saying, is that the focus seems to be on adaptation and nothing around the mitigation part, and I guess where I'm going with this is I'm always -- this comes back to the conversation about putting the money upfront in order to do things right to begin with so that we're not then playing catch up later on. That's exactly what mitigation is. You know, I had mentioned around the flooding last year that I had been hearing for years about erosion of the banks of the river in Fort Simpson. The Minister's well aware himself. And so therefore, you know, nothing was really being done or discussed to prevent that occurrence from happening. I never saw rip rap, things like that. There wasn't talks about protective measures within the Mackenzie. And I'm not saying that maybe those aren't feasible but this is where I get worried that we're not being proactive and we're not looking at mitigation and building that into our process now so it's not something that we have to come back to later. I think a good place for this to sit and needs to be maybe better emphasized is within the Department of Infrastructure with our new builds and our new plans around that, our building maintenance, all of that. And I guess I'd just like to hear a commitment maybe from the Premier and the Ministers that there is going to be a greater look and they will personally look into what's being done under mitigation and emphasizing that more within the departments. I think it is a piece that's missing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Premier.

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Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to turn that to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Minister Thompson.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Minister. Thompson.

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Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Okay, yeah, so the thing is is that we are dealing with specific situations. We are looking -- like IE the Tuk situation, we are looking at how it's impacted. We're working with the municipal governments to see if there's funding through mitigation. The federal government has a lot of money in mitigation. They do have a lot of money. What I'm saying is sometimes it doesn't fit into our scope of things. We have been at the table. We've been asking them. We work with Infrastructure on these things. Again, we are the lead on this but we work with our departments. We meet at the national table. We meet at -- the federal minister when myself and you were in COP, I had the opportunity to meet with the Minister from Ontario, and we were actually talking about mitigation and how it -- how the funding works and how it -- and, again, it was about -- our argument is about per capita does not work for us. We -- our situation, we only have 40,000 people but our situations are more unique. And so it was again educating and trying to work with them as well as working with our federal counterparts when I had the opportunity to meet with the climate change ambassador, we talked about that as well. So, yeah, we are working on it. I'm more than willing to work with my colleagues on it. To make a long -- sorry. My longwinded answer, yes, I'll -- we're working on it. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Ms. Nokleby.

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Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you for that. I guess I'm going to try this from a different approach.

So we all know that if we can reduce our fuel consumption, we're going to save us money. So I think where I'm looking to see a commitment is to build out the capacity within the Government of the Northwest Territories to do mitigation because as I listen to the Minister speak, what I'm hearing is we're focused elsewhere, we are other things that we are having to prioritize because of need, and that a lot of that is being directed by the federal government. And as well too, it's very hard for us to drop our fuel consumption given our specific needs. However, again being proactive, if we could build capacity in the mitigation part and start -- like we do for many other -- like, areas that span all departments and having those people strategically within departments, we will save ourselves money in the long run and we will save ourselves grief in the long run, and perhaps then we become a forerunner and the federal government wants to give us more money as a result of doing well. So that's where I'm looking is just to -- a commitment to look into increasing the capacity within the GNWT for the mitigation piece. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Premier.

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Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think what I'm hearing the Member saying is that it's bigger than just the Municipal and Community Affairs. It's like an all-of-government issue. I always like to get federal money. So what I can commit to is that I will -- I will bring it to a committee of Cabinet, I think the Member knows that, and so that we can have a more fulsome discussion as Cabinet to look at what we can do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you for that commitment, Premier. Ms. Nokleby.

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Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

I'm just going to run with that commitment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Questions? Mr. O'Reilly.

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Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So on February the 9th, 2021, it's over a year ago, the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources announced that the terms of reference for the NWT Climate Change Council were finished. Council seems to have met a few times but I don't even know who sits on the council. There's no web page. There's no -- nothing in terms of products, communications. Is there actually a climate change council in place? And who sits on it? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Premier.

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Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's for the Minister of ENR, Minister Thompson.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Minister Thompson.

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Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Yes, the committee, they're -- the council sits and it's Indigenous leadership. It is a committee of theirs, and we work with that committee. It is not a sub part of, you know, government. It is a climate change council that we work with. Thank you, Mr. Chair.