Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask questions of the Premier.
The Government of the Northwest Territories signed socio-economic agreements with each of the diamond mine operators as they were starting up operations. The one with Ekati was signed with BHP as far back as 1996. One was signed with Diavik in 1999 and then amended in 2015. And two have been signed with De Beers, in 2004 and 2013. So these commit the operators, amongst other things, to use certain levels of northern and Indigenous employees and contractors. They also commit the GNWT to certain actions like training and apprenticeship programs.
My first question: How is the GNWT enforcing these socio-economic agreements including, at this time as several mines are reducing their operations, how can we enforce their promises to prioritize reserving northern workers and northern contractors as they scale down? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so of course socio-economic agreements don't have enforcement clauses. There's not levers to enforce. There's not fines that can be levied on the mines for not meeting those targets. And so this is about building relationships and ensuring that we're staying on top of this. So I know the Minister of ITI has quarterly meetings with the mines where they go over these numbers, the employment numbers. When we learn about mines looking at changing their workforce, reducing the workforce, of course we ensure that they're going to follow the appropriate legislation. But we also do our best to ensure they keep as many northern staff as possible. And a lot of effort goes into that. That's always a live discussion at the Cabinet table whenever anything happens with any major industry or employer in the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So of course it's disappointing to hear that these much touted agreements with companies are actually not enforceable. How is the GNWT ensuring, then, that the diamond mine operators fulfill their commitments according to the agreements to work with the GNWT as operations are being scaled back or moving towards closure and, particularly, to retrain workers and ease their transition to new jobs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so when certain companies wind down, for example up at Diavik, for years they've had a my path program where they worked with the employees there to help them transition to whatever might be next. And so as I mentioned earlier, we have formed a partnership with Yellowknives Dene and the Tlicho to look at any training opportunities that might be available, trying to figure out where, you know, those individuals are working, how we can best support them. I want to also point out that there's already a lot of different programs available in the territory. There's different training programs that can be accessed. And not everybody needs those programs all the time. But when they do need them, they exist. And so in these situations, we don't need to always come up with a whole new suite of programs. We already have existing programs. That said, we do lobby the federal government to enhance the funding through -- that we get through some of these programs to address these issues when there's large closure or a large number of job losses. We want to ensure that both the federal and the territorial government are working together to maximize our resources and getting as much money into the territory and into the hands of the people who need it as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So given that mines such as Ekati have been sold over the years to new operators, if the socio-economic agreements have been assigned or transferred to the responsibility of the new owners, was there any assessment of whether the new owner or operators had the financial capacity or know-how to actually fulfill the obligations in these socio-economic agreements? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the department of ITI does review the socio-economic agreements when there is the sale of a mine, and those socio-economic agreements do transfer to the new owner. So, yes, we do review those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh .
