This is page numbers 5309 - 5352 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.

Topics

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

February 15th, 2023

Page 5312

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would also like to rise and recognize Daryl Dolynny who is my constituent of Great Slave. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

Page 5312

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Madam Premier.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

Page 5312

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'd like to recognize the Manitoba interns who are going to be future politicians coming up. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

Page 5312

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River North.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

Page 5312

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I'd like to recognize Georgina Lloyd. She is the assistant deputy minister with Northern Affairs for Crown Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. She is in Yellowknife this week and has meetings with the Aurora College transformation staff to discuss federal engagement opportunities relating to the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic university, and we're happy to have her here. Thank you.

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery
Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

Page 5312

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.

I am pleased to recognize a group of legislature interns visiting us from Manitoba. They are here this week to learn more about our consensus form of government. With us today are

  • Cheta Akaluka
  • Bea Basaran
  • Hannah Drudge
  • Tayla Gudnason
  • Alina Hart
  • Dane Monkman, and
  • Dr. Kelly Saunders

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Replies to budget address, day 6 of 7. Member for Thebacha.

Ms. Martselos' Reply
Replies To Budget Address

Page 5312

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the fourth and final budget for the 19th Assembly was delivered by the Finance Minister one week ago, on February 8, 2023. Overall, among the many issues we dealt with throughout this term includes the fragile fiscal situation that our government finds itself in right now. According to this year's budget, the Government of the Northwest Territories' total debt for 2023-2024 is $1.47 billion, which is not far from our territory's debt capacity of $1.8 billion, although I will acknowledge that for the first time in the life of this Assembly, the GNWT's debt has reduced since last year's budget. However, Madam Speaker, for several years that has not been the case as our territory's debt load has been steadily increasing year over year for the last ten years.

Not since the 17th Assembly has the NWT seen a reduction of its overall debt load. It must be stated, though, Madam Speaker, that the high amount of debt that the NWT has continued to accumulate is not because of spending of the 19th Assembly. No. Our debt has climbed to where it is today because of the decisions made of previous MLAs from previous Assemblies, which is the Legislative Assembly by extension, the people of the NWT must now pay for.

Let me be clear and more specific, Madam Speaker.

I believe our present-day budget restraints are largely due to the decisions of the former Finance Minister from the 17th Assembly, who also happens to be the former Member of Thebacha from that Assembly as well. I say this because it was the Finance Minister who signed off at the 11th hour on the contract for the new Stanton Hospital building, which is the elephant in the room. I say it is the elephant in the room, Madam Speaker, because it was that project that put the Government of the Northwest Territories hundreds of millions of dollars into debt. In fact, according to this budget, the Stanton Territorial Hospital project has a debt load of $120 million. What's worse is that at the end of the 30-year lease with the new hospital, the government would spend over $1 billion on this P3 project.

On that note, Madam Speaker, another mistake made with the old hospital building, now known as the Legacy building, is the fact that officially the Government of the Northwest Territories still owns that building yet for some reason our government signed a 30-year lease to rent that building to a third-party company, that's not even based in the Northwest Territories, called Dexterra. Why is that? Who made that decision? The answer is that the 30-year lease was signed by the Minister of Finance in the 17th Assembly.

Based on all of this, Madam Speaker, I'd say the former Finance Minister from the 17th Assembly has a lot to answer for, since it was the Stanton Hospital project and other related decisions that put the Government of the Northwest Territories into a weakened financial position we're in now.

One other issue with this is that the opening of the newly renovated Stanton Legacy building has been delayed multiple times. First, it was supposed to open by summer of 2021. Then again by spring of 2022. And now they're saying by the summer of 2023. Moreover, Madam Speaker, there are several other issues that have occurred throughout this Assembly which I want to address now.

For example, in 2020 during the pandemic, the Department of Finance amended some of the liquor regulations to allow people to order liquor to be delivered to their homes. This was known as "dial-a-bottle." I strongly disagreed with the decision at the time and I believe that was the wrong thing to do. To me, that decision was almost like government was encouraging our population to drink more alcohol. Those types of decisions have consequences which hurts vulnerable people the most.

Madam Speaker, another area the Government of the Northwest Territories needs to address is the disaster assistance policy, because the current policy is not sufficiently addressing the needs of the people of the NWT. As it's currently written, the disaster assistance policy is only applicable to people when a natural disaster occurs with damage so widespread that a significant number of people or properties are affected. There are holes in this policy and some residents have been falling through the cracks. People, like my constituent who endured a tornado that destroyed his home, are excluded from the disaster assistance policy because it only affected his property. So just because there is only one casualty from the disaster, does that make it okay? That is not fair and it is not right, and it needs to be fixed.

Madam Speaker, another area I have taken issue with is the one-time recruitment and retention bonuses that were given to a select number of health and social services staff. The issue with this is that these bonuses were not eligible to all health staff, only certain positions who perform certain duties within health and social services. The bonuses were not distributed evenly among staff, particularly long-term staff. In fact, I know of several nurses who have worked for the Government of the Northwest Territories for many years, some for nearly 20 years, yet they were not eligible to receive the retention bonus. There is something seriously wrong with that because it has created the unintended consequence of sowing division amongst new and old nursing staff. For our government to prioritize giving recruitment bonuses to brand new nurses, medical laboratory technologists and midwives, but not to long-term nurses who have lived and worked here for years, is not okay.

In addition, Madam Speaker, there is the issue of the exorbitant fee increases for residents who have cabins on land leases across the NWT. While this decision is another carryover from the previous Assembly, it is a decision that is affecting all leaseholders who renew their lease agreements and must pay the new $840 minimum cost with this. I have constituents, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who own cabins and they have told me these new costs do hurt. Many of these residents have asked to bring the Minister of Lands to my riding so they can discuss these changes with the Minister himself. I have tried numerous times now to coordinate a visit with the Minister, but it has not occurred yet. I am working on this with him, and he has committed to do a visit before the end of the Assembly, which I am looking forward to.

Madam Speaker, I also want to address a matter that is currently before this Assembly, and will be voted on very soon, which is the carbon tax. First of all, I want to be very clear that I am very much against this federally-imposed tax on carbon emissions. In fact, I've never been supportive of this tax since it was first introduced in 2018. And the reasons for my position are because this tax is harming regular people and businesses across the NWT. The final implication of this tax is burdensome for seniors, for families, and for businesses of all sizes, and the financial burden is only going to get worse as time goes on since the tax is going to increase every year until 2030. As leaders, we need to do what's best for the territory and the people we represent. So for those reasons, I will be voting against the carbon tax bill that will be voted on in this session.

Moreover, Madam Speaker, I would like to talk about the polytechnic university and the transformation process of Aurora College. First off, I want to thank the Minister of education, again, for reiterating several times now, throughout this Assembly, that the headquarters of the future polytechnic university will be in Fort Smith. My constituents are happy that Fort Smith will continue to be the education capital of the NWT. However, there are two Fort Smith based college positions that are currently being borrowed by the Yellowknife campus, both of which must be returned to Fort Smith as soon as possible. These are two senior management positions that were intended to be based in Fort Smith but for reasons beyond me, which I do not agree with, the positions are currently stationed in Yellowknife. So that is another area that needs to be adjusted by our government very soon.

Also, Madam Speaker, one other aspect about the college transformation that I do not agree with is the fact that our government is basing that process on a document that was written by a former assistant deputy minister of education who is now living in the Caribbean. Plus, that document, the Foundational Review of Aurora College, is from the 18th Assembly which is filled with old ideas and a hostile tone towards Fort Smith. Our government should not be following any reviews that do not make sense, nor ones that only favour further centralization to the capital.

Furthermore, Madam Speaker, I also take issue with how the Department of Finance has conducted the review of the affirmative action policy. Last week the GNWT announced its intention to replace the existing affirmative action policy with two new policies in its place, which the government has named the Indigenous employment policy and the employment equity policy.

The Indigenous employment policy mirrors the existing affirmative action policy, prioritizing the hiring of Dene, Inuit, and Metis people born in the NWT, which is good. However, Madam Speaker, the employment equity policy would give preferred hiring to Indigenous Canadians, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ community and long-term Northerners. While there is some good in this second policy, such as providing preferred hiring to long-term Northerners, there are major aspects of it that I do not agree with. Specifically, I don't agree with providing preferred hiring to Indigenous Canadians at-large. As I said in my statement last week, I have no issues with Indigenous Canadians who are not born in the NWT being employed by our public service. I just take issue with that group of people getting the same affirmative action status as the Dene, Inuit, and Metis people born in the NWT. In my view, these new policies do not resolve the issues with the affirmative action policy. It only widens the net for who qualifies as priority one hiring into our public service. Therefore, I call on all Indigenous leaders to reject these two policies and for them to make that known to both the Finance Minister and that department.

Madam Speaker, as we embark upon the final year of this term, I think this is an opportune time to also discuss some of the 19th Assembly's mandate items. For example, decentralization is a key mandate item for this Assembly yet most of the new jobs created over this term have gone to Yellowknife instead of the regional centres or small communities. This is a mandate item that must be improved upon and must continue to be pursued into the next Assembly.

Madam Speaker, another aspect of our term's mandate has to do with the price and type of electricity generated in the NWT. We said we would reduce the cost of power and increase the use of alternative and renewable energy, and similarly, that we invest in the expansion of the Taltson hydro dam. Well, we did not manage to reduce the costs of power this term; in fact, it has only gotten more expensive with each year. So we must continue to work on that into the future. As for the Taltson expansion, this government and the federal government have made several strategic investments to advance this project forward. While construction has not yet begun, pursuing this expansion would help the NWT succeed in our 2030 Energy Strategy. I am strongly in support of this mandate item, and I support the efforts of the Minister of Infrastructure with this undertaking. There are still some aspects of the project that need to be worked on with Indigenous governments so hopefully that work will conclude before the end of this Assembly.

Also, Madam Speaker, one point I want to make regarding the mandate item to create a polytechnic university is that the former residential school building, that is currently being used by Aurora College in Fort Smith, must be removed. That should be the first thing done to the new Fort Smith headquarters university campus. I also want to see in that future facility a university-size gym, a theater for the arts, along with a new single residence, a modern cafeteria, and a student lounge. I also think the new building should have an Indigenous accent to it.

Additionally, Madam Speaker, another priority of this Assembly was to increase mental health and addiction programs, including aftercare. I have said several times through this term that a new territorial aftercare facility should be situated in Fort Smith because I believe that's an ideal location for it, and I think the former Trailcross Treatment Centre building would be a good location to consider this. I say this because I think placing an aftercare facility in a non-industrialized location, that's not too far for the NWT residents to travel to but is far enough away from the familiar environments of peoples' addictions, can be very beneficial for our people.

Madam Speaker, enabling seniors to age in place with dignity is another priority of this Assembly, which I am unsure how we've done to address. Nonetheless, one suggestion to advance this item is exactly what I said in my statement yesterday, which is for Housing NWT to create and implement a seniors' housing strategy. As part of that strategy, we should implement a flat-rate single-fixed cost system that determines the rent for seniors regardless of income level, race, or which part of the NWT they live. Doing this would help reduce the amount of rental arrears incurred by seniors and provide them with far more less financial stress. I think Housing NWT needs to lead these efforts and work in partnership with Indigenous governments and seniors' organizations to help craft an effective seniors' housing strategy.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I believe that this Assembly has succeeded in advancing several of the mandate items that we created at the beginning of the term. However, I think we all know that as MLAs, more work still needs to be done to help improve the quality of life for all the people of the NWT. And as the MLA for Thebacha, I will continue to fight to achieve the priorities that I outlined today. With that, I'd like to thank all the amazing constituents of Thebacha for their continued support in me as their representative. I also want to thank my family, including my husband Peter, my sons Gerry and Mickey, and my dog Rambo, for their steadfast support in whatever I do. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Ms. Martselos' Reply
Replies To Budget Address

Page 5313

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Replies to the budget address. Member Yellowknife North.

Mr. Johnson's Reply
Replies To Budget Address

Page 5313

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I do share the view that it's clear that our problems started with the 17th Assembly, Madam Speaker, but I will address my comments today to the Minister of Finance for the 19th Assembly.

Firstly, I believe this budget is lacking in two areas. One is more money for NGOs. I know this budget contains some increases for our nongovernment organizations, which was a result of the last budgets negotiations, and I thank the Minister of Finance and all the departments for their work on that, but I am concerned that this is simply set out to be a one-time funding. I spoke with many NGOs who had contribution agreements with no increase for over a decade, Madam Speaker. And I think what we are looking for here is a permanent policy, a change to the stock contribution agreement form, multiyear funding, and an inflationary increase built forward so that this is solved going forward for all Assemblies, Madam Speaker, not just a one-time top-up.

The second point I would like to emphasize in order for me to support this budget is more funding for our communities. We have heard that multiple times in this House, and I think from day one there was some uncertainty and a bit of a tension in the budget of whether reducing the funding gap by $5 million meant $5 million total or it meant reducing the gap $5 million plus the inflation that gets built up over the time. It's clear the government is proposing that it's just $5 million fixed. At the very least, we need to see carbon tax revenue shared that is revenue neutral for those communities so that we are not actually passing a budget and a carbon tax that further puts our communities behind.

As well, Madam Speaker, I've made this point before. I think the budget is a time to open up some policy asks that are purely political. The GNWT doesn't like to do anything without a thorough review, without talking to everyone, without the strategy, the “what we heard” report, and then the legislative proposal. But I think everyone once in a while -- and I think budgets are a great time to pick out one thing and just announce that you're going to do it. In my last two budget addresses, I suggested that we introduce five paid sick days for workers. Our pandemic taught us that forcing people to choose between missing pay, where they struggle to buy groceries or going to work sick, is putting their coworkers at risk and it's ultimately hurting the economy. I once again make this plea. That is a simple change we can make. I know there has to be a grand review of the Employment Standards Act and we have to talk to everyone in the world about it, but sometimes you can just pick something out and get it done, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, once again, I know I am asking for money, and I will not be remiss to say that we have to make hard choices. Some things I am willing to do on the revenue side, one is to create a high-income tax bracket. Presently in the Northwest Territories, under GNWT tax once you make over $147,000, you pay the same tax rate whether you're making $150,000 or $500,000. Almost every other jurisdiction in Canada has a tax bracket above 147. The Department of Finance estimates creating additional brackets, depending how they look, is somewhere between $800,000 or $3.5 million.

Secondly, I am willing to increase our corporate tax rate by one percent. We have one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Canada. We're largely always kind of pegged to Alberta, because we have this concern what Alberta's doing, but I'll note the Yukon next door has a much higher corporate tax rate and their economy's doing a lot better than ours, Madam Speaker. One percent on a corporate tax is approximately $3 million, Madam Speaker.

I made this plea in all my budgets - I think we got to end the contracts for all fax machines. I budget this at about $100,000 in savings. As well there's been a number of proposals over the year for a completely paperless GNWT. We still rely on a whole lot of printing and a whole lot of paper. Estimates have shown that can save governments and our government up to $1 million. I know there are a number of efficiencies to be found. I am convinced that by creating a service GNWT model, with government service officers in the capital whereby income assistance, housing, many of these social assistance programs can all be dealt with by one person and one form, we will save money. There's some different ways you can make that work but I think the work to get E-services online has really been lacking. Right now, the only things you can do are your fishing license, your healthcare card, and some DMV services. I know there's plans to roll out more, but it seems clear we are years and years away from bringing the social envelope into E-services which would free up a lot of time for our already overworked officers, such as income assistance officers.

Madam Speaker, I want to express my disappointment that government renewal did not bring more effects to our budget in this Assembly. And I think one of the ironic things is a lot of the things that our government renewal was actually trying to do, trying to fix, is one of the reasons we didn't get it through fast enough. The government renewal, quoting from the Minister of Finance's own proposals, want to look at our process and do away things that are unnecessarily complicated, wasteful, or inefficient. They wanted to do away with getting rid of multiple application forms for a single programming or having unnecessarily complex internal approval processes. I am very convinced that the Department of Finance ran into its unnecessarily complex approval processes in order to implement government renewal where there were just simply too many voices at the table and direction cannot be provided to departments to clean up their processes. In the government renewal plan that the Minister initially presented, there was things like having its software that is intuitive and cross-compatible with other systems. Madam Speaker, our software does not talk to each other.

We heard yesterday the Minister of Housing say in one community she estimates that the housing waitlist is somewhere between three and seven years. The housing corporation doesn't even know what their wait lists are. They don't even know the state of their units. They don't have any coherent reporting on their maintenance. They have little to no software let alone some sort of software that would be compatible with all the other departments and all of the other work we need to do on our infrastructure and our capital planning.

One of the issues that government renewal identified is structure that is having too many middle managers and too much overhead and a culture of micromanaging. This is something that integrated service delivery and integrated case management both recognize, and both made recommendations, yet they were victims of their own bureaucracy where they did not have the authority to make recommendations or make orders to departments. And I get this is very hard. I think the next government, you have to do it from day one. You have to put it in the mandate letters. It needs to come from the Premier. And you have to be willing to move staff around, to redo job descriptions, to redo software, to integrate it all. It's not an easy task, and I don't believe one Minister or one deputy minister has the authority. It really has to be clear direction to set all of that out, and I am disappointed we did not see more from government renewal. But I hope that we find a way to find these efficiencies that result in better programming. I know a number of years the Government of Canada put a freeze on new programs because it was struggling to deliver the programs and services it currently had. And I think we're very much in that situation. It's always tempting to create a new tailored program but that creates a lot of staff time. It creates a lot more work when we have a lot of programs that we simply know need a top-up. We have a lot of programs in competing areas that are multiple forms that I think can just be done away with or rolled into one. We need to stop trying to specialize so much.

Similarly in this vein, I think we need to do a lot more for digital government. One of the principles of E-government that I love is the once-only principle. This is a principle where a government can only ask for a piece of information once, Madam Speaker. If you provide your 2019 T4 to the government, you can only do that -- they're only allowed to ask once. And then it is shared with all of the other departments. This applies for birth dates, your address - once only. I can't even imagine how many times people, in addressing social assistance, apply the same forms and the same documents over and over and over again. We hear these stories and I think, you know, there are lots we can do in that digital government thing.

So just to quote the Minister of Finance, you know, words back at her, I really do believe in value-based budgeting and priority-based budgeting, and I think this year over year incremental budgeting that the GNWT does, where each department goes away, comes forward with their proposals, and we get this mishmash without clear centralized coordination, is not working for us. We don't have a clear picture of what programs are giving us value for money. And I guess I just express disappointment that we did not get far enough in this government and that this budget is not doing it. And I hope that in the remaining time we can make some progress on that.

But ultimately, Madam Speaker, I've shared a number of solutions of things we can do. I've shared my two funding priorities, which, is at the end of the day our non-profits are delivering the best value for dollar. I don't need a government renewal to tell me that. And they need a little more help. And our communities as well, Madam Speaker, they need a little more help. I've provided a few ways in which I am willing to fund that and make some hard decisions. I look forward to our continued budget negotiations. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Johnson's Reply
Replies To Budget Address

Page 5314

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Replies to the budget address. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

I think I need some sick days.

Madam Speaker, many of us understand why the affirmative action policy was first implemented 30 plus years ago, and still we seem unable to reach our target for Indigenous hires. Why is that? Is it because of the education levels? Because of the type of positions available? Because of location of potential Indigenous employees? Because we have a young population not of working age? Is it because we have settled claims and people are working there instead? Is it because of the buddy system that we often hear about? Is it about racism? Is it about hiring the committee bias as well? Whatever it is, we need to know what those barriers are prior to developing something that we may or may not need.

So, Madam Speaker, will the Minister confirm what research and measures, if any, were used to determine the success or failure of the current affirmative action policy? Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I might draw your attention back to the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework. This was put out I now believe back in December of a couple of years ago. That was the fruit of much research and consultation at that time, looking at a number of barriers across a number of areas that we were going to start to address. You now see, and you'll see in the main estimates, there are targets being set for each department. There are also in addition to that in order to set those targets, there was a labour force statistical analysis conducted in June of 2022, and that has provided a basis by which we can begin to have those targets. And now continuing with the work that we're in to evolve the public service, to be more representative, we've come forward to make good on the promise to review the affirmative action policy. So there's been much research done. The affirmative action policy has been looked at and reviewed multiple times. There's never been the will to get it over the line and to make it better, to try something better, to try to fix it. It hasn't delivered, very simply. We all know it hasn't delivered because the needle hasn't moved. It's not only because of this policy; I completely agree. But that's where we get into that recruitment and retention framework that does some of that work. This is one more step that's going to refocus attention on the hiring of Indigenous Northerners while also ensuring that there's other groups, including long-term Northerners, who also will be benefitting from an employment equity policy. So a lot of research went into all these pieces, Madam Speaker. Thank you.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I've been getting a number of calls like this lately just because of the meetings that are happening in the communities, and people are very concerned. You know, what we seem to be doing is pitting Indigenous people against Indigenous people and others as well.

So, Madam Speaker, will the Minister confirm the rationale and the criteria used to support the need for this review and potential replacement of the current policy with two distinct policies, being the Indigenous employment policy and employment equity policy, when the whole intent is to increase the number of Indigenous people into the government sector? Thank you.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, under the current policy, the affirmative action policy, there is still this ranking system that goes on, what everyone knows as the P1s, P2s, but within that you have P1A, P1B, and all these different sorts of ranking depending upon the position, depending upon who's in the position. So there's already complexity within there that categorizes people under different ways depending on the job and then creates this priority listing. Madam Speaker, what we're actually doing now is separating that out so that it is very clear that first there is the priority on the Indigenous employment policy that would take preference for the Indigenous Canadians in the Northwest Territories, within the boundaries of the Northwest Territories, while not losing the fact that we -- the Northerners, the long Northerners are also arguably subject to wanting to ensure that we continue to have them prioritized for the public service. But within that, Madam Speaker, there are other equity groups in Canada that we would like to see as members of the public service. There's not a flood of people coming to the Northwest Territories. If there were, I think that would be a good problem to have quite frankly, but there's not. The employment equity policy operates as a secondary policy to the Indigenous employment policy, and it matches numbers. So instead of just this blanket ranking, we're now going to say if there's positions, and we know that our labour market has ten people available and we have positions available, we can start to fill up our positions with the folks that we know are here. The Indigenous employment policy, again, comes first. The other one comes second. We're matching targets numbers now, not just ranking people. So this is actually a much more targeted way of going about it. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Yeah, you know, in the beginning, like I said last year I think in a statement, is that when this policy was first implemented, I think it was targeted towards Indigenous people and they had to add in the P2s I think to get it passed, and after talking to some of the drafters anyway. So I just want to make sure that we get it right.

So, Madam Speaker, will the Minister confirm if there was any consideration given to do away with the affirmative action policy or keep it or replace it with other forms of support or programs such as an Indigenous and northern training and recruitment policy, an Indigenous and northern post-secondary student hire policy, Indigenous and northern internship policy, or using a majority Indigenous hiring committee to support Indigenous hires? Thank you.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Madam Speaker, I think my first two answers were already long so I'm going to try and get this one shorter, but this one could be longer than the last two.

I'm happy to say that really, we have a lot of those policies. And I certainly wouldn't want the fact that we are now at the next stage of really developing our attention on Indigenous hiring, and of being a representative workforce, to lose sight again of the fact that we do now have the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework. In that, there are action items, and within all of that as well and in conjunction with that, we still have the internship program that does operate, and which would apply these equity programs just as it does now with the affirmative action policy. We have the internship approach that we use. There is, of course -- there is, in fact, a proposed increase for the secondment program for Indigenous governments to be working together with the GNWT to have capacity building on both sides. There is the career gateway program. So, again, no shortage of programs that are looking at each of the individual different barriers, targeting some of those individual barriers whether at a student level, whether within community capacity, to try to bring up the hiring. So I do think we need to look at all those things, I agree completely, and we do have a number of those programs already employed. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

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

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. You know, I understand that we have -- like, we have this policy already in place. We have all these programs in place. And I guess I ask myself why haven't we been able to meet that target? And, you know, I look at one of the areas that I -- you know, I think that hasn't been mentioned is the lack of accountability of DMs and management. Like, they are the ones there that have to make sure that those policies are being followed. And when I talk to people, I don't think that's happening. But anyways, Madam Speaker, residents are concerned that the notice of meetings in the communities have been left wanting.

So will the Minister confirm what level of notice and consultation has or will take place with Indigenous governments, communities, NGOs, and residents during this review? Thank you.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So, Madam Speaker, there was a letter sent out to Indigenous governments back in October of 2022, and I know I've heard back directly myself from some, and others I know, or I believe are going to be participating in the community consultations. There's two months' worth of community engagement sessions happening now through to the end of March. And, Madam Speaker, I just want to also note I had also heard that some people of course can't necessarily make it to a specific date. I've asked that we had a virtual session towards the end which would hopefully capture folks who were unable to attend in person at some of these. And, of course, as is the usual practice with the GNWT, there is an open portal on the GNWT finance website around receiving feedback. And, Madam Speaker, certainly most of us are easily to find by way of email if people simply want to write in. Madam Speaker, I'm happy to take people's recommendations and comments in that regard as well. So there are a lot of -- a number of ways that people can submit their feedback, and I hope that they do that. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

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

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ITI. I've been looking through Canada's critical mineral strategy that was announced I think a couple years ago now. And like a lot of government documents, it's full of a lot of "we should do this" and "we're going to improve the economy by doing things such as this," but there really isn't a lot of sort of tangible actionable items in the plan. Given that the Northwest Territories contains a lot of those critical minerals needed for Canada's green energy strategy, can the Minister speak a bit more about when we actually will see things happening under this critical mineral strategy, has the government indicated that they are going to deal with our infrastructure deficit -- or sorry, in our energy deficit that is mentioned as a key barrier to northern development? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister for ITI.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the final version of the critical minerals strategy is still fairly new. I think it was only within the last year they've been doing some consultations on it. And obviously it's difficult for me to say precisely what we hope the federal government may or may not do. What I can say, Madam Speaker, is at this point we have put ourselves in position to be at the second round of tables. They are conducting national resource energy tables right now, "they, the federal government. And we were not initially on round two but we are now. And that process has just gotten underway early this year. That's an opportunity for us to help to define exactly what the Member's getting at - where is that money going to be spent, how is it going to be spent, and what can we do to ensure that it's being spent, frankly, right here in the territory? I look forward to that process taking place. Thank you, Madam Speaker.