Debates of Feb. 24th, 2026

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just wanted to clarify on their -- I think it's in the business plan; I don't have a specific page here but there's a report that's expected soon, final report on the socio-economic agreement program redesign. Can the Minister clarify whether this report is actually complete and if it will be made public and if so, when could it be made public? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for all the finer details on this one, I'd like to pass to the deputy minister.

Thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is there an estimated timeline on that? And I assume that as part of making it public the department will also publish its sort of responses to recommendations or the plan about what is going to be done about the program. Is there a timeline for when we might see that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as with much of what we do, we try to be as transparent as possible. So absolutely there will be a public publication of the report itself, the review itself, as well as a management response. And we want to ensure that at the same time we are aligning the MRA regs and so my understanding is that we're looking at next winter for that, but I would want to confer with the department and come back to the Member with a more definite timeline on that. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I appreciate the Minister getting back to us on that. And further on the theme of socio-economic agreements, in the business plan, on page 16, it lists targets related to the socio-economic agreements around increasing NWT Indigenous and resident procurement and employment stats in the natural resource sector overall. So right now in the business plan, it just lists the figures from 2024 under progress to date, but there's no sense of whether things are getting better, things are getting worse, how the trends have changed over time, and so it's hard to measure progress when your baseline is just, like, the current year or just the last year. Is the intention to update the business plan or -- I mean, we do have many years of data on this. It's not like it's the first year we're collecting data on this. Those socio-economic agreements, for example with the diamond mines, have been there for 10, 20 or more years, and data has been collected over time on those indicators. So is ITI going to update the business plan with targets of how we're going to increase procurement or employment over what time period and then look at that data over that specified time period, or is the goal just to start with right now as the baseline; what's the intention there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, I will start on this one, and then I'd like to see if the deputy minister would like to add. I think what the Member is looking for are the annual socio-economic agreement reports that are produced every year. And so those would show more of that trending information that the Member is looking for. Within the business plans themselves, we have a very small box to be able to put information in, and so a lot more of that more detailed information is found within those annual reports.

One of the pieces in this entire conversation is those socio-economic agreements are certainly not just a government conversation, not just a resident conversation, not just an industry conversation, but definitely a partnership with all of the partners at the table. And as a government, especially through more on the education, culture and employment side, we make sure that we're working with industry to let them know what programs we have available. When I meet with industry, I am constantly asking, for example, for their workforce forecast so that I can communicate that to our career education advisors and to our career development officers as well to our business development officers to ensure that we are aligned with industry and that we're all basically working in the same direction at the end of the day. But, Mr. Chair, through yourself I'd love to pass to the deputy minister to be able to add more detailed context on that as well. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand that, and I am aware that the data is listed in reports over the years. My concern was that we haven't put a meaningful goal in our business plan because there's a target there to increase these things, and then -- but we haven't said, like, starting when. Are we going to increase from now and into the future? Are we going to increase, say, employment stats from five years ago to -- anyway, so in order for us to make a meaningful goal for ourselves, we have to sort of set out in more detail what the goal is. And so I would hope that we can -- I know it's challenging when we don't have complete control over this. We're one partner. But that is part of the overall challenge of these socio-economic agreements, is that it's a number of partners coming together to commit to something that no one is truly accountable for at the end of the day. Everyone is -- commits to it, but then there's no mechanism to enforce it or say whose fault it was or who didn't try hard enough at the end of the day. Everyone can just say well, we tried, and if, you know, we didn't achieve it, we didn't achieve it; it was a partnership. And, anyway, so I would love for us going forward to find ways to hold ourselves more accountable for our part in the bargain and set clear targets and hold ourselves to them as opposed to saying well, we set a target but we had no control and we didn't meet it, and outside our control. So I will leave it there on that one. I do have a couple more questions, and maybe there'll be another chance. But to finish it off here, on page 17 in the business plan, it talks about an action around growing the workforce that says promote and support mentorship and capacity building programs in all non-extractive sectors, and then it lists for each region, I guess, the number of participants. There's no detail provided there.

Can the Minister or staff provide examples or details of what kinds of mentorship and capacity building programs we're talking about here? What do those numbers represent? You know, 42, 85, 29, what is going on there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, and I will come back to this but I wanted to first speak on what the Member was referencing in regards to clear kind of targets within the diamond mine sector, within the socio-economic agreements. And I agree with the Member, if we want to get somewhere we have to have an idea of where we're trying to get to. So I absolutely agree with the Member, but I think it's also important that we consider the context of what's happening around us and what has changed since the very beginning of the 20th Assembly. The world has definitely changed in the last two years and so we've changed a lot -- or we've seen a lot of change within the diamond industry globally, and that's having an impact here at home in the Northwest Territories. And so while there are other markers within the business plan that speak to increasing northern employment, increasing education levels of Northerners, increasing the number of businesses we have in the Northwest Territories, we are going to continue to see changes within the diamond sector in the Northwest Territories, and I think it's important that we take the -- when we're making goals, we have to consider what is happening around the world that has an impact on those goals as well. So there are other indicators, though, within the business plans that do speak to us wanting to grow our private industry, grow our private sector, and also grow our education and training levels of Northerners.

The page that the Member is on and the numbers that are being referenced are in regards to the northernmost host training that relates to tourism, and industry, tourism and investment also does mentorship opportunities within the film industry, arts industry, within the agriculture industry through the Territorial Agricultural Association as well. And then there are also lunch and learns that are happening in regional offices as well as part of mentorship and training opportunities outside of Yellowknife and through regional offices. So, for example in the Beaufort Delta, there were 42 participants and the Sahtu had 48, the Dehcho region had 85, the North Slave region had 29, and the South Slave region had 26. And I'd be happy to answer any additional questions that Member has on this as well.

Thank you. I am going to continue on. Next on my list is the Member from Monfwi.

Thank you. According to your business plan here on page 15 -- 14 and 15, you know, the mines are going to be closing. We know that, you know. And then there's three mines that's going to be closing. And I know it's going to have a major impact, especially on my region, because there's a lot of people employed in my -- a lot of people from my region are employed at the mine. So I just wanted to ask the Minister, it says here 100 percent of Diavik mine closure workers that want to stay in the NWT are employed. And on the next one it says NWT workforce is maintained. So I just wanted to ask the Minister, okay, 100 percent of the diamond closure, you know, like, is it all of the NWT, northern NWT workers that we're talking about, or does that number represent the NWT workers or is it the -- does that include the southern workers too as well? Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we're talking about the NWT resident workers in there. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.