Returns to written questions. Replies to the Commissioner's address. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In one word I can summarize this Assembly. That word is locusts, because that is the only natural disaster we have not had to deal with. My heart goes out to all those residents who either lost their homes or were adversely affected by the floods, the COVID pandemic, or the fire. It has been a very trying three and a half years for all of us.

We started with 19 Members of which 12, including myself, had no prior experience as MLA. Nearly 50 percent of which were women which was unprecedent in Canadian politics. I am proud of that and I will speak more to it when I talk about my Cabinet colleagues. To say it is a steep learning curve as a new MLA is an understatement.

Mr. Speaker, those of us that were lucky enough to be seated onto Cabinet had to learn our roles as Cabinet Ministers and as MLAs just where one role started the other one began. I am going to start off by talking about the challenges we faced as Cabinet and Regular Members when we responded to pandemics, floods and fire. Of course we all know, just as we were getting our feet underneath us as MLAs and Ministers, the COVID pandemic hit early in 2020. As Minister of Health and Social Services at the time, there were many late nights trying to stay on top of all the new information and directions from the chief public health officer and relay that information to Cabinet, committees, Members, residents. The one thing that kept me up all night was realizing that we did not have the medical resources at our hospital to treat such a mass outbreak. We had to keep COVID out of the territory to keep residents, and especially our elders, safe. Closing the borders was a radical step but one we needed to do. It was the right decision at the time.

Next up, as newly-minted Minister of Infrastructure and the Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, we were dealing with the aftereffects of the 2020 ransom attack on the NWT power corp and the 2021 floods affected South Slave and resulting in the evacuation of Deh Cho communities of Fort Simpson and Jean Marie River that also impacted our highways, airports ,and power plants. With the exception of Jean Marie River, NTPC staff and community contractors were able to keep water out of the power plants. We were able to shut down in advance of the flood event, and NTPC was able to get back up running quickly as the water had receded and it was safe to do so.

The efforts of infrastructure staff and contractors to keep airports and Highway No. 1 open and deal with multiple road washouts were incredible. The work that NTPC crews did in getting power back up and running and dealing with flood damages was also greatly appreciated by residents as well as myself, Mr. Speaker.

In 2022, we faced more floods in the South Slave with the evacuation of the K'atlodeeche First Nation as well as the town of Hay River. The damages were significant to the residents and to the infrastructure of the communities including Hay River airport and Highway No. 2. Again, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank infrastructure crews and community contractors that were able to get the airport back up and running and the highway made safe for reopening and the work that was done to deal with the floods affecting Highway No. 1 between Enterprise and the border which was due to high water and very capable beavers.

This year we saw Hay River and KFN evacuated in the spring due to the Hay River flooding again, and then the unprecedented fire season that led to the evacuations of Hay River, K'atlodeeche First Nation, Fort Smith, Enterprise ,Jean Marie, Behchoko, Wekweeti, Dettah, N'dilo, and Yellowknife. As a territory, we never had to deal with a climate disaster of this magnitude.

We definitely need to look at what happened, how we as a government reacted, how communities reacted, and how we can better work with Indigenous groups in planning and actual disaster management. There is a lot of work to do but in advance of that, my heart breaks for the residents of Behchoko, Paradise Gardens, and Enterprise that lost their homes. We owe an immense debt of gratitude for the efforts of the firefighters and volunteers that held the lines, kept the damage from being much worse, and the work of communities that created the firebreaks to further safeguard communities. Through all of this, NTPC kept the power on in Fort Smith, provided power to Northland Utilities to keep the power on in Yellowknife, and got the power back up running in Behchoko as soon as it was safe to do so. Highway crews and contractors worked closely with ECC incident response to open and close highways when it was safe to do so to keep essential goods, equipment, and personnel flowing on the highways when able and to restrict access to communities under this evacuation notice. All this to say, Mr. Speaker, that this government and NTPC employees have went above and above and gone beyond in responding to the crises of the last three and a half years and kept lights on and providing the regular expected government services. I am proud of them.

So anyone listening to the picture I have painted so far might think that the Department of Infrastructure and NTPC were all consumed with reacting to disasters and the major projects did not proceed. Yes, there were delays to some of our projects because of COVID, floods, fires, but major projects along Highway No. 9, the Tli Cho to Whati, and the High Point wind project in Inuvik were completed. Significant progress was made or is being made on the Inuvik runway extension, the refurbishment of the existing Taltson dam facility, and repairs to highways across the NWT. This is very good news, Mr. Speaker. We will be submitting the developer's assessment report to the Mackenzie Land and Water Board for the Wrigley to Norman Wells during the life of this Assembly. Actually, I think it went in on Friday, Mr. Speaker. And we continue to work in collaboration with our Indigenous partners on the Slave Geological Province Corridor. And we will also be submitting permitting applications for gravel sources along the proposed alignment. The Taltson Hydro Expansion business case is out for consultation with our Indigenous Partners, as well with the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

I need to thank many people.

I was Minister of Health and Social Services when COVID hit, the advice of deputy minister Bruce Cooper and Dr. Kami Kandola, the chief public health officer, was greatly appreciated. It was a crazy time. the long hours were long that were put in by Dr. Kandola and her staff to keep residents safe cannot be forgotten.

As Minister of Infrastructure, I need to thank deputy minister Steve Loutitt and his team. And in between the hard work, we did have fun on our constituency tours as well as our travels to the south. ADM Robert Jenkins took some awesome pictures on our travels. If you ever need a picture of me with my half head missing, call Robert. I am proud of the work that was done by the Department of Infrastructure. They kept our roads, airports open, and managed the construction and renovations of all government assets. And they have done this through COVID, through the floods, the fires, with minimal delays.

As Minister responsible for NWT Power Corporation, I was pleased to appoint Cory Strang as CEO, who is the first Indigenous NWT-born CEO. I admire his passion for making sure the corporation is reflective of the people it serves, and I appreciate his advice on the operation of NWT Power Corporation.

As MLA for Inuvik Boot Lake, I want to thank my constituency assistant Arlene Hansen for keeping me organized in Inuvik and tracking all of the constituency requests to make sure they were addressed. Your hard work on behalf of me and the residents of Inuvik Boot Lake are appreciated.

As Minister, I need to thank the staff in my office for all of their assistance. I had three executive admin coordinators that worked with me, starting with Rachel Marin, then Corine Sanderson, and finally Val Daniels. Thanks to all of you for keeping the paper flowing. My ministerial advisor Robert Collinson has an excellent grasp of how the GNWT works and rules for Ministers and MLAs. I thank him for all of his advice.

I also want to recognize the staff at the Legislative Assembly under the leadership of the clerks, first Tim Mercer and then Glen Rutland, for all of their efforts on our behalf. Quyananni.

For my colleagues across the floor, while there has been conflict at times, for the most part we were able to get past that and keep working for the betterment of NWT and our constituents. Thanks to each and every one of you.

For my Cabinet colleagues, I was proud to be part of the first Cabinet in Canada with a woman majority. I thank you for your friendship and your work on behalf of all residents of the Northwest Territories. Special thank you to Minister Simpson and Minister Thompson for doing their share of the housework, mahsi.

When the 19 of us came together in late 2019, it was like the first day of class in a brandnew school. Most of us did not have a personal connection with each other and we needed to learn to work together, at least tolerate each other. Some of you I consider to be really good friends; some of you I would like to have a chance to get to know you better. Let's just say you can't expect 19 people stuck in a room together to be automatically besties. But I do wish the best of luck to all of you in the upcoming election. If you are running, good luck.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the residents of Inuvik Boot Lake for the trust they placed in electing me. It has been a great honour, and I hope I can continue to serve you.

And thanks to you, last of all, Mr. Speaker, for your sense of humour and control of the asylum.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. Replies to the Commissioner's address. Petitions. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Child, Youth and Family Services Strategic Direction and Action Plan 2023-2028; and NWT Department of Health and Social Services 2022-2023 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following six documents: Canada Energy Regulator's 2022-23 Annual Report of Activities under the Northwest Territories' Oil and Gas Operations Act;
Regional Economic Development Plan - Deh Cho; Regional Economic Development Plan -North Slave; Regional Economic Development Plan - Sahtu; Regional Economic Development Plan - South Slave; and, Regional Economic Development Plan - Beaufort-Delta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Tabling of documents. Member for Thebacha.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a Government of the Northwest Territories public service announcement dated September 27, 2023 titled "Public Service Announcement - Have your say on the delivery of an Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences Diploma Program". Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Tabling of documents.

Colleagues, I wish to table the report of the Integrity Commissioner of the investigation into complaints that Ms. Katrina Nokleby, MLA, breached the Members' Code of Conduct by returning to and remaining in Yellowknife after it was ordered to be evacuated in August 2023.

Tabling of documents. Notices of motion. Motions. Notices of motion for the first reading of bills. First reading of bills. Second reading of bills. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters Bill 23, 65, 74, 75, 78, 80, 83, 84, and 85, Bill 92, Committee Report 52, 53, 55, and 62-19(2), Minister's Statement 264-19(2), Tabled Document 681-19(2), Tabled Document 973 and 974-19(2).

By the authority given to me as Speaker under Rule 2.2(4), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House, with Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes in the chair.

I now call Committee of the Whole to record. What is the wish of committee? Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. Committee wishes to deal with Committee Report 62-19(2) and Bills 74, 78, 83, and 92. Mahsi.

Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will take a quick recess, and then we'll start with the first item. About five minutes.

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I'll now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we've agreed to consider Committee Report 62-19(2), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on the Review of Bill 74: Forest Act. I will go to the chair of standing committee -- or the deputy chair of Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for any opening comments. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Member. I will now open the floor to general comments on Committee Report 62-19(2). Do Members have any general comments? Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. Yeah, I want to thank the deputy chair for the comments to introduce the report. I serve on the committee and want to thank my colleagues for the work that we collectively put into the bill. And I also want to especially thank those that made written submissions and appeared before us in Whati, Fort Simpson, and Enterprise. We had a lot to think about as a result of the submissions that we received, the input that we got at the public hearings as well.

I also want to recognize that the work of the committee was actually hampered by the fires. We had to cancel and rejig our public engagement as a result of the fires, and we'd hoped to get to some other communities, but we just couldn't given the amount of time and the situation as it unfolded. There was quite a bit of public interest in this, I think as evidenced by the committee report, the submissions we received.

I also want to go on record as recognizing and supporting the legislative development protocol and the process convention that we now have in place for not just co-drafting of bills but collaborative review of bills as well. And this is really quite a historic occasion.

In a few minutes, we're going to have at least one representative, as I understand, from an Indigenous government's technical working group in the Chamber. That just hasn't happened before. So this is a historic occasion. And I do support the work that we undertook together.

I also want to recognize that this Bill 74 is much better than the bill that was introduced in the last Assembly known as Bill 44, The Forest Act. The big changes between 44 and 74 are that we see a much stronger integration of co-management into the bill that's now before us, stronger provisions for Indigenous rights, and certainly better flow and organization of the bill itself and the processes laid out for forest management and fire prevention and protection. And a lot of this, of course, was the work of the technical working group before the bill even came to us. So I also want to thank the Indigenous governments that participated in that process and had their staff attend numerous technical working group meetings.

At the end of the day, 22 amendments proposed by committee were actually accepted by the Minister and the technical working group. And I'm very proud of that work, and I think it's a clear demonstration of the collaboration that took place.

A lot of the work that was done on those 22 amendments really related to public participation in forest management. And, really, that's a public government responsibility. It's not the responsibility of Indigenous governments. That should have been our government doing that work. I would point out for the record, as well, that most of those issues were raised in the last Assembly with Bill 44. They were raised again during the delayed and very short public engagement carried out by the department on Bill 74 during this Assembly. And, in my opinion, they could and should have been better addressed in the bill itself. That being said, we did get 22 amendments and I think that those do reflect the concerns that were largely raised around public participation.

I am going to have some questions for the Minister when the witnesses are here. But there are some lessons that I think we can learn from this, and clearly we just ran out of time at the end where I think we could have achieved some further small changes to the bill in the interest of working together and ensuring good public participation, transparency, and accountability, but we simply ran out of time.

I think the next time around it would be very important to share more information with standing committee throughout the co-drafting process. Nothing was really shared with committee during the entire process, nothing. And I don't think that left committee in a good place when we received the bill. And I would point out, you know, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, as much as I may seem to pick on them sometimes, they did actually share the policy considerations documents. I think it was, like, 500 or 600 pages, in a bit of a docu-dump with standing committee, on the development of the Mineral Resources Act regulations. But we really got nothing from the department in terms of information prior to the bill landing on our docket so to speak.

I think we can -- future standing committees can and should meet more often with the technical working group representatives. We had two meetings with them, and I think they were very helpful in understanding a number of new approaches and wording and so on in the bill, but I think some earlier collaboration would also be helpful. At the same time, I fully recognize that departments and Ministers have to hold the pen on this, and that's their work. But keeping committee in the loop as that unfolds is, I think -- people are going to see on recommendations on that.

Lastly, I guess I want to say too that there is certainly a need for departments to have additional resources when it comes to doing public engagement on a bill like this. That's not to criticize the department in any way. They just needed more resources, in my opinion, to actually do a better job on public engagement. And there's no reason why the public engagement cannot happen while the co-drafting is going on. In this case, the public engagement happened after the co-drafting was almost finished and was very -- it was delayed and very brief, and the input that was received I don't believe it really -- it was properly reflected in the bill. So I think that in the future, departments have to get additional resources when they carry out public engagement on resource management bills. And that has been the case in this assembly with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment where they did secure additional resources, and I think other departments have to do the same thing.

I think, Madam Chair, that's all the comments I have but I will have questions when the Minister appears with the witnesses when we get to the clause-by-clause review, and I will be bringing forward a series of motions to amend the bill that reflect the work of the committee during our clause by clause back on August the 11th. Thanks very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Are there any further general comments to the committee report? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree with the things that were brought forward by my colleague for Frame Lake. It was quite an interesting process back and forth with the department and the and the working group, the technical working group, the Indigenous governments and representatives. I had the pleasure of being able to chair a few of the meetings which was -- helped me to stretch my legislative muscles and work through that kind of a process. And as you can see, the number of motions that we brought forward as a result of just how much back and forth there really had been. I agree that we likely ran out of time to do anything further and to really tease out a lot of the nuances that perhaps committee was really excited to do so.

Given that the information we had heard from communities when we travelled was, for me, really thought provoking and along a whole different sort of line of thinking than maybe I would have thought before, and a big piece of that that I want to speak to here even though it does come up in motions, was the piece around the Indigenous science and knowledge and that incorporation into each community or area's ability to fight their own fires and to be in charge or control of their own fire management and forestry management plans.

A lot of the elders spoke to us about in the past how fire would be dealt with, that they would come with shovels and buckets and put out every sort of area that they found and in such manner they cared for the land.

Over the years, in the last decades, fire science has changed. I mentioned in the past that I grew up in British Columbia which was a huge forestry province. I remember when the government decided to stop fighting the forest fires for fear that it was changing the ecosystems of the forests in BC. The example given was the pine beetle that destroyed a lot of BC's timber industry. And at that time, a decision was made from what they said was an ecological perspective but also financial perspective because it was costly to go out into the forests and fight each and every single one of them. But what BC has that we don't have is that BC has fortified and built up municipalities.

They have municipalities with fire departments. They have resources within their own municipal governments to deal with fires when they do arrive on their doorstep. We don't have any of that in the Northwest Territories save maybe the capital city and a couple of the regional centres. And even then, it's clear that they were woefully underprepared and understaffed, under capacity for any of what's happened in the past while.

In 2014, ENR did lessons learned on the fire season that year in which we saw unprecedented amounts of our forests burn. At the time, ENR presented to the government -- or sorry, to the engineers and geoscientists on the fires and, quote, and said, that the regeneration of the fire of the forest was not the same any longer because the intensity of the fires in 2014 was so great that the regenerative seeds that were needed to come and bring back the forest and the plant life were all scalded or scorched and were not able to come back in the same manner.

So the fires in 2014, the department was aware that they had altered the landscape and the climate and the vegetation of the territory irrevocably at that time. So now fast forward, we're sitting here in 2023, nine years later, and we didn't seem to learn any lessons from that and instead we've allowed fires to burn. My colleague has spoken often to the resources that her people rely on that are in the -- sorry, in the forest and how decisions made by this government has basically wiped out huge areas of their resources because they're not considered to have the same value as a building or a structure.

So I understand there's a large complexity around fire science and things are evolving. However, it appeared to me, and going out on this act and being part of this committee, that this department did not bring in the general public of the Indigenous people in the communities. I do appreciate that the working group had a lot of input here, and that for me was the only saving grace of this act that gives me any faith, that it was done at least with some degree of ability to be successful. And I know a lot of the back and forth we had was around varying nuanced conversation raising the issue of the fact that people are not going to be carrying ID into the bush necessarily. So if they're stopped by an officer and need to prove indigeneity, you know, they may not have that card with them. And then I found out even that some of the communities don't even -- or Indigenous organizations don't even use a card. They know who their people are. They have a list, and it's just a matter of a confirmation. So that was really something new to me.

So that being said, I think what gives me assurance, though, is that many of these details will be fleshed out in the regulations and that the assurances from the department that the same collaborative approach with the technical working group will be held when the regulations are developed. It is what gives me the faith, at the very least, that this act will go forward with Indigenous people and their use of the land in mind. And I really want to urge and hope that the people that are on that group and the people in the department really look at what has happened here this year and really start to analyze whether or not this idea of letting everything burn until it's on our doorstep is really a smart one. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know I'm grateful, thankful that, you know, Indigenous government were involved in drafting this Bill 74 to its current form. And it's good to see two sides of government working together, the GNWT and the Indigenous government technical working group developing this draft.

I know this is very -- this is important for the Indigenous people, especially people living in the area that deals with the lands and resources. So I know that it's respecting the rights of the people living in the area, especially Tlicho and other Indigenous people in the NWT therefore I will support this Act because a lot of work went into it. But when we were travelling, though -- when we were travelling and one of the communities that we went to -- it's all the same. We went to Whati. And this is what the people said in the outlying communities, Whati, Fort Simpson, that, you know, that the forest fire management was better in the past than it is now. That's what we heard on our tour. And they said that they haven't seen these kind of problems before that they are seeing today, the mass evacuation, so which is a problem for them. And they're saying that GNWT used to do a better job fighting the fires in the past, and they got to it before it got out of control and threatened the communities, so what they used to see. And they said that they would like to see brought back is that maybe, like where the GNWT at the beginning, as soon as the forest fire start, they used to drive around in the communities and recruit anybody that was able to fight fires and able-bodied people. You know, they used to collect them. And our elders, they have a lot of knowledge and experience fighting fires without today's fancy technology. That's what we heard in our tour. And they would like to see some of those brought back. So that way we don't have to go through the chaos that we went through with the mass evacuation of Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Hay River, Behchoko. A lot of these were avoidable.

And they said -- what we heard too is that a lot of these people they said you do not mess with Mother Nature. And that's not what this government did. They messed with the Mother Nature, and it got out of control and resulted in 4 million hectares of land burned in the Northwest Territories. Our animals destroyed. Our livelihood destroyed, our language, our culture. And that's what we heard from the people. And we saw what happened. And I just hope that we will not go through that again and we will -- through this act and through both governments, the GNWT and the Indigenous government working together, we can make this better in order for us to move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Are there any further general comments on the committee report? Member for Thebacha.